KINGWOOD — The Preston County Board of Education heard objections to cutting Kingwood Elementary teaching positions Monday, along with predictions the cuts could result in future school levy failures.
Those who objected pointed to increased pupil teacher ratios at the school as a result and said that’s unfair given much lower ratios at Fellowsville Elementary.
The board voted 3-2 to accept Superintendent Steve Wotring’s recommendation to put four teachers from Kingwood Elementary on transfer.
Board Members Jack Keim, Pam Feathers and Bob Ridenour voted for the transfers, which were part of a number of professional personnel actions, and Robert “Mac” McCrum and Jeff Zigray against it.
Assistant Superintendent Ange Varner said Preston lost 105 students this year, which translates to a loss of about five teaching positions. In deciding those cuts, staff looked at teacher to pupil ratios, she said.
State law requires letters of transfer or reduction in force must be given employees by April 1 and acted on by the board by May 1. As late as Aug. 1 the BOE can rescind its action and put the positions back.
The levy includes $650,000 annually for personnel, which is about 10 teachers, Wotring said. He plans to put those positions into the system, some based on pupil teacher ratio and some to bolster electives offered at Preston High.
All four of the Kingwood teachers will have jobs because of attrition, but the positions they currently hold may not exist.
Kingwood Elementary has lost enrollment the last three years, Varner said. If these four positions are eliminated, projected pupil teacher ratio this fall at Kingwood will be 18 pupils per teacher in kindergarten, 24 to 1 in first grade, 20 to 1 in second grade, 23 to 1 in third grade and 22 to 1 in fourth grade.
Countywide, West Preston will have the highest projected pupil teacher ratio in kindergarten, where it is 20 to 1; second, 23 to 1; and fourth, 26 to 1.
Parent Crissy Estep, who is a former BOE member, noted that Fellowsville has a 6 to 1 pupil teacher ratio at second grade, 10 to 1 for third grade and 14 to 1 for fourth. Rowlesburg has 8 to 1 at second grade, 13 to 1 at third grade and 9 to 1 at fourth.
“It almost appears we’re creating a two-tiered educational system here in Preston County,” Estep said. “At one side we’re going to have capacity or near capacity classrooms and on the other side we have students who are sitting in very low enrollment classrooms.”
West Virginia Education Association Regional Representative Thomas Bane and American Federation of Teachers West Virginia Staff Representative Frank Caputo, representing the four teachers in their personnel hearings, both mentioned the school levy .
The levy passed by a margin of about 350 votes, Bane said, and in Kingwood 63 percent of voters passed the levy, as opposed to 56 percent countywide.
“We ran this levy to keep Fellowsville and Rowlesburg open, but at this point in time, are we keeping them open at the expense of the communities of Terra Alta, of Tunnelton, Masontown and Kingwood?” Bane asked.
Keim disagreed. “The levy that passed was not for Fellowsville and Rowlesburg … It was for Preston County.”
The elimination of positions has nothing to do with the levy, but that’s not how the public perceives it, parent Tina Turner said. Turner, who was active with the committee that promoted the levy, said the committee focused on a positive message. Why not send a positive message now by keeping the positions, she asked?
Caputo said he thinks, “this is a turning point in the five years down the road,” when the levy will be before voters again. When that time comes, “the average lay person, what they’re going to look at, is ‘Oh my goodness, we were promised smaller class sizes.’”
Bane and Caputo said studies show smaller classes learn more quickly. Wotring said he does not disagree, but it is prudent to live within your means.
