Appropriations Committee rejects Campbell County High School construction request in supplemental

The House Appropriations Committee declined to include Campbell County High School in its supplemental capital-construction recommendation after a roll-call vote on Unit 1208 failed 3-4.

Committee members spent more than an hour questioning State Construction Department staff and local lawmakers about the condition of the existing high school, prior studies and what planning still remains before construction could begin. Shelby Carlson, School Facilities Division administrator for the State Construction Department, told the committee the Mercer facility analyses and a statewide facilities assessment drove the district's request to replace the existing building rather than remodel it.

Carlson said the campus is highly oversized for current enrollment, at about 300,000 square feet, and has multiple additions and circulation challenges that complicate security and maintenance. She recounted that the district had performed four Mercer studies over several years and that the most recent recommended replacement on the site of the football field, with demolition of the older buildings and retention of one vocational building.

Committee membe…