Judge orders Paden City High School to remain open

Circuit Judge Richard Wilson ruled that Paden City High School should remain open for the upcoming school year. (Google Maps screenshot)

Paden City High School will remain open this school year, a Wetzel County circuit judge has ruled.

“The students of PCHS have the right to their education and for it not to be interrupted through the unilateral closure of PCHS by Superintendent [Cassandra] Porter,” Judge Richard Wilson wrote in a 30-page order . “The community of PCHS will be harmed from the closure of PCHS by Superintendent Porter.

“Having found that Superintendent Porter acted unjustifiably so, Paden City 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,” Wilson wrote.

Porter had told faculty and staff that the school building would be closed due to environmental concerns and that students would attend two other schools, New Martinsville School and Magnolia High School, instead.

The school site, located in the 200 block of North Fourth Avenue, has soil and groundwater plumes contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a likely carcinogen used for dry cleaning fabrics, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. An EPA site inspection that began in 2020 determined that the site poses a risk and would require long-term clean up. It was added to the National Priorities List in March 2022.

But the EPA said it had not recommended to the district it close the facility, saying that the site investigation currently shows “no imminent health risks.”

The judge’s ruling followed a more than six hour preliminary hearing last week before a packed courthouse. It came during a community prayer vigil turned celebration Wednesday in Paden City.

Teresa Toriseva, a Wheeling attorney representing five people who challenged the superintendent’s closure of the school, said the community is thrilled the school will remain open.

“This struck at the very heart of the existence of Paden City as a community,” Toriseva told West Virginia Watch Thursday morning. “And it’s very, very important. We are, as a community, thrilled that the court saw that the school is safe, that all government standards are being met. The school is actually safer in many ways because it’s a superfund site designation, and that’s because there’s testing and monitoring.”

Toriseva said the community saw Porter’s move to close the school as an effort to consolidate, a measure the board of education has voted against.

“But more importantly, the problem with this was that this was an illegal use of the statute to close the school and merge those students into another school. That’s not what consolidation looks like, and the court heard testimony on this,” she said.

“Consolidation is where all the schools start over and come together in a new way, with new colors and a new mascot, a new identity, and not this merger idea, which can be very difficult for issues, lots of issues, including bullying.”

“Consolidation looks one way but this was actually called a merger and was indefinite, which was another problem the court had with the action,” Toriseva said. “The authority of the superintendent is only to close schools on a temporary basis, and that was a huge part of the court’s ruling.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva.

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