CLENDENIN, W.Va. — More than 200 people packed the Clendenin Volunteer Fire Department Wednesday evening to learn about the progress being made regarding new Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary schools.
Both institutions were destroyed in the June 2016 flood. Herbert Hoover High has been holding classes in modular classrooms on the campus of Elkview Middle School and Clendenin Elementary students have been taking part in classes at Bridge Elementary School.
Members of the Kanawha County Schools system, FEMA and the state School Building Authority spoke about the multiple processes to build new facilities, including environmental testing and purchasing land.
Clendenin Mayor Shana Clendenin asked for the meeting.
“Communication and transparency are key in a process like this, not just with the schools but everything flood-related with the recovery,” she said. “I think everybody needs to be communicating with everybody, and I think this was a big step and a big relief for a lot of people to know where things stand.”
Conceptual designs show the new Herbert Hoover High near Frame Road along Given Fork and the new elementary school on Wolverton Mountain Road.
ZMM Architects and Engineering is leading the design process for the new 67,000-square-foot elementary school, and Williamson Shriver Architects is leading the efforts on the 181,000-square-foot high school and its surrounding campus.
Environmental studies still have to be conducted before work can begin. If there are no delays, the new high school is estimated to be ready by 2022, and work on the new elementary school could conclude by early 2021.
Chuck Wilson, the executive director of facilities planning for Kanawha County Schools, said the meeting was to inform the public about the upcoming steps education, state and federal leaders will have to take over in the future.
“The idea was to bring them up to date and the share the complexity of this project,” he said. “When outside funding agencies get involved, they have their regulations and requirements. it’s been long and tedious to work through there.”
Wilson said the Attorney General’s office ruled the School Building Authority is allowed to pay $5 million for land where the new schools are expected to be built. Wilson added until the payment was approved, no one was being paid for work related to new buildings.