Two years after approving the proposal for one consolidated public high school, the Christian County Board of Education voted unanimously at a Thursday meeting to OK construction bids totaling $106.41 million.
And in another major decision, the board changed course on the school’s name, mascot and colors.
It will be named Christian County High School, and the mascot will be the Tigers. The school’s primary colors will be orange, blue and black, and secondary accent colors will be yellow and white.
“We went through a lot of work to get to this point. We’ve had some obstacles and some barriers along the way,” Superintendent Chris Bentzel said, referring to “inflated bids” the district received last summer from two general contractors whose prices far exceeded the district’s ability to finance.
The cost of the school was scaled down by roughly $70 million after the district hired a construction manager and broke the project down into 29 construction bids.
Although the board had voted last year to name the school Hopkinsville Christian County Academy, Bentzel said he wanted to make a change and focus on the symbolism of a public high school.
“This will be a high school for all — all races, all genders, all students in Christian County, all ability levels, all of our community,” he said “This should be named a high school. Academies are specialized but not really involved in public education settings.”
The board voted in favor of Bentzel’s recommendation but board chairman Tom Bell clarified that the consolidated high school would still have an academy model, which in a public school refers to learning groups of similar interest.
Bentzel said it would be impossible to please everyone with the school name and mascot.
“But we are trying the best we can to remember the traditions of both the Hopkinsville High School Tigers and the Christian County Colonels, and put them together to make the Christian County High School Tigers,” he said.
Last year, based on a poll, the school board chose Hopkinsville Christian County Academy as the name. The district reported that a poll of students, teachers and community members gave a slight edge to Hopkinsville Christian County Academy, with 3,716 votes, compared to Christian County High School, with 3,615 votes.
Most schools have two colors. The selection of three primary and two secondary colors was the result of trying to honor all of the former high schools in Christian County.
Prior to the creation of the original Christian County High School in 1959, there were five rural high schools in the county — Lacy, Pembroke, Sinking Fork, Crofton and South Christian. Another former high school, Attucks in Hopkinsville, was a segregated Black school. It closed with desegregation in the late 1960s.
The new high school will be constructed on Fort Campbell Boulevard at Lovers Lane. Barring any major delays, it is slated to open in three years.
The school will combine Hopkinsville and Christian County high schools — along with Gateway Academy, a career and technical school — into one campus with a capacity for 2,500 students.
The school will have a competition and practice gymnasiums, but outdoor athletic fields will be developed later.
The construction bids, along with additional expenses for architectural and engineering fees, a state-mandated contingency fee, bonding agent’s fee, the construction manager and the cost of furnishings and technology, puts the entire project at approximately $131.71 million.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
