The Clinton County schools should soon have a new five-year District Facilities Plan in place following actions taken by the Clinton County Board of Education and pending approval by the Kentucky Department of Education.

Following months of meetings and three public forums on the school facilities plan, the local District Facilities Planning Committee, which put together the mandated document, gave its approval on November 25 following the third public forum.

The following day, last Tuesday afternoon, November 26, the Clinton County Board of Education, meeting in special session with all members present, voted unanimously to approve the plan as presented and forwarded it to the Department of Education for its approval.

During the board meeting last week, Superintendent Charlotte Bernard noted the District Facilities Plan is required by the state for all school districts in Kentucky and must be revised each five-year cycle. She added that items listed in the plan that are not completed within that time frame (which most aren’t due to budget restraints) can be rolled over into a 10-year period.

The local plan, which was created with the assistance of school board architect Gary Scott, does not specifically “prioritize” one project over another, such as using any or all funds that may become available to construct any one facility, but rather broadly lists the needs at each school facility, whether it be major renovations and/or additions to the buildings.

The facilities plan lists $20.5 million in needs for either additions or renovations to existing structures, including schools and other school district buildings such as the bus garage, annex building or Central Office. There is an additional $4.4 million listed in ‘unmet’ needs to other, mainly sports related, facilities, such as the need for high school track and field lighting, dugouts, etc. for the middle school ball fields and PE (physical education) areas for elementary and early childhood schools.

The plan also listed the enrollment/enrollment capacity at each school facility as of May 13 of this year, as well as the projected capacity for the building.

Supt. Bernard noted that if funding, through sources such as bonding capacity available for building, becomes available over the five-year period, the district could decide which additions or renovations are needed the most at that time.

The superintendent also added that since the state offers assistance to districts that have the most need for upgrading facilities, the higher the unmet needs figure is, the more likely additional funding from the state will be realized.

Bernard went on to note that each school in the district was about at or nearing the ‘capacity’ level.

The District Facilities Planning Committee was made up of citizen members, school board members, administrators and faculty.

That committee has held several meetings with the architect to develop the plan and come up with the highest priority needs for each school and other school related buildings in the district.

For example, additions or renovations at CCHS included a cafeteria and kitchen; at CCMS three additional classrooms and cafeteria; four additional resource classrooms at the ECC; cafeteria, regular classrooms and special education room at AES; additional classrooms at the Area Technology Center and as well as recommending demolishing the current annex building and rearranging for existing space and storage at other school buildings and adding a wash-bay at the school bus garage, among others.

Board Member Kevin Marcum made motions to both approve the plan and also appoint Tim Armstrong as the hearing officer for the Facilities Plan, both of which passed by unanimous votes.

The District Facilities Plan will now be sent to the Kentucky Department of Education and once approved, will require one final public hearing to be held locally on the plan, with Armstrong, as hearing officer, to conduct the session.

Also at last week’s meeting, the board held a mandated four-hour work session dealing with the facilities plan and fiscal management and also visited the schools prior to adjourning.

The next regular meeting of the Clinton County Board of Education is scheduled for Monday, December 9 at 5 p.m. and is open to the general public.