Board to give final OK for TNHS auditorium project at Dec. 15 meeting

Superintendent Anthony Orr points out details on a blueprint of the proposed auditorium for Thomas Nelson High School. The board is expected to approve construction documents at its Dec. 15 meeting. Construction is expected to begin next summer.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015, 9 p.m. — The Nelson County Board of Education will be asked later this month to approve the construction documents for the new auditorium that will start construction next summer at Thomas Nelson High School.

Board chairman Damon Jackey, left, and board member Diane Berry take part in discussion at the board’s working session Dec. 1, 2015.

According to Tim Hockensmith, the district’s chief operating officer, following board approval at the Dec. 15 board meeting, the construction plans will next go on for final approval by the Kentucky Department of Education.

Bids for the project presented to the board in February, Hockensmith said. Construction is expected to begin this summer on both the Thomas Nelson auditorium and the Early Learning Center expansion.

The board discussed a request by school officials to enlarge the stage area in the new auditorium. This will reduce total seating capacity from 600 seats to about 500. The plans will also include a request by the board to add a center aisle.

The auditorium will also have access to the cafeteria, which will be used as a staging area when the facility is being used for plays or other events.

The board also discussed a request by school officials to omit a planned divider to limit access to the rest of the school from the auditorium. Hockensmith said adding the divider in the future may be less expensive because that small a project would not require the district to pay the prevailing wage.

At Orr’s request, the board decided to make a decision after getting more information on the cost difference between building the divider when the auditorium is built versus adding it at a later date.

SCHOOL CALENDAR. The board was presented with the tentative 2016-17 school calendar it will be asked to approve at its Dec. 15 meeting.

Tim Beck, the district’s executive director of student support, told the board the proposed calendar will mostly mirror the existing school year calendar.

Fall break will again fall on the first week of October; winter break will be the last two weeks of December, and spring break will fall on the first week of April 2017.

Board chairman Damon Jackey said he understood that approval of the calendar by the end of the year is important to students’ families who wish to schedule vacation time to fall during one of the district’s breaks.

BOARD CALENDAR. Orr presented a draft of the board’s 2016 meeting calendar. The board also discussed moving some of its work sessions back to daytime meetings at one of the district’s schools. Orr said he’ll present the board with some options at a future meeting.

In other business, the board:

— heard that the district improvement plans will be presented for board approval at the Dec. 15 meeting;

— was told that district schools will observe Dec. 7-11 as a “Week of Code.” All schools from pre-K to grade 12 will spend 50 minutes writing code on a “Day of Code” on Dec. 11.

— heard that the district’s schools are working now to make their class schedules better match in order to improve opportunities for academic intervention and enrichment for the 2016-17 school year.

NEXT UP. The board meets next at 5 p.m. Dec. 15, 2015, at the district’s Central Office, 288 Wildcat Lane.

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