Knox County Schools presents three rezoning scenarios to ease Powell Elementary overcrowding

Knox County Schools officials on Feb. 19 presented three illustrative rezoning scenarios designed to relieve significant overcrowding at Powell Elementary School and asked families for feedback before a staff proposal goes to the Board of Education on March 5. Corey Lautner, assistant superintendent of Impact for Knox County Schools, said Powell is “200 plus students overcapacity” and that the scenarios are intended to create longer-term relief rather than a short-term fix.

The district framed the rezoning effort as a response to ongoing housing development and multi‑year enrollment monitoring. Dr. Adams, assistant superintendent of operations, told attendees the district is looking at underutilized seats in nearby schools and transportation feasibility as the primary variables; he said the district runs 356 bus routes and cited available capacity at neighboring schools, which the presentation listed as roughly 450 seats under at Karnes, 330 under at Amherst and about 350 under at Brickie/Bricky McLeod.

Transportation and enrollment staff walked the room through three scenarios. Ryan Billingham, the district’s executive director of transportation, described Scenario 1 as using Clinton Highway as a dividing line (moving areas west of that corridor to Karnes) and reassigning parts of the Callahan Road and Beaver Creek corridors to a neighboring elementary (referred to in the presentation as Bridal/Bricky) while shifting a portion of Karnes to Amherst. Billingham said the maps are illustrative, not final, and showed sample commute-time comparisons for specific neighborhoods — for some households the estimated travel time to a new school increased by only a few minutes in the morning commute snapshots the district presented.

Scenario 2 would move additional pockets into Karnes and Amherst to reach the district’s target for relief; staff said they were less inclined toward that option because it required less conventional perimeter-first adjustments. Scenario 3 would enact fewer moves into Karnes on the western edge of Powell and compensate by rezoning parts of the eastern area into Bridal, producing a smaller net shift. Billingham summarized that each scenario is intended to achieve the same relief target while illustrating different tradeoffs for neighborhood continuity, commute times and feeder patterns.

Officials emphasized feeder‑pattern continuity as a secondary objective. Dr. Adams said aligning elementary, middle and high school feeder patterns reduces 'transfer flips' — the phenomenon of students shifting between Karnes and Powell for high school — and supports program continuity across grade levels.

On transfers, Lautner said the district will offer a guaranteed grandfather transfer for students in terminal grades (fifth grade in elementary school; eighth grade in middle school) if the board approves a final plan. Families who accept a grandfather transfer would remain enrolled at their current school but would be required to provide transportation. Lautner also described the district’s existing transfer process (two transfer windows annually), said sibling requests will be honored when capacity permits, and said final transfer details will be included in the proposal the district posts a week before the board meeting.

Next steps: staff will collect input from sticky‑note boards and the rezoning@knoxschools.org address, reconcile feedback during the following week and present a proposal to the Board of Education at the March 5 meeting. Lautner said the session was being recorded and that the video, slides and maps will be posted on the district’s website after the meeting.

The presentation focused on tradeoffs among geometric zone boundaries, commute times for sample addresses and the district’s goal of reducing portables and stabilizing long‑term capacity. No formal proposal or vote occurred at the Feb. 19 meeting; staff described the maps as scenarios meant to surface public concerns and preferences before a staff recommendation.