Several Putnam County Commissioners questioned the timing of exploring a new high school for Cookeville.
Director Of Schools Corby King said school officials constantly hear from parents concerned about the size of Cookeville. The building can hold 2,500 students and the current population stands around 2,200. School Board Chair Lynn McHenry said some of the issues center on differing space needs.
“They expand programs all the time and to expand programs, you’ve got to have space,” McHenry said. “So that’s one thing that it kind of, when you look at capacity of a school, kind of gets thrown out because when you start adding programs, you start needing spaces for these programs.”
King said a new school would be built to hold 1,500 students, with an expected enrollment of around 1,200 students. Putnam County is still paying an option on property on Old Sparta Road in Cookeville, which King said would be big enough to build a new high school and facilities.
King said the county should consider picking up the option.
“But that doesn’t have to be this year,” King said. “We’ve got three years to figure that out. It does go up a little bit every year that we don’t exercise it. There’s an inflation cost. I think right now it’s around $3.5 million, $4 million somewhere. It goes up a few hundred thousand every year.
The School Board is monitoring enrollment trends to determine the timeline for a new school. King said there has been an increase and birth rate, but enrollment in the district has been flat the last two years due to families choosing alternative schooling.
“The growth, especially those families who are moving in, they’re choosing the home school or the hybrid option,” King said. “Most of them are leaving states where the public school system is not quite what it is here, you know, frankly. And so they have this like oh, they just think we’re going to be that way. We’re not doing the things they’re doing in those areas. But that’s kind of a mindset.
King said some families prefer the flexibility of homeschooling after trying it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
