Monongalia County Board of Education image.
MORGANTOWN, W. Va.–The Monongalia County Board of Education is beginning discussions about a new $72 million career and technical education center.
The board met with the architectural firm the DLR Group. A projected timeline has a five-year planning and construction period.
“This was really helpful for our board, to kind of get a focus and start to, really, to develop a vision of what we want this school to look like,” Monongalia County School Superintendent Eddie Campbell said about the discussions.
The “Renaissance Center” intends to be a campus similar to the Monongalia Technical Education Center that would serve county high school and future middle school students. The planned 7,560-square foot facility would include state-of-the art STEM classrooms that can accommodate career fields in health sciences, technology, architecture, transportation and hospitality located just off of Interstate 79 and a short distance from all three county high schools.
“This is what Monongalia County schools need to be,” Campbell said. “This is the future of education, not only in the county, but for this state and this region,” he said.
The next step is to plan for funding (via bond referendums) for the estimated $72 million project. Campbell said that may be lower than what the actual cost will be. Campbell and school board members anticipate the community will get behind the project.
“Mon County in general is really supportive of education,” Monongalia County BOE President Ron Lytle said. “So as long as they see us going through the process and really analyzing what moving forward is going to look like, what industries we can partner with, what industries we help can bring into the community and what industries that are here we can help serve.”
The proposed timeline includes a school bond vote in May 2024. If funding moves forward without any snags, design and construction of the “Renaissance Center” could be completed in time for the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Campbell said the project has a long way to go but it’s generating excitement.