WELLSBURG – The Brooke County Board of Education has agreed to file a complaint against the school district’s former superintendent alleging she used funds reserved for athletics and other extracurricular activities at Brooke High School to start its cosmetology program in 2017.

On Monday the board also learned a new auction for the former Follansbee Middle School will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

School officials confirmed the complaint against Toni Shute with the state Ethics Commission stems from the discovery that five bank accounts established for extracurricular activities at the high school were liquidated and $70,000 from them used for start-up costs for the cosmetology program.

Asked about costs for the program, Brooke County Schools Treasurer Deidra Parr said it cost about $300,000 to establish it.

The amount included salaries of more than $50,000 for each of its two instructors.

The two were among 44 staff members cut by the school board on April 8 to address a $3.2 million shortfall in the school system’s five-year operating levy.

Superintendent Jeffrey Crook said when considering the cuts, the cost of affected programs and the number of students involved were evaluated. He said there were 27 students enrolled at various levels of the cosmetology program.

Crook said the program received no state funding because state school officials weren’t convinced there was a strong need for it.

Multiple attempts to reach Shute were unsuccessful.

Board member Antoinette Perkins, the sole remaining member of the board when the program was launched, was called for comment.

Perkins said she believed the program was being funded with state money and a grant.

“Never in a million years would I have been on board with it if I’d known it wasn’t funded by the state,” she said.

Crook said it will likely be several months before the ethics commission rules on the complaint.

In other business, Crook said the board has agreed to lower the minimum bid for the middle school to $400,000

The amount was bid by local developer Scott Ewusiak at an auction held on March 30, though the minimum bid had been set at $500,000.

Crook said since then, he has heard from more than one party interested in the property, which also includes the Carlin Dodrill Field House and the football field and athletic track behind the buildings.

The board has called for an in-house assessment of the former Colliers Primary School and a trailer and property at state Route 2 and 26th Street used for night classes in the Alternative Learning Center program, which also could be sold at auction.

The board also:

* Approved a temporary road use agreement with SWN Water Resources for use of a road on undeveloped school property north of Cross Creek Road and Brooke Middle School. Crook said the school district will receive $1,500 per year from the company, which intends to use the road only when inspecting water from Cross Creek in connection with local gas drilling.

* Approved cuts to service personnel positions held by Randy Kirtley, Lori Ohler and Jennifer Clark. Crook said the three are believed to be the last spurred by the school district’s financial constraints, which also can be attributed to declining enrollment. He said it’s possible some of the cuts will be reversed as other staff retire.

* Agreed to reduce hourly pay for teachers performing tutoring or other duties outside the school day, from $25 to $20, as another cost-saving measure.