CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The Montgomery County Commission met Monday evening for an informal meeting and on the agenda was the anticipated discussion of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System’s population growth and plans to address that growth through classroom additions and construction projects.

Director of School Dr. Millard House II, addressed the Commission and spoke about the land acquired for Kirkwood Elementary as it had been addressed in the past.

“The district is not married to any one piece of land, our hope is to simply be prepared for what’s to come and not be caught in a similar situation in which we are enduring currently,” House said. “If that means keep the land in question or immediately move forward with searching for an alternative land purchase that aligns with our construction and growth plan that would be fine as well.”

Growth Projected

Jim Sumrell, CMCSS Chief Operations Officer,  aid beginning in 1985 the student population in CMCSS began an upward growth and over the last 34 years it has continued to steadily increase averaging more than 660 new students per school year.  In 20 years, it’s proposed CMCSS will have more than 48,000 students:  15,000 more students than the current population. There will be a continued need for new schools and projects to expand current schools.

Norm Brumblay, CMCSS Facilities Management,  talked about construction to accommodate the growth of the CMCSS population over the next 20 years. Current projects that the CMCSS has passed to move forward for funding by the County Commission are:

  •  A $4.3 million, 12-classroom addition at RossviewElementary School. The County Commission already appropriated architect fees for this project, adding 12 classrooms to the school, which is currently at 124 percent of its capacity.
  • A $300,000 renovation of the former New Providence Elementary School, which has been leased to a retired teacher and former county commissioner for use first as a Head Start, then as a community building. Due to state-mandated requirements for alternative education, the Adult program that has operated at Greenwood Complex for more than two decades would be relocated to this building.
  • A $4 million purchase and renovation of the Emmanuel Family Life Center at 303 Fairview Lane for the new location of the CMCSS Spanish Immersion Program, now located at Barksdale Elementary. The program, which started with two kindergarten classes in 2018, will grow to 12 classrooms by 2023.
  • A $130,000 design fee to expand West Creek Elementary School with 12 additional classrooms. The school currently uses six portable classrooms and is in need of additional classrooms to provide a capacity for 1,040 students. The design selected for this project would be similar to the one for Barkers Mill Elementary’s expansion.
  • A $155,000 architect fee for a 12-classroom addition to Oakland Elementary School, which is now at 114 percent of its capacity with six portable classrooms located at the site. The design selected for this project would be similar to the one for Rossview Elementary’sexpansion.

Commissioner Wallace Woodruff later asked for a summary of how many schools CMCSS will need to build in the next 20 years. Sumrell said there is a projected need for a total of 15 new schools in the next 20 years: 11 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools.

 School architectural designs questioned

District 12 County Commissioner Lisa Prichard said CMCSS needs for the next 20 years seems to require a lot of land and asked with the growth of Montgomery County will design plans CMCSS has been reusing working for the growth patterns.

“Are you going to continue to use the same architectural plan you’ve been using for the last 30 years?” Prichard asked. “It’s going to get to the point where  land is finite in Montgomery County and if we are going to have the type of projected growth, then it’s going to get to point where available land is not going to be, so we will have to change the architectural plans to make building schools a lot more  fluid and not campus-based or we are just going to run out of land.”

Several Commissioners mirrored Prichard’s concerns about the cost of land and questioned if building multi-level schools would be more cost-efficient in the long run. Prichard asked about looking into multi-story high schools in the future as technology advances.

Sumrell said in CMCSS’s building plans they have a savings built-in that helps save money when they reuse the plans. All the current plans include expandable elementary and high school plans and a two-story middle school. He added that their research shows it’s cost-effective to build on one level instead of multi-levels.

District 15 Commissioner David Harper asked about a major rezoning and also veering from the campus-style plans.

“…on the Commission, we have spoken numerous times and stated we would like multi-level schools and schools in multiple locations,” Harper said. “We are not chained to the idea of having multiple schools in one location. … As we have our growth, it’s not going to work to put three schools in one location.”

Harper said big lots of acres are harder to come by in Montgomery County and that a major rezoning hasn’t happened in 16 years.

Sumrell said all the numbers for funding are based on using the current numbers for building. They have researched designing a multi-level building and concluded do so would be more expensive.  The current design for the high school works and functions well, Sumrell said.

“It’s going to cost more than the numbers that have been shared with this commission,” Sumrell said. ‘Nobody’s not listening to you, but we are saying this is a functional design that’s working very well with our children. There are savings for using the plan that works now. It makes the high schools (capacity) 2,000 students and we have done that.”

Harper said there are portables being put up at schools in the first year and Sumrell said because from start to finish it takes several years to get schools approved and built, and during that time the growth doesn’t stop.

House said that a major rezoning is to come, but it has to be done in conjunction with a major build.

District  18 Commissioner Jason D. Knight also addressed structural designs of schools and said while it may save money now to use the campus-style, having multiple additions and constructions each year doesn’t save money.

“In the long run, it’ll save us money if we build a larger style middle, elementary and high school so they don’t come to capacity in the next 3-5 years,” Knight said, adding he had six children in the school system and many have had to have class in portable classrooms. “I’m here to tell you to change your architectural design in the future.”

Sumrell again reiterated that new multi-level designs are not cost-effective and House added larger schools don’t’ mean better schools and can lead to performance and instructional quality suffering.

District 3 Commissioner Joe Smith also touched on “building up instead of out.”

“I think the CMCSS and County Commission needs to sit down and have a pow-wow,” Smith said. “…Ya’ll are one of our biggest budget items. We write the check and we are trying to protect our taxpayer’s  dollars. We are one of a handful to build a campus-style design, but what does it do?”

Smith said it offers great community and camaraderie, but the land cost, traffic issues, and other issues need to be addressed.  Smith said campus-style is a want and not a necessity in Montgomery County.

House said the growth will continue and building up isn’t a solve-all for the impending growth to Montgomery County.

District 14 Commissioner Josh Beal said it feels like CMCSS is in a hole of growth that can’t be dug out of. He asked if tweaks could be made to work out a better solution and fix the problems at some points.

“I feel like looking at these numbers it’s never going to happen,” Beal said about reaching a solution. “I think we need to think outside the box and think of a solution because it’s not working.”

House said more funding and more schools are the solutions and Beal said how it’s done is the issue.

“I know growth is fluid and we might never catch up with growth in schools,” Prichard said and talked about a multi-level, state-of-the-art Fort Campbell elementary school. “If the government can build a four-story school fairly state of the art… I think we can build schools of that nature. I think there is an open conversation for this solution.”

Sumrell said they will research and do comparisons of CMCSS for cost per square foot in multi-level schools, such as the on from Ft. Campbell and present more information and have more conversations with Commissioners showing the cost of multi-level buildings compared to CMCSS’s campus-style and current designs.

To watch the meeting visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GljsMcqpzZ4