A student at Steubenville-based College of St. Joseph the Worker cuts a piece of lumber at the college’s workshop last December. (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON — A Kanawha County judge ruled Thursday that the West Virginia Water Development Authority’s $5 million grant to an Ohio-based Catholic trade school for program expansion into the state is constitutional after it was able to show the funding was not going to religious programs.

Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay issued an order Thursday afternoon granting summary judgment to the Water Development Authority, dismissing the lawsuit after the authority was able to demonstrate that its grant award to the College of St. Joseph the Worker was being used only for economic development and not for religious education of advocacy.

“(The WDA) produced to this Court an amended invoice from the College stating that the grant will be used only for the purposes of ‘real estate acquisition, site development, construction, infrastructure improvements, and supplies and equipment for workforce training and all necessary appurtenances thereto in compliance with the (WDA) grant agreement,'” Lindsay wrote.

“The authority is very happy with Judge Lindsey’s decision to dismiss the case yesterday,” said WDA Executive Director Marie Prezioso in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “I think we always felt the grant agreement was very specific about what the grant funds could be used for.”

The ACLU-WV, working on behalf of the American Humanist Association, filed suit against the authority and Prezioso in January after the authority awarded $5 million from the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund (EEGF) last October to the College of St. Joseph the Worker, a Steubenville-based college affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The suit alleged the funding of an explicitly religious entity violates the separation of church and state enshrined in the West Virginia Constitution.

All students at the College of St. Joseph the Worker earn a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic studies while also receiving training in several trades, including carpentry, HVAC, plumbing and electrical. The college promotes graduating students with zero debt.

According to the grant proposal, the college proposed using the $5 million award to create a construction and real estate company headquartered in Weirton for training apprentices, scholarships for the recruitment of West Virginia students and training facilities near Weirton, and creation of a branch campus in the Kanawha/Putnam County area.

The college also proposed using $1 million of the award for advocacy, including $750,000 to create the “Center for the Common Good” to support “life-affirming policy in West Virginia.” The proposed think tank would focus on conservative public policy. However, the grant agreement prevents the use of Economic Enhancement Grant Fund monies for anything other than workforce training.

In his ruling Thursday, Lindsay cited a July 16 letter written to the WDA by Michael Sullivan, president of the College of St. Joseph the Worker, confirmed that the grant agreement with the WDA – not the College’s grant proposal – governs how the grant is to be used. Court filings also show the College plans to offer future students a degree in philosophy instead of Catholic studies

“The College’s initial invoice included a line item for ‘advocacy.’ But based on the Grant Agreement’s text and our subsequent conversations and email correspondence with the Authority, we understand that the college may not spend grant money on political or religious ‘advocacy’ of any kind,” Sullivan wrote. “Nor can the College spend grant money on teacher’s or instructor’s salaries or anything else not listed in the grant agreement.”

Lindsay previously ruled from the bench on July 9 following an evidentiary hearing that the WDA grant to the College was unconstitutional for violating the Article III Section 15 of the West Virginia Constitution, which provides freedom of and freedom from religion. But Lindsay’s ruling gave the WDA 30 days to show evidence of compliance with the court’s ruling.

But in Thursday’s ruling, Lindsay wrote that denying the College the WDA grant, as long as it was not being used for religious education and advocacy, would also violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. With the WDA providing evidence that the grant would be used strictly for economic development, Lindsay wrote that no issues remain.

“…Because no portion of the grant will be used or expended for the previously determined unconstitutional purposes of religious specific student education, enrollment and advocacy, but instead will only be used in satisfaction of the Grant Agreement, no question of constitutional law or infirmity remains,” Lindsay wrote. “…As long as a state approved grant is used for non-religious purposes and is a benefit available to the public, said grant is constitutional.”

“At the evidentiary hearing in July, the judge asked that we clarify the use of the funds as stated in the grant agreement and get a letter from the president of the college acknowledging the use of funds,” Prezioso said. “We complied and the case was dismissed.”

In statements released Friday afternoon, representatives of the American Humanist Association and the ACLU-WV said they were satisfied with Lindsay’s ruling, though they continued to question the use of West Virginia tax dollars for an out-of-state program.

“We’re satisfied that the court found the original grant unconstitutional and maintained that state funds cannot be spent on religious instruction or sectarian advocacy in the future, even if the funding restrictions could have cut deeper,” said Fish Stark, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “This was always an affront to West Virginian taxpayers, which is why we took action when our members saw this blatant violation of church-state separation happening in their community.

“We continue to question the wisdom of offering any subsidies to a religious school that could easily have its building costs footed by the Catholic Church – one of the world’s wealthiest religious entities – while West Virginia families still struggle to access clean water and other basic needs,” Stark continued.

“Tens of thousands of West Virginians lack access to clean drinking water, and it is unconscionable that their tax dollars were intended to go to an out-of-state entity for purposes that would have violated our Constitution,” said Rusty Williams, advocacy director for the ACLU-WV. “We call on the State to prioritize the needs of West Virginians, not the wants of religious institutions, in future decision-making.”

But Prezioso said despite “water” being in the WDA’s name, the authority has long had a role in economic development projects. She said the grant agreement with the College was always an appropriate use of EEGF dollars.

“I think we definitely always felt that the grant agreement was correct; that they were not going to be able to use it for any type of advocacy, but for the program to train students in the trade field,” Prezioso said. “Sometimes when people don’t read through all the documents or maybe understand them it becomes an issue, but I feel comfortable and happy with us going forward now.”

The Economic Enhancement Grant Fund was created by the Legislature in 2022 by House Bill 4566, which empowers the WDA to create a EEGF subaccount to provide grants to governmental agencies and not-for-profits to cover all or portions of costs for infrastructure projects.

According to State Code, funds in this EEGF subaccount can be used “to cover all or a portion of the infrastructure projects to enhance economic development and/or tourism when recommended by the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Economic Development and/or the Secretary of Tourism.”

The EEGF award for the College was approved by the WDA following advocacy for the College by Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, with officials in former governor Jim Justice’s office.