Greenwood High School’s campus at 5065 Scottsville Road has already been altered through redirection of traffic around the school and the neighboring Drakes Creek Middle School and through installation of synthetic turf on the football and soccer fields.

The transformation of the campus, though, is just beginning. Site work has begun on a second phase of a $37.7 million project that will include a 33,165-square-foot health and wellness building tied in with the football fieldhouse and a new two-story library media center attached to the existing school.

“Greenwood was built in the early 1990s, so it’s time to upgrade, expand and update the building,” said Warren County Board of Education Chairman Garry Chaffin. “We want to make sure all our kids have a great learning environment in functional and safe buildings.”

Chris McIntyre, chief financial officer and construction supervisor for Warren County Public Schools, said the Greenwood project will modernize the school while also helping accommodate the growth that all four county high schools are seeing.

“We’ll have new windows that are more energy-efficient,” McIntyre said. “We’ll take out some lockers to make the hallways wider and put down new flooring to help with custodial demand.”

Other changes include adding classrooms in the current library space and altering the traffic flow in front of the building.

“We’ll knock down the Safety City building and shift the front parking lot,” McIntyre said. “We’ll create more green space and improve traffic flow.”

Traffic between Greenwood and Drakes Creek has already been addressed by re-routing the road, creating a roundabout and relocating the tennis courts.

Heavy equipment was on site next to the GHS football field last week, beginning site work for one of the school’s bigger-ticket items: the health and wellness building that will include a small turf field, weight room, concessions and a golf simulator room.

Located on what is now the visitor’s side of the football field, the health and wellness building is similar to what has been built at the county’s other high schools and is part of a number of athletics-related upgrades.

“Definitely, athletics are important at the high schools,” Chaffin said. “It’s part of our commitment to provide opportunities for students.”

That commitment also includes continuing to look for property as potential sites for schools as Warren County continues its rapid growth.

WCPS already has a new Warren Elementary School going up along Brookwood Drive. The school system has 20 acres earmarked for an elementary school on Dillard Road, near where an 84-unit residential development is in the works.

Next month, George Vogler and Tim Poston of GVTP Development LLC will bring to the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County a 102-acre development along Nashville Road near Fuller Drive that includes 34 acres to be rezoned for a public school.

Speculation that the acreage will eventually be the new home for South Warren Middle School is premature, Chaffin said.

“There are no current plans to build a middle school there,” he said. “It’s not on our long-range plan. This does give us another opportunity. We’re constantly on the lookout for property.”

Breaking off SWMS and turning the South Warren campus into a high school only seems to make sense, based on the growth of the southern part of the county.

South Warren High School is up to 1,550 students now, McIntyre said. Greenwood isn’t far behind, with 1,440 students, and Warren Central and Warren East are now over 1,000 students each.

Those schools may get some relief when the Impact Center for Leadership and Innovation opens on Cumberland Trace Road. Now under construction, the Impact Center will provide various types of vocational training for students drawn from all four traditional high schools.