LENOIR CITY, Tenn. (WVLT) - Loudon County is growing and as more families call East Tennessee home, there’s a need for more schools.
This is all about growth in the county.
A new high school will be built and three other schools will get some needed love and care.
“Right now we’re kind of outgrowing our space,” North Middle School Principal Kayla Vaughn said.
Loudon County Schools has seen growth over the years.
The whole county is one of the fastest growing counties in the state.
“We’re full and it’s filling up everywhere, there’s hardly any land left. You’re seeing a lot of buildings go up apartments, houses,” Bobby Johnson, Loudon County School Board chairman said.
Now, school and county leaders are breaking ground on a new high school in Lenoir City.
It’s a $110 million bond project.
Last year, the county commission voted to increase property tax by 25 cents for a new school.
The bonds include an $81.9 million investment for the new school, $6.8 million for a new athletic facility at Greenback Public School, $6.2 million for 10 new classrooms at Philadelphia Elementary and $1 million for a career technical education program at Loudon High School.
Johnson said there were always plans to adapt to the growth of students and the community.
Vaughn said her school needs the space.
“So we’ve had teachers that have moved to carts, our class sizes are definitely at ratio maximum,” Vaughn said. “So we got some classes that are full, and we are even running out of furniture.”
Students from both Eaton and North Middle School will go to the new high school.
Students in 7th through 12th grades will be sent to the new school with the capacity of 1,200 students.
Vaughn said more space means more classes can be crafted for students.
“That’s going to give more opportunities for enrichment for our middle-schoolers who are ready to go ahead and start undertaking some high school credit courses,” Vaughn said. “It’ll also give us more unity in our CTE career and technical classes so that we can start some really awesome middle school programs that we already begun starting and really expand.”
Right now, Johnson said the new high school is slated to be completed in the next two years.
In the coming weeks, the county school board will be choosing a name mascot and colors.
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