SBA approves financial plan that may allow for a new Hurricane Middle School

PUTNAM COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — The state school building authority approved a financial plan Tuesday that might eventually allow for a new $75 million Hurricane Middle School.

The plan indicates the School Building Authority would pick up one third of the cost. The SBA still has to sign off on the project which would require roughly half the agency’s school construction budget for the entire fiscal year.

A virtual vote would clear the way for the county school board to send a bond issue to November voters that would replace the 1950s era school and improve athletic facilities at six other schools.

To get the SBA dollars, the board would have to pass the bond proposal Monday. Then voters would have to approve it at the ballot box this fall.

“They basically have to get in line with everybody else,” SBA executive director Andy Neptune explained. “They will present their plan and documentation to us in September. We will review that plan in November and then make our recommendations to the authority members in December.”

The SBA’s Brian Abraham warned Putnam County to word its bond proposals so it could take the money over years as construction progressed rather than all at once.

The county has already purchased a 22-acre site next to Hurricane High School for the new middle school.

The SBA’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 16.