Tag: Consolidation

Student Enrollment Is Down In W.Va. K-12 Schools This Year

Student enrollment in West Virginia’s K-12 public schools has decreased this year.

West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch told West Virginia Board of Education members this week that enrollment in West Virginia public schools has dropped by more than 1,400 students compared to last year.

The drop, according to Burch, is due to continued population loss in the state and the impacts of the pandemic.

For the 2021-2022 school year, there are 250,899 students enrolled in public schools in the state.

Additionally, the state board of education agreed to permanently close and consolidate schools in Hampshire and Lincoln counties.

Hampshire County will close John J. Cornwell Elementary School ahead of schedule due to enrollment decreases, safety concerns and required educational needs. It’s one of five elementary schools earmarked to close after the county passed a school construction bond in 2020.

The board also approved the closure and consolidation of Duval pre-K-8 and Midway Elementary in Lincoln County due to structural concerns. The facility closed in July.

Students at all three schools have been reassigned temporarily to nearby schools until consolidation can begin.

The board also placed the following policies on public comment until Dec. 13, 2021:

Policy 2315, Comprehensive School Counseling Program will be repealed and replaced to update content to align with current terminology in the West Virginia School Counseling Model and W.Va. Code §18 5 18b.

Policy 2322, West Virginia System of Support and Accountability has been revised to clarify accountability requirements for all public schools. It will also embed requirements for county board of education member-training currently outlined in Policy 3235, Definition of Good Cause Failure to Receive School Board Training, which will be repealed. Additionally, it will embed West Virginia Report Card requirements currently outlined in Policy 7300, Better Schools Accountability: School, School Districts, and Statewide School Report Cards, which will also be repealed.

Policy 5100, Approval of Educator Preparation Programs has been revised for the purpose of adding clarifying language.

West Virginia County to Combine 7 Schools into 4 Next Year

A West Virginia county has planned to combine seven primary schools into four next year to avoid deficit spending.

The Intelligencer reports the Brooke County Board of Education unanimously approved the consolidation on Monday.

Board treasurer Kimberly Puskarich told board President Brian Ferguson the school district would go into deficit spending by the end of the current fiscal year if it continued to operate the seven schools. Puskarich estimated the closings will save the district around $1 million by eliminating nearly 80 professional and service personnel not funded by the state.

In fall 2018, kindergarten through second grade students are set to attend schools to be renamed Brooke County Primary North and South, while third and fourth graders will go to ones renamed Brooke County Intermediate North and South.

Dispute Resolution Sought in West Virginia School Plan

The state education board says a dispute resolution company out of Massachusetts will come to West Virginia on Monday to find a solution to the dispute over Nicholas County’s plan to consolidate schools into a single campus following flood damage.

State Superintendent Steven Paine tells the Beckley Register-Herald that the company will interview those involved and return in December with recommendations.

State Board of Education President Thomas Campbell says dispute resolution is standard for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in situations like this one.

The state board rejected Nicholas County’s consolidation plan. Paine said Gov. Jim Justice sponsored the resolution process to be fair to everyone involved after West Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled the state board has the constitutional authority to accept or reject the county plan.

West Virginia Court Upholds School Consolidation Rejection

The West Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the state education board’s authority to reject Nicholas County’s plan to consolidate multiple schools into a single campus following flood damage.

In a ruling Tuesday, the court says the state board “is vested with the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory authority to exercise its discretion” in accepting or rejecting the county plan.

The Nicholas County school board proposed consolidating Summersville, Richwood and Craigsville schools into a single campus near Summersville using Federal Emergency Management Agency money from deadly 2016 floods.

It would put middle and high schools on one campus with the county’s vocational education center.

State board members said the county needed to get more community input and consider alternatives.

A Kanawha County judge reversed the state. The top court reversed the judge.

West Virginia School Board Conditionally OKs Consolidation

The West Virginia Board of Education has conditionally approved a school consolidation plan in Nicholas County.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the plan by Nicholas County’s school board would consolidate schools in Richwood, Summersville and Craigsville into a campus near Summersville.

The Nicholas board plans to use FEMA recovery money from the 2016 flood, which damaged Richwood Middle, Richwood High and Summersville Middle, to build the consolidated campus.

The proposed consolidated campus would combine those schools with Nicholas County High and the county’s vocational education center.

State Department of Education general counsel Heather Hutchens said Friday the conditional approval will be withdrawn if the state Supreme Court grants the state school board’s requested stay of a judge’s order for it to give the conditional approval or post a $130 million bond.

Lawsuit Filed in W.Va. School Consolidation Denial

A West Virginia county school board has sued the state over allegations that Gov. Jim Justice used intermediaries to pressure officials into arbitrarily denying a school consolidation plan.

According to The Charleston Gazette-Mail , the Nicholas County school board filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court against the state Board of Education and Schools Superintendent Steve Paine.

Justice spokesman Grant Herring said the governor stayed completely out of the state Board of Education’s decision to deny the consolidation request.

The plan would have merged two middle schools, two high schools and a vocational center into a consolidated campus near Summersville using Federal Emergency Management Agency money from deadly 2016 floods.

Richwood Middle, Richwood High and Summersville Middle were closed after damages from the floods.

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