Over the last three years, the Spring Hill School District has seen an increase in student enrollment of nearly 19%, ranging between 5.4% and 6.6% annually. The school district is projected to increase 40% over the next 5 years, adding 1,500 more students. Even with the additions of Timber Sage Elementary and Woodland Spring Middle, district facilities begin reaching capacity for the 2021-22 school year.

In February 2018, the Board of Education assembled a “Vision for Growth Committee,” comprised of district residents, to study the growth trends and evaluate options to address this challenge. The committee considered numerous options to address the growth including:

• Adding on to current schools
• Changing boundaries
• Changing grade configurations
• Adding mobile classrooms
• Building new facilities
• Doing nothing

The committee reached a consensus and on May 14, 2018, the committee presented the following recommendations to the Board of Education:

1. Increase elementary capacity by 528 students by building a new elementary school similar to Timber Sage Elementary School (to open Fall 2021).
2. Increase middle school capacity by 528 students by building a new middle school (to open Fall 2023 - updated 11/20).
3. Improve services to students by constructing an Educational Support Center on the high school campus to house technology, maintenance and nutrition services (food service). These essential departments provide assistance to the district’s nine buildings and associated grounds, 3,000+ students and 450+ employees. The addition of this building will also provide the opportunity for Career and Technical Education classes to gain experience with each department in an actual work setting (to open Fall 2020).

On June 4, 2018, the Board of Education unanimously supported the committee’s recommendation, and called for a mail-ballot bond election for September 6, 2018 to fund the $72 million solution. This measure falls just two years after the last approved bond, which addressed the overcrowding at Prairie Creek Elementary and Spring Hill Middle School. To be fiscally responsible, the district did not pursue the fifth elementary and third middle school in that bond to ensure the projected growth was accurate. The anticipated enrollment increase has occurred, and now the district must prepare for this continued growth.

The school district has decreased the mill levy over the last 11 years (including this year). This bond would be an increase of 4.25 mills or approximately $8.15/month for a $200,000 home beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.