Several county school boards filed lawsuits this week over the West Virginia school aid funding formula, seeking to recover millions of dollars the school systems say they were underfunded.
In September, the Legislative Auditor's Office presented state lawmakers with 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 by a net $30.1 million because of the department's misreading of state law regarding how it was supposed to distribute money 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.
School boards in Kanawha, Greenbrier, Marion and Pocahontas counties filed separate lawsuits Thursday. Lisa Perdue, Jennifer Campbell and Jerri Jones filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of citizens and parents of school-aged children in Fayette County, which is controlled by the state.
All of the lawsuits were filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
Charleston-based lawyer Henry Wood, who filed the cases on behalf of the school systems, told Kanawha school board members in June that, while the lawsuits' intent is to get counties the amount of money they've been underfunded, their "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 has previously 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."
Kanawha seeks to recover $5.3 million it says it was underfunded.
Over the seven years from 2009 and 2015, Kanawha allegedly was underfunded the most, with about $187 less per student than it was due. In the 2014-15 school year, the audit said Kanawha received $100,000 less than it was owed; in 2008-09, it received $2.5 million less.
In addition to Kanawha County, Cabell, Berkeley and Wood counties were underfunded the most over the seven-year period, at about $2.8 million each, the audit said. Fayette and Jefferson counties were listed as the next most-underfunded, at about $2.5 million each. Putnam County reportedly lost about $200,000 over the seven years.
Fayette is suing to recover $2.5 million. In 2009-10, the school year in which the state took control of its school system, Fayette was underfunded by about $1.7 million, according to the complaint. Between 2013 and 2015, Fayette was overfunded, the lawsuit filed on behalf of that county states.
Pocahontas is suing for $1.3 million; Marion for $1.6 million and Greenbrier for $460,000, according to the complaints.
Although the $1.3 million that Pocahontas County says it 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 - said it received $1,103 less per student than what legislative auditors said it was owed. Another sparsely populated county, Gilmer, had the next-largest underfunding on a per-pupil basis, at $864 per student.
Wood told Kanawha school board members that lawsuits wouldn't include asking counties that allegedly were overfunded to give money back.
Monongalia County allegedly was the most overfunded district over the seven years, at $1.4 million. It was 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.
The audit recommended the state education department start following the law in calculating the aid distributions, but it also suggested that the West Virginia 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."
Panetta also is being sued by the counties.
In addition to the state Board of Education, the lawsuits name as defendants: state schools Superintendent Michael Martirano, state board President Michael Green and others, who are not yet named.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.