WILLIAMSTOWN, W.Va. — Voters in Wood County are being asked to approve a $41 million school bond issue in next Tuesday’s election that, among other projects, would pay for a new elementary school in the Williamstown area.
The county school system will ask the state School Building Authority for additional funds totaling $10 million if the bond passes, Wood County Deputy School Superintendent Mike Fling said.
The new school would replace the 100-year-old Williamstown Elementary and Waverly Elementary. There’s been opposition to the bond in the Waverly area, Fling said.
“They want to keep their community school and as parents they are going to feel that way,” Fling said.
Waverly has 135 students.
The bond call includes updates to the Wood County Technical Center and several roof projects spread across the county, Fling said.
He has watched with great interest the situation in Fayette County in recent months where deferred maintenance has put the county school system in dire straights. Fling doesn’t want to see the same thing in Wood County where a new school hasn’t been constructed since 1986.
“The newest one we have is 30-years-old. When you start thinking about things in that kind of a picture we’ve got to do something,” he said.
If approved, the new elementary school in the Williamstown area would be a pre-K-5 which will allow the Williamstown High School building, currently 7-12, to be converted into a middle school (6-8) and high school (9-12), Fling said.
The county school board voted 3-2 to send the bond plan to voters. The decision came at a meeting where eight different motions were made and three votes taken. Tuesday’s vote is probably too close to call, Fling predicted.
“I’m thinking we’re going to be really close either way. I don’t think it to be a landslide in either direction,” Fling said.
The bond would cost the average homeowner, someone with a house assessed at $100,000, about $52 a year over a 15-year period. Those property owners who qualify for Homestead Exemption face a $35 increase.
School construction bonds need 50 percent approval plus one vote to pass.