Christian County Public School officials and a representative of RossTarrant Architects discussed the need for new high school buildings during an Education Forum hosted by the Hopkinsville-Christian County League of Women Voters Tuesday evening.
Christian County High School Principal Chris Bentzel says his school faces numerous issues every day.
Hopkinsville High School Principal Dr. John Gunn adds his school faces some of the same issues and having new facilities would greatly help the students.
RossTarrant’s Senior Principal Ron Murrell told the crowd on hand that in order to build one new high school from scratch it would cost the district a lot of money.
School Finance Officer Jessica Darnell says they receive money from several different state funding allocations that are only to be used on building projects for the district. She adds the current bonding potential is nowhere near enough to get that kind of funding to completely build two new schools.
Darnell says they could increase their bonding potential dramatically by increasing the property tax by a nickel.
According to Darnell, the current property tax rate has not been changed in over 20 years and sits at 43.8 cents per one hundred dollars collected.
During the forum, Chief Operations Officer Brad Hawkins introduced the committee with members from both schools that will come together to help the architectural firm come up with plans for new academic buildings that could be built at both high schools.
Superintendent Mary Ann Gemmill says the school board has decided that new academic buildings would be best and cheaper for the district and that they want to preserve the gymnasiums already in existence at both schools. She adds work would begin at Hopkinsville High School first since it is in the worst condition, with Christian County High to follow.
