TOUGH DECISIONS AHEAD — Hancock County school board President Chris Gillette, left, and Superintendent Dan Enich look over paperwork prior to Monday’s board meeting. -- Craig Howell

NEW CUMBERLAND — The Hancock County Board of Education has terminated the employment of the school district’s finance director, with officials saying ongoing financial concerns could lead to significant adjustments in the months ahead.

As part of Monday’s school board meeting, members voted 4-0 on a recommendation from Superintendent Dan Enich to ratify a suspension and approve the termination of Employee 103, identified by Enich as Joe Campinelli, who held the role of the district’s director of finance.

While members of the board made no comment before or after the decision, it did garner a reaction from an individual in the audience.

“The superintendent ought to be next,” said the man. “That’s a shame.”

Following the meeting, Enich said, as the decision to terminate Campinelli’s employment was a matter of personnel, he would make no additional comment on the topic.

During the meeting’s discussion, though, Enich indicated more decisions on personnel and other cost-cutting matters were on the horizon.

Reading from a statement he said he previously sent to Hancock County Schools’ employees, Enich said, “Many of you have expressed concerns over the financial status of Hancock County Schools. We have been working closely with the West Virginia Department of Education to address concerns over our budget, particularly the continued decline in student population, the loss of state aid funding that flows from that, and the uncertainty of federal funding that impacts so many of our programs. While we know that we will still have to make personnel cuts during personnel season to address those issues, we have already instituted a number of cost-saving measures to ensure we can continue to meet our obligations to you, including payroll.”

In early October, the board entered into an agreement with Educational Consultant LLC to conduct a review of the county’s finances, going back three years. Among those reviews and actions, Enich said, was completing and restructuring the 2024-2025 unaudited financial statement which was due to the state at the end of September, organizing financial records for the current fiscal year, and projecting for 2026-2027.

Enich said, as part of the review, it is now believed the school district had been running at a deficit financially for the 2024-2025 school year, with the consultant also looking at assisting other financial issues identified by the state which led to Hancock County Schools being listed as “Needs Assistance” in finance matters.

“This status is due to, among other things, consistently being late over the past three years with state required finance reports,” Enich indicated. “Going back and starting over is the most reliable way to go forward. This will give us an accurate financial standing. That is a work in progress and I do not want to speculate on that number. I want the public and our staffs to know that this is being rectified by Educational Associates, myself, our finance department and the West Virginia Department of Education.”

Staffing reductions are among the areas being eyed by officials, with Enich explaining the school system stood at 143.5 positions over the state aid funding formula last school year, and while some positions have been eliminated, more cuts will be needed.

“We have already started to analyze where cuts have to be made,” Enich said. “We will begin meeting with employees who will be impacted by those cuts as soon as we have identified how many positions we are over the formula and where precisely those cuts will be made. Cuts will be comprehensive over administration, service, professional positions, analyzing school schedules, and building usage.”

Enich noted the potential for school closures also is on the table, with the state extending its deadline for such decisions to the end of February.

Other proposed measures include postponing spending $1.3 million on iPads, analyzing contracts with all vendors, changing board agendas to reflect purchases of more than $5,000, reducing the Creative Cloud expense from its current $19,360 to approximately $13,500, negotiating with Imagine Learning for the expense of the school district’s virtual school product currently at more than $100,000 per year, postponing the Oak Glen High weight room project, cutting the NEOLA issue from this year’s budget, incorporating Windfall for cost cutting purposes, and looking at the effectiveness of having the Alternative Learning Center at an outside venue as it has been off school property for more than 10 years.

“I feel in the last two months, we are moving in the right direction,” Enich said, noting Uriah Cummings, the finance director for West Virginia Schools, has been in Hancock County to offer assistance.

He said, while some moves to address the financial concerns have been made, “the situation is very alarming, with many hard decisions ahead of us.”