LOUISA, KY. — In an exclusive interview with Lawrence County Schools Supt. Rob Fletcher last week, he said the regular meeting last Monday did not include discussion about the proposed nickel-dime tax although it was listed on the agenda.
Fletcher said much of the board’s discussion included saluting the LCHS and LMS (state champions) football teams. Also, he said the new $1 million softball facility construction was discussed at length.
He also said the new $10 million vocational facilities at LCHS paid for by a state grant has “stalled” because costs have risen so much lately.
Progress on nickel/dime tax?
Mr. Paul Christy, KY School Plant Managers Association, discussed the next steps of the planning process at the last meeting in early January. The district facilities plan will be sent for submission to KDE (Kentucky Department of Education) for review. Once the review is complete, the plan will be returned to the LC Schools Planning Committee. Mr. Christy explained that the LC Schools Local Planning Committee’s next meeting day and time cannot be set until the LPC plan has been reviewed and returned by the KDE. Once these steps have occurred, LC Schools Local Planning Committee will announce the meeting place, day, and time for the next appointed LC Schools LPC meeting.
A question to determine the need for a two-nickel tax, or double-nickel tax, in building a new Louisa West Elementary School came up. Dr. Fletcher explained that a double nickel tax would allow Lawrence County Schools to receive extra state funding to build the new school.
The double nickel tax is estimated at $100 per every $100,000 of owned property. The Lawrence County Board of Education will vote to make a determination toward the tax at a later date. (For clarification, an addition of one nickel in the property tax will not cover the estimates of a new building along with the purchase and preparation of the property for a new school. Construction costs have increased tremendously since the COVID shutdown occurred.)
The new tax can be placed on residents without their approval unless a petition to place the question of the ballot is signed by at least 725 citizens of Lawrence County.
The LC Schools Local Planning Committee feels the sincere necessity to build a new Louisa West Elementary School, it was said in the last meeting. The state also agrees with this determination, particularly since the estimate to remodel the old building would cost approximately 82% of the construction of a new school. The regular LC Schools Local Planning Committee meeting began at 5:35 PM, and Mr. Matthew Maynard, LWES Principal and LPC Chairman, called the meeting to order.
Fletcher said the plan is ongoing and will be voted on by the BOE before it goes into effect. The planning goes on but the financing is still unclear, according to Fletcher.
Here’s what the estimated $30 million plan includes:
“… The committee decided to add new bleachers to Blaine Elementary School, Fallsburg Elementary School, and Louisa East Elementary School into the current plan. The architects of Ross Tarrant will formerly add those needs to the current plan. The committee found the rest of the plan’s content to be correct and complete. Along with many other district-wide facility needs, the district facilities plan that has been submitted to the state includes a change in the grade structure in LC Schools. The plan has Blaine and Fallsburg transitioning to P-6 buildings, with potential cafeteria and/or gymnasium additions. The plan also includes a new Louisa West that preschool through 2nd grade with Louisa East having Grades 3 through 6. Louisa Middle would become Lawrence County Middle School with Grades 7 and 8 only, while LCHS will continue to include Grades 9 through 12. According to Dr. Fletcher, this would allow more career technical-type offerings for all middle school students because all 7th and 8th-grade students would be on Bulldog Lane with our high school.”
On the agenda that you can see in the Lazer (HERE) there is listed an item that includes BOE attention to the recent report filed by a committee appointed by Fletcher which includes combining all 7th and 8th grade students at LMS and building a new elementary school for Louisa.
$10 MILLION LCHS VOCATIONAL CENTER STALLED FOR LACK OF FUNDS…
Wasn’t it earlier this year that Gov. Andy Beshear delivered a check for nearly $10 million to pay for a new vocational facility for LCHS that would be used to get students ready for actual jobs in an as yet unknown industry? That money is not being used at this time, Fletcher said.
“…Due to the rising cost of construction, the LAVEC project is on hold. The grant was written prior to the skyrocketing costs of construction. I am working with our financial advisor and our architect to determine next steps. Hopefully, we can move on it in the next few months.” –Fletcher
There is no connection between the softball field construction and the vocational facility. State law requires the segregation of projects by the BOE so funds for one cannot be used for another.
