PADEN CITY, W.Va. –– A group of Paden City residents are ready to take on the administration of the Wetzel County Schools over a decision to close their local high school but the school superintendent is standing behind her decision.
Community supporter Rodney McWilliams said they are fiercely protective of the small school environment just like other West Virginia communities would be.
“If you have a high school in your community it serves your community as a focal point. It’s a safe environment for our students. Any community that has a school is going to put up this kind of a fight to keep their community based high school,” McWilliams said Thursday during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Earlier this week, Wetzel County Superintendent Cassandra Porter announced students at the school would be temporarily transferred this fall to Magnolia High School. Students in grades 7 and 8 would transfer to New Martinsville School. Porter’s letter to faculty and staff of the three schools, blamed the situation on the EPA Superfund site where the school is located. Porter stressed the move was in the interest of protecting children and staff.
McWilliams and others believed that explanation was a little too convenient.
“September of last year an attempted merger of this exact same configuration was voted down unanimously by the elected school board members not to merge these two schools. So this is their second attempt and this is the card they are playing, the safety card.” McWilliams explained.
He said the EPA regularly tested the school building and has found the levels of vapor intrusion as a result of the ground contamination.
“Testing was performed in 2020 again two yeas later and again this year. All test results are consistently saying the vapor intrusion is below health standards in the school. The school is safe,” he said.
But Porter, speaking to MetroNews, said being under the recommended level and being free of any contamination are two very different things.
“There’s still a risk, the EPA is saying it’s an acceptable risk, but the school system is not wiling to take any risk when it comes to the health and safety of students,” Porter told MetroNews.
McWilliams said he and opponents of the closure are also skeptical of Porter’s indication the decision will be a “temporary” change.
“In no way do I believe that, in fact the most recent video posted to the Wetzel County Schools Facebook page omitted the word ‘temporary,'” he said. “The words on the document say ‘temporary’ because the law allows her to issue a temporary closing for safety. The law does not allow her to issue a permanent closing. So the document that was published said ‘temporary’ but all actions and subsequent actions to that letter say otherwise.”
Porter acknowledged the relocation was temporary, but was also open ended.
“I can’t answer that at this time. I can’t foresee the future 100 percent of what’s going to happen. EPA is saying they’ll be done with their testing in Spring of 2025 and then start the mitigation process. We’re talking two, three, several years until that’s mitigated to zero risk. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Porter said.
McWilliams and his group are seeking support from the offices of U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito as well as Gov. Jim Justice. He added he’s spoken with officials at the U.S. EPA who plan to acknowledge the results of testing on the school’s air quality which were well within acceptable health levels.
“It’s a very difficult decision and it did take us a while to come to this decision,” Porter said. “But at the end of the day, we are operating a school on a National Superfund Site and Superfund Sites come with risk. Chemical exposure does come with risk. So today we can say maybe there’s no risk, but that doesn’t’ mean by leaving those students there eight plus hours a day they’re not genetically disposed to having some kind of risk in the future.”