The footers and foundation have been laid for a new Amish school in the May’s Lick area.
Although the school has only been under construction for about a week, the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.
The school house is located in the May’s Lick area on Kentucky 324 near the railroad crossing.
Joseph Coblentz, head of the Amish school board, said the school will be completed in approximately five weeks, and classes are scheduled to begin in early September.
Two female instructors will teach in the two-classroom schoolhouse, and 38 students will attend classes in the fall.
The facility will be 48 feet by 100 feet and include a community building with a basketball court and a playground.
Coblentz said the community building will be used to provide suppers for residents in the local community. Donations raised from the suppers will help pay for the new school. The Amish community plans to have three suppers a year.
“(The community center) will help support our school,” Coblentz said.
He said the suppers will be advertised, and anyone is invited to attend.
Last year, the Amish community sponsored a supper to raise money for the school, and Coblentz said there was a good response. He said they were expecting 150 people to attend, but by the end of the night, more than 350 people showed up to give their support.
“It was just way above our expectations,” Coblentz said.
Last year, 13 Amish students attended school in the area, and the school is being built to accommodate the growing population of Amish families.
Amish children complete their education by the eighth grade.
Coblentz, who was a teacher for four years, said the Amish textbooks are more advanced than the textbooks at public schools; when Amish children reach the eighth grade, they are learning on an 11th grade level.
Coblentz also said the population of school children will not reach more than 40 students. When the student population increases, another school house will be built.
The Amish community would like to see three school houses built in the Mays Lick area, Coblentz said.
Eleven families make up the May’s Lick Amish community, and the families have lived in the area for more than a year. The families moved here from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
“There are a lot of Amish people in the world … It is just a small community here,” Coblentz said.
Coblentz said residents in the May’s Lick area have been supportive of the Amish community. The close-knit community was what brought the Amish to live in May’s Lick.
“The small May’s Lick community was one of the reasons we picked it,” he said. “We like a close community.”
Coblentz said the Amish decided to settle in Kentucky because they liked the landscape. The rolling hills and thick forests appealed to the Amish families, he said.
The lush countryside was the inspiration for the name of the new schoolhouse — Scenic View School
“We think the countryside here is one of the prettiest we’ve seen,” Coblentz said. “It is just a real pretty place to live.”
Contact Kasey Doyle at kasey.doyle@lee.net or call 564-9091, ext. 318.
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