An actual renaissance would be nice

There are asks and calls to action in here!

Hear y’all, hear y’all 📣

Linds at the helm again this week and I know we’re all short on time so let’s get into it.

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On Our Minds

Renaissance Academy.

A few posts ago I said I was voting “yes” on Monongalia County Board of Education’s levy to build Renaissance Academy, but I’ve since changed my mind. Let me tell you why.

Murmurs of building the Academy—a “state-of-the-art facility aimed at enhancing the offerings of the Monongalia Career Technical Education Center”¹—arose in the early years of this decade, an idea born of “planning discussions with local leaders to address changing academic needs in a digital world and to broaden the curriculum to prepare students for the future.”² School board officials have consistently painted the new facility as a solution to student apathy, poor attendance, and behavior and discipline issues.

From Mon County Schools’ RA landing page.

The price tag for the project—estimated at around $72 million when first announced—has more than doubled to just shy of $160 million (with $142.6 coming from the proposed levy). It is by far the most expensive levy on the ballot this month.

What are opponents saying? How could anyone vote against additional investment in public education, right?

Don’t turn to traditional media to try and sort the answer to that question: they really aren’t covering it (I’ve read every single google hit on the issue). I’ve had to piece together concerns by reading the school district’s selling points critically and using common sense, through (kill me now) tons of community Facebook posts and Reddit threads, and reviewing school board candidates’ positions. There’s also this website, but I really hate it (it reads like a conservative anti-tax manifesto).

Here, in no particular order, are five reasons I’m voting against the levy³:

1. Cost of running the school: it’s important to note that the $142.6 million is the cost for b u i l d i n g the facility. From where will the money for transportation, teachers, and other fixed costs come? The only meaningful response I’ve seen from the district is that “[t]he idea would be to staff the academy with current teachers who could transition, given that STEM classes in the three public high schools wouldn’t be as populated.”⁴

2. More pressing needs: ICYMI, we’re losing teachers in droves. We don’t have enough bus drivers. Public education is facing unprecedented disinvestment and recently-legalized private school vouchers will make things worse. Do West Virginia students deserve nice things? Hell yeah, they do. That includes well-paid, highly qualified teachers in every classroom and a fully-funded public education system—none of those things are a reality in Mon County (or WV) right now.

3. District sales tactics: Click on any article and you’ll see Monongalia County Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell saying something like, “For less than the cost of a cup of Starbucks coffee, you just paid for the Renaissance Academy.” That is not honest. First, he loves to use an example of the cost of the levy on a property worth $100,000 (which comes out to around a new tax burden of $52 a year). That $100,000 figure, however, isn’t reflective of the current state of property values in Monongalia County. In most cases, folks are looking at double that estimate (and in many cases far more). Before you write me off as a fiscally conservative Reaganite, know this: I believe in taxation and spending public dollars on public education. That said, Campbell ignores the very real economic anxiety that many folks are experiencing. No number of slickly produced videos changes the fact that it’s really bad timing to ask low-income and working-class people to foot the bill for a project that will, without question, cost far more than current estimates, especially when their kids can’t catch a bus that doesn’t run and their teachers are buying their own pencils. Lastly, I know without knowing that someone stands to benefit from this massive project financially and we haven’t heard enough about that yet.⁵

4. But what about all the industry we’ll attract?!: Okay, this is probably just personally triggering for me and maybe I’ll lose y’all here, but when, ever, has any benevolent industry from without flocked to West Virginia to steward our children and our state’s promise? I’ll wait. ⏳⏳⏳ While I’m waiting, I’ll also complain about how disaffecting it is to hear from politicians about what a boomtown our state is when I have eyes and common sense. Could things be different? Sure. Under this leadership? Absolutely not.

5. The kids aren’t alright: WAJR reported that “[t]he Renaissance Academy has an expressed mission of addressing the 50 percent of the student body that lacks the motivation to embrace learning.” Hear me out: maybe kids “lack the motivation to embrace learning” because every preceding generation participated in a systematic dismantling of public education, the middle class, democracy, and a livable planet? Our leaders have shown these kids time and again that they can’t rise to the occasion, so I think we might forgive the youth their apathy. I don’t know how a “state-of-the-art” STEM facility even begins to tackle that.

TL;DR: the project proposal has too many unanswered questions and red flags, and—given the price tag—it’s too risky for me to support. Disagree? Hate everything I said? Feel free to chime in in the comments and also vote⁶ on May 14th. You can find more information here, and it’s probably worth checking out sample ballot language, too.

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In the Community

First, here are a few news stories you might check out:

• The City of Morgantown got sued (by a Scout writer no less!) for violating citizens’ First Amendment rights.

• Bartlett House, the area’s emergency triage shelter, is going to close absent a significant bailout thanks to what appears to be serious financial mismanagement. Will the Morgantown City Council or Monongalia County Commission do anything about it? About homelessness? About housing affordability? (Regarding the shelter, my maybe-controversial opinion is that it’s not a good use of public funds to “save” an organization that failed so hard absent a very strategic plan to right the ship coupled with significant third-party oversight.)

• We’re all anti-carceral abolitionists here, but it’s worth noting that the Clearfiber guy got a comeuppance.

About town this week, we have:

• A ton of important council, board, and commission meetings, including BOPARC, the Civilian Police Review & Advisory Board, and the Planning Commission. All are listed on the City’s calendar (though we now know that some boards and commissions literally never meet even though they technically exist (*cough* Housing Advisory Commission *cough*) and sometimes show up on the calendar—FUN STUFF!).

