Ground broken for new Windsor school
Published 11:59 am Saturday, September 15, 2012
From left, Isle of Wight Board Supervisors Al Casteen and Dee Dee Darden, along with School Board’s Denise Tynes and Superintendent A. Katrise Perera, Chairman Robert Eley, and State Delegate Rick Morris, R Carrollton, break ground for the Georgie D. Tyler Middle School. -- STEPHEN H. COWLES | TIDEWATER NEWS
WINDSOR—Ground was broken on Friday for the Georgie D. Tyler Middle School in Windsor.
In related matters, during a Thursday meeting, the school board voted 4-1 to award a $19.3 million contract to Ritchie-Curbow Construction Inc., Williamsburg, to build the school.
Isle of Wight School Superintendent Katrise Perera expects work to begin within a month and the anticipated completion will be in January 2014.
The new building, named after a well-known local educator, will be made next to the Windsor Middle School on North Court Street.
Peter Andreu Jr., director of facilities, construction and maintenance, said the total price for the new school will range from $23 million to $24 million.
“I’ve worked with a lot of people on this school for a long time, and it’s here now,” School Board Chairman Robert Eley said during the groundbreaking.
After the program, Hardy District School Board Member Herb DeGroft reiterated why he opposed the project.
“Based on the data I collected, it would be hypocritical for me not to vote no. But I do support cost-effective education,” he said. “The children are the greatest assets we have.”
During the ceremony, Bernice Bolling was remembering her own school days.
“I was thinking we just had our 50-year class reunion, and now they’re getting ready to add another part to the school,” said Bolling.
The 68-year-old from Suffolk started first grade at the Georgie D. Tyler Elementary School in 1950. She and her siblings lived six miles away.
High school, which was all part of the same building then, began with eighth grade for her in 1958; she graduated in 1962.
Surrounding Bolling and several other former classmates were current students of the Windsor Middle School.
“Back in the day in the 1950s, we had nothing remotely electronic,” Bolling said. “It’s very wonderful all the electronics they have now.”
Bolling said was personally connected to the famed educator.
“I saw her very often. We used to go to the same beauty parlor when I was a girl. I remember when she asked me to spell ‘Isle of Wight.’ I was shaking in my shoes, but I spelled it correctly.”
