PCHS Council Opposes Consolidation

The Paden City High School community last week officially objected to a consolidation plan that would close their school and send students to New Martinsville.

“This consolidation was initiated in an illegal fashion under the false pretenses of student safety and environmental concerns,” Bill Bell, chairman of the PCHS Local School Improvement Council, wrote to Wetzel County Schools officials. He argued that the Wetzel County Circuit Court overturned Superintendent Cassandra Porter’s previous closure of PCHS in a case that is now before the West Virginia Supreme Court.

That was one of several complaints the council lodged against the plan. Other reasons include the school system’s poor leadership, the minimal savings expected from consolidation, and factual errors about how consolidation would impact Paden City.

State law requires that every school have a local school improvement council. The members include the principal, three teachers, two service employees, three parents or guardians of students, three at-large members, and the student body president.

State policy further requires county superintendents to send impact statements and supporting data about consolidation plans to such councils. The councils have the right to respond in writing as part of the process.

The PCHS council’s legal objection to the current consolidation plan falls into a judicial gray area as it relates to Porter’s previous closure of the high school.

On the one hand, Judge Richard Wilson said “the court enjoins respondent Cassandra Porter from closing or continuing the closure of Paden City High School,” and she is actively involved in the new push to do just that. She steered the discussion at an Aug. 30 nonvoting board session, presented the formal proposal Oct. 14 and coordinated with state officials in between those dates. Porter’s name also is technically the only one on the impact statements that call for the closures of PCHS and Hundred High School.

On the other hand, while Wilson ruled that Porter could not unilaterally close PCHS under emergency powers, he specifically left open the possibility of the school being closed by legal means. He said the “longevity, future and fate [of PCHS] is appropriately an issue for the elected representatives” of the school board.

If the board adheres to all of the rules for creating new schools out of existing schools, its plan to send PCHS students to Magnolia High School and New Martinsville School might not violate Wilson’s ruling. However, even one of the school system’s lawyers warned that the board must follow the rules closely.

“You really want to get this stuff right from the beginning if it’s what you choose to do,” Richard Boothby said when the board first discussed consolidation in 2023.

Paden City’s local school improvement council also argued that the current consolidation plan is based on a false assumption about a teacher shortage in the county. Bell, a teacher at PCHS and witness in the court case against Porter, contended that the local teacher shortage is the result of a “toxic and abusive” employee culture.

“We find that a change in county-level administration may alleviate and address this specific concern,” he wrote on behalf of the council.

The council also alleged that at least five Wetzel County Schools employees “have been released from their responsibilities, reprimanded, or denied advancement or additional compensated opportunities” because they oppose consolidation. The board is trying to “silence critics,” Bell wrote.

Wetzel County Schools has a recent record of targeting critics from Paden City. In the summer, officials censored the Paden City community on Facebook and attempted to block the PCHS homecoming game.

The PCHS council further noted that the impact statement for closing their school:

•  Identifies savings that would be just “a small fraction” of the county budget;

• Does not call for sending any current PCHS staff to New Martinsville School;

• Does not acknowledge any costs of that school getting new students;

• Inaccurately calculates a proposed five-mile bus ride as taking 58 minutes; and

• Mischaracterizes consolidation as a move that would “foster a stronger sense of unity and shared purpose” in the county.

The council recommended not only that the school board block the closure of PCHS but also the closure of Hundred. The council further called on the board to gauge the impact of low employee morale on vacancies in the school system.

To address the teacher shortage, the council recommended that more teachers be allowed to split their class time among multiple schools and that the county make a greater effort to recruit college students for teacher-in-residency assignments.

The council meets at PCHS today at 6:30 p.m.