Delegates reviewed a $150 million allocation for school construction and maintenance, and they were a little puzzled. It was just that the list was so… expansive.
Delegate Clay Riley, R-Harrison, asked if the allocation would take care of everything proposed but not already funded by the School Building Authority. “So this wipes the backlog completely clean?” he asked at a House Finance Committee meeting last Thursday.
Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, had a similar reaction.
“Every application is on this list. When was the last time the School Building Authority funded every single application?” Gearheart said. Then he responded to his own question. “I can answer that. I think it’s never.”
These are unusual times with an unusual, big pressure.
West Virginia is under pressure from the federal government to make good on the terms for hundreds of millions of dollars from covid relief meant to support education. The main requirement is known as maintenance of effort, which means the state had to keep the same proportional level of funding for schools as it had before the pandemic.
The state fell short, as a matter of percentage, in 2023 and now is negotiating to try to get a waiver and avoid a clawback of about $465 million.
One of the ways West Virginia can show good faith, officials say, is demonstrating significant funding for education right now.
“Our investments will continue this year with my proposals for another historic 5% pay raise and an unprecedented $150 million to our School Building Authority,” Gov. Jim Justice said in a statement released by his office on Saturday.
The governor’s chief of staff, Brian Abraham, made a similar point on MetroNews’ “Talkline” last week. He noted that much of West Virginia’s spending on education is defined by structures like the school aid formula, based on student population.
“So there’s not really ways you can direct money into educational spending except for things like pay raises, school building authority, et cetera,” Abraham said.
So the mystery of the sheer amount of the supplemental appropriation for the School Building Authority isn’t much of a mystery at all. It’s meant, yes, to go toward bolstering school buildings in West Virginia — but also to demonstrate commitment while negotiations are going on with federal authorities.
SB 653 has already passed the Senate and is on track to pass the House of Delegates as soon as Wednesday.
A list provided to delegates showed funding for a range of projects:
Partial roof replacement for Elkins Middle School, heating and air conditioning replacement at Berkeley Springs High School, waste water treatment plant for Tucker County High School, construction of a new elementary school in Ona, an addition that would create a Buffalo pre-K to 8 school, a STEM addition for Monongalia County Technical Education Center, interior plumbing renovations at Brooke County High School, water line replacement at Woodrow Wilson High School and Academy of Careers and Technology, safe school entrances at Glade Elementary School and Webster Springs Elementary School, replacement of heating and air conditioning systems along with interior upgrades at Lewis County High School and heating and air conditioning renovations at Moorefield Middle School.
Also, a STEM class addition and cafeteria expansion at Cabell Midland High School, interior renovations at Webster Springs Elementary, a safe school entrance at Mountainview Elementary School, electric wiring plus upgrades including a gym floor at Pocahontas County High School, a safe school entrance at Tug Valley High School, roof renovations at Summers County Career & Technical Center and skylight replacement and safety repairs at Roanoke Elementary School.
Shwew!
“We’ve got a supplemental appropriation in front of us to fund every single appropriation we have,” Gearheart noted at the committee meeting last week.
The committee agreed to advance the bill, and it’s likely to pass this week. The House Finance Committee advanced two more bills Monday morning to shift the money into accounts where the millions of dollars available to be spent on schools.
“We found that we needed to move these last two supplements to cover the School Building Authorization — so, we have our ongoing problem with the federal government; this will help cure that problem,” said House Finance Chairman Vernon Criss during a Monday morning meeting.
Once all that goes through, West Virginia not only will have millions of dollars to support school building projects but also evidence to show the federal government it’s spending significantly on education.