September 15, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
After being on the back burner for the last couple of years, a project to build a new Pre-K to 2 elementary school to replace the existing Smithville Elementary School could be about to take center stage again.
(Click link below to view plan)
Prior to Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps unveiled for the Board of Education in a workshop, a rendering of what a new Smithville Elementary School campus would look like in an updated schematic site plan by Upland Design Group, the architect for the project.
More than two years ago the school board voted to allocate funds from its own budget to purchase 24.5 acres of property on North Congress Boulevard adjacent to Northside Elementary School for construction of a new pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school. The price paid was $18,000 per acre for a total of $441,000. The purchase was made after a favorable core drill assessment of the property and TDOT approval of a traffic plan into the proposed new school off Highway 56 north.
Director of Schools Cripps said one reason for the long delay in the board’s request to proceed with the project has been the dramatic increase in the cost of construction. Over the last two years, the estimated cost of this project has gone from $30 to $46 million. With no sign of costs coming down anytime soon and the need still there and growing, the Board has decided to renew its efforts to build a new school and he (Cripps) will be asking County Mayor Matt Adcock to arrange a meeting between the new county commission and school board to discuss it.
According to Upland Design Group, the proposed new Pre-K to 2 Smithville Elementary School would be 124,207 square feet in size and would be designed to accommodate 800 students with room for future expansion to house up to 300 additional students (1,100) total. The school would be built with 11 classrooms for each grade level of kindergarten, first, and second grade (33 classrooms for 20 students each) along with seven Pre-K classrooms for 20 students each plus four CDC/SPED classrooms as needed. The future expansion would accommodate 15 new classrooms at 20 students each.
In September 2020 the School Board adopted a traffic plan as proposed by T-Square Engineering based in Franklin on how best to get traffic entering the schools off of Highway 56 to reduce congestion.
Under the plan each school (The proposed new Smithville Elementary School and Northside Elementary) would have its own entrance for car traffic off of Highway 56 (North Congress Boulevard) but there would also be a lane connecting the two schools should parents have to pick up and drop off children at both places.
Buses would enter the Northside campus from Smith Road for student pickup/drop off and then would follow a bus (only) lane to the new elementary school for pickup/drop off to be located at the rear of both schools. After making a turnaround at the new school, buses would then exit the same way they entered via the bus lane and then back onto Smith Road.
“It would get the parents that bring their children to school off the road (Highway 56) both at the new school and at Northside. T-Square Engineering says two lanes looping through the campus will get up to 109 cars off of the highway at the new school and we will be adding an extra loop (lane) at Northside which will get up to 90 cars off the road there,” said Director Cripps.
“Each school will have its own car entrance. If you have children at the new school, you will enter below where the Family Medical Center is located but if you have children at both the new school and Northside, we will hook it up where parents will not have to re-enter the highway. We will have a lane connecting the two schools that parents can travel directly from the new school to Northside for a smoother transition. We are looking at adding a third traffic or bypass lane at the new school so that if someone gets in the wrong lane and needs to get out, they can. Buses will drop off at Northside and then route behind Northside to the new school for drop off and then the buses will come back out the same way they entered. There will be no access points where cars and buses will enter at the same area,” Director Cripps added.
No construction or alterations will be needed on Highway 56 to accommodate the school traffic plan according to T-Square Engineering.
If a new school is built, it will be up to the county commission to decide on the funding mechanism for the project.