New school year has smooth start, serves as a reminder to vote Sept. 10
Smiling students were greeting by welcoming teachers and principals as the new school year officially got underway.
For Madison City Schools superintendent Robby Parker, the opening day of another school year not only gave him a chance to welcome students, but served as an opportunity to remind citizens how important next month’s special election is for the school district.
Less than a month away, Parker is hoping voters in Madison and Triana will pass the 12-mill increase during a special election on Sept. 10 so the district can add a new middle school and elementary school to alleviate overcrowding.
A 12-mil increase would add $120 annually in property tax per $100,000 value of a home.
Rapid growth in Madison and Triana has caused a spike in student numbers over the past year. Just how many more students the school district started with last week compared to the last day of the previous school year in May was still being calculated, but Parker has estimated around 250 more students were expected.
“Looking at that number we feel confident in saying that we will finish with about 600 new students at the end of the school year, possibly more,” Parker said. “We feel like the number will be somewhat equal to last year’s 600 growth, and that gives us an idea of how to staff and what to anticipate.”
Parker said the district will hire more teachers so class sizes will not be unusually large this year. Over the summer, nine new school buses were added to their fleet in anticipation of a larger of number of students riding the bus and to make travel time shorter.
“Our city is growing, but our city has always been growing,” Parker stated. “This is my 31st year in Madison City Schools, and we have grown from day one. We do have a plan. Our city has a growth plan and we worked very closely with our city, with our mayor, with our city council on that growth plan.”
Parker added that part of the school district’s plan involved passing the property tax increase. “That will allow us to continue to offer a world-class education,” he said.
MCS officials estimate schools opened the new school year at 95% capacity district-wide. In fact, some schools have reached or near reaching their capacity. Liberty Middle School is at 100%. Mill Creek, Rainbow and Horizon elementary schools is at 98%.
Parker has proposed building a new $34 million elementary school on 20 acres of land the school district already owns next to the Kroger on Wall Triana Highway. It will hold about 900 students.
He also proposed building a new $49 million middle school, which will hold 1,200 students in grades six to eight. It would be built on land the school district also owns behind the central office on Celtic Drive.
Bob Jones and James Clemens would see some expansion to handle growth at the high school level.
“I’m proud to be here saying we need more schools, because it could be the opposite way,” Parker said. “We have a city a lot of people want to live in and that’s great. I’m very pleased that we are growing.”
While the growth does bring the challenge of how to accommodate more students in a way that keeps the school ranked as one of the best in the state, Parker says the growth has tremendous benefits too.
“We couldn’t be competitive world-wide with the smaller population,” Parker said. “But we had growth, and that allows our children to compete with anybody. We are able to bring in a lot of things we could not before. It has been such a positive thing for Madison City Schools, and I want to make it clear that growth is not a negative thing. I also want to make it clear that if we are going to continue to have a world class education, we need our citizens to come out and vote on Sept. 10 so we can continue to do that.”
Parker also said that the school district does have a plan if the proposed tax increase fails. That plan would likely involving a major rezoning initiative, but Parker said he was keeping optimistic the tax increase will pass.
“The people of Madison will do whatever it takes to continue to have a world class education,” he said. “I am confident they will vote to continue to have a world class education, I know they will. I know my family. I am part of this 50,000 person family and I know what this family wants to do. The family said we want to keep it as America’s greatest and I am confident that we will.”
