MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. — County and school leaders broke ground on a new facility for Horace Maynard Middle School on Wednesday, which is set to be complete in less than two years ahead of the 2026-27 school year.
The total cost of the project is $41,250,000, according to Union County Commissioner, Sidney Jesse. He said $15 million came from Union County Public Schools Board of Education, which put less of a burden on county taxpayers.
"The school system was able to save about $11 million put towards the project," Director of Union County Schools Greg Clay said. "We use a little bit of federal dollars, ESSER money. We used about $4 million of that."
This is the first major construction project in the county since Paulette Elementary was built in 2010.
"We spent meetings upon meetings discussing how to figure out how to fund this, and try to do it efficiently," Jesse said. "We want our kids to have a safe place to be educated. We want them to get the best education that we possibly can give them, and we want our kids to grow up and to stay here."
Horace Maynard Middle School was originally built in 1950. New wings were added in the 60s and 70s, but it remained untouched.
Their principal, Toby Kilgore, said there are challenges to the small and aging building, including only having three bathrooms for 650 middle school students.
"The cafeteria is extremely small," Kilgore said. "So we're having to eat lunch from 10:30 to 1:30 right now. So you're having kids eat breakfast, eat lunch at 10:30 then they're not eating again until they get home."
The new school, designed by Lewis Group Architects, will be 125,000 square feet, with room for 850 students, and infrastructure to support growth.
"The core part of the building, cafeteria, gym, is built for a capacity of 1000," Clay said. "We could easily add on if we needed to in future years."
The school will have a courtyard, media center, and cafeteria. Other amenities for extracurriculars and sports include a football field and a softball and baseball field.
Kilgore said currently, students have to bus to different areas to get to their extracurricular and sports activities. He said this new school opens opportunities.
"You can't come to school every day and feel comfortable learning without a safe environment, and this gives our kids that opportunity," Kilgore said. "The sports facilities that we're gonna have on campus here where we're not having to drive all over the county to get to different practices."