The Kenton County School District has approved a preliminary renovation plan for the next phase of construction at R.C. Hinsdale Elementary, which includes changes to both the school’s parking infrastructure as well as a variety of internal renovations.
The project is a continuation of another round of renovations that started in 2021. The project calls for the addition of parking spaces, which coincide with a City of Edgewood-led realignment of the intersection at Dudley Road, Charter Oak Road and Tupman Drive, which leads into the school.
Once complete, the realignment will transform the currently uneven intersection into a true four-way. The plan also calls for a new roof and HVAC system for the school, renovations of the small learning pods on the campus, new restrooms as well other renovations to build out the school’s ability to provide specialized learning interventions.
The school board approved the plan at their meeting Monday night. The district hopes to complete both the parking construction and the internal renovations by May before the start of the next school year.
An exact monetary figure for the work has yet to be determined, but now that the measure is approved, architects with Emboss, the firm contracted to carry out the design work, will begin “to work with their estimators to give us cost by section,” said Matt Rigg, the district’s chief operations officer.
Cars tend to back up on Dudley Road, Rigg said, which poses a safety concern. The parking expansion should help mitigate the problem.
Rigg described how the parking would change.
“Instead of zigzagging through the parking lot like parents currently do before they then get behind the school property and loop back around, the proposal now has a road that will go counterclockwise around the entire campus,” Rigg said. “It will go around and behind the playground. It loops around and then picks up the existing road, and by doing that, we’re able to get about 35 more cars onto our property and then resolve that issue of cars that are stacking and backing up onto Dudley Road.”
“The major issue is safety,” said Superintendent Henry Webb. “Anytime you’ve got cars parked, stacked on a main road, especially when vehicles are trying to get around vehicles sitting there, it creates an unsafe situation. So it’s going to be very convenient, but it’s also going to be much, much safer.”
“We’ve been wanting to solve this stacking issue for quite a long time,” said Board President Jesica Jehn.
Internal changes will generally bring the building up to date. The HVAC systems are hopelessly outmoded, Rigg said. Parts are hard to find, and the district has even had to repurpose parts from retired systems in other buildings to keep it running.
The renovations will allow teachers to do special interventions and small group work for particular student populations, like English language learners and special education students.
The renovations will also include improvements to the small learning pods on campus. The district plans to move the media center into a pod so that space can then be converted into intervention spaces for small-group and specialized instruction. The pods will play host to an additional art room.
Renovations will add some quality-of-life improvements throughout the building, such as fresh coats of paint, new flooring tiles and more bathrooms.
Read the full development plan for the construction approved on Monday below: