Published: October 22, 2009 02:39 pm      

Officials seek input on schools

Survey can be filled out on board's Web site

Wyoming County Schools officials want information concerning their facilities from the public this week.

A survey form has been added to the Wyoming County Schools’ Web site for this week only, according to Frank Blackwell, county schools superintendent.

That Web site is located at http://boe.wyom.k12.wv.us/; just click on Wyoming County Schools Facility Planning Questionnaire.

Those without computers at home can access the site at any local library.

“People can comment about anything,” Blackwell explained. “It’s a way of determining if there are things we may need to be doing, or maybe we are doing things we may not need to be doing.

“There will be a couple of issues on the survey,” he said.

One area of the survey will allow people to comment about the need for pre-schoolers in the high schools.

The Early Head Start program allows high school students with infants to leave the babies in the care of the program staff with space provided in a classroom in the school. The high school parents can have lunch with their babies or visit the infants during the school day.

“Some of our (planning) committee members felt there was no need for this program,” Blackwell said. “We want to know what the public thinks.”

Blackwell also emphasized people can comment about the resource center, the transportation garage, the central office, any of the county schools’ buildings and facilities — not just the school buildings.

Survey participants can also comment on academic or athletic programs and/or technology programs in the schools, about renovations, enrollment — anything pertaining to the schools, Blackwell emphasized.

Collecting the information is part of the county’s Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan (CEFP), a 10-year plan that details how all the buildings will be used in the coming decade, according to Frank Mann, assistant superintendent.

The plan has been required by the West Virginia School Building Authority since 1990 for all 55 state school districts, and qualifies the school district for state School Building Authority funding for facility renovations and updates through a competitive process across the state.

The Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan helps School Building Authority members determine which projects from across the state are “most needed.”

In the next round of “needs” funding, Wyoming County will apply for money to build a new Pineville Elementary School. The current building has been flooded twice since 2001, and there is a need for a new building, Blackwell noted.

The information collected from the Internet survey will be compiled by Dejong, of Dublin, Ohio, a company that is assisting in compiling the Wyoming County CEFP along with Alpha Associates, of Morgantown, which serves as the CEFP architect. An architect and a Recognized Educational Facility Professional (REFP) are required by state regulations to insure “a quality plan as well as standardizes the planning process and the document format to assure statewide continuity in the plans,” according to information from the state School Building Authority.

“The REFP assumes the lead in the planning process, including organization and facilitation of the work of the planning committee as well as preparation of the final CEFP documents,” according to the state School Building Authority. “The architectural professional is responsible for evaluating all existing school facilities, generating cost estimates to upgrade them to current standard, and provide cost estimates of final planning scenarios developed during the work of the planning committee.”

The CEFP must be submitted to the state in December.

In addition to central office staff, planning committee members include Jennifer Bailey, Toney Bowles, Greg Cook, Jody Cook, Mike Davis, Joy Kissel, Jason Mullins, Richard Browning, Christy Laxton, Pamela Bailey, Terri Blake, Sheila Mann, Tina Puett, Karen Short, Angie Steffey, David Lord, P.J. Blankenship, George Boggs, Robin Hall, Dan McKinney, Linda Phillips, Debbie Smith, Carolyn Wilcox, Lillian Bailey, Jamie Blankenship, Sara Blankenship, Stacy Cozort, Hannah Ellison, Leigh Hall, Alvin Hatfield, Stacey Justice, Cindy Pertee, Christine Snuffer, Tonya Tilley, Kathy Whitten, along with students Jordan Lovejoy, Andrew Hatfield, Melinda Hatfield, Alex MacMadu, Holly Pettus, and Emily Poindexter.

For more information about the survey, phone 304-732-6262, extension 110.