New Middle School Plan Approved by Voters

With nearly 60% of voters approving the $57.3 million dollar school bond issue on the April ballot, plans to create three new middle schools in the Joplin School District will now move forward.

In keeping with Joplin's "neighborhood school" emphasis, the plan maintains the district's three-middle-school arrangement and anchors each geographical area of the district – North, South, and East – with a modern middle school facility. Two new schools will be built in the southern and eastern areas of the district, and North Middle School will be completely renovated and expanded to double its current size. The new South Middle School will be built on 50th Street, and the new East Middle School will be located on 20th Street, approximately one-half mile east of Duquesne Road.

Some renovations will also be made to the Memorial Middle School building, which will then be used for various educational programs, including the special needs pre-school program currently housed at Washington Education Center.

All three new middle school buildings will provide adequate classroom space, modern science classrooms, spacious libraries, and green space around each school for PE and athletics. The plans will incorporate increased security and safety in the building designs and will adopt a modern traffic flow design for safer student pick-up and drop-off. The schools will also be ADA accessible.

The projected construction timeline calls for the completion of the new South Middle School and East Middle School in the summer of 2009 and the completion of North Middle School's renovation/expansion by the end of 2009.

More Information:

» project timeline (pdf)
» artist renderings of the new buildings
» general view of proposed middle school sending zones (pdf)
» detailed view of proposed middle school sending zones (pdf)

» View all 2007 Bond Issue information that was made available on this website prior to the election.

posted 04/05/07; updated 10/11/07