Marion County Board of Education approves contract renewals; reviews budget
May 2—FAIRMONT — Marion County Schools' promise of position cuts without reduction in force may come with a caveat.
Monday night, the Marion County School Board was split on a decision to approve a revised list of contract renewals after the board approved a list already at its April 17 meeting.
The revisions were due to updates in the seniority rankings among employees being offered a contract renewal. The list of renewals has led to complications due to the nature of the way the district handles employee transfers.
For the last several months, the district has touted the fact that no one in the county will lose their job as a result of the transfers, but the matter was revealed to be much more complicated.
While transfers allow the most tenured teachers in the county to keep their jobs by moving a less senior teacher to another school or grade that has a greater need, the move causes a domino effect and eventually ends with the least-senior teacher in the county being bumped out of their position.
Marion County School Superintendent Donna Heston said Monday that the district is still able to say there is a position for anyone who wants to work in the county because there are open positions these bumped teachers can apply for.
"All of the individuals that have unrenewed contracts, there is a position in their current building open," Heston said to the board. "I can't put these individuals in these positions that are open because, as you know, we have to post these positions because there may be someone else in the county that wants that position."
The board, Heston included, expressed frustration with the way the system works. But Board members James Saunders and Richard Pellegrin were more concerned with having been told no one would lose a job and now having to vote on an item that would not renew contracts with current employees.
"I remember asking several board meetings ago if anybody was going to lose their job... and I was told nobody was going to lose their job," Pellegrin said. "But if a contract isn't renewed, these folks are losing a job, basically."
After several more minutes of heated discussion, the board opted to enter executive session to discuss some of the specific cases of non-renewal of contracts. After about 20 minutes, the board returned to regular session and approved the updated list 3-2, with Saunders and Pellegrin voting against the measure.
2023-24 budget
Marion County School District Treasurer Scott Reider presented the board with a draft of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Reider was proud to present a balanced budget, despite the many challenges thrown at public schools by the state legislature this year.
With increases in salaries and PEIA insurance premiums, the cost of salaries and benefits increased by around $6 million this year over the last. That paired with the rising cost of fuel and food, has the district's accountants on high alert.
The budget's good standing is mostly due to the infusion of federal funds for COVID-19 relief. The district had to use over $3 million of federal funds to balance shortfalls in the local funding.
Monday's presentation was just a draft of the final budget, which will be officially presented at the board's next meeting.
East Dale expansion
The East Dale expansion project has experienced what the board hopes will be its final delay.
After several months of delays due to a hold up in the shipping of a key electrical piece for the buildout, the original completion date has slowly moved from November 2022 to December, to March, to May and now, finally, to July 1.
Veritas, the contractor overseeing the project, formally requested the board to extend the contract for the project to July 1. The final electrical component has arrived and is currently in the process of being installed. Once that's done and the final checks are completed, the addition will be open and ready for use during the 2023-23 school year.
"We want to have a nice, safe environment for these children, and we want to walk away with a wonderful project. We want to look back and say, 'Wow, what did COVID do to us,'" Veritas Project Manager Scott Willis said. "We want to apologize to the board because the project didn't go the way we expected it to."
Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or dkirk@timeswv.com.
