WCHS eyeing possible building expansion

The Whitley County School District’s next building project may be a physical education training addition at Whitley County High School.

The Whitley County Board of Education recently presented the Above and Beyond Award to Amanda Overbey, who works at the front office at Whitley Central Intermediate School. She was nominated by Whitley Central Intermediate Principal Susan Brashear.

During Feb. 17 regular monthly meeting, the Whitley County Board of Education voted to allow Superintendent John Siler to solicit proposals for architecture/design services for the project.

“We have a facility right now, but it is really tight when you get all the people in there. We offer it as a class every day for five out of the six class periods. We just need more space than that basically,” noted Siler. “It is one of our more requested classes. Our teacher would like to add more things. It is one of our more requested classes. When you put 30 or 40 students in there it just doesn’t work. We need to expand.”

The current facility was built about 25 years ago.

Siler said the school district doesn’t know what the cost or size of the addition yet, and this is the first stage of the project.

The expansion will be in the area of the gymnasium.

During the meeting, the board also accepted an $897,000 bid for construction of a cafeteria expansion at Oak Grove Elementary School.

The district had rebid the project after only getting one bidder when the project was bid late last year.

By rebidding the project, Siler noted that the district saved about $100,000.

In addition, the board discussed the status of construction on the new Career and Technical Education building at the high school.

Siler noted that steel for the upper part of the building arrived two to three days early.

“It came in quite a bit quicker than anticipated,” Siler said. “You are going to start seeing walls going up soon.”

WCMS eighth grader Kambree Bunch recently addressed the Whitley County Board of Education regarding a gifted and talented trip to 2022 Idea Festival in Bowling Green. A total of 25 students went on the trip.

In other business, the school board:

• Presented the Above and Beyond Award to Amanda Overbey, who works at the front office at Whitley Central Intermediate School. She was nominated by Whitley Central Intermediate Principal Susan Brashear.

• Heard a presentation from eighth grader Kambree Bunch regarding a gifted and talented trip to 2022 Idea Festival in Bowling Green. A total of 25 students went on the trip.

• Approved a $54,651.60 bid from Roberts Insurance Group to provide secondary insurance coverage that parents can get for students.

• Heard a presentation from Patrick Bowlin with a calendar committee update. Bowlin said that the committee met recently and surveys will soon be done with parents and staff regarding the 2022-2023 school calendar. Bowling noted that most people seemed happy with this year’s calendar, which include a full fall break. The committee hopes to have a draft calendar for the school board to review during its March monthly meeting.

• Approved a memorandum of agreement between Somerset Community College and the Whitley County School District for dual credit classes during the 2022-2023 school year.

• Declared 10 welders and one plasma cutter table as surplus property. Siler noted that the high school vocational department recently added six more welding bays and that some of the equipment was being updated.