It was a great day for Woodrow Wilson High School and Raleigh County Schools, as they were awarded $2 million to fund the waterline replacement that services both the high school and Academy of Careers and Technology.
“That’s a 50/50 match we requested and were awarded recently,” said Fayette County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Serena Starcher. “We are currently waiting on the West Virgina School Building Authority to approve the plans for the waterline replacement. Upon approval we are ready to go out to bid. We hope to begin the project this summer.”
Starcher calls it phenomenal that they received the funding and will go a long way toward supporting the long-term goal of renovating and adding onto Woodrow Wilson. When it comes to the waterline…
“It’s original to the facility, so we’re looking at the late 1960s,” she said.
The governor says he owes almost everything in his life to Beckley, West Virgina and WWHS — the education, talents and goodness they provided him, and he told the students to be proud.
“It’s a great, great, great school and today we’re gonna do something that’s gonna kickstart it just a little bit more,” said Justice. “But don’t forget just one thing and that is — ‘you can do anything.’ For crying out loud, if Jimmy Justice did it you can do it.
And if you wanna do it better than Jimmy Justice did it, do it.”
The next phase of the renovation would be to connect all the buildings.
“Long term we will plan to demolish the ‘E’ building; that’s a separate building on the back of Woodrow,” the superintendent of schools said. “At the same time we would connect the main building of Woodrow to the gymnasium. All of our students would be under one roof; it would be a much more secure facility.”
Starcher says being able to go to the state for funds instead of paying out-of-pocket is incredible.
“Over the last 10 years approximately we’ve put in 58 percent of our major capital improvements and the state has given us I believe about 41 percent,” she said. “We can certainly use levy funding for this project. Our levy provides funding for capital improvement and this would be considered a capital improvement. ”
The superintendent of schools thanked the governor and West Virgina Building Authority for recognizing the importance of this project and providing the funding.
