CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Board of Education has cleared the way for students from Summers County Middle School to attend school this coming year at Summers County High School. Summers County Superintendent David Warvel addressed members of the State Board this week about a myriad of problems at the old school in downtown Hinton.
“As it continues to rain and snow, it will seep through the roof of the building and we’ll have another asbestos problem. We also have some other issues in the building. There is some mold in there and there are some smells that are due to not so good ventilation throughout the building,” Warvel said.
Warvel became the Superintendent on July 1st and said he took a tour of the building on July 2nd with the President of the Summers County Board of Education and others, including state Board of Education member Dave Perry.
“That is a deplorable building. The mold, the leaking roof, the asbestos and it’s totally unsanitary,” Perry told fellow board members.
The old building is not A-D-A compliant and students are forced to go outside of the building and back inside to reach the cafeteria.
“As a parent, not a Superintendent, if I don’t want my own children in that building why would I want somebody else’s children in that building,” Warvel said.
Warvel’s solution is to move children from the middle school, about 375 to the high school where there are about 444 students. School administrators have worked out the logistics of separating the building to provide adequate division among the wide span of grades and ages, but also to accommodate social distancing which will be a requirement for this coming school year.
The middle school is the former Hinton High School which was converted when Summers County High School was built 25 years ago. For now, the middle school building is not closed and an evaluation for the cost of repairs is being evaluated. Warvel and others have looked at the building and think the repairs may be more costly than they are worth to save the aging structure.
The state Board voted to give the county the green light to move the middle school children into the high school until a more permanent arrangement can be made and public hearings can be staged to consider the next step.