New Herbert Hoover High School on track to open fall 2023

ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WCHS) — Herbert Hoover High School students are about one year away from being able to walk the halls of their new school.

Over the last six years, HHHS students have experienced major flooding which destroyed their school in 2016. Since then, they've shared classrooms with middle schoolers, then moved into portable classrooms. They had to adapt again when the pandemic hit in 2020.

Now, the light at the end of a very long tunnel is near, with the new school on track to open by fall of next year.

Herbert Hoover High School principal Mike Kelley said he's pleased with the progress being made at the school's build site in Elkview.

"The inside finishings are going on," he said. "The lights are up on our athletic fields, so it is an exciting time."

He said he and his staff are already thinking about ways to honor the students who graduated before getting a chance to attend the new school.

"We want to recognize the students that have bridged the gap between the old school and the new school," Kelley said.

Students have been learning out of portable classrooms for the past several years.

"The inside of one of these classrooms looks very similar to the inside of a regular classroom," Kelley said. "But obviously, it will be nice to have our own cafeteria. It will be nice to have gymnasiums again where we won't have to go all over the valley trying to find places to practice."

Congresswoman Carol Miller took a tour of the build site Tuesday to check out some of the new features which include state of the art security systems and 97 wells around the property to provide geothermal heating and cooling.

"We are going to have an incredible high school here," Miller said. "Wonderful facilities and good teaching environment. They are safe. It is up above the water level."

And while construction is slated to be complete by next summer, Kelley said there's a small chance the school could open sooner.

"We would like to think that we might have an opportunity to get our kids in that building in the spring," Kelley said. "Not at the start of the spring semester, but maybe late in the spring semester. If we can, and my bosses will allow us to do that, then we want those kids to have an opportunity to spend a little bit of time in that building."