Fairview's Next Elementary School: What's Confirmed and What Isn't
Williamson County Schools says it has secured land near the Fairview Walmart for a larger elementary school targeted for fall 2031, but funding, design and attendance zones are still undecided.
At the annual Fairview Address on Sept. 15, the head of Williamson County Schools gave a location for a school project that has been in the district's plans since 2024.
Dr. Leigh Webb, interim superintendent of Williamson County Schools, whose interim contract the school board renewed on Sept. 21, told the crowd that the district has secured property just past the Fairview Walmart, off Fairview Boulevard, for what she described as a larger Fairview Elementary School. She pointed to approximately 2031 as the target date.
The project is not just a passing comment. It matches an entry in the district's official 2026-2030 capital plan, which lists "Elementary School West (Fairview)" with a projected completion date of fall 2031 and an estimated cost of $67 million, not including land.
Land is secured, but details are thin
Webb did not give an exact street address, acreage, purchase price or parcel number for the property, and we found no public record of the purchase. She also did not say whether the district has bought the land or has it under contract. Those specifics will matter, since a school site needs room for buses, parent traffic, staff parking, playgrounds and stormwater infrastructure, in addition to the building itself.
The Fairview Walmart sits just off Highway 100 (Fairview Boulevard) at Hopgood Road, so land just past it would keep a new campus on the same Highway 100 corridor as Fairview Elementary and Fairview High. Which students would attend the new campus would not be decided until the district adopts new attendance zones.
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The district's capital plan splits the $67 million estimate into three portions: $3 million followed by two allocations of $32 million in later years. Those are planning-level figures, not final construction bids, and the district says they cover design, engineering, environmental studies, permits, infrastructure, site work, building construction, furniture, technology, textbooks and security.
The district's November 2024 capital plan, covering 2025 through 2029, listed Elementary School West (Fairview) at $60 million for fall 2029. The current plan pushes the opening back two years, to fall 2031, and raises the estimate by $7 million, to $67 million.
Existing schools still have room
The news may catch some residents off guard because Fairview's four public schools are not full. Williamson County Schools' 2026-27 enrollment report, dated Sept. 4, lists 404 students at Fairview Elementary, in a building with capacity for 660. Westwood Elementary has 549 students against a capacity of 760. Fairview Middle has 519 students in a building built for 660, and Fairview High has 653 students with room for 1,042.
Together, the four schools serve about 2,125 students, with roughly 2,060 of those in kindergarten through 12th grade. The rest are preschoolers: 46 in Fairview Elementary's early childhood program and 19 in Westwood's pre-K.
Webb said enrollment at Fairview's schools has stayed fairly steady, with slight drops over the past few years. Across the district, Williamson County Schools reports 40,042 K-12 students for 2026-27, a drop of 745 students, or 1.83 percent, from the year before.
It also remains unclear whether the new campus would be a third elementary school or a replacement for the existing Fairview Elementary. Webb initially referred to a "potential addition" before correcting herself to describe a "larger Fairview Elementary School," and the capital plan's label, "Elementary School West," does not settle the question.
Population is up, but school-age numbers haven't followed
The U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimate puts Fairview's population at 10,877 as of July 1, 2025, a 15.9 percent increase from its 2020 estimate base. At the State of Fairview address, Mayor Lisa Anderson estimated the city may now have around 12,000 residents, a figure she based partly on voter registration rather than an official count.
Webb said the district tracks developments in Fairview that have started or are ready to start, and whether they are single-family homes, townhomes or multifamily homes, and that it is preparing for the growth they will bring.
What still has to happen
Before any building opens, Williamson County Schools will need to confirm enrollment projections, finalize a site plan, secure funding from Williamson County government, complete engineering work and publicly approve construction contracts. The district will also need to decide whether the project adds a third elementary school or replaces the current Fairview Elementary campus at 2640 Fairview Boulevard, and how that would reshape attendance zones for Fairview Elementary and Westwood Elementary.
For now, what's confirmed is that the district's leader says it has secured land near the Fairview Walmart, and its capital plan pencils in a $67 million elementary school for around fall 2031. The building, its boundaries and its timeline are not yet final.
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