Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
April 25, 2012
McDowell passed over for school consolidation funds
KATE COIL
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — The West Virginia School Building Authority passed over a $14 million consolidated elementary school project in McDowell County Tuesday, citing other counties and schools with more pressing funding issues.

Officials with McDowell County Schools had submitted a request to the School Building Authority for funds to consolidate Welch, Anawalt and Fall River Elementary schools into a single school. The authority received requests for 23 projects but was only able to award 12 projects.

McDowell County Schools Superintendent Jim Brown said he and other school officials were “disappointed” their project did not receive funding but understood the difficult position the SBA is in.

“Of course we are disappointed,” Brown said. “We know the value and the need for the project. At the same time, we recognize and truly respect the work the School Building Authority does and the difficult challenges they face having so many worthy projects requesting funding with only limited funds available. We have a ton of respect for the School Building Authority. They are passionate and take their job very seriously. Unfortunately, there is not enough money to fund all of the projects.”

Brown said one of the most pressing issues for McDowell County school officials will be accommodating the needs of students at Anawalt Elementary School.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and look at other options,” Brown said. “In the very near future we will make decisions as to what we will do at this point. Our major concern is Anawalt Elementary School, which has been identified as the third worst school facility in the state. We know we will have issues to address to provide 21st century learning environment for those students. We have a pressing concern with Anawalt Elementary School, which is our top priority moving forward.”

Dr. Mark Manchin, executive director of the SBA and a former McDowell County School superintendent, said in the previous few years stimulus funds have allowed for the building of more new schools, but this year the lack of stimulus funds only allowed the authority to give out approximately $38 million in projects.

“The last several years, because of the qualified school construction funds provided before the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or stimulus gave us tax credit bonds to sell that allowed us to sell more bonds,” Manchin said. “In the past three years we had around $100 million to give out. This year we only have $38 million to distribute. McDowell County was one of 22 counties that submitted funds. We had $150 million worth of requests and could only distribute $38 million. That was the issue.”

Manchin said the consolidated elementary school in McDowell County is “a worthy project,” but so were many of the projects proposed this year.

“No one felt this wasn’t a worthy project,” Manchin said. “It is a good project. There is only so much funding to be distributed. The authority simply prioritized and this just wasn’t one of the higher priorities this year. Based on the discussion between the authority members, we thought a greater participation on local level and from Reconnecting McDowell could allow us partner together and there would be a real desire for the school building authority to participate in this project.”

According to Manchin, members of the SBA would like to see the private-public partners with the Reconnecting McDowell initiative to get on board and help fund the school project. Manchin said the SBA has partnered with the private sector in the past to build new schools, such as the new Marsh Fork Elementary in Raleigh County.

“We are not diminishing the need for Anawalt, Welch and the need for schools,” Manchin said. “Given the Reconnecting McDowell and the high visibility of that initiative, we thought it would be wise for us to work closely with that group and identify private companies to see if we can’t partner in building a new school for McDowell County. None of the authority members felt this wasn’t a worthy project. We are all aware of McDowell County and certainly aware of the Anawalt school. The discussion started focusing early by the School Building Authority members said that they would like to see a greater participation from Reconnecting McDowell to partner with the state of West Virginia for new school construction. If that would come to fruition and McDowell brings that project back with a greater participation with the private partnership through Reconnect McDowell, the School Building Authority would be interested in perhaps funding a partial part of that project.”

Manchin said the SBA has worked to fund needed school projects in McDowell County in the past.

“Having been to McDowell County myself and knowing Mc