County mulls school land purchas

Loudon County Schools is considering building a new school for grades 7-12 on land located within Lenoir City.

Loudon County Board of Education is planning to review at a Thursday workshop an engineering report about 32 acres located off Highway 11 currently owned by First Baptist Church of Lenoir City, Mike Garren, director of schools, said.

“It’s kind of hilly,” Garren said. “We would also have to do boring and other geological studies before building.”

He said if the report is favorable, the BOE will hold a meeting immediately following the workshop where they will vote on whether or not to purchase the property for $1.825 million.

The purchase would be contingent on FBC approving sale of the land, which was bought by the church for less than $1 million last year.

FBC will meet at 6 p.m. today in the church sanctuary to discuss a recommendation from the long range planning committee to sell the property, Senior Pastor John Hunn said.

“We spent weeks assessing our future needs to determine how much property we need to accomplish our mission,” Hunn said.

The church plans to hold a question and answer session at 9 a.m. Saturday in the fellowship hall to discuss the issue. A vote with no discussion would take place during both worship services Sunday.

Lenoir City Planning Administrator Beth Collins said the property in question is located within city limits as a result of an annexation requested in April shortly after FBC purchased the land.

She said the property is zoned R-3, which would require a special exception by the city to allow location of a school. She said the new property owner could request rezoning and deannexation. Any such changes would have to be approved by the city.

Garren said the money to buy the land would be generated with the purchase of bonds paid for with Fund 156 that is used for other building projects. He said funding at this stage would not require a tax increase.

Construction of the school, which is at least two years away, would require a tax increase, he said.

The next step in the process would be to ask Loudon County Commission for money to produce designs that would determine the size and cost of the school. He said a rough estimate is that the facility would be suitable for 1,200-1,500 students.

Students in grades 7-12 would be in the same building but separated similar to Greenback School, Garren said. The school initially would likely have 1,000 students — 400 in grades 7-8 and 600 in the high school — and take about four years to fully populate, with most students coming from North Middle School, he said.

County Commissioner Van Shaver, representing District 5 in the north end of the county, said it’s possible the new school could attract a large number of Lenoir City High School students who live in the county. He said 60%-70% of students at LCHS live in the county.

Garren said he had not discussed with Lenoir City Director of Schools Jeanne Barker the impact a new county school might have on Lenoir City Schools. He said Lenoir City was informed about a year ago of intentions to build a new high school in the north end of the county.

County Commissioners Rosemary Hines Quillen and William Jenkins, both representing District 2 in Lenoir City, said they were aware of the issue and planned to monitor it closely.

Quillen said she was waiting to see if the land purchase was approved by the BOE and church before commenting. Jenkins said he was also waiting to see how the plan progressed.

Lenoir City Board of Education Vice Chairman Rick Chadwick, who is running for Lenoir City Council, said he had been updated by Barker but didn’t want to comment.

“They haven’t even bought the land yet,” Chadwick said. “There’s nothing in concrete.”