11-03-2025
Political questions linger amid declining Marion County Schools enrollment
FAIRMONT — Despite School Superintendent Donna Heston's fervent wish to avoid the political environment, it nonetheless still overshadowed the annual state of the school district report she delivered to the Board of Education on Monday during a work session.
'I wish the public, since this is being broadcast, understands that this is not — well it is dumped on our lap — but some of these decisions we have to deal with come from Charleston,' Board Member Thomas Dragich said. 'It reminds me of when somebody down there had the bright idea of doing away with the recent programs we had sharing, going on among all different schools. And now, there's a bill that wants to consolidate school districts.'
Marion County lost 84 students since January, continuing a long trend of decreasing enrollment. Heston placed the blame for that on school choice options such as homeschooling, the Hope Scholarship and what the state legislature has been doing politically to expand those options by diverting money away from public education. As a result, this year the school system will cut 10 professional positions and three service positions for the 2025-26 school year.
Without the cuts, the district would be overleveraged by 19 professional and 74 service positions next year, she said, costing the district $5.2 million. She said generally speaking, 80% of the district's budget is dedicated to salaries and benefits of employees.
However, that is an improvement over last year, when the district cut 40 positions to bring its spending back in line with how much funding they receive from the state. Heston also showed what facilities improvements they were able to make once personnel spending decreased last year. Rivesville Elementary and the Barnes Learning Center had roughly $744,000 and $836,000 respectively in heating improvements done. The district was also able to address roof projects at Rivesville for their gym and at East Dale Elementary, to the tune of $93,000 and $518,000 respectively.
Dragich places a lot of blame on Charleston for the tough choices the school district has to make because of its funding from the state legislature. He said a lot of the ideas the legislature is pursuing come from out of state. He repeated his call to update the state funding formula, which mandates positions for schools to have but doesn't pay for them.
Enrollment is the bigger issue. The state determines school funding based on how many students attend. West Virginia public education doesn't just face challenges from growing private and home school enrollment, but from residents leaving the state for better opportunities. However, Board President George Boyles had a novel idea for that problem.
'What with all the people who are losing their jobs [in D.C.], and I'm so sorry they are, will we have a migration like we had with the FBI moving into this area? With people deciding to get out of the area?' he said. 'Is there any talk about that?'
While many federal employees are losing their jobs in Washington D.C., West Virginia federal employees haven't been immune to displacement either. Earlier this year, West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw said the state would not be able to absorb all the employees left behind if federal agencies removed themselves from the state. Heston allowed for the potential of such a situation to occur though.
Board Member Donna Costello also brought up the news that the Trump Administration is working to dissolve the Department of Education. Heston pointed out such a move cannot be done in isolation and requires an act of Congress. Further, even if the Department of Education dissolves, the funds allocated by Congress to the states would still come through, even if the entity responsible for distributing them went away.
However, DOGE's work dismantling federal agencies without congressional approval went on for several weeks before the courts stepped in. Even after federal judges ruled against DOGE, Elon Musk's team still ignored federal orders. Musk undertook the work only on President Trump's direction, without congressional approval. Musk and Vice President JD Vance have also questioned the power federal courts have to stay the power of the executive branch. It remains to be seen how United States Secretary of Education Linda McMahon will execute Trump's order to dissolve the Department of Education.
'I do have to remind the board we are not a political, uh — I understand what you're saying and your concerns,' Heston said in reply to Costello. 'But we receive our guidance from the state board of education.'
