Kanawha County's school board voted Thursday to join several other counties in a lawsuit over the West Virginia school aid funding formula, with Kanawha seeking to recover the $5.3 million it allegedly was underfunded.
In September, the Legislative Auditor's Office presented state lawmakers a report alleging that the West Virginia Department of Education had been miscalculating school system appropriations for seven years, underfunding 36 counties by a total of $51.7 million and overfunding 19 by $21.6 million.
That meant that statewide, school systems were underfunded a net $30.1 million because of the department's misreading of state law regarding how it was supposed to distribute dollars through the state aid funding formula, according to the audit. The funding formula mostly pays for a certain number of teachers and other positions for each county largely based on enrollment.
Charleston-based lawyer Henry Wood, who said he will be the lead lawyer for the counties, said the lawsuit intends to get counties the amount of money they've been underfunded, but its "principal purpose" is "to try to get a clear declaration by the courts as to the manner in which proper funding must occur."
"Every year, we seem to come up with different numbers," Wood said, "none of which make a whole lot of sense, if you want to assure yourself that a consistent, fair and constitutional funding is being accomplished for all the students of West Virginia.
"When you plan a budget and you don't know what you're gonna be receiving, it's very difficult."
He said four other counties' school boards have voted to join the lawsuit and he's sure there will be more, but he declined to name them. He also said he's still researching who the exact defendants will be.
He said the lawsuit won't seek to force counties that allegedly were overfunded to give money back.
Monongalia County was the most overfunded district over the seven years, at $1.4 million, followed by Hardy County, at $1 million, and Hampshire County, at $900,000. Hardy was the most overfunded on a per-pupil basis, at about $436 per student.
Over the seven years, Kanawha allegedly was underfunded the most of all, with about $187 less per student than it was due. In the 2014-15 school year, Kanawha received $100,000 less than it was owed; in 2008-09, it received $2.5 million less.
The audit recommended the state education department start following the law in calculating the aid distributions, but also suggested that the Legislature clarify the rules. Education department officials said they also want the Legislature to clarify the issue.
"We don't agree that it's a misinterpretation," Joe Panetta, the recently retired chief operations officer for the department, told the Gazette-Mail at the time. "The law is not clearly written."
In addition to Kanawha, Cabell, Berkeley and Wood counties were underfunded the most over the seven-year period, at about $2.8 million each, the report said. Fayette and Jefferson counties were the next most underfunded, each at about $2.5 million. Putnam County lost about $200,000 over the seven years.
Although the $1.3 million that Pocahontas County was underfunded over seven years was much lower than Kanawha's $5.3 million loss - Kanawha is currently running on a $236.1 million annual budget - Pocahontas' loss represented the largest per-pupil underfunding in the state.
Pocahontas - the lowest-density county in the state, with about one pupil per square mile - received $1,103 less per student than what legislative auditors say it was owed. Another sparsely populated county, Gilmer, had the next-largest underfunding on a per-pupil basis: $864 per student.
Kanawha's board voted 3-0 Thursday to join the litigation after exiting a 15-minute closed session. Board member Ryan White wasn't in attendance at the meeting, and fellow member Becky Jordon called in via teleconference but didn't take part in the closed session.
Board President Robin Rector - whose last meeting was Thursday, following her decision not to seek re-election to another term, which would have begun July 1 - said it's the board's custom to not have members teleconference into closed sessions.
Board member Pete Thaw voted against going into closed session to discuss the matter, saying the litigation wasn't a personnel matter and was of interest to the public, but he voted alongside Rector and Jim Crawford to join the lawsuit.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.