FAIRMONT – For public school districts in West Virginia, it’s never to early to start talking about an education levy.
Even if the one for your county isn’t up for renewal for another three years.
That’s why education officials in Marion County are going to begin talks in earnest about their education levy after the May 12 primary.
In Marion, the levy currently generates an additional $20 million a year for district coffers.
Call that quality of life, the district’s treasurer Scott Reider said, for a school system with some buildings already hitting the century mark — and older, even.
Reider really doesn’t want to think about what could happen in 2029 should voters say no to the renewal.
“Nearly 61% of our levy goes to staffing, salaries and benefits for professional service personnel,” he told Board of Education members earlier this spring. You think about taking $20 million from our budget. That’s an impact.”
Meanwhile, the May 12 nonpartisan contests for BOE will have an impact on the district, just because.
The current board wrangled recently over the fate of Superintendent Donna Heston – first voting not to renew her contract, then reversing itself.
Current board president George Boyles, who voted to renew, is not seeking reelection.
BOE incumbent Tom Dragrich, who is retired as a teacher and principal in Marion County, also voted to keep Heston on – and he’s pursuing another term.
So is incumbent president Donna Costello, who was in the camp to start a search for a new superintendent.
Meanwhile, Costello and Dragich are facing a field of high-profile challengers, who want to fill Boyles’ seat while vying for their respective places on the board.
They are Sam Brunett, a Marion County native, teacher union activist and longtime art teacher at Morgantown High School – joined by political newcomers Matt Offutt, Betty Fast and Donald J. D’Lusky on the ballot.
Meanwhile, in Monongalia County Schools, the marketing of its excess levy for education, which is on the May 12 ballot, began ramping up in February.
That’s when a nonprofit community action group in favor of the measure that currently brings in nearly $36 million to Mon’s school system began hosting public events promoting the levy.
Proponents didn’t want voters thinking the levy renewal was a 2.0 version of the Renaissance Academy and its bond call that soundly defeated two years ago.
In the race for Mon’s BOE, current president and longtime incumbent Mike Kelly is seeking another term.
So are Dan Berry and Jennifer Hagerty, who are completing their first terms on the board. Both are familiar fixtures in education circles in the county.
Berry, who is a product of Mon County Schools, spent three decades teaching at Morgantown High School. After his retirement, he joined the faculty of St. Francis de Sales Central Catholic School.
Hagerty spent 20 years as a teacher and administrator in the county.
Barbara Miltenberger Green and Michelle Marshall are making their first runs for BOE in this primary.
