Christian Co. School Board votes to send redesigned consolidated high school project out for bid

The Christian County School Board voted to move forward with sending the consolidated high school project out to bid at Thursday night’s meeting.

This comes after a lengthy process where the consolidation project as a whole was re-evaluated and redesigned after two out of budget bids last summer, with school officials saying they were able to ‘value engineer’ the materials going into the construction itself, as well as get the size of the building slimmed down.

Assistant Superintendent Josh Hunt says they were able to work with the Kentucky Department of Education using House Bill 678 concerning the size of the school, as previous requirements made the building too large.

Hunt says it will have three career academies housed in four wings and house grades nine through 12 in its walls, and while a competition gymnasium will likely be bid out separately, they fully intend for the high school that have a gym upon opening.

The bidding process this time around will solicit about 25 smaller bids that make up the entire project. The construction process will likely happen in phases—if the board approves the bids that come back, likely sometime in mid-June—and have capacity for 2,800 students.

Tim Geegan with Alliance says they feel fairly confident the bids will be closer to their $130 million budget for the consolidated high school this time around.

The board voted unanimously to approve the construction documents utilizing House Bill 678 that include the redesign of the building, and unanimously approved advertising an invitation to bid for the project through Alliance.