HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Cabell County Board of Education is working to craft a revised school excess levy plan after voters failed to approve it during the May Primary Election.
The board meets at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday where discussions are expected to continue before voting on a new plan June 14.
The current five-year levy includes reduced funding to the Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Park & Recreation District. The library system would’ve received $1.37 million and $200,000 would’ve gone to parks.
Cabell County Schools Superintendent Dr. Ryan Saxe told MetroNews Tuesday morning the goal is to up those funds for libraries and parks while also prioritizing student safety, employee salaries/benefits and other school resources.
“That request of fully funding is a little bit ambiguous,” Saxe said. “We have to be able to agree on what is the financial number that will help sustain the work of the parks and the libraries and also have that equalization that will carry them into the next five years.”
The levy failed by 64 percent of the vote on May 14. There were about 10,388 votes against it and more than 5,800 for it.
Saxe said he understands why the community wanted to send a strong message to support libraries and parks, which is why they’re heading back to the drawing board.
“The advocates for parks and libraries I think did a very good jobs of communicating what they felt they needed and unfortunately the levy failed, but it gives us an opportunity to come back together and put something together that the whole community can be proud of,” he said.
Residents in the community Facebook group “No Parks, No Libraries, No Levy!” generated support to vote down the levy and many of those members will be at Thursday’s BOE meeting.
Huntington resident Monty Fowler previously told MetroNews the school board never listened to the community’s concerns.
“They ignored us, they ridiculed us and belittled us and now they have to fix this self-inflicted wound,” Fowler said after the May election.
The levy has faced a number of court challenges over the last year. In February, the state Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision 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.
Saxe said there are many questions the board needs to consider before finalizing a new plan.
“Do we go back to what the legislative acts had been that the Supreme Court ruled were not constitutional and that the board did not have to adhere to those or do is there another number that is perhaps close to it that we can have a compromise on?” he said.
The funding cut back to libraries and parks was due to a decline in student enrollment, a lack of additional COVID-19 funds and inflation for the funding cuts, according to Saxe.
Cabell County Library Executive Director Breana Bowen and Greater Huntington Park & Recreation District Executive Director Kathy McKenna have been working with the Cabell County BOE to come up with a solution.
“I’m very optimistic about where we are in negotiations in trying to come up with a compromise of financial funding, but we will get there,” Saxe said.
The levy has provided funding to the library system since 1967 and parks district since 1983.
The revised levy will be up for a vote again in November.