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Wood BOE modifies facilities plan

Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling, who oversees facilities for Wood County Schools and has been the lead administrator on the district’s $41 million bond call, presented an amendment Tuesday for the district’s 10-year facilities plan. (Photo by Michael Erb)

Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling, who oversees facilities for Wood County Schools and has been the lead administrator on the district's $41 million bond call, presented an amendment Tuesday for the district's 10-year facilities plan. (Photo by Michael Erb)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education on Tuesday modified its 10-year facilities plan to reflect $51 million in proposed construction and renovation project throughout the district.

Wood County Schools will ask voters on Nov. 8 to approve a $41 million bond call, which will be used to fund $51 million in construction, renovations and roof repair and replacements.

The district is asking for an additional $10 million from the state School Building Authority to fund the project.

The district uses a 10-year Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan to outline use and changes of facilities. The current CEFP ends in 2020, and work on the next CEFP will begin in 2019. Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling, who oversees facilities for Wood County Schools and has been the lead administrator on the bond call, said Tuesday the state Department of Education and SBA require any major changes in facilities to be reflected in the district’s facilities plan.

“This is all pre-bond information,” Fling said.

The state Department of Education meets Nov. 9, the day after the bond goes up for a vote, and the SBA conducts project interviews Nov. 14-15, he said.

The facilities bond seeks to build a new Williamstown-area elementary school, closing and consolidating Williamstown Elementary and Waverly Elementary. Williamstown High would have additional classrooms added to move all Williamstown and Waverly sixth-graders into the school, creating a true middle/high school.

If the bond passes Nov. 8, “it will be three years of construction,” Fling said. “It would be the 2019-20 school year before there would be any change of configuration” and the current elementary schools would close.

The bond also seeks to expand and renovate the Wood County Technical Center on the campus of Parkersburg South High School and to fund roof repairs and replacements throughout the county.

Fling said the amendment approved Tuesday reflects these changes in the current CEFP. The original CEFP called for building a new Williamstown Elementary and closing the old school in 2013. The CEFP also called for the closing of Worthington Elementary School but no action was ever taken on that plan.

The bond has received opposition from the Waverly community which has questioned why its elementary school was the only school marked for closure and consolidation. A meeting Monday at the school between Wood County Schools administrators and Waverly residents at times turned contentious.

Charleston resident Fred Clark, who is originally from Waverly and has grandkids at Waverly Elementary, spoke out against the bond call at Monday’s meeting and renewed his opposition Tuesday.

Clark called the bond “flawed” and said the plan to close Waverly was “a terrible waste of a resource that the community has supported and built.”

Williamstown resident Eric Morgan spoke in favor of the bond, though he sympathized with the Waverly community.

“I feel for everyone who has had to have their alma mater closed,” he said. “As parents, my wife and I support the new Williamstown Elementary School.”

Morgan is a civil engineer, and said he has been following discussions on the new elementary school.

“I feel good about the chosen plan,” he said. “I feel good about our kids getting to go to a new elementary school.”

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