CPS picks land for new elementary school

Plans are moving forward on building a new elementary school in east Columbia. In a special session Thursday morning, school board members voted to approve negotiations to buy land for the school.

“We will be in discussions with that property owner. We already have had some preliminary discussions and we’ll be continuing those discussions,” said Charles Oestreich, director of Columbia Public Schools facilities and construction services.

The new east elementary school will replace Cedar Ridge Elementary. The school was built in 1978 and is now over capacity. CPS said the aging school has a number of structural issues, and has only one set of bathrooms for nearly 200 students.

CPS officials said they want to put the new and larger school behind The Vineyards neighborhood near Route WW and Rolling Hills Road.

“There is a real long list of items that we look at that are needs for a development of an elementary school. Being in a residential area, hopefully, in the near future it will be walkable, where kids can walk and ride their bike to school and a safe environment,” said Oestreich.

CPS officials plan to buy 26 acres at an estimated cost of $832,000. They had 24 plots of land to choose from, but said this one best fits the district’s needs.

“We do look at the roadways. We do look at the adjacent neighborhoods and future possibility of neighbors, and we feel very strongly this is going to be a good site,” said Oestreich.

CPS officials said they hope to have a land purchase agreement in front of the board by June 8.