ELIZABETHTON — The Carter County School Board voted unanimously on Thursday to make Burleson Construction Company of ºÚÁÏÊÓƵ as the project manager for the repairs to Hampton High School.
Hampton High School has been closed since the school was flooded on Sept. 27 by the nearby Doe River as part of the destruction caused to the region by Hurricane Helene. Since the storm, the school has been held in the building that formerly housed Keenburg Elementary School. The high school will continue to use Keenburg for its classrooms and other facilities until the project being overseen by Burleson is completed.
The board had previously decided to rebuild the school at its current location. Other options had been to consolidate with one of the other high schools in the county and build a new campus. The rebuild at the current site was seen as the lowest cost option at a time when the county has many other expenditures caused by the Hurricane Helene disaster.
Local funding for the project is anticipated to be less than $1 million. The three other options would have required between $45 million to $65 million in local funding.
The county will receive a $20 million contribution from the state government to help with the rebuilding of the high school at its current site. The county is also anticipating reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The county’s insurance claim on the damage caused to Hampton High School by the flood was denied by Tennessee Risk Management.
