Barren County school board discusses access road bids, receives York’s retirement announcement

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

The glass-lined conference room of the Barren County School District was packed full of friends, family and school personnel as the Board of Education Chairperson Shelly Groce called to order their monthly meeting where they discussed bids for the access road, discussed ongoing construction and received a department head’s retirement notification.

After the lengthy teachers of the year and student volunteers of the year recognitions — both of which will be written about in a seperate news article on Glasgow News 1 — Tommy Gumm, board chair of Alliance Corporation, presented to the board two bid recommendations for work done on the access road.

The access road, which was initially proposed at the Sept.  2023 board meeting, will be a two lane road that runs behind both the High and Middle Schools in an effort to decrease traffic on Trojan Trail.

According to the recommendation letter provided by Gumm the Board of Education received sealed bids on April 3, and there were two bids submitted for “site excavation and storm damage” and one for “bituminous paving.” For site excavation and storm damages Larry Glass Construction submitted a bid for $693,798.11 for work over 120 days while Scotty’s Construction submitted one for $597,480.70 for work done over 100 days.Scotty’s Construction also was the one business who submitted a paving bid, which was $317,850 for work over 14 days.

The combined price of construction was $915,330.70, which was under the budgeted amount of $1.1 million. After adding “probable costs” the total cost came to roughly $1.65 million.

As a final thought Gumm said he hoped to have a report on the road schedule by next board meeting.

Sticking with construction, Gumm also provided an update on the several ongoing construction projects currently underway at, and around, the Barren County High School. He said the gymnasium was “coming along well, even items added at the eleventh hour,” and the elevator was “pretty much finished” save for some final touch ups.

He continued that the art museum masonry was going well with the bricks on site and “structural steel” planned to go up next week.

“we look forward to getting the roof on in May,” Gumm said.

The canopy, the parking lot — which currently serves as a construction material storage site — and kitchen demolitions would begin over the summer.

The only piece of bad news that Gumm informed the board of was in the area of the FMD building. Gumm said he hoped to have a report on the delay to present at the next meeting as well.

“We’ve encountered a lot of bad materials in our footings and so [American Engineers] has recommended that we take all of the foundations to rock,” Gumm said. “So that’s slowing us down.”

The board members also approved a lease agreement between the district and the Housing Authority of Glasgow, which was also discussed and approved at their monthly meeting on April 18. The agreement allows the district to lease the center from April 8 to May 24 for their alternative students and teachers will repairs are underway at the usual alternative school.

“We’re doing a contract for 7 weeks for the College Street Campus students and teachers who will be occupying that space while we start demolition on College Street,” Frazier said. “We’re tearing the ceilings out so we’re going to rent from them till the end of the school year.”

The rent of the HERO Center is $900 a week and allows for use of “certained assigned meeting rooms, classrooms, office spaces, work spaces, gyms, storage space, common space and the kitchen area.” Specifically the lease states the school will have three classrooms, the storage space in each, the common area, office space in the main office, the restrooms and both gymnasiums.

The 19 article lease agreement details everything from insurance and security to termination and maintenance.

In other news Joe Murley, district finance director, asked for approval of “certified Migrant Education Tutor” position, which was approved unanimously and that the district received  grant in the amount of $46,000 and three 21st century grants in the amount of $500,000 a piece.

One item that did not appear on the agenda was Director of Special Programs Cynthia York’s announcement of retirement.

“It’s with mixed emotions that I let you know that I’ll be retiring as of July 1,” York said. “After 30 plus years in education and the Barren Count school system I will miss everyone greatly but it is time.”

She said that while Superintendent Bo Matthews knew for several weeks she had not yet officially informed the board members. After 32 years in the education field, York said she felt it was time to bring in a new person to serve as director.

She said she hopes to find a part-time, or virtual position in education, whether that’s at the district level or at the Department of Education.

“When you think about being in education that long it’s an honor to have filled those different roles over the years, but there also comes a point where you know it’s time,” York said. “It’s time to let someone else take over and bring new growth and ideas to the department.”

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 9 where they will honor all of this year’s retirees.