Plans for controversial new school moving forward
SOMERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Despite a controversial location, plans are moving forward to build a new elementary school in West Tennessee that could help end a long-running desegregation case.
The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/1eQyIGb) reports crews have been working at the site near downtown Somerville to prepare it for construction of Buckley Carpenter Elementary school.
Critics of the project, led by Fayette County Commissioner Terry Leggett, say the site poses health risks to children and adults because it contains asbestos from a high school that was demolished and buried on the site.
School board chairman James Garrett said crews are removing contaminated soil before construction starts. He says when the school opens next fall, it should fulfill provisions of a consent decree issued two months ago in a desegregation case that began in 1965.
