ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- Hardin County Schools is considering closing a rural elementary school to re-purpose it as a middle school.
Parents with students at Lakewood Elementary got a letter earlier this week that explained the district is considering closing the school.
"It was very shocking to get that letter that there's a possibility that we were going to be closing,” said Mary Waddell, who's child goes to Lakewood.
The district needs to find a new home for students attending the aging West Hardin Middle School and address an enrollment decline in outlying elementary schools. HCS has created a local planning committee to figure out the best plan for the district.
“We want to make sure that we’re doing right by the students and Hardin County and also being good stewards of our tax dollars that we have in our district,” Superintendent Terrie Morgan said.
One plan under consideration would make the brand new Cecilia Valley Elementary into a Pre-K through eighth grade campus. The school has just over 300 students but can hold 600. This version of the plan was met with criticism last year.
"They had concerns with middle school students being in the same building as elementary students,” Morgan said.
Three additional options are now on the table, and right now, the board is still in the very beginning stages of discussion.
One option would turn Cecelia Valley into a pre-k through sixth grade school, and the district would also build a new school with a capacity of 400 for seventh and eighth graders on that campus. That plan costs about $15.9 million. Another option is to build a brand new middle school for $20.2 million. It would have a capacity for 600 students. And yet another option would be to convert Lakewood Elementary into a middle school, which could cost between $11 million and $14.5 million. Lakewood students would go to Cecilia Valley or Creekside Elementary.
Parents like Waddell don’t want to see that happen.
"There's another decision," she said. "There's another way to fix the problem."
Morgan said she’s confident the local planning committee will make the right decision.
"No matter what the local planning committee recommends for our district facilities plan, we know that are students are going to be served and served well,” she said.
There will be more meetings in the future, and parents can email their feedback to the district. Once the committee comes up with a plan, it will need approval from the school board and the state.
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