Big decision in Jan. ’24 might be ‘elementary,’ might be ‘middle’
2nd in a 3-part series on domino effects concerning Farragut’s new public school
Getting parent and teacher feedback included three specific concerns expressed at Farragut Primary School Thursday, Nov. 30, with a new Town public school to be built on 41 acres behind Ingles near Kingston Pike and adjacent to Boring Road.
Three Knox County Schools officials — all of whom are key in the final decision-making process about which of three grade level plans for the new school, affecting kindergarten-through-12 grade, would be recommended to Knox County Board of Education in January — answered questions.
Why is expansion of the existing campuses not being considered? In addition to the high cost for renovations, “The biggest issue in trying to do additions at the existing building is there’s no place for that addition to go without displacing portables,” said Douglas Shover, KCS director of facilities and new construction. “You can’t put the new building there until the portables are gone, but you’ve got to have a place for those kids to go to school while that piece is being built.
“A feasibility study that was done in 2021 and 2022 (concluded) the cost and the disruption to try to do additions to our existing buildings was going to push it to the point that it was technically going to be more expensive and take a longer period of time than building a new building,” he added.
As for creating clear separation between kindergarten and older students — especially third- through fifth-grades if a K-to-5 school is chosen, or freshmen academy students from those much younger — how will the plan satisfy safety concerns parents have?
“... It would be our intention to have a clear line of delineation between whatever we end up with, whether it’s freshman academy and middle school, whether it’s freshman academy and elementary school, so that there’s not that overlap of kids,” Shover said. “Again, the luxury that we have with the Intermediate School-Middle School building is that it’s a two-story building. We have the ability with some natural separation that already exists.
“… The freshman academy would fit in the lower level of the existing Middle School building, and that would leave the entire upstairs of the existing Intermediate School, the downstairs of the Intermediate School, and the upper floor, the current Middle school, to serve as an elementary school,” he added.
“I can’t stand here and say there will never be a situation where those kids will not have some level of overlap, but we will have a clear line of delineation.”
In advocating for a kindergarten and first-grade only primary school — as opposed to K-through-5, — “We feel like we get to know the kids better,” one FPS official said. “We are the queens and kings of foundational literacy because that’s our world.
“… So I want you to consider that, especially in the traffic issue, too,” she added. “I mean, I work out here every morning, so I can tell you we take both loops from seven o’clock until it’s after 7:45. That’s a thousand kids” at the K-through-second-grade level.
