CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Board of Education voted Thursday to take over Boone County’s public school system effective Monday, if the Boone school board doesn’t fix its 2016-17 fiscal year budget issues by the end of that day.
The seemingly final ultimatum to Boone comes after the county’s school board members, twice in the last two weeks, refused to follow state schools Superintendent Michael Martirano’s orders to make severe school employee pay and benefit cuts. Those included cutting thousands of dollars in pay for each employee and eliminating employer-paid vision and dental insurance coverage.
Boone’s board has called a meeting for 10 a.m. Monday in the gym of Scott High, 1 Skyhawk Place, Madison. The meeting’s stated purpose is to consider passing a revised budget “which may include but is not limited to” some of the same cuts…
