Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Ron Duerring said Thursday that Herbert Hoover High 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 also told the Gazette-Mail on Thursday that he couldn't say if the existing Hoover building in Clendenin, which received about 7 feet of water in the late-June flooding, will ever reopen. He said damage assessments of Hoover's building are ongoing. It is about a mile and a half from Elkview Middle.
As of late last week, he said it was still his goal to open all four of the county's flood-damaged schools on time for the Aug. 8 start date that applies to almost all Kanawha public schools. That start date is West Virginia's earliest.
When asked what new information has put into question whether Hoover will reopen at all, he said, "Plans change, and that's all I can tell you."
He said he couldn't say how long the school sharing period will last.
"We hope it's for a very short period of time," Duerring said.
He said there are about 700 Elkview Middle students and 800 Hoover High students.
Duerring's statements came after the West Virginia Board of Education, in a voice vote with no nays heard, approved a waiver of its policy regarding instructional time, to allow Elkview students to attend their school in the morning and Hoover students to attend it in the afternoon.
Betty Jo Jordan, executive assistant to state schools Superintendent Michael Martirano, said the policy waiver was required, to allow the school system to drop below the state-required minimum daily instructional minutes: 315 for elementary schools, 330 for middle schools and 345 for high schools.
Lou Maynus, Kanawha's assistant superintendent over middle and alternative schools, said Hoover students will have 205 daily instructional minutes during the school-sharing period, while Elkview students will have 240. Duerring said students will get more instruction time than the minutes indicate through digitally delivered assignments.
Elkview students, whose bell schedule last school year was 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., are set to attend their school from 7:30 a.m. to noon each day, while Hoover students, whose bell schedule last school year also was 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., will attend from noon to 4:30 p.m.
Hoover students will have sports practice in the morning, while Elkview students will have it in the afternoon. When asked where practices and games will take place, with the football field hosting portables, Maynus said the plans are still being developed and should be finalized in the next few days.
Duerring said he didn't yet know what form of portable classrooms - which can range from single-classroom portables to large ones with inside hallways - Kanawha will receive or how much they will cost, but he said it's possible the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover a significant amount of the cost.
He said putting them on Elkview's field will allow that school's cooking facilities to serve Hoover students.
During the school sharing, Elkview students will have when they arrive in the morning and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to noon. Hoover students, who won't get school breakfast, will have lunch from noon to 12:40 p.m.
Hoover will have 45-minute-long classes on an alternating schedule, with one set of classes one day and the other set the next day.
Maynus said that, during the temporary period, Elkview will go from two daily periods of "related arts" classes, like chorus, current events and health, to one daily related arts period that would alternate from one course to the other each day.
She also said there will be weekly, instead of daily, "developmental guidance" periods for most Elkview students. She said these periods, also called "Herd Time," provide time for things like career exploration and anti-bullying lessons.
Duerring said all students would return to full-day schedules when the Hoover students move into the portable classrooms.
Some of Hoover's senior band students said Thursday that they're glad to have a place for classes, although they're not looking forward to going back to middle school.
"I'm eager, but I'm not," Marie Good said during a break in marching band practice Thursday. "I'm just happy I have some place to go and take my courses. [But] I just left middle school."
Good said she and her classmates have to be understanding of the situation.
Wesley Monk said he is disappointed that he'll spend at least a portion of his last year of high school away from the school he attended.
"It's OK, for a short time," he said, "but I don't really want to spend an entire year going to Elkview."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.