(Photo by RealWV)
By Stephen Baldwin
RealWV, www.therealwv.com
At a special meeting on Monday, the Greenbrier County Board of Education voted to grant Superintendent Jeff Bryant permission to enter a lease-to-purchase agreement with the State Fair of West Virginia valued at $4.3 million for a new administrative office.
According to Bryant, it will be an “achievement center” that brings together the county’s alternative school, youth reporting center, adult education, and administrative offices in one location.
“It won’t be so much a board office but a hub for educational activities,” Bryant said in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon.
Currently, the board houses their offices and programs in two locations – New River Community College and a Chestnut Street property in Lewisburg. Bryant said they plan to auction the Chestnut Street property and vacate New River.
The new central location will be in the former-Appalachian Electronic Industries building, which sits in the back corner of the State Fair of West Virginia’s free parking area (also behind the Greenbrier East football field).
Board President Jeanie Wyatt called the move “an opportunity that we could not pass up as we look into the future for Greenbrier County Schools.”
Providing explanation, she said, “Our time at the Community College had been good and they offered us a nice facility, however we were spread throughout the building and didn’t have the continuity among our departments. Our staff missed that aspect. We were also paying rent with nothing to show at the end.”
Bryant hopes to complete the move by fall, though he isn’t sure that will be possible.
“We have had some casual conversations with State Fair board members over the last couple of years that we would have some interest in the property,” he said. “It would allow us to all be together in one location…near our county’s two largest schools.”
Greenbrier East High and Eastern Greenbrier Middle School are both within sight of the newly-acquired property. “It’s an excellent building,” Bryant noted. “Lots of room in it.”
Speaking of the financial terms of the plan, Bryant said, “We won’t impact the so-called the general budget every year but we will sustain this cost over a number of years, 15 years.”
In response to questions about the county’s ability to make this move at a time when budgets are tight, Bryant said, “Some people may say, ‘Well you should’ve put that money towards teachers we’re losing due to a loss of student enrollment.’ Unfortunately, I can’t go out and get a lease-purchase plan and put it towards paying people salary…This is something we can’t let pass us by.”
Bryant said he believes it’s in the best interest of the county school system to make this move, as the cost of upkeep at Chestnut was unsustainable, and there was a desire to have everyone under one roof working together.
“There will be no extra expense to the taxpayer,” Bryant said. “I’m looking at this down the line into the future and think this is what’s best for our county.”
Once the space is ready, Bryant said the public will be invited inside to see all it has to offer.
For more information on Greenbrier County Schools, visit their website at greenbriercountyschools.org.
