Site preparation started June 10, one day after county students left for summer break. Poca Middle is the first of four Putnam County schools to start construction with the $57 million in school bonds that voters approved last year.

The middle school's new 66,000-square-foot building will hold about 350 students and connect to soon-to-be renovated Poca Elementary. School officials say the site will be unrecognizable by the start of the 2010-11 school year, with new roads, a new parking lot, and no classroom trailers.

"The Poca Middle job is the absolute No. 1 need in the county," said Robert Hull, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

The current building was built in 1926 with wooden framing, Hull said. Since then, board members continually approved renovations for its rotting floors, and signed expensive energy bills for its inefficient electrical and cooling systems. The new building's utility costs are expected to be lower, he said.

In May, school board members awarded the site preparation contract to Chapman-Martin Excavating. So far, the project is on schedule, and construction is set to begin in October and wrap up before the 2012-13 school year. The cost to build the middle school and renovate the elementary school is expected to total about $21 million from the bond fund.

Buffalo High, Confidence Elementary and Winfield Middle are the other three brand new school buildings set to be built. The projects for Confidence and Winfield are still in planning stages, but board members expect contract bids for the construction of Buffalo to be finalized by mid-July.

The state School Building Authority granted the county $22 million for the construction of Winfield Middle. The funds were contingent upon county voters' approval of the school bond issue. Hull said the building authority is overseeing the construction of Winfield, so its planning and completion timeline is slightly different from the other three schools.

School officials expect all four schools to be completed before the 2012-13 school year.

Putnam voters had last passed a school bond in 1976, and board members had not been able to build a new school since then. Seasonal renovations and repairs could be funded only through the general operating budget.

"You can't go in and build a $20 million building out of the general budget," Hull said. "You need special funding for that."

County voters rejected bonds proposed by the school board in 2002, 2001, and 1993. In order for a bond issue to pass, 51 percent of voters need to approve it. The 2009 bond was approved with 56 percent of the vote.

"Asking taxpayers to reach into their wallets is never an easy thing to do," Putnam schools Superintendent Chuck Hatfield wrote in a quarterly newsletter. "But Putnam's high academic standing and high quality of education made it a little easier for voters to feel comfortable entrusting their money to the board of education."

In the newsletter, Hatfield declared the 2009-10 school year as the "year of the voter."

Reach Zac Taylor at Zachary.Tay...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5189.

Where the $57 million school bond is headed:

| Poca Middle will get a new 66,000-square-foot building funded with more than $21.5 million in bonds. The school will hold about 350 students. Poca Elementary will also be renovated and connected to the middle school.

| Winfield Middle will receive a new 83,000-square-foot building. The project will be funded by the state School Building Authority for $21.7 million and hold about 650 students.

| Buffalo High will get a new 88,000-square-foot building funded with $20.6 million from the school bonds. The school will hold about 400 students.

| Confidence Elementary will receive a new 38,000-square-foot building funded with $8.8 million from the school bonds. The school will hold about 250 students, and will be located on property about five miles north of its current location.

| All of the Putnam County high schools will receive new auxiliary auditoriums.

| Winfield Elementary will get a 3,800-square-foot gymnasium.