Time is short as the Knox County school board plans to vote on March 5, 2026, to rezone almost 300 kids from Powell Elementary School to Brickey-McCloud, Karns or Amherst. Community members met at the Bailey Barn on February 12 to discuss solutions for PES. Previous story here. Here are three takeaways:
Stop the vote on March 5. While the rezoning would solve overcrowding, lessen traffic woes and remove the portable classrooms at Powell Elementary, it would set in concrete a “solution” that might mean another 40 years before a revisit, leaving PES with no auditorium, too little land and a failing sewer system in a 90-year-old building. Powell needs time to gather community input and two weeks is not enough.
Show up on Thursday, February 19, 5:30 p.m. at Powell High School to meet with Dr. Garfield Adams, assistant superintendent for operations, who will present his recommendation for a Powell Solution.
Ask for options. The Farragut community was given four options and had input on the decision to relieve overcrowding in its schools, said Caris Conner, who chaired the February 12 meeting. “We deserve options, too.”
Kim Frazier
Kim Frazier, an at-large county commissioner and a candidate for Knox County mayor, attended the meeting. She was a parent-leader in securing a middle school in Hardin Valley and the new Mill Creek Elementary in Karns. She said funding a new school is expensive. “It all boils down to what level of service do you think is appropriate.” Frazier said Knox County has the revenue to fund current operations and debt service but has a list of “kick-the-can” capital improvements, particularly road work, that cannot be funded with current revenues.
Left unsaid: a new school for Powell Elementary probably would fall on that list.
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Sandra, I saw you invite on the other story. I was not able to attend because of another commitment. My kids are not elementary aged. Both went to PES. It was a dump then; I can only imagine how it is now. But we are zoned for Karns High School despite living 4 miles away from PHS thanks to rezoning when Hardin Valley came online. We were able to get transfers for both kids. One is still there. I still believe community schools should be that, and common sense should be used. Us living 4 miles from PHS and not zoned there while kids 10+ miles away are zoned for PHS. It’s dumb. I feel for those parents fighting this.
Rezoning is putting a band aid on a bullet wound. It would relieve some crowding issues. But more subdivisions are being built. What about then? Go back to the nasty portables? And when more are built in 3-5 years? Powell is one of the fastest growing communities in Knox County. It really bothers me to see other parts of the county get new schools left and right. Yet Powell and Halls are always overlooked.