KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. –Kanawha County Schools is making budget adjustments after projections showed the district could lose 100 students to a new charter school opening in Marmet for the 2026-2027 school year.
Treasurer Melanie Meadows told Board of Education members during Monday’s meeting that the district saw an increase in charter allocation costs and a decrease in state aid of approximately $1.2 million.
Mary Phalen Leadership Academy announced in March that it would open in West Virginia. The school is part of Phalen Leadership Academies, a national nonprofit school management organization, and will be located in the former Marmet Elementary School building. The school is expected to follow the Kanawha County Schools calendar for the year as close as possible.
Meadows said the budget essentially remained the same, except for cuts to repair and maintenance funds and instructional supplies and equipment to accommodate the projected loss in funding.
“We’re getting to where there’s not much to take away, we have our staff, we can’t take away from the food service obviously, we can’t take away from transportation, so we just shaved a little bit off that maintenance and a little bit off of the supplies,” she said.
She also said the cuts were made at the central office level, not the school level, meaning schools will still receive their full funding allocations to use as needed.
Meadows also said the district cannot cut any more positions because the deadline to do so has already passed. The board cut 140 positions in March before enrollment numbers from the charter school were finalized.
The new charter school will serve students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The founding principal told MetroNews in March that the school will offer Tier 1 instruction in math and reading during the school day, followed by individualized instruction and homework support.
Meadows said she does not know what the charter school had to provide to show it was expecting 100 students, but noted the school did meet its enrollment deadline, though just barely.
“I don’t know the exact timeline for approval but yes, and I think they did this one right at the midnight hour so to speak,” she said.
Board member Michael Arbogast said he researched charter schools and found that some fail financially or academically. He asked Meadows whether students who return from the charter school would be counted in the district’s enrollment numbers. Meadows responded that the students would be counted as long as they return before Oct. 1.
Board member Jim Crawford expressed concerns about the structural integrity of the former Marmet Elementary School building.
“Has the city done anything to that building to improve, make improvements to the building because we took those kids out of it because the building was not in really good shape,” he said.
The board voted to close the elementary school in May 2023 and transferred ownership rights to the city of Marmet in July 2024.
The closure was due to multiple factors, including declining enrollment rates.
Meadows said the district will allocate funds based on current projections but may need to make adjustments if the student population at the school ends up being higher or lower than expected.
“Essentially, if their projections are lower, then they send us back funds, but if the projections are higher than we have to adjust for the higher amount of state aid and that comes in December,” she said.
Board members are expected to vote on the budget during their next meeting on May 14.