The Logan County schools district facilities plan contains many great ideas and millions of dollars worth of projects. Some parts of the plan will become reality fairly soon, while other parts may never happen.

Either way, said Mike Hurt, associate superintendent and chairman of the Logan County Local Planning Committee, said they put in as many requests as they can in hopes of getting enough money to do at least part of what they would like to.

This latest plan includes everything from a multi-million dollar new school to drinking fountains. Some items have been on the plan before and others are new.

School districts must evaluate their facilities every four years and create a new facilities plan.

“It’s a long-range plan,” Hurt explained.

The new K-8 school which was listed in the last district facilities plan is still there. Property for the school, which will be located on Franklin Road, has been purchased and plans to build it in two phases have been drawn up. However, construction on the school has been postponed due to budget cuts.

“The money is getting slimmer all the time,” Hurt said. “We don’t really have enough money to build some of this stuff.”

Another big ticket item on the wish list is the construction of a new career and technical education center on the Logan County High School property. That is listed under the capital construction priorities scheduled after the 2012 biennium.

Hurt explained that in developing the district facilities plan they follow guidelines put in place by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). KDE looks at things like enrollment and current facilities, figures out how much unmet need the district has and then allots a certain amount of money to help meet those needs.

“The we look at how much money we have and what we can do with it,” Hurt said.

Some items that are put in the plan are there simply because according to KDE guideline, they can be. One example is a new cafeteria addition at Auburn School. Because of Auburn’s enrollment and the size of the existing cafeteria, KDE guidelines show that the school needs a larger cafeteria. Since the school is landlocked and there really isn’t much room at all to build, a new addition is highly unlikely, but including that on the plan helps increase the apparent unmet need. Having a higher unmet need behooves the district, Hurt explained, because the higher the need the more money you are more likely to get.

How much actually gets done will depend on the amount of money the district receives and the economy in general, Hurt said.

One item on the plan that will get done first will be securing the entries of all schools.

“I’d like to see us address that issue,” said superintendent Marshall Kemp, “and perhaps do a small addition here and there.”

The Logan County Board of Education approved the district facilities plan as presented to them at their meeting Tuesday evening. Before the plan can be sent on to Frankfort, the board must give the public a chance to look at and comment on the plan. A public hearing to review the plan will be held Tuesday, March 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the district office.