Senators advanced an $8 million appropriation for a relief fund meant to provide a safety net for financially distressed schools, although they expressed misgivings about the circumstances.
Senator Ben Queen, R-Harrison, said local officials need to be held accountable for making sure their resources are spent wisely. He would like to avoid being in this position time after time.
“We need to hold people’s feet to the fire,” Queen said.
The bill, HB 4575, originated in the House of Delegates in response to a fiscal crisis in Hancock County. Early in the legislative session, the House of Delegates passed the bill in a single day, viewing the situation as urgent.
Separate legislation, HB 4574,would establish an emergency fund for cash-strapped school systems. That bill was discussed Jan. 27 by the Senate Education Committee but members took no action, wanting to further examine the underpinnings of the bill before moving ahead.
HB 4574 specifies that the financially distressed county that applies for and receives money from this fund shall pay back the same amount of money that was used.
So what the Senate Finance Committee was considering on Tuesday afternoon is the actual appropriation that would go into the fund if it’s ever approved.
“This will just ensure that the bills get paid and the employees get paid,” said state schools Superintendent Michele Blatt, testifying before the finance committee.
Hancock County has been described as being roughly 140 employees over what the state school funding formula could support. State officials have said the county used federal covid relief dollars for ongoing expenses and then did not wean off adequately when that funding dried up.
Altogether, state officials have said Hancock County’s troubles include a $5 million cash shortfall, a $2 million high school overspend and a $1 million turf project with dollars from the county board’s general fund.
The state Board of Education moved last month to take over Hancock County schools and fire top personnel.
Of West Virginia’s other counties, Blatt said, “not everyone chose to keep 140 people that were paid with one-time covid money on for an additional year.”
As Hancock County pays its ongoing expenses, Blatt told senators, “this money will be like the stopgap.”
Senator Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, asked if the money would provide relief for local officials who were responsible for the mess in the first place: “We’ve bailed them out and at some point you’re going to get everything straightened out, and then you’re going to turn it back to the people who blew it to begin with.”
Blatt responded that top county school system officials have been fired and that county residents could vote in new school board members.