Jeanette Wagner Appointed as New Principal at Pocahontas County High school
During the June 25th Special Pocahontas County Board of Education (BOE) meeting, the members unanimously voted to hire Jeannette Wagner as the new Principal at Pocahontas Country High School (PCHS.) Wagner had been the Assistant Principal/Special Education Supervisor at the school, and has had many years’ experience in various teaching positions. There seemed to be no controversy about this selection.
During the school improvement updates, Superintendent Dr. Leatha Williams, updated the members about the upcoming professional development training schedule later this summer, including the Leadership Academy for Principals.
During what is usually a routinely approved consent agenda item, which includes approval of things like this meeting’s agenda; payment of bills; vender payments; employee payroll; overtime pay etc., Member Sam Gibson objected, claiming that these approvals should not be included on a special meeting’s agenda. He voted “no” to approving the agenda as well as to all the other resulting consent agenda items. However, they still passed on a 4 to 1 vote.
Under new business, the members approved hiring the McKinley Architectural and Engineering Firm for design services for the SBA Major Improvement Grant.
They also discussed revising their Hope Scholarship Policy following the public relations situation that developed after Mr. Sizemore had asked to enroll his home-schooled children in an in-school robotics class. The policy had required home school parents to pay 1/7 of the Hope Scholarship funds they receive per home-schooled child for each class that student attends in the schools. The purpose of that is to make up a portion of the money not provided to the schools by the state because a student is home-schooled and not formerly enrolled in the school system. The policy revision was to address situations where, like in Mr. Sizemore’s case, he had not applied for or received any Hope Scholarship money. The superintendent presented a policy revision applying for those cases where the parents don’t receive the Hope Scholarship money, that the schools would only charge 50% of the 1/7th of Hope Scholarship income for each in-school course taken. The members voted to approve that revision. It was also pointed out that under West Virginia Law, any parent of home-schooled kids can apply for and receive the Hope Scholarship funds, but they are not required to apply for those. It was felt this was a reasonable and affordable compromise for the participation fee since the schools don’t receive school funds for those students.
Additionally, the members designated Kristi Hamons to be the authorized representative to hold a certificate authorizing her to present the official paperwork for and to spend the over one million-dollar USDA Grant. It will be used to purchase electronic devices.
There was also a presentation regarding the PCHS Boosters. The boosters are required by policy to have bylaws and a budget submitted and approved by the board. It was also explained that all funds related to football, such as gate revenues, food concession sales at the football games and donations specifically made for football, such as for equipment, uniforms, helmets, etc., can only be spent for football expenses and not for other sports or cheerleading or anything else Dr. Williams pointed out that this policy had not been strictly enforced, but needs to be. She said other sports can start their own boosters if they want to, but so far she has not heard any proposals for that.
The board also approved the “Save the Music Foundation” Grant agreement.
Dr. Williams announced the School Building Authority’s (SBA’s) approval of our $918,086 Major Improvement Grant to replace the roof at Marlinton Elementary School. She also said they will be applying for the SBA’s annual Needs Grant this fall for $4.8 million dollars for an new HVAC system at PCHS.
Story By
