NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN SIX YEARS?

Superintendent Thomas Sisk said Tuesday in his State of the Schools speech that Limestone County Schools has made great progress in his first three years, but more is yet to come. He highlighted plans to change grade configurations in at least three schools, build new schools, add alternative and virtual schools, and continue expansion of the computer initiative.

The school board has approved plans to expand Creekside Elementary and divide it into two schools on one campus. It has also approved expanding the Limestone County Career Technical School and building a new West Limestone elementary school that could merge West Limestone and Owens elementary schools. 

Sisk said he would like to open an Alternative Center for Excellence in Education at the Owens building. A Twilight Academy, or “night school,” a virtual school, or online guided education, and possibly a Center for Early Childhood Education pre-kindergarten, would open at Owens. West Limestone Elementary’s building would become part of West Limestone High School.

After the new western Limestone County elementary school is built, Sisk said, he wants to build $15 million elementary schools in Tanner and Elkmont in 2018 and 2020 so he can split the nearby high schools, which currently have K-12 configurations, into separate K-5 and 6-12 schools. After those schools are built, he said, the board should then look at improvements at the county’s other six high schools.

The Digital Passport Initiative, the school board’s plan to provide laptops for every student, will continue its expansion. After starting with grades 3-4 this year, another 1,400 laptops will be needed next year for fifth- and sixth-graders. The school system will continue to add 1,400 to 1,600 laptops a year by grade. The goal is that every student in grades 3-12 have a computer by the 2018-19 school year, Sisk said.

Sisk said the system upgraded security on buses and at schools, including adding school resource officers in partnership with the Limestone County Commission.
“We’ve been able to do everything we’ve done without asking for a tax increase,” Sisk said.

For Complete Article: DECATUR DAILY

HILL SPIRIT'S THOUGHTS:

Elkmont has been on the list for a new elementary school for twenty years.  It never is built, always mentioned and occasionally thrown in with rainbows and sunbeams. Don't put much stock in this newest bone thrown to the Elkmont community. Believe it when you see it.