School may expand with sales-tax money

Lehigh Senior High School is growing. With that growth comes some significant upgrades.

“Lehigh Senior has a tremendous amount of acreage,” said Jackie Corey, Lehigh Senior High School principal. “To support the growth of the district, we can accommodate more students.”

More students mean they need more room. Crews will build a new two-story building to house Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students and history classes.

“This new building will actually help classroom sizes get smaller, like number-wise,” said Alek Hernandez, the senior class president for the class of 2019. “It can be more hands-on with teacher and students.”

Students at the school said the new building would create a better learning space for teachers and students.

“It will give us a lot more space,” said Lisa Dong, a student. “A lot more resources for teachers to use and it’ll just allow us to learn more in those classrooms.”

They also plan to update their safety and security measures.

“We’re working on making sure the school is more safe and secure,” Principal Corey said. “We have one entry point, so we’ll be securing that office area so there will be a buzzer door. Doors where you will have to be buzzed as a school.”

Overall, the project is costing more than $13 million. The district hopes to reimburse the expense with money collected from the half-cent sales tax increase in Lee County.

Several taxpayers we talked to are content with where the money is going.

“I feel great about that,” said Matt McKernan, a neighbor. “I would even go for more tax. I believe in public school education.

“The education here in Lehigh can use better teachers, better-paid teachers and more facilities. I’m all for it and I don’t have any children in the school system.”