FLATWOODS, W.Va. — A school bond which would have built a modernized school sports complex in Braxton County was soundly defeated at the ballot box during the recent primary election.
The bond failed with 80 percent of the voters who cast ballots against the idea.
“Actually, I did see it coming,” said Braxton County Superintendent of Schools Donna Burge-Tetrick. “A lot of people had expressed concerns. Braxton County is very difficult to get a bond or levy passed in this community.”
She’s correct. In the county’s history only once in the last 50-plus years has a school levy passed. That one was only a few yeas ago and paid for some necessary upgrades to the facilities at Braxton County High School. Burge-Tetrick explained that bond would have been paid off this year before the one which was proposed would have started. But voters began to show cold feet when social media started to stir half-truths.
“There was a lot of misinformation and in the day and age of the Internet, that tends to happen. Because of that misinformation, quite honestly I think citizens had real concerns with the rising gas prices and economic uncertainty, those factors do weigh heavily on people,” she said.
“Timing wise when the Board made the decision to put this on the ballot, nobody could foresee war breaking out in the middle east, gas prices approaching five-dollars a gallon, and all of the good and services just taking off,” said County Commissioner Brent Boggs.
Boggs served on an ad-hoc committee of community leaders who examined the needs when the process first began. He explained in 1967 when the current high school was built to consolidate all of the smaller schools in Braxton County, funds were limited and the accommodations were not as robust as some had hoped at the time. Over the course of 50 years, there have been no upgrades and now the facilities are almost unacceptable.
“Our football field isn’t even regulation size, we have to get a waiver every year. Back in the day when the field was built, soccer wasn’t a thing. Now we have soccer, football, middle school football, and middle school soccer. That’s a lot for a grass field that isn’t even regulation size,” said Burge-Tetrick.
The proposed complex the levy would have funded would have put down artificial turf on a new football field of regulation size. The field would have accommodated soccer as well as football. The complex would have included a quarter mile track, which presently doesn’t exist at the current facility. It would have added a baseball field with lights. Today, the team plays baseball at Holley Gray Park and extra inning games can be called by darkness and at times aren’t even safe with low light conditions. The project also wanted to upgrade the softball field as well as create a cross country running course on campus. Boggs noted it wasn’t an elaborate, over the top proposal. It was basically the minimum to bring the school into the modern age of sports.
“The facilties proposed were not luxurious. They were not the moon and stars, it was pretty much just basic,” he said.
With the overwhelming failure of the bond, nobody is sure what the next move will be.
“At this point we really don’t have a clear path forward. We do still have our commitment to our students, that hasn’t changed. We’ll still continue to find ways to support and improve our athletic programs to the best of our ability. Our focus does remain on doing what’s right for our students and our community,” said Burge-Tetrick.
“Just hoping is not a strategy,” Boggs said. “We have to have a plan to move forward and we have to have a plan that will let the rest of the state know and those with funding available to know we’re willing to invest in our own future and our own communities and most of all are willing to address our kids in our future, ” Boggs added.