BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. — Shelby Hutchinson scored honor roll at Nichols Elementary her 5th-grade year. She wants her 1st-grade son to get the same chance.
“It’s always been known to be a small school,” Hutchinson said. “It’s always been a subject, even since I was in school to close Nichols down.”
That shutdown is now closer than ever, so Hutchinson organized a protest and joined a PTA meeting pushing to save the school.
In a week, the Bullitt County School Board votes on the district’s realignment plan. It’s meant to spread students out more evenly across the district, changing hundreds of student assignments. That includes closing Nichols Elementary in the Knob Creek hills west of Shepherdsville, sending those students 12 miles away to Brooks Elementary.
Eighty-one kids currently attend Nichols. That’s 35 percent of the building’s total capacity, down 17 percent from 2020.
“I think it’s beneficial for our kids, because they get a lot of one-on-one time and experiences that other kids don’t get at bigger schools.”
The district says it costs nearly $26,000 per year, per student at Nichols. That’s about $8,500 more expensive than the district average.
In a statement, Superintendent Jesse Bacon wrote: “We explored multiple scenarios, including reassigning students from other areas to Nichols. However, each of these options would have only shifted fewer than 40 students, which would not significantly impact Nichols’ current enrollment.
Hutchinson worries longer bus rides will cut into the time she has with her children at the end of the day, although the district said ride times won’t change much.
“Decisions of this magnitude weigh heavily on me, are never taken lightly, and involve a complex balancing act of many critical factors,” Bacon continued, adding that his conversations with county officials led him to believe growth is happening in neighborhoods outside of Knob Creek.
He called closure a “last resort” move. His realignment plan predicts higher academic performance and more extracurricular options by consolidating schools.
“Our kids get out on the farm, they collect eggs. They milk cows and goats. That’s their extracurricular,” Hutchinson said. “They get to live a simpler life and a more rural life than a lot of the other kids get to do. It’s really rewarding for our kids.”
Bacon promised that, if the school board votes to close Nichols, the building would still be used for the community in some way.
That vote is next Monday, Sept. 22, at 5:00 p.m.
