News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: County moves toward the right call on HHS

By Bill Moss, Published: September 12, 2016

Although it took a while, the Henderson County commissioners have done the right thing in tentatively endorsing a plan to make the historic Hendersonville High School building a part of a new campus.

County commissioners have always emphasized that none of the plans on the table envisioned bulldozing the 1926 core building and the auditorium designed by Hendersonville architect Erle Stilwell.
But the issue of whether the old HHS would still be used for classrooms and as the site of the most hallowed traditions of the Bearcat Nation — such as Move Up and the senior play — has created conflict within the town, unnecessarily. Commissioners could have made it easier on themselves had they accepted the recommendation of the School Board to combine renovation and new construction in a way that would preserve and sustain the old building for decades to come.
At the end of a five-hour discussion on Aug. 17 that ratified their earlier decision to go with a new construction option, the commissioners opened the door to making the Stillwell building a part of HHS after all. Commissioners tossed the issue back to the School Board. It wasn’t quite clear what that meant. Some read it as a political dodge. As the Hendersonville Lightning reported, School Board candidate Michael Absher criticized the commissioners for “throwing the School Board under the bus at the end of the meeting basically saying, ‘Oh, we’re just going to put it back in the School Board’s hands what to do with the Stillwell building’ after the recommendation was already presented to them what the majority (of the School Board) wanted.”
Week before last, County Manager Steve Wyatt sat down with schools Superintendent Bo Caldwell to talk about how the Stillwell building could be used. It was a positive discussion with the shared goal of figuring out how to best serve students while not driving the overall cost above a $52 million ceiling. Scrapping plans for a new auditorium is a promising starting point. That option would save $3 million and enable the county to redirect the money to a basic renovation of HHS.
It might have looked like a hot potato in the School Board’s lap at first glance but Wyatt and Caldwell have eased that concern with a clearly stated letter that sets the course for a positive outcome. The question of what might go in the Stillwell building goes next to the School Board, which should receive the opportunity with the same cooperative spirit that offered it.
It has not been an easy road but the chance exists now for the Board of Commissioners and the School Board to get it right when it comes to a new Hendersonville High School that honors the traditions of the old Hendersonville High School in a tangible way.