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PUTNAM NEWS
Bill Ellis: Putnam's new school to host Open House event
First-grade teacher Laura Lilly and Principal Doug Pitzer talk with Bill Ellis about the new classrooms. William and Laren Lilly, twins of Laura, and Tiernie Stewart help in getting the room ready for the Open House. The students are sophomores at Hurricane High School.
Purchase this photoPutnam County's newest school, the New Teays Elementary, invites all Putnam County residents to attend its "Open House" on Sunday, Aug. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m.
This beautiful facility is located at 3967 Teays Valley Road, Hurricane, WV 25526. That is the correct mailing address, and the phone number is 304-757-5666.
Until I visited the school, I was not sure of the address because it is just a few blocks from the Scott Depot Post Office and several miles from the Hurricane Post Office. It is close to where the old Valley Bell School in the Teays area was located when it was closed in September, 1951. Principal Clyde Sovine and the other teacher, Margaret Rumbaugh, and the students moved to the Scott-Teays Elementary School, which had opened in April of that year with Principal Lloyd Eggleton, teacher, Hazel Ball, and the students.
Every person who attends Sunday's open house will be thrilled with this new school, the first to be built in our county in nearly 30 years. It will certainly whet the appetite of all county residents to see improvements, upgrades and new buildings throughout the county. We are blessed with tremendous educational leaders like West Virginia's State Superintendent of the Year, Harold "Chuck" Hatfield, talented administrators, teachers and a progressive county board of education.
After meeting Principal Doug Pitzer, I began to sense something of his enthusiasm and gratitude for this colorful new edifice. From the front entrance to the commons area, down every hallway, into all the classrooms, restrooms, the well-appointed kitchen and to the outdoor play areas, you could feel the excitement building.
The staff for this school of 425 will include 24 teachers and 14 service personnel. School will open on Tuesday, Aug. 26. We all know it will take many parents and others volunteering hours of time and talent to make the school as successful as possible.
Last Sunday morning, the Rev. Dr. Melissa Pratt announced that the Teays Valley Church of God has volunteered to help keep the playground of the Scott Teays Elementary School clean during this school year. That would be a good project for every church and service organization in the county to assist in keeping schoolyards beautiful and having the cleanest county in West Virginia. West Virginia deserves that kind of clean beauty statewide.
Everything and everybody is new. Gary Young and his G & G Builders have built a magnificent educational facility, of which the whole county can be proud. Jim Mallory was the job superintendent along with project manager, Jim Bowyer.
Principal Doug Pitzer, said, "The Open House will provide a time for parents and students to meet their teachers and the staff who will be on hand to answer questions and show off their school. The school has a computer lab, an art/science demonstration/project room, a first-class media center, and a full-size gym with purple bleachers."
I cannot describe the beauty of the school and all its modern tools for learning. You have to see it for yourself.
Doug Pitzer and his staff will be looking for you on Sunday afternoon.
Bill Ellis is a syndicated columnist who can be reached at P.O. Box 345, Scott Depot, WV 25560; phone 304- 757-6089.
