During Tuesday’s Cadiz Rotary Club meeting, Trigg County Schools District Instructional Supervisor Faye Stevens brought with her an unbridled optimism and some of the smaller details surrounding the district’s recently-awarded $10 million vocational grant from the Commonwealth.
In theory, it’s the kind of grant that could change hundreds of Wildcats and their prospective futures — as students walk across a stage for graduation, and into colleges and workplaces across the purchase, throughout Kentucky, and perhaps the world.
In actuality, the $10 million award is only the beginning of the process — in what will be a complete and utter gutting of a local area vocational education center (or a LAVEC, in short) from the floor to its finish.
Stevens noted it was a simple rubric for the grant, with favorable conditions for the Trigg County district.
Among factors, 35 percent of its weight came from the age of the LAVEC in question. Trigg County’s vocational school was built in 1973, and over the years has had few renovations of major note. It’s outgrown itself, too, with a number of its classes located either off premises or in other district buildings.
Furthermore, Stevens added that financial need had to be evident based on the district’s current bonding capacity, which Superintendent Bill Thorpe confirmed is “quite limited” with the campus undergoing a number of considerable BG-1 projects through Kentucky Department of Education approval.
Grant writers also had to be able to prove that a school’s enrollment and its LAVEC enrollment were significantly congruent, and in Trigg County, it apparently is. Stevens said as of May 2020, Trigg County High School had a student population near 620, with 377 of them enrolled in 1,670 LAVEC programs.
Lastly, the district had to be able to prove it had a considerable plan for any vocational school upgrades — and Trigg County had that, too, thanks to the extensive work of Sherman Carter Barnhart architect Andrew Owens.
Stevens noted the current plan is to build around a newly-installed elevator and completely redesign the near 27,000-square-feet the vocational building currently resides — with a non-zero chance of adding square footage to the project.
Of the many, many assessments ahead includes the sincere input of current vocational teachers within the school system, as well as thoughtful discourse with both the Trigg County Chamber of Commerce and the Southwestern Kentucky EDC. A visit with some regional LAVECs has also been arranged for district officials on October 11.
Stevens and long-time Rotarian Norman Cotton brought about perhaps the most important discourse of the program, in which the concept that college isn’t always the best option for a high school graduate.
Conversely, Stevens said the renovation has a considerable chance to provide students with the tools necessary to prepare those who may seek trade alongside a college degree. Her example: working at Pella in Murray, while attending Murray State University.
If the timeline holds, renovations are expected to begin in the summer of 2022 and be ready prior to the 2023-24 school year. The 14-month timeline will require some solutions, Stevens noted, but those preparations are underway even now.
