“Late Start – Late Finish” School Calendar Approved for Pocahontas Schools

At their April 22^nd meeting, the Pocahontas County Board of Education (BOE) were asked to approve next school year’s school calendar. There was some controversy among the board members about this, because the recommended calendar includes a starting date for students on September 3, 2025; a first semester ending date of January 16, 2026; graduation on June 12^th, and the last day of instruction being June 16^th, 2026. Several of the board members objected to ending the first semester so late, and ending the school year so late in June. Superintendent Bostic explained that three calendar options had been sent out to parents, one was an early start, early finish calendar similar to the one used this year, another one started a little later and ended just a little later than this year’s school calendar, and the third option was the “late start-late finish” one that she was asking the members to approve, since 62% of parents and staff voted for that one. It was explained that most parents wanted school to start after the State Fair of WV ended. Board President Emery Grimes and several other members explored the possibility of tabling the vote on this calendar until a new survey was conducted, however Bostic told them the approved calendar needed to be submitted to the state by May 2^nd, which will not allow enough time to resurvey. So, based upon the 62% approval of this calendar, the board voted 4 to 1 to approve it, with only Board Member Sam Gibson opposed.

In her superintendent’s report, Lynne Bostic recognized the regional winners from the county of both the Social Studies Fair and of the Regional Math field Day competitions. When we receive a list of these winners, they will be posted at the end of this story on our website -alleghenymountainradio.org.

Bostic also said that the Pocahontas County Schools Nature’s Mountain Classroom program was named the regional winner in the Education Alliance’s “WV School-Business Partnership of the Year Awards Program.” There is a $2,000 celebration grant that will be given to the Nature’s Mountain Program as a result of this award. The Education Alliance will be officially announcing this award at the Yew Mountain Center on Thursday, April 24^th at 11:30am.

Bostic also said at their next Principals meeting, strategic plans for the schools and safety measures at the schools will be discussed. She said stakeholder surveys will be sent out looking for ideas about after school programs, and to see what ideas the community may have to improve the schools.

Bostic also announced that the county schools have received the 2024-2025 “Purple Star Award Designation” from the WV Department of Education because of its commitment to supporting military children and their families. The county schools promote this through:  Veterans Day assemblies; Lunches for veterans at PCHS and Hillsboro Elementary School; Military links on all of the schools’ websites; annual military recognition at sporting events; Christmas boxes sent to active-duty members who are PCHS graduates; recognizing Military Child Week every April; military signing at PCHS; and supporting deployed military members.

Joseph VanMeter, the student Representative said some students are concerned that this year the criteria for becoming a “Super Scholar” will be based only on standardized testing results, and not include things like attendance, grades, and participation in out-of-school activities. It was explained to him that other awards take those things into consideration, but since each school used different criteria, they needed to have one standard and apply it to each of the schools.

Be sure to listen to part 2 of this meeting story, where we will report on the actions taken at this meeting.