Pocahontas County BOE Elects its Vice-President

At their April 21^st meeting, the Pocahontas County Board of Education members held a vote to replace the late Dr. Sue Hollandsworth as the Vice-President of the board. Two candidates were nominated, Morgan McComb and Andrew (Frosty) McNabb.  It is interesting that McNabb nominated McComb, and McComb nominated McNabb. The board voted 4 to 1 to elect McNabb, who was the only member vote for McComb, while McComb voted for McNabb. Both McNabb and McComb are up for reelection at the May 12^th BOE election. Emery Grimes, who is not up for reelection to the board this year, remains as the Board President.

During public Delegations, Nathaniel Sizemore spoke to the members, saying that the Pocahontas County BOE is like having someone bad in your family from whom you are always expecting a phone call that they are in trouble, but you hope they have learned from their mistakes, but often they haven’t. He said he feels like the BOE is still failing despite being released from the state of emergency. He said they need a full-time counselor at PCHS, consistent Special Education, need to fix budget shortfalls, and to improve teacher morale.

Later during a related meeting agenda item, Sizemore asked for the board’s approval to enroll his two children in a Robotics class. He needs to ask because he home-schools his kids. The board approved this, but informed him that policy requires he be charged $750.00 for each of his kids to attend that class because they are not enrolled in the Pocahontas County Public Schools. He was told that if he chooses to enroll them, there will be no charge.

Later during the board member comments, Frosty McNabb addressed Sizemore, asking him if he has been watching or following the BOE meetings, and when he said no, he has not been following the meetings, McNabb said it is very frustrating when people give their opinions on something they admittedly have no knowledge of, and things have changed for the better since Dr. Williams became Superintendent last July. Sizemore said he home schools his kids since moving to the county, because prior to moving here, one of his kids was diagnosed with cancer and their old school said they could not accommodate the medical needs of a student who was that sick. Sizemore then said that after attending and listening at this meeting, he feels like he should apologize for being so hard on the board in his opening remarks.

Director of Attendance Julie Dunlap presented an update on attendance. She said they did not meet their goal this year of decreasing chronic absenteeism by 50 students, with a 10% decrease school-wide.  She said Hillsboro Elementary was on target with about 12 less chronic absences then this time last year. Marlinton Middle was 3% less than last year, while Greenbank Elementary/Middle and Marlinton Elementary schools showed a little improvement, and PCHS Chronic Absenteeism was up just a little. Overall, the school system was about the same as last year, but will continue efforts to improve.

Dr. Williams made a presentation about the staff survey of the Strategic Planning Needs
Assessments. To summarize this, 77% of the 90 responding staff members were either satisfied or Neutral regarding the professional development opportunities provided them, most felt that the training aligned with the school strategic plan; that the biggest challenges they experience were the lack of family support, Student Attendance issues and managing student behavior.

Dr. Williams also went over education related bills that passed the WV Legislature this year. A couple of the significant ones were:

• HB 4395 which requires that the investigation of a school staff member who is accused of serious offences that could endanger the health, safety or welfare of students, must continue even if the staff member resigns.
• HB 4425 which only allows a student to transfer for athletic reasons once.
• HB 4798, requires schools to have teachers wear a panic button.
• HB 4982 -the “Make WV Healthy Act,” which among other things, brings back the presidential fitness requirements.
• HB 4999 increases penalties for crimes against athletic officials.

Dr. Williams also announced that PCHS was going to a “Modified 4 Block Split Schedule” next year, with dismissal at 3:17 pm daily.