Mon Schools: Renaissance Academy bond measure fails; BOE president Lytle loses his bid for re-election

Jim Bissett, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Updated ·2 min read

May 14—Voters gave an overwhelming no to the Renaissance Academy on Tuesday night, thus quashing what would have been the first standalone STEM school in Monongalia County and West Virginia.

The measure failed by 11, 578 votes to 5, 540.

That was a nearly 70 % margin of taxpayers decreeing that the $142.6 million bond measure to build the high school devoted solely to science, technology, engineering and math — was simply going to be too pricey for now.

Which meant only 30 % or so of voters were in favor of the school that would have offered deep dives into STEM with enhanced career technical education offerings, tuition-free, for any student in the county, whether they went to Mon Schools, or a charter or private school, or were home-schooled.

Proponents said the school was needed to keep students engaged while building a workforce with local employers. Those opposed said the district is already doing that with the county's Technical Education Center on Mississippi Street.

Besides, Renaissance Academy detractors said, voters are already traditionally generous at the polls, regularly saying yes to an excess levy for education that brings in $30 million to district coffers.

"I'm disappointed, " Mon Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said.

"I'm disappointed for our kids, but the results are what they are — that's why we have a democracy."

The idea of the academy was born of community discussions during the updating of the district's Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan — or CEFP, as the document is known.

Call the CEFP a sort of visionary owner's manual renewed every 10 years.

Eastwood Elementary, the county's first green school, was the centerpiece of the 2010 edition, for example.

Technically, the measure can resurface for November's ballot, but will that be a recommendation entertained by Campbell ?

"I'm not sure, " the superintendent said.

"That's a conversation we need to have with a Board of Education."

While the night's totals from Mon's 43 precincts won't be official until canvassing Monday, voters also called for changes on the BOE.

Longtime incumbent and current board president Ron Lytle, who spent more than 90 minutes the day before the primary hosting a question-and-answer session about the Renaissance Academy, was defeated in his bid for re-election.

Lytle, a local business owner who represented the board's Eastern district since 2012, came in third in the contest that featured two newcomers also from the district: Shawn Smith, an industrial engineer ; and Christina Fattore Morgan, an educator who teaches political science at WVU.

Smith led the race with 9, 535 votes. Morgan captured 6, 827 votes. A total of 5, 887 ballots were cast for Lytle.

The BOE contest also featured 58 write-in votes.

All results are unofficial until the canvassing of votes at 9 a.m. Monday at Election Center.