FAIRMONT – It wasn’t a toast, but Donna Heston did lift a glass – of sorts – during Monday’s meeting of the Marion County Board of Education.
Make that ballistics glass.
Heston, Marion’s superintendent of schools, said the first of the fortified material is going out in coming weeks for the work of installing Safe Schools entrances for nine of its 19 buildings.
Barrackville Elementary/Middle and Monongah Elementary are scheduled to take delivery March 11.
The state School Building Authority, the agency that doles out dollars for public school projects across West Virginia, approved a $2.7 million for the project two years ago – which was matched by Marion’s district.
Other deliveries are scheduled for April at Rivesville Elementary-Middle and Blackshere Elementary. Entrances are expected to be installed in those buildings this spring for the first phase of the project.
East Fairmont Middle, Fairview Middle, Pleasant Valley Elementary, Watson Elementary and White Hall Elementary are set to have their entrances redone in August.
Most of those schools were constructed with masonry in the late 1930s during President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration – and Heston said the district is taking care to keep their architectural integrity intact.
“They all have unique features,” she said previously. “We’re going to respect that.”
Board members also inked a partnership between the district and Pierpont Community and Technical College.
The program links students training to become electricians at the Marion County Vocational Technical Center with Pierpont, making for easier access to certification testing as journeyman electricians advance in their careers.
In other business, the board approved a National Archery in Schools Program for East Fairmont High School, that Heston said will help the district draw on what is becoming a popular competitive sports offering at other schools across West Virginia.
“It’s a lifelong skill and an opportunity for Marion County Schools to host archery tournaments,” she said of the program, which is offered through the state National Guard’s Future Leaders Program.
