SPS superintendent offers business leader sneak peek inside Pipkin

Bob Helm recently received a sneak peek inside the new Pipkin Middle School.

The certified public accountant was shadowing Superintendent Grenita Lathan during the seventh Springfield Public Schools’ Principal for a Day event on Feb 20. Acting as Superintendent for the Day, Helm accompanied Lathan to Boyd Elementary and then stopped at Pipkin.

Other than construction workers and SPS leaders and employees directly involved in the project, few others have been invited inside.

“It’s just going to be fantastic. What a great learning environment it is going to create,” said Helm, a CPA with Elliott, Robinson & Co. LLP, in a Feb. 23 interview. “It is a school that needed to be replaced for a really long time.”

In April 2023, nearly 78% of voters approved a $220 million bond issue that included $53 million to construct a new Pipkin.

The project awarded to Crossland Construction Co. Inc. broke ground in July 2025 on an 8.8-acre lot along Campbell Avenue, south of Division Street, and is slated to wrap up this summer.

The district is confident enough in the pace that the annual State of the Schools address, part of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Good Morning Springfield series, is scheduled Aug. 6 at Pipkin. Helm said he is looking forward to others getting a tour.

“Where it is at, it is going to show how important all of our schools are,” Helm said. “It is not a south-side school or an east-side school, it is just a Springfield public school.”

On the tour Feb. 20, Helm noted similarities with the rebuilt Jarrett Middle School, such as wide hallways and large collaborative spaces where small groups or multiple classes can gather. The school features large windows, upgraded security measures and more parking and green space.

Helm said he was awed by the commons area that included a stage and flexible space, where students will eat meals. He described it as a dramatic departure from the closed-off cafeterias he recalled growing up.

“All that activity is going to happen right there in the center of the school with lots of light, instead of stuck back in a corner where you had to be quiet all the time,” he said. “It’s really pretty cool. The whole school was fun. I just really enjoyed walking through it.”

Travis Shaw, deputy superintendent of operations, was part of the Feb. 20 tour and estimated 90 workers are routinely on the Pipkin work site. They include the construction crew, painters, electricians, plumbers and others.

“They’ve got the HVAC units in. They’re working on getting the dropped ceiling put in. You’ve got basketball goals up,” he said. “All the epoxy flooring in the kitchen area is finished. They’re ready to start installing kitchen equipment.”

Shaw said work is also happening on the outdoor facade of the building and the retaining wall around the track. He said the project is moving forward rapidly because different work is happening at the same time.

“It is super well planned and organized,” he said. “Kudos to the project managers and the job site superintendents being able to organize all of it.”

Starting with the 2026-27 school year, the 114,750-square-foot Pipkin will serve up to 550 students in grades 6-8.

Shaw said the classrooms, which are organized in pods, are located on the second floor. The main floor includes offices, a gym, library and a performing arts area – a combined cafeteria and stage – that also serves as a storm shelter.

He said with nearly 9 acres available, the new campus is more than double the size of the original three-floor school along Boonville Avenue. The new building was designed to comply with federal accessibility requirements.

“Class sizes are much larger than what we have in our existing building,” he said.