The state superintendent said enrollment numbers in public schools statewide are down and the Department of Education is now left trying to figure out where those students have gone.
Superintendent Dr. James Phares reported to a Joint Committee on Education, student enrollment has decreased by more than 1,200 student since last year.
Harrison County led the enrollment decrease losing 283 in the last five years.
Phares said the state department is going to begin an internal study of all of the possible factors for declining numbers to present to the legislature in December.
“We know our dropout rate is decreasing so we don’t think that it’s because of an increased drop out rate,” he said.
“We don’t the affect that perhaps some of the surrounding online virtual schools (have had), but we’re going to check to see if there’s been a move to that or home school or if it’s because they moved out of state..”
Berkeley County, however, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. It leads the state in growth, adding 775 students to its system in the 2013-2014 school year.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Advanced Training Center near Harpers Ferry, W.Va., will soon add new buildings.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $51.7 million contract to construct 250 room student dormitories and a student center.
In a news release Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said the addition of dorms will turn the facility into a full service campus, and will save the government money for training and travel expenses.
“This center is on the cutting edge of education and training for Customs and Border Protection personnel who play an essential role in defending our country,” Rockefeller said.
The Advanced Training Center opened in 2005. It currently employs about 200 federal and contract workers. More than 12,000 customs officers train each year there.
The new buildings should be completed by mid-2016.
More than 42,000 West Virginians are employed by the manufacturing industry and state lawmakers were told that number is expected to grow in the coming years, but industry leaders say the state needs to focus on educating those workers now.
President of the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association Karen Price said the problem with the state’s manufacturing industry is not a job shortage, but a labor shortage.
Price said Armstrong, a flooring company located in Randolph County, was recently looking to expand and add more than 150 jobs, but couldn’t find the workforce to fill the positions.
She told lawmakers during an education committee meeting instead, the company is pulling the expansion.
“The average wage in the manufacturing industry is about $45,000 a year,” Price said Tuesday, “and in the chemical industry it’s about $75,000 a year so those are pretty good paying jobs.”
Price said lawmakers need to focus on integrating soft skills like work ethic and communication into the education system and to start introducing kids to the field in middle school to promote the industry.
A law signed by Governor Tomblin in April is already having its intended effect of decreasing the state’s prison population. Legislators meeting this week in Charleston got an update on how Senate Bill 371, the governor’s prison reform bill, is doing.
State lawmakers are presented with projections all the time. The projected annual revenue, for example, is constantly talked about within the corridors of the Capitol because in recent years, those projections have shown major declines in funds.
But when legislators were presented another projection not meeting its mark, Deputy General Counsel for the governor Joseph Garcia said this was one to celebrate.
“So, at the end of this year, it was projected that we were going to have 7,531 inmates,” Garcia said.
But instead of following that trend, Garcia said the actual number of inmates is down by more than 250 since April.
And what about the inmate population being held in regional jails because of prison overcrowding? Garcia said that number is shrinking too.
“There has been a reduction of 554 people in the Regional Jail system,” he said.
Garcia attributes that reduction to the opening of a new Division of Corrections adult facility on the campus of the former Salem Industrial Home for Youth and to the governor’s prison reform bill.
It focused on two areas: dealing quickly with the state prison overpopulation and reducing the rate former inmates reoffend and go back to prison, known as recidivism.
Garcia said we’re now seeing the short term fixes of the bill—changes at the state Parole Board among others—kicking in. In a few years, he believes the numbers will be even stronger when programs like mandatory supervision take effect.
Credit Ashton Marra
/
Deputy General Counsel for the governor Joseph Garcia shared state prison population statistics with the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority.
“We’ve made some substantial progress with respect to these numbers,” Garcia said. “We weren’t expecting to get these kinds of results this early and so it shows we’re going in the right direction.”
But state lawmakers want to make sure the trend continues and many believe it can be done with more access to programming.
At state prisons, inmates have access to rehabilitation classes to prepare them to reenter society, things like anger management or parenting courses, but state prisons are so crowded that the overflow of inmates—more than 1,100 of them—are being held in regional jails where they don’t have access to these programs.
“Why can’t we look at providing those services in the Regional Jails?” Senator Donald Cookman, a former circuit judge, asked during a Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jails and Correctional Facility Authority. “It seems to me that it can be done and be a great savings to the taxpayers and, in addition to that, a great help for society.”
Garcia said the option is something the governor’s office would consider in the future.
Dennis Foreman, Chairman of the state Parole Board, said it’s an idea he supports.
While completing these programs aren’t required to be seen by the parole board—Foreman said they help.
Having a psychological assessment, a post release housing plan and reviewing an inmate’s crime and behavior while incarcerated are the major considerations–he added those who have taken classes are more likely to actually receive parole, getting them out of the overcrowded system more quickly.
