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Wood BOE to address facilities in 2019

Wood County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook, left, and Wood County Board of Education President Rick Olcott, center, listen to a presentation Tuesday by Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling, right, concerning upcoming format changes to the district’s Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan. Officials say they plan to spend 2019 looking at and addressing facility issues, including possible consolidation of schools. (Photo by Michael Erb)

PARKERSBURG — A state-level change to online facilities documents in 2020 will not delay the Wood County Board of Education implementing changes to its facilities plan next year.

The school board Tuesday received a report from Wood County Schools Assistant Superintendent Mike Fling concerning a new online system for the district’s Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan.

The Comprehensive Education Facilities plan guides construction and facilities management over a 10-year period. The current CEFP ends July 1, 2020, and officials hope to begin work after the first of the year on the 2020-30 plan.

Fling said the new online program won’t be rolled out until 2020 and will be used by all 55 of West Virginia’s county-based school systems.

“Right now, (the CEFPs) are all different,” he said. “Our plan looks different than neighboring counties’ plans.”

The digital documents will bring consistency to the format of CEFPs, and will allow changes to be made online by the county and state, speeding up the process.

“It will be a living document,” Fling said.

Fling also said the current CEFP is contained “in three notebooks, each four inches deep. You have to really dig to find information in it.”

The online document will allow for faster reference and easier access, he said.

Board members expressed concern the timing of the new system could delay county officials from looking at facility issues now and making changes now.

“This is a year later than what pace we need to move,” said board President Rick Olcott.

Fling and Superintendent Will Hosaflook said changes to the current CEFP can still be made by submitting amendments to the state Department of Education.

“You just have to do it the old fashioned way,”‘ Fling said.

In recent years, boards have shied away from discussions of school consolidation even though enrollment for Wood County Schools has dropped. Some previous CEFPs have called for some school consolidation, including the closure of Worthington Elementary School, but those plans were not followed.

A prior school board called for the consolidation of Waverly Elementary School with Williamstown Elementary School. A new Williamstown-area elementary is expected to open in early 2020.

Board members later reversed their vote, arguing the Waverly school community was not given a chance to go through the consolidation process and incorrect wording in the facilities bond to build the new school contained no mention of closing Waverly Elementary.

Olcott said with dwindling enrollment and aging facilities, tough decisions must be made sooner rather than later.

“We’re talking about opening a new Williamstown elementary school, and it was a Waverly-Williamstown elementary school. We’ve got other schools we’ve been talking about (as part of) right-sizing our system,” Olcott said. “We have things we need to do.”

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