Many Woodburn residents and concerned others in Morgantown and Monongalia County are against the location of a consolidated Easton-Woodburn elementary school at the intersection of WV 705 and US 119 (Mileground Road). Locating a school at the Mileground intersection is inexcusably expensive, unhealthy, dangerous, and flat wrong.
If two new smalls schools are not built in the Woodburn and Easton catchments, a new school combining Easton school and Woodburn school students should be built on a revitalized Woodburn site. Possible designs on the Woodburn schoolgrounds:
See overview and a record of the broad community involvement and efforts at New Woodburn Community School Initiative.
At the 705/119 Mileground intersection site, Mon Schools bought 8.85 acres from WVU for about $2.9 million, then bought an additional adjacent 2.5 acres from the Mileground Mobile Home Park for about $800,000, then spent about $1 million to mitigate the mine voids that underlie both properties, anywhere from a dozen to a few dozen feet below the surface. That’s nearly $5 million spent on land acquisition and mine mitigation, none of which would have been spent if a new school had been rebuilt on the existing Woodburn schoolgrounds. West Taylor Elementary was built a few years ago by Mon School’s architects for $6.6 million. West Taylor’s capacity is 300 students, nearly 100 more students that attend Woodburn Elementary, and only about 70 fewer student than attended Woodburn and Easton Elementaries combined, last year. The consolidated Eastwood Elementary on the Mileground is projected to cost $21 million or more, in a colossal mismanagement and waste of funds, at an illicit and potentially lethal site.
Unless otherwise noted, posts are authored by Woodburn resident and parent Tony Christini.
newcommunityschool at gmail dot com
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Other Easton/Woodburn combined school ideas on the Woodburn site:
