FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — Fayette County Commission President Matthew Wender, the Fayette County Commission, and two parents in Fayette County are hoping a lawsuit against the State Board of Education and the School Building Authority will spur action in finding a remedy for the crumbling school facilities in the county.

“Our citizens are just simply not willing to step back and hope for a good outcome with the SBA,” Wender said.

The lawsuit, the second one filed by Mountain State Justice on behalf of Fayette Count, will seek to convince a judge that the SBA should fund the previously rejected 2015 Comprehensive Facilities Plan.

Shortly after the new year began, the School Building Authority and Fayette County Superintendent of Schools Terry George began working together to find a solution to the myriad problems facing schools in the region.

Wender said he is hopeful that the outcome of that partnership will bear fruit, but said many in the county aren’t willing to put all of their eggs in one basket.

“How aggressively it will be pursued, I guess, will depend in large part about how confident the folks of Fayette County are about the progress we are making with the SBA,” he said.

Fayette County schools have been under state control for six years, but Wender said the situation has only gotten worse during that time because of an inability to find a solution to the facilities problem. That partially resulted in the relocation of students and the closure of Collins Middle School last year.

“Yes, the state did need to step in when they did and take over our school system,” he said. “But the state has done a very poor job of managing–to say nothing about improving the delivery of education in Fayette County.”

Last summer, the residents of Fayette County rejected a bond issue that would have led to the closure of a number of schools. Shortly after, new superintendent Terry George attempted to come up with a Comprehensive Facilities Plan to propose to the School Building Authority.

The proposal the SBA rejected last year asked for close to $40 million dollars over a three year period and was eventually rejected by the School Building Authority–and not without controversy along the way.

Wender said the losses in the coal industry, high taxes, and a number of other issues have contributed to the economic downturn in Fayette County–just one of the many reasons voters said no to a bond issue last summer.

“[SBA] gave no consideration to the fact that the economic situation in Fayette County is declining and deteriorating rather rapidly,” Wender said.

The SBA and representatives from the schools in Fayette County are currently in a data collection stage and hope to have a plan ready in time for presentation to the full board this Fall. According to Wender, there isn’t a lot of faith among Fayette County parents at the moment.

“Fayette County has been under state control,” Wender said. “We are in our sixth year now. During that time, there have been three state superintendent of schools. The state, of course, hires our superintendent in Fayette County, and we’ve had four superintendents.”

“The delivery of education, test scores have declined over this period of time rapidly,” he said. “And the deterioration of the facilities has declined rather rapidly as well.”

The SBA rejected the Fayette County CFP last year in part because of prohibitive cost, concern over matching funding, and protests from the Meadow Bridge community. Parents there were concerned about not only losing the only high school in the community, but also long travel times students would deal with at a new high school.

A special meeting for the Board of Education will be held Monday, May 23 at 6 PM at Oak Hill High School.

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