Growth in Parkers Chapel School District leads to major expansions
The Parkers Chapel School District has seen significant growth in recent years thanks to school choice, necessitating major expansions on campus and to other school facilities.
In May, 2016 the PC School Board approved $6.5 million worth of upgrades at the school, focused on security and growth and including renovations to the district’s sports facilities, paid for by a millage approved by Parkers Chapel residents.
“It’s been a lot of changes in a short period of time, that’s for sure,” said Michael White, PCSD superintendent. “These last few projects are what’s left over from the millage that we’re taking care of.”
The projects have ended up costing $8.5 million, and upgrades included six new classrooms and an expansion of the school’s cafeteria. The elementary and high school were connected with a hallway to improve security and a new, state-of-the-art auditorium was constructed for the high school’s new drama program.
“I think the board did a good job of planning and following it through,” White said.
Now the district is close to completing a series of upgrades to their sports facilities. Using donations from Simmons Bank, they were able to replace the scoreboard at the football field. They also replaced the press box.
“We needed a new press box on the home side. The back story is that when they first built the field, they built the press box on one side, and that was supposed to be the home side, but they realized that was the side the sun shone on and they moved the people to the other side, but obviously they left the press box,” White said. “We’ve dealt with that for a number of years. We’ve since now put a press box behind the home side of the stadium, so it makes a
little more sense. It’s a little higher too, so we have a little bit better vision up there.”
The district is also adding the finishing touches to their newly renovated locker rooms. Located in the old gym, referred to as the MAC Center, the new locker rooms were renovated for today’s students and also include some workout facilities. White said they hope to finish the locker room remodel by the time school starts on Aug. 13, but would definitely have them completed by the time basketball season starts.
“We may attack putting some air in the MAC Center,” White said. “It doesn’t have any air in it. Neither gym had air when I got here; but we’ve since put air in the main gym. But we may put some air in the practice gym as well, so that in the months of August and July it’s not so hot in there that they can’t practice.
The district’s track is also being upgraded; until now, students were using an unmarked asphalt track and meets could not be held in Parkers Chapel, White said. With the track program growing, the PCSB moved to add the full track to accommodate the increased student population.
Right now, contractors are adding field event pads for pole vaulting, shot put and other field events. White said they will move on to add a new layer of asphalt to the existing track next, before adding rubber on top and marking the track’s lanes.
“Our track program is steadily growing; we’re having more and more participation and more and more success,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of state champions in the last couple of years, so I felt that it was necessary, if the students are doing it, that we make sure they have a good place to do it and be proud of.”
White said students have reacted positively to the changes, working throughout the last school year among the construction.
“I think it makes them proud. I mean, they’ve always been proud; in Parkers Chapel, they’ve always been proud of where they’re from,” White said. “But now they can look at their district and they have all these facilities that all the other districts have. We’ve been able to expand our programs too … Any time we have a opportunity to expand a program that our kids have interest in, that’s what we want to do, and having the facilities allows us to do that.”
While the school is still growing this year, with a new kindergarten class having to be added due to the number of children that signed up, White said he isn’t sure how much more growth the PCSD will see.
However, the upgrades were well worth it for him, who sees them as an investment in the students’ futures.
“We’re trying to stay up with the growth and making sure our students have opportunities that [students in] bigger school districts have and at the same time, trying to maintain a family atmosphere as much as possible,” White said. “We must be doing something right, because we still have a lot of school choice applicants that want to come here throughout the year.”
The Parkers Chapel School District will begin classes on Aug. 13. For more information, visit parkerschapelschool.com.