March 17
Niday addresses Rotary Club



Construction and grade shift main talking points at meeting.
Wood County Schools Superintendent Bill Niday speaks Monday to the Parkersburg Rotary Club
Photo by Michael Erb
PARKERSBURG — Wood County Schools high schools construction project and planned grade shift were the main talking points Monday when Superintendent Bill Niday addressed the Parkersburg Rotary Club.

Using a Power-Point presentation, Niday reviewed construction plans and progress at the district’s three high schools and spoke about how those efforts would affect plans to move several grades among schools this fall.

The construction project began in 2004 with the passage of a $35 million local bond issue, and another $15 million in funding from the state School Building Authority. Since then the budget has swollen from $50 million to nearly $64 million.

“The budget is more than we would have liked it to be,” he said, “but we feel the community and the students are getting top-notch facilities.”

Niday said the change marks an about 30 percent increase over the original budget, but added that construction in general has seen about the same percentage increase in costs. Shortly after the district began the construction project a series of disasters, including a tsunami in India and a hurricane in the southern states, sent material and labor costs soaring.

“We picked a time to build when there was a tsunami, Katrina and oil prices have gone crazy,” he said. “It was bad timing.”

Work on all three schools is slated for completion this fall, though the majority of work has been completed for Williamstown High School.

Niday said the goal of the building project is to make room for the district’s ninth-grade students to move into the high schools and the elementary schools’ sixth-grade students to move into the junior high schools, creating true middle schools.

“The construction is allowing us to do that,” he said.

The staff’s focus lately has been in making sure schools set to receive large numbers of new students next school year are ready. Niday said the plan focuses on three areas:

“Explaining and working with transitioning elementary and middle-school students on “the rights of passage,” or what they and their parents will need to know as they enter their new schools. This includes this year’s fifth- and sixth-graders and this year’s eighth- and ninth-graders, Niday said.

“Making sure the middle and high schools are ready for the new students. This includes the creation of academies, which are small learning communities, and specific areas at the high schools for incoming freshmen.

“Moving textbooks and other supplies to where they are needed. Niday said this will be the last phase of the move because those items are still in use, and must be logged, packaged and moved after the end of this school year.

“There are a lot of logistical things that will have to take place in June, July and into the first half of August,” Niday said.

Two parts of the construction project, however, remain unfunded: installation of air conditioning at the two Parkersburg fieldhouses and creation of a “security link” at Parkersburg High School.

Niday said air conditioning for Parkersburg High’s fieldhouse and the Rod Oldham Center at Parkersburg South likely will be paid for out of the district’s operating budget over a period of time. The link at Parkersburg High likely will be submitted as a funding request to the SBA this fall. The SBA recently began offering grant money from Gov. Joe Manchin’s office for safety and security projects at West Virginia schools. The link, which would put Parkersburg High’s gymnasium, music building and main building under one roof, would qualify as an “access control” project under the grant guidelines

From the Parkersburg News and Sentinel by Michael Erb...