The Daviess County Public Schools Board of Education has settled on the orientation for the new Highland Elementary School, agreeing Thursday night that the building should face Hayden Road, even as Board Member Frank Riney reiterated his preference that the school be rebuilt on its current site instead of relocated.
The decision did not require a formal vote. After discussion during Thursday’s board meeting, Superintendent Charles Broughton said district officials would notify the design team so work can move forward on construction documents and site planning.
“This is one of the final steps before Sherman Carter Barnhart and Alliance can really ramp everything up to move forward with construction design documents,” Broughton told the board.
After the decision was officially made to relocate the school to the property behind Daviess County Middle School, board members were asked to choose between orienting the building south toward Calumet Trace or west toward Hayden Road. The orientation affects parking layout, playground placement, traffic flow, and the overall footprint of the site.
Board Member Tom Payne said he initially leaned toward facing Calumet but changed his mind after visiting the site in person.
“I’m a visual learner,” Payne said during the meeting. “So I drove out there. I drove down Calumet and drove down Hayden Road. Even though there’s going to be some more building and construction there on that corner, it seemed fairly obvious to me that that would be the best place to place it.”
In a follow-up interview, Payne said the scale of the building was a key factor.
“It seemed to me that the school, if it were facing Calumet, would be too close for such a large structure,” he said. “I was also concerned about where the playground would be placed. Instead of next to a parking lot, it would actually be in the back. That’s what convinced me that Hayden Road would be the best location.”
Board Member James Morgan also supported facing Hayden Road, citing both space limitations and future traffic concerns.
“When the property was purchased to build a new middle school, it was also purchased with the intention of having enough room for the new Highland Elementary,” Morgan said during the meeting. “Due to some issues with the soil at that time, the middle school had to be pushed back up the hill further than what we anticipated. So the lot we’re going to build the Highland school on is a little bit smaller.”
Morgan added, “It’s going to look nice that way. I think the plan looks very good, too.”
In an interview after the meeting, Morgan said traffic safety weighed heavily in his thinking.
“There’s a lot of traffic on (Calumet) already, and there’s going to be future expansion,” he said. “If that turns into a three-lane road down the road, and then you add sidewalks, it’s going to be closer to the school. That was another concern, as far as safety is concerned.”
Morgan said the district has heard that a stoplight may eventually be installed near the middle school entrance, though nothing has been formally confirmed.
“That’s just what we’ve heard, that there will be eventually,” he said. “As far as parent drop-off and getting in and out of the new Highland, we’re still working on that. There may be some other plans to route some of that traffic, not all on Fairview, but maybe getting it out another way as well.”
Board Member Tammy Rice said she could support either option but leaned toward Hayden Road.
“I’m good with either,” Rice said. “I lean a little bit toward Hayden Road.”
Riney, however, said his concerns go beyond building orientation and center on the decision to relocate Highland Elementary altogether.
“I’m going to defer to y’all on this,” Riney said during the meeting. “I still like the old site. I’m concerned about all the things that are going to be out of our control in the future, as far as the public development over there.”
Riney said while turning the building toward Hayden Road made more sense than facing Calumet, he remains uneasy about congestion and long-term impacts.
In a follow-up interview, Riney expanded on those reservations.
“I’m concerned about the traffic situation,” he said. “It’s a smaller site, it’s a considerable building, and I’m concerned about future development. We’re going to overload things over there between the middle school and what’s coming across Hayden Road.”
Riney said he would prefer rebuilding on the current Highland site, with traffic improvements to KY 54.
“I would take advantage of going out 54,” he said. “I would build probably a couple lanes in for backing up traffic — dropping kids off in one lane and out another. There’s just more room over there, and I hate to see things crowded up. Once we build a school, whatever happens around it is totally out of our control, and we’re going to live with it for a long, long time.”
Board Member Trey Pippin was not present for Thursday’s meeting.
The orientation decision follows the board’s first detailed look earlier last month at schematic designs for the new school. Plans call for a two-story, approximately 65,600-square-foot building designed for about 600 students, with primary-grade classrooms on the first floor and intermediate grades on the second.
The design features an upside-down T layout with curved classroom wings, a centrally located media center, a multi-use cafeteria, and a gymnasium that also serves as a tornado shelter built to withstand winds up to 200 miles per hour. Each first-floor classroom includes an in-room restroom, while the second floor emphasizes storage and shared spaces.
Selecting a site orientation allows engineers and architects to finalize grading, utilities, and early site work. District officials have said they aim to complete design and construction documents within the next few months, bid the project in the spring, and begin construction as soon as possible, with the goal of opening the new Highland Elementary for the 2027-28 school year.
