Education: Vote yes to renew Wood County Schools Excess Levy | News, Sports, Jobs

Wooden County residents have a proper to be happy with their faculties. Our group helps native college students in a manner that doesn’t occur for a lot of college students throughout the state. In truth, for 77 years voters have stored in place the Wooden County Colleges Extra Levy, which funds a lot of what makes our faculties particular. We’re being requested to take action once more within the upcoming basic election.

Faculty officers know that with out the cash offered by this levy — 14% of the system’s working price range — there could be a major lower within the high quality of the training accessible for our children. College students would lose the help of interventionalists, nurses and counselors. In truth, each single Wooden County Colleges worker may see a discount in pay with out this funding.

College students would lose transportation to off-site alternatives akin to the numerous arts applications accessible in Wooden County. The college district would now not have funding to accomplice with and help organizations such because the WVU Extension Service (supplier of the summer season Vitality Categorical studying program, amongst different issues), Artsbridge, the Boys and Women Membership and YMCA (which give invaluable after-school actions), the Wooden County Public Libraries and the New Period Faculty.

Among the many upcoming initiatives for which the varsity district would lose funding is much-needed upkeep for the Parkersburg Excessive Faculty planetarium — the final such planetarium remaining within the state.

Approving the levy means the varsity district can proceed to present funding to the state-required Native Faculty Enchancment Councils, by which our dad and mom and academics do unimaginable issues for our college students.

“The persevering with extra levy advantages our college system and the larger group in some ways,” mentioned Greg Merritt, chairman of the Vote Sure Wooden County Colleges Levy committee. “College students in Wooden County Colleges obtain providers primarily based on funding offered by the levy, and that has been true for a very long time. Voters who help the levy are supporting the success of our college students.”

Along with funding the sorts of sources merely not accessible to college students in lots of different counties, renewal of the levy additionally maintains cash that’s used to assist maintain our children safer. Upcoming plans embrace buying security and safety tools, facility renovations, retaining useful resource officers in our secondary faculties and dealing towards including useful resource officers to our elementary faculties.

Renewal is the important thing phrase right here, by the way in which. Passage of this levy will NOT imply a change in taxes. It can imply a continuation of the help our college students want.

Since 1945, Wooden County voters have understood that due to this levy, native college students have sources and alternatives they might not get some place else. We can not afford to take that away from our children. Vote sure Nov. 8, to resume the working levy for Wooden County Colleges.