County Administrators Ask For More Flexibility In School Spending

School administrators are asking state legislators for more flexibility in the school aid funding formula. 

The Public School Support Program, also known as the state aid funding formula, is the multi-step procedure used to determine the state’s financial responsibilities to local school districts.

J.P. Mowery, director of finance for Pendleton County Schools, gave a comprehensive summary of the formula to lawmakers at an interim meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Education Sunday. He pointed out that the formula does take into consideration small and rural counties with low and declining enrollment.

“Enrollment certainly is the engine that drives funding,” he said. “How many students that a county district has drives the funding for how many personnel you allow for professional and service, which are the certainly largest areas of the formula…There is a provision which we are extremely appreciative of in the small rural counties for 1,400 students.”

The state formula has a floor of 1400 students, meaning that calculations will use that number  regardless of enrollment actually being lower in a district.

Charles Hendrick, superintendent of Pendleton County Schools, presented a county perspective on the formula. 

Hendrick said that the formula is well thought out, but could use some flexibility when it comes to issues like price increases due to inflation. 

“You can see it’s pretty complex, and it covers a lot of areas, and they’re pretty targeted as what you can spend money on, and it’s a well thought out funding formula,” he said. “But it also doesn’t have a lot of flexibility in some places as to when the money comes in, in one of those steps, that’s what it’s for. And so the request for this would be to increase that amount to allow local school districts a little more flexibility in their funding.”

Hendrick also identified other areas of concern in the funding formula, including  alternative education to support school discipline efforts and special education. 

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, asked about funding to curb staff absenteeism and reward staff for refraining from using sick leave, a practice that he said was commonplace for employees before 2015.

“What I’m trying to do is create some value for those days, and the legislation I offered provided an opportunity where, if at the end of the school year, a teacher could basically sell all 10 of those days back to the school system in exchange for an amount,” Oliverio said. “The goal of what I’m trying to accomplish here is we have a really high teacher absenteeism rate in West Virginia, and if we can further incentivize them to remain in the classroom, that could potentially be 10 more days of a certified teacher with a prepared lesson plan in front of our students instead of a substitute teacher.” 

Hendrick also identified the sick day buyback scheme as a place for improvement in his own analysis, and said legislation could allow many different incentives. 

“If there’s enabling legislation, like the attendance incentive, when persons miss less than four to five days, there is a bonus that’s out there now,” he said. “I can’t speak for the other 55 superintendents, but we’d be willing to try that to see if it worked, because even if we broke even, we would be better off having, you know, certified teachers who were there in front of our students, as opposed to substitutes who may not be certified in that area.”