Fayette, others to make pitches for SBA funding

Nov. 9—The School Building Authority of West Virginia will entertain needs requests from 27 county school systems on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 13-14 during interviews in Charleston.

Included among the capital funding requests will be one from Fayette County Schools, which is seeking up to $15,625,860 from the SBA to go towards construction of a new elementary school in Hico. The county has committed $6 million of its own finances to flesh out the funding of a $21,625,860 project.

If eventually approved for Fayette, the funding package will result in the shuttering of the current Ansted and Divide elementary school buildings and the merging of those student populations into a new Midland Trail Elementary School to serve PK-5 students at the current Midland Trail School Complex in Hico.

Ansted Elementary was built in 1954 and Divide Elementary was constructed in 1953. Both have had three major additions since then.

Under second-month enrollment figures from the 2022-23 school term, both schools were below 60 percent building utilization at the time. Ansted had 180 students with a capacity of 310, while Divide had 209 students against a capacity of 385.

In the existing building evaluation report, Ansted overall was listed to be in poor condition and Divide was described as fair.

The Fayette County Board of Education voted unanimously in 2021 to close both schools.

"The Ansted building, really, we have to vacate it," Fayette County Schools Superintendent Gary Hough said in a mid-October interview. "We know we have to replace those two (buildings).

"We want to centralize campuses because we can centralize services. We can provide the kids so much more, with the combination of the high school right there, and the middle school. We can share support services and a multitude of things.

"This was the crux of the CEFP (comprehensive educational facilities plan) as we redid everything. When we went through all of this consolidation, this was part of the (master) plan."

"I think we have worked hard to prove to the SBA that we're committed to (making overall system improvements without relying solely on the SBA for funding)," he added.

Hough will present Fayette's proposal at 10:05 a.m. on Monday. He will be followed immediately by Dr. Serena Starcher, who will make a request on behalf of Raleigh County.

According to the agenda on the SBA website, Raleigh County will request up to $2,069,526 in SBA funding for water line replacement at Woodrow Wilson High School and Academy of Careers Technical Center. These funds will be used in partnership with a local contribution of $2,069,526 to result in a total project cost of $4,139,052.

A Wyoming County presentation will be heard from Deidre Cline later in the morning Monday, and a Greenbrier County request to the SBA will come from Jeffrey Bryant Tuesday morning.

Wyoming County is asking for up to $15,711,654 in SBA funds for a new Mullens PK-8 School. A local bond share of $8,753,193 will bring the total project cost to $24,464,847.

Per the SBA, Greenbrier County requests up to $6,707,058 in SBA funding for an addition and renovations to Frankford Elementary School. A local contribution of $600,000 would bring the total project cost to $7,307,058.

After assessing the requests and information gleaned from site visits, discussions and correspondence, SBA staff will make recommendations to the full SBA at its Dec. 11 quarterly meeting.

An SBA representative said Thursday the total amount of money which will be available in the current funding cycle hasn't been revealed.

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