Raleigh BOE to aid in Woodrow Wetlands Project

Dec. 13—A student-led initiative at Woodrow Wilson High School to enhance the school's wetlands area is moving forward.

During a Tuesday night Raleigh County Board of Education meeting, board members approved an agreement with the West Virginia Division of Highways and the Piney Creek Watershed Association in conjunction with the Wetlands Project at Woodrow Wilson High School.

As part of the agreement, the board will take on the administrative role of managing a $117,500 grant from the state's Division of Highways for the Wetlands Project, including putting the project out to bid, approving a contractor and paying invoices.

The Woodrow Wetlands Project has been led by junior class President Ram Asaithambi and Vice President Thomas Spencer.

Plans for the project include a boardwalk with two 80-foot walking ramps connected on either side of a 32-by-32-square-foot outdoor classroom, a wheelchair-accessible walking pavilion and additional flora and fauna around that area.

Asaithambi and Spencer started raising funds for this project as freshmen and have since raised more than $200,000.

A portion of the funds raised will be used to meet the 20 percent match requirement attached to the state grant.

With the Raleigh BOE now on board to help manage the project, Asaithambi and Spencer said the goal is to see the project completed in their senior year.

"This is a huge step for the project," Spencer said. "This showed us that the board and the DOH are ready to move forward, like us, and are more than willing to work with us on ensuring a groundbreaking in the summer of 2024."

"This means the world to myself and Thomas, as well as our school," Asaithambi said. "To see our board of education help move this along makes us hopeful for the future of the project. After two years, to see it all come together it is truly a happy moment for all of us."

Jim Fedders, association director for the Piney Creek Watershed Association, said he's been part of the project in one way or another since the wetlands area was a pond that was infested with goose poop and posed a health hazard.

"(The Piney Creek Watershed Association) was originally involved in converting that pond to the wetlands, and the hope from day one was, since we're on the campus of Woodrow Wilson High School, to have it enhanced, in any way we can, (by) educational aspects of that," Fedders said

Fedders said he's been impressed by the efforts made by Asaithambi and Spencer over the past few years to promote the project and raise the funding.

"One of our jobs as the Piney Creek Watershed Association is just to raise awareness to get people thinking about the environment, and how they affect the environment and how the simple things on a day-to-day basis they can do to make the environment better and just making people aware of concepts like wetlands and their role," he said. "This is going to move it forward for the future generations that are going to be coming here as students to Woodrow Wilson and anybody that comes out and visits the site."

Fedders said he's working to get a permit to work on the school's wetlands area and is also working with an engineer to finalize the project's designs.

He said the goal is to put the project out to bid in the coming months with the potential for construction to start sometime in 2024.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com