CEDAR GROVE, W.Va. — The state School Building Authority is allocating an additional $2 million for the completion of Cedar Grove Elementary School.
The agreement comes after the Superintendent of Kanawha County Schools, Thomas Williams sent a letter to the new executive director of the building authority, Andy Neptune requesting the additional funds after bids for the project came to $7 million over budget.
Despite the rising inflation costs the SBA has been working to overcome for over a year now that goes to help fuel the construction of new schools, Neptune said he was glad to help out with the project during one of his first meetings as the new director Tuesday morning.
“What an honor and a privilege it is to sit here this morning and conduct this business,” said Neptune.
The SBA had originally provided $8.5 million for the Cedar Grove Elementary project, and the Kanawha County School district contributed $3.2 million in local funds, estimating a total of nearly $11.8 million for the endeavor.
Upon the SBA’s approval of the extra $2 million for the project that was granted on Tuesday, the school superintendent of the state, David Roach expressed his gratitude to the authority’s consistent help towards construction of new county schools.
“I just want to say that I’m so proud of the SBA for standing for schools and the continuous battle of upgrading, and modifying, refurbishing,” Roach said in Tuesday’s meeting.
In addition to the extra $2 million the SBA is providing towards the school’s completion, Kanawha County Schools is covering the remaining $4.9 million. The SBA will contribute an added total of $10.5 million and Kanawha County Schools will provide a total of $8.2 million for the project.
Cedar Grove Elementary, formally known as Cedar Grove High School that was built in 1954, contains a total of 101,200 square feet of space. After Kanawha Schools closed the middle school portion –those students consolidating with Dupont Middle School — the building became too oversized for the current enrollment of the elementary school.
The proposed plan is to reduce the size of the school to approximately 44,844 square feet with over 37,000 of it containing renovated space and nearly 7,000 spare feet of new construction which will meet the minimum SBA and WVDE requirements.