Parts 1 & 2 of the August 5th Pocahontas BOE Meeting
At the August 5th Pocahontas County Board of Education (BOE,) Tony Remijan, the current Director of the Green Bank Observatory announced the observatory is implementing an initiative to support the use of WIFI at the Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, as well as throughout the entire county. This primarily affects those living within the strictest quiet zone area- that is within 10 miles of the observatory, where WIFI had previously been completely banned. Remijan explained that this will require that the WIFI modems will only be allowed to use 2.4 Giga Hertz (GH) WIFI, so if within 10 miles of the observatory, the WIFI modems must have their 5 and 6 GH capabilities turned off, but the 2.4 GH works just as well as those other frequencies. He explained that since Green Bank Elementary-Middle is the only school located within that 10-mile distance from the observatory, the other schools, which already have WIFI are not affected by this. He said the WIFI systems used at the other schools are capable of only operating on 2.4 GH, so they can be installed at Green-Bank Elementary Middle School. All residents and businesses within that 10-mile zone will also have to disable all modem frequencies other than the 2.4 GH.
Remijan said the reason for this is that modem operating within the permitted frequency are not a major interference problem for the observatory, and their research indicates that many people within the 10-mile zone have been using modems at 2.4 GH anyway. He also said there has been a lot of community pressure to allow this, and the community will benefit from this change.
The board recognized Haley Cummins as a top five state finalist for Service Person of the Year, and Devon George as being ranked 6th in the nation for commercial roofing at the Skills USA National Leadership Conference.
Nathaniel Sizemore addressed the board members as a delegate from the public, saying the schools need to better communicate with parents, provide consistency with their staff because records get lost, and plans don’t get followed-up on when staff leave; and they need to listen to parents and the public. Superintendent Williams assured him they are in a transition stage and are working with the WV Department of Education to improve on those very things.
Dr Williams said they have now completed the reviews of all the PCHS transcripts, and they have all been signed off on by Mrs. Cline, and are in the final verification process. She also said the PCHS course schedules have been completed and sent out. She also presented to the members a short Power Point mandated training session about the Local School Improvement Councils. How they are chosen and about the state requirements regarding how they are supposed to operate.
Dr. Williams also said that on August 13th, the WV Board of Education will review the progress the county schools have made in fixing the issues that have placed the schools in a state of emergency, and will make a decision on continuing it or not. She said that as part of their improvements, she is requiring every principal to report on student performance, attendance, and discipline three times per year, instead of the previous once-a-year report. She also discussed the problems the state found regarding the schools’ Special Education Program, saying those problems are systemic in all the schools. Williams said she is submitting a plan to fix them and ensure that in the future, all state policies are followed regarding Special Education.
Director of School Maintenance Duane Gibson provided an update on the progress of physical improvements at the schools. He said the gym painting needs to be re-bid since no bids were received; the BOE office renovations are being contracted out; the floor replacement in the PCHS has been delayed because of the discover of asbestos which will have to be removed properly, and the blinds and all windows there will be contracted out.
Dr. Williams added that she and Gibson toured all the schools and listed the improvements needed at each one.
The members also took the following actions:
- Approved the current financial reports.
- Approved placing Policy 5136 regarding Personal Electronic Devices out for public comment.
- Approved placing policy 7540.04 -Staff Technology Acceptable Use- out for public comment.
- After holding an Executive Session about the personnel agenda, the members returned and approved the recommended list of personnel actions, which can be found as part of the official agenda package for this meeting attached as a PDF file at the end of this story on our website: alleghenymountainradio.org.
To see the approved personnel list, click on the official agenda below
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