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NEW MARTINSVILLE -- Wetzel County Schools' plans to consolidate its four high schools into two took the next step Monday, as the Wetzel County Board of Education voted to move forward scheduling public meetings to discuss consolidation plans with county residents.
The board voted 4-1 on two motions -- starting the process to consolidate Valley and Hundred high schools, and starting the process to consolidate Magnolia and Paden City high schools.
The seventh- and eighth-graders at Paden City would move to New Martinsville school in the plan.
"The first step was to prepare the impact statements," Wetzel County Schools Superintendent Cassie Porter said.
"This meeting today is to have the motions for consolidation of Hundred High School into Valley High School, Paden City High School into Magnolia High School and New Martinsville School. This is only the first step."
Monday's vote allows Wetzel County School Superintendent Cassie Porter to file legal advertisements announcing public meetings to discuss the consolidations.
The Paden City-Magnolia meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 13 at Magnolia and at 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at New Martinsville School and 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at Paden City. The Hundred-Valley meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 18 at Hundred and 6 p.m. Nov. 20 at Valley.
The school board will meet at 9 a.m. Nov. 22 to vote on consolidating the four high schools into two.
Board member Jimmy Glasscock was the dissenting vote on both motions. In voicing his dissent, Glasscock said making these changes would erase the thousands of dollars that have already been spent on things like band uniforms and building modifications that would be erased with these consolidations. The two combined schools would have new names, school colors and mascots.
"This is totally uncalled for," Glasscock said, "a misrepresentation of money that we don't need to be spending.
"This is the beginning," Glasscock added later. "This is a beginning we can put a stop to today."
Board member Christine Nice, who was attending the meeting remotely due to illness, said that moving forward with the plan was necessary to correct several of the other issues in the county's high schools. The consolidation plans were first introduced during an August work session after the district high school's disappointing summative test scores were revealed.
This year, Wetzel County students earned proficiency at just a 40.63% clip in English/language arts, a 35.56% clip in math and a 25.32% clip in science. The county's 11th graders scored proficiency at a 41.54% rate in ELA, a 14.62% rate in math and a 24.62% rate in science.
School district officials said consolidation will allow for more certified teachers to be present in the classrooms. In the current four-school configuration, they said, many classes are being taught by long-term substitutes or via remote learning.
"COVID hurt our kids," Nice said. "That was hard, seeing that they weren't getting what they needed. I feel like some of our kids, though not to that extreme, are facing that now, where they don't have someone there, or virtual isn't always what's best for everybody. I think that's what's most important over colors and whatnot."