Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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April 20, 2009

County receives $6M more for PikeView Middle

By GREG JORDAN

PRINCETON — Mercer County Schools have received the second half of a $12.5 million state School Building Authority grant aimed at creating a new county middle school.

Last year the SBA issued a grant for the construction of PikeView Middle School and forwarded more than $6 million to the Mercer County Board of Education so the design phase of the project could get underway. On Monday, the SBA confirmed that Mercer County Schools would receive an additional $6,343,520.

“That was actually approved last year,” Superintendent Deborah Akers said of the grant Monday. “They gave us half this year and half last year.”

The new middle school, slated to be built near PikeView High School in Gardner off Interstate 77, will be for sixth through eighth grade students from Athens, Lashmeet/Matoaka, Spanishburg and Oakvale schools. When PikeView Middle School opens, all four of the feeder schools will be reconfigured into K-5 elementary schools.

Construction has not started, but the schematic designs, produced by E.T. Boggess Architect, Inc. in Princeton, have been submitted to the SBA for review. Akers said the finished school will have approximately 515 students.

Plans call for placing PikeView Middle School adjacent to the PVHS soccer field on the south side of the 150-acre PikeView campus. The location would allow easy access from Eads Mill Road, parking for teachers and parents and natural barrier between the high school and middle school.

“We’re waiting for approval on that (design),” Akers said. “As soon as we get approval on that, we’ll go out to bid. We think we will hear back in a couple of weeks.”

If the SBA approves the school’s design, construction could begin this summer with the school being completed in approximately 18 months, she said.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com



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