Scott Co. school board holds special meeting on new high school

SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ)- Tonight the Scott County School board approved a point six cent increase on property taxes. But many were there to talk about adding a new high school, one that’s been talked about for more than ten years. The public was only allowed to talk about the tax, but that didn’t stop Dorothy Butler from making her case about the school.

She asked the board to “Please raise my taxes 23 cents per day….I wanted to give each one of you. some of my change from my purse,” she passed out placards with change glued to them to all the board members.

New Superintendent Kevin Hub agrees a nickel tax would be the best way to raise money for a new high school, to be called Great Crossing High School. Ms. Butler’s tax bill would end up at 23 cents a day.

At the meeting, all on the board agreed on a new high school. Only one member, Stephanie Powers, objected to the proposed location on US 460 near Elkhorn Crossing School. She says contractors say the land could eventually cave and become a sink hole.

Board Chair Haley Conway recommended the board move forward on existing plans for the new high school. But the superintendent says it should be up for a new board to decide in January because the school plans are not yet set in stone.

Superintendent Hub says, “It will take more time than currently exists between now and December 31st for those plans to be complete. And it’s possible that this board could have a beautiful concrete pad for a high school that the next board may decide that they want to go in a different direction and hopefully everyone in the room believes that’s not a good idea.”

The high school has a capacity of 1600. But 2400 are enrolled in grades 9-12 and the district grows by more than a hundred, per year. The public can comment on the proposed Great Crossing High School at a town hall on September 13th at the high school at 7pm.