PCHS Lady Warriors Basketball Team and Spelling Bee Winners Honored

At the March 12^th Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Lynn Bostic introduced and congratulated the PCHS Lady Warrior Basketball Team who had made it to the State Class A Playoffs, as well as Head Coach Mike Kane and Assistant Coaches Tim McClung, Chloe Schaffner, and Shannon Arbogast. Although the team lost their first-round game in the playoffs to Cameron High School earlier in March in Charleston by a score of 64 to 27, the 8^th seeded Lady Warriors were big underdogs to the #1 seeded Cameron Dragons. The Dragons went on to win the State single A championship by beating #5 James Monroe High School and #2 Gilmore County High School

Lady Warriors and coaches Who were at the meeting

Spelling Bee Winners Nathan Jones & Bailey Goodwin

As Bostic pointed out, the Lady Warriors have every reason to be proud for having a winning season and reaching the state tournament as one of the top 8 single A teams

Bostic also introduced the winners of the County Spelling Bee The first-place winner was Nathan Jones from Green Bank Elementary/Middle School and in second-place was Bailey Goodwin from Marlinton Elementary School.

Prior to the start of the meeting, the second, and final public hearing on the proposed 2024-2025 school calendars was held.  This year, instead of proposing just one school calendar for next school year, a committee of staff, administrators and parents developed three different calendars, which will be sent out to staff and parents to vote on which one they prefer. The biggest differences are the starting and ending dates for the school year, and the dates for Spring Break.

Calendars #1 and #3 set the first day of school year for students as August 15^, 2024.

Calendar #2 sets the opening day of school as August 19^, 2024 because a number of parents have said they didn’t want school to begin until after the West Virginia State Fair in Lewisburg ended.

Regarding the last day of classes for the school year: Calendar # 1 sets that last day for May 30, 2025, while Calendar #2 sets it for June 5^th, 2025 and Calander #3 sets the last day of school to be on May 29, 2025.

Regarding Spring Break: Calendar #1 sets an earlier than usual Spring Break for March 31 through April 4, 2025. Calendar #2 sets Spring Break to run from April 18 through April 25^th, which is from Good Friday through the week after Easter, while Calendar #3 schedules Spring Break from April 11 through April 21^, 2025. Easter Sunday in 2025 will be on April 20^th.

Bostic also announced that the Governor has directed the School Building Authority (SBA) to approve all of last year’s needs applications which had been denied. This includes the county schools receiving money for the PCHS gym floor and some towards electrical improvements at PCHS.

In addition to approving routine financial reports at the meeting, the members also approved the following:

• For Crist Consulting to have an extra 5 days to provide support, technical assistance, and coaching to high school Career Technical Education (CTE) instructors and administrators.
• A memorandum of Agreement with the Pocahontas County Extension Service Committee.
• The Sample Plan Document Section 125 Agreement dealing with employee medical benefits. This is done annually.
• Approved having Wendell Architecture examine the facilities at PCHS to determine needed projects to submit to the SBA for their annual Needs application.
• They approved the March 5^th and 6^th overnight trip for the Lady Warrior Basketball Team to go the Girls State Basketball tournament in Charleston. This was done retroactively.
• Approved making an application to the SBA for a Major Improvement Plan to make additional electrical upgrades at PCHS, possibly including solar panels.
• Approved next year’s levy rates, which are unchanged from the current ones.
• Approved Hope Exline as a Parent and Community Volunteer at Marlinton elementary School.
• Approved the recommended Personnel Actions.