State lawmakers prep for 2023 W.Va. Legislature with Marion County Board of Education

Nov. 28—FAIRMONT — With the Jan. 10 start date for West Virginia's 60-day legislative session inching closer, state lawmakers representing Marion County and beyond convened in Fairmont Monday morning to discuss potential changes to state education policy.

During the meeting, members of the Marion County Board of Education and local educators were visited by state senators Mike Caputo, D-13, Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, and Mike Oliverio, R-13.

The state senators were joined by Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion — who recently announced his bid for the state senate — Del. Phil Mallow, R-Marion and Del. Mike DeVault, R-Marion and Del. Amy Summer, R-Taylor.

Chronic absenteeism and truancy

At the start of the meeting, Board members and elected officials in attendance discussed an ongoing concern likely to appear in education policy proposals this January in the West Virginia Legislature: chronic absenteeism in the state public school system.

West Virginia defines chronically absent students as individuals who miss 18 or more days of school in one academic year — 10% of 180 total school days annually. This includes students who receive excused absences for medical appointments or emergencies, in addition to students who are classified as truant.

Unlike chronic absenteeism, student truancy is determined specifically by unexcused absences. Students who miss 10 or more of the 180 scheduled school days annually are considered truant, and their guardians can face legal repercussions if their attendance record does not improve over time.

Last academic year, 20.3% of students in Marion County Schools were identified as chronically absent or truant. While that percentage has decreased so far this academic year — and stands at fourth lowest levels in the state — state officials and Board members agreed that plans to bolster student attendance are worth considering in the Legislature.

But the specifics of current and potential legislative approaches to these concerns drew mixed responses from Board members and Marion County Schools staff members who attended Monday's meeting.

At the center of discussion was proposed draft legislation shared with meeting attendees that aims to pose more strict intervention plans onto truant and chronically absent students in West Virginia public schools, with judicial consultation on these plans.

But as state law surrounding absences currently stands, it would be impossible to bring the judicial system into all cases of chronic absenteeism, according to Tricia Maxwell, attendance director for Marion County Schools.

That's because chronically absent students who receive excused absences under state standards are not technically violating any law.

Marion County School Superintendent Donna Heston echoed Maxwell's concerns, and highlighted that allowing students to take unlimited excused absences but flagging school districts for those students' chronic absenteeism is "a double-edged sword."

The Board is working with "the rules that are made," and that is what "we get dinged for" by state education officials, she said.

Elected officials in attendance said they will revisit how the judicial system factors into their proposed legislation in the weeks leading up to the 2024 legislative session.

Funding for teacher aides

Throughout Monday's meeting, Board President Donna Costello emphasized the importance of state lawmakers revisiting the formula used to calculate funding for school aide positions across West Virginia school districts, which was last updated in 1982.

This formula was made in a period of time when West Virginia schools were more stable in staffing and financial needs, Costello explained. Today, many schools face funding struggles tied to decreasing student enrollment, and need more aides to support long-term educators, she said.

Additionally, the formula was drafted prior to the advent of the internet. Now, teachers need aides who can support their class technology needs, as well as aides who can support nursing and financial operations in public schools — positions of growing importance in today's society.

While Mallow noted that Marion County Schools already has a higher-than-average number of aides at its disposal, Costello emphasized that these positions were created through conversations with teachers and school administrators, and that they reflect an increasing demand for staff support.

"We live here. We are in the community," Costello told the lawmakers. "We tried our best to do what was in the best interest of our students, of our teachers, of our central office and of our principals."

Garcia said the legislature has discussed the need for an updated formula in previous sessions — and even considered creating a working group to address this need — but no changes have been implemented thus far.

Caputo said the formula itself is difficult to understand, which makes it hard for educators to address during the legislative session without prior planning. Caputo emphasized the value of a working group and community feedback in properly amending the formula to meet current needs.

Hope Scholarships and enrollment decline

Attendees discussed ongoing enrollment decline in Marion County Schools, as well as related increases in home schooling and the usage of state Hope Scholarships at private, charter and out-of-state education.

The Hope Scholarship provides per-person financial assistance to students enrolled for at least 45 days in West Virginia public schools. This funding is overseen by parents or guardians, and can be applied to educational expenses ranging from private education and tutoring to school transportation.

But parents are not required to report their expenditures through Hope Scholarship funding, and in August the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy found that, of the $10 million in funding provided to West Virginia youth last academic year, $6 million went to nonpublic schools and over $311,00 went to out-of-state schools in Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

With Marion County Schools already decreasing in student enrollment, members of the Board expressed concern that this funding only further incentivizes parents to remove their children from the public school system.

Per county homeschooling trends, Costello said many students are likely to return to Marion County Schools, but without the educational foundation they would have had through a state-supervised curriculum.

During the meeting, Heston alleged that policies like these show that state officials lack faith in the trained educators who keep the public school system afloat.

"You're draining your public schools," Heston told the elected officials in attendance. "One of your nation's oldest institutions — you're draining it."

The 2024 session of the West Virginia Legislature begins Jan. 10 and ends March 9.

Reach Jack Walker by email at jwalker@timeswv.com.