Published: April 01, 2008 07:52 pm      

PikeView Middle funding decision forthcoming

PRINCETON — A decision is expected this month about whether the West Virginia School Building Authority will award Mercer County Schools more than $12 million for a new facility called PikeView Middle School.

The Mercer County Board of Education’s SBA application involves creating a middle school on the PikeView High School campus near Gardner. The four schools that could send their middle school students to the new building — Athens, Spanishburg, Oakvale and Lashmeet/Matoaka — would be reconfigured into K-5 schools. Mercer County schools would provide $3 million in local funds for the project. The SBA application is for $12.5 million.

Board President Greg Prudich said an exact date for a decision had not been set, but it was anticipated in the near future.

“We expect to hear in mid-April. That’s the last word I got,” Prudich said.

Superintendent Deborah Akers said Tuesday that the board of education recently gave the SBA a presentation about the proposed middle school, adding that the application had a good chance of being approved.

“I think we have a really solid project, and it’s been a while since Mercer County has received a large sum for one,” she said. “I’m going to go ahead and start working on getting that [public hearings] scheduled. There has to be a four-week notice, so we’ll be preparing that very shortly.”

Before the SBA application was submitted, other board members urged the board of education to schedule public hearings to help determine whether parents in the proposed school’s district wanted a new middle school at all and decide if it was necessary.

Board member Lynne White said hearings should have been held first.

“Oh, definitely. My understanding is that the SBA requires that public input has to take place before a proposal gets to them and we certainly did not do that before we made the funding request,” White said. “We have not explored the alternatives, the curriculum with the consolidated format and the curriculum at the schools.”

Both Prudich and Akers said public hearings will held if the SBA approves the application. If the public disapproves of the project, the funding will revert to the state. The money cannot to diverted to other Mercer County schools.

“It has to be spent on that specific project,” Akers said.