Proposed elementary school project: McDowell school officials request $12.8 million
Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
March 21, 2012
Proposed elementary school project: McDowell school officials request $12.8 million
By CHARLES OWENS
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — School officials in McDowell County requested $12.8 million in School Building Authority funding assistance Tuesday for the development of a proposed elementary school project that would combine existing facilities in Anawalt, Fall River and Welch.
School Superintendent Jim Brown presented the project to the SBA board and SBA Executive Director Dr. Mark Manchin. The SBA board has received requests from 23 different counties over the past two days competing for a share of $40 million in state school construction funds to be awarded next month.
“We just presented our project to the SBA,” Brown said Tuesday afternoon. “In total, it’s a $14 million project for a merged elementary school that will encompass Fall River, Welch and Anawalt. Of course, the process (Tuesday) was just for us to present our projects based on the merits of them. I personally felt very privileged to have an opportunity to present the project. We feel very, very good about it. It will help us to address three major facility issues in the district, and be able to bring closure to a 10-year commitment to revitalize school facilities.”
Brown said Anawalt Elementary first opened in 1928, and is currently rated as one of the six worse school facilities in the state due to its age. He said Welch Elementary opened in 1954, and Fall River was built in 1978. Keeping the aging facilities up to modern standards is difficult, according to Brown.
“It’s not hard — it’s basically impossible,” Brown said. “None of the three schools that are part of this proposed project have a 21st century learning environment, nor the type of HVAC system you would expect to see in those school facilities.”
Brown said declining enrollment in Anawalt and Fall River is one of the major reasons the school system is proposing the new elementary school.
“Based upon the economy of scale and overall utilization of those facilities, it is way below acceptable standards,” Brown said.
Brown said school officials will learn next month if the combined elementary school project will be funded in the first round of SBA awards. A site for the new school is still being determined.
“I’m very optimistic,” Brown said of the funding chances for the project. “I can’t stress enough how appreciative I am as the instructional leader of McDowell County for the support that came from the SBA over the years with the projects they’ve done with the Army Corps of Engineers.”
Manchin said the SBA has about $39 million in funding to award this year, and another $39 million to allocate in 2013. The SBA has received requests from 24 school districts totaling more than $158 million.
Manchin, the current SBA executive director, served as the state-appointed school superintendent of McDowell County when many of the original Army Corps of Engineer projects were launched in the county. During the past decade, more than $100 million has been expended on new school construction projects in McDowell County.
“Right now, it’s over $100 million,” Manchin said. “Should we choose to do this project — that would be close to $115 million worth of school construction in McDowell County over the past nine years.”
Brown said construction will begin this fall on the last project to be funded in the original, decade-old agreement with the Army Corps. Demolition work on the old Iaeger High School facility is now underway. A new Iaeger Elementary School will be constructed at the site this fall.
