MASON COUNTY SCHOOL'S ACCREDITATION REPORT

From financial issues & staffing issues to countywide test scores and accreditation status.  This report alerts and/or reassures parents, community members and county taxpayers about what is going on in Mason County Schools!  Access the full report here.

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Direct from the West Virginia State Board Agenda:

"Education Performance Audit Reports for the Mason County School District and – Ashton Elementary School, Beale Elementary School, Leon Elementary, New Haven Elementary School, Roosevelt Elementary School, Point Pleasant Intermediate School, Hannan High School, Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School, Wahama High School and the Mason County Career Center – (Action)ATTACHMENT
Announced on-site reviews (five days in advance) were conducted at Mason County School District and – Ashton Elementary School, Beale Elementary School, Leon Elementary School, New Haven Elementary School, Roosevelt Elementary School, Point Pleasant Intermediate School, Hannan High School, and Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School, and Wahama High School October 25 – 28, 2010. The OEPA conducted the reviews which concentrated on student, school, and school system performance and progress. The reviews also consisted of resource evaluation.

Based upon the results of the Education Performance Audits, it is recommended and a motion is requested that the WVBE approve the recommendations listed in the Mason County School District Report."
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See the full report here:  

http://wvde.state.wv.us/minutes/current/ksealoepaExec.Sum&MasonCnty&Schools.pdf

Consolidation leads to cruel schools

Aaron Metz
Consolidation leads to cruel schools
Friday November 10, 2000

Back to Gazette Online

Our state Department of Education strongly promotes school consolidation because of "economies of scale."

But I have piles of evidence on my desk showing that consolidation undercuts hope of achieving higher test scores. In other words, it is pretty much proven scientifically: Consolidate and test scores fall.

Education Week magazine reported on 150 small schools Chicago is studying. The evidence concludes that with smaller schools, there are fewer days missed, fewer classes cut, less violence, less expense per pupil, higher grades, and the teacher can call each student by name.

In the frenzy to consolidate, as Tara Tuckwiller reported, the small Hannan rural school in Mason County was stripped in hope the state would provide consolidation money for a bigger school. But a Marshall University professor brought scholars to the school and transformed it into a school of excellence.

Likewise, researchers find that small schools help students overcome the effects of poverty. Craig Howley of Ohio University and Robert Burke of Marshall University did research that came to the conclusion that smaller schools in poor communities "tend to maximize the school's performance as measured by standardized tests."

Harden Elementary in Harrison County earned the designation "School of Excellence" in June. In spite of this, the school was lost to consolidation because it "exceeded all goals and standards except economies of scale," according to the state Department of Education.

Smaller schools, smaller classes, is what many parents and teachers have been saying for years. A Tennessee study proves that "small classes in early grades" can help kids to do better, all the way through college, and "they should be provided in all our elementary grades."

Times change. On my first day of school, I cried while the teacher held me in my seat as my mother started walking home. I wasn't too upset though, because I was going to run home at recess.

Now with consolidation, mothers put their tiny tikes on a big yellow bus full of absolute strangers. The first day of school can be very cruel and can leave lasting impressions. That mother may cry too as the big bus vanishes from her view. And her little one doesn't have the options I had on my first day at school.

And so on. The Putnam County Board of Education recently approved a $90 million school facilities plan that includes consolidation of Poca and Buffalo high schools. Tim McCoy, a father of two, said, "The worst thing I can think the school board can do is sit with their arms crossed and their minds closed, and not listen to what the people of Putnam County have to say about the issue."

In the Harts High School gym, Gov. Underwood said, "We need to look at ... the need for consolidation." And just like that, the people were on their feet. They were electrified. They were applauding, hooting and hollering, according to a Gazette report. Don't the people of West Virginia have any constitutional rights?

School consolidation prepares students for prison. Twelve-year-old Sarah Lusk is smart enough to know that consolidation can be cruel. She writes in the Gazette, "I feel very strongly against the consolidation plan. I believe the bigger the school is, the more violence there will be. Sometimes I feel as if the adults don't think this thing through all the way and at times like this, the kids are smarter ... We truly don't want it to work, so we are going to work our hardest to make sure it doesn't." (Sarah earned an A-plus in civics.)

Most every small school has one or two more-or-less violence-prone students, probably from dysfunctional homes. Consolidation brings them together. And there just might be a Hitler-type among them who has a natural, innate urge to lead a gang. Don't be surprised if they add more than expense and frustration to the educational institution.

"A study by the New Jersey Boards Association found that size was the most important predictor of school violence, " crime expert F.A. Fox said. "The most effective strategy for preventing school violence is to limit school size."

