MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Nicole Kemper had 127 million reasons to feel relieved during Tuesday night’s meeting of the Monongalia County Board of Education (BOE).
That’s because the board – with retiring members Barbara Parsons and Clarence Harvey Jr., absent – voted in favor of the $127 million operating budget she put together for district, for fiscal year 2018-‘19.
And before that, no one spoke against the document during the public hearing portion of the meeting.
The budget is now off to the state board in Charleston for a final checkmark.
Officially, Monongalia County’s budget clocks in at $127,795,742, with a large portion of that going to salary and classroom instruction line items, Kemper said.
About $72 million of that amount is earmarked for classroom instruction, with another $15 million allocated for facility maintenance of buildings across the district.
Kemper began working on preliminary numbers for the new budget in January, weeks before teachers and other public school workers across West Virginia launched a 9-day work stoppage, in protests of paychecks and benefits.
The budget is also heavy supported by Monongalia County’s regular and excess tax levies.
Two weeks ago, when Kemper first presented the document for review, BOE member Nancy Walker asked a pointed question: “So, you feel comfortable with it and you’ll be able to sleep at night?”
The financial officer’s answer then was the same Tuesday night.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a good budget, and I’m definitely sleeping well.”
That’s the budget incoming schools superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr., will oversee when he takes over the job on July 1.
The BOE in other business officially approved his contract as well, following the announcement of his hiring last week.
Campbell, the current superintendent the Tucker County district who has also taught and been an administrator at schools in Virginia, Alaska and China, will earn $150,000 annually in a two-year contract.
Mon schools chief Frank Devono, who is retiring June 30, said his replacement is ready to get going.
“I have a meeting with Dr. Campbell next week, then he’ll be back up to meet with some of our staff,” Devono said.
This story, written by Jim Bissett, first appeared in The Dominion Post’s May 30 edition.