CARTER COUNTY, KY (WOWK) – Carter County Schools was awarded $27 million for the reconstruction or renovation of East Carter High School around 1.5 years ago. However, no funding was allocated for West Carter High School.

Superintendent Paul Green said that the local planning committee met in 2022, looked at the district facility plan and decided the best use of those funds would be to explore potentially building a new central high school and career and technical center.

This would combine both East and West Carter High School and open doors for trade-work programs.

Now, the school district is in the process of possibly buying a plot of land near I-64 and US-60.

“We did our best to try to find a place that would meet that requirement. It is as close to the geographic center of the county as we could locate property,” Green said Wednesday afternoon.

Green said they are hoping to move forward, with approval from the Department of Education, to purchase the property in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the school district hired Ross Tarrant as the architect for the project and is also gathering public opinion on the new building.

On Monday, they held a public forum where the community could rank different potential designs for the building and also vote on what programs and amenities they would like to see.

Green told 13 News that their goal as they venture through this process is to remain transparent with their community.

An estimate of how much it would cost to build the school has not been released yet. Green said they do not expect to break ground for at least another year.