By Stephen Smoot
For Pendleton County and a handful of other school systems, the 1,400 floor has helped to fund the basic infrastructure and operations of the school system as changes locally and across the board have driven up the cost of school systems.
School systems under 1,400 in student population receive extra aid to compensate for geographical challenges not faced in most West Virginia counties. Starting next year, Pocahontas County will receive the full 1,400 amount for having the fewest students per square mile. Pendleton County and others in the 1,400 group will receive a percentage of Pocahontas County’s aid relative to the number of students needed to reach 1,400.
That said, Paul Hardesty, West Virginia Board of Education president, called out Pocahontas and Pendleton counties, saying it’s “asinine” to “keep giving counties like Pendleton and Pocahontas and others 400 to 500 extra students of pay while the ones that are between 1,400 and 2,000, that’s where the sweet spot seems to be. Those are the ones that are hurting.”
Hardesty also implied that the 1,400 schools are overfunded, but as Pendleton County Board of Education meetings have revealed, that has come with a strategy of frugality that includes a number of money-saving tactics, including employing a minimum of personnel to husband resources to meet other needs.
The Pendleton County Board of Education held two separate meetings last week — one Tuesday and a lengthier and more comprehensive meeting on Saturday morning. The meeting from Saturday will be covered in next week’s edition.
J. D. Wilkins, board president, opened with the customary invocation, praying, “Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to meet today . . . bless this meeting and everything we do tonight.”
First, the board accepted the resignations of two long-tenured employees, Connie Hedrick from Brandywine Elementary School and Ron Hudson from Pendleton County Middle/High School. Resignations were officially accepted “with regret.”
The board then approved the permanent hiring of interim head varsity basketball coach Josh Owens at PCM/HS and also Rod Cooper to join his staff of assistants.
J. P. Mowery, Pendleton County Schools treasurer, gave the financial reports. These included personnel statistics during the past year. This month, PCS set out 305 W-2 forms, indicating that 305 individuals worked in some capacity for some period of time over the course of the year. This list includes everyone from the Superintendent to, conceivably, a substitute teacher who only worked a single day. About 185 forms went to full time employees.
The gross payroll topped $9 million for the year, but taxable income came in at $8.66 million. That does not include non taxed benefits such as retirement or health insurance.
Mowery then discussed the 1,400 floor, which he crafted with the assistance of State Senator Walt Helmick and Delegate Harold Michael in the past. He shared that statewide the 1,400 counties received a total of $25 million to account for the special circumstances related to large size, mountainous terrain, and sparse population.
“We’ve never been known to be in the limelight,” stated Mowery, who went on to add that “we’ll fight with everything we have to keep that 1,400 floor in place.”
He then shared statistics on the financial condition of all 55 school districts in the state, explaining that “most counties are in pretty good shape” and take care with their finances and budgeting. “It’s not like most counties are mismanaging their money,” he noted. “The ones that make the headlines are the Roanes and the Hancocks” which have found themselves in significant financial straits.
Pendleton County itself closed fiscal year 2025 “$1.8 million to the good” and could carry that balance over into the subsequent fiscal year. Conversely Randolph County, which Mowery stated had not gotten quite as bad off as Hancock, faces tough decisions over closing schools and laying off personnel. That county system carried over $2 million from FY 2025 to 2026, but could enter FY 2027 with a budget deficit to make up.
On Hancock County, “it’s astonishing to me to get so bad that you don’t have enough cash to make payroll,” noted Mowery. Sonny O’Neil, board member, also questioned how Randolph County found itself in trouble.
State officials, Mowery stated, expect that a school system carry 10 to 15 percent of its total budget in its regular cash balance. Pendleton County has 12 percent, but counties whose voters approve levies may have as much as 25 percent.
Capacity of buildings used by a school system relative to number of students has caused a number of counties to incur criticism. Calhoun County has just under 30 percent of capacity used, Clay 49, and Logan 39. Mowery stated that Pendleton County’s at just over 50 percent “is not terribly below the state average.”
Despite Hardesty’s criticism, Mowery noted that the 1,400 floor retained some strong support where it matters, in the State Legislature. Both State Senators Bill Hamilton and Robbie Morris have expressed support to keep it in place. Mowery added that “we were hurting long before the past 20 years and we took the steps to get it fixed.” Mowery, Wilkins and O’Neil spoke on the pre 1,400 days when Pendleton County worked just as hard just to break even at the end of a fiscal year.
Mowery also speculated that Hardesty might not have been aware of the 1,400 floor or the reasoning behind it until very recently.
“Obviously, we have no qualms with changing the funding formula to help a county like Roane,” Mowery said. He mentioned that one proposal would simply add more staff to be covered in each county by the state funding formula. State aid is based on two ratios of professional and service staff per 1,000 students and has three tiers reflecting the sparsity or density of county population.
Sheena Van Meter, Hardy County superintendent, last month expressed support for assisting school systems in this fashion.
State legislators have recently heard three separate proposed solutions by the RAND Corporation. Mowery shared that the first would focus on added help for special education and English as second language learners (a major challenge for Hardy and other counties with a significant foreign-born population). Pendleton County would get 93.5 percent of what it receives now in this scenario.
A second proposal focuses on low income students, special education, and English as second language. Pendleton County’s percentage of current aid dips to 89.6 percent. That and the previous would mean a $1 million approximate decline in aid.
The third proposal combines all of the above and leaves Pendleton County with about a three percent, or approximately $300,000, drop. These are, however, only at the proposal stage.
Travis Heavner spoke next on facilities management, discussing the continuing need to address heating on the second floor of Franklin Elementary School. PCS received a quote that would cost $253,000 in two phases to correct the heating, internal air pressure, and related door closing issues at FES. Mowery shared that his recommendation was to pay via a five-year lease purchase.
With Carrie Nesselrodt at an education conference, Kristy Tritapoe, assistant superintendent, shared the fifth month attendance report and also 90 days in comparisons in attendance between last year and this year.
Tritapoe had a word of caution prior to sharing the numbers, which showed attendance between Dec. 5 and Jan. 12, stating they were “likely better than they would have been” given the holidays and days off for inclement weather. Attendance was “excellent except for a few bumps.”
North Fork Elementary School’s third grade topped individual class attendance at 99.01 percent. FES led schools with 97 percent, best grade in the county was first with 96.68 percent, countywide just over 94 percent. Nesselrodt’s report shared that more grade levels at 95 and 96 percent than she’d ever seen.
Chronic absence numbers compared from 2023 to 2026 at the 90-day point showed that BES dropped from 14 percent to 11, FES 13 to 8.1, NFES 22.2 to 8.3, PCM/HS from 25.9 percent to 15.5, and countywide from 20.2 to 11.9.
Praise was expressed for staff and administrators for creating motivational incentives, as well as parents and students for “making attendance a priority.”
“Great numbers!” concluded Wilkins.
