By Bill Grubb

ROGERSVILLE — The Hawkins County Board of Education voted Thursday to accept a bid of $8.5 million for the constuction of a new school to serve students in the fifth and sixth grades.
    Merit Construction, of Knoxville, was one of six contractors submitting bids, which ranged from the low bid of $8,506,600 to $9,555,800.  The new school will be located adjacent to Church Hill Middle School and is part of the school system’s Phase Three building program.
    The Church Hill facility and a new Clinch School are the final projects in the county school system’s Phase III building program, funded by a $38 million bond issue.
    Construction is under way on two projects, additions to Bulls Gap School and a new classroom wing at Cherokee High School and construction on a classroom wing a Volunteer should begin in the near future, according to architect Don Solt. 
    The BOE reviewed final plans for the Clinch school, with bids scheduled to be opened August 28. 
    The Bulls Gap, Cherokee and Volunteer projects are slated to be ready at the start of the 2009 school year, with the two new schools to be completed by the end of 2009.
    The board also approved several transportation related matters, including authorizing Transportation Supervisor Sarah Floyd to hire an additional bus driver for bus routes in the Rogersville area.
    Floyd told board members the bus routes located primarily inside the city were already operating at maximum capacity, with several drivers making two runs, and the addition of students attending the city school would result in overcrowding.
    The transportation supervisor said the system has several spare buses that can be used but the additional driver would require board approval, because it was not include in the original budget.
    The board approved a limiting each teacher to one field trip per year during the school day and establishing a minimum fee of $25 or $1 per mile, whichever is greater, to offset the cost of fuel.  School functions, such as athletic events, would be exempt from the fuel charge.  Any group not directly associated with the school system would pay a fee of $1.5 per mile for fuel.