Before Tuesday’s Christian County School Board meeting was called to order, newly elected District Four Representative Rebecca Pepper and newly appointed District Two Representative Ambrea Watkins were sworn in. Once the meeting got underway the board received updates on the consolidated high school, approved an updated district map and approved to renew the Superintendent’s contract.
At a special called meeting on Monday, the Board approved for Watkins to finish the unexpired district two representative term and on Thursday a CCPS news release shared more about Watkins’ background. According to the news release Watkins was raised in Hopkinsville and is the owner of local salon and the founder of a local nonprofit.
At Tuesday’s meeting Watkins thanked the board for welcoming her and shared that she’s excited to be among them.
Watkins along with her fellow board members were given an update on the progress of the consolidated Christian County High School by Tim Geegan from Allian Corporation. Geegan says they have made outstanding progress in the past couple of months and as of yesterday they have laid their entire building pad.
Along with the building pad, Geegan says they are currently installing electrical rough-ins, plumbing rough-ins and concrete footings, and soon he plans to have walls go up. Geegan also shared that initially he and his team were concerned about the building site, but says they have run into no problems so far.
According to his itinerary, Geegan says he and his team hope to start installing brick by spring.
Moving into their discussion and approval topics, the board approved an amended election zone map updated according to 2020 census data. The five school district zones were last updated in 2014 and to maintain equal populations in each zone, District Technology Coordinator Jason Wilson says four zones will have to be adjusted and only district three will remain the same.
Wilson says according to the displayed changes, there will only be a maximum of a 5% population deviation between each district which he says is appropriate.
Toward the end of their agenda the board approved to renew Superintendent Chris Bentzel’s contract. Bentzel thanked the board and his family and says he looks forward to continue his service to the district.
According to the contract, Bentzel with continue as superintendent for the next four years.