A look inside new Kirkwood High School in northeast Clarksville sets stage for school year

Students, parents and teachers are less than a month away from seeing their new school, Kirkwood High School, in person.

With a little over a month until the academic 2023-24 school year starts, Clarksville-Montgomery County's newest school gets ready to kick off its inaugural year.

Shiny new floors, an expansive gym, well-equipped classrooms and most of all new administrators signify the much-awaited new school in northeast Clarksville.

The opening of a new school comes as CMCSS continues to find ways to relieve the overcrowding in many of the district's schools.

For the past several years, the district's Joint Land Acquisition Committee has been searching for land in Montgomery County for new schools. Ideally, enrollment at schools should be at 85% capacity, and in 2021, the population of schools at every level exceeded that number, district reports show.

Elementary schools were at 95%, middle schools were at 104%, while high schools were at 90% during that time period.

North Clarksville continues to be the area of the county with the greatest projected long-term growth.

Kirkwood High is aimed to relieve some of the overcrowding in nearby schools.

As of this month, the search for land for additional schools is still underway after district officials decided against making a previous purchase of identified land in December due to the high cost.

What to know about Kirkwood High School

Kirkwood High is on the same 117 acres campus as the middle school that opened last August and the soon-to-be-built elementary school that was bought by the county in 2019.

Located at 2702 Rossview Road, Kirkwood High is just across the street from the middle school. The home of the Cobras will have 68 classrooms from grades 9 through 12 on more than 275,00 square feet.

Kirkwood is expected to open with 90 faculty, staff and administrators and 1,100 students, but is expected to grow to its capacity of 1,686.

On a normal day, school hours are 7: 30 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. Half-day will be from 7:30 a.m. to 11:05 a.m. and early release days will let out at 12:05 p.m.

Meet the new administrators

Jessica Peppard will be Kirkwood High's principal.

Peppard joins Kirkwood from Northwest High School, where she became principal in 2019. Prior to becoming principal, she worked as an assistant principal, an academy administrator, English teacher and more in three CMCSS high schools. Peppard received her master's in Educational Leadership and bachelor's in English from Austin Peay State University and she is currently pursuing her doctorate at Lipscomb University.

Brandy Walker, Stacy Maley and Joshua Stoeckl are joining Peppard's administrative team as assistant principals.

Walker will be coming from Northwest High School, where she's been the assistant principal since 2019. Walker has worked in CMCSS since 2011, holding positions as an English teacher, Testing and Advance Placement Coordinator, Assistant Athletic Director and more. She received both her master's in Educational Leadership and bachelor's in English from APSU.

Maley will be joining Kirkwood from West Creek High School, where she was assistant principal. Maley has worked in CMCSS since 1999. During her tenure, she has been a 6th-grade math teach, Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI) administrator and other leadership and mentor roles. Maley received her master's of Education and master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Cumberland University and her bachelor's from APSU.

Stoeckl joins Kirkwood High from Northeast High School, where he's been an assistant principal. Prior to being an assistant principal, Stoeckl was a social studies teacher in North Carolina for eight years before moving to Clarksville and teaching at West Creek High school for 13 years. During his 22 year career, he has held many titles such as Assistant to the Athletic Director, School Leadership Team Chairperson and more. Stoeckl received his master's in Education from Grand Canyon University, bachelor's in History from State University of New York at Genesseo and associate's in Communication from Finger Lakes Community College.

Zoning

With a new school, comes new zoning. CMCSS announced rezoning plans for high schools last year to include the new high school.

Rising students in 10th through 12th grade are allowed to opt-out and continue to attend the high school they've been attending, but rising 9th graders must attend the new school.

To find out if your zoning has changed, you can visit the CMCSS website.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Take a look inside Clarksville's newest high school, Kirkwood High