Brooke County Schools Continues Significant Facility Upgrades
From painting and paving and roofing to the installation of new athletic fields, HVAC systems, classrooms, and kitchens, administrators and maintenance personnel at Brooke County Schools have been very busy for the past several years. Thatâs when the district hired Maintenance Foreman Steve Mitchell, and he and Superintendent Dr. Jeff Crook have been working on a long and ambitious list of upgrades and renovations needed in and around Brooke Countyâs seven public school buildings. âI donât want to knock anyone, but when I came here to Brooke County Schools in 2019, there were a lot of projects that needed to be done,â Mitchell said. âOther than that, the board and our administration definitely have a different vision than the people before them. The board and our superintendent know how important facilities are to the kids and the parents, and weâve been busy. Brooke High School was opened in 1969,a nd the campus rests only 20 miles north of downtown Wheeling. âWe started with the basic stuff like the roofs on several buildings,â he said. âAnd think about this â Brooke High School is 9 acres under roof. Itâs a big building, and thatâs a lot of roof.â Mitchell and his staff not only concentrate on the high school, but also on Wellsburg and Hooverson primary schools, Franklin Intermediate and Jefferson Intermediate, Brooke Middle School, the Bruin Bridge, and the Central Office in Wellsburg. More than 220 projects have been completed to date, and thereâs much more to come, Mitchell revealed last week on the âNovotney Nowâ radio program on River Talk 100.1/100.9 FM. âWe maintain eight different buildings in all, and then we have athletic facilities we take care of, too,â Mitchell explained. âAs far as whatâs outside, thereâs the football, baseball, and softball fields, and we have our track and field area as well as our band field. âSo, yes, we cut a lot of grass, but we also now have our turf fields that have been added because of the weather we have here in the region,â he said. âThe kids love the new fields because theyâre consistent, and if they have a game scheduled, they know theyâre going to play unless we have a really, really bad storm.â Along with the outdoor athletic facilities, Superintendent Dr. Jeff Crook and his staff have been examining the interiors of every school in the district to assess what improvements need to be made. The times, they sure are a-changing, especially when it comes to facilities involving the school districtâs athletic fields. âWe played our football games at Wellsburg Stadium down by the old Wellsburg High School on the river, and the area where our fields are now was all woods,â Mitchell recalled. âThey started developing the land at the high school pretty much as soon as I graduated, and our facilities were considered to be very good compared to other schools. âThere are a lot of reasons why our board approved the turf fields now, and one of the biggest is safety because of the surface and the drainage. Plus, the artificial surfaces are easier for us to maintain,â he explained. âThe kids love the surfaces, and they love knowing that if they have a softball or a baseball game on the home school, theyâre most likely going to play when theyâre supposed to play.â Brooke High's football field was the first to be transitioned to artificial turf, and since the baseball and softball fields have been upgraded, too. Like the Pros Itâs no secret that young athletes emulate their heroes in as many ways as possible, and they also dream about competing in state-of-the-art facilities with similar surfaces. Dr. Crook knows it to be true â so do Deputy Superintendent Corey Murphy and Brooke High Principal Eric James â and thatâs because they were once the same kind of âgoing proâ dreamers. âAnd thatâs one of the big reasons why our vision with these improvements to our facilities has everything to do with making our schools better all the time. We want our kids to want to come to our schools and to want to participate in sports or another extracurricular activity,â the superintendent said. âWe want them to be proud of their school, and thatâs whatâs happening here in Brooke County. Weâre seeing that pride in our community, too. Brooke High's campus is located at 29 Bruin Drive in Wellsburg. âYou want your facilities to be top-notch because of open enrollment and the Hope Scholarship program we now have in West Virginia, but the grand plan â the reasons why weâre doing what weâre doing with our facilities â is for the kids we have here now,â Crook said. âWe also believe that along with the best facilities in the Northern Panhandle, we also have the best teachers, coaches and staff members.â The installations of new surfaces for the high schoolâs football, baseball, and softball fields were completed by FieldTurf out of Georgia, and they all involved interesting processes, according to Mitchell. âThe company comes in and the first thing they do is take 13 inches of dirt off the top,â the maintenance foreman said. âThatâs when they put the drainage in, and everything has to be approved by the environmental folks with the state of West Virginia just make sure the run-off is going where itâs supposed to go. While more than 220 improvement projects have been completed in the past seven years, BCS Maintenance Foreman Steve Mitchell and his crew have many more planned for the immediate future. âAfter that, everything is stabilized with concrete, and then on top of that goes the stone, and then the turf,â Mitchell reported. âAfter the new surface is down, thatâs when the final touches are made, logos are added, and then we have a new field for our kids. Itâs really an amazing process to watch, and now the kids know theyâre going to be able to play when theyâre supposed to play.â No more puddles or muddy baselines or barren 50-yard lines, and the all-purpose surfaces are more cost-effective in the long run. âNot only are the artificial surfaces more consistent as far as scheduling goes, but weâre also saving a lot of money when it comes to seeding, fertilizing, and watering,â Crook said. âPlus, we really donât have the need for tarping the field anymore when bad weather is in our area. We all know we get some pretty good storms in this area, too. âBut as long as thereâs not a bunch of lightning, our kids can play,â he added. âThat means there arenât the cancellations like there used to be. I remember when I was a kid and when we had a game scheduled, weâd be all excited. But then, if it got canceled, I just remember that being such a letdown for the kids. âBut no more. Not in Brooke County.â Read the full article
