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New Model Laboratory School to be built on new site on EKU's campus

Construction on the new Model Laboratory School is scheduled to begin next summer and be complete by the fall of '27.
EKU
Construction on the new Model Laboratory School is scheduled to begin next summer and be complete by the fall of '27.

Richmond’s Model Laboratory School is moving to a new site on Eastern Kentucky University’s campus. EKU officials announced Friday that construction of the new Model Lab is entirely funded by 149-million dollars from the General Assembly. John Williamson is the Dean of P-12 programs for EKU and the superintendent of Model Lab.

“The school has been here since the early 1960s and it is really just outlived its usefulness. The systems are failing, being able to keep students warm, safe and dry at all times is just not as easy as it as it is in a new building.”

Williamson said the new facility will offer the next generation of future teachers at EKU the best kind of learning laboratory to practice methods they’ll use when they graduate. The new school and its facilities will be on the south side of EKU’s campus, near the Big E parking lot on Kit Carson Drive.

“As our school population grows and as our program opportunities expand for students, we just don't have real estate in our current location to do all our athletic programs, our performing arts programs.”

Williamson said the new site will allow them to keep the growing student population in one place. He said Model Lab is the last school in Kentucky to offer future teachers daily opportunities on a college campus to practice the skills they’ll need when they graduate.

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John McGary is a Lexington native and Navy veteran with three decades of radio, television and newspaper experience.
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