CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County school board took a step Thursday night to allow its officials to ask the state School Building Authority to provide part of the $68 million that the planned new Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary schools are projected to cost.
Charles Wilson, Kanawha County Schools’ executive director of facilities planning, gave the $68 million figure Thursday night, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to fund at least 75 percent of that cost, if not 90 percent, and the public school system plans to ask the SBA for the remaining 25 percent or 10 percent this year. Wilson pointed out that the figure is an early estimate.
The late-June floods ravaged both school buildings, and the school system previously announced the original buildings will never reopen.
The SBA’s board distributes state general revenue, bond proceeds and lottery money to school construction and renovation projects around the state on a competitive basis, and it’s expected to vote in December on which counties will receive money in this year’s funding cycle.
The SBA board is also expected to consider this year a request for $22.6 million, spread over a couple years, from Fayette County’s public school system to help build a new Collins Middle and a new pre-kindergarten through second-grade school in the Oak Hill area. Fayette’s school system has dilapidated buildings, and Collins Middle students are currently in portable classrooms.
Wilson said the estimated cost to rent, set up and remove the portable classrooms that will house Hoover and Clendenin Elementary students until their new schools are built is about $12 million to $13 million. He said FEMA has committed to paying at least 75 percent of that — though a FEMA spokesman said he wasn’t comfortable talking about funding Wednesday night — and hopefully the state Legislature will approve funding the remaining portion of the portables costs in the special session that Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has called for next week.
Only three of five board members were present Thursday: President Jim Crawford, Ric Cavender and Becky Jordon. They unanimously approved the Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan amendment allowing the school system to make the SBA funding request.
They also approved paying Harris Brothers Roofing $565,000 to replace the flood-destroyed heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at Bridge Elementary — Wilson said FEMA and another group have agreed to entirely shoulder that cost.
He said portables for Clendenin Elementary students will be placed in front of the Bridge Elementary building, where students from both schools currently are sharing space at the same time. He said the portables for Hoover students will be placed in front of the Elkview Middle building, where the middle schoolers currently are learning in the morning while the Hoover students currently are learning in the afternoons.
The Elkview Middle planned portable setup is different from Kanawha’s original proposal, which would have had the portables on the football field.
Wilson said he didn’t know Thursday whether the new Clendenin Elementary would be built in the town’s limits, as residents have requested.
He said the school system is currently taking input from residents and will develop a site selection committee. He said rebuilding on the site of the current building would require a structure elevated above the flood plain.
Ronald Shamblin, who lives just outside the town, said he presented the board a petition Thursday night to rebuild the school in the area. He said it bore about 560 signatures from residents in the area.
Reach Ryan Quinn at [email protected], facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.
