And the Survey Bill Says ... $50,000

Wetzel County Schools paid an architecture, engineering and survey consulting firm $50,000 to complete a survey on school consolidation, according to records obtained through the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act. 

The firm is also interested in helping Wetzel County find locations for any new schools and then building them, the documents provided by the school system show.

The Thrasher Group submitted a proposal to Superintendent Cassandra Porter on May 8. The proposed scope of work covered four tasks for “Phase 1” of a project described as “architecture, engineering and public relations services related to a potential consolidation of the high schools in the county.”

The four tasks approved as part of Phase 1 were to: 

• Develop and manage an online public survey;

• Present the results to the Wetzel County Board of Education;

• Prepare the information for public release; and

• Help shape “the why or why not” narrative about consolidation.

Thrasher conducted the consolidation survey from June 18 to July 19 and presented its findings at the Aug. 13 board of education meeting.

“We’re a third party in this. We’re not Wetzel County residents,” Craig Baker, Thrasher’s architecture division manager, told the board. “We don’t have students that go to school in the county. So we truly have the opportunity to look at this data from an outside perspective.”

The breakdown of opinions about school consolidation was predictable. The key question gave survey respondents nine options to describe their feelings about “getting a new school.” Five words were positive (excited, intrigued, happy, proud, relieved), three were negative (upset, resistant, sad), and one was neutral (nervous).

Half of the Paden City High School community fell into the negative camp, with another 13 percent being nervous and 38 percent positive. The other breakdowns were:

• Magnolia: 83 percent positive, 10 percent negative and 8 percent nervous;

• Hundred: 49 percent negative, 13 percent nervous and 37 percent positive

• Valley: 74 percent positive, 11 percent nervous and 15 percent negative.

Unlike the censorship that Wetzel County Schools practices on Facebook, Thrasher did not prevent survey participants from speaking freely. As a result, the 362-page survey posted to the school system’s website includes harsh criticisms of Porter, the school board, individual schools, and even past county school officials.

Porter understandably earned the ire of people from Paden City for her crusade to merge PCHS into Magnolia. But people from Magnolia, Hundred and Valley also criticized her and the board for their leadership.

“I don't think the people of Wetzel County will ever feel they can trust the current superintendent after what has happened at Paden City,” one Magnolia survey taker said. A respondent from Valley added that Porter’s “stunt” in trying to close PCHS over a presumed health threat “is not fooling anyone.”

Porter briefly noted the nature of the survey comments when Thrasher presented them to the board. “I’m glad that we were transparent in letting people’s opinions be out there. I did not read all the comments because some of them are not as friendly as you’d like them to be. ... But that’s OK because that’s why we wanted to do that.”

An invoice indicates that Wetzel County Schools paid Thrasher for the survey on Aug. 26.

The documents provided in response to the FOIA request do not indicate whether Thrasher will get any additional work if the county decides to consolidate schools. But Thrasher’s proposal said the company stands ready to:

• Review, evaluate and survey site locations;

• Provide planning and design services to get needs grants from the West Virginia School Board Authority; and

• Provide full architecture and engineering services.

Thrasher was founded in Clarksburg in 1983 and now has 10 offices — seven in West Virginia and one each in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company touts itself as “West Virginia’s largest privately owned, multi-disciplinary firm.”

Several of the projects highlighted on Thrasher’s website are in West Virginia’s education sector, including the new St. Mary’s High School in the Ohio Valley. The company also has completed projects for public schools in Doddridge, Marion and Mineral counties, as well as Fairmont State University.