Pocahontas Board of Ed gets storm repair update

Marlinton, W.Va. – During Monday night’s Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, Superintendant C.C. Lester informed the board that a Pocahontas County High School team finished first in a national leadership and skill competition.

“Pocahontas County’s Chapter Business Procedures team placed number one in the nation,” he said. “Team members – Mackenzie Halterman; Gabriel Walkup; Morgan Langston; Derek Hamman; Patrick Martin and Phillip Whiteis. So, that’s quite amazing – number one in the nation.”

The PCHS team won the state competition this spring and traveled to Kansas City on June 25 to compete against teams from across the country in the National Skills USA championship. The six-member Chapter Business Procedure team demonstrated their knowledge of parliamentary procedure by taking a written exam and completing a graded team exercise. The Pocahontas team brought home a gold medal, surpassing the silver medalists from Winter, Wisconsin and the bronze medalists from Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Lester reported that Dalton Walker, who won the state carpentry competition, had good results at the national competition.

“Dalton Walker competed in carpentry and placed thirteenth out of 49 contestants,” he said.

AMR News will present a follow-up report on these outstanding competitors.
The superintendant recognized community members who are helping to clean up storm debris at Green Bank School.

“You should be real proud of the county that you’re in,” he said. I’ve never seen such a county that has such community spirit and support. Clay and Laura Hise have called and volunteered to cut and remove all the trees at Green Bank. Varner Construction is going to agree to help haul them off. They’re going to cut them up into where they can be purchased for rails and things like that. All of the money that’s made will go back to Green Bank School. So, I think that’s quite amazing. They’re also getting a group of volunteers from the community to help and I think that’s just amazing.”

Lester reported that repairs are progressing at the Hillsboro School, which sustained roof and interior damage from the June 30 windstorm. The superintendant said a roofing company would be on-site on July 31 to complete roof repairs and that all work would be completed by the start of school on August 16.
Board member Kenneth Vance asks if board approval is necessary for the work.
“On these contracts and stuff – does this not need to be approved by the board?” he asked.

Board president Emery Grimes says the work had to get done.

“I don’t know how we could have got this work done, by the time school starts, if the board had to approve all these contracts,” he said.

Grimes added that Lester had kept him informed of his actions on the repairs.
Lester says he checked with a state Department of Education official, who said he could take emergency actions without board approval.

“We contacted Joe Panetta and he said what we could do with emergency cases like that – that we could put it out and try to contact as many people and go from there,” he said.

Vance says board members need to be informed.

“It seems like everybody knows what’s going on except us,” he said. “We used to get emails and that kind of stuff. At least, somebody should let us know what’s going on.”

Newly-elected board member Hanna Sizemore agrees.

“I also would have appreciated just a little note, last week, just to know what was going on,” she said. “Just because I feel like I’m getting my feet under me. People ask me and I don’t have the ability to travel to the school as freely as some of the others.”

Lester agreed to keep all board members informed, by email, of actions taken and progress on the repair work.