KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – Herbert Hoover High School is getting $200,000 to go toward the new school building.

The Kanawha County Commission approved the funding at the Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, and presented Herbert Hoover High School Principal Mike Kelley with the check for the funding.

Kelley was joined at the meeting by one of his students and several future Huskies. He says the funding will not only benefit current Hoover students, but students for several years to come.

“This kind of gesture on the part of the County Commission is not only going to benefit current and immediately future Herbert Hoover students. We want to do some long term things with this – things that are going to last,” Kelley said.

The commission says they have been working to set aside and refinance funding to put the money toward Herbert Hoover and the students.

The former Herbert Hoover High School location was destroyed and condemned during the 2016 floods, and the Class of 2022 spent their entire high school career in portable units outside of Elkview Middle School. Kelley says by the time they are able to open, it will have been seven years since the Huskies have had a high school building.

“We had to vote to condemn Herbert Hoover. That really broke my heart,” said Commission President Kent Carper. “It had to be done to get the ball rolling, even though the ball rolled mighty slow.”

The new school is set to be completed sometime this year.