EDUCATION: New schools to expand opportunities

Students in West Virginia and Ohio are seeing new schools take shape in their communities.

A few have opened, and others will open their doors for the 2008-09 school year.

In Lawrence County, Ohio, South Point opened its new high school and middle school campus in December and is awaiting bids for new Burlington and South Point elementary schools, which are scheduled to open for the 2009-10 school year. Superintendent Ken Cook, who took the lead in getting the community to pass a levy to build the schools, said it's an exciting time for students and staff as schools are replaced with top-notch facilities.

"We're glad to have that part of the process completed, and we're looking forward to the elementary schools," Cook said. "We're giving our kids a lot of advanced learning opportunities."

Cook expects construction to start in the spring and take about a year to complete the two schools, which will cost a combined $15 million. Burlington Elementary students are now housed in the former South Point High School, while South Point Elementary students will stay in their building until the new one is complete.

Demolition on the former South Point Middle School started in mid-February and should be wrapped up by mid-March.

Ironton schools are undergoing a complete overhaul all at once, and only because the students, parents and teachers were willing to make sacrifices for more than a year.

West Ironton has kindergarten and first grade; Whitwell has all the second- and third-graders; Kingsbury has fourth and fifth; the sixth-graders are attending classes in rooms rented out on the third floor of First Baptist Church; seventh- and eighth-graders are in the Conley Center next to the old high school; and all the high school students are in the former junior high building.

Ironton Superintendent Dean Nance said a new elementary and middle school, under construction on Delaware Street, will be ready for the 2009-2010 school year. He anticipates the interior work to start in the fall.

The new high school, which is being built on the same site, isn't scheduled to open until around late December 2009. It is being attached to a part of the high school that was saved, Nance said.

The entire project is in excess of $50 million, $18 million of which came from taxpayers.

In Cabell County, two new schools are scheduled to open next fall, including St. Joseph's new grade school and Cabell County Schools' Martha Elementary.

Cabell County Schools also has three other projects under way, including Barboursville Middle, Milton Middle and the Southside Elementary/Huntington Middle campus renovation and construction.

Barboursville Middle should be done by late November, but Assistant Superintendent of Operations Mike O'Dell said he expects a transition from one school to the other to take place during Christmas break.

Milton Middle likely will be complete in late spring 2009, and the Southside/Huntington Middle campus should be done sometime in late 2009.

But having Martha Elementary so close to opening is exciting because it means years of planning are coming to fruition.

"It's kind of like a payoff," O'Dell said. "When you see paint on the walls and windows going in, you know it's coming along."

Teachers already are packing boxes with materials they no longer need, and the classrooms in the new building have been assigned. O'Dell said the building should be ready for furniture by late April, and that's when things will start moving at a fast pace.

Martha students will get out of school in late May, then teachers will move the rest of their stuff into the new classrooms. County employees will help move larger items, and they will hold an auction for things they aren't keeping.

The building has to be vacant by the end of June so contractors can demolish the old school and build a bus loop and parking lot in time for the start of school in late August.

Although O'Dell can't wait to get this project done, Barboursville Middle School, then Milton Middle and finally the new Southside Elementary/Huntington Middle campus will keep him busy for another year and a half. Besides, he said, these schools aren't for him; they are for the public.

"I think (these schools) will tell the public that the taxpayers of this city are committed to having nice schools for the students," he said.