School board votes to move forward with $63 million North Columbia Elementary School

Maury County Public Schools approved this week plans to construct a new elementary school to address growth and population needs in northern Columbia.

The proposed North Columbia Elementary School will be located on approximately 30 acres just off Highway 31 and Carters Creek Pike, with an estimated cost of $63 million, as well as an additional $2 million for school buses. The school is expected to serve about 900 students once becoming operational.

The school was first requested by the MCPS board last year and will now go before the Maury County Commission in April to approve funding and an opportunity to go to bid, which also includes checking fire codes and final project costs.

If all goes according to plan, the goal is to open by the fall of 2025 and service kids in Pre-K to the fourth grade.

Columbia City Council also showed its support for the new school Thursday by approving unanimously a request from MCPS to wave nearly $13,000 for the project's engineering fees.

MCPS Assistant Superintendent of Operations Eric Perryman said the drive is to provide a school mainly for students living in places like Neapolis, families off Bear Creek Pike, the Riverside community, as well as southern Spring Hill.

"This will shift kids back to Columbia proper, because many of them don't have a place to go to school because we are full in most every grade. It's the same thing in the Spring Hill elementary zone," Perryman said. "There is a lot of growth along the west side of Carters Creek Pike, as well as near Spring Hill Elementary School. And so as we see that growth again, we need to ensure we are keeping space for kids in Spring Hill. We took a lot of time making sure where this needed to be."

Perryman added that the funding would come from a capital request to the county commission, which would determine when, and if the school could open in 2025.

"Hopefully, once we get bids in and it happens to be lower than $63 million, we can take that number to the commission of what it actually costs, and that hard bid can serve as a permanent price to them because there is a contingency there," Perryman said. "That's so that if you discover that something could be changed, it's already funded and taken care of and hopefully by the end of the project you're seeing that contingency money coming back."

A template for future schools

Perryman said the North Columbia school will not only address the growing needs currently facing existing schools, but will also serve as a template for future schools.

In other words, the school board would be able to start with a readymade design, make slight adjustments if necessary and cut back on time, as well as money, to construct a new school when the need arises.

"It will, basically, be a prototype kind of school to where the next time we need to build an elementary school, we'll take this school and move it somewhere else," Perryman said. "Basically, we want this to be the model Maury County school of the future."

It will also be designed to be energy efficient, which he said would be much more cost-effective to taxpayers, as well as provide greener and modern energy uses for the students and faculty.

Maury County Schools Superintendent Lisa Ventura added that having a template to work from will also provide a greater benefit for future schools as Maury County's population continues to increase, not just in saving money on preliminary designs, but also the time it takes to build.

"This will save taxpayers on design fees and not have to go through the whole process again and again, which we've had to do in the past," Ventura said. "Having that phase done, we can go right into making small adjustments, bids for cost and then move forward."

Ventura said a big component of the design is to remain energy efficient, which will pay off, literally, over the years with LED lighting and geothermal heating.

"One of the shocking things to me was learning just how much better we can build buildings and create an ecological footprint," Ventura said. "We can have larger schools that are very efficient for teaching and learning and [accommodating students]."

A safe, inspiring atmosphere for students

Part of the school's design is to provide the utmost safety for the students attending from playground equipment to traffic to tornado shelter.

"Because of our new safety standards, you'll see that the playgrounds are encompassed into the footprint of the building so that kids never go out and away from the building, unless they are taken specifically by teachers," Perryman said.

"We've taken steps to address traffic concerns as far as how we designed the building, designed the roads getting to the building. That allows us to serve the north side of Columbia up to Spring Hill High School. It also addresses the continued Bear Creek Pike growth."

The design and color scheme is created to provide a welcoming environment for students, complete with spacious classrooms, cafeteria and anyone who visits the front lobby. The school will also serve as an emergency shelter.

"It is designed to meet the needs of a modern classroom and designed in a way to last over the next 40-50 years ... and it will also have a lot of bright colors, things of vitality and words that are important to kids in elementary schools," Perryman said.

He said the school will meet all needs for pre-K to fourth grade students in Maury County.

"It also has a full tornado shelter that is FEMA rated to hold up to 1,000 people," Perryman said. "It is to the standards of Maury County Schools, the standards we need for classrooms, for safety and materials. And the design is to allow the most usage of this building both for public and private use."

Registration for the school's daycare center for Pre-K children will open March 12 of this year, MCPS Communications Director Jack Cobb said.

Jay Powell is a general reporter for The Daily Herald. Get up-to-date news in your inbox by subscribing to The Daily Herald newsletter at www.ColumbiaDailyHerald.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Maury school board approves $63 million N. Columbia Elementary School