PRINCETON — After many months of decision-making, planning and hard work, ground will finally be broken on the new PikeView Middle School on Oct. 23.

At a special session meeting on Oct. 5, the Mercer County Board of Education approved several bids for the construction project, the final step in the pre-construction preparation for the facility that is now estimated to bear a total price tag of $17,248,000. With those essential bids awarded and site preparation in process, Mercer County school officials and future PVMS students and teachers alike can look forward to the official ceremonial launch of the project, set to be completed by August 2011.

“We’re going to host a fairly brief groundbreaking ceremony, which, if the weather permits, will be held on the actual pad where the new building will be constructed,” said Kellan Sarles, Mercer County Schools information specialist. “The 36 members of the PVMS Student Planning Team will be involved, with some having speaking parts and others manning the shovels. Also, we’ve invited the local elected officials to come, if they’re able, and the community leaders, including mayors, town council members and chamber heads from the surrounding communities. I’m sure Dr. Akers (Mercer County Schools superintendent) will say a few words about the process that finally led to this groundbreaking, and the architect, Todd Boggess, is very likely to be involved. We’ll simply have a pledge to the flag, an introduction of the folks involved, and the actual groundbreaking.”

That groundbreaking will initiate work on the future sixth—eighth grade academic home of approximately 550 students from feeder schools including Athens, Lashmeet/Matoaka, Melrose, Oakvale, Spanishburg and Sun Valley. The MCBOE approved a motion to create the new middle school last summer, and this week voted 4-1 to approve each of six individual project bids. Board member Lynne White, who voted against the creation of the school, was the lone dissenter of the motions, which included bids for a general building contract, awarded to Swope Construction for $8,778,000; heating, ventilating and air conditioning system, awarded to David Darnold Company for $2,423,000; electrical, awarded to K.W. Electric for $1,416,000; plumbing, awarded to Southern Air for $903,909; food service, awarded to Douglas Equipment for $212,715; and a sprinkler system, awarded to Brewer & Company for $156,400. In the same meeting, the Board approved a $689,104 addition to the original project plans, which will add six classrooms to the three-story facility that Boggess, of E.T. Boggess Architects, has said will be “state-of-the-art”.

“For this very reasonable cost, I recommend including the extra instructional space,” said Akers. “These additional classrooms will allow us to have a computer lab on each floor and give us the flexibility to assign most, if not all, teachers to a specific classroom.”

The new addition will bring the total number of classrooms in the new middle school up to 33. With its unique, contemporary design, the building will place students from each grade level on their own floor, and will include a dining area, a media center, art and music facilities, and a large gymnasium. Those design plans have been a long time in the making, according to Director of Pupil Services Rick Ball, and he says many school officials are thrilled with the long awaited chance to see them come through to fruition.

“Working here in the central office, we have the benefit of seeing an idea become a plan, and now we get to see that plan becoming a reality, and that’s exciting, very exciting,” he said. “The groundbreaking is another part of that ongoing process with this project, and the potential that it holds to bring students and teachers from four different schools together as one community is such a great opportunity. It’s something that I am very excited to be a part of.”

While the recently approved bids, along with the price of the addition and other project expenses bring the total construction cost up to nearly $1 million over the original estimates, the Board approved a motion Monday to cover that extra cost with a $1 million federal Qualified Zone Academy Bond, which the Board applied for and received recently. QZABs are federal, interest-free bonds that provide schools with assistance in school repairs, renovations and improvements. Akers recommended paying off the bond over a 12-15 year period. The rest of the PVMS project will be paid for by a $12.5 million award from the West Virginia School Building Authority and $3,748,000 from Mercer County Schools.

“I think that all of the future PVMS students are very excited about this facility and the fact that construction is set to begin soon,” said Ball, who leads the PVMS Student Planning Team. “We held one of the meetings of the student planning team, which includes six students and one teacher from each of the feeder schools, at PikeView High School, and we took those students on the site. It was their first actual look at the place where the building will be constructed; they walked all around it, and they were very excited. Now, they are excited to take part in the groundbreaking, and, like their peers, they are that much more excited to get in that new building once it’s completed.”

Weather permitting, the official PVMS groundbreaking will be held on the site of the new facility, which is located on Eads Mill Road, behind PVHS. The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will take place Oct. 23, at 10 a.m.

— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.