The consolidation of Roosevelt Junior High School in Charleston should never have happened. But the die has been cast and it's too late now. Parents were angry and the students cried. Why did the county board take a school away from a community teeming with children? Don't communities have any constitutional rights - right here in Charleston with more than 1,400 lawyers (see Yellow Pages)? Now, who is forcing Pete Thaw to choose another "Roosevelt school" for consolidation?

It is all over. Roosevelt has gone the way of the bowling teams. The heart of the community is gone like the village square or the public well. Soon the neighbors and the young people won't know each other by name anymore.

Consolidation can be cruel. As a lady in Eleanor said: "Many people don't understand what the school means to the small town of Eleanor. It's been the pillar of the community for over 50 years. "

Consolidation can be cruel - and where is the evidence for "economies of scale"?

Metz is retired as a West Virginia State College economist.

Consolidation Children pay the price

Editorial
the Charleston Gazette ONLINE

July 23, 1998

Consolidation

Children pay the price

THE STATE School Building Authority has been doling out millions of dollars for school consolidations on the premise that bigger schools offer better and more efficient education for children.


The Gazette has generally supported consolidation over the years, but the SBA's single-minded drive for large schools that meet "economies of scale" discriminates against the needs of children in large, sparsely populated, rural counties.
 
Unfortunately, the state Supreme Court did not see it that way. Justices overturned a decision by Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman that could have forced the SBA to reconsider its priorities.


As a result, the closure of Circleville High School in Pendleton County and the busing of its students to a new school in Franklin will proceed.


That means some students will be on buses three hours a day on twisting, treacherous roads over North Mountain. That's good for their education?


Meanwhile, across the nation, education experts are coming to the conclusion that smaller schools are better.


Arthur Foresta, who earned accolades for his work in New York City's troubled school system, told a meeting of editorial writers at a Hechinger Institute seminar at Columbia University that smaller schools create a more caring teaching environment.


"Kids fall through the cracks at larger schools," he said.


Smaller schools are better able to encourage parental involvement, which is a key factor in learning and educational success. What kind of parental involvement can the new Pendleton school expect, especially from those parents who live an hour and a half away?


Research is also showing that smaller schools are especially beneficial for low-income students, who tend to perform worse at large, consolidated schools.


The SBA maintains that larger high schools save money, making enhanced curricula available. But that's a dubious assertion in large, rural counties where transportation costs eat up potential savings.


Deirdre Purdy, an expert witness in the Pendleton case, noted in a Gazette commentary last year that 15 counties consolidated schools in 1990 - and nine of them had budget deficits in 1995. Economies of scale didn't save them from running into the red.


The SBA refuses to fund schools that don't meet a threshold of 200 students per grade level - unless, as in Franklin, the school will serve an entire county.


The authority apparently got that magic number from some studies saying the ideal high school has 600 to 900 students. But many other studies dispute this conclusion. And the authority abandoned research it began to determine whether consolidation produces any financial savings.


Again, mergers are often beneficial, especially in urban counties. But SBA members should be smart enough to realize that there is no blanket solution for a rural state like West Virginia.


What works well in Charleston may be disastrous in mountainous Pendleton

Mason school consolidation site tests delivered with a disclaimer

Mason school consolidation site tests delivered with a disclaimer
July 28, 1998

Gazette Online

By Tara Tuckwiller
STAFF WRITER

POINT PLEASANT - No toxic waste appears to be contaminating the Mason County consolidated high school site, the head of a private testing firm told school board members Monday.
The results came with a disclaimer, though.
"We didn't sample for anything and everything," said Ron Potesta, head of Potesta and Associates of Charleston. "There may be something we missed."
The county paid Potesta $12,750 to test the school site's soil and groundwater after parents raised an alarm in April, when state environmental officials said the 65-acre field might be contaminated with toxic waste.
School board members - some of whom have since been voted out of office - had just voted to abandon a site the county already owned and buy the new site for $650,000 from a group of local businessmen.
They planned to close Wahama, Hannan and Point Pleasant high schools, and build a $15 million, 1,400-student county high school on the land north of Point Pleasant.
The land was part of a Superfund environmental cleanup site until four years ago, and toxic waste left over from a World War II explosives factory still contaminates the land and groundwater nearby.
The property was also used as a state agriculture test station for years, and parents became concerned that DDT and other pesticide residues may still contaminate the land.
Potesta didn't test for some of those chemicals, board member Shirley Gue noted. Gue has led other Mason County parents in fighting consolidation for three years.
"There's a known contaminant list from the Department of Defense. Arsenic, etc.," Gue said. "None of those things were tested?"
"That's correct," said Potesta engineer Dave Carpenter.
Carpenter said he just tested for what he expected to find, based on the memories of people who worked on the property and advice from some West Virginia University professors.
No written logs could be found for WVU's 30 years of agricultural tests, Potesta said. The man who ran the test station for 10 years said he may have some records of what chemicals he used, but he couldn't lay his hands on them just now.
Another man who had farmed the property said he had records of the chemicals he used, but he wouldn't let Carpenter see them.
"Most of them were referring to their memory, not exact logs," Potesta said.
"That's what concerns me," Gue said.
Potesta said he found no trace of the explosive trinitrotolulene (TNT), which contaminates the groundwater on the nearby Superfund site. He didn't find any residues from the pesticides and herbicides people remembered using on the field, either.
Potesta based his findings on 20 soil samples and a surface water sample from a drainage ditch that flows onto the property from the direction of the old explosives plant.
In wet weather, water from the ditch pools in the middle of the field and slowly seeps into the ground. In dry weather, a local farmer says the water in that ditch runs red, Carpenter said.
"That could be natural high iron in the soil. It could be biological activity," Carpenter said. "I never saw anything stained red in the ditch."
Local residents are still fighting the consolidation plan with a lawsuit, which is currently making its way through Mason County Circuit Court. Since anti-consolidation members took over the county school board in July, those residents have gained confidence.
"Won't make any difference," whispered consolidation foe Clifford Oliver, as Potesta and Carpenter prepared to make their presentation to the school board. "There ain't gonna be a school down there."

