The Cost of Closing PCHS

Wetzel County taxpayers spent nearly $60,000 from May 20 to July 31 for a failed effort to close Paden City High School, according to records obtained through the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

The county school system has an agreement with Bowles Rice, a Charleston-based firm that specializes in West Virginia education law. The firm represented Superintendent Cassandra Porter in her bid to close PCHS because the property falls within a chemically polluted Superfund site. On July 31, a judge ruled the school closing illegal.

Invoices from Bowles Rice reveal the costs of the case from the day the firm started researching it until the ruling. This publication submitted a FOIA request for the invoices on Sept. 2 and received them three days later. Some names and details were blacked out under attorney-client privilege, but the documents provide a glimpse into what the case cost and how it developed.

The underlying agreement between Wetzel County Schools and Bowles Rice, which dates back years, includes fees that range from $100-$180 per hour for legal assistants and $210-$460 per hour for attorneys.

The two primary lawyers in the PCHS case were associate William Lorensen ($265/hour) and partner Richard Boothby ($395/hour). Partners Howard Seufer Jr. ($460/hour) and Kenneth Webb ($435/hour) provided their expertise periodically. Lorensen is the son of West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge Charles Lorensen.

According to the invoices provided by Wetzel County Schools, the legal maneuvering started May 20 when Boothby researched the Superfund site. The only other charge in May was to establish the case file. Legal fees that month totaled $933.75.

The costs mounted in June as Porter planned and then announced her decision to close the school under emergency powers. Boothby interacted with Porter and Assistant Superintendent Benjamin McPherson regularly from June 2 through June 12, the day Porter explained in a Facebook video why she closed PCHS.

The Bowles Rice invoices also revealed that Porter and Board of Education President Linda Fonner talked to Boothby on June 13. Fonner did not say much publicly about the case until after the judge ruled against Porter.

According to the records, lawyers for Wetzel County Schools did not consult a “chemistry expert” about the Superfund site until June 14. That was two days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Paden City High School is safe to occupy. The EPA confirmed that view in subsequent statements, including at a meeting in Paden City.

In June, the school system spent $3,407.50 on legal fees related to PCHS’ closing. But the big hit came in July, when the PCHS community sued to overturn Porter’s decision.

The school system spent $55,134.49 for legal fees and expenses in July, including $6,886.99 for advance disbursements. The advance disbursements included $5,000 on July 15 to Ann Arbor Technical Services, the chemistry and environmental science firm that sent Philip Simon to testify as Wetzel County’s expert witness in the court case. Bowles Rice retained Simon on July 5, according to his disclosure to the court.

The Bowles Rice invoices also show that Judge Wilson approached the two parties in the case about settling before he ruled. Through his law clerk, he requested a settlement conference on July 27, two days after the court heard witness testimony. The conference occurred July 29, and Wilson ruled against the county two days later.

Porter appealed Wilson’s decision on Aug. 2, but the West Virginia Supreme Court rebuffed her request to stay the lower court’s ruling so she could close PCHS for the 2024-25 school year. Classes at the school started Aug. 19.

Wetzel County Schools presumably incurred more legal costs during the appeals process in August but did not provide those when responding to the FOIA request.