“Anybody that goes through the treatment and does everything that they’re supposed to do basically to rehabilitate, once they’re rehabilitated then we’re ready to blow them out the door if they’re not a danger to society,” Foreman said. “When you don’t have the treatment, if you have to sit and wait an extra 6 months and we’re not able to see them, they’re just sitting there not getting anything accomplished.”
“They’ve got them in the regional jails, if they can get the treatment in the regional jails, the classes, it would be so much better for everybody concerned and the rates would definitely improve.”
However, the governor’s office and the state Division of Corrections are currently looking at the option of providing these services by transferring inmates to out of state private prisons.
Constitutionally, inmates would have to volunteer for a transfer and those private facilities would have to offer the same courses as West Virginia until room becomes available for the inmate at an in state facility.
But Joe DeLong, Acting Director of the Regional Jail Authority, told the committee providing the classes now at his facilities can be done. In fact, he proposed the idea to the legislature two years ago.
“We felt at that time by making the investment to offer those programs, if we could get those people the programs they needed and if the parole board kept paroling at the same rate they were, we could reduce the future incarceration cost of about $8 million a year,” he said.
Credit Ashton Marra
/
Senator Bill Laird questions Joseph Garcia, deputy general counsel for the governor, during a legislative interim meeting.
DeLong said in order to offer classes his agency would need one additional counselor at all ten facilities and more equipment like desks or computers. He estimated it would cost about $750,000 a year to provide the same level of programming in the regional jails as in the state prisons.
The catch- regional jails are mainly funded by a daily rate charged to the counties to house their prisoners and DeLong said he doesn’t feel comfortable charging the counties for a service given to inmates that should be in state funded prisons.
“I could do it now. I probably have that authority to pull it off and reshuffle the deck that I have to do it now,” he said. “I’ve just always taken the position that I wasn’t willing to share that cost across the board with the counties because I didn’t think it was fair for that operational expense to be spread into all of per diem and for the counties to be footing the bill for a state sentenced inmates programs.”
DeLong added if the legislature choose to appropriate him that money, he would make the programming available.
Garcia said the governor’s office is still in the exploratory phases of sending inmates to out of state prisons for access to programming. He said they are unsure of the cost as of yet and how doing so would compare to offering the programming instead at the regional jail level.
Here’s a roundup of tweets from local and regional authorities, including emergency services and the National Weather Service:
Update: Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 9:14 p.m.
In addition to a wind advisory in effect for most of the state, a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for the western portion of West Virginia. The National Weather Service in Charleston reports this watch is in effect until 1 a.m. Monday.
Original Story Published on Sunday, November 15, 2013 at 5:35 p.m.
According to the National Weather Service, a wind advisory remains in place overnight Sunday, Nov. 17, for most of the state until 4 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18.
Credit National Weather Service
/
Wind gusts up to 50 mph are expected with the strongest periods of wind between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. The National Weather Service reports winds of this strength can down power lines and possibly trees and can also make driving difficult. Using extreme caution while driving is advised.
Specific advisories, including times by area are listed below. Advisories are as of 5:30p.m. Nov. 17:
Greenbrier; Mercer; Summers Issued: November 17 at 4:00PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 6:00AM EST
Brooke; Hancock; Marshall; Ohio; Wetzel Issued: November 17 at 3:34PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 7:00AM EST
Marion; Monongalia Issued: November 17 at 3:34PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 7:00AM EST
Preston; Tucker Issued: November 17 at 3:34PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 7:00AM EST
Barbour; Boone; Braxton; Cabell; Calhoun; Clay; Doddridge; Fayette; Gilmer; Harrison; Jackson; Kanawha; Lewis; Lincoln; Logan; Mason; Mingo; Nicholas; Pleasants; Pocahontas; Putnam; Raleigh; Randolph; Ritchie; Roane; Taylor; Tyler; Upshur; Wayne; Webster; Wirt; Wood Issued: November 17 at 2:34PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 4:00AM EST
McDowell; Wyoming Issued: November 17 at 2:34PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 4:00AM EST
Eastern Grant; Eastern Pendleton; Hardy; Western Grant; Western Mineral; Western Pendleton Issued: November 17 at 12:35PM EST Expiring: November 18 at 6:00AM EST
The West Virginia Board of Education is pledging not to share students’ personal information with anyone outside the system.
The move was codified with a resolution passed at the board’s regular meeting this week and will eventually become policy.
The Charleston Daily Mail reports that the action was taken in large part to appease those are concerned with West Virginia’s adoption of the national Common Core standards for education.
Opponents worry that data about students that is collected by the school system will at some point in the accountability or testing process be leaked to outside parties.
The resolution says that it is board policy not to release information to any entity except in a format where the data cannot be traced back to a specific student.
