Maryville High School - To Expand or Not To Expand

How many people in Maryville are aware that Maryville High School is considering expanding at its current location using Eminent Domain to consume as many as 30 homes/properties in its neighborhood?

How many people in Maryville are aware that smaller schools are actually better for our kids? MHS has a current population of roughly 1500 students. If they expand they will create a facility to accomodate upwards of 2000 students. This is far from an ideal environment for our children as drop out rates and violence increase and participation, emotional well-being and parental involvement DEcrease. Please check out this great article: Link... . Yes, there are benefits to larger schools such as more extra curricular programs and a more "state-of-the-art" facility, but is this worth the expense in quality of education and student well being? As the large high schools are failing all over the country, there is a national movement back to smaller, community based schools. Funding is available through government and private institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

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Aside from this, MHS resides in a very old and established neighborhood. This neighborhood is sandwiched between two historic districts and could be considered historic itself. Lamar Alexander grew up in this neighborhood. Many families will be displaced and the integrity of the neighborhood will be destroyed. Traffic is already a heavy burden here making roads questionably safe for kids to travel to and from school. Expansion will only make this worse.

Please - LET'S PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF MARYVILLE. Let's stop a Mega-Highschool from being created in our community. Let's stop destruction of historic neighborhoods. Please contact your elected officials and school board members and tell them you want preservation, not destruction, in your Maryville.