Pocahontas County Schools Under State of Emergency per WV BOE

The special meeting of the Pocahontas County Board of Education that had been scheduled for Thursday, February 13^th, has been cancelled. According to both School Superintendent Lynne Bostic and BOE President Emery Grimes, this meeting was cancelled at the request of the WV Department of Education (WVDE). The meeting was scheduled for the purpose of disclosing the results of the state’s investigation of the student transcript problems at PCHS; however. at the next scheduled BOE meeting on February 18 this will be discussed. Both Bostic and Grimes said they have been told by the WVDE to not discuss those investigative results until that February 18^th meeting.

Apparently, the WVDE did not have a problem releasing the results of their investigation to West Virginia Metro News on February 12^th, which aired the story.

WV Metro News Reporter Morgan Pemberton reported that the Pocahontas County Schools have been placed under a state of emergency by the WVDE after an investigation found serious issues at PCHS.

Pemberton’s article said that on Wednesday February 12^th, the Director of the WVDE’s Office of Accountability, Alexandria Criner, presented the results of their investigation to the state Board of Education, which, in addition to other troubling issues, found significant problems with PCHS’s master schedule, grade transcription processes and counseling program. They visited the school in October of 2024 and found additional problems involving the school’s “leadership, positive and safe school environment and special education.”

The article also said that some of these problems are already being worked on because to delay fixing them would impact students negatively.

After Criner presented the findings to the WV Board of Education, that board went into an executive session to discuss what to do about this, after which Deputy State Superintendent Michele Blatt recommended giving the Pocahontas County Schools 6 months to correct the problems uncovered at the school. and offered WVDE’s support to assist them. The WVDE’s Office of Special Education will monitor the progress to ensure the school’s special ed programs come into compliance with state and federal regulations.

Blatt said they will expect a report on the progress being made in fixing the problems at PCHS by August 2025, and based on that report they will consider extending the state of emergency or even making immediate state intervention into the operation of the Pocahontas County School System.

We would like to thank WV Metro News for the information contained in this story.