If WV HB-5453 Passes, It Would Cost Pocahontas Schools 1.8 Million Dollars

At the March 3^rd Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Leatha Williams told the board that the WV State Legislature is considering passage of House Bill 5453 (HB-5453) which is about funding for education in the state. She said that currently Pocahontas County is one of the rural counties in WV which benefit from the WV “1400 Rule.”  State Aid to school systems is based upon $6,100.00 per student per year, however because of the 1400 Rule, we receive state aid as if our student enrollment is 1400 students instead of the actual 833 students attending school here.

This extra money provides the funding this school system needs to provide quality education for our students. Williams said If HB-5453 passes both the House of Delegates and the State Senate, and is signed into law, it will lower the minimum number of students paid under state school aid from 1400 students to 1200 students. This will cost the Pocahontas County Schools 1.8 million dollars per year. She said that the bill has already passed several committees in the WV House of Delegates.

NOTE: On Wednesday, March 24 -the day after this board meeting, WV Metro News, under the headline “Delegates Pass Legislation That Would Change School Funding Framework, But Not For Another Three years,” reported that HB-5453 did pass the full House of Delegates on March 4^th by an 89 to 2 vote and is now moving on to the State Senate for a vote. It reported that this change of funding will not go into effect until the 2029-2030 school year.

At the meeting, Dr. Williams also reported on the results of the WV Cambium Assessments which compare the numbers of students who meet or exceed their grade level proficiency in ELA and Math for grades 3 through 8.

In ELA, there was an overall improvement of 67 students from Benchmark 1 in the beginning of the school year to Benchmark 2 at the end of the first semester. All grades except sixth grade showed improvements. Dr. Williams said it appears to be a curriculum problem with the 6th grade that needs to be fixed. For Math, all grades showed improvement from Benchmark 1 to Benchmark 2.

Dr. Williams also updated the members on chronic absences from September 3 through March 3 of this school year. Broken down by school, the lowest number of chronic absences was in Hillsboro Elementary School where only 3.225% of the students were chronically absent. PCHS had the highest number (41.406%,) and the other schools ranged from 20% to 26%. The schoolwide average was 26.41% chronic absence. It should be noted that even excused absences such as for illness or doctor’s appointments count towards the chronic absence rates by the state, as opposed to truancy rates which only includes unexcused absences.

The board passed the routine financial and other reports, and the recommended personnel actions.

Under Old business, Dr. Williams discussed the state’s waiver of 5 snow days from the 180-day rule. She said they only qualify for two or these days -January 29 and January 30 because waivers are not allowed for days where alternative education (i.e. snow packets) are used.

Enrollment data was presented to the members, which showed there are 72 students at Hillsboro Elementary School; 202 at Green Bank Elementary/Middle School; 208 at Marlinton Elementary School; 114 at Marlinton Middle School; and 237 at PCHS; for a total enrollment of 833 students.

A mid-year Discipline report was also presented.  For all the schools it showed a total of 805 Severity level 1 (or minor) discipline issues, 318 Severity Level 2; 112 Severity Level 3 and no Severity Level 4, for a total of 1235 discipline issues in all the schools combined. PCHS had the largest number of those (510) and Hillsboro Elementary had the least (58)

New business included the approval of 9 proposed policy revisions or policy first readings, approval of fundraisers, field trips, and volunteer list additions.