Major rezoning underway for Montgomery County Schools
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A major rezoning effort is underway for students in the Clarksville Montgomery County School System.
The district is seeing a 30-year average growth of more than 600 new students per year.
Some years more than a thousand more students enrolled. Right now, there are roughly 40,000 students in the district and counting.
There are currently has 25 elementary schools in the district and 20 of them will be impacted by this rezoning. Kirkwood Elementary will open August of this year, and the district’s 26th elementary school in Region 2 is scheduled to open in August 2026.
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“Dr. Luna-Vedder’s goal is that all of our schools are high performing, that all of them provide a consistent high quality education for all of our students. And so we continue working towards that goal,” said CMCSS Chief Communications Officer, Anthony D. Johnson, Ed.S. “As hard as it is to say we’re excited about a rezoning we are excited that we’re going to be able to implement some innovative things through this process, and that we’ll be able to improve our capacities that our schools.”
Leaders have a goal for campuses to operate at 85% capacity. Currently, there are 11 elementary schools between 85% and 100% capacity. There are eight elementary schools that are above 100% capacity.
Johnson explained that the 85% capacity goal allows schools to have offices available for special programming like school counseling. The other goal is to not rely on portable classrooms, and currently, the district has over 80 portable classrooms. He said portable classrooms do serve a purpose when they’re needed, but their goal would be to have students in a permanent classroom especially when it comes to safety.
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“There’s a lot of disruption that can happen. In our school system, if we’re under a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm watch students who are in portables have to move into the building for their safety. And so then that creates kind of a an issue, a scheduling logistics issue, inside of the school to be able to accommodate that,” he said.
The district is now embarking on a comprehensive rezoning plan touching the majority of their elementary schools. It also includes innovation at two schools — Burt Elementary and Saint Bethlehem, which have served the same zone for the last several decades.
“That has presented a lot of challenges for families, the schools are a few miles away from each other. And so families that have children at both schools, it just wasn’t really feasible for them,” said Johnson. “So we took this opportunity to kind of reinvent that zone and to open our first ever Early Learning Center.”
He added that district leaders received feedback from families that actually helped to shape the rezoning plan.
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“No one likes rezoning. You know, nobody who’s impacted by rezoning. Nobody wants to move. We don’t like having to rezone and tell families that they might need to attend a new school. But unfortunately, it is the reality when you’re in a growing community,” he said. “When we build a new school, you have to create new boundaries, or else the school sits empty. And so as we continue to grow as we continue to build schools, rezoning is inevitable.”
The approved elementary rezoning plan does not include an opt-out process. Leaders feel doing this in two phases will bring change than can help deal with its growth for several more years.
Click here to read more about the rezoning plan.
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