Greater Clark County Schools breaks ground on new Charlestown Elementary School

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) -Greater Clark County Schools broke ground on Friday with their latest school.

Charlestown Elementary School will hold around 12,000 students, all Pre-K through 5th grade.

Superintendent Mark Laughner said the new school will cost about $55 million.

”This building is going to be so impressive to walk into,” Laughner said. “You want kids to walk into a school building and want to stay there and not want to go home. And that is what we are striving for in all of our facilities. We are going to manage our projects, so we can keep the tax rate at a dollar ten and really let the assessed value drive what we can do with facilities across the district.”

Pleasant Ridge Elementary and Jonathan Jennings Elementary students will combine under one roof to attend the new school. The entire building will be around 140,000 square feet.

Inside features include STEM labs, larger classrooms, a gym and more.

Teachers from both of the combined schools said the new school is a much-needed upgrade, with their existing elementary school buildings being more than 50 years old.

”I love that each grade level is going to have their own little area where they can go,” GCCS teacher Lori Blaydes said. “So that will be nice for the kids to have their own little home base, and then they can move across the school to go to things like the gym, the media center, the cafeteria.”

The school board said Charlestown Elementary is one of three new buildings that will replace five of the district’s oldest elementary schools.

In Jeffersonville, Thomas Jefferson Elementary and Wilson Elementary will combine into Pike Elementary. The third will replace Parkwood Elementary in Clarksville.

GCCS is hoping all three new schools will be open in time for the 2025- 2026 school year.

The district said they are planning on breaking ground on Pike Elementary in the fall.

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