By Adam Pack
On Dec. 13, a crowd made up of Alderson Elementary School students, parents, citizens, and local officials gathered to witness Greenbrier County Schools and the Board of Education break ground on the future site of Alderson Elementary School, the current Alderson Community Center and former Alderson High School and Junior High School. Described by the board in a post on the Greenbrier County Schools website as a “$14,419,000 innovative adaptive reuse, renovation, and restoration” of the current community center, the project is expected to be completed around the end of 2024. The ceremony began with the presentation of the flags of the United States and West Virginia by members of the Greenbrier East JROTC, all three of whom were graduates of Alderson Elementary. The assembly was then led in the pledge of allegiance and The National Anthem by the Alderson Children’s Choir.
Greenbrier County Schools Superintendent Jeff Bryant then spoke, introducing the members of the board as well as honored guests, all of whom “had such a vital and crucial hand and had such vision to move forward and make this a reality, and without whom we couldn’t have done this.” Bryant noted the presence of each member of the Board of Education, the Board’s Chief Financial Officer David McClure, members of the Alderson Community Center’s Board of Directors including Board President Susan Bowyer, Dana Womack, director of Architectural Services for the School Building Authority, Matt Breakley of The Thrasher Group, Ed Niswander, principal of Alderson Elementary, members of the City Council in attendance, and Alderson Mayor Travis Copenhaver.
Bryant remarked that anyone who had graduated from Alderson High School who thought that it would be a school again one day after the closure of the Junior High some 30 years ago, “then you’re a better visionary than me.” He said that the board and the leadership of the town of Alderson “did such an amazing job as caretakers of the facility, it really is in amazing condition. It’s the way you kept it up, and only by that are we permitted to move forward with this project.” Bryant also mentioned the contributions of Hazel Reed and Kay Smith as being “the originators of the vision for this project.”
Also in attendance and given special mention were representatives from DCI Shires Inc., who are contracted to complete the renovation, refurbish, as well as construct additions planned for the building. Bryant concluded his remarks in saying that he and the board were so excited to have “a new, modern, clean, safe, and state-of-art facility for the students and faculty of Alderson.”
Board of Education President Jeannie Wyatt said, “For years we were at the drawing board trying to figure out how we can get a new facility so that the students of Alderson would have a wonderful place to provide education to these students. For all those years, and all that work, I just want to say thank you; to the community, to the parents, to the students, to the staff and faculty for being patient with us.” Wyatt said that she and the board were so grateful to the School Building Authority, who were instrumental in funding the project, saying that they “saw our vision.” Wyatt spoke for all the excited faces in the crowd when she said “we cannot wait to get back here for the ribbon cutting ceremony.”
Dana Womack, director of Architectural Services for the School Building Authority, rose and extended the excitement and congratulations of the School Building Authority Committee members, its President, and Governor Jim Justice. He spoke on behalf of the people of West Virginia’s “dedication to provide facilities for students to receive a quality education.” He reminisced about renovations to his own local high school, noting, “though they changed everything about it, they didn’t take away any of the history: I hope all of you here who remember this school have the same experience.”
Speaking next, Matt Breakey of the Thrasher Group expressed his pleasure at seeing all the plans, drawings, and work finally come to their beginning, and seeing the real point of it all; “the excited, exuberant faces of these kids in attendance here today.” Breakey relayed the correlation he sees between the building of this new school and the building of the Artemis Project: “this article stated that the Artemis Program will create a way-station on the moon, a way-station for researchers and explorers to go on to Mars and further out. Really, that’s what the building of this school represents; a way station to the exploration of each and every one of these students’ career dreams and goals, taking them out into this community, this county, and beyond.”
