Often postponed and delayed construction on the new West Wendover middle school could begin as early as next year with last week’s approval from the Elko County School Board.
The school board put the project at the top of the “pay as you go” agenda in last week’s meeting which means construction on the new school could start in 2014 and be completed in 2015.
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The $28.5 million project includes a new elementary school in West Wendover and a retrofit of the current school to serve as a junior high. The school is expected to house 750 students in grades first through fifth. The current elementary building will be renovated into a sixth- through eighth-grade middle school.
Pay-as-you-go school tax revenue through the end of fiscal year 2013 is estimated at just over $39 million, according to the five-year plan.
The need for a middle school in West Wendover was acknowledged almost since the West Wendover Jr/Sr high school opened in 1996.
However the project was sidelined in the late 1990’s when the price of gold collapsed and tax revenues in Elko County subsequently plunged. Talk of the new middle began again in the mid 2000’s but again the economy turned sour in the Great Recession and all building projects were put on indefinite hold.
In the meantime West wendover made due with stopped gap temporary trailers that now house about 50 percent of its elementary students.
With the price of gold above the $1,500 an ounce mark for over two years and the local economy humming once again the school district is again addressing the issue.
In addition to solving overcrowding problems a middle school also prevents sometimes harmful interaction between junior and senior high students.
“Its a fact of life that the physical differences between 12 year olds and 17 year olds are vast,” said WWHS teacher Kathy Durham several when the issue was first being debated on the school board level. “A middle school would cut down on bullying and a host of other problems.”
