I have driven by the high school many times and never realized there was such a delightful neighborhood in the surrounding area.

I will continue to praise the concept of a joint city - county vocational school.

In the school's very own Growth Planning Community meeting notes I find support of VoEd.

(link...)

Remember the resistance you saw from county officials on building a new high school to relieve the overcrowding of William Blount? They didn't want to water-down the sports program or upset the applecart of sports status quo. So they chose a "solution" that just isn't mathematically capable of solving the actual problem instead of just building another school.

There haven't been any studies showing that larger schools produce better educated students... quite the opposite. The practical thing in the long run is to make a second city high school. No need to wreck the historic neighborhood, BUT you'd risk wrecking the long-standing tradition of state winning football teams at MHS.

So which thing is more important here? Education or sports?

Well, football, obviously.

I am a graduate of MHS, and it is time for the city to face facts. It is time to build another school in addition to MHS. When I went there, parking was atrocious, and we were already cramped. I know that the prestige factor is there, but another school will not reduce that much, and the other school will be just as accomplished.

Other than football, there is no longer anything special about Maryville High School. It is overcrowded, too many teachers have been teaching way too long, and the overall quality of education has suffered. It will continue to deteriorate as the school system grows.

I am very much in favor of smaller schools, but Maryville, as a ciy, is becoming too 'uppity', and the upper class among us all want their kids to go to Maryville at any cost. We will continue to see the damage for years to come if the school is allowed to grow to over 2000 students.

By the way, Maryville elementary schools are the best anywhere (though also becoming overcrowded), the intermediate school is ok, and the middle school is the worst, in my humble opinion.

A new high school is needed, maybe two. The traffic will close downtown during the morning and afternoon. Which will ruin the business in the area, along with creating difficultly with using city hall or the court house. I live in Seymour and I have to plan my appointments around the school zone. Businesses in the area come to a stop during school zone times, and traffic backs up on Chapman Hwy.

Whenever I'm in Maryville late in the afternoon, I eat a late lunch or early dinner in your historic downtown to avoid the school in Seymour. I know I don't live in your town, but you need to visit Seymour when school is out and see the traffic jam on a road with about twenty percent of the traffic you have on Broadway. I just hope someone realizes the gridlock that will be created in the future with a mega schools.