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The on Oct. 10 approved a grant of up to $5 million through the state’s Economic Enhancement Grant program for the , a Steubenville, Ohio-based Catholic school whose inaugural class began lessons this fall.

The $5 million grant to the college was $3.74 million more than the next-largest Water Development Authority grant among 28 disbursed during fiscal year 2025, according to authority records. The college was the only recipient out of 28 not based in West Virginia, per authority records. Most recipients were towns, cities and public service districts getting support for water and wastewater improvement projects.

Records the Gazette-Mail obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests revealing official state communications with school leaders and project authorizations showed no evidence of written approval from the secretaries of the departments of Commerce, Economic Development or Tourism, as required by , the 2022 state law that created the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund.

The fund was created through HB 4566 with $250 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades as well as what the law calls “infrastructure projects to enhance economic development and/or tourism.�

College’s ‘conservative political vision’

The college combines a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies with instruction in construction trades. The school’s Economic Enhancement Grant proposal indicated the school plans to use $1 million of its $5 million grant for “advocacy activities� that include building a research center called “The Center for the Common Good� that supports “broadly life-affirming policy in West Virginia.�

The college said in its West Virginia expansion proposal its faculty have been “involved in supporting the developing conservative political vision for West Virginia� and cited “the abortion restriction� and “solidarity with Texas’ border.�

Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a near-total abortion ban passed by the Legislature in 2022. Last year, Justice approved up to 50 West Virginia National Guard soldiers and airmen to deploy to Texas for up to 30 days in response to a request by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican, as part of support from the nation’s governors to respond to what Abbott claimed in a letter to Justice and other state chief executives was a “flood of illegal border activity.�

Human rights advocates have said the Texas law enforcement operation the Justice administration supported, , has criminalized migrants seeking safety, driven mass incarceration of people of color, relied on racial profiling and violated civil rights and anti-torture standards by holding migrants in jails without access to medical care or sufficient food.

The college said in another document the Gazette-Mail obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request that the Economic Enhancement Grant would “enable a significant development� in its advocacy efforts, calling its Center for the Common Good a “mature think-tank� that would “support research, policy data, op-eds, speech writing, educational tools (videos, et al), lectures, presentations, and proposals for the West Virginia Legislature.�

Proposed construction firm would take 5-plus years for buildout

The nonprofit college proposed that $2.15 million of the $5 million grant would support creating a real estate development and construction company to be headquartered in Weirton that employs its students.

The company would work in the tri-state area with “a concentrate [sic] in West Virginia,� per the proposal, which said the company would accept “construction and revitalization projects that other, exclusively for-profit organizations would not, such as work of historical and cultural significance in communities that might otherwise be unattractive to investors.� It will take at least five years to build to a “full size� of roughly 200 apprentices and another 50 to 100 construction workers, the college said in its proposal.

The college’s grant proposal said the support would allow it to buy new training facilities in Weirton to move some trades instruction there and assemble a task force to research the feasibility of a campus in the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä area. The school’s proposal said its “Steubenville/Weirton campusâ€� has a “natural growth limitâ€� of roughly 300 students due to local market size, noting it plans to begin branch campuses in other areas.

State, college responses

Water Development Authority executive director Marie Prezioso said in response to a Gazette-Mail Freedom of Information Act request that her agency had no letters from any Cabinet secretary authorizing or supporting the college’s $5 million grant.

Lines asking the applicant to indicate which Cabinet secretary issued the required grant recommendation were left blank on an application for Economic Enhancement Grant funding, which was signed by college academic dean Andrew Jones.

The $5 million is nearly double the $2,583,421 that College of St. Joseph the Worker Inc. reported as its fair market value of all assets for calendar year 2023, according to its IRS tax records. The College of St. Joseph the Worker Inc. reported receiving $806,701 in contributions, gifts and grants for calendar year 2023 — less than a sixth of the state’s $5 million grant.

Governor’s Office personnel and Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, guided college leaders through the grant application process, according to email communications the Gazette-Mail obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

After initially agreeing to a phone interview, college President Mike Sullivan instead emailed a news release saying the school was “extremely grateful to the state of West Virginiaâ€� for the Economic Enhancement Grant, which he said would allow it to expand into Weirton as it explores the possibility of a satellite campus in the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä area.

