Eastern Kentucky school ravaged by 2022 flood likely won’t reopen until next year

One of the hardest hit schools in the Eastern Kentucky floods is slated to reopen by August 2024, Perry County school administrators told parents at a local school board meeting Thursday.

When widespread deadly flooding devastated multiple Eastern Kentucky counties in July 2022, Squabble Creek crested its banks and destroyed the interior of the rural K-12 Buckhorn School.

Since the flood, Buckhorn students have been attending classes at the old A.B. Combs Elementary School — resulting in more than an hour-long, one-way bus ride for kids living in the furthest reaches of the county.

Before the flood, Buckhorn had over 300 students, data from the Kentucky Department of Education showed. A collection of parents and other supporters of the Buckhorn School packed a local school board meeting Thursday to request an update on the construction of the school.

“Parents are only patient to a certain degree,” Bernis Napier Jr., the president of the Buckhorn Alumni and a retired teacher, told the school board. In the 14 months since the flood, parents have “seen nothing going on,” he said.

Administrators did their best to explain the upcoming construction schedule and any holdups that might be slowing that schedule. The Perry County School District will have to pay for the $15 million re-construction project up front and then hopefully be reimbursed for the project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — but only if the district complies with stringent federal guidelines, said Jody Maggard, the district’s chief financial officer.

Following those guidelines, waiting for certain levels of approval and having to change contractors has made progress relatively slow going. Maggard said originally there was some hope the school could open by Christmas of this year but that goal was always going to be a “grand slam,” he said.

At the Thursday meeting, the school board approved a contract to make Codell Construction Management the construction manager which will allow for the project to begin in earnest.

“I know it’s aggravating and I know there’s a lot of red tape to go through but I have confidence that the board hired the right construction manager to get the job done,” said Kent Campbell, the Perry County schools superintendent.

According to a construction timeline the district posted this week to its Facebook page, work like the pouring of interior concrete slabs, door installations, drywall hanging and some mechanical and electrical work will be completed over the next two months.

The district has already spent and been reimbursed for $2.7 million to get the building cleaned up by Servpro after the flood, Maggard said.

The Buckhorn project is part of $50 million the district will have to spend to rebuild Buckhorn and construct a new building for Robinson Elementary, another Perry County school that was so badly damaged by the flood that it had to be demolished. The district is trying to close a deal to secure land for the Robinson building. Maggard said they’re hoping FEMA will provide a reimbursement for the full total.

“I’m using your money, taxpayer dollars, $50 million of it,” Maggard said. “I want to make sure when I spend that $50 million, we’re going to get our $50 million back.”

Many parents have been upset about what they feel has been a lack of information about the project, said Missy Morris, a parent to twins who are freshmen at Buckhorn. Administrators told parents at the meeting they hope to post weekly updates online.

“We’re gonna hold them to that,” Morris said after the meeting.

The school is at the heart of the Buckhorn community, Morris said. She graduated from the school and met her husband there. Her sons have complained about the conditions in the A.B. Combs building, which was originally closed in 2017 but reopened after the flood. Other parents have told her their kids have had headaches.

Students living in the community of Saul — located near the county’s western edge — could face up to four hours a day on buses, Napier said. Any parent who may need to drive their child somewhere for a school-related function were also likely facing higher costs.