MORGANTOWN – At a time when school districts across West Virginia are facing declining enrollments and the dreaded prospect of having to shutter buildings, Monongalia County is getting ready to put up a new facility.
The plan, Greg Williams told Board of Education members earlier this week, is to get students in their classroom seats at the new Suncrest Middle by fall 2028.
“And our goal is to try to break ground this summer,” said Martin, a project architect at Williamson Shriver Architects, the Charleston-based firm that is designing the school.
At $34 million or so for the total construction, it won’t be cheap.
The state School Building Authority awarded a $16.9 million outlay for the work in December 2024, which the district is matching.
“What a Christmas gift for the Suncrest Middle Community,” Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said then.
The new school will sit on a sloping tract of land – 17 acres and pad-ready – near West Virginia 705, between Mon Health Medical Center and the Suncrest Towne Centre shopping plaza.
“We’re excited,” Martin said. “It’s a great piece of land.”
Enrollment is projected at 499 students in grades 6-8 with some breathing room factored in, the architect said.
The design, he said, accounts for a 15% population growth in coming years, given that Morgantown is a destination both for its medical community and the draw of professionals to West Virginia University.
Look for a three-story design, Martin said, with ample classroom and lab space for the three grades.
Other amenities include a multi-level media center, a regulation basketball court and athletic field and a parking lot gridded out for more than 100 spaces.
A 200-seat auditorium is also in the mix, which the district could book out to other schools needing a venue, for say, a band concert or forum.
“That takes the pressure off South Middle,” BOE member Shawn Smith of that school, and its space, constantly enlisted for the above.
