KINGWOOD – Only three members of the public attended the fifth and final informational meeting on possible school closings in Preston.
The meeting, held Tuesday at Central Preston Middle School, was to allow the Preston County Board of Education’s office staff to gather information from the public about the possible closing of Fellowsville and Rowlesburg schools and answer questions from the public.
The next step is public hearings, which will be attended by the board. Those will be 5 p.m. Tuesday at Kingwood Elementary, 7 p.m. Tuesday at Central Preston Middle School, 5 p.m. Nov. 1 at Terra Alta School, 5 p.m. Nov. 5 at South Preston, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at Fellowsville and 5 p.m. Nov. 7 at Rowlesburg.
The board will vote Nov. 13 on whether to close the schools. That meeting will get under way at 5 p.m. at the Preston High theater.
Preston Superintendent of Schools Steve Wotring said board members would weigh the pros and cons about whether to close the two schools. “We are just trying to collect as much information as we can,” he said “There is no pre-determinator at this time.”
Only one board member was present, Robert “Mac” McCrum. The meeting ended after 10 minutes with no further comments from either Wotring or the other members of the public.
