Board approves travel allotments
By MICHAEL ERB, merb@newsandsentinel.comFact Box
Travel allotments for Wood County schools 2008-09 school year
SchoolEnrollmentAllocation
Blennerhassett Elementary442$5,000
Criss Elementary308$4,000
Emerson Elementary375$4,500
Fairplains Elementary164$2,500
Gihon Elementary313$4,000
Greenmont Elementary235$3,000
Jefferson Center476$5,500
Kanawha Elementary244$3,000
Lubeck Elementary479$5,500
Madison Elementary269$3,500
McKinley Elementary311$4,000
Mineral Wells Elementary629$7,000
Neale Elementary372$4,500
Vienna Elementary321$4,000
Waverly Elementary166$2,500
Williamstown Elementary508$6,000
Worthington Elementary208$3,000
Franklin Center296$3,500
Martin Elementary280$3,500
Blennerhassett Middle532$6,000
Edison Middle688$7,500
Hamilton Middle468$5,500
Jackson Middle542$6,000
VanDevender Middle435$5,000
Parkersburg High1,879$64,000
Parkersburg South1,725$60,000
Williamstown High674$35,000
Total13,339$267,500
PARKERSBURG - The Wood County Board of Education this week approved a move to create travel allotments for schools this fall, but one board member said he fears Williamstown High School is being shorted on funding.
The school board voted 4-0 with board member Jim Fox absent to approve the creation of allotments, but not the specific amounts. The allotments are intended to give administrators a better idea of how much is being paid for trips and to cut down on travel costs where possible. The allotments cover all extra-curricular travel including for sports events, but do not include county-assigned travel, such as career days and district-wide cultural events.
Last year the district spent more than $680,000 on travel, but officials said they could not determine how much of that expense was from county-assigned events.
For most of the elementary schools, the allotments hover between $2,500 to $7,000 based upon enrollment, with Fairplains and Waverly schools having the lowest amounts and Mineral Wells having the highest.
The county's middle schools likewise hover between $5,000 to $7,500 per school.
Parkersburg High School will see the most money for travel, with an allotment of $64,000. The school has an enrollment of nearly 1,900 students
Parkersburg South High School with just over 1,700 students will be allotted $60,000 this fall.
Williamstown High School's student population of 674 is less than half the two Parkersburg high schools, but its allotment is more than half the amount allotted to the other schools, coming in at $35,000 for the 2008-09 school year.
However Williamstown serves more grades and is a combined middle/high school. Because of this, some board members have questioned whether the school is being shorted due to its smaller student population
Board member John Marlow said he believes calculating Williamstown High's allocation based upon the school's student population ignores the school's unique status in the county. The amount allocated already has been increased once, Superintendent Bill Niday said, though the original allocation amount was not discussed.
"I am worried it simply isn't enough," he said. "I am glad to see the amount was increased, but I believe it may need to be increased even more for Williamstown High School."
Niday said he considered this year to be a test year for the allotments.
"This is our first stab at this, and we may actually have allocated too much money," he said. "We don't know. But that is what we're going to see. If more is needed, we'll address that issue."
The allotment amounts will be monitored on a monthly basis and will be brought to the board as part of the district's quarterly snapshot.
Niday said high fuel costs simply mean some travel must be reduced or cut.
"It's the same for everyone. When the cost of gas goes up, you might not be able to drive as much," he said.
