(Photo by Douglass Huxley)
Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp and Vienna City Councilmember Barbara Joyce gave the Wood County Board of Education a formal request Tuesday asking the board to donate the Vienna Elementary School property to the city to be used by their recreation department.
PARKERSBURG — Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp made a formal request Tuesday night asking for the Wood County Board of Education to donate the Vienna Elementary School property to the city to be used by their recreation department.
Rapp was accompanied by Vienna City Councilmember Barbara Joyce.
“We’ve never had a gym to work with our recreation programs,” Rapp told the board. “We’ve got lots of activities in town that we could use the stage that you all have, (the) cafeteria, I think it presents options for us that we’ve never had before.”
Rapp said the city also plans to address long-standing flooding issues on 41st Street by installing a retention system in the school’s parking lot.
“It empties up pretty quickly, but it’s pretty much impassable for when we get a really hard rain,” Rapp said.
Joyce emphasized the need for more space for day care and recreation programs and recalled having to coordinate with the school district in the past to use the gymnasium for Vienna’s recreation activities.
“I used to do that every Saturday and Sunday afternoon for years,” Joyce said. “And it would really be nice to have our own gym, and we wouldn’t be bothering you all the time. So thank you, and please consider this for our village, the village of Vienna.”
Board President Justin Raber said this was a “great possibility” and that the board can “take it under advisement” as they move forward.
“We have a great working relationship between the Wood County Board of Education, Wood County schools and the city of Vienna, and we can’t be more thankful for that,” Raber said. “These types of projects are what makes our communities prosperous.”
Superintendent Christie Willis talked about Kenneth Trump, Ed.D., president of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based, national school safety consulting firm, spending the last two weeks in Wood County touring area schools and speaking to administrators and staff as they compile information for their comprehensive safety review of the district.
“He goes across the country and does this for school districts,” Willis said. “He said Wood County Schools has one of the best camera surveillance systems that he has seen.”
She said Trump also complimented the cleanliness and pride in the school facilities, noting the shiny floors in particular. She said Trump also praised Safety Director Jeremy Bell for his passion and commitment to continuing to make Wood County Schools a safe place for students.
Willis said Trump will be providing a final report with recommendations in early 2025. In the meantime, she said the district is working to simplify its crisis media plan and develop more concise emergency procedures to share with staff.
“(We) realized, though, in that crisis media plan, it was very wordy. And in emergency situations, we need a very concise document,” Willis said.
She said a two page document was created and would be shared with all school staff.
The board will meet tonight at 6 p.m. at Martin Elementary School, 1301 Hillcrest St., and Fairplains Elementary School, 615 Broadway Ave., at 7:30 p.m. as they continue their school closure hearings. Speakers are asked to sign up between 5:30-6 p.m. if they wish to speak at Martin Elementary and between 7-7:30 p.m. if they wish to speak at Fairplains.
