A satellite image of the 31.23 acre site, located at 143 Clark Road in Washington, where the new Lubeck School will be built. The Wood County Board of Education voted to authorize the board president and superintendent to enter into a purchase agreement of the property Thursday night during a special meeting. The board will close on the property today and officially take it over on June 1. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education voted 5-0 to authorize the board president and superintendent to enter into a purchase agreement of the real estate for the new Lubeck Elementary School during a special meeting Thursday.

“We’re finally here,” Board President Justin Raber said. “This is a huge movement for us in moving this bond forward. And there’s been a lot that has gone into this day.”

The 31.23 acre site, located at 143 Clark Road in Washington, was purchased for $755,000 and will house 378 students once the project is complete.

Superintendent Christie Willis said the district will close on the property today and the school system will officially take it over on June 1, allowing the current resident to reside there as a “renter” until May 31. She said the process began in November 2022 when president and CEO of Pickering Associates Ryan Taylor and herself began knocking on doors to inquire about properties.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Willis said.

She said this was the same property Tyler Eppley, civil engineer and design manager, presented to the board during their regular meeting in January. He said then that there were a lot of different factors that were involved in selecting this property. He said site location, physical features, the geography, the geotechnical reports on the property, environmental, archaeological and historical factors, along with highway access and utilities, were all important.

“From Pickering’s perspective, we believe that the site, from doing our due diligence across the site evaluation process, and more specifically the site feasibility study, is that the site is adequate to accommodate the new Lubeck Elementary School,” Eppley told the board in January.

Willis said, with the help of Pickering Associates, the hope is to have a full design of the new school to present to the board during their April 23 meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education is scheduled for April 9 at 6 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed online.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com