BOE Votes to Eliminate Positions

The January 20^th Pocahontas County BOE Meeting, began with a statement by Board President Emery Grimes, in which he defended the elimination of five unstaffed teacher positions, 2 counselor positions and a vacant Assistant Principal position. Grimes emphasized that those positions are all currently unstaffed, so nobody will be losing their job. He also expressed frustration with all the negative and misinformed remarks being made on social media about this. You can listen to Grimes complete 4-minute statement at the end of this story on our website.

Five members of the public spoke to the board during Delegations. They criticized the staff cuts, especially eliminating the Assistant Principal and counselor positions at the Green Bank School and about the lack of transparency by school Administration concerning these cuts.

Josh Hardy said the PCHS Local School Improvement Council met the week before and agreed that these cuts could make sense, but that to make them work in a positive way, PCHS would need to transform to a block schedule and have an embedded CTE program, but the state has always opposed both of those. Hardy also said that if the school counselor position at PCHS is replaced with a Graduation Coach, that could be a good thing, but the Graduation Coach position should happen simultaneously with eliminating the counselor position. He asked the board to delay eliminating the positions until they get more information.

Superintendent Williams responded to the delegations by saying that the Assistant Principal position at Green Bank was always a temporary position, and it is now vacant and the Federal Government has eliminated the funding for it.

Additionally, Williams said they have to be prepared for future budget cuts, especially since there is a bill in the WV Legislature that would reduce our 1400 minimum student state payments down to 1200, which would cost the Pocahontas County Schools 1.7million dollars and because other federal funding programs are also at risk.

Regarding concerns that reducing teachers will cause very large class sizes, Williams said that by eliminating the social Studies and the ELA teaching positions at the high school, the number of students in the remaining ELA and Social Studies classes would still remain small – 18 students at most.

As the board was preparing to vote on cutting these positions, board member Sam Gibson made a motion to not vote on them until the superintendent provides the board with detailed information about:

1. Complete financial details concerning these positions, including the amount of money eliminating them would save.
2. A list of all state and local policies regarding high school counselors.
3. Complete budget data on each of their 261 current contracts, including the supplements paid to staff.
4. Complete details on all consulting fees paid by the schools from the date PCHS was placed under a state of emergency.
5. Regarding the need to hire the school security officers; Gibson asked for a report of how many level 3 and 4 offenses were committed at each school and how many times police were called to each of the schools.

Gibson’s motion failed because no other member would second it. The other members on a 4 to 1 vote agreed to eliminate the following positions, all of which are currently unstaffed:

• A Teacher of ELA position at Pocahontas County High School
• A Teacher of Social Studies position at Pocahontas County High School
• A Teacher of CTE Business Management and Administration position at Pocahontas County High School
• The Counselor position at Pocahontas County High School they have been unable to fill (to be replaced by a Graduation Coach Position.)
• The Counselor at Green Bank/Elementary Middle School that they have been unable to fill.
• The Assistant Principal at Green Bank/Elementary Middle School because the
  Federal Funding source has ended
• A Teacher of multi-subject (4th grade) at Green Bank/Elementary Middle School that they have been unable to fill.
• A Teacher of Special Education/Multi Subject at Hillsboro Elementary that they have been unable to fill.

Also at the meeting:

• After discussing it in Executive Session, the members approved the recommended personnel agenda.
• Julie Dunlap gave a presentation on school attendance so far this school year compared to last year. There was an overall drop from a 35.78% unexcused absence rate in 2025 to a 24.69% rate this year, which is still above the 15% goal, but moving in the right direction.
• The board recognized the All-State Fall Athletes and the staff members with perfect attendance during the fall semester.

Grimes Statement Below