FAIRMONT – Wednesday is the last day of classes in Marion County for the 2025-26 academic year, but don’t look for people to stay down during the summer, Superintendent Donna Heston said.
Contractors and maintenance crews will soon be climbing the ladder, in fact, to replace the aging roof at East Fairmont High School, which has been plagued by leaks over the past several months by snow and heavy rains.
Heston told Board of Education members during their regular meeting Monday that work on the $2.9 project will begin next week – a goal of having the new covering on by the first day of school for the 2026-27 term, which is Aug. 26.
The roof that currently tops the building on Airport Road is the same one that was there in 1993, when the-then new East first opened its doors to students.
Another job to outfit most of the district’s buildings with Safe Schools entrances is well underway, Heston reported.
The specially outfitted portals with their ballistics glass and man-trap admissions have already been installed at Monongah Middle and Jayenne and Blackshere elementary schools, the superintendent told board members.
A number of Marion’s schools were constructed with masonry in the late 1930s during President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration – and Heston said pains are being taken to preserve the architectural aesthetic.
That project is already funded. The state School Building Authority approved a $2.7 outlay for the work two years ago, which was matched by Marion’s district.
BOE members, meanwhile, also recognized students for their accomplishment in the classroom and fields of play during the school year.
Fernanda Luisa Chavarria, who attends East Fairmont High, was lauded for landing the West Virginia Seal of Biliteracy and Global Seal of Biliteracy for her prowess in English and Spanish.
Both organizations honor students for their diversity and language fluency in an interconnected world.
Her East Fairmont classmate Carly Manchin was cheered for her championship performance at the recent state track and field championships in Charleston.
Fairmont Senior’s Sophie Starn, Tilli Cinalli, Sydney Longwell and Charlee Beresford also medaled at the meet.
