Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Kentucky District Delays Start of School Following Construction Delays

  • By Matt Jones
  • 07/18/23

The Hopkins County Board of Education in Madisonville, Ky., recently announced that it will push back the start date of the 2023–24 academic year based on construction delays at a new elementary school, according to local news. The district’s first day of school will move from August 9 to August 15 to accommodate construction at a replacement facility for Hanson Elementary School.

According to board members, the project was originally scheduled for completion in 2022 and has faced delays throughout the process. The school partnered with A & K Construction, who district officials say aren’t delivering what they promised, according to local news.

“You’ve put us in a position that we’re going to have to make an adjustment,” said Board Chairman Shannon Embry to A & K President Bill Boyd at a recent school board meeting.

“I am praying and hoping that you are a man true to your word,” said Superintendent Amy Smith to Boyd at the same meeting. “[I’m praying] that that date of completion will not be moved and we can look at our community and welcome our babies into their schools on August 15.”

Smith also said that Boyd has promised that the school’s interior will be completed by July 27 and other site work—like bus and car lanes—by August 7.

Smith also clarified that the purpose of moving the date was not to give the construction company additional leeway, but to give school staff the time to set up their classrooms properly before students arrive.

”We have based our decisions on the deadlines they’ve given us,” Smith said. “We are not the ones that are completing the construction. We rely on them—the experts—to be able to be able to do that and to give us a date and live by that.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Round Rock ISD Completes New Early College High School

    Round Rock ISD near Austin, Texas, recently announced that construction is complete on a new, 46,500-square-foot campus for Early College High School, according to a news release. The new facility will allow the school’s students and staff to move from portables into a permanent building and increase its enrollment to 500.

  • University of Arizona Approves New Residence Hall

    The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved plans for a new residence hall at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2028 and have the capacity for more than 1,200 students, enforcing a new university expectation that all first-year students live on campus.

  • Houston-Area High School Breaks Ground on 117,000SF Multi-Use Facility

    North Shore Senior High School, part of Galena Park ISD in Houston, Texas, recently broke ground on a new multi-use facility for student extracurriculars, according to a news release. The North Shore Multi-Use Facility will include dedicated practice and training space for the school’s athletics and fine arts programs.

  • How a Portable Sink Helped an Art Classroom Run More Smoothly

    Classroom design decisions can have outsized effects on instructional time and safety at schools juggling mismatched infrastructure, strict budgets, and crowded schedules — particularly in the arts. Between spilled paint and dirty brushes, art classes run smoother with a sink in the studio. But many schools don’t have a sink in every art classroom.