Wood County BOE hears bids for stadium renovation
- (Photo by Douglass Huxley) Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kaleb Lawrence and Pickering Associates President and CEO Ryan Taylor talk to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about the bids for the Parkersburg High School stadium renovation project.
- (Photo by Douglass Huxley) A map rendering of the proposed boundary lines for the 2025-26 school year. The district is launching a new online school locator tool that can be scanned from a QR code located in this story.

(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kaleb Lawrence and Pickering Associates President and CEO Ryan Taylor talk to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about the bids for the Parkersburg High School stadium renovation project.
PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education met Tuesday night to hear the bids for the Parkersburg High School stadium renovation project and will now have to decide to accept one of those bids or return to the design process.
Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kaleb Lawrence told the board the district received three bids for the project.
“The highest bid that we received was (from) SPQ Construction, out of Saint Albans, that was $7.2 million,” Lawrence said. “The next bid was Grae-Con (Construction), they do a lot of work for us, (at) $6.29 million. And the apparent low bidder was UCCI (United Construction Company Inc.) at $5.4 million.”
Lawrence said the bond languages stated $2 million would be set aside for the renovations.
“I don’t think any of us were expecting the number to be that high,” Lawrence said. “So, we were a little bit shocked when we got those numbers.”

(Photo by Douglass Huxley) A map rendering of the proposed boundary lines for the 2025-26 school year. The district is launching a new online school locator tool that can be scanned from a QR code located in this story.
Pickering Associates President and CEO Ryan Taylor said they did their own estimates for the project and they came in around $3.5 million. He said most of those figures came from quotes he received from vendors. He said what was underestimated was the cost for demolition.
“And so there’s a significant difference (in) the effort to take that stadium apart and put it back together,” he said.
Taylor said all of the bidders put in a lot of time into their bids and that needs respected.
“These numbers are on the street,” he said. “We need to make sure we protect that. We want to do everything we possibly can to make sure that number one, we get local. Number two, we get a stadium that’s fixed.”
Board President Justin Raber asked if they could bid out different design options to get a more advantageous bid. Taylor said they could but that they need to respect the vendors.
“We need to respect time and effort. It takes a lot of money to put a bid together,” Taylor said.
He said he believes the current bids are good for 30-60 days depending on what the general conditions say in the contract. He said if the board decides not to accept any of the current bids they need to act quickly so they can release the bid bonds.
“When they come and submit a bid, they’re ready to do the job, and there’s lots of front end documents that are required in these bids,” Taylor said. “So if you guys don’t want to move forward with it, we need to be prompt and get with them so we can start the next steps.”
Raber said the board will decide those next steps at its Jan. 28 meeting.
The board also heard a boundary attendance lines update for Hamilton and Jackson Middle schools and Martin Elementary for the 2025-2026 School Year by Assistant Superintendent of Academics and Leadership Justin Hartshorn.
“The goal is to ensure a smooth transition for all students,” Hartshorn said. “We’ve been working hard with our administrators to develop plans that bring people together and build excitement about the future.”
He said the most significant change is the closure of Fairplains Elementary, with all of its students being reassigned to the underutilized Martin Elementary. He said at the middle school level, Van Devender Middle School will be shutting down, with its students dispersed between Hamilton and Jackson Middle schools.
Hartshorn said the proposed boundary lines will assign the area between the Little Kanawha River and Emerson Avenue to Hamilton Middle, while the region north of Emerson Avenue will go to Jackson Middle.
“The area that is currently assigned to Van Devender Middle School between the Little Kanawha River and Emerson Avenue, which eventually turns into Memorial Bridge Road, will be assigned to Hamilton Middle School starting the 2025-26 school year,” Hartshorn said.
He said to help families navigate the changes, the district is launching a new online school locator tool that can be scanned from a QR code.
He said the district is also providing flexibility for open enrollment.
“Students already attending a school outside their residential attendance zone who are in good standing do not need to reapply annually,” he said.
Hartshorn said with these boundary adjustments, the district aims to create a more efficient and effective educational system for all students.
“Our goal is to communicate that… and make it fair to them,” he said.
The board will vote to approve the proposed lines at a later meeting.
Superintendent Christie Willis talked to the board about how the district utilizes “equivalency time,” adding 30 minutes to school days from the beginning of the year which can be used to forgive up to five days of missed classes due to inclement weather. She said with that equivalency time already in place, students will not have to make up the last five school days missed; however, any additional closures beyond the five days will need to be made up.
She said the last possible day for students would be June 11, and the last possible day for teachers would be June 13.
The board also approved the appointment of Bree Deuley-Marlow as Neale Elementary Principal effective July 1, 2025. Deuley-Marlow will be stepping in for retiring principal Linda Brunicardi.
The next regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education is scheduled for Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. at the board office located at 13th and Plum streets. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed online.