WELLSBURG - In the face of a $536,000 drop in revenue, Brooke County school board members were given a proposal Thursday to consolidate the county's two middle schools into one and its seven primary schools into two.

Superintendent Mary K. Hervey DeGarmo stressed the board of education will have the final word on whether the consolidation becomes part of a 10-year school improvement plan after accepting comment at a public hearing.

The consolidation has been proposed by Planning Associates Inc., a Delaware, Ohio-based consulting firm, as a means of cutting costs in light of declining enrollment and future costs to maintain the county's existing school buildings. The group has discussed building a new primary school in the northern half of the county and another in the southern half and a new middle school near Brooke High School.

The proposed $80 million plan also includes improvements to the high school, including a new roof and an addition to accommodate the school district's pre-school program, for which the school board already has applied for $11 million in state funds.

DeGarmo said a $30 million bond issue and funds from the state School Building Authority have been cited as potential sources for the new schools.

Representatives of Planning Associates Inc. have been meeting for several weeks with a volunteer committee of about 30 community members recruited by the board to provide input for its comprehensive educational facilities plan.

Required by the West Virginia Department of Education, the plan outlines proposed improvements to the district's facilities over a 10-year period and must be updated every 10 years. DeGarmo said the plan can be amended by the school board in that time.

The volunteer committee is expected to consider the consolidation at its next meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the school board's office at 1201 Pleasant Ave. Following the committee's recommendation, the plan will be submitted to the state School Building Authority, which will determine its feasibility, before it can be presented for the county school board's consideration, DeGarmo said. She said the public hearing must be advertised four weeks before it's held.

Board member Jim Piccirillo noted if the plan involves closing any of the schools, the board also will be required to hold separate hearings for each affected school. The board won't have a say, however, on the drop in revenue anticipated for the upcoming school year. The decrease has been attributed to decreased property values for local steel industries and is part of a $28 million decline that will be shared by the school district, county, city of Follansbee and village of Beech Bottom.

A request by Severstal Wheeling for a further reduction in the assessed value of its property will be considered at a hearing Tuesday before the Brooke County Commission. DeGarmo said the loss of revenue and a new burden of providing future benefits for the school district's employees will force the school board to take a hard look at its budget for the 2010-11 school year.

The Brooke County school board has joined other school boards in filing suit against the state, arguing the benefits had been funded previously by the state and should remain its responsibility.

DeGarmo said state legislators are considering measures to remove or reduce that expense for the counties, but the school district still may have to fund pensions for 59 employees whose salaries aren't covered by the state. The state provides pay and benefits for teachers and service personnel, such as secretaries, cooks and bus drivers, according to a formula based on enrollment.

Those that fall outside the formula are funded by the counties.

Brooke County school officials have said the additional staff enables the school district to provide courses and extracurricular programs not available in all counties. But in recent years they also have attempted to reduce that number, primarily by cutting positions as staff have retired.

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