by Robert Moore

It's basic math. Burgin Independent School has too many students and not enough classrooms. Last week, the Burgin Board of Education held a special work session to discuss the issue.

School Superintendent Martha Collier provided the board members with a map of the school and sketched out the situation.

"We're already over capacity," Collier said. There is no room for expansion on the school's first floor. Nor is there room in the basement, home to the school's cafeteria and utilities room. Collier said it was already difficult to fit all the students in the cafeteria.

Burgin officials are worried what will happen once the city’s sanitary sewer system is completed. Construction hasn’t even started yet on the project, but a local businessman, Robert Hall, has already announced plans to build a large mobile home park that could bring many more families and children to Burgin.

“There’s been talk Burgin’s going to grow. We don’t know. We don’t have a silver ball,” Collier said.

Even a small increase in the school’s population can create a problem, Collier said, due to state limits on class size. The Commonwealth has placed a cap of 24 students for elementary classes. Just

one extra student means the school has to create a new classroom.

This year, Burgin is struggling to handle its middle school population. One teacher volunteered to move over to the Lyons Building, which currently houses the school's agriculture department and Family Resources and Youth Services Center. The teacher and her husband cleaned the carpet and painted the room to get it ready for classes.

"She left a brand new classroom to move over there," Collier said. The situation at Burgin is completely opposite that of Mercer County Schools, who have lost 344 students since enrollment peaked in the 2008- 2009 school year.

Collier said Burgin's enrollment is projected to keep growing. The school no longer allows people to join the waiting list. They cannot allow people off the waiting list anyway because of contracts with Mercer County.

"We have to start thinking down the road because we don't know what to expect," Collier said. She wants to redo the school's facility plan early.

Even though the plan is not due until 2018, Collier has been looking at modular units. At present, building is not an option, she said. It would likely cost half a million dollars to build two classrooms, and the school does not have the bonding capacity to handle construction costs.

However, continued use of the Lyons Building, which started out as a covered picnic pavilion decades ago, is not optimal. The rest rooms are small and not in the best condition. The middle school students will have to walk across the school's busy parking lot.

Board member Priscilla Harris called the ag building a "band aid."

The board agreed to meet with an architect to discuss modular classrooms at their next regular meeting. They also agreed to start providing lunches for the Kentucky School for the Deaf. KSD Principal Will Begley asked Burgin if they would provide lunches until December, when KSD's cafeteria was scheduled to reopen.