Preston County Schools finally taken over by State BOE

Yesterday the straw finally broke the camel’s back and the WV State Board of Education took over Preston County Schools.  I’m reading over the state audit and am only halfway through it at this point, but it is amazingly bad.

Here is the 161 page report: OEPA Preston Co School System Corrective Action Plan (.pdf)

This action on the state’s part is LONG overdue. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean the people in the county office are bad people, it’s a combination of serious issues that result in a horrible situation.

1. Money – Preston County is the 5th largest county in the state.  It is also mostly rural and older.  Jobs in professional sectors are scarce unless you are self-employed. Many people commute out of the county for employment or simply move away.  The tax base simply isn’t there to fund the schools properly based on the current school building funding model.

   Money is the root of this problem. Without it, you can’t hire enough staff that have the skills needed to do work – on facilities, to create and implement policy, for support, and even to do the books, etc.  Those you do get are likely going to be overwhelmed with the enormity of the task before them and in the case of facilities simple physical limitations to being able to do what needs to be done.

   Anyone worth their weight in salary aren’t going to waste their time trying to fix this mess with substandard pay and non-existent resources, so who is left?  Only the ardent few who simply care to much to leave or those who can’t (or won’t) get work anywhere else.

2. Lack of training and/or exposure to current business practices – So those who are left do what they can, but are not trained or exposed to or are possibly uninterested in following current business practices.  (Among central office staff)
   I will admit, this is only speculation based on what I’ve read in the report about not following procedures and anecdotal references to how hard it is for teachers to get any kind of trainging, so I am assuming that non-faculty staff members are basically barred from getting training.
3. Lack of personnel – The report stated that there were only 6 (!) maintenance personnel for the ENTIRE county.  There are 14 schools in Preston County, folks, and the staff at the schools can’t even count on someone being there to fix stuff when it breaks? WTF?
4. Lack of IT support – My mom regularly complains about how they don’t have any IT support for their schools and how they can never utilize technology they do receive because they can’t it to work properly.  Teachers are basically responsible for their own tech support and/or support from members of the community.  I’m not saying you NEED technology for education, but not being able to properly integrate it into classroom learning doesn’t help kids learn how to use it and only keeps them farther behind the rest of the world.

You know what the real shame is here with this issue?  The one school that has done well in spite of budget issues, Fellowsville Elementary, will probably be closed because they only have 105 kids enrolled. Fellowsville’s only failing is it has the misfortune of being on the southern end of the county, appox. 1 hr from Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg and Elkins, which means it is losing population.  Families can’t afford to stay there because there are no jobs and the commute is too far for most people – especially with gas prices increasing.  The community also suffered a blow recently when a coal mine shut down unexpectedly.

Other than that is is a lovely community.  The scenery is beautiful and the people are nice.  I grew up there. I wanted to raise my daughters there, but fiscal reality set in 3 years ago and we chose to move closer to Morgantown because of our commute.  Fellowsville is regularly an exemplary school.  Its teachers care about their work and most live nearby.

I sincerely hope that the School Building Authority does not approach fixing our problems by simply warehousing all the students in Kingwood.  Consolidation has already cost this county a lot emotionally and really taken the heart out of many of our communities.  I think it works fine for the high school, but not for middle school and certainly not for elementary school.

From an economic development perspective, further conslidation will not do us any favors either.  Small local schools are as much of a draw as jobs to people looking to move to the county and enroll their kids in school.

If we want people to move to Preston County, start businesses and become a part of the community, schools are an intrinsic to acheiving that goal.

Let’s hope this turns out for the best.

If you haven’t been following this story, here are some links to the media stories:

• The Charleston Gazette – State seizes Preston schools
• State Takes Over Preston County Schools – WBOY.com
• Preston County Superintendent & Others React to State Takeover – WBOY.com
• Board of Education takes over Preston County schools-wvpubcast.org
• Charleston Daily Mail – BREAKING NEWS: State takes over another school system