SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — The Nicholas County Board of Education has chosen a new school superintendent following last week’s resignation of Superintendent Donna Burge-Tetrick.
The board meet in special session Tuesday and voted to hire Nicholas County native, current Pocahontas County School Superintendent, Terrence Beam.
Beam grew up in Richwood, graduated from WVU Tech, and returned to Nicholas County to begin a teaching career. He was a school principal in the Nicholas County school system for 32 years before retiring in 2007. He came out of retirement to take a principal’s job in Pocahontas County and was later named school superintendent.
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Beam, who lives in Summersville, takes the job as the system continues to struggle to build new schools in the aftermath of the June 2016 flood. Construction is underway on a $42.5 million project at Cherry River Elementary School in Richwood to convert the site into a new Richwood High-Middle School complex but there are major cost overruns with the second flood replacement project.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported last week that only one bid was submitted for the Glade Creek project and it was at $148 million about $51 million more than the county has left in federal and state funds. A meeting is expected Friday between Nicholas County officials, the governor’s office and the the state School Building Authority to discuss how to obtain additional funds.
The Glade Creek project will include new schools replacing Summersville Middle, Nicholas County High and the county’s technical education center.
Nicholas County BOE President Chip Perrine told MetroNews last November that he had major doubts there was enough money left for the Glade Creek project.
“I’m pretty confident though that we’re going to need more money….no one could see the inflation and the way it’s hit us here in the last couple of years,” Perrine said.
Beam is expected to take over in the near future. Burge-Tetrick still had two years left on her contract. She and the board agreed to a six-month buyout.