Maryville City Schools Board votes to rezone elementary schools

Maryville City Schools Board votes to rezone elementary schools 

Maryville Daily Times 

11/20/24 

By: Shanon Adame 

 

Maryville City School Board voted to approve rezoning to the district’s three elementary schools in their Monday night meeting. 

As previously reported in The Daily Times, this will be the second rezoning the district has undergone since 2020. 

The rezoning will affect the following areas: 

27 students to be rezoned from Sam Houston Elementary to John Sevier Elementary: 

• The area north of Sevierville Road between Columbus Street and S. Washington Avenue. 

57 students from Foothills Elementary to Sam Houston Elementary: 

• The Reserve 

• The Cottages at Cades Cove 

• Oak Tree Apartments 

• Wilson Road, Moonrise Lane and Westside Drive 

Maryville City Schools Director of Schools Mike Winstead told The Daily Times in a previous meeting that any families of students who are in the areas of rezoning will have the option to stay enrolled at their current school, provided that the family provides their own transportation. 

Before the district’s monthly board meeting, they allowed for public comment and discussion. Not everyone was happy with the rezoning, especially those with students attending Foothills Elementary. 

A few parents felt frustrated, explaining that they had bought their homes specifically so their children could attend Foothills Elementary. 

One parent asked if siblings would also be grandfathered in to the school their older brother or sister was attending. She told Winstead that while she had one child going into third grade at Foothills, their sibling would be starting kindergarten. The concern was whether the children would have to attend two different elementary schools. 

Winstead explained that the parents would have to fill out a rezoning request for the incoming sibling. However, he stressed that he didn’t see why a rezoning request would be denied once school populations had been remedied via the transfer. 

“We rarely have to deny zone transfers,” Winstead said. 

Another parent wanted to know why, if the schools were reaching capacity, the district was allowing tuition students to attend. 

Winstead explained that the only tuition students at Foothills Elementary were siblings and children of staff. 

There also seemed to be a sentimental attachment to Foothills, as a few parents said they wanted their children to attend the school because they themselves had. 

One concern brought up was that Sam Houston Elementary, which has fewer classrooms than Foothills or John Sevier, would be negatively impacted by rezoning students to the school. 

“Sam Houston has, unlike John Sevier and Foothills, the past two or three years seen a decrease (in population),” Winstead explained. 

The school, built to accommodate 160 kindergarten students, only saw 90. Winstead attributed some of that to the fact that there hasn’t been much new development in the area by Sam Houston Elementary. 

After the hearing, MCS moved forward with their scheduled board meeting. 

Board members pointed out that it wasn’t just the elementary schools that were taxed. Montgomery Ridge Intermediate and Coulter Grove Intermediate are also at or over capacity. 

Board Chair Julie Elder said that MRIS has 878 students, which puts it well over 100% capacity. 

Winstead said expanding Maryville High School will help alleviate those intermediate schools by moving students from intermediate to high school. 

The rezoning passed unanimously. 

“I appreciate the work that went into this. It was house to house and student by student. It’s not easy and kind of looks a little weird, but this is the best solution for the district,” said Board Member Nick Black.