Associated Press Published

Three Nicholas County Schools Won't Open on Time, If Ever

Downtown Richwood, WV, at dawn after hours of heavy rain flooded the little town.

Three Nicholas County schools will not reopen this upcoming school year because of flood damage.

The Nicholas County Board of Education announced Thursday evening at a special meeting that Richwood High School, Richwood Middle School and Summersville Middle School received too much damage to reopen on Aug. 19.

Superintendent Donna Burge-Tetrick says she doesn’t know if the schools can be reopened at all.

Burge-Tetrick says she’s still aiming to have all three schools’ students start on schedule. That may require using portable classrooms or sharing other school facilities between two separate schools’ students.

Charleston-based ZMM Architects and Engineers had determined that Richwood Middle has $1 million to $1.5 million in structural damage and that Summersville Middle has more than $500,000 in structural damage.