Putnam School Officials Approve Decade-Long Funding Plan (WV)

July 20, 2010

Putnam County Board of Education members said Monday that they would spend more than $128 million to build and fix county schools over the next 10 years.

Each county is required by the state Board of Education to develop a 10-year Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan, so state officials are aware of how much local school boards are spending on building projects.

"This is our true roadmap for buildings in the next 10 years," said county Assistant Superintendent Robert Hull.

In all, school board members designated $128,177,304 over the next decade. Almost three quarters of that money is already provided by the county excess levy and school bonds approved by county voters last year and earlier this year.

Board member Sam Sentelle said taxpayers will not have to pay for anything extra to account for the $48 million not paid for by the levy and bonds. That money, needed for future renovations, is planned to come from the state School Building Authority.

The board submitted an annual "needs" application to the SBA to pay for the renovations and other projects eligible for funding consideration. Putnam County re ceived $38,184,394 from the SBA in the past decade for needs projects, according to a report by Williamson Shriver Architects Inc., the company hired to make the funding assessments.

The plan will be sent to the state Board of Education in August for final approval. Putnam Schools Superintendent Chuck Hatfield said he is satisfied with the designation, and happy that the county finally has the funding for school construction and renovation projects.

"We’re able for the first time, if you look categorically at each project, to add an auxiliary gym at each school," he said.  "Five years ago that was a pie-in-the-sky pipedream."

Hatfield also said that while all of the money outlined in the plan is not accounted for, he is confident that the projects will be attained without too much trouble.

"Forty-eight million [dollars] over the next 10 years is certainly manageable," he said.

A combined $60 million of the plan will go into the construction of three new schools: Poca Middle, Winfield Middle, and Buffalo High. Another $9 million will go into major renovations to Winfield Middle. That money is already covered through the school bonds passed last year.

The rest of the renovation and construction projects will be paid for through the excess levy, and money from the SBA.