LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The opening of the new multimillion-dollar Wilkerson Elementary was delayed after the building failed a second building inspection, Jefferson County Public Schools announced Wednesday.
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said at Tuesday's Jefferson County Board of Education meeting that the building would undergo a second inspection after failing an inspection Friday, potentially jeopardizing whether the $17 million school will be ready when classes begin Aug. 10.
By Wednesday, the district found out the new building had failed the second inspection conducted Tuesday. Students and staff will report to Watson Lane Elementary — which was closed after the 2021-22 school year to combine with Wilkerson Elementary — for temporary placement.
"If it fails inspection again, it would require a two-week wait period," he said during Tuesday's board meeting. "With the rain that occurred, there was substantial leaking inside of the school building. But there are some other things as well. ... I'm very upset with the contractors and the roofing company for the first failed inspection."
Construction continued on Wilkerson Elementary on Aug. 3, 2022.
JCPS broke ground on the new 82,532-square-foot school in October 2020. The contractor on the project, Marrillia Design and Construction, assured the district that Wilkerson Elementary would be ready for the start of the 2022-23 school year, but inspectors failed the project because construction was not far enough along for occupancy, according to a JCPS news release.
Pollio said Wednesday's news on Wilkerson Elementary was "extremely disappointing." He told reporters the Watson Lane Elementary building has enough space to accommodate the roughly 540 students enrolled at Wilkerson Elementary.
"We really notified the principal yesterday to get looking at space, classroom space to make sure we had one for every teacher, which she indicates that we do, so we feel confident that we're able to use that building as a swing space, so to speak, for at least a couple of weeks before we get the new space ready," Pollio told reporters Wednesday.
Teachers at Wilkerson Elementary "are not going to be spending inordinate amount of time preparing the classroom that they're only going to be in for a couple of weeks," he said. "... On top of that, they're going to move and then have to go into the new building and prepare those classrooms, so it's going to be an ongoing process."
District and school leaders will update Wilkerson Elementary families on arrangements for students ahead of the 2022-23 school year and JCPS prepares to reopen Watson Lane Elementary and rework bus routes.
"I apologize to the Wilkerson families for this unacceptable pause in their excitement about moving into a new building," he said in a statement.
"While I’m disheartened that we won’t be opening our school year in a new building, I can assure Wilkerson families that regardless of the structure we’re in, great teaching and learning will be going on inside," Wilkerson Elementary Principal Sara Alvey said in a statement.
A moving truck outside Watson Lane Elementary on Aug. 3, 2022.
The uncertainty worries Wilkerson Elementary parents like Melissa Dudeck and Tara Ward, who both have children entering third grade.
WDRB News interviewed both before Wednesday's announcement.
"We're a week away from school starting, and we have nothing," Ward said. "... Not only do we not even know who our kids' teachers are, we don't even know where they're going to school."
Dudeck wondered how the district would accommodate Wilkerson Elementary students in the Watson Lane Elementary building as both enrollments merge.
"You've already put a mask mandate on these kids again this year with COVID going rampant, so you're going to cram all these kids into a very small school?" Dudeck said. "... Nothing is being communicated to us."
The Watson Lane Elementary building had been set up to hold back-to-school events before the start of the 2022-23 school year as Wilkerson Elementary construction finished, and Pollio said the building itself is "still in pretty good shape."
"For the time being, it's going to be fine, so we're pretty confident right now that it's going to be a good first two weeks for the kids," he said. "They just won't be in brand new facility."
JCPS board member James Craig, who represents District 3 and leads the board's facilities committee, said Tuesday he wanted to know the names of contractors involved in the project and remember them as JCPS doles out contracts in the future.
"I want this school to open, and I would hate for a company to lose out on an opportunity to bid because we didn't get to open up a school on time," James said.
Pollio agreed with Craig's sentiment at the time, and he told reporters Wednesday that the district is exploring its contractual options in light of the untimely delay.
"It's not necessarily as much money back for us," he said. "We just want the kids to be in the school."
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