SPS won't build new Pipkin school on Pythian Street after concerns raised by public, BNSF

Springfield Public Schools announced Wednesday it has abandoned plans to build the new Pipkin Middle School in an industrial part of the city next to the interstate, railroad tracks and a chemical plant.

Superintendent Grenita Lathan said the undeveloped 20.9-acre parcel at 3207 E. Pythian St. appeared to be the best option available in late March — when the district entered a contract to buy the land — but school officials no longer believe that it is the right spot.

"We feel good about the decision that we've made," she said.

In recent months, serious questions about the suitability of that property as a school campus were raised by, among others, local taxpayers, BNSF Railway and the city's Planning & Zoning Commission.

Lathan said the district wants the best for Pipkin students and families. "We conducted our due diligence to locate a property but then once we received all the feedback, once we continued to do our research, we decided to step back and go in a different direction."

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, the school board voted 7-0 to not buy the land.

Board president Danielle Kincaid said feedback from the public has been critical to each decision made during this process. "It became increasingly clear that we were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and it wasn't going to be the best viable option moving forward."

Pipkin opened on Boonville Avenue, in the heart of the Midtown neighborhood, a century ago. The school has an outdated layout, lacks accessibility, and the land-locked three-acre campus does not have adequate space for extra-curricular activities and student drop-off and pick-up lanes.

The Community Task Force on Facilities urged the district to construct a new school on a larger campus as part of the $220 million bond issue overwhelmingly approved by voters in April.

Travis Shaw, deputy superintendent of operations, said the district spent months looking for the Pythian property and said finding another option at this juncture is a "huge challenge."

"I'm optimistic. We do have something we're looking at. Nothing is a lock, for sure, and ultimately we know we'll get there. We just have to realize that this is going to take a little longer than we would have liked," Shaw said.

"We want to show the community that we are putting their tax dollars to good use and getting these projects under construction and built."

'We obviously listened to their feedback'

The district initially hoped to close on the property by late May but postponed a decision to fully investigate the site and ask the city's Planning & Zoning Commission for permission to acquire the property.

Stephen Hall, chief communications officer, said the district extended the "due diligence" period to gather input and see if the concerns that had arisen could be addressed.

The property is located at the far eastern edge of Pipkin's rectangle-shaped attendance boundary. It is not within a neighborhood, it was far from where most Pipkin families live, and accessing it by foot or bike would be a challenge. Pythian, which dead-ended with the property, was the only access road.

In July, the majority of the commission sided with city planning experts, who recommended against placing a school in that location. The parcel was zoned for heavy manufacturing and its use as a school was not in line with the city's new master plan, Forward SGF.

Officials from the adjacent plant, 3M, and BNSF Railway said they were working with the district on logistics.

In a letter to the commission, BNSF outlined its concerns with building a school so close to heavily traveled tracks. On average, the line sees 30 or more trains a day and some are long and stop on the tracks, which might block the Pythian Street access.

BNSF said a fence would have to be constructed between the school and tracks and there were other questions. Signals and other work may have been required at the crossing.

"To say that they were supportive of us buying this would not be accurate. They discouraged the purchase of this property after they became involved after the Planning & Zoning Commission meeting," Shaw said. "We obviously listened to their feedback as well as the Planning & Zoning Commission."

Shaw said the objections were not insurmountable but might have been expensive. He said the district also insisted on securing a second way to access the property, a step that required the support of at least one adjacent property owner.

"In the beginning, based on conversations we had, we were very optimistic that we would have a solution for a secondary access specific to emergencies," he said. "And as we worked through our due diligence, we no longer had that optimism or confidence that we were going to receive that in a reasonable manner. That did play a big factor."

'We can't rule anything out'

The search for a different property within the Pipkin attendance boundary will continue but it is unlikely the district will find another option as large as the Pythian Street parcel.

The goal is to find at least 10 acres — similar to the campus where the new Jarrett Middle School was recently built — with sufficient space for the building, outdoor activities, parking, a bus lane and safer traffic flow for student drop-off and pick-up.

In recent months, members the Pipkin community, Midtown neighborhood and others have suggested options and district officials said many of them have been explored.

"We have a lot of real estate agents out there now looking at the map," Lathan said.

Several suggestions have involved partnering with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board to place Pipkin on a park property.

"We have explored every single park within this boundary," Shaw said.

He said there are significant obstacles, including that parks must follow federal guidelines involving land and water conservation and, in some cases, the deeds require that the land must be used as a park.

Shaw said even if a school was added to the land, it would be difficult to secure the park for outdoor activities when the park must remain open to the public. "That piece alone has really kept us from being able to do anything with any of the parks within the area."

Asked if the district had an ideal timeline in mind for finding the property, Lathan joked "yesterday." She said there are options but added: "We continue to look for that perfect location."

Lathan said the district has the ability to exercise eminent domain — forcibly acquiring private properly for a public use — but she does not expect to go that route.

Asked about building Pipkin on its existing campus, Lathan said: "We can't rule anything out at this point" but said the task force recommendation to find more land remains "front and center."

Task force co-chairs Bridget Dierks and David Hall said they support effort to secure the best possible location for the new Pipkin.

“We appreciate the district’s genuine commitment to thoroughly vetting this and other properties prior to moving forward," Dierks and Hall said in a joint statement. "We remain confident that these efforts will result in a quality learning environment for generations of Pipkin students to come — one that will make our community especially proud.”

Next steps and deadlines

Plans to break ground on the Pipkin project in January have been postponed but officials said they hope the project will start next year.

Shaw said the district is committed to completing all of the 2023 bond projects by the end of 2028. He said with the construction of Pipkin expected to take two years, work has to start by early 2027.

"We don't think it's going to take anywhere near that long," he said.

He added: "We'd love to be able to, six months from now, re-engage with moving forward and finish up the design but it could be a year."

In the past month, the school board received an update from Paragon Architecture, which was deep into the design process.

"We are hopeful that we're able to find the property that allows all of the work on the design to stay as is," Shaw said. "We recognize that if we can't find that particular property that allows us to do that then we are going to have to do some redesign on the project."

Shaw said the district hopes most of that work will translate to the next location but there will likely be duplication of certain costs by pivoting at this juncture.

The district declined to disclose how much it planned to pay for the Pythian Street property but acknowledged it will forfeit the $25,000 it paid in good faith upfront.

Shaw said disclosing the proposed purchase price "negatively affects our opportunity moving forward to be able to negotiate other properties."

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield district abandons plan to build Pipkin on industrial site