Marshall County School Officials Review Safety Plans for Flooding at Cameron Elementary

Marshall County Schools officials have met with Marshall County Emergency Management Director Tom Hart and Marshall County Coal Resources officials to review safety protocols for Cameron Elementary School students and employees in the event of flooding caused by longwall mining under Upper Grave Creek dams 7, 8 and 9.

Superintendent Shelby Haines informed Marshall County Board of Education members during her report at the district's most recent board of education meeting of what was covered at the meeting with Marshall County EMA and MCCR.

MCS officials who participated in the meeting include Haines, Safety Director Shey McGuire, Cameron Elementary School Principal Catherine Folmar and Facilities Director Michael Price.

Three MCCR officials, the company that has the mining permit under the three flood control dams, informed school officials and Hart about the timeline for the mining. American Consolidated Natural Resource, previously known as Murray Energy, will perform the mining.

In addition to the timeline, the meeting also covered the safety protocols MCS, Marshall County EMA and MCCR will use if a major water event occurs in Cameron due to mining damaging the flood control dams.

Haines said MCCR showed MCS officials their safety plan, which covers their emergency response in the event of a flood. Haines and Hart also receive updates from the National Weather Service when major rains or snow storms are headed to Cameron.

"If there is a major rain coming, we would consider having a remote day for Cameron Elementary kids, just to be better safe than sorry," Haines said. "We will continue to work with that company [MCCR], our safety people and emergency management. All we can do is try to be preventative and do what we can to keep our kids out of any danger that might be possible."

MCCR officials reported to Haines that they were currently mining 334 feet from flood control dam 9. ACNR will mine about 60 feet a day, and MCCR officials informed Haines that between Nov. 12 and Thanksgiving, the company will be mining "24/7."

MCCR officials reported that they will mine under dam 9 twice. Haines said it "appears" ACNR will "possibly mine under dams 7 and 9 at the same" between August to October.

"They did report to us some things such as having pumps to continue to move water," Haines said.

Haines said Alliance Engineering will inspect the affected dams' above-ground structures "every day" for damages. During the meeting, Haines requested that the engineering company begin sending MCS the reports of its monitoring so they "know if there's something."

"They (Alliance Engineering) started sending us the reports right after our meeting," Haines said. "They also started walking the grounds of the dams hourly and have to fill out a form if they see any changes in the ground around a dam."

MCCR will also work with Schnabel Engineering to monitor the dams. According to Haines, the geotechnical and environmental engineering firm will collaborate with the Northern Panhandle Conservation District to keep MCS officials "in the loop" about whether there have been any structural changes to the dam.

Haines also updated board members on the progress toward drafting the 2025-2026 academic calendar. She said the calendar would "hopefully" be ready to send to the West Virginia Department of Education for approval by Christmas, which she noted was "the first time" she could remember having it ready that early.

Based on survey feedback collected from MCS staff, Haines said two versions of the academic calendar have been drafted. One version includes a longer spring break, with school ending after Memorial Day or the school year beginning earlier to accommodate for spring break. The other version has no spring break, and school closes before Memorial Day.

Haines noted that both versions include Nov. 26-28, 2025, off from school for a Thanksgiving break that will take place Wednesday through Friday of Thanksgiving week, which is what employees desired based on survey feedback.

"Overwhelmingly, people on the survey just wanted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week off, which is a big difference from 20 years ago," Haines said. "The big thing used to be, everybody wanted that whole week off, so it's funny how things change."

The public will have opportunities to provide feedback on the two calendar drafts during the next two MCS BOE meetings, on Nov. 26 and Dec. 10.

Haines also signed the 2024 American Education Week proclamation on Wednesday morning, declaring Nov. 18-22 as American Education Week in Marshall County. She was joined by representatives from the school district, BOE, teachers' unions, Marshall County Chamber of Commerce and the Marshall County Commission at the BOE office to sign the proclamation.

This year's celebration theme is "Together for Safe, Just & Equitable Schools." Haines said next week's festivities include guest readers at elementary schools and Special Persons Day, which recognizes all the school system staff who "come together to educate the students."

"We had elected officials, Chamber of Commerce members to represent the businesses in Marshall County, board members and union reps sign the proclamation because we all work together as a team to educate students," Haines said.