SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — Nicholas County School Superintendent Terrence Beam says he hopes that within a month there will be significant construction taking place at the Grade Creek site where a long-awaited new school will be built.
“We’re hoping to get groundbreaking down and actually start pouring footers and things by the end of July,” Beam said Tuesday a day after the state School Building Authority awarded an additional $3.5 million for the project.
Nicholas County now has $95 million in state and federal funds to build the school which will replace Summersville Elementary, Glade Creek Elementary and Summersville Middle School.
Summersville Middle was destroyed in the June 2016 flood.
Bids are set to be open Thursday and the Nicholas County Board of Education plans to approve the winning bid at its meeting next Monday.
“We are hopeful that bids come in under that ($95m) because we are wanting to do some additional things in that project and we don’t want to cut back that project in any way,” Beam said.
The new school will be PK-8 and projected to have between 1,150 and 1,200 students.
It’s been a long road in Nicholas County following the flood. The original plan was to build a new middle school, a new Nicholas County High School, and a new career and technical education center at Glade Creek, it was a more expensive plan. The county BOE ultimately cited covid and inflation as the main issues for not having enough money for those projects.
Nicholas County High will now stay in its current location along U.S. Route 19 in Summersville.
Beam has been on the job for nearly a year and believes the community is now fully behind the new project.
“It’s been very, very positive. We haven’t had any gnashing of teeth or threats or anything like that. It’s been really, really good,” Beam said.
Richwood work
Meanwhile, work is advancing on the new school that will replace the schools in Richwood that were destroyed in 2016.
Beam said they are still shooting to finish the PK-12 building by the beginning of the school year but it may not happen.
“We’re battling a little bit. We want to be in that building when the school year begins next fall. We’re going to be close,” Beam said.
The $42.5 million project will include three schools, Cherry River Elementary, Richwood Middle School and Richwood High School, in one building.
Richwood High School students have been attending classes in portable buildings in Craigsville since the fall of 2016.