LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools expects to spend $114.2 million building new schools for Grace James Academy of Excellence, W.E.B. DuBois Academy and a 1,000-student middle school in west Louisville.
The three new schools were part of the district’s proposed $1.1 billion facilities plan scheduled for a public hearing 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at C.B. Young Jr. Service Center on Crittenden Drive.
Only JCPS employees attended Wednesday's hearing to receive public comments on the district's proposed facilities plan.
The new schools are among numerous projects slated to be scheduled for future construction within the 2022-23 biennium, though that is not guaranteed. The Jefferson County Board of Education approved the draft facilities plan during a Feb. 1 meeting.
JCPS Chief Operations Officer Chris Perkins said the "blueprint" gives a four-year look at its most pressing construction needs.
"It is a planning tool actually, and so the intent of it really is to identify facility needs holistically across the district to help us prioritize our planning," Perkins said after the brief hearing. "... These are our top priorities to make sure that we have not just adequate facilities but state-of-the-art, 21st century learning facilities for these schools, too."
Adding projects to the draft facilities plan allows JCPS and the Kentucky Department of Education to monitor the district's construction needs before pursuing building projects, JCPS spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said in an email to WDRB News.
The three schools do not have sites picked for them yet, though the district’s facilities plan says the W.E.B. DuBois Academy campus on East Indian Trail may be the future home of Minor Daniels Middle School.
JCPS expects to spent $39.9 million each for 1,050-student capacity buildings for Grace James Academy of Excellence and W.E.B. DuBois Academy with enough space for sixth- through 12th-grade classes.
The proposed $34.3 million middle school for 1,000 students in Louisville's West End comes as JCPS administrators and Jefferson County Board of Education contemplate sweeping changes to the district’s student assignment plan. Superintendent Marty Pollio has said a new middle school, and possibly another high school, in west Louisville will be key parts of his proposed changes to the district’s proposed student assignment revisions.
“Middle and high school students in west Louisville deserve the same opportunities that every other student in this district has,” Pollio said last year during his state of the district speech. “This is about equity.”
Perkins described the new West End middle school as a more "immediate need" than a new high school in the area as the district contemplates changes to its student assignment plan.
Perkins said the prospect of building brand new schools is "always exciting," particularly for emerging programs. The all-male W.E.B. DuBois Academy and all-female Grace James Academy of Excellence are among the district's newest school programs.
Research shows "the school building is as much an instrumental tool in teaching and learning as the curriculum and as the teacher," he said.
"The model of teaching has evolved so much just in the last decade or two to incorporate more flexible usage of space, greater room for students and flexible grouping of students to move around, and that's not the old paradigm of how school buildings were built more in a utilitarian purpose," Perkins said.
The JCPS board approved construction of three new elementary schools and a new middle school in 2019 and would need to take similar action to start the building process for the three new schools in the district's draft facilities plan.
Perkins said the facilities plan will go back to the school board for approval before the district submits it to KDE.
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