NEW MARTINSVILLE — In a pair of split votes, the Wetzel County Board of Education decided Friday to continue the process of consolidating the county’s four high schools into two.

The board voted Friday morning to consolidate Paden City High School with Magnolia — and send Paden City Junior High students to New Martinsville School — and consolidate Hundred High School with Valley. The board voted 4-1 on Paden City and Magnolia, and 3-2 for Hundred and Valley.

Board members Linda Fonner, Christine Mitchell, Christine Nice and Brian Castilow all voted to consolidate Paden City and Magnolia, with board member Jimmy Glasscock dissenting. Castilow joined Glasscock in opposition to the Hundred-Valley consolidation.

Wetzel County Schools Superintendent Cassie Porter said after the meeting that no jobs should be lost in those schools because of consolidation, and that the process of placing teachers in the two schools will begin in the new year.

“We are going to begin that process in January, we want to make sure everyone has time to bid on jobs as soon as possible,” Porter said. “Persons working in Wetzel County Schools affected by the changes will still have a position when the changes take place.”

The next step in the process will be to send the consolidation plan to the West Virginia Board of Education for its approval. If the state board agrees with the plan, the consolidations will happen in time for the 2025-26 school year.

Paden City and Magnolia high school students all will attend high school at Magnolia’s building, according to the plan. Valley and Hundred high school students all will attend high school at Valley’s building. Though the new schools will be in existing buildings, they both will be given new names, school colors and mascots.

Talk of consolidation first began during an August work session, where school district officials presented the board with the district high schools’ low summative test scores. This year, Wetzel County students earned proficiency at just a 40.63% clip in English/language arts, a 35.56% clip in math and a 25.32% clip in science. The county’s 11th graders scored proficiency at a 41.54% rate in ELA, a 14.62% rate in math and a 24.62% rate in science.

School district officials said consolidating four schools into two will allow for more certified teachers in the classrooms. They said many classes among the four current high schools are being taught by long-term substitutes or via remote learning.

Those who have opposed consolidation have talked about the loss of community identity and the emotional upheaval for many of the students. They also mentioned – especially in terms of the Valley-Hundred consolidation – the long bus rides and dangerous roads that students would be subject to.

Glasscock has long been a vocal opponent of consolidation and made his concerns clear again on Friday. He mentioned previous attempts at consolidating Paden City and Magnolia that had failed and wondered what had changed since then.

“I’m asking every board member at this time, in your heart … you found it in your heart to invest in Paden City Elementary. Let’s invest in Paden City High School and keep it open.”

Glasscock also addressed the problems he had with sending school buses over Barker Hill, which would happen in transporting students from Hundred to Pine Grove.

“In a 12-hour period, there were 150 big trucks,” he said. “A hundred and fifty go in, those same 150 come back out. … We are putting our kids in this danger? This is wrong.”

Fonner said the oil and gas companies already cooperate with the school district and work on a curfew so that when school buses are operating, no trucks would be on the roads.

“We already do that in the county,” she said. “The oil and gas companies contact the school system if there’s a change in times, if there’s snow or something. We already do that in this county.”

Porter said after the meeting that Friday was a big move forward, but nowhere near the last move in the path to consolidation.

“We have taken the first step,” she said, “but there is much work ahead for us all.”

Chuck Clegg contributed to this report.