Gov. Jim Justice this week presented about a million dollars from the publicly-funded governor’s contingency account to Greenbrier East and Greenbrier West for improvements to their athletic facilities, including to the basketball court where Justice is the coach of Greenbrier East girls basketball team.
Justice in an administration briefing today spoke excitedly about the money available for the athletic facility improvements.
“Good day. Really, really good day in Greenbrier County,” Justice said.
Greenbrier East High School received $654,568 to replace its damaged basketball court and upgrade the aging lighting at the football field.
“The gym floor was damaged with some water, you know, water damage and everything; it’s going to have to be replaced at some point in time. It’s about 20 years old,” Justice said. “And some lighting on the football field. Our football field is in bad need.”
Greenbrier West High School received $371,450 to replace its old basketball court, originally constructed in 1968.
“Their floor has not been replaced for 55 years. It’s amazing. They kept, really, it in nice condition. But really and truly you talk about something that really needed done — and that’s us presenting a check.”
West Virginia has made hundreds of millions of dollars available in needs-based funding for West Virginia schools this year, mostly through requests reviewed by the state School Building Authority in open meetings.
The grants for Greenbrier athletic facilities stand out because of the source of public dollars is a separate civil contingent fund that is at the discretion of the governor, who also serves as the girls basketball coach.
That discretionary fund has been at the center of controversy before, particularly last year when millions of dollars were provided to help Marshall University, Justice’s alma mater, complete its long-sought baseball stadium project.
Millions of dollars from the discretionary fund also have gone to a car racing sponsorship.
The civil contingent fund also goes toward expenses that stem from natural disasters or as preventative measures like the Milton flood wall.
State law says the civil contingent fund may go to pay the expenses for any law for which there isn’t any particular appropriation “and any other sums which the Governor may deem necessary or proper.”
Justice, in response to a MetroNews question about the money going toward the basketball courts, said there is a system and not just whim.
“I guess to some degree, there are some dollars that the Governor’s Office can decide on their own,” Justice said, “but we’ve given a lot, a lot of money to schools all over the state and we’ve still got some projects that we want to take care of. But we try to spread it out as best we possibly can and do the projects that are in the most need.”
Justice named several key members of his administration to say they bring recommendations for him to consider. “But we really try to spread it out and be really fair and take care of the spots that are in the biggest need.”
The state School Building Authority, whose members are appointed by the governor, approved $87 million in needs-based grants for facilities all over the state earlier this year. That’s a separate and open process.
The SBA needs grants ranged from more than $20 million for a school project in Buffalo, Wayne County, to $242 for school repairs in Lewis County.
Those allocations zeroed out all of the state’s needs-based requests, meaning every proposal at the time was fulfilled. About this time last year, the SBA had already voted to allocate$147 million in needs-based funding. So the total SBA allocations for needs-based projects in 2024 has been $234 million.
There is more just ahead from the School Building Authority, which at its Dec. 16 meeting will again consider funding requests for improvements to schools all over the state.
Greenbrier County athletic facilities improvements are not listed among the needs projects recently considered by the School Building Authority — or among those still to be considered after being introduced for review last month.
Still, the Greenbrier County superintendent told the local Real WV publication that the money for athletic facilities improvement is necessary and appreciated.
“The county is not in a position to fund (these projects), so I made a written request to the governor’s office, asking them to consider releasing some grant funds,” Superintendent Jeff Bryant told the Real WV.
Bryant told the news outlet that problems with Greenbrier East’s basketball floor developed last spring when water caused warping. He said the lighting at the football field at Greenbrier East has become inadequate. And he said the basketball floor at Greenbrier West has outlived its utility.
Bryant said that after consulting with his athletic director and the completion of a “needs assessment,” the decision was made to seek funding for the projects.
“We’ve been talking about this for quite a while now – the needs,” he told the Real WV. “So, we all said, ‘Well let’s submit a proposal,’ and the Governor’s Office was kind enough to grant our request.”
