Work is underway on a $1.5 Million construction project to relieve overcrowding at Central Elementary School by building a six-classroom expansion onto the school.
The new expansion will also eliminate the use of modular classroom units at Central Elementary. The modular units were the first things to go to make way for the construction.
One of the modular classrooms is being moved to Keenburg Elementary to help alleviate crowding there. The other unit had structural issues that prevented it from being relocated, according to school officials, and was demolished on site.
The modular unit that was destroyed had been in place at Central Elementary School since 1976 and housed the school’s two kindergarten classes. According to school officials, the demolition of the old modular unit Central Elementary marked the first portable classroom to be demolished and removed in more than 40 years for the system.
Carter County Board of Education member David Buck, who represents the county’s 3rd District including Central Elementary, and his wife Kathy Jo Buck, visited the school recently to watch the demolition of the old modular unit.
During the school board’s meeting in February, members unanimously approved a measure to go with the lowest qualifying bid and proceed with the expansion project.
The project bid from Comsa Construction came in at $1,505,000 and Director of Schools Dr. Kevin Ward said the system had $1,225,274 in state-provided funding available in a Basic Education Program (BEP) Capital Reserve Fund account, which he said could only be used for one-time capital improvement projects like the one planned at Central. The remaining $279,726 for the project will be taken from the school’s fund balance.
The renovation will eliminate the use of two modular units at the school and move the school’s two state mandated computer labs out of classrooms and into their own space.
“We have two labs that aren’t really labs, they are teacher classrooms,” said Central Elementary Principal Terry Morley told Board members in February. “If you have to have testing, you have to kick the teacher out and you can’t have class.”
The project will also provide proper classrooms for two special needs classes that are currently house in two rooms that were once teacher workrooms. Carter County Director of Schools Dr. Kevin Ward said the former workrooms do not have enough square-footage of space to meet state requirements for a classroom.