With the 2024-25 school year quickly coming in focus, Christian County Public Schools Superintendent Chris Bentzel offered some clarity during Friday’s rescheduled “State of the Schools” Breakfast at The Bruce — as to where the district and its many campuses will be heading.
Following a partnership with Alliance as its construction group, Bentzel said a reworking of the high school consolidation between Christian County and Hopkinsville involved a cost analysis “down to the walls and classrooms.”
A renewed plan reduces the original hopes of 377,000 square feet for Hopkinsville-Christian County Academy to 289,000 square feet in this initial phase — one that would not affect safety or education opportunities.
It would still take the district’s capacity for high schoolers up from 2,200 to 2,900, and Bentzel added that the hope is to have this project back out for bid in mid-April and a groundbreaking in June — at a goal of $105 million, or roughly $350 per square foot.
Early targets of other facilities, Bentzel said, will have to be moved to other BG-1 projects.
The high school will have four pathways for students: military, post-graduation employment, 2-year college, 4-year college.
Bentzel also said that the transformation process for the high school is “something necessary,” and should’ve been addressed “years ago.”
Among the many adverse moments the district faced in 2022, Bentzel said the bid process of the initial project’s vision may have been the toughest.
The facilities transition vision planned for August 2024, Bentzel said, includes a number of measures — many of them being implemented in order to “avoid increases in taxes,” while “improving the education experience” of Christian County’s students:
— The Hopkinsville-Christian County Academy will include four campuses. Freshmen will reside at the current Hopkinsville High School facility and observe the “Freshman Academy” model. Sophomores through seniors will report to the current Christian County High School facility and both Gateway campuses, with an implemented “Academy” model.
— The elementary network will consist of seven facilities: Crofton from pre-K to fifth grade, Sinking Fork from pre-K to fifth grade, Freedom from kindergarten to fifth grade, Millbrooke from kindergarten to fifth grade, South Christian from pre-K to fifth grade and Pembroke from pre-K to fifth grade.
Martin Luther King Jr. staff and students will be absorbed into the seven remaining elementary campuses, with Indian Hills and its pre-K to fifth grade students moving from there to the Hopkinsville Middle School campus, as Indian Hills will become the new Inspire Learning Academy — targeting 2, 3, and 4-year old child care needs in Christian County.
Bentzel noted the new child care opportunity will have 120 slots and more in the future, and was made possible through an opening $80,000 industrial investment from T.RAD, Siemer Milling, Huhtamaki, Ascend Elements and Douglas Autotech.
— Christian County Middle School will still contain sixth through eighth grade, while Hopkinsville Middle School staff and students will be moving to the MLK Jr. campus.
