Brand new Edmond schools are already overcrowding. Here's where 2 new schools might go if approved
EDMOND — The day Redbud Elementary School opened in 2021, it already had an attendance beyond capacity, Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald said.
Population in the northeast part of the Edmond district, which includes the town of Arcadia, rapidly is increasing, so district officials quickly began planning to add another new elementary school in addition to Redbud. That planning is reflected in a five-year, $147 million bond proposal approved by the Edmond school board last month.
The proposal voters are being asked to approve on Feb. 13 includes plans for the construction of both a new elementary school and a new middle school at the intersection of Covell Road and Air Depot Boulevard. The district purchased the land in 2013 for $3 million.
Also included in the bond proposal are a new Freshman Academy at Santa Fe High School, classroom additions at Boulevard Academy (the district’s alternative school) and Scissortail Elementary School, renovations at five other elementary sites, the addition of artificial turf softball and baseball fields at all three high schools (costing a combined $7.5 million) and an update to the timing systems at the Mitch Park Aquatic Center as part of the district’s agreement with the YMCA.
As with many school bond proposals, it comes in two parts, since state law requires transportation items to be voted upon separately. New school buses, activity buses and other district vehicles are included in the transportation part of the proposal.
Grunewald said if the bond is approved, it won’t raise tax rates for district homeowners. The district said it plans its bond issues to keep the millage level stable, between 24 and 25 mills.
“We have some (elementary) buildings that are really overcrowded and we need to provide relief to those buildings,” Grunewald said. “The best way to do that is to build another school. Central is the middle school that covers (east Edmond) and it’s very overcrowded. This will provide relief for Central.”
New Edmond elementary, middle schools will feed into Memorial High School
The new $26 million elementary school, which Grunewald said will help relieve congestion at Redbud and Chisholm elementary schools, will be built first, with the new $30 million middle school planned for later in the life of the bond. Both the new schools eventually would feed into Memorial High School.
The district already has purchased land at the northwest corner of the intersection of Danforth Road and Westminster Road for a potential fourth high school, but Grunewald said it will be more than five years before that item would appear on any bond proposal.
The two-story Freshman Academy at Santa Fe, with a price tag of $18 million, will help alleviate the immediate need for a fourth high school. Memorial and North, the other two high schools, already each have a Freshman Academy.
“Santa Fe has to be built large enough to accommodate every student west of it, because there is no (available) land west of Santa Fe to build a high school,” Grunewald said. “There’s not.”
The Edmond district typically proposes bonds in two-year cycles, Grunewald said, and there’s a long history of community support for those proposals. In 2022, the district’s most recent bond proposal passed with 72.4% of voters approving it. School bond proposals require at least 60% of the vote to pass.
“When I think about bonds, I want to know what they plan to do and how effective they are at managing the projects and funds from previous bonds,” said Julie Woodard, who’s a parent of three children in the Edmond district and has worked with the Edmond Public Schools Foundation. “I believe the quality of our schools impact the economic development we see in Edmond. People move here for the schools, and there is an expectation that the quality of our schools will be sustainable.
“We continue to see growth in Edmond, and when I think about why that has been and continues to be the trend, I think about real estate. Over the last five years, the average value of new residential permits has increased 46% and the average price of existing home sales has increased by 47%. Every homeowner in Edmond, whether they have children or grandchildren in EPS or not, benefits from the indirect impact the schools have on property values.”
The Edmond Public Schools Foundation is leading the push to support the bond proposal. There appears to be no organized opposition to the proposal.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond Public Schools looking to build 2 schools with voter approval
