Elm Grove Elementary Renovations Nearing Finish
Trending
WHEELING - The last of nearly $100 million in property improvements happening over the last five years across Ohio County Schools might just be completed by next fall.
David Crumm, director of operations for Ohio County Schools, told board of education members this week construction of an addition at Elm Grove Elementary is "about halfway" finished, and students should be moving in at the end of next month.
"The addition part - the goal is that we are hoping we can move students into those eight classrooms by Feb. 19," he said.
Students are actually slated to be off on Monday, Feb. 19, and the moving would begin the prior Thursday, Feb. 15, and continue through Monday, according to Crumm.
Work to install heating and air conditioning equipment on the roof this week was delayed because of weather, and will instead take place next week, he said.
"When that unit gets set on the roof and gets hooked up, the fire marshal will have to come in," Crumm continued. "The fire panel will be hooked up, and the sprinkler system will be hooked up. He'll have to check everything to get us occupancy.
"Once we have occupancy, we can move those classes into those rooms."
Some of the students will be moved into what will be their permanent classrooms, so they won't have to be moved again, he added. Other students will be placed in temporary classrooms within the addition as work begins on the front part of the school.
Four existing open classroom spaces in the front will be closed and turned into eight classrooms.
"We want to be done earlier rather than later to allow the (final) transition to happen next year at the start of the next school year in August," Crumm said.
Board member David Croft asked if that meant all the improvements will be completed by the time students return in the fall.
"The majority of it," Crumm responded. "We have little things we're doing in each of the last six buildings to make sure we get the money we have been given from the SBA (School Building Authority) used. We are going to be meeting with (project engineers from McKinley and Associates) to see what things we can do there."
Elm Grove Elementary School Principal Richard Dunlevy said he also was told the move into the addition would likely come in mid-February.
On Tuesday, he provided a tour of the eight new classrooms that are under construction. Two of the rooms would be for pre-kindergarten students, and two for those in kindergarten. The respective rooms for each grade are connected by a bathroom for the young students..
First and second grade students also will be located within the addition.
"The whole school and staff is excited about the addition, moving in and the renovations to the building," Dunlevy said. "Overall construction hasn't been bad - or not as bad as we might have thought it would be. "We have been able to work around it, and make do."
Construction on the addition began last summer, and the bricks on the facade are very close to matching those on the existing building.
"That was something that concerned me," he said.
The journey to make construction improvements to all 13 school buildings in Ohio County Schools began in the spring of 2018, when voters passed a $42.2 million bond issue for the work. The SBA committed to providing an additional $27 million, and the school district also expected to gain at least another $7 million in savings during the term of the 15-year bond
Initially, projects were expected to be completed by the spring of 2021, but then the COVID pandemic occurred followed by supply chain issues.
But the school district would also receive additional funds of about $19 million through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund under the CARES Act to complete additional projects as part of overall improvements.
The ESSER funds at the end made the addition at Elm Grove Elementary School possible, and the addition was requested by the West Virginia Department of Education as enrollment has been increasing at the school in recent years.