Board approves plan to add 10 new classrooms to Corbin Primary School

Corbin Intermediate School Principal Bill Jones addresses members of the Corbin Board of Education during its meeting last Thursday.

Plans for future expansion at Corbin Primary School now call for the addition of 10 new classrooms to accommodate the moving of third-grade to the facility, a change that will completely alter the grade alignment in the Corbin Independent School District once complete.
The school’s district’s Board of Education voted unanimously to add an additional four classrooms to the district’s facilities plan. It already called for six new classrooms at the school.
Corbin Schools Superintendent David Cox said the recommendation would be presented to the Kentucky Department of Education in mid-June for evaluation.
The state evaluates school districts every odd-numbered year to determine “unmet needs” regarding facilities. In even years, offers of assistance are given to districts to improve their bonding capacity.
“There is about a 30 to 60 day turnaround on that. That’s how long it will take for them to determine if we will receive an offer of assistance,” Cox said. “We’ve got one banked that we didn’t use last time (2016). We’d have another one in January 2018.”
Currently, the school district has about $6 million in bonding capacity and could, theoretically, complete the expansion without any further assistance.
Later in the meeting, the board also voted to seek “letters of interest” from architectural and engineering firms who would likely bid on the project. Cox said this was being done to get things moving on the process so it can be finished in a timely manner.
When the classrooms are added, Cox said the school district would have three buildings to choose from in which to place grades 4 and 5. Two of the three buildings will likely be closed to save on maintenance costs. The third, he said, would be significantly renovated and updated to accommodate the two grades.
“We are going to be a lot better off, and more importantly the students will be better off,” he said. “The plan is to fix one of the three up in superb fashion, kind of like we did at the high school, then all of our students would be in facilities that are in very good shape.”
In other business, the board:
• Discussed improvements at the district’s soccer field. A $55,000 plan was presented to the board for approval that would fix drainage issues at the field, remove all existing grass and reseed it with new grass. School board attorney Bob Hammons said the board was required by state law to advertise publicly for bids for the project since it would cost more than $20,000.
The board voted to take bids provided the project could be completed in time for the beginning of the next school year.
Cox said Tuesday that the plan had been delayed until next year since it did not appear the project could be completed in time.
• Reconfigured salaries for boys basketball coaches. Cox said job descriptions did not change, but that the junior varsity coach would receive a $7,000 stipend. The freshman coach and varsity assistant would get $8,000. The total amount of money allocated for coaches remained unchanged.
• Approved a series of seven construction alterations to the new Corbin Middle School.
The changes will cost the district an extra $17,000.