• Morgantown City Council has its bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. (they’re back in Council Chambers at 389 Spruce Street). Check out the agenda and meet our crew there at 6:45 p.m. Wear green as we sustain our effort to publicly press the council to take immediate action to address our dual crises of homelessness and housing affordability (newsflash: they haven’t done shit but by God they got their PODA up and running!).

• Relatedly, some of us are heading to the “Red Door” (Trinity Episcopal Church) today Monday, May 6th, around 11 a.m. to lunch with our friends experiencing poverty and homelessness. The idea is to ask them what they want the Morgantown City Council and Monongalia County Commission to know about their experiences and what they’d like them to do about it. Shoot us an email at morgantownscount@proton.me if you would like to join.

• Morgantown Adventure Outfitters is open for the season! We rented bikes from them last year when friends were in town—it was quick, easy, and affordable. It’s a great way to get on the river or our excellent rail trails.

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Other Important Stuff

First, an ask: we’re looking for contributors to cover civic goings-on in Westover, Granville, Star City, and Monongalia County. Specifically, we need some help covering other council and commission meetings besides Morgantown. We know that the county and these towns are making decisions daily that impact our readers; we just can’t dig into them all. Do you feel like you’re up to the task? Shoot us an email and tell us why you’re interested and why you would be a good fit!

Second, some encouragement: you, YOU, YOUUUUUUU should get involved in our community.

I spent a lot of time last week tending to my garden and meditating on how I can make a difference when things, and by things I mean this world run by madmen, feel so overwhelming and disillusioning and, well, bad. The answer I come to time and again is simple: community, as in a verb, as in practice, as in holding space and each other, as in communal grief/accountability/joy/celebration.

Said garden.

Margaret Killjoy, an Appalachian anarchist that I admire, wrote on her Substack:

“[W]hen I say we can win, I mean that in three ways. First, we can win by working collectively to live way better lives than we would if we stayed isolated and atomized by capitalism. Second, we can win just by fighting–just by working together to demand what we deserve, we win whether or not we are killed in the process. But third, it’s, well, possible for us to create a horizontally organized society where free individuals and communities collectively make decisions.”⁷

Now I was feeling terribly down in the dumps, specifically about our “Democratic” President’s (ahistorical) comments regarding student protests at universities across the nation, and I needed Margaret’s words. I needed a new definition of what it means to “win” when I’m feeling pummeled and powerless.

From Eli Valley’s excellent Instagram (@elivalley). You can support Eli on Patreon here.

It made me think of how, just a few weeks ago, around 30 Morgantowners showed up to City Council and spoke out loud about our disappointment in the council’s lack of leadership to their faces. The meeting part was great, but the best came after, laughter outside in county square (mostly at our leaders’ expense), flurried text messages scheming and dreaming late into the night, and a sense of found community. When we struggle shoulder-to-shoulder, we are winning because we’re not lost anymore. That’s why I think you should join us.

In closing, I read “Vivas To Those Who Have Failed: The Paterson Silk Strike, 1913” by Martín Espada every year on May Day (May 1st) because I’m a sucker for ritual. The poem tells the story of the Paterson Silkworkers Strike of 1913, where, after a valiant months-long fight, the workers were defeated. However, Espada understood that failures often work like matches on tinder, sometimes igniting something more profound in their wake. The last section of the poem gives me chills, every time; I turn to it at times—like now—when I need renewed:

V. Vivas to Those Who Have Failed

Strikers without shoes lose strikes. Twenty years after the weavers
and dyers' helpers returned hollow-eyed to the loom and the steam,
Mazziotti led the other silk mill workers marching down the avenue
in Paterson, singing the old union songs for five cents more an hour.
Once again the nightsticks cracked cheekbones like teacups.
Mazziotti pressed both hands to his head, squeezing red ribbons
from his scalp. There would be no buffalo nickel for an hour's work
at the mill, for the silk of bow ties and scarves. Skull remembered wood.

The brain thrown against the wall of the skull remembered too:
the Sons of Italy, the Workmen's Circle, Local 152, Industrial
Workers of the World, one-eyed Big Bill and Flynn the Rebel Girl
speaking in tongues to thousands the prophecy of an eight-hour day.
Mazziotti's son would become a doctor, his daughter a poet.
Vivas to those who have failed: for they become the river.

See you this week?

- Lindsey & the Scout Crew

What’s on your mind? What civic or cultural events are on your radar this week? What would you like to hear about in future newsletters? We want to hear from you in the comments or at morgantownscout@proton.me. Help us build the Scout community!

1. From the MCS website: https://boe.mono.k12.wv.us/the-renaissance-academy

2. https://wajr.com/proposed-renaissance-academy-in-mon-county-expected-to-engage-students-improve-outcomes/

3. If the levy fails, the school board has vowed to get the issue on the November ballot. Democracy, amirite? https://www.dominionpost.com/2024/03/02/our-community-supports-education/

4. https://www.dominionpost.com/2024/03/02/our-community-supports-education/

5. Brian would like to add that Mike Green has a connection to the group pushing for the Renaissance Academy, he has significant financial interests in community and technical colleges and served on the state Board of Education as president. As Lindsey points out, the financial backing and lack of transparency involved in this project is hair-raising. These threads need pulling apart by some investigative journalists.

6. Or don’t. I myself am grappling with what it means to participate in a system rigged against us from the jump.

7. Did you know that we can win?