School panel calls for local meetings

School panel calls for local meetings
To gauge support for building projectsJune 30, 1998

Gazette Online

By Eric Eyre
STAFF WRITER

The state School Building Authority will require county school districts to hold forums with community residents to gauge support for school building projects.
The authority hopes that public input may fend off future lawsuits over school closings and consolidations.
"They must take their plan to the community and talk about it," authority Director Clacy Williams said at a Monday meeting. "We want to try to solve problems before they become aggravations."
Such "aggravations" have popped up most recently in Mason County, where the School Building Authority has allocated more than $14 million for a consolidated high school in Point Pleasant. A judge put those plans on hold, however, after consolidation opponents filed suit.
The authority also is appealing a Kanawha Circuit judge's ruling that blocked a plan to consolidate two high schools in Pendleton County.
Parents oppose the plan to close Circleville High School and bus its students to a renovated Franklin High School. The authority gave the county more than $7 million in 1995 for that renovation and expansion.
During the next year and a half, county school boards throughout the state will develop 10-year plans for improving their school buildings. The School Building Authority gives each county $20,000 for the studies.
Under the new authority guidelines, school districts must hold at least two public forums to discuss their building plans, which may include school closings.
"The purpose is to let the public be part of the planning process," Williams said. "The public is going to become educated and informed."
Under the current rules, county districts must hold a public hearing - but only after they have developed their building plans.
The new guidelines will help the agency determine whether community residents support projects when school boards submit them for funding.

To contact staff writer Eric Eyre, call 348-5194.