Kanawha County's school board is holding a special meeting at 6 p.m. today about the flooding aftermath facing the county's public schools.
The meeting will be at Elkview Middle, at 5090 Elk River Road North. The board hasn't held an official meeting outside of the public school system's central office in Charleston for over a year.
All that's on the agenda is a presentation on the "Flooding Situation and Schools," and time for board and community comments. The agenda doesn't explain what the presentation will entail.
Board member Ryan White said the meeting will be about what will happen with the flood-impacted schools: Herbert Hoover High, Elkview Middle, and Clendenin and Bridge elementaries. He said plans will be announced, but declined to discuss specifics, saying he wants the community to hear about it from school system employees.
The school system still hasn't announced whether Hoover's facility will ever reopen after it got between 6 feet and 7 feet of water in the late June floods and suffered damage equaling 70 percent of its appraised value.
Kanawha schools Superintendent Ron Duerring did say last week that Hoover students will temporarily attend classes in the Elkview Middle building in the upcoming school year, until they can move into portable classrooms on Elkview's football field. Duerring said middle-schoolers will attend in the morning and high-schoolers in the afternoon, both with reduced daily instructional minutes that he said will be made up with digital instruction.
Most Kanawha public schools start classes Aug. 8.
There's also the possibility that Clendenin Elementary students will be moved into portable classrooms placed outside of Bridge Elementary, in Elkview, with students from both schools sharing the Bridge cafeteria and, perhaps, other spaces in Bridge.
White said board members will be able to talk to affected community members at the meeting.
"I think it's very important for the community to come to this," White said. "I'd encourage everybody to come to listen to what's going to happen because it greatly affects their lives."