BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

The ongoing draft of city schools’ roadmap for facilities reveals that its three main priorities over the next four to five years involve Bowling Green Junior High School, Potter Gray Elementary and W.R. McNeill Elementary.

On Tuesday, the Bowling Green Independent School District Board of Education approved a Feb. 10, 6 p.m. public hearing on this document, the District Facility Plan.

One of the top three priorities is adding space at BGJHS – such as classroom space and additional cafeteria space – due to student enrollment, BGISD Superintendent Gary Fields said. The plan draft also calls for upgrades to the bones of the building, such as roofing and HVAC work, Fields said.

“That building started construction back in early ’99,” he said. “A lot of those systems are aging, so there’ll be a chance to look at those.”

And, the draft looks at the possibility of replacing Potter Gray and W.R. McNeill, which go back 60-plus years, he said.

“It’s really an opportunity to look at Potter Gray and (W.R.) McNeill and the process of: How do we replace those buildings in a way that creates a better learning environment?” Fields said.

The plan also encompasses smaller fixes and additions such as boiler and roof replacements as well as maintenance at other schools, he added.

Comprising parents, teachers and administrators, the BGISD Local Planning Committee has met four times since September to look at the plan and held two public forums, said BGISD Director of Technology William King, who chairs the committee.

The design team is looking at the current draft’s cost and price breakdown, King said. One caveat, Fields said, is the district’s money and bonding capacity.

The draft will be sent to the Kentucky Department of Education for an initial review and comment, which will take about four weeks, King said. BGISD will review KDE comments in January and then hold its final public forum, he said.

The BGISD Board of Education will review the draft and select a public hearing officer, King said. Following board approval, that officer will add any comments, and the document will get sent to KDE and finalized, he said.

“It’s a chance for a group of people who represent staff, parents, community members to say, ‘Hey, this is what we think you should consider going forward in this next four-to-five-year cycle,’ ” Fields said. “And it even gives them some vision of what might even be next because it’s a lot of priorities, and you can’t do it all in four to five years … It also gives them even a broader timeline to say, ‘Five or six to 10 years, these are things that are still going to be on your plate.’ So, it is truly that roadmap for the board.”

The board also completed its first reading of BGISD’s 2025-26 school calendar. The first day of school for K-12 is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 13. Outside of weekends, the next school year’s fall break is Oct. 6 to 10; its winter break is Dec. 22 to 26 and Dec. 29 to Jan. 2; and its spring break is April 6 to 10. The last day for K-12 students is May 21. People can view it and submit feedback for board members prior to their Jan. 13 meeting on the school system website.

The board also approved BGISD’s expansion of its contract with the software provider PowerSchool, which will allow the district to soon house personnel and payroll data electronically over the next five years. “The process now, when we hire new employees, is very paper intensive … (For) a lot of those documents, it’s an easier record-keeping process,” Fields said.