Maryville school board approves 5-year facilities plan

Maryville City Schools has developed half a decade’s worth of plans for the district’s facilities as its student population expands. Now, some of the costs and timelines for the school district’s priorities are solidifying.

Maryville’s board of education Monday, May 20, approved a five-year facilities plan laying out preliminary timelines and cost estimates for a suite of projects. Those include a planned expansion of Maryville High School, a renovation of what’s now the Maryville Academy building and changes to athletic facilities.

Several projects could begin in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Upgrades may include tennis court relocations, renovation of the Maryville Junior High School field and dressing and concession facilities for track, among others.

Other projects will require longer waits. Estimates for the high school expansion — which now lacks a construction schedule, but which staff project may conclude by the end of the 2029-2030 school year — hover around $50 million. Other high school renovation plans could run the schools $2 million. Those expenses could require the city of Maryville to issue more debt than expected and raise its property tax rate. An expansion and renovation at Sam Houston Elementary could come to around $8 million and may likewise involve a bond issue.

Other plans include new roofs at Maryville schools — valued around $3.95 million.

The changes to the district’s facilities come as the city’s schools eye increasing enrollment. A January report in The Daily Times states that several of the nine schools in the system were then at or over 100% capacity, while MCS as a whole sat at 95% capacity.

Athletics

Some cost estimates are more definite than others.

MCS Director Mike Winstead said that the schools have a solid cost in mind for a project to relocate tennis courts from the high school ahead of the planned expansion. In response to a question from school board Chair Julie Elder, Winstead confirmed that the tennis courts relocation is currently approaching final approval. The project cost is estimated at $750,000.

Schools officials likewise have a good idea of the costs to come from changing the track concessions and dressing and baseball dressing facilities: $1.5 million.

Estimates for school roofs, MJHS’ field and Maryville Academy renovations — about $3.95 million for roofing, $1.2 million for the junior high and $1 million for the MA building — are a little more nebulous, Winstead said. “I’m hoping we’re in the ballpark,” though the initial numbers are useful for planning, he said.

Other major projects include an indoor athletic facility, a baseball hitting facility and football turf replacement.

MCS has designated about $5 million for building improvements, and, “We do a lot with some old buildings. We immaculately maintain those buildings,” board member Nick Black said. “I don’t even know how old the football stadium is.”

“It’s old and it leaks, but there’s no better place to play. It’s a balance,” Black said.

“We’re doing all these projects, and our fund balance is gonna be healthy. You can’t question this district being fiscally conservative,” he added.

Crowding

Black also commented during the meeting that he hoped to accelerate the timeline for expanding and renovating Sam Houston; the project is currently planned for between 2026 and 2030, though, like at MHS, a construction schedule has not yet been set.

“If there’s an opportunity to bring that forward, that’s an important piece of this — maybe the most important piece,” he said.

Winstead noted that the expansion might mean another rezoning. “Right now, we’re looking at Foothills (Elementary) with 145 kindergarteners and Sam Houston’s around 85,” he said.

“We’re 96% full in elementary,” he added. And crowding is consistent: With a rezoning, “We’re still gonna be full pretty much everywhere.”

Some teachers, Winstead noted, “travel” to different homeroom classes to teach in special areas.

“You can be there; you just can’t live there,” he said of that practice. “That’s not Maryville. We don’t want to live in that situation long term. It’s an inconvenience short term.”