Maryville School Board names incoming performing arts center to honor Alexander family, renames junior high to middle school

Maryville School Board names incoming performing arts center to honor Alexander family, renames junior high to middle school

The Daily Times

By: Mathaus Schwarzen

September 26, 2026

Maryville City Schools will name its upcoming performing arts center in honor of former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander and his family following a unanimous vote by the school board Monday, Sept. 14.

The Alexander Performing Arts Center, currently under construction at Maryville High School, will recognize the family’s longstanding contributions to the school system. Alexander, a 1958 MHS graduate, has also provided the largest donation to the center’s fundraising campaign and included a $1 million endowment for the facility in his estate plans.

In a separate decision, the board approved renaming Maryville Junior High School to Maryville Middle School to reflect incoming grade changes effective with the 2027-28 school year.

ALEXANDER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Director of Schools Mike Winstead said the idea of naming the performing arts center for Alexander emerged early in the planning process.

Alexander, a Maryville native, served as Tennessee’s governor from 1979 to 1987 and as a U.S. senator from 2003 to 2021. Between those positions, he served as president of the University of Tennessee and U.S. secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, according to his Alexander also played a role in shaping national education policy. As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee from 2015 to 2021, he helped advance legislation, including acting as a cosponsor of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind.

He also served as the U.S. Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993.

Winstead said that Alexander’s connection to the performing arts stretches back to his student years in Maryville. According to his website, Alexander won statewide piano competitions while attending MHS. A classical and country pianist, he has since performed at the Grand Ole Opry and with Tennessee symphonies.

Winstead said the school system approached Alexander fundraising campaign to equip the new facility with professional audiovisual and lighting systems.

“We just wanted to outfit the inside, the audio, the video and the lighting in a way that matched the building itself, and was state of the art for our kids,” Winstead said.

The campaign has since raised $644,000, surpassing its original $600,000 goal. Alexander provided the largest individual contribution.

In addition, Alexander included a $1 million endowment in his estate plans that will eventually be directed to Maryville City Schools Foundation, with proceeds designated specifically for the performing arts center and its programs.

Winstead said the endowment will help the school system maintain and upgrade equipment long after the building opens. Officials plan to endowment to pay for upkeep without touching the original amount.

NEW FACILITIES

The facility is part of a larger construction project funded by the city of Maryville that also includes new classrooms, an expanded cafeteria and additional parking.

Brochures for the project advertise that the auditorium will seat more than 600 people and feature professional sound equipment, stage lighting and video systems. The new performing arts center will be completed with the high school construction, and Winstead said contractors are targeting June 2027 for completion.

Although Alexander’s contributions helped make the fundraising campaign possible, Winstead said the former senator specifically requested that the building recognize his entire family rather than His father, Andrew Alexander, graduated from Maryville High School in 1927 and served on the school board for 25 years, including a lengthy tenure as chairman, Winstead said. His mother, Flo, operated one of Blount County’s first nursery schools and kindergartens.

A commemorative plaque in the center’s lobby will recognize the family’s contributions and will include a statement from Alexander.

“My roots in the Maryville City School helped to shape a lifelong belief in the power of education to transform lives and communities,” Alexander said. “Growing up in Maryville, anything seemed possible.”

IN THE MIDDLE

On Monday, the board also approved returning Maryville Junior High School to its former name, Maryville Middle School, as the district prepares to reorganize its grade levels next year.

The school originally opened as Maryville Junior High School in the early 1950s, when Alexander’s father served on the school board, It became Maryville Middle School in 1986 after ninth grade moved to Maryville High School. The junior high designation returned in 2012 when ninth grade moved back into the building.

Beginning with the 2027-28 school year, ninth grade will return to the new and improved Maryville High School while seventh grade moves into the current junior high, leaving the renamed middle school serving seventh and eighth-grade students.

Winstead said the change will reflect the building’s new grade configuration and instructional approach. Students will be organized into smaller teams of approximately 200, sharing core academic teachers rather than navigating the entire student population.

The school will retain its Rebels nickname.

Winstead said the name change will require relatively little physical work, with only a small number of signs needing replacement. The school will continue operating as Maryville Junior High School through the end of the current academic year.