BERKELEY COUNTY, W.Va. — At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Berkeley County Schools Board of Education heard an update on the district’s Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan process and was told the district will launch a public survey to gather feedback on proposed facility scenarios.

Consultant Scott Leopold of HPM previewed options the district will present to the public and said the effort is intended to collect feedback, not to ask the public to pick a final plan. “At this point in the process, we’re not asking people to pick what is going to happen. We’re presenting some options to facilitate some conversation and collect some feedback,” Leopold said.

The district is seeking community input on a range of scenarios that include constructing a new elementary/intermediate school in South Berkeley (cost estimate presented as $439,000,000), two different approaches to middle-school capacity (scenario A: replace Hedgesville Middle and an addition at South Middle, cost about $67,300,000; scenario B: renovate Hedgesville and add another middle school, cost about $95,500,000), and two high-school approaches (scenario A: build a fifth high school in the Mountain Ridge area, estimated $83,600,000; scenario B: adaptively reuse a commercial building for a county CTE center, estimated $57,200,000). Leopold said each scenario lists benefits, likely boundary impacts and challenges such as demolition or major redistricting.

Superintendent Dr. Sachs told the board the steering committee — made up of parents, educators, service personnel and principals — has met repeatedly and will use the survey and community meetings to form a recommendation. Dr. Sachs told the board he expects to bring a recommendation on Nov. 17.

The district will post an online survey at the latest by the end of the week and will keep it open “at least a full two weeks,” Leopold said. Two in-person community meetings are scheduled next week: one at Hedgesville High School and one at Musselman High School. The survey will include narrated video material, rotating question order to reduce bias, and a parallel, shorter student survey so planners can compare responses from students with those from parents and other stakeholders.

Board members and staff discussed demographic inputs and growth scenarios that the steering committee used, including a demographic study prepared by Preston Smith with low/medium/high growth projections. Board members pressed Leopold and staff about how the district is factoring recent enrollment slowdowns into priority-setting; Leopold and Dr. Sachs said the process is intended to be flexible and to revisit the 2020 CEFP priorities in light of current conditions. Dr. Sachs noted that the 2022 bond completed most projects called for in the 2020 CEFP and that only a handful of bond projects remain under construction.

Leopold said the survey will ask respondents to rank priorities — for example, whether to prioritize high-school capacity, middle-school replacement, a new CTE/workforce center, or moving toward a K–5 grade configuration — and will allow respondents to support multiple scenarios or suggest alternatives.

Next steps: the district will launch the survey, hold the two community meetings, gather advisory-committee feedback and present a superintendent recommendation to the board on Nov. 17. No formal board action on the CEFP scenarios occurred at the Oct. 6 meeting; the session was an update and outreach plan presentation.