MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Board of Education is closer to deciding the design of the future Renaissance Academy.
Proposals for the approximately 75,600-square-foot hybrid facility that supports career technical education and college preparatory courses are expected to be decided by the end of April. The four proposals under consideration are projected to cost approximately $80 million and would be located just off of Interstate 79, within driving distance of the three county high schools and the Monongalia County Technical Education Center (MTEC).
“We listened (last week) and then we were going to come back this meeting and discuss and work through the next couple of weeks and have the deciding meeting, with the last meeting of the month being our decision date,” said Board of Education President Ron Lytle on the status of the project.
Each of the designs under consideration includes state-of-the-art classrooms that can accommodate career fields in health sciences, technology, business management, and hospitality. The campus will also include separate learning areas for vocational areas of study, with an architecture designed to have an open learning environment. Lytle also stated that the winning design will complement the curriculum and private sector partnerships expected to be a part of the Renaissance Academy, with the classroom setups expected to be approved ahead of the facility’s architecture.
“Programming and academics are just as important as the structure in the end, and actually the first round of this will be approving the initial phase, which will do the academics,” said Lytle. “The goals, the partnerships, and all that stuff,” he said.
The purpose of the Renaissance Center is to prepare Monongalia County students to either go to college or immediately enter the workforce. The campus will include a curriculum that would complement MTEC while serving high school and advancing middle school students. The BOE also hopes to include private sector partners so that costs for classrooms can be supplemented while offering students a chance to get a job right out of high school.
“With jet engines, if we’re doing different things with the bottling company or something that has high-dollar machinery, it could drive the cost up in a hurry,” Lytle said. “So hopefully we can partner with them,” he said.
Depending on supply chain problems and funding issues, the Monongalia County Renaissance Center is projected to open by 2027. Funding is expected to be supported with the help of bonds and with the possibility of federal and state funds due to its abandoned mine property location. Lytle also stated that conversations are underway with local business partnerships that, if successful, could bring facility costs down to close to $20 million. As the BOE continues the last steps before final approval, funding avenues are expected to be explored with the hope of some help from both the public and private sectors.
“The facility itself might be a $60 million facility, but when you start bringing in all the stuff that we need to bring into that to actually do the programming, it’s going to be a pretty expensive facility,” said Lytle.