By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The Barren County Board of Education met on Dec. 12 and briefly discussed renovations and striping of the soon-to-be-opened access road, and recognized outgoing board member Nikki Shelton.
Opening the meeting, the four board members and Superintendent Amy Irwin expressed their appreciation for Nikki Shelton’s several years of service as the District 5 representative on the Barren County Board of Education.
Shelton did not seek reelection to the seat in this November’s general election. Beginning in January, that seat will be held by Danny Spears, who lives in the Eighty-Eight community and who was at the Dec. 12 meeting.
He briefly commented that he was very happy with the direction that the district was going and was eager to use his position to continue highlighting the students.
“This is a very progressive district,” Spears said. “I just came back from Louisville and I thought ‘how does their [school district] compare to ours, and I like ours much better.”
“I just want to spotlight the students, work for them and do what’s best for them,” he added.
With the recognitions concluded, chairperson Shelly Groce turned the board members’ attention to the business of the district. First among these concerned the currently unnamed access road that is expected to be open by January 2025.
As previously reported, the access road will offshoot from Trojan Trail and run behind the middle school, the Trojan Academy and the high school. Alliance Corporation Chair Tommy Gumm said lights are up along the new road, but added that striping was not included in the original cost and so sought the board’s approval on $16,600.
In that same vein, Gumm said the connection off the access road to the middle school parking lot would be roughly $37,000. Director of Pupil Personnel Anthony Frazier commented that the addition would improve student safety and traffic flow.
“We’ve got to have a way to get kids from the middle school to the [access] road,” Frazier said. “At one time we were thinking of a sidewalk and stopping traffic [to load children in cars] and we thought it made more sense to [do it this way].”
“We just wanted pricing on that to see what it’d cost,” he added.
Providing a bookend to the night’s proceedings was the district personnel presenting various baby supplies to the expecting Shelton.
