Forestry Money for Rural Schools and Counties Did Not Pass U.S. Congress

At the January 14^th Pocahontas County Board of Education Meeting, as part of her report to the board, School Superintendent Lynne Bostic said that the Senate Bill 2581 – the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act was not passed by the U.S, House of Representatives before the 118^th Congressional Session ended on January 3^rd. This bill would have reauthorized Rural Schools and Counties to receive their annual Forestry (SRS) money this spring. Basically, for Pocahontas County, SRS annually provides about $350,000 to the BOE and just under 1 million dollars to the County Commission. The National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition in a communication said that they will work to have that bill reintroduced in the 119^th current Session of Congress, where it will have to be passed by both the House of Representatives and again by the Senate. The purpose of the SRS is to compensate rural counties that contain vast amounts of US Forest Land which is not taxable by the local county property taxes. It effects 720 Forest Counties in 41 states, including Pocahontas County where over 60% of the land is in the Monongahela National Forest.

Also in her report, Bostic said that even though schools were closed last week due to weather, the Board Office staff remained busy, including meeting with representatives of STRIDE, an organization created by the WV Department of Education last year to enhance information and support between the state board and local school districts. She said STRIDE stands for:

• Strengthen Behavior Responses
• Targeted Assistance
• Regular Attendance
• Increased Achievement
• Valid Data Practices
• And Empowered Support Teams

Bostic said the STRIDE staff earlier visited 4 of the 5 schools and met with the principals and visited classrooms, and discussed the needs of the schools, namely: School Safety, Difficulty filling certified positions, attendance, extending the length of teacher’s contracts to better enable their required training, and the need to hire a behavioral specialist. Kristy Tritapoe said she has been told that receiving STRIDE help is a “gold mine” for the schools.

In her report, Bostic also said that the attendance for both students and staff was way up so far this year, with 54 staff and 82 students having perfect attendance. She said the Green Bank School had the best attendance.

She also talked about the snow day situation, and its impact on the school calendar, which we will cover in detail in part 2 of this meeting story.

Josh Hardy addressed concerns about his daughter’s Transcripts during the Delegations portion of the meeting. Hardy said his daughter is a Junior at PCHS, and they noticed an incorrect grade for a class on her transcript, but eventually got that corrected after a lot of effort and contacting the State about the issue. However he has been unable to get the school to follow their own student handbook, which on page 12 says each class will be given one final grade for each course, instead they are giving one grade for each semester- or 2 final grades for the same class, which lowers his daughter’s GPA and can affect her scholarship opportunities. He said the transcript problems will also affect current seniors even worse regarding scholarships and even college admission. The board members were not permitted to respond since this was a delegation comment.

Duane Gibson, Director of Maintenance, Transportation and School safety also provided updates to the board, saying the gym floor at PCHS is in the planning stage with work to begin shortly after graduation, and that school’s electrical upgrades are being planned by an electrical engineer. The Marlinton Elementary School’s boiler and roof have been installed. They are also installing a fuel tank for bus gasoline at Marlinton Middle School. They have applied for a Safe Schools Homeland Security grant and a “COPS” grant will pay to install new camera systems at all the schools.

Be sure to listen for part 2 of this meeting where the snow days situation and the issue of WI FI were discussed, as well as the other financial and miscellaneous actions taken at the meeting.