Danville Board of Education may have found a way to avoid demolishing or selling Edna L. Toliver Elementary School after the district’s Local Planning Committee twice recommended its replacement.
The board’s latest idea involves demolishing and rebuilding Toliver’s interior instructional space, while leaving at least the facade of the building intact to maintain its historical integrity. Members discussed the possibility during a work session Monday and asked the planning committee to consider it before the board holds its regular meeting Dec. 12.
The board’s plan technically may fit already into the planning committee’s current recommendation, which suggests “replacing” Toliver and Jennie Rogers Elementary with new buildings and using Mary G. Hogsett Elementary for district offices and an early learning center.
The Kentucky Department of Education has determined that “replacement” could mean making heavy renovations — like the changes the board envisions for Toliver — to the majority of an existing structure, said Chuck Stallard, Danville director of pupil personnel, transportation and facilities.
So board members have asked the planning committee to include in its motion, which currently refers to demolition or surplusing, KDE’s interpretation of the word “replacement.”
The school board and planning committee must reach a consensus before June, when the district facilities plan comes up for review by the state. But both entities have vowed to work together and take their time until then, Stallard said.
“If the LPC agrees to include saving or preserving some of the original building, then … my opinion is that our board would approve that,” Stallard said.
Jean Crowley, school board chairwoman and Local Planning Committee member, said she can’t predict how the committee will respond to the board’s request but suggested the state’s opinion may prove influential.
“I think the clarification from KDE with regards to ‘replacement’ and renovation may make the members of the Local Planning Committee look at it in a very new light,” she said. “The board just wants to make sure that the planning committee understands what the board has in mind when they keep referring to renovation. They mean a major redesign, rebuilding of the instructional space within the building.”
Crowley and Stallard both declined to speculate about the logistics and costs of such a renovation.
However, Mike Perros, Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce president, attended the board’s Monday work session along with about 15 other residents concerned with Toliver’s fate, and he offered his opinions as the restorer of two historic Main Street buildings.
“Once they get into the details, they will find the intricacies of doing that to be expensive and inefficient,” he said.
Perros suggested the district consolidate all three elementary schools on a single campus that could provide top-of-the-line facilities.
“In doing so, we can find another home for Toliver and get it in hands that will preserve it much better than the state of Kentucky will, which ultimately controls our schools,” he said.
The school board voted against surplusing and selling Toliver in late August but could still revisit and reverse the decision, Stallard said.
However, Crowley said keeping Toliver is the desire of the board, which wants to maintain the neighborhood school concept and preserve the integrity of the Maple Avenue Historic District recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
“The board wants to provide the best educational opportunities for kids,” she said. “They like the location. They want to preserve the building. ... They want to preserve the tradition.”
The board’s latest idea involves demolishing and rebuilding Toliver’s interior instructional space, while leaving at least the facade of the building intact to maintain its historical integrity. Members discussed the possibility during a work session Monday and asked the planning committee to consider it before the board holds its regular meeting Dec. 12.
The board’s plan technically may fit already into the planning committee’s current recommendation, which suggests “replacing” Toliver and Jennie Rogers Elementary with new buildings and using Mary G. Hogsett Elementary for district offices and an early learning center.
The Kentucky Department of Education has determined that “replacement” could mean making heavy renovations — like the changes the board envisions for Toliver — to the majority of an existing structure, said Chuck Stallard, Danville director of pupil personnel, transportation and facilities.
So board members have asked the planning committee to include in its motion, which currently refers to demolition or surplusing, KDE’s interpretation of the word “replacement.”
The school board and planning committee must reach a consensus before June, when the district facilities plan comes up for review by the state. But both entities have vowed to work together and take their time until then, Stallard said.
“If the LPC agrees to include saving or preserving some of the original building, then … my opinion is that our board would approve that,” Stallard said.
Jean Crowley, school board chairwoman and Local Planning Committee member, said she can’t predict how the committee will respond to the board’s request but suggested the state’s opinion may prove influential.
“I think the clarification from KDE with regards to ‘replacement’ and renovation may make the members of the Local Planning Committee look at it in a very new light,” she said. “The board just wants to make sure that the planning committee understands what the board has in mind when they keep referring to renovation. They mean a major redesign, rebuilding of the instructional space within the building.”
Crowley and Stallard both declined to speculate about the logistics and costs of such a renovation.
However, Mike Perros, Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce president, attended the board’s Monday work session along with about 15 other residents concerned with Toliver’s fate, and he offered his opinions as the restorer of two historic Main Street buildings.
“Once they get into the details, they will find the intricacies of doing that to be expensive and inefficient,” he said.
Perros suggested the district consolidate all three elementary schools on a single campus that could provide top-of-the-line facilities.
“In doing so, we can find another home for Toliver and get it in hands that will preserve it much better than the state of Kentucky will, which ultimately controls our schools,” he said.
The school board voted against surplusing and selling Toliver in late August but could still revisit and reverse the decision, Stallard said.
However, Crowley said keeping Toliver is the desire of the board, which wants to maintain the neighborhood school concept and preserve the integrity of the Maple Avenue Historic District recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
“The board wants to provide the best educational opportunities for kids,” she said. “They like the location. They want to preserve the building. ... They want to preserve the tradition.”
