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Board approves revised facility plan to pursue renovation, not replacement, for middle school
Summary
Bath County’s school board approved a revised District Facility Plan asking KDE to record a renovation (not a new-build) for the middle school; staff explained KDE caps new-school funding at 80% and provided a $10 million example figure used for recordkeeping and BG-1 scoping.
The Bath County Board of Education voted Feb. 17 to approve an updated District Facility Plan (DFP) that requests the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) reflect a renovation approach for the district’s middle school rather than a new-build.
District staff explained the DFP must retain historical items (for example, the prior intent for a new middle school is shown crossed out) for KDE recordkeeping. Staff emphasized that KDE’s cost figures function as a budgeting reference: KDE applies an 80% cap on eligible renovation funding compared with KDE’s estimate for a new school. As an example, staff said KDE would cap renovation budgeting at $20 million if KDE’s new-school estimate were $25 million.
Staff also pointed to a line-item section (labeled priority 1c) that lists building sections qualifying by age for replacement and shows a KDE-funded example figure of $10,000,000 for anticipated work on the oldest sections. Staff characterized that $10 million as KDE’s replacement estimate and said the board ultimately chooses which items to place on a BG-1 application when it scopes an actual project.
Board members discussed bonding capacity and grant funds, noting the district had about $7.1 million in grant funding that must be factored into project scoping. Members cautioned that allocating too much bonding to a single renovation could exhaust local bonding capacity and leave little funding for other district needs.
Eric moved to approve the revised DFP and Carla seconded; the motion carried by voice vote. Staff said the revised DFP will be sent to KDE to request the change in plan status so the district can proceed with BG-1 scoping and grant planning.
