CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — During Wednesday's West Virginia Board of Education meeting, it was announced Michelle Stellato would take over as the superintendent of Roane County Schools after an investigation revealed overspending, the underuse of buildings and staffing issues.

Stellato has served as the assistant superintendent for the past two years and is well aware of how much she has on her plate.

"We've known it was going to be a heavy day,” Stellato said. “But I need the parents to understand that at every point of this decision-making process their children are going to be at the center of it."

Some of the key findings in the report include a 45% building utilization rate, $600,000 of overspending on special education and an estimated budget deficit of $2.5 million for the 2025 fiscal year.

"Based on the capacity of the district to solve this problem and the impact it has on students and to bring them into compliance with all applicable laws and policies, we recommend that a state of emergency be declared in Roane County Schools,” accountability director Alexandra Criner said.

Board members including Paul Hardesty are astounded at the findings and feel incredibly concerned for Roane County students.

"From what I read here in Roane County, there's no checks and balances,” Hardesty said. “Either someone was led astray either intentionally, not intentionally. That's not for me to decide but a couple of things on this report are very disturbing."

State leaders said they'll be keeping a close eye on Roane County to make sure these issues are put to bed. Stellato is grateful for their support.

"We very much appreciate the support and understanding of the situation in Roane County Schools given to us by the state Board of Education,” she said. “We fully understand that it could have made a different decision but we appreciate that they've given us a time frame to get a corrective action plan in place."

Board member Victor Gabriel said if the issues aren't fixed, further action will have to be taken.

"I hope that board is going to work in unison with that superintendent. That's very important,” he said. “Because if they're not working together, that's not going to work and we'll have to take further action."