Learning pods in Richwood will soon be a thing of the past as Nicholas County’s newest school nears completion
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
Nine years after the flood of 2016 destroyed Richwood High School and Richwood Middle School, Superintendent of Nicholas County Schools Terrence Beam told members of the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) that their new school will be ready this summer.
“I am very happy to announce that this very year, this current school year, three months from now, we’ll be getting those kids out of the pods at Richwood,” Beam told members of the WVDE during their Feb. 12 meeting. “We are moving Richwood Middle and Richwood High School students to the new facility this summer.”
Beam said the learning pods the students currently have classes in are falling apart, and maintenance workers have been keeping busy.
“This last spell we had with weather – the floors, the kids have to go outside between classes – there’s a corridor, but it leaks. It pours like a sieve,” Beam said, noting that, as a result, the pod floors began to bow so much the doors would not close.
Maintenance crews had to get under the pods and lower the floor, just so the doors would close, Beam said, expressing how important this work was with below freezing temperatures.
“This summer will be nine years, and that’s a long time for the kids to be in the pods that they’ve been in,” Beam added.
The new location for Richwood High School and Middle School is on the site of Cherry River Elementary in Richwood, Beam explained, adding that construction has moved along faster than anticipated due to Cherry River students being moved to Panther Creek Elementary.
As construction on the new educational complex first began at Cherry River Elementary School, Beam said that major issues were noted.
“When the students were at Cherry River, there was a lot of construction going on. We were always worried about kids running out in front of a bulldozer or something,” Beam said. “We had all kinds of leaks, problems with our roof, we had water getting into our electrical systems. I mean, it was a mess.”
“It got to the point that we had to move the students out,” Beam said. “We had to find a location for them.”
Beam said that additional work will be needed on the Cherry River Elementary building before students can return, but that he is happy to see the project nearing completion, especially for the students who have been learning in pods.
“I’m excited about getting our kids out of these pods and into a new facility,” Beam noted.
Additionally, the WVDE also approved the closures and consolidation of Summersville Elementary School, Glade Creek Elementary School and Summersville Middle School into the new Summersville Academic Complex.
Closure hearings regarding these schools had been completed in Nicholas County in November 2024. The Nicholas County Board of Education voted to approve these closures the following month.
“We had our closure hearings on November 20, and we had zero participants,” Beam began, explaining that in 2016 the original plan was to build a new Nicholas County High School and vocational center. However, that proposed project came in at $75 million over budget.
“There was no way that Nicholas County could take on that responsibility,” Beam continued. “So, we immediately moved to a different plan.”
According to Beam, this new plan included the consolidation of Summersville Elementary School and Summersville Middle School and Glade Creek Elementary, which is located one mile from the construction site.
“We needed to be able to find a project that would both help our students, this is going to include 37% of Nicholas County’s students in this one building, and also be able to be under budget,” Beam said, adding that FEMA and the SBA worked well with Nicholas County to help make this happen.
The academic complex is expected to be completed at the start of the 2027 school year, Beam stated.
“With these two new facilities we would have over 50% of our students in two new schools,” Beam added. “And, we have two other schools in our county that are fairly new, so Nicholas County will be in a lot better condition than we are now. We do have five elementary schools left after these two buildings are completed. We will see where that goes. We have a couple of the schools that are very, very, very small.”
Beam said he didn’t know what the future would hold for those smaller schools.
