NEW MARTINSVILLE – A Wetzel County judge has ruled Paden City High School will remain open for the 2024-25 school year.
Wetzel Circuit Judge Richard Wilson issued his order granting a preliminary injunction late on July 31. A group of Paden City residents and school employees had filed a petition asking the court to stop Wetzel County Superintendent Cassie Porter’s planned closure of the school.
Attorney Teresa Toriseva, who represented the petitioners, announced Wilson’s decision Wednesday night to a crowd that had gathered for a prayer vigil for the school.
Toriseva
“The people of Paden City are amazing,” Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “They stand for family and community. They work hard, and they take care of each other. PCHS is a special place built by generations of people who have always invested in their kids.
“Let the Wildcats band play!”
In his 30-page order, Wilson said Porter did not have the statutory authority to close the school, noting the inclusion of the phrase “until further notices” doesn’t indicate the announced closure was temporary.
“The petitioners have established the likelihood of irreparable harm to the petitioners without an injunction,” Wilson wrote. “The closure of PCHS may jeopardize and threaten its students with eligibility to play sports and be members of a marching band. …
“Having found that Superintendent Porter acted unjustifiably so, Paden City High School remains open, and its longevity, future and fate is appropriately an issue for the elected representatives on the Wetzel County Board of Education to determine.”
Porter announced plans to close the school in June because of unsafe conditions. The school sits on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. But the U.S. EPA says vapors from the site are at acceptable levels, so members of the community filed a petition earlier this month to keep the school open.
Toriseva filed the petition to stop the planned closure on July 12, and Wilson immediately issued a temporary restraining order that opened the school temporarily. Days later, Porer filed an emergency motion to rescind or reconsider the TRO. Wilson scheduled a hearing for July 25, and that hearing lasted nearly seven hours until almost 11 p.m. He said then he would issue his ruling before August 1.
Toriseva previously said Porter’s action was a misuse of her power because there isn’t an emergency situation that requires the closure. In the original filing, the petitioners also said they wanted to stop a planned closure of the school that is “a great source of pride for the members of the community.”
In her ensuing motion, Porter says a superintendent has a duty to close a school temporarily when conditions are detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the pupils, citing a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designation that Paden City is on a Superfund National Priorities list because of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in groundwater.
Porter announced her plan to close PCHS on June 12 and move the students to Magnolia High School, which is about six miles away. In her motion, she says Paden City students would suffer no harm as a result of the change. She also says the West Virginia Department of Education publicly supported her decision “notwithstanding the EPA’s conclusion that the risk posed at Paden City Superfund Site is ‘not unacceptable.’”
In her motion, Porter said “substantial steps” have been taken to integrate PCHS students, programs and staff at Magnolia High and that no employee “has lost a cent of pay or a day of work.”
In their July 15 response to Porter’s motion, the plaintiffs again maintain the closure of PCHS is “outside of her authority and is an illegal act because the closure is not temporary.”
“Defendant Porter has offered nothing to show that her illegal closure of PCHS is temporary,” the response states. “Defendant’s memo and letter say nothing about the closure being temporary or for a limited time.
“Defendant has offered no plan to re-open the school, only to state in her motion, to ‘integrate all PCHS students, programs and staff at the nearby Magnolia High School. …
“Incorporating PCHS into Magnolia is precisely what defendant Porter is actually trying to do.”
Citing the EPA, the plaintiffs also say again there is no condition that is detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the pupils. They also say the WVDE support of Porter’s plan does not make it legal.
The plaintiffs, led by the Paden City Schools Athletic Association, filed the petition July 12 against Porter and the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activity Commission, which governs prep sports in the state.
“Soon after Superintendent Cassandra Porter was appointed (to a one-year term on July 1, 2023, by the county Board of Education), she attempted, through the board, to begin the closure of Paden City High School,” the petition states. “The elected board unanimously voted ‘no’ to her plan.
“But after Superintendent Porter’s contract was renewed for a three-year term, she misused a state statute to close PCHS claiming that there were conditions detrimental to the health, safety or welfare of the pupils. No such conditions exist.
“This illegal and unauthorized closure is causing and will continue to cause irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs, and therefore, the illegal and unauthorized closure of PCHS by Superintendent Porter must be enjoined.”
