New school for Tea?:Community gives input on possible new school

Members of the community turned out two nights last week to talk about space in the school district’s buildings.

Superintendent Jennifer Lowery provided an overview of growth projections for the district and current available classroom space. She showed those gathered a visual of what classrooms are full in each of the district’s buildings.

Legacy Elementary has all classrooms full this year. Next year she projects they will be one classroom short and in two years will be two classrooms short.

As a result, the district wanted to get input from the community on what the district can do to alleviate the strain on classroom space. The route the school board is suggesting is building another elementary school on the south end of Tea, south of the Athletic Complex.

Lowery also provided a map of where a possible new elementary school could go and the amount of space she would expect it to take up.

After the presentation, those in attendance broke into small groups for discussion. The groups talked about likes and dislikes of current buildings, concerns about the proposed solution, joint needs for the city and the school, and what they would like to see in a new building.

Some suggestions were to have grade level centers rather than multiple buildings of kindergarten through fourth or fifth grade. Some wanted to see the fifth grade moved out of the middle school and back into the elementary.

As far as joint needs with the city, some suggestions included a walking track or a swimming pool.

The main concern was that friends who play together now may not be in the same school if they build another elementary school.

The school board will meet April 10 and go through some of the community input findings.