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Rutherford County Schools Negotiate Five-Year Construction Plan

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Rutherford County Schools will need more than $287.9 million to carry out the most recent version of the school officials’ five-year building plan, which calls for the construction of six new schools. The construction projects would require tax increases to help with funding.
The building plan is a result of continued growth in the school district. As of Oct. 2, enrollment for the county’s 46 schools was 40,692. The district added 700 students this year and 1,200 in 2013-14, reported Daily News Journal.
The first two new schools — a $28.387 million elementary and a $35.632 middle school — on the list are identified for the Rocky Fork Road area of Smyrna. Both projects have an anticipated opening of August 2016.
Rock Springs Middle, which opened in 2002, has a current enrollment of 1,037 and relies on one portable classroom. Smyrna Middle, built in 1961, has 978 students and 11 portables.
The elementary school proposed for the Rocky Fork Road site could also ease overcrowding at the 38-year-old David Youree Elementary, which is on the list for a $4.281 million in renovation by August 2017. The school has about 750 students and has nine portable classrooms on its campus. The David Youree project calls for adding a new administration and guidance suite, along with a teacher dining and work area. A secure entrance is also listed in the plan.
Construction of the new, 130,000-square-foot John Colemon Elementary, listed at $19.728 million, would be built adjacent to the current building off Weakley Lame in Smyrna. The gym would be the only part of the old school that would remain. The fifth-oldest school in the district, John Colemon school has had no major additions since it was first built in 1951 for students whose parents worked at Sewart Air Base, now Smyrna Airport.
The county would have to face a tax increase for these school projects even without borrowing money to fund a $72 million judicial building and parking garage project. The county hopes to have the new judicial building completed by 2018, reported Daily News Journal. As a result, county officials may have to consider spreading out the five-year building plan over more years to help ease the tax burden.