The other petitioners include football coach Nathan Anderson, art teacher and archery coach Matt Kinnard, teacher Samantha Smith, athletic trainer and parent Thomas Duncan, bus driver Chris McGinnis, football coach Josh Billiter, coach and PCAA President Jon Baker, school secretary and PCAA Vice President Penelope Baker, Alumni President Shauna Williams-Yoho, schools employee Mary McGinnis, school employee and mother Zoa Postlethwait, teacher and coach Trey Barcus, teacher and parent Stacey Yoho, teacher and Paden City Council member Bill Bell as well as other parents, grandparents and guardians of children who attend Wetzel County schools.
Paden City High School is home to students in seventh to 12th grade. It opened in 1951 and currently has an enrollment of about 160 students. It has been honored for academics, and its athletic teams have seen success as well.
In March 2021, Paden City was added to the U.S. EPA list of Superfund Sites National Priority List. After that designation, the school remained open through the 2024 school year.
Last July, just days after Porter was appointed as superintendent, the Wetzel County school board met to discuss options for county schools.
“They [the local high schools] don’t really want to merge,” Porter said at the July 7, 2023, meeting, according to the petition. “They would want to build a new facility so that all the communities that would be affected would come together as one Wetzel County or two Wetzel County high schools. We don’t have enough teachers to serve all of our students in all of our buildings right now. We want to make sure that all of our students get the education they deserve.”
The petition says Porter made no mention of the Superfund or the resulting health and safety of students at the July meeting. The topic also wasn’t mentioned at an August 7, 2023, work session about possible consolidation, nor was it mentioned at a September 25, 2023, board meeting where Porter “attempted to again close Paden City High School to begin her 5-10 year plan of reorganizing Wetzel County Schools,” according to the petition.
After nearly two dozen people spoke against the closure of PCHS at the September meeting, the board voted 5-0 against the closure.
In March, the school board gave Porter a three-year contract. In June, Porter announced the closure of PCHS due to health and safety reasons so she “could avoid the BOE’s vote and further involvement," according to the petition, which also Porter’s plan to circumvent the board’s unanimous vote against closing PCHS was in place “for some time before she announced it to the public.”
As early as June 12, the U.S. EPA was made aware that PCHS would be temporarily relocated for the upcoming school year because of its location on top of a Superfund Site and concerns regarding vapor intrusion.
“EPA has conducted three rounds of vapor intrusion sampling at the Paden City High School,” the petition states, citing an EPA statement. “EPA communicated to the Wetzel County School District in May 2024 that the results consistently indicate that there is no unacceptable risk to students resulting from the Superfund Site.
“Vapor intrusion data collected at the High School does not indicate any unacceptable risks to the students or staff using the High School. Based on the sampling results to date, a school closure was not recommended by EPA during any communications with the School District.”
Because the EPA determined there is no health and safety risks, the plaintiffs say Porter’s planned closure isn’t legal because the state code she was relying on to do so doesn’t apply.
“Superintendent Porter cannot claim on one hand that the EPA designation as a Superfund Site is the reason for the closure while on the other hand ignore the EPA’s recommendation to not close the school because there is no safety and health risk,” the petition states. “Superintendent Porter’s illegal and unauthorized closure of PCHS was done without the Board of Education’s involvement or approval. …
“Further, nothing in her illegal and unauthorized closure appears temporary as there is no plan to re-open PCHS and its closure will remain ‘until further notice.’ ‘Until further notice’ is not temporary.”
As with many small towns across the country, “the local high school is the heart and foundation of the community,” according to the petition.
“Closing PCHS when no threat to the students’ safety exists is rash, unreasonable, and will devastate the students, the teachers and staff, and the overall community,” the petition states. “Closing PCHS will devastate the students, the teachers and staff, and the overall community.”
Wetzel County teachers and staff are scheduled to report to school August 12, and students will begin classes August 19. And because of WV SSAC rules requiring players to practice on 12 separate days before participating in a sporting event, “time is running out for the PCHS Wildcats to field any sports team, including a football team and a marching band.”
The plaintiffs are being represented by Toriseva, Joshua D. Miller and Andrew Carpenter of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. Porter is being represented by Kenneth E. Webb Jr., Richard S. Boothby and William M. Lorensen of Bowles Rice in Charleston, and the WVSSAC is being represented by Stephen F. Gandee of Robinson & McElwee in Charleston.
Wetzel Circuit Court case number 24-P-48