When the West Virginia Board of Education took over Upshur County Schools in June 2023, they sent the state police to the central office. They locked the doors and they seized control. It was a dramatic event that sent a clear message: the state meant business.
Three years later, we are … where, exactly?
People were fired. Money was repaid. Policies were rewritten. A new board was elected.
So why is the state still here?
Under state law, the state board can take over a county school system when “extraordinary circumstances” exist. The financial issues that triggered the intervention in Upshur County certainly seemed to meet that standard. But academics and absenteeism? Those are issues facing every school district in the state.
This month in Charleston, Christy Miller gave a farewell address after nearly three years as the state-appointed superintendent, and she leaves behind a school system in better shape today than it was the day she took over. Miller’s work here wasn’t cosmetic — she focused on the kinds of foundational changes that will outlast her tenure. This community is better because of her work.
I supported the state’s initial intervention. The problems were real, but they were also specific: COVID-era federal funding mismanagement by a small group of people over a short window of time.
Those people are gone. The money was repaid. And despite three years of full access to every file and financial record in the system, no judicial official — local, state or federal — has brought a single civil or criminal charge.
In September, Jeff Kelley told our board he hoped to bring a recommendation to return some autonomy by February 2026. February came and went without a word. Then at the March 11 state board meeting, Miller announced her retirement, and again there was no discussion of the intervention or returning local control.
No timeline. No explanation. No vision for the future. Just a few well-wishes.
Days later, schools across the county were notified of a massive reduction in force, with dozens of teachers, counselors and other employees tagged for termination or transfer. Art teachers, music teachers, counselors, the high school band director.
And the challenges are only growing. Rock Cave Elementary is closing. More closures may follow. The county is redistricting elementary schools, meaning kids who’ve spent years at one school could be moved to another. The Hope Scholarship is pulling roughly a million dollars a year out of the county, and the legislature has done nothing to relieve the pressure on public education. Voters have rejected the excess levy twice.
There is no easy path forward, but the people navigating it should be the people who live here. The people who our citizens elected.
Our board members are capable. Roy Wager is a former superintendent. Willie Parker brings years of county administration experience and financial expertise. Susan King and Jan Craig are former teachers. Sherry Dean served as a transportation director. None of them had any role in the events that led to this intervention. To keep them sidelined, unable to even ask questions during a board meeting, is simply wrong.
Kelley, Miller and the rest of the state’s team have had a thankless job here, and I don’t want to add to that. I appreciate what they’ve done, and I hope the state will continue to be a resource for Upshur County going forward, providing the tools and oversight necessary to ensure the changes they’ve made are sustained.
But support and control are two different things.
Kelley is scheduled to address the Upshur County Board of Education on Tuesday. If extraordinary circumstances still exist that justify state control of our schools, then Tuesday is the time to lay them out — clearly, specifically and publicly.
And if those circumstances don’t exist, then it’s time to give us back our schools.
