Time constraints and budget issues may stall a portion of the planned summer renovations at Grayson County High School.
Scott Jackson, an architect with Clotfelter Samokar, announced at the regularly scheduled April 11 Grayson County School Board meeting that during his review of GCHS’s kitchen, he discovered electrical equipment, including a conduit, under the floor, which he hadn’t anticipated.
Superintendent Barry Anderson said the discovery of the electrical equipment under the floor of the kitchen has led to a number of unforeseen changes in the project’s budget.
In addition, Jackson said that, in part because the plans for the high school’s renovations still require approval from officials in Frankfort, the proposed start date has been moved to early to mid-June, as opposed to shortly after the end of the school year (the last day of which is currently scheduled for May 15).
Jackson said if the school district and renovation workers attempted to do all of the proposed renovations on the high school, he didn’t think all the work could be completed by the time school is scheduled to re-open in August.
Anderson suggested the possibility of shifting the first day of school back a week to allow more time for the work.
Jackson proposed to the school board the possibility of renovating the high school’s corridors and bathrooms this summer and postponing renovations for the kitchen until next summer.
Anderson expressed concern that were the school district to postpone work on the kitchen, the total price of the high school’s renovations may exceed the allotted budget for the project.
Because of these issues, Anderson said he and the school board will have to put in extra hours to finalize the details for the project, and whether portions of the renovations will have to be postponed.
“We have a lot of decisions to make,” Anderson said. “We’re going to have a mess on our hands if we start August 7 without a kitchen if we try to do [all the work] now.”
In other business:
Jackson reported to the school board that the renovations for H.W. Wilkey Elementary School are currently on budget.
The Amended 2012-2013 School Calender was reviewed and approved by the school board. Anderson said the calender was amended to set the last day of school for the current school year as May 15. Anderson said despite missing a day of school on January 25, the school district had met its requirements so that the day would not need to be made up.
Anderson announced to the school board he had recently learned that Grayson County had become the 36th largest school district in the state, due to the steady increase in enrollment. Anderson also said he foresees that in the next 10 to 15 years, a fifth elementary school will need to be built to attend to the rising number of students in the district.












