Brooke voters OK school levy

WELLSBURG -- Brooke County voters overwhelmingly approved the county schools' excess levy on Saturday, with 70 percent casting ballots in favor.

The final vote was 2,410 in favor of the levy and 1,017 against it, according to unofficial results from the county clerk's office.

There was only an 18.5 percent voter turnout for the special election.

The levy, acccording to school officials, raises nearly $7.8 million a year about one-fourth of the district's budget.

The levy will enable the district to keep school resource officers; instructional material, curriculum and equipment in the classrooms; free participation for students in sports and arts programs; teachers, secretaries, custodians and bus drivers; health and welfare services; community access to facilities; and free senior citizen discounts at events.

School officials emphasized the renewal of the levy means no new taxes.

Ted Pauls, board of education president, thanked the voters for the overwhelming positive approval. He also thanked the levy committee which worked hard on getting the levy renewal approved.

"The citizens placed the interests of students at the forefront, and that was what really mattered," Pauls said. "The board and the interim superintendent will continue to be fiscally conservative and transparent. We will continue to do the job we were elected to do. We will spend the money the way it is supposed to be spent."

Interim Superintendent Jeffrey Crook said he and the board take their responsibility seriously.

"I want to thank the community for backing the schools and supporting the levy," he said. "I know there were challenges that came up in the past couple months. I'm glad they put their trust in us to vote for the levy. It is humbling when you look at it with everything that has gone on. We will be transparent as stewards of the money."

Crook said teachers and residents may not always agree with the board and administration on how the money is spent.

"But we have to work together as a team," he said. "When the community backs a levy, we have to make sure we don't deviate from the plan. We have to build that trust," he said.

The district has been under public scrutiny during the past several months.

Prior Superintendent Tony Paesano Shute stepped down on Jan. 23 after allegations she allegedly accessed confidential information on a board member's computer.

The board's vice chair, Stacy Hooper, announced she'd been notified by the state Department of Education that the superintendent had requested and been given access to her emails and confidential student records.

While county superintendents are permitted access to their employees' emails for active investigations, Hooper is a special education teacher in Marshall County and, as such, the state said Shute had no standing to request the information.

Other allegations included how nearly $144,000 in pay raises could be given to administrators at a time when the board was citing financial difficulties as the reason for closing three primary schools and eliminating 40 teaching and service jobs, and why the official meeting records don't reflect any discussion of the pay hikes in public session; why students had to sit on the floor of a school bus; and having to send students to the library because there was no substitute teacher available.

The clerk's office will canvass the results on Friday morning.

(Law can be contacted at mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.)