SUMMERS COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – Summers County Schools just received an $8.2 million grant from the school building authority. They were one of seven counties in the state to receive this funding and plan to use it to renovate and add a middle school wing to the high school.
“The renovations will be classrooms, a gymnasium, and a cafeteria,” said Superintendent of Summers County Schools David Warvel. “That will be geared for our middle school students, so our high school will become a six-twelve comprehensive high school facility.”
The middle school students were moved into the high school this school year after issues where found with the old middle school building. These renovations will not only give the middle school students more space, but also give them access to the Career and Technical classes that usually wouldn’t be available until the students entered ninth grade.
“As you go into the school system, over the railroad tracks and come in, basically to the right will be the middle school side of the building and to the left will be the high school,” Superintendent Warvel said. “Then on the backside we have our Career and Technical Education, CTE, classrooms for the most part. We do have some CTE sprinkled throughout the high school, but the majority of our day will be to the right for the middle school and to the left for the high school.”
Aside from the benefits to the students the grant will also save the people of Summers County money by not increasing their taxes.
“It was a team effort to get that money to the Summers County community and our people do not have to have their taxes raised,” said Superintendent Warvel. “Nobody has to vote on a bond levy, it’s coming to us and we need to be good stewards of that money and make sure we get a nice updated facility for the six-twelve students of the county.”
Superintendent Warvel says there is still more preparation work to do, but hopes to start breaking ground in about a year.
