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Croft Suggests Writing Library Funding Into Ohio County Schools’ Next Excess Levy

Photo by Joselyn King Ohio County Board of Education President David Croft, left, confers with Superintendent Kim Miller before a May board meeting.

WHEELING — Ohio County Board of Education President David Croft thinks he has a solution to assure the school district’s continued financial support of the Ohio County Public Library.

He suggests a percentage amount for funding the library should be written into the language into Ohio County Schools’ next excess levy after the current levy expires in 2025. Funding of the library by the school district then would be mandated, according to Croft.

School districts in West Virginia haven’t been required by state law to fund county libraries since such a requirement was abolished by the State Legislature in 2013.

After this, three counties — Kanwaha, Cabell and Wood counties — opted to attach library funding language to their excess levies.

Approving the expenditure as part of the excess levy makes it law.

“That way, whoever the five people are on the board of education, they won’t impact what the library receives,” Croft explained.

“When the law requires you to pay something, you pay it. It is not discretionary.”

In late April, Croft was joined by fellow Ohio County Board of Education members Christine Carder and Molly Aderholt in voting to reduce the school district’s funding of the library for the coming fiscal year. The change dropped the funding from 3 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 2 cents, and reduced it to about $884,547 annually to $589,698 this year.

Board members Grace Norton and Pete Chacalos voted against cutting the library funds.

When asked if Ohio County Schools gets its value from the money it provides the library, Croft said “it is not a yes or no question.”

“It’s something we are going to evaluate as we come into next fiscal year,” he said.

Croft said the issue likely will be re-evaluated in early 2022 to address any changes to current funding the board might want to make.

Ohio County Public Library Director Dottie Thomas detailed what the library brings to Ohio County Schools.

She said the library’s children’s specialist, Lee Ann Cleary, spends half of her time in the county’s schools — public, private and parochial — reading to students.

The library also has been instrumental in providing several thousand e-library cards to Ohio County Schools students. Audio and video books were purchased for the students so they could virtually access them for reading assignments, according to Thomas.

She said the library has been involved in literacy programs, and arranged for groups of school children from Ohio County Schools to come to the library as part of the Leaders and Literacy Grant. The students returned again that evening with their parents to discuss library services.

The library also purchases books for the school district’s media centers and classrooms. The schools tell the library what books they need, and the library facilitates the order, according to Thomas.

“In today’s world, with two parents working, it is harder for families to get to the library,” Thomas said. “We thought we should put resources where students can access them the most.

“It is harder for students to get here than it used to be. This is the library’s way to get material to the students.”

At this week’s meeting of the Ohio County Library Trustees, Thomas read aloud a thank you note received from the Warwood School. The library had purchased for the music program there a video and workbook collection about great music composers, as well as a portable sound system.

Sean Duffy, director of adult programming at the library, said prior to last year’s pandemic the library partnered with Ohio County Schools for some programming. A history of African Americans in Wheeling was presented to students at Triadelphia Middle School, and others at Wheeling Park High School during Black History Month in February.

A similar program was created focusing on immigration in Ohio County, he said.

“We have done programs beneficial to young adults, and we plan to take them on the road to other schools,” Duffy said. “We will design some others.”

Career experience for students at the library isn’t possible, employees there explained. Work such as digitizing documents is specialized and sent to an outside company, Thomas said.

She said circulation work also isn’t something the library would want students to handle.

Patrons’ records also are kept secure within the library, and even volunteers are not permitted to access them, she said.

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