County purchases new school property

By Joel Davis
of The Daily Times Staff

Blount County has purchased 57.5 acres of property off Burnett Station Road as the site for a planned school to relieve crowding at Porter Elementary School.

The county bought the property for $23,000 per acre, Director of Schools Alvin Hord said Wednesday, totaling about $1.3 million. The funds will come out of $2 million left over from a $40 million bond issue that went toward the construction of the two new Union Grove Schools.

The property is located near Eusebia Presbyterian Church.

"It looked like a fine site," said Blount County Board of Education Chairman Don McNelly. "The committee took quite a bit of time to find the right spot. Trying to find somebody who was willing to sell was one of the hardest things."

Hord said the county can probably build two schools on the property.

"The first school built would be an elementary school to relieve the overcrowding at Porter," he said. "Later, I suspect there would be room for a middle school if the board so chose. It's to address the overcrowding situation at Porter."

There are close to 800 students enrolled at Porter School. The county is adding more portable classrooms this summer to those already present at the school, Hord said.

"It's very much needed because of the number of students we have at Porter," he said. "We're excited that this part of the process has been completed. Our next step is to ask the Blount County Commission for funding (for construction). At some point, we go through the process of trying to select an architect. We have sent out a request for qualifications for architects, due June 16. It's exciting to think there is some help on the way for those students at Porter."

Blount County has been working hard the past few years to build schools to catch up on capacity. The system is opening the new Union Grove Elementary and Union Grove Middle School this fall.