Estill County board hears 50% design update for new middle school; funding, safety remain central

Design partners showed the Estill County Board of Education a 50% design development package for the proposed Estill County Middle School and Superintendent Mr. Brock said state funding remains unresolved, which has prevented full site work from starting. The design team said the layout has matured since earlier drafts and emphasized changes to the main entry, administration placement and expanded cafeteria and gym areas.

The design presentation began with Wayne Roberts of DECO, who told the board the package is at “what we call 50% DD, 50% design development,” and walked trustees through a video fly-through and updated renderings. Roberts said the design team rearranged the administration, entry and band spaces to improve functionality and described a central “hub” that places administration at the building’s heart. “This is our heartbeat,” Roberts said of the hub and media space.

Superintendent Mr. Brock provided financial and safety context. He said the district has received $5,000,000 so far and has continued to spend those funds on design, site development and geotechnical work, including borings to measure pyritic shell in the soil. “We have been utilizing that for the design process, which you have seen, and for the site design,” Mr. Brock said. He said an additional $16,000,000 appropriated by the legislature is currently “in flux” because the budget office requires formal action by both the House and Senate before those funds can be released to the district.

Mr. Brock gave figures and constraints the board should expect if the district tried to use current funds for temporary relocation of students. He said $5,000,000 “would not even begin to touch the amount of money that it would take” for external classroom campuses, estimating such a temporary campus at roughly $13,000,000 and earlier temporary-classroom options at about $9–10 million. He said a full site package to prepare the new campus was estimated at $7,250,000, which exceeds the portion of funds currently available for site work.

On safety, Mr. Brock said the existing middle school is regularly monitored by a structural engineer and with instrumentation on the walls. “Any place students access currently is safe for them to be and there is no place in the building that is dangerous for them as far as the building falling on them and hurting them,” he said, adding that engineers will re-inspect the building in August before students return and that the district would seek emergency state funding if immediate relocation ever became necessary.

Design-team details included classroom planning (three identical wings with removable partition walls for collaborative spaces), an enlarged cafeteria and a gym with seating the team described as “in excess of 800 seats.” Wayne Roberts said provisions exist for adding two classrooms at each wing later, which the team estimates would push capacity above 600. Roberts and Mr. Brock said a bus canopy is not shown in the current rendering but will be part of later drawings, and that safety glazing and CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) analysis will be included at the 100% design submittal.

Trustees asked capacity and classroom-size questions during the presentation; Mr. Brock said the district’s current design goal is roughly 550 students but that projections show enrollment could exceed 500 within four to five years. The design team said they are aiming for about 550 as the design target and that the cafeteria size was increased to better accommodate future growth and potential classroom additions.

The board received the 50% design presentation as an informational update; no formal vote or KDE approval was required at this meeting. DECO said further refinements and the 100% design package will address remaining items such as the bus canopy, site-specific topography and final material choices, and the district stated it will continue to seek the additional legislative funding required to bid and complete the site package.

Board members and district staff invited trustees and interested community members to review invoices and monitoring data; Mr. Brock offered to show the structural-monitoring instrumentation and geotechnical reports to any trustee or citizen who requests them.