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Principal looks for leadership from students at Herbert Hoover

ELKVIEW, W.Va.— Students at Herbert Hoover High School have learned some serious life lessons in the past four weeks.  They will learn more lessons about their community, themselves, and growing up in the next couple of years.  Those students will attend class in a series of cramped, portable classrooms temporarily staged on a middle school football field.  The conditions are necessary after the flood destroyed their building and building a new one takes time. Some of those students will never get to enjoy the new building which will replace the old Hoover, but administrators are looking for leadership.

“They believe in being part of something a little bigger than themselves,” said Hoover Principal Mike Kelley. “If they have to make a short term sacrifice for the benefit of future generations then their younger siblings, and their children, and their grandchildren will be better off for it.”

Kelley and the Kanawha County Board of Education had to break the news to a massive community meeting Wednesday night, but followed up with an assurance the school would be rebuilt.  When the flood waters receded and the scope of the damage was revealed, Kelley admitted there was a worst case scenario in many minds who feared the school might close for good.   But the community appears bolstered by the assurance from Superintendent Dr. Ron Duerring that was never a consideration.

“He was resolute from the very start saying, ‘We will not close that school,'” said Kelley. “Those people have lost too much and we will not under any circumstances consider closing that school.”

But now the difficult work begins. The first step is creation of a high school of mobile units which should be assembled in a couple of months outside Elkview Middle School. Step two, according to Kelly, is focusing on the new Hoover building.

“I think it’s premature to start talking about sites.  I know our Director of Planning is already looking into sites,” said Kelley. “But we don’t know where the site is going to be.”

The task is projected to take two to three years.   Kelley said he hoped it would be two and Hoover students could be in their permanent building just as quickly as possible.

“We do have to keep in mind, we have at the end of this road, we’re going to have a brand new state of the art school,” Kelley said. “It’s going to solidify Herbert Hoover’s place in the Elk River community for decades to come.  There are going to be generations of students who are going to have access to that building.”





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