New Estill County middle school delayed due to funding needs

ESTILL COUNTY, Ky. (FOX 56) — With the hope of beginning construction on a new middle school, Estill County Schools planned an extended summer break this year and started classes yesterday. But funding for the project has been delayed, and no work has started on the project.

Leaders in Estill County want lawmakers to come up with money to build a new middle school because the current one is shifting.

Estill County Middle School (ECMS) is built on a foundation that contains a lot of shale, causing the building to heave upward. Inside its classrooms and halls are cracked floors and walls.

When Charlie Brock first took over as superintendent and walked through ECMS, it was his mission to secure funding to build a new middle school.

“So, with things having gone up over the last 2 or 3 years, the price to build a new middle school to sustain our student population is about $58 million. We have some local bonding capacity, but not near enough, and so we are requesting the money from the legislature, kind of as an emergency fund, because the building has to be replaced,” Brock said.

Brock said the school has moved since the day it opened in the 90s, but teachers and staff told him that it’s become more frequent in the last few years.

As of now, Brock said the school is still structurally safe and not a danger to students and that they have structural engineers monitoring the current middle school and will continue to do so to ensure student safety.

However, the extended summer break has allowed the district to focus on important maintenance projects in its existing buildings.

Currently, the floors are being stripped and re-waxed, a process that hasn’t been done in several years, to improve their appearance and longevity. Additionally, they tackle other maintenance tasks, including painting, HVAC projects, and other maintenance updates, to ensure our facilities are in top shape for their students.

“I actually have, for the last two years, spoken and worked with our local representative, Mr. Wesley, and our senator as well, Mr. Smith. The budget just wasn’t open last year, and if they don’t open the budget, then it’s hard to get more funding. We did secure 5 million the first year when the budget was open, but that’s not enough to continue the project,” Brock said. “I just encourage everybody to reach out to our representative and to our senator and just continue to ask them to help in the process. If you know anybody else in Frankfort, reach out to them. Never hurts, you know, when we can get more and more people to call.

Brock added that the district is moving forward with the design phase of the project and actively pursuing the remaining funding this fall and into January.

He said he has been working with both the state education department and legislators to access funding for a new school as soon as they can, and hopes that in the upcoming legislative session, the district will secure full funding for the new middle school.

“The budget just wasn’t open last year, and if they don’t open the budget, then it’s hard to get more funding. We did secure five million the first year when the budget was open, but that’s not enough to continue the project. We got a lot of site design and stuff done, we’ve got a lot of design on the building, we do have a site plan in place. So, we’re ready to start moving; we just need some more funds,” Brock said.

A new building will require approximately $58 million to complete.

There are currently five to six classrooms that the school does not use at all due to damage to floors and walls. No students have been injured from the damaged floors and walls.

The hope is to start site prep next summer, with the project to be completed in two years. The new middle school will be built on the same campus, but in another location behind the high school.