By Esteban Fernandez, Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — After this year’s student enrollment numbers came in, Marion County Schools lost the equivalent of an entire school.
That means some hard conversations are ahead for the Board of Education, including discussions over whether or not to consolidate schools.
“I think it has to be a consideration,” Board President George Boyles said. “Most people don’t want that. They want the schools in their own local environment. We’re going to have to take a strong look at, can we still do that?”
School Superintendent Donna Heston reported enrollment decreased by 209 students. For comparison, the county has five schools with fewer than 200 students in them. It represents a loss of roughly $1.25 million in education funding from the state aid formula, which directly impacts how many personnel the system can keep employed. Heston said it would be very difficult to further reduce personnel and continue operating each of the district’s 21 schools.
Fourteen schools lost students, with Watson Elementary and East Fairmont Middle losing the most, at 34 and 37 students respectively. Fairview Elementary, Pleasant Valley Elementary, White Hall Elementary, Fairview Middle and Monongah Middle Schools all have less than 200 students.
The Board of Education tasked Heston with identifying three schools to consider for consolidation earlier this year. Timeline wise, nothing would happen during the 2025-26 school year, meaning a possible decision would come in 2027 at the earliest. Heston said the school system’s task for now is to gather information to aid with a difficult decision down the line.
Heston said the state’s emphasis on the HOPE Scholarship and school choice is a major factor in the school system’s declining enrollment numbers.
While Marion County Schools doesn’t fear competition from nontraditional schools, Heston said decisions around the HOPE Scholarship are being made without bringing everyone to the table. She added the state is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul,’ with lawmakers passing bills with no forethought to their long-term consequences. Public schools need to be on an even footing with their competitors.
“When you look at one set of rules for one school option, it’s on an index card,” she said. “When you look at another set of rules for one school option it’s on an eight by 10 sheet of paper, and when you look at another set of rules for public education, I think that is an excellent illustration of how our playing fields are drastically different. The solution is to bring everyone to the table and have a constructive conversation about where we’re going as a state.”
Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said the HOPE Scholarship has reached the point where there’s no guardrails on the program. On top of that, the state’s population is diminishing and the school aid formula is not set to account for that reality. As a result, the state as a whole is seeing school closures and consolidations increase, making families lose the ability to have a school close to where they live.
To make the problem worse, money from the HOPE Scholarship is leaving the state, and being spent at out-of-state entities that provide private alternative school services.
“The legislature has ignored this issue for several years, after they created this issue,” Garcia said. “There’s literally no regulation for these alternative education systems, while our public education is so regulated, it is making it difficult for them to do the basic job and have the funding they need.”
Garcia pointed out there’s a lot of broken promises around the HOPE Scholarship, including promises it would help the poor. However, McDowell County, the state’s poorest county, there hasn’t been a single HOPE voucher issued. Meanwhile, a lot of the vouchers are being used for private schools, who have been raising their tuition rates.
While the issue has been brought up in the legislature, Garcia doubts there’s enough desire to actually do something about it.
Heston said local schools are pillars of the community. They carry history, legacy and create relationships among the community. They also provide support to the community in the form of mental health support for children, child nutrition, and exercise.
“That is what makes it so emotional, what makes those decisions so difficult,” Heston said. “What makes them so unfortunate at this point, it’s because you’re presented with the problem of declining student enrollment. That is what makes these decisions so critical at this time. To remain fiscally responsible.”
