Building a Better Future for the Students of Lawrence County: The District Facilities Planning Process and the Local Planning Committee

By Dr. Robbie Fletcher

Lawrence County Schools Superintendent

(This article is the first of a series that will cover topics pertaining to planning, remodeling, building, and financing school facilities in Lawrence County. The articles will be published during the months of December and January.)

Currently, our school system is involved in the district facilities planning process, which occurs every four to five years for every school system in the state of Kentucky. This process has multiple steps and results with a district facilities plan, or DFP, that is submitted to the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) for final approval. In order for the administration of a school system to begin construction on any project, the Kentucky Department of Education will ensure that the project has been listed on the school system’s DFP. A DFP may contain a variety of projects such as roof repairs, sports facility upgrades, safety upgrades, camera systems, new school construction, and many others.

District facilities planning has multiple steps. Here is a summary of those steps:

1. The school district selects a local planning committee (required), an architectural/engineering consultant (required), and a facilitator (optional).

2. The architectural/engineering consultants evaluate each building and campus for potential needs and provides estimated construction costs for each identified need.

3. The local planning committee, or LPC, reviews the results of the evaluation process, holds meetings for public input, and develops a draft DFP for review by the Kentucky Department of Education.

4. KDE reviews the DFP, may recommend changes to the DFP, and sends the recommendations back to the LPC.

5. The local planning committee (LPC) reviews the recommendations, holds a public forum to receive further public comments, approves the latest draft, and sends it to the local board of education for approval. (This is contingent upon the LPC accepting the recommendations from KDE.

Additional negotiations between KDE and the LPC may occur.)

6. The local board of education holds a public hearing for a review of the latest draft of the DFP. If approved by the local board, the DFP is submitted to the Kentucky Board of Education for final approval. If not approved, changes by the local board of education are included in correspondence with the Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky Department of Education.

7. The Kentucky Board of Education will have final approval, and if approved, the DFP governs construction projects for the school system during the next four years.

The detailed process can be found at https://education.ky.gov/districts/fac/Documents/Facilities%20Planning%202008.pdf

The local planning committee (LPC) plays a major role in the district facilities planning process. While the local planning committee must develop the DFP, the committee does not vote on how the construction projects are funded. In other words, the LPC does not vote on any type of tax raise. A change in property taxes, including the recallable nickel (which will be discussed in another article), is the decision of the local board of education.

The LPC is selected using a very strict process, which is outlined in the link above. The Lawrence County LPC has a total of 20 members, with the superintendent as the only non-voting member. Our LPC includes 4 parents, 4 teachers, and 4 building administrators with representation equally divided among the 6 schools. We have 3 community leaders with a representative from Blaine, Fallsburg, and Louisa. The committee also includes the local building/zoning official, a board of education member, a central office staff member, the district facilities director, and the superintendent.

Members of the committee are myself (non-voting member); Keisha Huff, parent; Pam Maxie, parent; Ashley Wilks, parent; Heather Frazier, parent; Marilyn Mullins, teacher; Teresa Prince, teacher; Jessica Helton, teacher; Darrell Combs, teacher; Matt Maynard, administrator; Ed Dixon, administrator; Shawn Jennings, administrator; Travis Feltner, administrator; Thomas Burns, facilities director; Anna Prince, central office administrator; Chris Wilson, community leader; Chuck Price, community leader; Larry Jordan, community leader; Jim See, board of education member; and Neil Wilson, building/zoning official.

As this point in the process, the LPC has approved a draft of the district facilities plan (DFP), and it has been sent to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) for review, which is Step 4 in the process outlined previously. The next article will be published after the recommendations from KDE have been provided to school officials. Also, the next article will provide an overview of the draft district facilities plan and will have an opportunity for people to fill out a survey to provide more input.

Finally, I appreciate your taking the time to read this article. If you have any questions, you are welcome to call me at the Board office or send me an email. I will answer any/all questions to the best of my ability.

Let’s build a better future for the students of Lawrence County. They deserve it!