For the past year construction on a new school has been underway on the 117-acre site shared by Lightridge and Hovatter Elementary.   Scheduled to open  for the 2024-25 school year, Henrietta Lacks Elementary will serve as a companion school to Hovatter Elementary.  

 “It’s being built because of the overcrowding that has occurred at Hovatter Elementary School,” said Dr. Ryan Hitchman, principal of Lightridge High school. “Whenever Lacks Elementary School opens it’s going to serve students in grades K through two, and Hovatter Elementary school will then serve students in grades three through five.”

This grade distribution may be subject to change since, as of the time of publication, Hitchman said LCPS has no enrollment projections.

Hitchman serves on the Superintendent’s Principal’s Advisory Committee, a group of principals that consult the Superintendent on various issues. Dr. Hitchman will be working with Lori Mercer, the principal of Hovatter, and the new Principal of Henrietta Lacks. Together, they will come up with a schedule to determine things like school start and end times.

Hitchman explained that simply expanding Hovatter was more expensive and difficult than building a new school.

“I wish they would’ve built Hovatter larger so that they would not now build a second elementary school,” said Hitchman. “ I think if they would’ve built Hovatter as a three story school and increased their capacity, that would not necessitate building a second school.”

Hitchman  also recognized that having over 1500 elementary school students in one building would be “problematic.”

Daryl Potts, Lightridge school security Officer, weighed in on the potential traffic problem that a new school might bring.

“I don’t think honestly it will impact traffic too much because of the time the elementary school gets out” he said. In order to solve the traffic problem Lightridge already has, Potts suggested revamping the road out front and making it double lanes.