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The rules were broken

“The song has ended but the melody lingers on. …” These lyrics from a famous Irving Berlin song resonate with me regarding the Randolph County Board of Education’s actions to close Valley Head Elementary School. The melody lingering with me is the BOE’s reluctance to follow the rules and regulations on school closings and consolidations. This resulted in an illegal vote, which then forced a collusion with the state Board of Education’s attorneys in creating a false waiver that gave the Randolph BOE another opportunity to vote. See The Inter-Mountain’s Jan. 13, 2017, edition, “Randolph County Board of Education leaders have scheduled another vote regarding the proposed closure of Valley Head Elementary School, based on a “legal technicality” and a recommendation from state legal counsel.”

Taxpayers, this is just plain wrong, wrong for the children at Valley Head Elementary School, wrong for their parents, wrong for the local community members who feel disrespected and disenfranchised and wrong for all citizens of Randolph County.

Rural schools and rural counties should be considered in a different way. They are generally underfunded, there is poverty, which is more difficult to deal with because of the distances involved and there are numerous adverse consequences of forcing children to travel long distances and attend larger schools where they are often lost in the shuffle. Geography shouldn’t dictate a child’s educational destiny — they have the same rights to an equitable and adequate education as all other children. In fact, I heard former Senate Education Chair Sen. Robert Plymale share in a Senate session this year that Buck Harless, a well known West Virginia philanthropist and businessman, had stated that zip codes should not dictate what kind of education you receive.

But back to Valley Head Elementary.

Valley Head Elementary School is 77 years old. It is located, according to Google Maps, 38 miles or 50 minutes South of Elkins. Please note the 50 minutes versus the mileage. Even Google Maps understands that our travel time is generally compromised because of the nature of the roads and the truck traffic we encounter. Throw in snowy weather and those times increase considerably.

Some interesting facts and figures that the BOE administration has never included in their overview of the school:

• A new ungraded system for teaching reading has been implemented, and the students are thriving in this setup.

• 86 percent of the students in grades K-5 are Title 1 eligible.

• The fire codes are up to date.

• There is a new wood floor in the gym, donated by a local lumber company and laid and finished by parents.

• There is new hallway flooring with wood donated by a located flooring company.

• Levy money totaling $125,000 — 2011-2016 — was used to purchase among a lot of other things:

– New gym bleachers.

– New cafeteria tables.

– New blinds.

– New classroom furniture.

– Supplies for students and teachers.

• They have a state-of-the-art playground built in 2011 with a $50,000 state grant and $20,000 raised by the parents and the community.

• Their wireless system was upgraded with a $35,000 grant from the state.

• There is an active basketball team, staffed by parents and community member. They play in the county elementary league.

Plus, are we going to continue to accept Rich Carr’s weak estimates for any maintenance issue, “fixing a boiler anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.” That is a pretty wide range. How in the world did Valley Head students get through the winter being warm with “boiler issues?” Now, I understand the Homestead community’s impatience with the numbers they are receiving.

The enrollment is not huge at 27, but we are only K-5. Another school in our county is K-12 and has only 34 students, so the argument on enrollment is a moot point.

Closing Valley Head and sending their students to George Ward next year only adds numbers to an already crisis situation. Possibly some boundary adjustments and return of out-of-zone students would increase Valley Head’s enrollment and relieve overcrowding at George Ward.

And financially, the savings list cited in The Inter-Mountain’s May 8, 2017, is somewhat misleading in that the county will still incur the personnel costs, the transportation costs and some utility and insurance costs. What is left is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall budget of the county.

Valley Head’s teachers and community members traveled (on their own nickel) to Charleston for three months in a row to share their heartfelt opposition to the Valley Head closure. We were treated to this:

• In January, Superintendent Hewitt and her counsel Rebecca Tinder admitted that the vote on the Valley Head closure was done incorrectly and sought help from the state Board’s attorney for a way to “make it right.” The state Board’s attorney presented a waiver to the rules, and the then-State Board approved the waiver. Trouble is, waivers are to be submitted in writing and approved before any action. You can go on the State Board’s website and find out how to request a waiver and see they are not really for issues such as this. Did they really think by granting a waiver to a school system that clearly violated the rules will ensure an educational system that follows rules? Are we truly to believe the mantra appearing on the state Board’s website that, “The board meets monthly to determine the educational policies of the elementary and secondary schools and to establish the rules that carry into effect state law regarding education.”

• In February, new board members, unfamiliar with the issue, and three carryovers, took no action and the state Board chairman indicated that the recommended closure of Valley Head would be on the agenda in March.

• In March, the now-almost complete state Board questioned Randolph County BOE representatives extensively and voted to close the school.

Trouble is, the Senate had not approved the newest members of the state Board and two (who voted on the closure) are now gone. There is truly something wrong with this whole picture, starting at the local level clear through to the state.

I believe that Randolph County citizens and, most especially, Valley Head students and the community deserve better than this. Some people call me “picky,” but shouldn’t we all be “picky” and follow the rules when the education of our children is at stake. It is still beyond me why in the world the Randolph County Board of Education chose not to follow the rules from the start? Where did it get them, and what did they gain? I would venture to guess it got you extra legal fees and you didn’t gain anything, you lost revenue because of these extra fees. And, I would not have to write this if you had followed the rules.

There were so many things wrong with this closure procedure:

• In Randolph County, from a notebook full of misinformation, missing timelines for legal ads, manipulating board members, not following the state Board’s rules on closure; and

• At the state level, to producing an illegal waiver and voting at the state level by state Board members not validly sitting in their positions. The rules were made to assure uniformity across the system. Does this debacle seem to be assuring any uniformity at all?

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