Residents can expect a new school to open in Seymour as soon as three years from now.
Sevier County Schools Director Jack Parton said the board of education has been discussing the topic for the last several years.
“We decided we’re going to the Seymour community and we’re going to be building a seventh, eighth and ninth grade facility there,” Parton said. “We are hoping to be in that school by the fall of 2013.”
He added its completion may be up to four or five years down the road.
The new facility will be located near the current high school and is part of a county-wide push to separate the grades differently.
By the time the building is finished, about 40 percent of the county’s schools will be separated into three different groups, kindergarten through sixth grade, seventh through ninth grade and tenth through twelfth grade.
“It isn’t going to happen overnight,” he said “With those age proximities you have less issues.”
“We are already kind of doing that with our freshman academy at Seymour where we are isolating our freshman from the general population already.”
In addition to the plans for the new school, the district also just part 1.54 acres across from Seymour Intermediate School from Priority Real Estate, with the expectation of a Thursday closing date.
This property will be used for overflow parking for athletic and academic events, as well as additional parking for the new school in the future.  

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