ROWLESBURG — Rowlesburg residents made suggestions to cut expenses, asked for a delay in the vote and touted the value of their school at a public hearing Wednesday.
It was the final hearing held by the Preston County Board of Education on the possible closing of Fellowsville and Rowlesburg schools.
At 5 p.m. Nov. 13, the board, which was silent throughout the six public meetings and three public hearings, will meet in the Preston High auditorium to deliberate and vote.
Some speakers, such as Anne-Marie Grant, asked the board to consider separate votes on the two schools. Superintendent Steve Wotring said the board can do that, if it wishes.
Melissa Bolyard presented her three daughters as evidence of the value of small schools. One is a Preston High senior, one attends Rowlesburg and the other is a registered nurse. She urged the board to again try to pass a levy.
Brooklyn Bolyard asked why some schools can’t be converted to solar, since high utility bills are a factor in the closing and why schools couldn’t have a cook/custodian to save a position. She also asked who came up with the closure idea and what that person is paid.
Wotring said there’s no money for solar conversion, and he came up with closure and other ideas after the board told him to find costs savings when the levy failed in May. He’s paid $126,000 a year. There’s too much work for one person to do it all at some schools, he said of the combined positions. Other schools use a cook/custodian.
Wendy Bever suggested cutting his salary by $26,000. Many people in Rowlesburg only make $20,000 a year, she said. Bever suggested putting other cost savings in effect and delaying the closure for a year.
Addison Bolyard asked why not close schools at 3 p.m. and charge anyone who uses it later. Wotring said that’s done now. She also asked why they would close a school with the highest test scores in the county.
Rowlesburg math teacher Angela Williams also addressed students’ achievements.
Wotring said the middle grades have good scores, but the elementary does not. “You have stellar growth fifth through eighth,” he said, but “in the elementary, Rowlesburg is at the bottom” in test scores.
Autumn Sheets and others presented board BOE members with printed information. She questioned the accuracy of some busing info provided the board and asked if after school activity shuttles will be run. Wotring said they will.
Zoey DeBerry, a sixth grader at Rowlesburg, said she saw posts by students at other schools on Facebook, saying they don’t want Rowlesburg students in their schools. It makes her sick worrying about that bullying and not seeing her friends, she said.
Sixth grader Macayla Sypolt said she does not want to change schools.
Tim Weaver, a Rowlesburg native and retired college professor, dumped a box of play money on the floor to show the board will be throwing away $15 million if it quits using the relatively-new building.
West Virginia Education Association Regional Representative Thomas Bane was among those who called for the board to keep the schools open and try to pass a levy again. The last failed by only 99 votes, he noted.
Wotring said he understands Fellowsville and Rowlesburg might vote for the levy, but he’s being told by other communities they will not if it’s to guarantee the schools stay open.
He noted that in 2016, there were more than 6,000 votes for the levy and 6,300 against it, so the BOE ran it again, and it failed. Rowlesburg voted it down two to one. In 2010, voters there were nearly three to one against the construction bond, which still passed.
It costs $42,500 to run a levy with paper ballots, Wotring said, and, “There is no such thing as a guarantee with a levy.”
Tiffany Masters said the school system, “is broken, plain and simple,” and students graduate from Preston High each year who cannot read or sign their name in cursive. Why close schools before the system has a deficit, she asked.
Wotring said the state requires a 3 percent rainy day fund in school budgets. He said figures compiled by the treasurer show that, without any closures, the county will be in the red by the 2024-’25 fiscal year.
Bianca Peaslee asked whether parents could send their children to Aurora School, if Rowlesburg closes. Wotring said there is a process to apply for in-county transfers. As long as there is space in the receiving school, they generally go through, he said.
Cristal Bolyard asked if thought was given to only closing Rowlesburg’s middle school and keeping the elementary. Wotring said it had not, but it was “something to consider.”
Brad Castle said the hearing felt like a formality. Meetings should have been held a year ago on possible closings, he said.
Board Member Jeff Zigray was not at the meeting, a fact noted by one speaker. Wotring said Zigray will receive a recording and transcript of the meeting.
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