| By Dianne Weaver
Paden City High School, a small community school, is slated for closure in 2012, a part of the Wetzel County Board of Education's state-mandated Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan.
Paden City students excel academically. In last year's WesTest2, they were the highest achieving school in math and reading/language arts scores and exceeded the statewide average.
More than 1000 residents showed up recently to a meeting to comment on the closure.
Closing the Paden City school is one of several proposals in the two-volume CEFP, constructed by McKinley & Associates Inc. of Wheeling over 15 months, with input from a committee of 40 Wetzel County parents, community representatives, teachers, and school administrators.
The CEFP plan calls for merging Paden City students with New Martinsville schools, because they are about five miles apart.
The CEFP warns that the plan is not workable without passage of a county-wide bond, and significant additional contributions from the School Building Authority.
The Paden City student body turned out in full force to the recent meeting, sitting quietly through the proceedings.
Wetzel County Board of Education figures show that Paden City schools account for 10.7 percent of county expenditures, the smallest percentage of all county schools.
The Cornerstone Project, a local group formed to keep the community school, says if all of PCHS's students were to attend Tyler County schools, there would be a loss in state aid to Wetzel County of more than $650,000 and a similar gain in funding to Tyler County schools.
A Cornerstone survey showed more than 60 percent of parents whose children are now enrolled in Paden City schools would enroll them in Tyler County schools, and not send them to Wetzel County.
The survey also showed that over 90 percent of Paden City voters would not support future Wetzel County levies, which are contemplated in the board's 10-year CEFP.
In the current school year, 72 percent of junior high students participate in extracurricular events and 79 percent of high school students do the same, a history that has been consistent over the past six years.
Paden City Mayor Bill Fox may have best summarized the sense of the residents: "Closing the school will be the death sentence for Paden City." Studies have shown that communities identify more strongly with their school systems than they do with major employers.
See related story Award Winning School Facing Closure | 
