By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
CHARLESTON – Tucker County Board of Education officials were thrilled to learn the county was selected as one of 15 schools systems to receive needs grants for projects in their area. Tucker County School Superintendent Dr. Eddie Campbell traveled to the School Building Authority meeting in Charleston Monday where he learned of the funding.
“We are happy,” Campbell said. “We applied for two projects but were only funded for the TCHS project. We also applied for funding for a new HVAC system at Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School. They approved the project at TCHS. The great thing is that we will be able to get that facility entirely air conditioned finally. All of our classrooms will be air conditioned.”
The Tucker County High School project costs $2,506,839 and Tucker County School system will be responsible for $200,000 in matching funds. SBA funds to Tucker County will be $2,306,839.
Tucker County BOE President Janet Preston said the SBA Needs Grant was for $2.3 and is slated to replace the HVAC system at Tucker County High School.
“Areas at the high school that have no air conditioning will receive air conditioning,” Preston said. “Teachers without air conditioning have a tendency to leave their doors open, which creates a safety issue. I think that it was helpful for us to appear before the SVA and for them to realize this was a safety issue.”
Preston said the high school is getting older and it needs a new HVAC system.
“That’s the long and short of it for many reasons, including the fact that it will make us maintain a safer school,” Preston added.
The SBA announced Monday that 15 counties would receive funding in the amount of $56,564,623 for projects costing an estimated $116,903,176.
Additional information about the SBA is available online at www.sba.wv.gov