The Christian County Board of Education voted unanimously to reject two construction bids for a consolidated high school during Thursday’s meeting.
Josh Hunt, assistant superintendent of operations, said he spent the past week “digging into the bids and talking with the contractors,” and he recommended the board reject both bids, which were approximately $199 million and $204 million.
“It would not be fiscally responsible to accept either bid,” Hunt said.
There was no further discussion about the bids before the vote. The decision leaves Hopkinsville Christian County Academy in limbo. Officials had hoped to open the school at the start of the 2024-25 academic year.
But the bids were significantly higher than the district’s projection of $115 million when the school board voted last summer to proceed with consolidation. D.W. Wilburn Inc., of Lexington, submitted a bid for roughly $204 million; the bid from A&K Construction, of Paducah, was nearly $199 million.
The district has the bonding capacity to finance $70 million and holds $32 million in COVID relief money for school construction. In addition, the district received a $10 million grant for building costs related to vocational education. That combination of funding leaves the district about $85 million short of the amount needed to accept one of the bids.
At the beginning of the school board meeting, community member Caleb Ballard urged board members to stop the high school consolidation altogether. Ballard is a moderator of a Facebook group that opposes consolidation.
“Many community members are against the consolidation project,” he said during the open forum portion of the meeting. “How long will this board continue to make decisions with their blinders on? How long can we continue kicking the rock down the road with the project falling apart in front of everyone? … How many more tax increases will this project cost future generations in this community?”
So far, property taxes have not been increased to pay for the school consolidation project.
An attempt to implement a nickel tax was defeated in a voter referendum in 2019. At that time, the school board was looking to rebuild both high schools — first Hopkinsville High and then Christian County High.
After the nickel tax failed, the school board and Superintendent Chris Bentzel began working on plans to consolidate the high schools along with the vocational programs.
At the end of Thursday’s meeting, Bentzel said he still believes consolidation is the best option for the community.
“We want to be the best option for education,” he said. “On the bids, this isn’t the outcome we wanted, but we stand behind the consolidation project and that we are doing what is best for all kids.”
Fellow board member Jeff Moore spoke directly to Ballard during board comments, saying that his constituents were in favor of consolidating the high schools.
“We don’t usually get to respond, but I’m going to. When I voted for the school, I looked at the polls (online), and there were more yes’s than no’s,” he said. “You can laugh, but your polls don’t look like our hallways — the hallways in our schools.
“I stand behind what I voted was best for these kids, for the entirety of Christian County,” Moore said.
While dozens of people have used social media in the past week to weigh in on the construction bids and the future of the high school, Ballard was the only member of the public who addressed the board members at the meeting.
Fellow member Lindsey Clark said they can all agree the bids were outrageous.
“We should probably change our game plan going forward on what we need to do if we are to continue with this project,” Clark said. “We should look at some different ways to go.”
In other business:
- The board voted to add four supplemental school resource officers to the district contract with the sheriff’s office.
- Approved pay requests of $78,000 to Swift Roofing and $8,814 to JKS Architects for a South Christian Elementary School gym project.
- Hunt said during the safety update that 192 cameras have been installed across the school district.
- District officials said Christian County High School agriculture teacher Victoria Mohon is a finalist for Valvoline Teacher of the Year in Kentucky.
