Hanson Elementary

Hanson Elementary School replaces its namesake as a community pillar in Hanson, Kentucky. 600 pre-kindergarten through fifth-graders will call the facility home. Lower-floor classrooms are designed for younger students, with classrooms including dedicated restroom facilities and stair-free access to all shared program areas. Upper floor classrooms are generously sized due to the mechanical mezzanine located above classroom wings, permitting almost all upper-story areas to serve an instructional purpose.

The facility’s shared programs, including Gymnasium, Cafeteria, Administration, Media Center, and Specials Classrooms, are located adjacent to the Great Hall, which provides breakout areas for 21st Century education. A large Flex Lab and Extended Learning areas are adjacent to the Media Center provide ample room for breakouts, meetings, training, and professional development alike. Students will enter and exit every day over the salvaged center-court circle from the basketball court of Hanson’s predecessor, a floor on which a state-record 114 points were scored in a single game by Wayne Oakley in 1954.

Seating for all 600 students is provided in the Gymnasium, which doubles as the facility’s Storm Shelter, providing a community shelter designed to withstand winds of 250 mph. This facility boasts space, structure, and systems designed to function before, during, and after a tornado. The adjacent Cafeteria provides a practice gymnasium, with striping and basketball goals furnished for overflow events from the Gymnasium.

Hanson Elementary also reflects the incredible involvement of its community, with a site designed to accommodate car-rider drop-off for the vast majority of students. A geothermal wellfield double as a play space, rounding out a site as tied to the community as the facility it replaces.