HVA’s new addition opens
“Thank you for coming here today for such a historic moment for Hardin Valley Academy,” principal Kirk Renegar said. “I cannot help but think about the first ribbon cutting for Hardin Valley Academy, and I am absolutely honored and humbled to serve here as the principal for this incredible school and this incredible community and to be here today, 17 years later, is absolutely surreal.
He said the project is “yet another important milestone in Hardin Valley Academy.
“And, it’s an important milestone, for me, in fulfilling the vision of Mrs. Sallee Reynolds (HVA’s first principal) in the development of a school whose initial charge was to be something different than the standard high school experience,” he said about the school’s using the academy model.
The new, 43,861-square-foot addition will serve as a dedicated freshman academy with a satellite administrative area, as well as additional labs for the school’s Health Science and STEM Academies, a special education suite, a teacher work room and an ICC-500 compliant storm shelter.
Knox County Schools superintendent Jon Rysewyk
said the new space gives space for STEM labs the freshmen academy.
“Those of us who have been around for a while remember this school opened in 2008,” he said. “I think it was the first school Knox County Schools built in about 30 years,” he said. “It was our first high school that was built with our academy model.
“You’ll see now, we have 865 Academies across all of our schools,” Rysewyk added.
At Hardin Valley, he said more than 2,000 students now are enrolled in career-themed academies: business and law, STEM, health sciences and liberal arts, which includes communications and design.
The superintendent acknowledged Douglas Shover, KCS director of facilities and new construction; Cope Architects; and Merit Construction.
“The new wing certainly has positive impacts on all our (other) academies as well … improved the space for our Health Science and STEM academies,” Renegar said. “However, it is important to note that this completion has also had a tremendous trickle-down effect on the rest of our academic program and learning spaces by allowing us to move around some of those learning spaces in our current building,” he said. “And, it has been critical in the development of the criminal justice lab, visual media lab, a Robotics lab, a digital arts lab and a photography lab that will impact all of our learners here at Hardin Valley.
