Letter to Editor,
Below is a Rebuttal to a previous opinion article published in the August 23, Wetzel Chronicle.
The purpose of the delegation from Paden City that made presentations to the Wetzel County Board of Education on August 14, 2023 was to address a very specific agenda item that had eminent direct effect on the future of Paden City High School and also named named Magnolia High School and New Martinsville School. The recommendation that was considered per the published agenda read, âConsideration and possible action on Superintendentás recommendation that the Board consider the reconfiguration (i.e., closure, consolidation, and/or merger) of Paden City High School, Magnolia High School, and New Martinsville School.ã And a second recommendation stated, âConsideration and possible action on Superintendentás recommendation that the Board instruct the Superintendent to prepare and reduce to writing the data and reasons for reconfiguration of schools (i.e., closure, consolidation and/or merger) as required by relevant West Virginia law.ã Because the first recommendation implied or inferred direct effect upon PCHS and the second recommendation supported the first, the people of Paden City who support our community-based schools in Wetzel County attended the Board of Education meeting and spoke to object to these recommendations and voice our concerns that passage of these recommendations and the action they direct would have negative effects on our community and the county.
Recently the community of Paden City and supporters of Paden City schools have been painted with a brush of âanti-progressã and said to be …áholding the people of Wetzel County hostage.ã We have been blamed as the group who has been the ones who stopped the consolidation march in past years and the âGreen and White footstepsã have been heard at the county board office before, in relation to this topic.
Paden City High School supporters continue to support community-based schools in ALL attendance areas of Wetzel County. We donát want any community that presently has a high school or elementary school to lose their school. We feel the school reflects the culture of the community where it resides and the community plays a major role in the educational support of the students, the faculty and the administration of each school.
One of the àstandardsã that keeps getting publicized is that Wetzel County is âà190 professional and service personnel over the state formula.ã I have researched parts of the state funding formula and through recent discussions have been informed the formula is outdated. It doesnát always allow funding for legislative actions and requirements put in place by the State Board of Education or Department of Education.
Test scores and curriculum offerings are also an on-going concern within the county and how we âstack up against other counties. If the schools are truly under-performing on the basic skills tested on the âstandardized testsã then why are we so concerned about offering higher level math like Calculus, and science like Chemistry 2 etc.
For over 60 years, West Virginia has jumped headlong into consolidation projects. We have beautiful school BUILDINGS in many counties and yet our state still ranks at or near the bottom of national standards.
There are ways Wetzel County can and should be the example to the rest of West Virginia that shows a county CAN and DOES support curriculum-driven, fiscally sound, student-focused, safety-assured, community-based learning institutions that support the entire learning process of the students. We already have that in Wetzel County. The harder the strife, the higher the reward. In the end we can be a county that boasts not ONE but FOUR highly successful high schools, FOUR highly successful elementary schools and a premier VoTech/College Prep facility and just maybe other counties will look to us an example.
Rodney McWilliams,
Paden City