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| Board approves amended district facilities plan |
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12/8/2017
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
The Montgomery County Board of Education received no public feedback Nov. 30 when it met to consider an amended District Facilities Plan.
The only member of the public to attend last week’s public hearing was local attorney Elizabeth Davis, who happened to serve as a member of the Local Planning Committee that drafted the plan. She did not address the board.
As a member of the LPC, Davis had questioned whether the plan was best for students and warned that it would lead to some upset parents.
The plan approved would make Montgomery County Intermediate School a primary through fifth grade elementary school. It now houses fifth and sixth grades.
McNabb Middle School would then become a sixth through eighth grade school. The school currently has a vacant wing after a recently completed renovation. It currently houses seventh and eighth grade students.
Camargo, Mt. Sterling and Mapleton elementaries would also house primary through fifth grades.
Primary students are currently taught at Camargo Elementary and the Early Learning Center located at the former Mt. Sterling Elementary School building on North Maysville Street.
The ELC would then move into a transition facility in which the district would not be permitted to use capital construction funds to make improvements. The board would eventually have to make a decision about the future of the building.
Don Martin, a consultant with the Kentucky School Boards Association, has served as facilitator for the district through the development of the latest DFP.
He was expected to submit the plan to the Kentucky Dept. of Education this week in an effort to get it on the state board of education agenda in February for consideration.
Once approved, the board will have to make a decision about when to enact the changes. The district could do so for the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 school years.
Superintendent Matt Thompson said previously that he should know more by the end of January.
The changes would require redistricting of the elementary schools. Students from some schools will have to be moved to the new elementary. Redistricting has proven contentious in many districts that have undergone them.
As part of redistricting, the Montgomery County school board must also plan for projections of large student population growth over the next several years.
Districts are required to complete DFP every four years.
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