The Covington Independent Public Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to send a project renovating the softball field at Glenn O. Swing Elementary out to bid to design contractors at their meeting Wednesday.
The move comes after over a month of discussing building projects and spending between the board, the district and the community. Board President Tom Haggard said the bids should be returned by the next meeting on March 7, at which point the board can either approve or deny the proposed contracts to produce designs.
Haggard thanked district staff and Superintendent Alvin Garrison for “all their work to figure out how to separate this project out. I think the way that we’re moving here, it’s going to save us some money.”
The softball field was originally part of a larger construction project that also included various renovations in and around Holmes High School. A vote approving those projects was tabled until the next meeting so that Board Member Stephen Gastright, who did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, could follow up on some last-minute inquiries before casting a vote.
The board and district staff had first discussed the projects in January, following other discussions from November about ballooning building costs in the district. At the November meeting, Gastright, who works professionally as an architect, expressed dismay that a project relating to Holmes’ ventilation system had climbed from about $4 million to just over $7 million and said that he was unwilling to approve any more building projects until the district presented updated estimates.
One key consideration in the January discussions was whether the softball field should be removed from the other projects and bid out separately. The district’s buildings are old and require specialized knowledge to renovate, unlike the softball field. The thinking was that the district might get more attention from contractors if the field was a separate project, even though this would entail additional administrative costs and board approvals.
In addition, the district had been subject to a visit from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association at the end of last year to see how well the district complied with Title IX, a federal program aimed at reducing gender discrimination in education.
The athletic association concluded that the district was deficient in providing equal facilities for girls’ softball, as the existing softball field simply didn’t measure up to the facilities provided at Meinken Field, which the boys’ baseball team (as well as other teams around the region) uses. The report recommended the district build out its facilities for the girls right as the board was expressing its worries about scope creep.
Ken Kippenbrock, the district’s human resources and operations director, told LINK nky after Thursday’s meeting that the district had successfully secured an extension to reply to the Title IX report until March 31. He added that Thursday’s vote would be included in the district’s reply once it was sent.
Earlier this month, the board continued its discussion and heard a proposal to build the softball field at Glenn O. Swing Elementary instead of the Holmes campus. Superintendent Alvin Garrison expressed support for moving the field to the elementary school, although there was trepidation among some of the board members about whether Glenn O. Swing’s parking could support events at the field.
District documents put the new estimated cost of the field at about $2.98 million, a reduction from its original estimate of $3.2 million. A portion of the construction cost will be covered by community donations raised by the Tom Ellis Athletic Memorial, or TEAM, Foundation. The foundation had raised about $192,000 as of the middle of January.
There was little discussion among the board members about the changes, but Board Member Hannah Edelen thanked the members of the board and district before casting her vote.
“I know it has been quite the discussion over the past few meetings, and I just appreciate you all’s efforts in taking intentional time to meet and discuss and just being leaders in moving this forward,” Edelen said.
The next meeting of the Covington Independent School District Board of Education will take place on March 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the district’s central office on 7th Street.