Berkeley County board authorizes litigation over locality pay and school funding adequacy

The Berkeley County Schools board voted to authorize outside counsel to investigate and pursue litigation addressing locality pay, special‑education funding shortfalls and broader questions of funding adequacy and equity in West Virginia.

Superintendent Dr. Saxs told the board the move is intended to protect students’ constitutional right to an adequate public education and to respond to funding formulas that have not kept pace with district growth. He said the district serves more than 20,000 students in a rapidly growing eastern panhandle and that the district absorbed a large special‑education funding gap last year. “In Berkeley County alone, we spent approximately $38 million more on special education services than the amount provided through state aid,” he said, offering that figure as a primary rationale for legal review.

Board members described a long period of effort to seek legislative fixes but said those changes were not enacted and that litigation is a step to pursue equitable and adequate funding. A motion to retain Bailey & Glasser to investigate and, if necessary, initiate litigation passed without a recorded roll‑call (the board chair declared the motion carried).

The superintendent and board emphasized the action is aimed at remedying systemic funding issues — not at taking resources from other counties — and said the process will be iterative and involve coordination with local legislators and stakeholders.

Next steps: the administration will work with chosen counsel to scope the investigation and report back to the board with recommended filings or other measures as appropriate.