Wamsley

ELKINS — A local teacher has implored the Randolph County Board of Education to help find a solution to the loss of Title I services at her school.

Sarah Wamsley, who teaches fourth-grade at Midland Elementary, had the backing of eight other Midland staff members, as the group attended the most recent Randolph County BOE meeting.

“I am here speaking on behalf of Midland Elementary’s LSIC, our Faculty Senate, and our PTA, regarding the fact that we have lost Title 1 services in our school this year,” Wamsley told the Board.

“At the end of the last school year during our personnel season, Midland was informed that we would be losing our Title 1 designation. I want to emphasize that we have respectfully questioned this decision… We are here tonight advocating on behalf of our students to come up with a solution to this problem.”

Midland’s Title I teacher retired at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, and the BOE didn’t post a job opening to fill the position. Historically, there has been a Title I teacher at Midland for the past 10 years. Midland has now joined Pickens as the only two schools in the county without an elementary level Title 1 teacher.

“When we questioned about the loss of Title I, it was explained that the state uses a formula for how Title I funding has to be distributed,” Wamsley said. “Our understanding is that schools with the highest population of low socio- and economic students receive the most money. The allotment of funding creates a funnel effect for how the remaining funds are distributed.

“The explanation provided to us was, that based on this formula, there was no remaining money left over in the funneling for Midland.”

Title I provides financial assistance to schools with high percentages of children from low-income families. Title I funds provide support staff, resources for students, teachers and parents, as well as professional development to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.  

“According to the West Virginia Department of Education, schools in which poor children make up at least 40 percent of enrollment are eligible to use Title I funds for school-wide programs,” Wamsley said. “According to data, 44 percent of Midland’s population is classified as low SEC, but we have no title.”

Wamsley handed a detailed letter to each board member listing all of the areas being affected by the loss of a Title I teacher. She then spoke about several of those areas of concern.

“Some specific concerns we have include the loss of a trained interventionist, who can meet in small targeted groups to help our struggling students,” Wamsley said. “Classroom teachers do not have the same training as our Title I interventionists in this county.

“We are also concerned about losing approximately $7,000 that supported family engagement at our school, helped support activities and bridge that academic achievement gap in our vulnerable subpopulations…

“We are concerned about hiring and retaining employees at Midland,” she said. “Many teacher loan forgiveness programs designate teachers have to teach so many hours at a low-income school in order to receive loan forgiveness. It is unclear if Midland still qualifies as a category or not since we are no longer Title I.”

Wamsley challenged each board member to read the letter she gave them and try to help find a solution to the problem. She also asked the board members to reach out to teachers at the school and see what the effects really are.

“Give us a call, ask us first-hand what’s going on in classrooms, what’s going on with our kids,” she told the board members. “Ask us what our experiences are, and our thoughts about losing Title I at Midland. I invite each of you to come to Midland and come see what our class sizes are, come look at the problems our teachers are facing in the trenches everyday.

“Come here while we are taking a stand for our students, we need you and we are counting on you. “Please help us discover ways to fix this formula allotment or whatever it takes so that we can get Title I back in every elementary school.”

The Inter-Mountain reached out to Randolph County School Superintendent Debbie Schmidlen about the issue Monday and she released the following statement.

“In the last five years, Midland Elementary School has consistently been identified as the school with the lowest percent needy population in the county while also demonstrating the highest academic achievement,” Schmidlen said. “The county Title I allocation has consistently dropped in that same time span, while the cost of funding Title I programs and salaries has increased.

“As such, it is no longer possible to provide Title I services at Midland Elementary School, particularly if it is at this time at the exclusion of other schools in the county that demonstrate a higher population of needy students and a correspondingly lower level of student achievement.

“Title I services are re-evaluated every year based on each school’s ranking in the percent needy list,” Schmidlen said. “This means that Midland’s service status could be changed if they should begin to demonstrate a higher percentage of needy students.

“In addition, Title II and Title IV funding can still be used to offer supplemental professional development opportunities and supplies to accelerate learning.”

Randolph County BOE meetings take place on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the county BOE office.