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Phillips unveils drawings for Liberty Creek campus




Director of Schools Del Phillips unveiled renderings for two new schools planned to open in August 2022 at a School Board study session on Oct. 1.TENA LEE

Director of Schools Del Phillips unveiled renderings for two new schools planned to open in August 2022 at a School Board study session on Oct. 1.TENA LEE

Sumner County Director of Schools Del Phillips unveiled renderings and drawings for two new schools scheduled to open in 2022 at a School Board study session on Oct. 1. 

The two new schools – Liberty Creek Elementary and Liberty Creek High School – will bookend an eventual three-school campus between Hunter’s Lane to the west and Upper Station Camp Creek Road to the east on 265 acres north of Long Hollow Pike. The county purchased the land for three schools, related sports fields and a park in 2015. A middle school will be built at a later date in Phase II of the project. That phase is yet unfunded. 

When planning the overall layout of the complex, Phillips said that planners tried to use the natural terrain of the land that was once rolling farmland. 

“We tried to leave some contours of the earth and ground and build with that versus just make everything one level,” he said. 

As far as building styles, Phillips said the architects and planners tried hard to make the schools look like they fit in with their surroundings by drafting more traditional designs.

“We felt like a more modern style wouldn’t fit in with the environment,” he said.

Phillips said that the 91,000-square-feet elementary school, located on the western part of the campus, will be built in a similar style to Hendersonville’s William Burrus Elementary School. 

Some of the new elementary school’s highlights will include a 450-seat gymnasium with a performance stage; school wide keyless entry control and security cameras; an office for the school resource officer in a secure vestibule; community space dining area and a CDC suite. 

Both the elementary and the high school will feature brick and stone; large windows and wood features on the inside to soften the overall feel of the building, Phillips noted.  

The new 310,000-square-feet high school will have separate high school and middle school dining areas as well as separate entrances for the high school and middle school, Phillips noted. The two-story building will also feature two enclosed courtyards, an event center that will seat 800, as well as CTE (Career Technical Education) areas and STEM labs.  

To put the new school in perspective, Sumner County’s current high schools are 252,000 to 295,000-square-feet, the director added.  

Without giving details, Phillips said that security will be a priority at the new schools. 

“I’m not going into all of the security,” he said. “But technology has come a long way so all of that will be built into the new campus. It will be a very secure school.”  

Construction work on the two schools as well as infrastructure work on the campus went out to bid on Oct. 4. Bids will be open on Nov. 12. School Board members will vote on the bids at the Nov. 19 School Board meeting. The bids will be presented for approval to members of the full Sumner County Commission on Dec. 16.  

To view the full Liberty Creek campus plans and renderings, go to the school district’s website at www.sumnerschools.org

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