Pocahontas Schools Satisfy State’s Special Education Compliance

School Superintendent Dr. Leatha Williams announced at the July 21^st Pocahontas County BOE meeting that they have received an onsite monitoring closing letter from the state that says the county schools have now corrected all the non-compliance Special Education problems the state had found in the schools in 2025. That letter officially closes the schools’ Special Education State of Emergency. Dr. Williams also said that the schools have been found to have met the annual requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. Additionally, Dr. Williams said the state has determined that the county schools are on schedule to be in compliance with the Career and Technical Education (CTE) report, but slight improvements are continuing with this.

During this meeting, Dr. Williams also conducted detailed and lengthy required annual training of board members in both Special Education policies and laws and in the make-up and responsibilities of the Local School Improvement Councils at each school.

The members approved their routine consent items dealing with the agenda, the minutes of prior meetings, and payment of bills etc.

During Personnel Matters, the board approved the recommended personnel actions which included the hiring of Cindy Solak as the new Principal at Marlinton Elementary School. Solak was a Science Teacher at PCHS.

During Old business:

• Director of Maintenance Duane Gibson talked about the large number of projects being done this summer at the schools. Gibson also said that because of the excessive $4,800 January electric bill and the $4,100 bill in March at the PSHS Field House, he has checked all the electrical outlets, boxes and anything else in the Field House that could have caused such bills, but has not found any problems with the equipment which could have caused that. He said these bills are much larger than the same months last year, but all he can do is monitor the situation.
• There was a discussion about the fees charged by other county school systems to non-public school students and Hope Scholarship students to take classes in the public schools. They found that most other counties charge 1/6, 1/7 or 1/8 of the $5,495 Hope Scholarship funds paid to parents who home-school their student each school year. Dr. Williams said our policy will be right in the middle of that, 1/7. She also said that WV Code 18-31-8 says that schools “shall” charge for this, but does not set any certain charge, and WV Code 18-225 says the same charges should apply for both taking classes and for participating in extra-curricular activities at the public schools. The members voted to put their policy regarding the Hope Scholarship out for public comment. Member Sam Gibson objected to charging anything for Hope Scholarship students to attend public schools for a class or extra-curricular activity.

Under new business, the board approved the following actions:

1. Creation of an organizational chart of the school system. Dr. Williams said that the state requires an Organization Chart be created and made public, but this has not been done here for the past 10 years
2. Setting of a special meeting for August 10, 2026 at 10 am on a personnel issue.
3. An MOU with the Mountain State Academy.
4. The School Board Authority Contract for $918,086.
5. An MOU with Marshall University.
6. A sanitary sewer easement with the Town of Marlinton.
7. Placing the proposed policy revision regarding Home Instruction for first reading and out for public comment.

Under Superintendent Updates, Dr. Williams talked about the upcoming Teacher and
Principal Academies and said on August 12^th and 13^th, staff will meet at the auditorium at PCHS for the annual orientation and to hear Brad Johnson talk about Culture and Team Building in the Schools.