To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, call 348-5189.

State fails to heed lessons from school consolidation

Gazette Online
(Aug. 24)

The emperor has no clothes
State fails to heed lessons from school consolidation

THIS is really sad. The West Virginia School Building Authority continues blindly down its path of destruction, taking into consideration not one single shred of evidence to support what it is doing. But destruction is what the SBA achieves. With your money and your blessing, dear readers.

Eight years ago, I put up a pretty good fight against school consolidation. I fought it on West Virginia Public Television and in the Gazette, in the courtrooms in Clay and Greenbrier counties, and in open school board meetings in Randolph, Preston and Mason counties. I lost, of course. So did West Virginia children and the folks who live in the wonderful small towns of this state.
I argued then, and I argue now, that the work of the SBA destroys the children of this state. I had less empirical evidence at that time. I have more now, and the information is just too sad.
These guys are supposed to be educators. They are supposed to encourage our children to learn and employ the benefits of science. Yet, in their own work they disregard or reject the very method which they espouse for their children. For the best scientific research has shown again what we have known for many years: Consolidation destroys children.
The research I discuss here is not my own. I am indebted to many hard-working souls whose labor I will share with any individual or school board who requests my sources. This information is based on cold, hard numbers computed through the best scientific methods we know.
Consolidation does not save money. Countless studies have proven that. In many cases the cost per student increases with consolidation.
Consolidation does not improve student performance, contrary to the theory espoused by the icon of American education, Dr. James Conant. Bad and ill-informed theory that.
Conant argued in his book, "The Comprehensive High School," published 31 years ago, that a larger school would provide an economy of scale and allow for more specialized classes, a greater variety of activities. Well, he was right about the variety and the specialization. What he implied, of course, was that this would improve American education. In that he was not correct. Implemented, the theory has destroyed the very thing he wished to improve.
We know now that the expanded curriculum benefits only a very small minority of children. On the other hand, we also know that as school size expands, student participation decreases.
We know now that the students shipped in from rural communities participate less in school activities than they did in their own small community schools. We know now that attendance drops and truancy and behavior problems increase as school size grows.
Controlling all other variables, we know now that the use of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, alcohol and controlled substances increases with the size of the school. We also know that consolidation is a major cause of school violence.
The list is very long. Teacher-student interaction is damaged by large schools. Small schools are more flexible and adaptable to the particular needs of that school. The children of poverty fare the worst in the move to consolidation. Parental involvement decreases as schools consolidate. Small communities are ruined when they lose the centerpiece of community life.
So why does the SBA continue to impose its treacherous will upon the small communities of West Virginia? It's like the story in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." Once you've destroyed a few lives, you've got to keep on doing it or else you'd have to admit you were wrong. And what bureaucrat has ever been wrong?
We read that student achievement scores have been going down over the past several decades.
Did it ever occur to anybody that the years covered by this discouraging revelation are identical to the years in which we have been consolidating our schools?
Did anybody ever notice that while departments and schools of education have multiplied, and while the bureaucratic accrediting agencies placed more and more demands upon those schools and departments, school violence has increased and student performance has been going down?
Does anybody notice anything wrong with this picture?
Hello out there! We've ruined the children. Does anybody hear me? Does anybody care? Is anybody out there? The emperor has no clothes.

Dr. Warner, a professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, is one of the Gazette's contributing columnists.