Student Growth Shows Where School District Needs More Space

Staff Report

The 2014-15 Cherokee County Inventory of School Housing shows the impact of returning enrollment growth and indicates several areas where additional classroom space soon will be needed.

For the second consecutive year in the last 16 years, no district school is “critically overcrowded,” which Cherokee Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo attributes to the “long-standing successful policies governing student enrollment growth forecasts and school construction project planning and longtime strong school board leadership.”

The district uses this school year’s 20-day (Aug 29) enrollment count to measure the percentage of overcrowding. School board policy defines “critically overcrowded” as when a school exceeds 140% of its enrollment capacity and meets other criteria, including use of all existing portable classrooms.

The impact of actual student enrollment is evaluated each year after the 20th day of classes, which is when attendance traditionally peaks, to determine critically overcrowded schools and what, if any, action is needed.

The collaborative effort to eliminate critical overcrowding in the school district started in 2001, with an aggressive, multi-tiered Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, plan proposed by a Blue Ribbon Committee of community leaders.

This plan, which has been extended twice by voters, continues today with the construction of new or replacement middle schools to open campuses that both accommodate current and projected enrollment, but also allow for the state’s grade 6-8 model that provides for more challenging coursework and career and fine arts electives for sixth-graders.

If portable classrooms were removed, 13 schools would be operating at more than 100% capacity, a decrease from 16 last school year. Those schools are: Bascomb Elementary, Carmel Elementary, Free Home Elementary, Liberty Elementary, Little River Elementary, Creekland Middle, Dean Rusk Middle, E.T. Booth Middle, Mill Creek Middle, Woodstock Middle, Cherokee High, Sequoyah High and Woodstock High schools.

While portable classrooms provide relief for classroom instruction, they do not alleviate overcrowding in media centers, cafeterias, restrooms and hallways, the district said.

Of those 13, seven are operating at more than 120 percent capacity, an increase from five reaching that level last school year: Free Home at 135 percent, Little River at 120 percent, Dean Rusk at 130 percent, Woodstock Middle at 138 percent, Cherokee at 131 percent, Sequoyah at 125 percent and Woodstock High at 128 percent.

Relief came to the Cherokee Innovation Zone this school year with the opening of the replacement Teasley Middle School, which eased crowding at the middle school and at its feeder elementary schools. This construction also permitted the relocation of ACE Academy to the original Teasley Middle School campus, which provided room for more high school students to attend this “move on when ready” program.

Earlier in 2014, relief came to Etowah with the opening of the Etowah East Annex on the former Chapman Intermediate campus, which allowed for the elimination of all portable classroom use at the high school this school year.

Relief is on the way to Dean Rusk and Sequoyah with the construction of the replacement Dean Rusk Middle School on the same campus, which is on schedule to open for the 2016-17 school year.

All new and replacement school construction and renovations in the school district are funded by Education SPLOST revenue.

School district staff is analyzing this new data to determine what, if any, recommendations may be needed to address overcrowding in preparation for next school year.

Staff tracks data year-round to monitor not only enrollment growth, but also the local real estate market, development trends, local birth rates and other demographic data in order to best determine when and where new and/or replacement school facilities are needed.

See the attached .PDF to review the district’s memo as well as a chart outlining the capacity and enrollment of all Cherokee County School District facilities.

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