Liberty County school board members are looking at plans not only to have classroom space for a projected growing enrollment but also for the students already in classes.

In conjunction with information from the Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission on new home construction already taking place and that which is expected, the school system got enrollment projections from PowerSchool. With those figures, the school system is anticipating between 6% and 12% growth in its enrollment over the next five years.

“Hinesville and Liberty County have been undergoing a residential construction boom,” chief operations officer Arnold Jackson told board members, “and it has not gone unnoticed.”

Currently, school enrollment is 10,598. PowerSchool came up with conservative and moderate estimates, and both projects put the school system’s enrollment at well over 11,000 by 2030.

The LCPC has 1,994 lots either in preliminary or final stages of development, board members learned. Over the next four years, more than 2,000 new residential units are expected to be occupied, leading to a 4.3% growth in the county’s population.

It also is leading the school system to consider building another school. Jackson broke down three potential sites for a new school, including a 69.12acre tract on Fort Stewart near Waldo Pafford Elementary. The school system also owns land off Pipkin Road in Hinesville and could explore building a school at the old Jordye Bacon Primary School site.

To build a new school on the Fort Stewart site, the school system would have to enter into a 50-year lease agreement with the Department of Defense. There also is a large wetlands area on the tract, Jackson added. Plus, there would be an increased cost to make the school bomb-proof and it is close to a checkpoint station. The process to get a lease agreement, Jackson said, would take 18 months.

The Jordye Bacon site is 15 acres and while the school system owns the land — and there are other advantages, such as access, utilities and multiple entrances — there are drawbacks, too, Jackson pointed out. There is limited space and new locations would have to be found for the programs in place there, including Horizons, Coastal Plains and Coastal Academy. Also, demolition and abatement would be required before any new construction can take place and the space there is limited. A two-story building would have to be built to house a new school.

At the Pipkin Road site, which is 27 acres, there are utilities and it is centrally located. But access is an issue and there are limited entrances and traffic on E.G. Miles Parkway also could be an issue.

“We knew it was coming eventually,” board chair Verdell Jones said of the need for a new school.

Building a new school, Jackson estimated, would take about three years. Site selection and due diligence will take about seven months, and design will be a year-long process. Bidding and permitting will take another five months, and construction is a two-year process.

The state also has guidelines for school construction. For a new elementary school, the site has to have a minimum of five acres, plus an additional acre for every 100 students, meaning a school a built for 800 students would have to be at least 13 acres. For a middle or a K-8 school, it’s a 12-acre minimum, plus an acre for every 100 students.

The PowerSchool projections call for between a 7% and 14% growth just in the number of kindergarten students over the next five years. The conservative model calls for 5% growth in grades 6-8 and 9% in high school, with the moderate projection calling for 12% more middle school students and high school enrollment to rise by 12%.

Five schools are projected to have the most enrollment growth in the next five years. Joseph Martin Elementary’s enrollment is estimated to grow by 17%, with 16% growth at Liberty County High School, 13% at Snelson-Golden Middle, 11% at Taylors Creek Elementary and 7% at Waldo Pafford Elementary.

Changing attendance zones

The system is within the state recommendations for class sizes at each level. But the growing number of students at certain schools, and with some of them at or near capacity already, has led school system officials to consider new attendance zones for next school year.

Four schools — Joseph Martin, Taylors Creek, Waldo Pafford and Snelson- Golden — are either at their allotted capacity or near it. Joseph Martin, built for 700 students, has 703 enrolled. Taylors Creek has 779 students and was built to accommodate 800. Waldo Pafford, also built for 800, has 741.

“Our community continues to grow and shift, and is it necessary to address schools near capacity and under-utilized schools,” Jackson said.

With the projected enrollment increases, and with some schools expected to lose students, school system officials mapped out potential new enrollment zones.

Under the plan, 50 students from Joseph Martin would be sent to Liberty Elementary and 80 would go to Button Gwinnett. The students affected by the possible move live off Leroy Coffer Highway, Fraser Acres and Oak Crest. Taylors Creek would send 62 students, living off Kelly Drive and Belmore, to Frank Long. Seventy-one students living along Veterans Parkway would shift from Waldo Pafford to Frank Long, 48 students in Tranquil South would go from Snelson-Golden to Midway Middle and 25 students east of Freddie Walthour Road would go from Frank Long to Liberty Elementary.

“It is necessary to rezone so we can have comfortable class sizes at each campus,” Superintendent Debra Frazier added.

Affected parents will receive email notification, a welcome letter from new principal, and there will be information sessions and special open houses for newly-enrolled students.

“Our plan is to have these modifications take place next school year,” Jackson said.

The transportation department was brought in as part of the proposed school zone changes.

“It will improve transportation, especially at Taylors Creek and Joseph Martin,” Jackson told board members.

School system officials are asking for the board’s approval as soon as possible to get the notification process started, but board member Dr. Marcus Scott balked at the proposed changes.

“This is insane to me,” he said. “Is it our plan to rezone every year, to continue to rezone when we are building a new school? In 2007, it was said 15th Street was going to be booming with all these houses and it never came.”

Jackson said students who were rezoned recently are not among those in the new rezoning plan, and the new zones are being drawn to make room for future enrollment.

“We’ve had unprecedented growth in the county,” he said. “Our schools are getting overcrowded now.”

Jones said the school system wants to limit the amount of time kids spend on a bus as much as possible, and she recalled where kids in the same neighborhood and of the same age were going to different schools.

“It’s a lot to look at,” she said. “We have to take some deep dives so we don’t rezone every year.”

School board members are expected to take up the issue at their February 10 meeting.