ARTHURDALE — The Preston Board of Education learned Monday how much money might be saved by proposals other than closing two schools.
Superintendent Steve Wotring reported on the possible savings. No action was taken.
Textbooks
The first proposal is switching to digital textbooks as much as possible. Savings from this will vary greatly, depending on the series adopted, Wotring said. This year, math texts were adopted and, by buying digital texts for grades that have school-issued lap tops, the county saved $86,341.
For grades where laptops are not handed out, some online licenses were bought, so students can load the text on a personal device, and hardcopy texts were bought.
“It really depends on the content area in which you’re adopting how much savings there could possibly be,” Wotring said. “The adoption for next year is social studies, so that will play out quite differently.”
The county won’t be notified until the spring which company’s texts are to be adopted for social studies, so no figures were not available Monday on possible savings coming up.
Lawn care
Another area being looked at is lawn care. Until 2015, the county contracted out lawn care. In 2015, equipment was bought and 2.4 full-time equivalent positions hired to do the work in house.
Looking at the five years through 2019, School Treasurer Katrina Kerstetter projected possible savings of $32,661 in 2019 by going back to contract mowing. However, that does not factor in if equipment has to be replaced.
Custodian contracts
The third possible area of savings is in the length of custodian’s contracts. Currently all are on 240-day contracts. Being considered is cutting those to 200 days and hiring as many people as needed for summer work.
Assistant Superintendent Brad Martin estimated doing this could save $22,271 if Fellowsville and Rowlesburg are not closed. If those two schools closed, savings would be $44,256. In a budget of nearly $50 million, the savings don’t justify the results, Wotring said.
There would be “unbelievable” turnover because of the loss of 40 days, he predicted, plus every custodian would have to be put on transfer and each custodian could bid on each job.
“I think this plan has real potential, but I don’t think we should do this to our current custodians,” Wotring said. “I think we phase this in over time,” replacing retiring or resigning custodians with others employed on 200-day contracts.
Preston County Schools has 18 custodians employed on 240-day contracts currently. There are also people employed as custodians/cooks.
Bus routes
The final possible savings being looked at is reorganization of bus routes. This needs to happen regardless of whether schools are closed, Wotring has said in the past.
Transportation Director Tony Harris estimated a couple bus routes could be eliminated if Rowlesburg and Fellowsville schools close, resulting in a possible savings of $63,454. That includes gasoline, salaries, maintenance and changing some stops.
If Rowlesburg closes, the county also should go back to single busing in the Kingwood area, Harris recommended.
In other areas of the county, an estimated $57,709 could be saved by eliminating one run each in Aurora and Terra Alta, and adjusting some routes.
Switching to single busing on all afternoon runs also could present savings. Six years ago these savings were estimated at $250,000, but he did not have figures on how much might be saved now.
Having secure locations where buses could be parked without fear of vandalism could also cut some miles of “empty” travel to drivers’ homes.
Also at the meeting,
The board rescheduled its meeting with the Rowlesburg Local School Improvement Council (LSIC) for 5 p.m. Monday, at the school. Board member Jack Keim said Rowlesburg should have an opportunity to make its presentation before the board votes Nov. 13 on whether to close the school. Originally the meeting was to be Nov. 26.
The BOE moved the Nov. 13 meeting to the Preston High theater, to accommodate everyone who may want to attend.
The West Preston LSIC talked about initiatives being undertaken at the school to improve student scores, attendance and participation. The school band performed for the board.
Wotring said the state will notify the county later whether it will grant a student’s appeal of Preston’s refusal to allow the child to attend school in another county. The hearing was held Monday.
Tweet @DominionPostWV. Email kplum@dominionpost.com.
