Sept. 21 – Princeton – Over the past two years, Mercer County Schools has seen improvements to its facilities, including new air conditioning and new roofs, as well as a commercial kitchen to support a new culinary program. Funding is now being sought for even more upgrades.
According to Amy Harrison, data and information specialist for Mercer County Schools, several updates, upgrades and renovations have been completed at Princeton schools over the past two years. Money from the American Rescue Plan, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, local and excess levy funds were used for the projects, which totaled nearly $12 million.
Improvements included a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, a new paging system, parking lot paving, and student restroom renovations at Princeton Senior High School. Restroom renovations were completed at Princeton Middle School, and Princeton Primary School received a new HVAC system and parking lot paving.
“Our maintenance staff, along with Mr. Tom Adkins and all of his staff, have been amazing,” Superintendent Edward Toman said Friday. “They’ve been overwhelmed with a lot of work and all that stuff, but just everything from roofs to air conditioning, windows and all those things that need to be improved.”
Melrose Elementary School and the Mercer County Early Learning Center both received new windows and a new HVAC system. A new roof and a new culinary classroom with a restaurant kitchen were added to the Mercer County Technical Education Center.
Mercer County Technical Education Center Director Danielle Farmer said the new kitchen is a big improvement over the old building.
“We had a very small kitchen that was just one side of our current kitchen, and we never had a culinary program,” Farmer said. “So when we started our culinary program, our students actually built this. It’s been open for two years now. It’s commercial-grade, and it allows them to do a lot of activities here. They can do small events, and it gives us a lot more options to do things than we had before.”
Cooking students practiced their skills Friday at an event at the nearby Chuck Mathena Center.
Melissa Meachum, a cooking, baking and pastry instructor at the Technical Training Center, guided her students as they made sure their guests were served.
“It’s a phenomenal lab for my kids to work in,” Meachum said. “And it has all the equipment that they would use in a real setting. It’s awesome. Enrollment is actually up this year. I don’t know if it’s because of the new facility, but we have more kids interested in the program this year, probably because of that.”
The region’s school system is now asking for state funding for further improvements, Toman said.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We just submitted a major project to the (West Virginia) School Building Authority. We have to present it to them in November. We gave them the document that we’re trying to do a massive renovation of the tech center and make it such an exciting opportunity for southern West Virginia and Mercer County; but it’s renovating, bringing some things up to par and adding a new building, maybe partnering with New River (Community and Technical College). We’re waiting to do that. We have to tell our story about it and hopefully the SBA will award that project to us.”
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
