In the latest Farragut Press (it hits the street, tomorrow, Thursday August 10, 2006) read it here. County Commissioner Mike Hammond makes an excellent point that has not been discussed publically.
“If we build the school for twenty-one hundred, we’re looking at having a part of the building empty for a couple of years,” he said. “I have a real concern about building a school for twenty-one hundred students and have it used only by five hundred for the first couple of years. As any builder will tell you, having a portion of a building open is not a good thing. It becomes a warranty issue.”
Hammond said the [Knox County] School Board needs to be more forthcoming about whether the school will be an academy. If so, what will the operational costs be? What would the operational costs be for a school for 2,100 and used by only 500?
The residents of the Fifth County Commission district are fortunate that the informed fifth district voters (us) re-elected the Experienced and and qualified Mike Hammond, John Griess and Craig Leuthold.
The current plans that the school board has revealed is it will open the Hardin Valley High School in 2008-2009 with the freshmen class. With 2100 total students, that means in the 1st year it will open with 525 students. In the 2009-2010 year, it will open with Freshmen and Sophmores that will be 1050 students. In the 2010-2011 school year, it will open with Freshmen, Sophmores and Juniors with 1,575 students. Finally, in the 2011-2012 year, it will open with Freshmen, Sophmores, Juniors and Seniors with 2100 students.
With this as the plan, what will happen to all the square footage in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years that will be unused? How much insurance will have to be maintained to keep it safe and secure? How will the warranty cover this usused square footage in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year?
Is it a proper use of the taxpayers resources to build unused and unneccesary square footage?
