by Kate Shunney
County school officials have approved the date of a special levy election in Morgan County as May 12, West Virginia’s primary election date.
Members of the Morgan County Board of Education on February 3 voted in favor of the date and unanimously approved the text of the levy election order, which will appear on the ballot before voters.
County voters will be asked whether or not to renew the four-year local school tax, and extend it through the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2030.
School board members voted to keep the special levy rate where it has been for several rounds of renewal, rather than raise it to the allowable level under West Virginia law.
If passed, the special levy locally would raise $5,560,984 each tax year for expenses in Morgan County Schools.
The levy rate being proposed to voters is 32.16 cents were $100 of assessed value of their owner-occupied property, also known as Class II property – the largest category of taxable property in Morgan County. Owners of Class III property – commercial properties or second homes – would pay 64.32 cents per $100 of assessed value under the special school tax.
Of the $5,560,984 in special levy revenue that could be collected, the school board approved the following uses:
— $2,558,052 for local salary rates, including payroll taxes, Social Security, Unemployment, Workers Compensation and benefits for school personnel to “employ and retain qualified personnel to provide a high-quality education for the children of Morgan County”
— $1,557,932 to support critical education programs like alternative ed and prevention resources, academic enrichment and remediation, social and emotional support, health and wellbeing, extracurricular activities, STEM and vocational programs,
— $500,000 for security, operations and facility maintenance
— $370,000 for capital improvements or repairs or purchase of property
— $125,000 for technology access, hardware, software, repair and training
— $400,000 for instructional materials, programs, textbooks and equipment
— $50,000 to support libraries — the Morgan County Public Library at $30,000 and Paw Paw Public Library at $20,000.
Not excess, but necessary
School board president Aaron Close pointed out that the tax rate of the levy had not gone up from prior renewals.
“We have not increased a rate for this levy for the taxpayer of Morgan County,” Close said. “In my humble opinion, the general levy hasn’t funded schools to the level it needs to do…the Excess Levy is not excess, it is funding for what schools and students need to be funded adequately.”
Board member John Rowland agreed that the local school tax shouldn’t be termed “excess” since it is needed to put Morgan County teacher salaries on par with nearby counties – particularly Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
“Maybe we’ll see change in a state aid formula that’s antiquated, really,” he said.
Superintendent Banks agreed with Rowland on the matter of school salaries.
“We have to remain competitive. We owe it to our kids to put the best people in front of them every day,” he said.
Banks added that a school system’s costs can be unpredictable, and that having one or two students with intense special needs can add to the number of staff you have to have in a school setting.
“One student can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you have to take care of every student the best you can,” Banks said.
He noted that the State Legislature is taking a look at some of the costs for serving high-needs students to move those costs off of individual counties.