So I guess softball is more important than vocational education. Has anybody been to Lowe’s? Prices have dropped back to where they should be on most things. This is not true about cost unless they are like the government and pad their buddies pockets when buying materials. I was in business all my life and I know how it works with dishonest people.
I agree with you on this we need to get a petition started now before this tax is shoved down our throats and stop spending all the tax dollars on the ball fields by putting the kids in our county last in the job market because they don’t make a living playing ball or at least most of them don’t but it seems like Fletcher is just worried about the ball scores and getting his name in print I am on a fixed income so his big pay check let him pay the extra tax for the ball things and then that money can pay for a lot of the new school building and the property.
Fletchers salary is 135,000.
WOW!
The funding for the softball complex came with conditions that required the funding be spent specifically on a softball complex. It could not be used for anything else
Who are the LC Schools Local Planning Committee members?
See previous Lazer story but it is all school personnel if that is what you mean, I believe.
The school board members and fletcher
Well folks inflation is through the roof Electric bills are up Can’t afford Groceries can’t pay our bills and they want to raise our taxes 🤷♂️ Are they serious 🤷♂️ Why don’t we get a raise every time we want one like the school Board officials do 👍 Look I’m for getting the Kids of Lawerence county everything they deserve but you all haft to understand the working people and folks that have retired are struggling just to pay for food and keep the lights on 👍 So come on figure out something else Raising taxes is not the answer for the working folks right now 👍
Is “haft” a real word?
the handle of a knife, axe, or spear.
So, not the correct word for this situation…
That’s not what you ask you just wanted to know if it’s a real word
I hope you are not a teacher
I agree whole heartedly with this. Many many people are already struggling with inflation. Raising our taxes now would just be cruel.
Where is this petition?
I am offended. I work and live to pay taxes. I’m willing to pay an additional quarter tax. Now I may not get that opportunity. I am offended.
If there’s no petition then it passes. Taxes go up. Where’s the PETITION ? Lazer give us info on petition PLEASE.
Until the school board votes to do this we cannot get a petition. Once they do vote to do this, we will have 45 days to get signatures and have them verified by Chris Jobe. Only registered voters can sign the petition. The reason for that is it will be a petition to bring it to the ballet to be voted on.
Fletcher controls this county ,not a judge or elected offical.so if he wants to raise our taxes it’s our job to roll over and pay.
Republicans control the county
Keep voting Republican! They’ll raise every tax possible from local , state and federal. Y’all will never learn.
If I’m not mistaken, schoolboard offices are non-Partisan. The superintendent is hired by the school board and is a contracted employee thereof. So how do you KAGSTERS and white trash dims blame this on the GOP? Oh yea, you blame everything on the GOP. How you hold your heads up in the Biden era is beyond me?
Like I said,Fletcher runs the county
And he is a republican like I said
I’d like to see things cleaned. Our playgrounds are nasty. No ball goals either on our park. And the evapco heating and cooling tower at the upper elementary school is very nasty.
I agree. Nasty air filters make kids sick.
They don’t take care of what they already have. After the high school was just a few years old it wasn’t taken care of. Lockers were falling off the walls. Bathroom stall doors were ripped off the hinges and the list goes on.
I walked this morning and the evpco heating and cooling unit is back together. It was took apart in august. I hope it was cleaned right. It could be very dangerous if it’s not cleaned properly and used then. I can hope it’s right
Didn’t the high school and middle school get built without an additional tax? I’ll answer that myself, yes they did. So what’s different now? So we have an accounting problem or a board that doesn’t know how to budget money?
We have a superintendent making $135,000 a year in a county that can’t afford it. We have board members that have gone along with the great leaders for years. The superintendent needs put back on the ballet. Forget politics and vote for change. For years all the extra money in schools has gone to ball games. Stop it already! Any kid can play ball but not every kid can read, write or do math. We want total change. This is not a republican or democrat issue. This is an issue to wake us up and get us to pull together. If our state government is withholding the money if we don’t raise taxes then we need a huge change all around.