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LENOIR CITY, Tenn. — City Hall deflated Monday evening as a vote regarding a bond issuance for the proposed expansion of the LCIMS school grounds failed to pass.

The vote tied at 3-3 with Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens refusing to tip the scales in the favor of the Lenoir City Board of Education. He did, however, leave the conversation slightly open ended.

“Right now, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Aikens said as the meeting came to a close. “I want to see what the interest rates do in May.”

The bonds, which were set to be issued by Oakdale Municipal Advisors, were first approved by the Lenoir City Board of Education on Sept. 26, 2025, where the sum of the project totaled at $20 million was expected to be paid out over the next 25 years.

According to Board members and Lenoir City Schools Director of Schools Millicent Smith, the expansion would alleviate the stress being felt at the systems intermediate level — parsing out students into more specific age ranges in a move that would relieve stress of infrastructure while hopefully providing a more honed educational experience for students in the process.

The expansion, according to Smith, would have no bearing on the current operations of Lenoir City High School.

‘OVER THE HUMP’

Financial representatives from LCS stated that funds from both the body’s capital projects balance and sales tax fund could be used to pay for the upgrades … with no need to reconsider a tax increase or any other taxpayer burden to see the proposal through to fruition.

The Board reportedly moved $6 million into its capital projects fund back in September, while awaiting a Council proposal, which would set a total budget at around $26 million that included a $2 million safety net.

The Board also stated that it planned to use some existing sales tax funds to pay off remaining debt from a previous project to get them financially “over the hump” from 2027 to 2030. LCS has acknowledged that, if approved, additional renovations or improvements of this caliber would have to be sidelined until this project was in a place of monetary stability.

The proposal was initially detailed to Lenoir City Council in a workshop held on Sept. 15, with Smith alongside several BOE members stating their case for expansion — citing overcrowding and a new trend of having to turn down students who were outside the LCS district due to a lack of space as two of its biggest reasons to renovate.

At the time, City Council and Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens were wary to enter into a financial commitment that large. According to Aikens, there was a combined uncertainty of federal interest rates and the unknowns surrounding the new Loudon County School being constructed near Simpson Road, which is currently reported as being able to serve 1,200 seventh- through 12th-grade students after its estimated completion in 2027.

‘MY JOB IS TAKING CARE OF THE STUDENTS …’

Director of Schools Smith has been adamant throughout the process that, regardless of what happens if and when the county school is erected, it won’t and shouldn’t have any bearing on city school operations.

“My job is to make sure I’m taking care of the students, and the teachers, and the families, and the administrators in the community of Lenoir City,” Smith stressed at the January meeting. “That is what my focus is going to be.

“I have never closed my door to a meeting or a proposed conversation [with county officials] and I am happy to do that, but my priority always will be Lenoir City and Lenoir City Schools and making it the best it possibly can be.”

The bond issuance proposal didn’t reappear on a City Council agenda until now.

The expansion planned to pull up third-grade students into the LCIMS level, wherein third- through fifth-grade students would be separated from sixth- through eighth-grade students in their own wings of the new building.

While population density and stress to infrastructure were the more immediate issues, Smith also cited social aptitude and learning curves due to such a vast swath of maturity levels as being a crucial move for the school system during this time.

Some of the other amenities set to be included in the upgrades were a new media center, additional art and science classrooms, new standard classrooms and a new middle school gym, according to mock-ups from LCS.

‘FINDING ANY NOOK AND CRANNY’

LCIMS currently has around 709 children in its student body, with 85% of the total LCS population being originally zoned for its school district. Lenoir City Elementary reportedly has 511 students in its building on any given day — with the larger class sizes existing at that third- and fourth-grade level, a current pain point for teachers and administrators looking to deliver an equitable education amidst a more crowded classroom size.

Lenoir City High School’s student body is sitting at 1,242. The student population at LCHS is fairly split between city and county students, Smith stated at the Jan. 12 meeting.

“We’ve got teachers sharing classrooms,” Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction Brandee Hoglund stressed at the Sept. 15 Council meeting. “We are at the max there.

“We have utilized every space that we could. Eliminating conference rooms, finding any nook and cranny to pull students for small groups and things like that.”

Council Members Todd Kennedy, Robin McNabb and Eddie Simpson voted in favor of the proposal — with Kennedy and McNabb giving a motion and a second, respectively. Council Members James Brandon, Jennifer Wampler and Jim Shields chose to deny the request.