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Wood BOE plan moves to 20 schools

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education had its first of two 2020-2030 Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan meetings and announced that Wood County Schools will be going from 24 schools to 20 schools within that 10-year timeframe during a meeting Tuesday evening at Jefferson Elementary School.

The plan was presented by Michael Fling, Wood County Schools Assistant Superintendent of Support Services, and Adam Krason, with ZMM Architects and Engineers.

The presentation included all new construction and school consolidation, upgrades and improvements and existing facilities. The CEFP is a state-required document that also helps school systems plan ahead for funding requests and bond calls.

“It’s gonna frustrate some people, we’re looking at a plan that would be our loftiest goal in the future. To be able to build these new facilities for our communities, but it will take the community support to do that,” Fling said. “We’re not out to close anybody’s facility just for the simple fact of saying, ‘You’re closed.’ We want to move schools and students into brand new facilities. This past year, we closed some schools and we combined schools, our goal is to build new facilities in this plan. So when the students leave their current facility, they would be moving into something that is as technically advanced as we can make it at the time,” he said.

Starting in 2021, the CEFP calls for the construction of two new schools with a consolation of Fairplains/Franklin at an estimated cost of $16.3 million and Vienna/Neale at a cost of nearly $21 million. Van Devender Middle School will be closed and students will have the choice between Jackson and Hamilton that could happen in 2025 at the earliest.

The final project will be between Criss/Emerson Elementary school in 2027 for about $20 million dollars.

A new Lubeck Elementary school will be built and will move south on W.Va. 68 starting in 2022 at the cost of about $17 million.

Renovations and additions to Madison Elementary to accommodate the change in the district and a $4 million HVAC replacement at Edison Middle School will take place in 2027.

Fling said the elementary facilities could be created as a pre-K through fifth grade school, so it will be two schools in one.

During 2020, the district is in the process of making lighting, heating and air conditioning improvements at schools throughout the county. The $11.2 million projects are to make schools more energy-efficient and lower utility costs. This will mostly be funded through lease agreements that will be paid back in energy savings.

Part of the $40.3 million bonds includes the consolidation of Fairplains/Franklin and Vienna/Neale. It will also pay for air conditioning at Parkersburg High School Field House and the Rod Oldham Activity Center at Parkersburg South High School starting in 2021.

Blennerhassett Middle and Elementary, Jefferson Elementary Center, Mineral Wells Elementary, and Kanawha Elementary schools will start Phase One of replacing windows starting in 2023. The total cost will be about $925,00 and paid through an 80/20 percent split between the Small Business Administration and Wood County Schools.

In 2024 the Jackson Middle School enclosure project would bring the building under one roof at a cost of just under $4 million. The project also would be funded through an 80/20 percent split between the SBA and Wood County Schools.

For 2025, work would begin with Phase II of the window replacement plan. The phase would include Edison Middle School as well as Gihon, Madison, and Martin elementary schools at a cost of about $908,000 and would be a 80/20 percent split between the SBA and WCS.

For 2026, the district would begin structural repairs and improvements to Blennerhassett Elementary and Middle schools. The project is estimated to cost about $1 million and would be paid for through an 80/20 percent split between the SBA and WCS.

The 2020-30 CEFP includes about $107.5 million in construction and renovation projects. About $19 million would come from the SBA and the remaining $88.5 million would be paid for with bond and local funds.

“We completed this 10-year CEFP with Pickering and Associates, they did the facility evaluations and we facilitated the community meetings,” Krason said. “But I guess that’s the important thing is that this was driven by the community through the CEFP committee that Wood County Schools established. This isn’t one person’s plan. This isn’t our plan. This is the plan that the committee developed after looking at the data about the condition of the facilities, the future needs, energy utilization, and the utilization of the facilities,” he said.

Contact Tyler Bennett at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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