Overcrowding in Farragut Public Schools


 

Regarding relieving overcrowding at our Farragut public schools, local governments do not build schools proactively in anticipation of growth, they build schools reactively when there is enough growth in student population to support a newly built school. Obviously, building a new school is a significant investment, the new northwest elementary school which will have a capacity for 1,000 students is projected to cost $29 million.  According to information provided during public meetings by Knox County Schools (KCS) staff, KCS aims for a newly opened school to have a student enrollment of approximately 70% - 80% of its capacity; e.g. ideally KCS would like to see student enrollment the day the northwest school opens to be around 700-800 students.

 

New Farragut Elementary School

Farragut Primary School (FPS) and Farragut Intermediate School (FIS) have been overcrowded for a few years.  During fiscal year 2021, KCS funded a feasibility analysis conducted by Barber-McMurray Associates to expand and improve FPS and FIS.  After the study was complete, cost considerations, limitations of library and cafeteria space to accommodate more enrollment and traffic management led KCS Superintendent Bob Thomas to advise that the best solution was to build a new school to serve the K-5 population in the Farragut area. In fiscal year 2022, the KCS Board of Education approved $5 million in its capital budget to purchase land in the Farragut area for a future elementary school. KCS is in the process of exploring its options. Currently, it appears that Superintendent Thomas is proposing a school with a capacity to accommodate 1,000 students.

You may read the report at the end of FY 2022 Capital Budget and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which linked below.

FY22 Capital Budget

Farragut Middle School and Farragut High School

The increased student enrollment numbers at Farragut Middle School (FMS) and Farragut High School (FHS) are substantially more than KCS projected. Historically, KCS looked at birth rates to guide them in planning for new schools. No one could have anticipated the unprecedented moving trends of 2021 and the recent mass influx of young families to the Farragut area driving up the enrollment numbers in our schools.

What parents need to be aware of are the consequences when a new school is constructed and when a rezoning occurs to relieve overcrowding. Farragut High School was getting very crowded in the early 2000's.  Parents became alarmed and began to urge the school board to invest in a new high school in the Hardin Valley area.  The occupancy for HVA is approximately 2000, which means they wanted approximately 1400 - 1600 students in the school the day it opened. Of course HVA did not open with a senior class so I am not clear how many students they actually opened with, but KCS BOE did rezone the northwest portion of Farragut from FHS to HVA.  As a result, FHS student population dropped significantly. Student enrollment drives the number of teachers assigned to that school.  With limited numbers of teachers comes a limit in the variety of classes a school can offer. As a result of the rezoning, FHS administration was forced to reduce the diversity of classes that could be offered.  FHS was underpopulated and underutilized for about decade.

When I spoke to Mr. Edmonds, principal of FMS, he indicated that a new middle school pulling too many of our students from FMS would have the same impact.  The biggest impact would be on related arts, but the high school level courses currently offered in house could go away, as well as science enrichment, depending upon the number of kids pulled from the FMS zone.

The best step forward is for a representative group of parents to come together to work with our principals to understand the ideal enrollment numbers that provide for the diversity of classes our middle school and high school students rely on for a quality education and to work with our 5th district school board representative Susan Horn to understand the functional capacity of our schools.  Also, please be mindful that new schools bring a redrawing of the school zones with the consequences similar to the HVA rezoning in 2008 that took a large area of Farragut out of Farragut High School and moved them to HVA.  

Popular posts from this blog

Solutions to Address Traffic in Farragut (while preserving our Community Character)

Image
In last few years East Tennessee has experienced a mass influx of new residents and sometimes it feels like they all moved to the Farragut area. With growth comes increased traffic. Our transportation network is part of a much larger network of roads. Our traffic issues are not of own our making.  Increased traffic on the interstate has made our community a more attractive area for cut-through traffic.   The Town of Farragut was founded to protect and preserve its residential character. We shouldn't be so willing to surrender that just so folks from outside our town and the interstate can use our community as a cut through.  The infrastructure improvements we invest in to accommodate growth have long-term consequences for the Town of Farragut and need to be considered strategically.  Often, the first inclination is to widen roads and intersections. Widening roads adds more capacity and therefore allows for an increased volume of traffic, and sometimes is necessa...
Read more

Response to Steve Williams' July 1, 2021 Farragut Press Editorial

Per Steve Williams’ letter in the July 1, 2021 edition of the Farragut Press, the Town is NOT requiring him to build a road through his property. The Town is NOT building a road through his property NOR are there plans to do so.  There is NO stub road on his property. There is NO stub road in The Grove at Boyd Station (The Grove) connecting to his property.  Steve Williams is the property owner of two large tracts of land. One parcel fronts Evans Road, the other fronts Virtue Road. Other than conditions outlined in the Town’s land use plans and regulations, it is entirely in Steve Williams’ control how, when or if he develops his land.  The connection location in The Grove is an open space area of grass and trees.   This open space area, abutting the south side of the Williams’ properties, is reserved space that COULD be a connection point.   Whether that connection point is ever developed is entirely up to Steve Williams based on whether he decides to furth...
Read more

Updating the Plan – Reducing Density and Intensity (of land use)

Image
Future Land Use Map - 2023 Note: This article was originally posted in February 2022. It has been updated to reflect recent activity. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) was adopted in 2012 to update the previous land use plan.  The planning commission relies on this plan when making land use decisions.  The future land use map which was originally adopted by the FMPC in 2012 is below. In 2017, at my request, a steering committee was established to review the plan.  Several key corridors on the land use map (updated version is at the top of the post)  were chosen for review and a process was established to gather public input for map updates.    A few key amendments have  lowered the density and/or land use intensity on the map. Reduced the medium density designation from 6-12 units/acre to 6-8 units/acre which instantaneously eliminated higher density use in areas designated medium density  Established a high density designation. Since noth...
Read more