CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The Cleveland and Bradley County school boards are looking for locations for new schools.
Rick Denning, city schools director, told the Cleveland school board’s Site Committee on Wednesday that six potential sites have been brought to the attention of him or board members.
The committee of three board members agreed Denning and the schools staff should look at these and any other sites that become available and bring back a list with more details in January.
At that school board meeting, they hope to set a deadline for the board to consider each location.
In November, the Cleveland City Council asked the city school board to seek out possible school locations and get options on some properties.
While the committee will have a checklist for everything from site preparation to utilities and environmental needs, Chairman Murl Dirksen said, “We should look at everything.”
Last week, county school board members told the County Commission Education Committee that the search is on for elementary and middle school sites.
“We are full at Ocoee and Lake Forest [middle schools],” county Schools Director Johnny McDaniel told county commissioners.
If he had to choose, McDaniel said, the most-pressing need is for a middle school. “That’s where we are the tightest,” he said.
The county opened its 18th school this year, Park View Elementary. But board members say an elementary school is needed in southern Bradley, and they believe another will be needed in the north of the county with new employers such as Wacker Chemical and, possibly, Amazon.com.
There is a difference between average daily membership numbers and enrollment, said Sharon Harper, the county schools’ statistics expert. While enrollment leveled out this year at 10,119, she said, a strategic plan being developed anticipates 10,734 by 2016.
That’s the population of an elementary school within five years, she said.
“These are very conservative numbers,” Harper said, that do not consider the new industries, including Volkswagen near the county’s southern border in Hamilton County.
Contact staff writer Randall Higgins at rhiggins@timesfreepress.com or 423-314-1029.