With most of its students crammed into old "portable" classrooms,                                  Winfield Middle School                                has long needed a                                   complete overhaul,                                      Putnam County                                      Superintendent of                                      Schools Harold "Chuck"                                  Hatfield says.

Now, $21.7 million is                                      on its way to build an                                 entire new school on the grass in front of the old building-maybe.

The West Virginia School Building Authority has agreed to grant the money-if-and it's a big if- Putnam County Schools can pass a school facilities bond in September, projected to be $55 million, something that it hasn't been able to do in decades.

WMS Principal Clarence Woodworth says the aging school complex is a health concern as well as a detriment to learning.

"The health issues coming from the 200 sixth-grade students that are traveling out of the portable units as well as the cafeteria and lockers to get their books," says Woodworth. "They walk into dirt and track it back and forth during lunch. Then they leave their classrooms to come back for physical education and art and go back to the portable classrooms. So you have that dust and dirt that they track back and forth three or four times a day."

Woodworth says he believes the portables date back to between the late 1980's and 1990's. And the difference between the "brick and mortar" main campus and the "portable" campus is almost a dividing line between campus cultures.

So Woodworth, his students, parents, and students across Putnam County, who are too young to vote, hope that voters pony up a little more cash in property taxes to pass the bond.

That bond, district spokesperson Karen S. Nowviskie says, will mean several new facilities at schools across Putnam County, from classrooms to gymnasiums.

"It will be used to replace Buffalo High," says Nowviskie. "Confidence Elementary, Poca Middle, as well as to renovate Poca Elementary and build auxiliary gymnasiums at all four high schools."

The additional gymnasium, Winfield High School Principal William Hughes told PutnamLIVE.com several years ago, is needed because of the many school sports programs as well as school cheerleaders.

"Some of our kids have to practice late at night in order to share the gymnasium," Hughes said. "We'd rather have them practicing earlier in the day, so they can do homework and spend time with their families later in the evening."

Will the bond pass? Will the new schools be built? It's all up to voters. They will decide in September, and PutnamLIVE.com will report the results.