New Collierville High School: 'A leap of faith' realized

Printed on the maroon walls of the entrance to the bright, 450,000 square-foot, multi-million dollar Collierville High School are its core values: scholarship, integrity and service.

The school's seal is emblazoned on the floor, with a tradition proposed that no one step on the inscription of "truth" and "honor." 

"I'm looking forward to the community seeing it, opening it up to the community," Superintendent John Aitken said Saturday inside the new school ahead of a weekend ribbon-cutting ceremony. "Really watching the kids go 'wow' when they see this. My hope — we'll be preaching this to them — is they appreciate the commitment the town and their parents have made, paying extra taxes for the construction of this facility. It was a leap of faith for the town."

School starts Aug. 13 for more than 2,000 students at the 158-acre school at East Shelby Drive and Sycamore Road. Aitken estimates 2,750 are enrolled with capacity for more than 3,000. Ground broke on the project in May 2016. 

A look back: Collierville approves up to $95 million in bonds for new high school

A public ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Sunday with Collierville School Board members, the Collierville Board of Aldermen, Mayor Stan Joyner and state Sen. Mark Norris in attendance.

Features of the school include a 1,000-seat auditorium, 107 regular classrooms, eight science labs, four music classrooms, 18 vocational classrooms, four computer labs, a STEM lab, an auto mechanics shop, a commercial kitchen classroom, a welding studio and space for advance manufacturing and agricultural education. Students will lease MacBook Air laptops for a $50 device fee. 

Sports facilities include a soccer field and fieldhouse, a 3,000-seat varsity gymnasium, a 750-seat auxiliary gymnasium, a 150-seat auxiliary gymnasium, a 5,000-seat baseball stadium along with a baseball field and fieldhouse, a softball field and fieldhouse and a lacrosse field. There is also an outdoor track and a marching band field. 

Construction is ongoing on the athletic complex. 

The cafeteria seats 1,000 and there are 1,500 parking spaces.

According to numbers released Saturday, the costs include $13 million for furniture, fixtures and equipment in addition to the $4 million land and $86 million construction. 

"I really, really am proud of the way it's turned out," Aitken said. "There will be some oopses along the way, obviously, but we'll fix them. Really going to be crazy to be around here the first day and watch the logistical part of this unfold with the traffic and the buses and 2,800 kids pile in here and see it for the first time full. We'll be watching and helping and just ask the public and the parents to have patience with us as we work through the logistics of it."

Architecture of the school was a joint venture between Renaissance Group and Fleming Architects.