SUNDIAL — “The Future Begins With Us,” sang the choir of Marsh Fork Elementary School students, all wearing yellow construction hard hats to celebrate Thursday’s groundbreaking of the new elementary school.

Their performance represented the central focus of the ceremony and the focus of many of the celebratory speeches for the project: the students, both present and future.

“Once the new Marsh Fork Elementary is finished and in our care, I promise you that our kids will, indeed, always, always come first,” said Marsh Fork Elementary School Principal Shannon Pioch.

The construction process is poised to begin, and the projected move-in date is after winter break of the 2012-13 school year. The ceremony was held at the current Marsh Fork Elementary School, but all eyes are on the new site in Rock Creek.

“I get a daily report from the students when they pass by the building site,” Pioch said.

Faculty Senate President and physical education teacher Dennis Dye compared the new school to the feeling of lacing up his first pair of Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star shoes.

“I ran around, jumping, stopping, darting left and right, thinking I was the fastest human on Earth…” he said. “It was an awesome feeling that was so precious in my early childhood. Well, thanks to the Raleigh County Board of Education, Alpha Natural Resources, the Annenberg Foundation, Pennies For Promise and the School Building Authority (of West Virginia), I am getting that awesome feeling back.”

The new school, he said, will have a powerful impact on the Coal River community.

“This community has been through four school closings and the tragic loss of the UBB mine disaster in the last 15 years,” said Dye. “There is a feeling of loss and despair that leads us to believe that nobody in Charleston or Beckley really cares about this community.

“This new school, which represents the best money can buy, has given us a sense of pride that the community can identify with and a belief that our leaders in education really care about our children.”

Many speakers at the ceremony emphasized the unprecedented combination of efforts that made the project possible. Funding came from the Raleigh County Board of Education; Alpha Natural Resources; the Annenberg Foundation; the School Building Authority (SBA) of West Virginia; Pennies for Promises; Coal River Mountain Watch.

“What we have done here at Marsh Fork Elementary has never been done, as far as I’m aware of — for so many different entities to come together for one purpose,” said Rick Snuffer, president of the Raleigh County Board of Education.

The groundbreaking brings to fruition the vision to which some citizens and groups, such as Pennies of Promise and Coal River Mountain Watch, have dedicated more than seven years of work.

“It’s been a long time in the making,” said Raleigh County Superintendent Dr. Charlotte Hutchens. “It has been in the hopes, dreams and hearts of a lot of people who have worked very, very hard to make this dream a reality.”

Discussion of a new school first began in March 2004, when grassroots group Coal River Mountain Watch organized a mountaintop removal educational day at Marsh Fork Elementary School. One teacher expressed concerns about many students’ respiratory problems.

Since then, Coal River Mountain Watch and other concerned residents and groups have worked to bring awareness to the school’s proximity to a coal silo (235 feet away) and a slurry impoundment (400 yards away) formerly owned by Massey Energy and currently by Alpha. The campaign for a new school kicked off with civil disobedience and the arrests of many local residents. Citizens called for health studies of the school and repeatedly petitioned then-Gov. Joe Manchin and the Raleigh County BOE to support building a new school upstream from the impoundment.

One student’s grandfather, Ed Wiley, even walked to Washington, D.C., to raise funds and awareness for a new school. The group he helped found, Pennies of Promise, ultimately raised $12,227 — much of it donated by other schoolchildren from across the country.

The Raleigh County BOE finally set the official process in motion when they requested funds from the state’s School Building Authority. Even that decision was not unanimous, however. Snuffer and board members Jack “Gordie” Roop and Larry Ford voted to request the new school, but members Patricia Waddell and Cynthia Jafary abstained from voting.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, SBA Director Dr. Mark Manchin described how the SBA did not provide the full funding needed to build the school. He got a call from then-Gov. Manchin the night of the SBA’s decision.

“The directive was ‘build the school,’” said Mark Manchin.

In a “hail mary” moment, representatives from the Annenberg Foundation called the next morning to offer a $2.5 million donation to the project.

Representatives from the Annenberg Foundation were invited to the ceremony but could not attend. However, no representatives from Pennies of Promise or Coal River Mountain Watch were invited to speak along with the other funders, or formally invited to the ceremony, according to residents Bo Webb and Debbie Jarrell.

Hutchens and Pioch said they did not know about the invitation process. Raleigh County BOE spokeswomen Sue Stover could not be reached for comment.

Jarrell, one of founders from Pennies of Promise and wife of Wiley, attended the ceremony to present Dye with final Pennies of Promise contributions, which will fund an outdoor nature classroom at the new school.

“This was for the kids, is what this ceremony was about…the kids are what’s most important,” she said.

Webb, who was a member of the new school’s planning committee at the request of the Annenberg Foundation, also shared his excitement.

“I am very happy for our community, our children, teachers and staff,” he said. “The journey that brought us a new Marsh Fork Elementary School is proof that people empowered with truth and commitment to social change can overcome great odds in spite of resistance from an entrenched corporate controlled political system.”

Hutchens said she appreciated the work of the community groups.

“I think it’s wonderful, because it’s a grassroots (effort) — kids and parents and people that really are concerned.”

Mark Manchin said that health and safety concerns, raised by the grassroots groups, factored into the SBA’s decision to provide funding. An EPA investigation in 2006, requested by Raleigh County Schools, did flag potential health and safety concerns, including coal dust from the nearby processing plant.

 “The first thing we look at is the health and welfare of our children, and so we made our decision at least partially based on the health and welfare of our children,” Manchin said.

Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, explained that Alpha chose to follow through with Massey’s committed donation as an effort to a build a “partnership” with the community.

“What we’re trying to do is lead by example,” he said. “Our operations impact them, and their needs and desires are important to us, and we’re here to find a way to co-exist in harmony.”

Jerry Cope, producer and consultant for the Annenberg Foundation’s Explore.org, offered a statement from the Foundation.

Cope added that he, personally, hoped to see a community health center housed in the school. The health center was one of the Annenberg Foundation’s initial visions for the project, but the project still lacks the necessary $256,000.

“Alpha should do this for the miners in the community,” he said.

Instead of brushed under the rug, the vision of a new school will take real form as the walls rise over the next year.

Dye said that the students will also have a reminder of the hard work of so many people and groups to ensure a new school.

“You may have noticed that I am wearing a new pair of Chuck Taylor Converse Shoes,” he said. “After this ceremony, I plan to place these shoes in the trophy case of our school. They will serve as a constant memorial of the sacrifice so many people made to make this project come to life.

“They will be symbolic of our pledge as principal, teachers and service personnel to run as fast and jump as high as we can to ensure the best possible education. And finally it will remind all of our students that dreams can come true, and challenge them to reach for the skies and become all they can be.”