Sullivan did not respond to a request for further comment. Jones, the college’s academic dean, Prezioso, McGeehan and the Governor’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

College plans to advocate through think tank

The college’s grant proposal divided the $5 million sought and subsequently approved into:

• $2.15 million: To creating a real estate development and construction company
• $1.65 million: For education, including developing partnerships with tradesmen and contractors in West Virginia with a goal of 20% of graduating students to be from and to move back to West Virginia
• $1 million: For advocacy activities; $750,000 for the Center for the Common Good think tank and $250,000 for a bioethics certificate program for “continuing education in the medical and psychotherapy fieldsâ€�
• $200,000: To explore establishing a second campus that would be in West Virginia, possibly in Teays Valley, calling it “an emerging market for the type of intellectual and trades revitalization that the College intends to achieve.â€�

The proposal said the college’s students graduate with their liberal arts bachelor’s degree and training certification in one of five construction trades: HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), carpentry, masonry, electrical and plumbing. The program lasts six years, with the first three taking place at the college’s main campus before the liberal arts studies shift to an online platform and on-the-job training hours toward certification accrue in years four through six.

The college’s news release said the institution plans to spend over $10 million on renovating buildings and constructing new ones over the next five years as part of its student training.

College recommended by Catholic anti-LGBTQ group

In tax filings, the College of St. Joseph the Worker Inc. identified itself as a 501c3 — a type of nonprofit deemed tax-exempt. No organization may qualify for 501c3 status if a significant part of its activities is lobbying, or trying to influence legislation, .

501c3 organizations may get involved in public policy issues without the activity being considered lobbying, with what the IRS calls “educational meetings� and preparation and distribution of “educational materials� allowed.

The college reported receiving a $500,000 contribution last year from Boston-based Daniel D’Aniello, who has chaired the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a right-wing think tank.

In September, the college received an endorsement from the , a 501c3 tax-exempt nonprofit that has recognized and promoted Catholic schools that .

The Cardinal Newman Society has asked institutions whether they have statements or policies “clearly explaining the institution’s Catholic beliefs and practices regarding gender and sexuality, embracing a Catholic anthropology which acknowledges God’s creation of humans as male or female and understands sexuality as a gift ordered toward the union of one man and one woman in marriage.�

The Cardinal Newman Society of the college the school had welcomed an inaugural class of 31 students.

McGeehan, Justice administration backed College support

Email records show state officials guided and backed the college’s leaders throughout the Economic Enhancement Grant application process.

In an Oct. 2 email to Brian Abraham, Justice’s chief of staff, McGeehan sent the college’s proposal and link to its registration with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, citing a previous discussion with him and copying state House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, on the email.

“Thanks for the assistance on this, Brian ... you don’t know how much I genuinely appreciate it,� McGeehan wrote.

McGeehan sent a grant application completed by Jones to Prezioso via email on Oct. 4. The Water Development Authority board unanimously approved the grant award at a meeting at its ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä office six days later. Designees for Gov. Jim Justice, then-Bureau of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Matthew Christiansen and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Harold Ward were among the board members who approved the award, according to meeting minutes.

Water Development Authority deputy director Bradley Sergent explained to Sullivan in an Oct. 8 email how to register as a vendor with the state and apply for the Economic Enhancement Grant through the state’s vendor system.

The college’s Economic Enhancement Grant funding must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026, according to state documents. No building construction or onsite or offsite improvements for the project had been completed at the time of the grant approval, according to a state payment request signed by Sullivan listing College of St. Joseph the Worker Inc. as the grantee.

Past state grant funds supported Marshall baseball stadium

The Justice administration has guided Economic Enhancement Grant funding toward nonwater and wastewater infrastructure projects before.

In 2022, $3.8 million in Economic Enhancement Grant funding was used to support a new baseball stadium for Marshall University, added to another $10 million that had been transferred to the Governor’s Office Gifts, Grants and Donations Fund from $28.3 million in leftover federal COVID stimulus funding through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act.

Justice, a Marshall alumnus, presented an oversized $13.8 million check to Marshall University officials before throwing out a ceremonial first pitch in September 2022. That state support drew criticism holding that the money should have been used for housing rehabilitation or state corrections maintenance improvements since the Justice administration reimbursed itself with $28.3 million in COVID-related corrections expenses rather than returning that sum to corrections.

The college’s location, mission and large largesse make it an unusual West Virginia Economic Enhancement Grant recipient.

Sullivan contends that will pay off for the state.

“The college is one-of-a-kind,� Sullivan said, “and we are very excited to expand into West Virginia.