The Cabell County (W.Va.) district has broken ground on a new campus for Milton Elementary School.
The Herald-Dispatch reports that the new school is being built on former farmland along Newmans Branch Road just outside Milton’s city limits is expected to be completed during the 2024-25 school year. The existing school facility is about 75 years old and is plagued by flooding.
The two-story building will have kindergarten and first grade classrooms on the first floor along with the music and art classrooms, special education classrooms and the shared cafeteria and gym space.
Grades two through five will be housed on the second floor, as well as a media center with folding walls to make the space bigger or smaller as needed.
The construction contract was awarded to Hayslett Construction at a cost of $23,969,000. The money will come from a 2020 bond approved by voters and general funds.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations and Support Tim Hardesty said all the bids on the project came in over budget. To rein in costs, the district will not include pre-kindergarten classrooms in the new building.
The original plan was to have the new school built next to the existing one, but school officials say they can’t build the new school in a flood zone.
