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Cabell County superintendent cites enrollment drop as counselors placed on transfer list
Summary
Superintendent Timothy Hardesty told the Cabell County Board of Education that declining enrollment and expired federal COVID funds are driving recommendations to consolidate some counselor positions; affected counselors and board members described student mental-health needs and asked that positions be preserved.
The Cabell County Board of Education heard testimony Monday, April 21, from counselors and the superintendent as the board considered personnel transfers that would consolidate some elementary counselor positions.
Superintendent Timothy Hardesty told the board the district has lost 2,043 students since its peak in the 2014–15 school year and faces a funding shortfall because state aid follows enrollment. "Current reimbursement's a little bit over $8,000 per year per kid," Hardesty said, adding that the district had received roughly $70 million in federal COVID relief that supported positions now expired. Hardesty said the proposed changes move some schools back to a model in which counselors are shared between two schools to align with state funding formulas.
The changes prompted public testimony from affected employees. Jennifer McComas, a counselor at Nichols Elementary School, said she has worked for Cabell County Schools for more than 30 years and urged the board not to cut full-time elementary counselors. "There have been a surprising number of children who have thoughts of self harm and have even considered suicide, and these are young children," McComas said, describing frequent contacts from families and the regular visibility counselors provide in hallways and cafeterias.
Hardesty said the district is following the state funding formula. He cited West Virginia Code 189-a-8 and discussed recently enacted House Bill 3209, summarizing the bill's counseling-ratio language as it applies beginning Aug. 1, 2025. "The plan presented moves back to a model prior to the 2018 school year when our smaller elementary school shared a counselor between 2 schools," Hardesty told the board. He said the recommendation was not a judgment of individual employees' performance.
Board members questioned both counselor witnesses and Hardesty about where funding had come from for added positions in recent years; Hardesty said some positions had been supported by federal COVID relief and some by other state or grant monies but that most of the recurring salary costs must be met with state aid and local levy revenue. He told the board the six elementary counselor positions on the table represented approximately $510,946 in salary cost savings if consolidated.
Several board members asked affected employees whether they had been given proper notice and an opportunity to respond; McComas and other employees responded that they had. The board later voted on a package of professional personnel items (see "Votes at a glance"), including transfers and terminations that will affect counseling positions. Hardesty told the board he would rescind any transfer if the administration later found it had applied seniority or certification rules incorrectly.
The discussion combined immediate personnel decisions about specific employees with broader budget planning tied to enrollment declines and expiring one-time federal funds.
