In the News

Parents seek Hillsboro High Dream School
The Tennessean
February 15, 2010

Picture this: a brand new Hillsboro High School with the latest technology, outside classrooms and traffic that doesn’t dump on Hillsboro Road.

Renee Draughon and other parents at the Green Hills school have, and they’re raising money to see it on paper.

The group is in the process of collecting about $30,000 to pay for a study that could yield a design and projected cost to rebuild the 55-year-old school from ground up.

Hillsboro High is scheduled to get an $18 million makeover in 2014-15, if funds are available, school officials said.

“With the exception of The Mall at Green Hills, we sit on the most expensive piece of property in Green Hills, and it looks like this,” said Draughon.

One of her children graduated from the school, and another one is a senior.

“We need to offer our students an environment that’s educationally, athletically, artistically, technologically excellent and cutting edge. … My kids will never benefit from this, but I and other parents have a heart for all the kids at Hillsboro.”

The Julia Green model

Metro’s last new high school, Cane Ridge High near Antioch, came with $47.6 million price tag and opened in the 2008-09 school year. The Hillsboro parent project, in conversation stages only, would be a public-private partnership.

Two projects so far have followed the partnership procedure, which involves the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, a nonprofit that raises money for the 76,000-student school system, said Arnold Von Hagen, the district’s director of planning and construction. One, at Julia Green Elementary in 2008, featured school renovations and construction of an 11,000-square-foot addition, which houses some classrooms and more.

The endeavor cost almost $6 million. Parents raised $4.3 million, including a $3.5 million gift from Billy and Jennifer Frist, and the school district chipping in $1.6 million.

The Hillsboro project would call for a much larger sum, said David Fox, the Metro school board member who represents Green Hills.

“I’m uncertain what the prospects are to raise that amount of money, but we currently have planned $18.3 million for the school renovation, but the money hasn’t been allocated,” he said, referring to the 2014-15 renovation plan.

“It’s positive that there’s such interest in the school.”
Parents brainstorm

Hillsboro High is in a much better physical shape than other schools in the district, Fox said.

“We have a very objective process we follow to determine which schools need capital funds for rehabilitation and which need to be rebuilt,” he said.

“The physical condition is the primary driver, and enrollment factors into that as well. Hillsboro is among the lowest scoring schools in need for an expansive amount of work.”

Draughon anticipated that construction at a new Hillsboro building could take at least 18 months, and the students would study in portables on school property. But nothing, she emphasized, has been started or approved officially.

The idea was born out of a parent committee to beautify the high school, Draughon said. The group was encouraged to think bigger.

“Think about the kids who come to Hillsboro who come from not so great homes. What would it be like for them to come to a new school? What a safe heaven it would be for them? How much pride they’d have?” Draughon said.

“A new building would change the streetscape, particularly if you oriented traffic in the other direction, away from Hillsboro.”

Traffic and going green

The issue of traffic generated by Hillsboro High School will be a part of a study that the state Department of Transportation and other groups are scheduled to launch this spring or summer, said B.J. Doughty, department’s spokeswoman.

“TDOT is aware that the traffic coming from the high school definitely contributes to the congestion along Hillsboro Pike at certain times of the day,” she said.

“As we search for creative solutions to those issues, the school traffic will certainly be a part of the discussion, and could include possible changes to ingress and egress patterns. No specifics have been discussed.”

A Hillsboro High teacher since 1984, Mary Catherine Bradshaw said a new high school building idea was news to her.

“There is every reason to fix the plumbing leaks and the heating and cooling system. … I’m not sure if it’s cost efficient to tear down the whole thing and start all over again,” said Bradshaw, who teaches history and oversees the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate program.

“Is the building in a great shape? No, but it’s certainly much better than a lot of other places. … I’d hope that the first priority would always be financial support for what we have in place that’s working. … If they’re really going to do this, they need to make the whole building green. I’d support that.”
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