METC funding (maybe)

Mar. 7—You can still hit a home run with two strikes.

That's what Monongalia County Schools chief Eddie Campbell Jr. is hoping for these days, now that lawmakers are reconsidering funding requests made of late to the state School Building Authority.

Lawmakers are currently looking at the $150 million allocation for the agency that doles out dollars for new school buildings and other infrastructure projects.

Usually, there are too many requests and not enough dollars to go around.

Which makes for the lottery factor of the whole deal.

You make your request in front of the SBA in November, then wait to see if your district gets an early Christmas gift in December.

Twice now, Mon's district has asked for money to tack on e-gaming and robotics classrooms at MTEC, the county technical education center — and twice now the SBA has said no.

Now, it looks like every request made in the current funding cycle could be a yes.

Conceivably.

And that never happens.

"We've haven't heard anything yet, " Campbell said, "but this would be great for MTEC and want we want to do, if it can happen."

What Mon's district wants to do is a direct tie-in to what voters will want to do — or not do — as they consider their ballots during the primary election two months from now.

Voters on May 14 will be asked to consider a $142.6 million bond that would bankroll construction of the Renaissance Academy, which would be Mon's first standalone school devoted solely to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

With that blessing on the ballot, the Renaissance Academy gets built and METC gets reconfigured for STEM offerings geared to the county's middle school students, thus presenting new pathways in career technical education to them.

The most recent SBA request from Mon comes out to $5.2 million — with $4 million of that going to the tech additions. The remaining $1.2 would cover projects at Mountaineer Elementary, including Safe Schools upgrades and roofing work.

Campbell said the MTEC work, in particular, should it get funded, "would really jumpstart " the Renaissance Academy, which he would like to see open to all high school students across Mon by 2027.

That's whether they attend public school, private school, charters or are home-schooled.

"We're not gonna turn anyone away, " the superintendent said previously.

Like Campbell, Greg Dausch is waiting, too.

"We're all about opportunities, " the METC principal said. "This would be an absolute game-changer."