Barren County board discusses construction, medical cannabis use at meeting

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Gathering in the usual, glass-walled conference room of the district’s central office, the Barren County Schools Board of Education members had their regularly scheduled monthly meeting to hear a construction update and conduct a second reading of the district’s medical cannabis policy.

Before the business portion of the meeting, Chairperson Shelly Groce recognized that this was the first officially meeting overseen by Amy Irwin, who, on June 4, was named as the new district superintendent, taking over from Bo Matthews who was Barren County Schools’ superintendent for more than a decade.

In that same vein, this meeting was also the first department report Christa Middleton, who was named director of Special Programs on June 10 after Cynthia York announced her intention to retire in April 2024.

Once Irwin congratulated the eight BC Technology student workers, and after a brief break, the board members turned their attention to Tommy Gumm, board chair of Alliance Corporation, which is the manager company responsible for the various construction and renovation projects going on at the Trojan Way campus.

For the most part, Gumm said the construction and renovation projects, which include the new art museum, the animal processing facility, a new parking lot and the lunchroom, are on schedule. Also he mentioned the tennis courts, or, more specifically three of four, had been resurfaced and “looked very nice.”

However, Gumm did mention two construction projects that have run into setbacks. Namely, he mentioned the roof replacement on the district’s College Street Campus and the soon-to-begin access road, which is set to run behind the middle and high schools in an effort to reduce morning and afternoon school traffic on Trojan Trail.

“Three weeks ago we were on schedule to have [the College Street Campus] opened for school but I’m not sure we can make it,” Gumm said. “We had an incident over the weekend with a fire protection line that was hit by a piece of equipment…it was a fairly small leak but it leaked all weekend…so it did quite a bit of damage to about a third of the building. A few days later on the following Wednesday we were putting plywood on the roof and we had a fairly substantial rain event [that night] so almost all the rest of the building got some water.

Gumm said the damage had been reported to the contractor’s insurance and they are in the process of making a timeline as to when the campus will be finished. They mentioned the district does have an alternative location until that time.

On the access road, Anthony Frasier, director of pupil personnel who has been working with Gumm, said they are still working to get the proper permits that would allow them to begin construction.

“When everything was bid out American Engineers was suppose to file [for a] permit since there’s a waterway that runs through there…and since we’re removing some of those trees we have to go through the Division of Fish and Wildlife to make sure we’re not disturbing a habitat…and we can’t start working till they do that study and get the permit,” Frasier said. “It’s been bid out and everyone’s bids are good for 60 days but [this delay] could make us go back to bid again, but, if you file a permit, I think they have to get it to you in 45 days.”

In the realm of construction, the board members also approved for change orders related to “Barren County Various Projects.” Two change orders related to the FMD building; one was a cost of $3,750 for “cost[s] associated with providing addition CMU and FMD foundations due to unsuitable soil,” the other was a cost of $13,271.22for “over excavation” at the FMD building. There was also a credit of $3,300 and a charge of $5.076.17 associated with the animal processing facility.

Finally, before concluding the 30-minute meeting, the board members conducted the second reading of policy 09.2242, which related to medical cannabis use by students while on school property. The Kentucky School Board Association, which recommends certain policies to each school district, asked the Barren County Schools Board of Education to either add the word “permit” or “prohibit” in the policy before reading it.

At the first reading of the policy the board members opted to prohibit the medicinal drug’s use by students. At the second reading they were all in agreement and passed it with little discussion.

The next regular-meeting of the Board of Education is scheduled for Aug. 8.