CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System welcomed community members on a tour of the new Freedom Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon. The tour showcased the building’s construction, technology upgrades and traffic improvements ahead of students arriving for their first day.
The new school, at 1776 Wallace Blvd., is scheduled to welcome its first students next week and will be home to the Freedom Foxes. It is expected to open at about 80-90% capacity, leaving room for future growth.
During welcoming remarks, CMCSS Director of Schools Dr. Jean Luna-Vedder thanked the many people involved in bringing the project to completion. “I know this has been a few years in the making, and we’ve had lots of conversations about finding the land, and building everything … particularly within city limits,” Luna-Vedder said. “It’s (been) very, very difficult. Thank you to everyone; we made it happen.”
She also said that the project was completed ahead of schedule, allowing teachers and staff additional time to prepare classrooms before students arrive.
Assistant Facilities Manager Amanda Keenan said construction is nearly complete, with crews wrapping up a final few items. “Construction is pretty much done,” Keenan said. “We’re down to a miscellaneous list of items … furniture is in the building, and staff is getting settled and moved in.”
School traffic improvements
Keenan said the district used the lessons they learned from the older schools when planning ingress and egress at the new campus. “We struggle with traffic flow on some of our older schools and in the more congested areas,” Keenan said. “So, this is an area that we’ve tried really hard to improve on.”
As part of the project, Wallace Boulevard was widened from one lane to two. One lane will primarily serve buses and staff traffic, while the other will be used by parents dropping off and picking up students.
The campus also features a dedicated parent pickup lot with five vehicle stacking lanes, a roundabout to improve traffic circulation and a new traffic signal on Fort Campbell Boulevard to help vehicles exit the campus. The improvements are intended to reduce backups and improve traffic flow during peak arrival and dismissal times.
Mechanical and energy efficiency upgrades
One of the building’s most significant upgrades is its heating and cooling system.
Rather than using water-source heat pump systems found in several older schools, Freedom Elementary uses a variable refrigerant flow system. Keenan said the change improves energy efficiency while also increasing usable classroom space.
“Some of our mechanical upgrades included using a variable refrigerant flow on this one in lieu of doing heat pumps, which improves performance and energy usage as well as (it) saves a lot of space,” Keenan said.
Previous school designs required individual heat pump rooms throughout the building, reducing available classroom space. The VRF system eliminates many of those mechanical rooms and allows each classroom to be controlled independently.
Keenan said that the design also limits disruptions if maintenance is needed. “Some of our other facilities have large air handling units that, if it were to go down, it could affect a whole wing,” she said. “With this system, if one unit goes out, it only affects the room it is in rather than an entire portion of the building.”
Additional energy-saving features include LED lighting and light sensors that automatically turn lights off in unoccupied areas to reduce electricity usage.
Beyond mechanical improvements, the school includes several design features intended to improve the student experience. Hallways are color-coded by grade level to help younger students navigate the building more easily. Each classroom also includes its own student restroom. It is meant to accommodate elementary-age students and reduce time spent outside the classroom.
For more information on Freedom Elementary visit the CMCSS website.
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