SALYERSVILLE – The Magoffin County School Board met in special session on Monday, July 25, discussing police presence at Magoffin County schools and updates on the construction of a new career and technical center.
Salyersville Mayor James “Pete” Shepherd addressed the school board, stating he will be able to allocate a city police officer, noting he will have more than one trained as school resource officers, to the district to cover Herald Whitaker Middle School, the Magoffin County Career and Technical Center and Salyersville Grade School, all located in the same area. The Magoffin County Sheriff Department will continue to offer an officer for the Magoffin County High School, while also responsible for visiting and handling any school resource officer needs at North Magoffin Elementary and South Magoffin Elementary.
In February this year, the legislation passed House Bill 63, which requires an armed school resource officer (SRO) at every school in the state, “if funding and personnel are available.”
Prior to this school year, in recent years the sheriff department has supplied the school district with one police officer, which was responsible for all schools in the district, so this change should help better cover all schools, Magoffin County Superintendent Chris Meadows explained in the meeting.
Mike Sparkman with alt32 and Kenny Davis with Codell Construction went over the bid opening, which occurred last week, concerning the construction of the new vocational building, noting they received over 40 bids, with many under budget. They expressed they had experience with all of the top contractors on the list and all had exhibited good workmanship and management. The two had looked over the bids and the option with all of the alternates the board had already expressed they wanted, the project comes in at approximately $10,109,000 with all recommendations Davis and Sparkman suggested, which the board approved. The project is slated to begin on August 15, with the building to be opened for use in the fall of 2024.
Sparkman also noted that, going by square footage, the bids were well below recent project costs per square foot, so they were pleased with the bids they received.
Also announced this week, Magoffin County Schools, in conjunction with Salyersville Police Department and Kentucky State Police, will be holding an active shooter training at Salyersville Grade School Friday, July 29. No one will be allowed passed the middle school after 11:30 a.m. on Friday until after the training.