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HOLT: ALL-NEW HHS 'NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR'

Rendering shows a new HHS with a courtyard and a new auditorium.

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners and School Board convened a rare face-to-face meeting this morning to try to resolve differences over the design of Hendersonville High School and school construction priorities. Stay with the Lightning for live coverage.


The first slide, from county architect ClarkNexsen, said: BUILDING ON TRADITION. What came next was a bold and ambitious new high school that featured a large classroom building, auditorium and gym, sited to the north of current high school on the old Boyd auto dealership property.

ClarkNexsen architect Chad Roberson presented a design for HHS that includes a new core classroom building, new auditorium seating 900 people, a courtyard in the area that now contains the band room and cafeteria. Stone from the old gym would be used in parts of the facade. A new gym seating 1,000 people backs up to the stadium and would contain a fieldhouse to serve football teams. A balcony space would connect to the courtyard.

The brick and stone facility would have numerous design echoes of the historic Stillwell Building, Roberson said, and would be the most prominent structure motorists would see as they approach downtown Hendersonville from the north.

"This building will be the first buildng you see as you drive into Hendersonville," he said. "It's important that there be a front door whether it's used regularly or not."

Among initial reactions was the lack of new parking. The plan basically envisions street parking as now exists.

"I think we're playing down the need for parking," School Board member Rick Wood.

"We're basically rearranging the existing parking that's behind the Stillwell buildng," Lapsley said. "But there's no really net gain of parking spaces. It's just better configured." He said the county most likely will need to acquire more land for parking.

An hour into the presentation no talk of what becomes of the historic Stillwell Building and the auditorium. In the end there was no new discussion on the historic core classroom building.

"We have a duty to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren just like the people that built the Stillwell building," Commissioner Michael Edney said. "That's why I support the new construction. New is going to be easier and better for everybody."

Commissioner Bill Lapsley said the total construction cost of $110 million of three major school construction projects — the new Innovative High School, Edneyville and HHS — was too much to tackle at once. Commissioners decided instead "to bite off the bigger ones first... It ends up staggering the debt. It would add more debt but it would be offset by less inflation."

The Stillwell building could be used for supplemental classrooms, Lapsley added.

The School Board voted 4-3 last April for a renovation and new construction option and since then members have complained that commissioners usurped the School Board's authority to manage school construction.

"It is not what we voted for," School Board member Amy Lynn Holt said of the new school the architect unveiled. "I'm not willing to go forward on this Hendersonville High project." She told the commissioners that "with due respect, you've overstepped your bounds."

Hawkins responded that if the School Board does not support the plans as approved by the Board of Commissioners, the School Board should propose a bond issue for the spring of 2018.

School Board member Colby Coren said, "As we move forward. I stand by my decision a year ago" for new construction. "If we do support this board I can't sit here and say I do it happy because Edneyville is still out there."

"What the board thought was that there was a better way to do that," preserving Chairman Ervin Bazzle said. "Don't confuse acquiesence with support."

"I am disappointed," said Mary Louise Corn. "I feel like the Stillwell building is ours" but with inadequate money, "not enough to really renovate it, not enough to really make it an integral part of Hendersonville but I cannot vote to stop movement on the plan that has been presented here with all the input that Mr Wilkins has had and his staff has had. The problem is that we didn't have this talk earlier."

Rick Wood said: "Seeing the plans, that's a beautiful high school. I really commend the architect in how you included the design of the Stillwell building into the new building. That's great touch. I know I would like to be coaching in a faclity like that. ... I hear a commitment from you that you want to do the Edneyville project as soon as feasible. That's good to hear. That relieves some of my concerns there."

Bazzle warned that the commissioners and School Board ought to continue meeting face to face in a cooperative spirit.

"If we don't I'm afraid the next conversation will be in what this used to be (a courtroom)," he said. "You don't need that."

Commissioner Charlie Messer said if the county doesn't greenlight the HHS now, construction cost escalation will drive costs up.

"If we wait it's going to be $70 or $75 million and we won't be able to afford it," he said. "If we change those plans I think we're putting the whole project in jeopardy."

Two hours and 20 minutes after the discussion began, on a motion by Hawkins, the commissioners voted unanimously to move ahead with the next phase of the HHS design and construction, including a city rezoning request that Roberson predicted would take three to four months.

The commissioners unanimously approved Edney's motion expressing the board's support for continued use of the Stillwell building once the new HHS is finished and open.

A  group had been working on the new design for several weeks. The group, made up of  Commissioners Grady Hawkins and Bill Lapsley, School Board members Ervin Bazzle and Mary Louise Corn, schools Supt. Bo Caldwell, Assistant Supt. John Bryant, and Dave Berry and John Mitchell from the county. "This group got together after the commissioners made the decision to proceed with the project and selected Clark Nexsen. The group has met on several occasions," Lapsley said.

Between meetings, the architect met with HHS principal Bobby Wilkins and schoolteachers to go over the concept.

"As they fine tuned all these recommendations and the concept came together and at the last meeting of the working group we all agreed that it was time to share this and that the best way is in a joint meeting," Lapsley said.

Hawkins said ClarkNexsen architects has spent "an inordinate" amount of time meeting with teachers and Wilkins to get their input on the new design.

"I think that the presentation is a culmination of a lot of hard work on the faculty part as well as the Board of Ed," Hawkins said.

"I don't know how we can go back and look at the surrounding properties that are available," Commissioner Charlie Messer said. No design can accommodate all the parking needs, especially for special events like football games. "It doesn't matter. There's parking issues" at all four public high schools.

Bazzle, who lost his re-election bid to a sixth term, reflected on past battles with the commissioners and praised the current board for its cooperation on school construction.

"We learned that no accomplishment is possible unless we work together," he said. "Like most families we're not going to always agree. And that's OK as long as we're fighting over the issues and not with each other. ... Confrontation really does accomplish very little ... If it's going to be solved, it's going to be solved by these two boards, not the public."

"There are many things about this plan I like," he said. "It has nothing to do with having ownership of this plan. It has to do with what we're looking at 20 or 30 years from now."

He made one last appeal for the commissioners to put Edneyville Elementary School ahead of HHS. Commissioners have reversed the order of two remaining projects long on the School Board's priority list — putting HHS ahead of Edneyville.

"I'm a little bit offended that (commissioners said) we didn't make the case for Edneyville," he said. "We made the case in 1998 and every year thereafter."

Commissioner Charlie Messer promised cooperation on Edneyville.

"We are going to work with the future board," he said. "We've got this plan (for HHS), $50 million, probably go to $55 million."

Questioned about his idea for the Stillwell building, Chairman Tommy Thompson said the historic building could be used for the school administration and for classroom use. Commissioners have mentioned as well using the central office property on Fourth Avenue West for a new public library.