MURRAY – The Murray Board of Education announced plans to build a new elementary school on a parcel of land near the intersection of Doran and Wiswell roads at its meeting last night. Superintendent Coy Samons said that the new facility will house kindergarten through fourth grade and boast a capacity of 750 students.
Board attorney William “Chip” Adams, III, made the announcement, noting that the district has been identifying and evaluating potential locations for the new school, including looking at properties already owned by the district.
“Within the next week,” Adams said, “the Murray Independent School District Board of Education will be submitting a request for approval from the Kentucky Department of Education to acquire a certain parcel of real property – 15.118 acres – located within the school district for the purposes of the construction of an elementary school. The property is generally located off of Doran and Wiswell roads.”
Adams explained that a school district cannot simply acquire real property; they must go through an exhaustive process that is overseen by the Kentucky Department of Education.
“The process, with respect to this parcel of property, has been in the works since last summer,” Adams said. “(A) lot of things that had to be done. At this point, we can’t go into a lot more details because everything is very preliminary; however, there is a parcel that has been identified and it is of a size that is sufficient to construct an elementary school.
“We hope to have a lot more information for you in the months ahead as we negotiate the approval process with the Kentucky Department of Education but go ahead and put it on the forefront – a new elementary school is, hopefully, on the way.”
“It’s an exciting time to be in the Murray Independent School District,” Samons added before the crowd erupted in in applause.
“We’ve been looking for more than four years,” Board Chair Richard Crouch added, “and we think we’ve found the parcel that’s going to meet everyone’s criteria and look forward to going forward with that process.”
Crouch commended Adams and Samons for the many hours they have put into the project over the years. In particular, he thanked board member Adam Seiber, who has extensive experience in the real estate industry, for playing an “instrumental” role in the process over the last six to eight months.
The plan to build a new elementary school was announced in December 2023 as part of the district’s long-range facilities plan. After the new school is built, the current elementary school building will be repurposed to house Murray Preschool Head Start, the central office and the maintenance shop.
Following that meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Human Resources Whitney York clarified that only some preschool classrooms will be moved. MISD operates six preschool classrooms that are operated with a blend of state preschool funds and federal Head Start funds.
The plan would be to move some of the six preschool classrooms to the current elementary school building after the new school is built; however, which classrooms and how many will be decided in the future. Early Head Start, which is a completely federally-funded Murray Head Start program for children under three years old and is currently located in Murray State University’s Alexander Hall, would not be impacted.
