Jason Gonzales

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Nashville’s Hillwood High School is moving to Bellevue.

The Metro school board approved the move within its capital needs request in a unanimous vote after years of conversation about the topic. Mayor Megan Barry and the Metro Council will need to approve the request, which includes $278 million in building needs.

Metro Schools Director Shawn Joseph said although he wasn't present for the years before Tuesday night's decision, the few past months showed how committed the Bellevue community was in supporting the school.

"Every community should have a great school and a community that embraces its school," Joseph said before the vote. "I wholeheartedly support this decision."

The conversation over the future of the school intensified the past several months, with the debate centered on the cost, student diversity, community support and traffic concerns of either site.

The decision to move the school will cap years of community conversations focused on whether the school should stay in its current location or move elsewhere. With the decision, the school will relocate from 400 Davidson Road to the HopePark Church site at 8001 U.S. 70 S. in Bellevue.

School board member Amy Frogge thanked the community for the input over the past two years.

"We heard from so many community members," she said. "The overwhelming majority wanted to see the school moved."

The cost of the HopePark Church site is estimated at about $90 million, including purchase of the site. The purchase price needs to be negotiated with the church.

The district will ask the Metro Council for about $86 million of that cost. Metro Parks and Recreation will share about $4 million of the cost to purchase the land in its budget request to the council.

While the move of Hillwood High School would place the school farther from the Pearl Cohn High School cluster and a mixture of diverse students, drive times are similar to those at Hillwood High School. An independent diversity study found a further drive could affect diversity at the school and named that reason as the top reason to keep the school where it is located.

Vote on Hillwood High School's future nears

Nonetheless, the project received considerable support from North Nashville council members, notably Ed Kindall, who has disputed the report's findings. He has said the comparable drive times will still attract students.

The Bellevue area is predominantly white, while most diverse students live out of the school zone or near Charlotte Park.

To ensure students are able to get to the school, Frogge and the district have begun to work with the Metro Transit Authority to get bus route access closer to the schools. MTA said it wants a bus station hub at the site, Frogge said.

Although some Hillwood community residents have cited the diversity study as reason to keep the school in Hillwood, community support for the move has been much stronger.

At recent district meetings to discuss the two sites, numerous Bellevue community members and lawmakers have showed support of the move. Parents also campaigned to move the school to Bellevue, creating a website and T-shirts.

The move near the HopePark Church location has some residents of the area wary.

Residents of Hooten Hows Road and Saddle Ridge Trace neighborhoods have asked the district and city to address traffic and road safety concerns. The drive to the HopePark Church location follows a windy two-lane road and includes a small stretch between a rock face and spill-off of the Harpeth River.

Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, said at a recent meeting he and Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, would work with state and federal transportation officials to get money to improve the road there.

Councilwoman Sheri Weiner, who represents the area where the school will be moved, thanked the school board for its vote.

"I look forward to working with Metro Schools, the administration, and the neighbors to complete the plan and celebrate the school's opening," she said in a statement.

It’s unclear what will happen to the Hillwood High School site with the move. The school board will have a final decision on whether to sell the land or designate it for other uses.

Reach Jason Gonzales at 615-259-8047 and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.

Report: Hillwood High move will hurt student diversity