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Federal funding for schools still unclear

ELKINS — Several counties in West Virginia, as well as states and counties across the country, hope to get word about receiving federal funding by January 2018.

For many years, Secure Rural Schools Act funding — also known as national forest money — was part of a federal government program that provided monies to rural counties with large amounts of national forest land.

Randolph County Superintendent of Schools Gabriel J. Devono stated approximately 40 counties in the state of West Virginia are affected by this funding. Devono spoke during a Randolph County Board of Education meeting Tuesday evening.

Devono went on to say he recently spoke with officials who explained a bill regarding the funding has been passed in the United States House of Representatives and is now being reviewed by the United States Senate.

“It has already passed the House — their version has passed — it’s in the U.S. Senate now, and they have their own version,” Devono said. “They said we should know something by January if we are going to get it.”

Earlier this year, Randolph County Schools Chief Finance Officer Brad Smith explained that SRS money is provided to counties with national forest land within their

borders.

“What this is, is many years ago, the federal government recognized that many counties and states had so much forest land that they were not collecting property taxes from this,” Randolph County BOE President Donna Auvil previously stated in an interview with The Inter-Mountain. “When it first started, they gave money to the county for timber that was harvested. When harvesting of timber was really declining, this changed.”

Under the SRS program, the county would receive a share of timber sales, oftentimes anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 to be used however the county school system needed, Smith said. He went on to say this funding could be used for payment of bills, salaries or other programs.

Over the course of the last decade, the money provided by this program has dwindled due to the decline of timber sales.

In 2016, the federal government did not reauthorize funding. Smith previously explained that because the funding was not renewed, RCS cut approximately $200,000 out of their budget this year.

The board’s next meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday in Dailey at the Tygart Valley Volunteer Fire Department. This will be a special meeting about the potential closure of Homestead Elementary School.

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