KINGWOOD — The impact of Preston voters’ failure to pass a levy is beginning to be seen.
Voters failed to pass a five-year special levy for education May 8 by just a few votes, with 3,812 votes for the levy and 3,910 votes against it.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Preston County Board of Education, Superintendent Steve Wotring said that new math textbooks adopted for fifth, sixth, ninth and 10th grades will only be loaded on students’ school-issued laptops. Hardcopy texts will not be purchased.
Wotring said that will save half the cost on the texts. Information was not immediately available on how much will be saved.
During discussion of the proposed 2018-‘19 budget, teacher Krista Hayes, of Aurora School, asked that more of that school’s $100,000 state Education Program Allowance Funding, also called isolation funding, be spent on student programs.
Wotring said only three schools in the state now receive the funds, and it is given on a year-to-year basis to schools in isolated areas in order to keep schools there. The other recipients are Pickens in Randolph County and Meadow Bridge in Fayette County.
Hayes said that funding has ended for Aurora’s Born Learners program, but she has continued to provide it on a volunteer basis. She asked that some of the isolation funds be used for that program for preschoolers.
There are no preschool programs in the Aurora area, Hayes noted, and 18 to 20 families participated monthly in Born Learners. Hayes asked for $3,000 to keep the program going.
Another need is to pay for water testing that must be done before any activity held at the school outside of regular school hours, Hayes said.
“We are the only school in the county with a well,” she noted.
Because of that, before summer reading, youth league, PTA or any activity outside the school day, the water must be tested. Hayes said $3,000 for testing would be helpful.
Board Vice President Jack Keim said he supported using some of the isolation funding for the Born Learners program and water testing for student activities like summer reading programs.
But he and fellow board members did not support using the money for testing before activities for the youth league, for example. That is something the failed levy would have covered, Keim said.
In the three precincts in the Aurora area, Precincts 19, 23 and 28, the vote totaled 206 for the levy and 243 against it.
The board voted 4-0 (with Board President Crissy Estep absent) to move $5,000 of the isolation funds from maintenance to water testing and the Born Learners program.
Among other uses the isolation funds are put to are maintenance and utilities. The FY 2018-‘19 budget also proposes using $10,000 for a divider in the gym requested by the Aurora Local School Improvement Council. This is because the area is used, for example, as a cafeteria and gym at the same time.
Wotring said he will share his recommendations on moving forth without a levy at the board’s June 11 meeting.
In other monetary discussions, Board Member Pam Feather asked if it would be possible to somehow offset Secondary School Activities Commission fees for new coaches?
No action was taken by the board on her request. However, the board did approve the salary scale for coaches for the 2018-‘19 school year. Board Member Robert “Mac” McCrum sought to have the salary scale motion tabled, but no one seconded his motion
