Hancock County residents were able to get some of the answers sought over the last several months during Monday’s meeting of the county board of education.

It was the first meeting of the board since the local school system was taken over by the state last month.

Featured at the meeting was the long-awaited report from Jeff Davis of Education Consulting Team LLC and Uriah Cummings, school financial operations officer for the West Virginia Department of Education, who discussed some of their findings after reviewing Hancock County Schools’ financial books in an effort to find out how the district got to where it is.

Among the main takeaways from those financial officials were, while the school system was considered as being in need of assistance over three years as a result of late or incomplete financial reports, the majority of the issues involved in the financial crisis evolved within the last year.

According to Davis, the contributing factors included fully moving the cost of personnel previously supported by COVID-related grants onto the system’s general fund to the tune of about $3.6 million, as well as an increase of benefits costs related to changes in PEIA, a yearly debt service of $510,000 associated with a lease for the turf and lighting improvements at Oak Glen High School’s baseball and softball fields, increases in costs for the district’s food service programs related to equipment purchases and the costs of food itself, a $1.1 million overrun on the physical education expansion at Weir High, as well as the purchase of school buses, text books, and payments made in support of out-of-state charter school placements.

The late drawdown of funds, including the state grant for the Oak Glen Middle pyrite remediation project, also contributed toward the district almost not being able to meet payroll in September.

So far, it appears to be a matter of lazy bookkeeping and not enough eyes on those financials, but we also know there are many more questions out there which must be answered eventually.

We also know this is only the first step. The West Virginia Board of Education has only been in charge of things in Hancock County for a little over two weeks, and there will be many decisions made in the coming months as to how to balance those funds to the point they need to be. There will be a need for staff reductions, as painful as that will be for the county and the school system. There is also the possibility of school consolidation, the loss of services and programs.

As we’ve said before, for better or worse, everything is on the table and under consideration.