KINGWOOD — In Brown’s Park on the edge of Kingwood, Desteny Queen sits on the orange seat of a metal swing set and watches her girlfriend’s 8-year-old son jump up and down at the top of a nearby slide.
Now on summer break, the child just finished a year filled with difficult interactions between him and his teacher in Preston County’s public school system. It’s a situation Queen, a Bruceton Mills resident and recent Preston High School graduate, could empathize with.
“Everything’s really going downhill,” she said.
In interviews this month, Preston County residents said that they want better schools and more jobs within the county. These conversations are part of Mountain State Spotlight’s effort to speak with voters in all 55 counties in the run-up to the 2024 election.
Like many West Virginians, Preston County residents will have few choices on the ballot this November. Both George Street and D. R. Buck Jennings, the Republican nominees for the two House of Delegates seats that represent Preston County, are incumbents running unopposed.
“I get out there, I talk to the people,” Street said. “They vote for me. They chose not to run against me. I believe the majority of my district believes that I am trying to do an honest effort.”
In a phone call, Jennings said he did not have time to talk and to call back. He did not respond to subsequent calls and an email.
Low tests scores and a funding cliff
At the park in Kingwood, Queen said the public school system was a trying experience for many of her classmates.
“Bullying is absolutely horrendous at the schools around here,” she said. “There’s bathrooms at Preston High School that don’t have locks on them.”
Her girlfriend Regin Brobeck said she is especially concerned about the impact the school system is having on her young son. She says he frequently comes home feeling dejected.
Brobeck wants people in power — both the school board and lawmakers — to take the problems in the school district seriously. She wants to see things change.
“How many more kids have to transfer out of here?” she said.
West Virginia has some of the lowest test scores in the nation. And Preston County students were below the state averages for English, math and science proficiency for the 2022-2023 school-year. The district has also struggled to reach students who are truant.
The low test scores can overshadow signs of hope in the school district, according to Preston County Schools board president and former teacher Bruce Huggins. He said that more than half of Preston High School seniors graduated with vocational certifications and highlighted a former student who’s now studying at Oxford University.
Despite these bright spots, Huggins, whose term ends on Thursday, said he thinks a better relationship between families and the district would help students learn and better equip the schools to prevent bullying. To him, both groups are responsible for making that happen
“It’s probably both ways,” he said. “But probably more on the system.”
The education challenges are accompanied by recent financial woes. The federal COVID-19 relief funds that buoyed Preston County schools for the last few years are set to end, and county residents voted down a levy to provide an additional $5 million to public education during the May election.
Jeff Zigray, another Preston County school board member and former teacher, said the failed levy vote and the expiring COVID-19 funds have put the district in a tight financial spot.
He hopes there’s another vote this year for Preston residents to approve the tax increase.
“If we don’t get our levy passed, and a lot of the federal money is drying up, I feel we’re going to have to make some major cuts in teachers and bus drivers and cooks,” he said.
Del. Street, a Masontown resident, said he’s as concerned as anyone about the Preston County schools. While his children are homeschooled, he said he frequently hears from constituents about issues children face in the district.
“It’s not the kids’ fault,” Street said. “None of this is the kids’ fault.”
But he doesn’t think more funding would improve the educational experience for students.
Street said despite the state spending more than $2 billion on public schools, West Virginia students still perform poorly on standardized tests. West Virginia spends less money per student on elementary and secondary education than most states.
“Adding funding to this, I don’t know,” Street said. “I want someone to show me a matrix that says that that’s going to fix the problem.”
The delegate said other factors contribute to Preston County’s low test scores like parents not taking their kids’ education seriously enough, the lack of discipline among students and a community focus on sports excellence over classroom achievements.
“This is more parenting,” he said. “And that’s a societal problem. And frankly, I don’t have a clue how to fix that.”
Preston County residents want more jobs
In the parking lot of Reedsville’s Modern Homestead Garden Center, Destinee Spiker, a West Preston County resident, said she homeschools her four young children. While her family’s interactions with the public school system are limited, she’s disappointed by the few well-paying jobs available in Preston County.
Her husband is an electrician, and his job is two hours away in Pennsylvania. Sometimes, it’s impossible for him to return home once his workday ends.
“The past six weeks, he’s been out of town,” she said. “He comes in on the weekends and that’s it.”
Spiker wishes her husband could work closer to their home, but she said he’s never been able to find a comparable job in Preston County. For now, she’s found ways to comfort her kids when they tell her they miss daddy.
Trellis Smith, a co-owner of the Garden Center, said creating more jobs in Preston should be a top priority for local politicians. He hopes that in addition to small business development, the county is able to attract more professionals who can provide crucial services.
“We are becoming an aging community,” he said. “Which is great. But as you get older, you need more services. So hopefully we can get more doctor’s offices and services that you need to live well.”
To Smith, some of that comes from investing in local infrastructure: making sure businesses have well-paved roads they can build along and internet access to run their operations.
“Shoring those things up to make sure they’re reliable and they’re affordable,” he said.
As a delegate, Street said he also takes this responsibility seriously. He thinks Preston faces a number of economic disadvantages compared to other West Virginia counties, like few factories and coal or gas infrastructure.
Street said he tries to attend lots of meetings to create work opportunities in neighboring Monongalia County, where there are river and railroad access.
“I’m distraught that I’m settling for that and giving it up to Mon County,” Street said. “But the jobs are there for a reason.”
Spiker, the mother of four, hopes elected officials like Street are focused on improving life for Preston families like hers. But she has some doubts.
She doesn’t see elected officials around the county very often, and she’s never been asked by a candidate what her priorities are.
“Even the local ones,” she said.
Now, she thinks Preston County, a place where the government once created a town to specifically help impoverished families, has lost touch with its past.
“Then, it was for the people,” she said. “Now, I feel like, not so much.”