HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Voters in Cabell County will decide on a five-year school excess levy that has faced several legal challenges over the last year.
The levy is on Tuesday’s Primary Election ballot.
The original proposal would’ve removed $2 million dollars in funding for the Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Park & Recreation District; however, in March, the Cabell County Board of Education reached a compromise and voted to provide libraries and parks with partial funding in the total amount of $1.5 million.
Under the revised levy, the library system will receive $1.37 million and $200,000 will go to parks. Libraries typically receive about $1.5 million while parks receive around $500,000.
Cabell County Schools Superintendent Dr. Ryan Saxe said he believes this is a good package.
“I think all along we had hoped that we would be able to do something better that would benefit the parks, the library and the school system and I think that’s what we’ve been able to put together,” he told MetroNews.
Many community members have spoken against the cuts since the school board voted to strip the funding in Aug. 2023. Marty Fowler, of Huntington, belongs to the Facebook group “No Parks, No Libraries, No Levy!” He said any reduction in funds the school board makes to libraries and parks will severely hurt Cabell County’s students.
“They, for whatever reason, decided that grabbing this money from parks and libraries will fix their problems, and it’s not. It’s a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound,” Fowler said.
Cabell County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Amanda Beach-Burge agreed and said the school district needs to get its spending priorities in order.
Saxe said a decline in student enrollment, the lack of additional COVID-19 funds and inflation are to blame on the funding cuts. The school district was recently awarded $16.9 million in supplemental money from the state School Building Authority toward the construction of a new Ona Elementary School.
Beach-Burge said it makes no sense for the school system to spend money on a new building when there won’t be enough students to go there.
“We do need buildings, but how are we justifying brand new buildings when we don’t have the student enrollment in addition to that?” she said.
Beach-Burge said the district should be supporting teachers and funding critical community services like libraries and parks instead. That’s why her committee has been speaking publicly and canvassing in neighborhoods to spread the word about what’s happening. She said there’s been some miscommunication to teachers.
“The excess levy does pay for the teachers’ vision and dental benefits. It’s a benefits package that the Cabell County Board of Education signed on to and the excess levy does fund that, but legally the board can’t take that away,” she said.
Fowler said nothing would change if the levy was voted down. He said it would send a strong message to the school board that it’s not okay to strip funding that has been in place for years.
“A no vote changes nothing. No body loses any money. No body loses their job. No programs are going to be immediately cut because, under the current levy, that funding goes through the middle of next year,” he said.
The levy has been approved by voters for the last 50 years. If the levy is not approved in the May election, voters will have another opportunity to vote on it again in November.
The state Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision in February that would’ve continued funding libraries and parks. In Dec. 2023, a Cabell County Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of libraries and parks after the two parties filed a lawsuit against the school board. The BOE then appealed the lower court’s decision to the Supreme Court.
The high court’s order meant the school board can stop funding libraries and parks under its proposed school excess levy. Saxe said it was still important to get money to those areas.
“They are the fabric of our communities. That’s why it was important for us to be able to work with them,” he said.
Saxe said the $1.37 million that libraries will receive is about 4.5 percent of the entire excess levy budget. If the levy is approved, Saxe said Cabell County Schools will be among the highest contributing school district to a public library. The same thing goes for the park district.
“There is $200,000 annually to the park system. There are only three school districts in the entire state that partially fund park systems,” he said.
Del. Matthew Rohrbach, R-Cabell, said the issue has really divided his county so it will be interesting to see what voters decide.
“I’d be curious to see which way this is going to go. There’s a lot of people working against passage of the levy. If it passes, I’ll tell you it’s not going to be by much,” Rohrbach said.
In addition to libraries and parks, the school excess levy funds school resources officers, school security guards, high school and middle school athletics, playgrounds/outdoor learning spaces, career technical education and workforce development, cyber safety/device security and facility maintenance across the district.
The levy has provided funding to the library system since 1967 and parks district since 1983.
MetroNews reached out to representatives with the Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Park & Recreation District for comment on this story but did not receive a response.