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MILL CREEK -- Randolph County Schools officials recently announced a request for grant funding has been approved by the state for a project at Tygarts Valley Middle-High School.
The School Building Authority of West Virginia awarded $195,955.84 in grant funding to to RCS to be used for upgrades at TVMHS.
Debbie Schmidlen, superintendent for RCS, said county administration submitted a request for a major improvement project (MIP) grant in March of 2020.
The funding received by the local school system will be used to replace 16 interior and 8 exterior doors at TVMHS.
"The doors at Tygarts Valley are completely outdated; many of them come from at least 1976," Schmidlen said. "One of the things we were running into is the availability of parts for these outdated doors. We were having difficulty being able to find replacement parts when there were doors that became broken or in disrepair. So, this is a really good step in the right direction for Tygarts Valley for student safety and staff safety."
According to RCS Assistant Superintendent Joseph Arbogast, some doors – including the gymnasium – have not been replaced since the 1940s.
"The gym doors are from the 1940s, and those gym doors were added to the list of doors to be repaired," he said. "The gym doors will now be able to be secured during a lock down and they will be able to be locked (without) a chain."
According to the School Building Authority of West Virginia, an MIP grant provides funding to be used to address "major improvements" to facilities already existing within the county that cannot be funded by local county's maintenance budgets.
Amanda Smith, board member, said she appreciates the efforts of administration.
"I just want to give my appreciation to the administration, both the county and at the high school, for the ability to move forward," she said. "We have challenged you again and again with finding money in other places and you have come through with that."
"Thankfully, this grant got approved, and we will move on to something bigger and better next," Schmidlen said.