Pocahontas County High School Students Excel in State SkillsUSA Competition

Addressing the April 10^th Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, School Superintendent Terrence Beam offered special recognition to the outstanding job that the PCHS SkillsUSA team did at the State SkillsUSA Championships.

Trevor McPeak came in 3^rd place Statewide in Plumbing, while the PCHS “My Team Works” students placed first as a team in the state and have qualified for the Nationals. That team consisted of:

• Drake Warder –Carpenter
• Trey Miller –Mason
• Braeden Hicks –Plumber
• Keith Harrah –Electrician

Vocational Teacher Dwayne Gibson did an outstanding job coaching the PCHS SkillsUSA contestants.

Beam also recognized Asa Marks for finishing in 3^rd place in the State Young Writers Contest for grades 1 and 2. Asa was present at the meeting and read her winning story  titled “Flutterby Butterfly and Jack the Fly” to the Board.

Beam also reported that he and Mr. Hall met with John Simmons and Ruth Taylor and discussed the move of the Hillsboro Senior Citizen’s  Center from one part of the building they are in to another part of the same building. The building is owned by the Board of Education, which needs to convert the area the Senior Center currently uses into a shipping and receiving area. The discussions have been amicable and they plan to begin the process on June 1^st.

Beam also reported that the last day of school before the summer break will be May 31^st for students and June 1^st for teachers.

Director of Maintenance Ron Hall introduced Jason Gregory, an energy solutions specialist for State electric Supply. Gregory presented an alternative idea to the Board regarding installation of LED lighting in the schools. Last month, the Board heard a proposal from EcoLite LLC to install LED lighting at the schools and pay for the cost out of the electric cost savings. Gregory offered a similar plan but one that would finance the installation costs, basing the repayment schedule on the amount of electricity saved each month. He pointed out the advantages of replacing the entire lighting fixtures and said the installation would be paid for a lot quicker this way, with the schools continuing to reap the benefits of the monthly electricity savings. He offered to have State Electric do a free energy audit on the schools which would calculate the costs, energy savings and needs. No definite decision about this was reached since the item was not on the agenda for action.

The Board approved financial reports, including payroll for April 8^th, budget adjustments , Extra duty pay, and vender charges.

The Board members also took the following actions:

• Approved the School Calendar for the 2017-2018 school year
• Authorized sports teams to conduct out of season practices at PCHS in June
• Authorized the schools to apply for a waiver from the WV Department of Education to continue to use the Spanish 1 through 4 textbooks they currently use for one more year, since the textbooks they want to adopt will not be published until the end of the next school year
• Approved 2 other Spanish Textbooks
• Approved the proposed personnel agenda without change following a short closed Executive   A link to both this meeting agenda and the personnel agenda can be found with this story at www.alleghenymountainradio.org.

The Board initially voted by a 4-1 vote to not approve a proposed trip for students to Spain on April 15^th through the 25^th because the Board’s insurance carrier will not cover out of country activities.  Later in the meeting the Board members reconsidered that decision and unanimously voted to rescind their initial vote to not approve the trip, but to instead simply pull the proposed trip off the agenda without either approving or rejecting it.

They reversed themselves on this because the trip may still happen as a private community event completely outside of official Board sponsorship, and the Board did not want to go on the record as opposing private individuals sponsoring the trip. The Board simply wanted to make it clear that if the trip still happens, it is not an officially sanctioned activity of the Pocahontas County Schools.

Click on the below link to see the agenda for this meeting as well as the personnel agenda which was approved at this meeting.

4-10-17 Actual BOE Agenda