Marion County Schools' bond committee unveils $60M proposal

Dec. 19—FAIRMONT — After three community meetings, the Marion County Board of Education's bond committee on Monday unveiled the projects it hopes to fund with a $35.92 million bond issue that the voters of Marion County would be asked to approve in the May primary election.

The plan calls for requesting $25 million from the West Virginia School Building Authority to pair with the bond funds to conduct a total of $60.9 million in repairs and build new facilities for Marion County Schools. The proposal — devised after meetings held Nov. 15, Dec. 5 and Dec. 14 — is broken down into projects for the three main school attendance areas.

"We reviewed current student enrollment, we talked about the success and failures of bonds [in the] past and we also talked about some of the complexities that are involved in building [and] maintaining schools in Marion County, certainly, you know, that's an enviable position — that that's very difficult. So we recognize that," bond committee spokesman Travis Tucker said at Monday's school board meeting.

For the East Fairmont Attendance Area, the committee proposes to consolidate Pleasant Valley and East Park elementary schools into one new school at an estimated cost of $23.7 million, of which $20 million would come from the SBA.

But the largest changes would take place in the North Marion Attendance Area.

Plans call for Blackshere Elementary and Mannington Middle to be consolidated at "a newly reconfigured" K-8 school on the Blackshere campus. The plan calls for adding 11 classrooms with a gymnasium and expanding the parking at Blackshere for an estimated cost of $9.1 million.

The proposal also lays out the concept of merging Monongah Elementary and Monongah Middle into the same type of K-8 school housed at the existing Monongah Elementary. The plan calls for adding 10 new classrooms, a gymnasium and expanding the parking at the elementary school for an estimated cost of $7.5 million.

Tucker's presentation was not met with a full embrace from both the bond committee and the school board. Rusty Elliott, who represented the North Marion area on the bond committee asked that things slow down a bit to ensure everything is being done thoroughly and accurately. He wants to avoid costly overrun fees at the end of each project in the event the voters approve the measure.

"We propose that you get more information from engineers or professionals in this field to get involved and help with the accuracy of all layouts, all drawings and construction," Elliott said. "So we may have a positive view of where these construction projects are going to be."

Elliott urged the board to conduct a feasibility study and a cost analysis before any type of bond referendum is presented to the voters. He said there is an historic problem with moving dirt in West Virginia that will need to be addressed using environmental analysis in any of the outlined construction projects.

"As a committee, we propose that we get accurate drawings of all projects, square footage for all projects, how they'll fit into the existing land, architectural design to fit the old buildings so that it's attractive from the outside instead of having a brick building there and a metal building attached to the side of it," Elliott said.

Elliott went on to request that the bond committee hold more meetings and get more feedback from the community. He also suggested slowing down the pace so the measure could be placed on the general election ballot in November 2024 instead of this coming May.

School Superintendent Donna Heston said the timeline the bond committee is working with is a result of the board of education having tasked her with getting a bond referendum ready for the May 2024 primary. That way, if it failed in May, they could regroup, tweak the proposal and ask the voters again in the November 2024 general election.

Heston said Marion County Schools had requested Mannington Middle School repairs be placed on the West Virginia Board of Education's November meeting agenda so the district could get the go ahead to request funds from the SBA. However, the state board of education refused to place the funding request on the agenda, which means the state basically refused to fund that project.

Mannington Middle also sits in a flood plain and is the oldest functioning school facility in West Virginia.

Meanwhile, School Board President Donna Costello and Board member James Saunders joined ranks with Elliott and said the bond issue must be something that the voters will approve instead of being a wish list from the school administration or school board.

"This is to be a community driven bond, so I would agree with Mr. Elliott, that we need to take our time on this and whatever it is, whatever project should be on that bond," Costello said. "Because the boards of education before us have always been accused, that we do not do projects correctly.... that we take the cheap way out."

Del. Mike DeVault, R-74, of Pleasant Valley, approached the board after Elliott's presentation and pleaded for the creation of a technical center for Fairmont on grounds that students from East Side and Fairmont do not make the journey to Rachel to take classes at Marion County Technical Center.

DeVault said he would like the board to reconsider requesting funds for a Fairmont tech center in any bond issue going forward.

Saunders agreed with DeVault on the Fairmont tech center issue.

"Two people said it already and it's all about the kids. It's not about us and what we want," Saunders said.

Other projects in the bond committee's proposal include spending $5.5 million at East Fairmont High for a new roof, new heat pumps and track, turf and seating to go in tandem with the community football stadium project now being planned.

At Fairmont Senior High, the plan calls for spending $3.2 million to install a secured entrance, replace existing stadium turf, new bleachers, and repair concrete steps at East-West Stadium.

The proposal allocates $2.6 million for Watson Elementary to add three classrooms and install partitions and doors.

The plan calls for allocating $5.4 million for stadium upgrades at North Marion High, including a new stadium security access road, new stadium bleachers, new football field turf and an auxiliary gym.

At Barrackville Elementary-Middle, the proposal includes $3.6 million to add two classrooms with gym.

Heston said she is proud of the bond committee for considering the entire county and not just focusing on one attendance area.

According to the original bond timeline, the board of education is scheduled to take two votes at its Jan. 2 meeting regarding the bond issue. One vote approves a measure to place the bond on the ballot. The second vote will request the West Virginia Department of Education for permission to modify its current Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan, approve the projects contingent on the bond passage and request SBA funding as outlined by the bond committee.

Reach Eric Cravey at 304-367-2523.