Ohio County Schools Building Projects Nearing the Final Bell | News, Sports, Jobs

When students return to school following the holiday break, the final details on renovations at Wheeling Park High School and Woodsdale Elementary School will be nearly complete, according to Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones.

“At Wheeling Park High School, we are waiting on furniture for the ‘innovative learning center,’ which was formerly the media center,” he said. “It will be coming in January.

“After that, we will have an open house and school board meeting there. … People will be pretty blown away.”

The Ohio County Board of Education is slated to meet at WPHS at 6 p.m. Jan. 23.

photo by: File photo by Joselyn King

Students at Woodsdale Elementary School listen to a lesson from teacher Sandra Wiseman earlier this year in the school’s newly renovated media center. Renovation projects at the school are heading into the homestretch with projects at other schools on the horizon.

Most every facility in Ohio County Schools has received updates as part of a $42.2 million bond issue approved by voters in 2018. Next up are projects at Elm Grove and Middle Creek elementary schools, and those are set to go out to bid sometime in January, Jones said.

The project at Elm Grove is anticipated to cost about $7.1 million. It was not part of the original bond language, but became possible after Ohio County Schools received $19 million through Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund under the federal CARES Act.

Now Elm Grove Elementary is slated to get an 7,800 square-foot one-story addition, while some existing classrooms also will be reconfigured as part of the plan. The changes come at the urging of the West Virginia School Building Authority, who believes additional space at the school is necessary.

The addition would house eight additional classrooms, as well as two title rooms – small instruction rooms for Title I services – and a storage room. In the existing building, plans now call for three new restrooms to be added in the Pre-K and kindergarten areas, as well as the construction of two storage areas to be shared by adjacent classrooms.

Another title room would be added near the front entrance, and a security “man trap” would be constructed there.

A movable partition would be installed between the cafeteria and gym, as would new flooring throughout the building.

The entire project at Elm Grove is anticipated to cost about $7.1 million.

Middle Creek Elementary, meanwhile, is slated to get geothermal heating, a new roof and a maker space similar to that being placed at other schools, according to Jones.

There will also be classroom, security and entrance updates there, and a road will be constructed around the building to make bus and parent drop off of students easier and safer, he continued.

He expects work at both schools to begin by spring.