City schools awaiting state approval to sell former Cox’s Creek school building
The old Cox’s Creek school, home for years to the Bardstown City Schools’ alternative school program, will be declared surplus and sold once state approval is obtained.
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016, 9 p.m. — The old Cox’s Creek Elementary school building — the former home of the Bardstown City School district’s alternative school program — has been appraised and once the district gets state approval, will be put up for sale.
Joey Downs, director of human resources and technology, told the board the six-acre site and its nearly 20,000-square-foot school building was given an appraised value of $80,000, which he said was the fair market value of the property and comparable to other school properties that were recently sold.
The district has contacted the Kentucky Department of Education to get the needed approval to sell the building, and once that is received — perhaps in the next month — the Bardstown board of education will select the method by which they wish to dispose of the property.
The board has three methods by which they can dispose of the property, Downs explained. The board can conduct a public auction; solicit sealed bids for the property; or list it with a commercial real estate firm.
Downs said the appraiser said the best uses for the property could be housing; as a temporary storage facility; or for use by another school or church. The property is zoned A-1 Agriculture, a classification he said allows for lots of possible uses.
“I think its going to be very attractive once we get it on the market,” he said.
AP COURSE REVIEW. More students are taking advantage of the district’s Advanced Placement (AP) classes than ever before. Cara Blackmon, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, provided the board with an update on the number of students taking AP classes and how they are performing.
Blackmon said 171 students enrolled in AP classes last year, compared to 121 students the year before.
End of course AP class testing is graded on a five-point scale, with a 3 or higher considered a passing grade. In the 2014-15 school year, 83 tests scored a 3 or higher out of the 222 AP tests taken in the district. For 2015-16, the number of tests scored a 3 or higher jumped to 108, while the number of AP tests taken jump by more than 100 to 329.
The district is taking part in AdvanceKentucky, a statewide math and science initiative dedicated to helping Kentucky’s students get access and prepare for the more demanding AP classes.
The district is also working to lay a foundation of increased rigor of classes in lower grades in order to prepare students to take and excel in AP classes. The AdvanceKentucky program paid for 11 district teachers to go to training for foundation classes or for AP classes this summer, she said.
PRESCHOOL PARTNERSHIP GRANT. Superintendent Brent Holsclaw updated the board about a grant program that will pay the district to work with daycare programs in order to help their students become better prepared to enter kindergarten.
Successful districts will receive a first-year $25,000 grant, which is aimed at helping the district get prepared to implement the program. The second year grant of $150,000 would be devoted to running the program.
The details are still being worked out by the state education department, but school-based daycares and private daycares are both eligible to participate.
In other business, the board:
— approved second reading on board policy updates;
— reviewed the data security and breach notification policies.
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