Delegates are considering a bill that could allow for regional school districts in West Virginia — but the conflict is over how the potential regional districts would supersede the authority of traditional, local districts and their elected board members.
The bill is meant to address the challenges faced by some county school districts in accessibility, funding and efficiency.
But the West Virginia School Board Association criticized the bill for eroding local autonomy and increasing state control.
“This bill sets a dangerous precedent, allowing the state to phase out local, governed school districts, paving for a broader statewide consolidation without voter choice, let alone input,” said Jim Brown, executive director of the school boards association.
The House Education Committee discussed the bill on Monday. The committee could vote Wednesday on whether to advance the bill.
House Bill 3387 proposes a regional school district pilot program through the state Department of Education. It would allow for consolidation of schools and financial decision-making at the regional level.
The bill grants the state Board of Education the authority to propose rules for legislative consideration to prompt the unification process and the eventual phasing out of the involved county school districts.
Decisions made by the leadership of the new regional districts would take precedence over existing county board decisions within the pilot area.
House Education Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said some counties could enter into the arrangements voluntarily.
But he also said “there are several districts that are having some significant problems, as reported by the state Department of Education. Some of that may not be public at this point — though I may have just made it that,” Ellington said.
“There are several schools that are probably going to be taken over — the counties taken over by the state. As you have seen in the news just recently, Mingo County was one of those. It is my understanding that there are several others that are in similar conditions, and this is a vehicle to at least give counties that have similar geographic areas and similar problems the ability to unify and hopefully solve that problem.”
Ellington, moments later, reiterated that the state board can take over school districts in crisis, and “it is my understanding that there are several that are being considered at this point in time.”
Brown of the West Virginia School Board Association questioned how the regional school districts would work in practice.
“This bill transfers critical decision-making authority from locally elected county boards of education to an undefined regional board governed by the state Board of Education,” he said.
“This bill provides no clarity on how regional boards will be structured, how members will be selected or held accountable or how community input would be insured. This bill will erode local autonomy and the ability of communities to directly influence decisions about their schools, budgets, staffing and student services. ”
He said the program would have unknown effects on rural and small districts that face unique challenges.
“So question for me would be, how will a regional district be better served to address the poverty issues in McDowell County? How will regional district be better served to address the sparse population in Randolph or Pocahontas or Pendleton County?
“How will regional district be better served to address the lack of a tax base in Calhoun, Clay or Gilmer County? The challenges facing rural and small communities such as underfunding, staffing shortages and transportation barriers, will not be solved by creating a regional bureaucracy.”