$43.7M contract for new Farragut elementary school approved by Board of Education
FARRAGUT, Tenn. (WATE) — A new school is set to be built in the Town of Farragut after a unanimous vote Thursday night to approve a more than $43 million contract with Merit Construction.
The new school will be built between Boring Road and Village Commons Boulevard. This area of Knox County has seen rapid growth over the last several years meaning more schools are needed. Even with a new school built not too long ago, schools in the area are still being subjected to overcrowding.
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To get an idea of the need for a new elementary school in Farragut, look no further than the current student pickup lines. Cars covering parking lots of nearby shops and lining West End Avenue from Kingston Pike all the way up to the Farragut Intermediate, Middle and High Schools.
'We have been dealing with overcrowding in our schools for a long time now,' said KCS District 5 School Board Representative Lauren Morgan. 'We are just thrilled that we get to have a new elementary school and are excited for all the changes that are going to happen in the Farragut community.'
Some of those changes Morgan is referring to includes plans to turn Farragut Primary and Intermediate into elementary schools after this new elementary school is completed. All three of these schools will funnel into the existing middle and high schools off Kingston Pike.
'We worked very closely with the Town of Farragut. We did a traffic study. We've done a survey of the land and we are just getting really prepared,' Dr. Garfield Adams said. 'Of course, we had the RFQ that was sent out and the RFP as far as what contractor we wanted to use. Now we are just going to move forward with the construction process. Prior to that, of course, we are going to have to have the architectural design as well.'
This will be the second new school in the West Knox County area since 2023 when Mill Creek Elementary was completed. West Knox County and Farragut in particular has seen tremendous growth over the last several years.
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'We've had so much growth and so much development in the Farragut area and we see that in our schools too. We see it in our classrooms with our kids having to squeeze into tables when we can't quite fit all the desks in and that type of thing,' Morgan said. 'It's easier for students, teachers and everybody when we have adequate space to house everybody in our schools.'
Dr. Garfield Adams told 6 News this will be one of the largest elementary schools the county has ever built.
'We are very excited. It will be a state-of-the-art school,' Adams said. 'Of course, we will have programmatic capacity and capacity available because it's one of the largest schools so very excited about the new design and the new school.'
We are told, once ground breaking happens, it will be a two-year build time and the school is expected to open for the 2027-28 school year.
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Morgan added that the new school could help alleviate some of the congestion and traffic woes where Farragut Intermediate, Middle and High Schools let students out at the end of the day.
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