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Wood BOE talks calendar, honors cross country champs

By James Dobbs 3 min read

PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Schools Board of Education discussed its calendar for the next school year, COVID-19 updates, and the Williamstown High School Cross Country team at its meeting Tuesday evening.

The board, which met at Emerson Elementary School instead of the district's central office, started the meeting by acknowledging the Williamstown High School Boys Cross Country 2021 State Champions.

Superintendent William Hosaflook said the team had a total score of 30 points, and the next closest was Buffalo High School with 88 points. Cliff Taylor, coach of the boy cross country team, said the team would win again in 2022.

Emerson Elementary School Principal Tabatha Efaw, Assistant Principal Kristen Cale, and Assistant Principal Adam Shaffer gave a presentation that uses data to drive the program decisions of the school. Efaw said her team researched different programs for students to learn, and that her students have seen big improvements. She said students in the Rise program have increased their reading levels by three or more levels. This program has been implemented to first, second, third, and a small group of fourth grade students at Emerson.

It is the first school in Wood County to implement this program.

"We were scared that we were creating a situation where students would be in third or fourth grade, and not be able to read, because of the pandemic…," said Efaw.

Board member Ron Tice said he thought the program Emerson is implementing is good for the students, because the students are "not going to fall through the cracks."

"… You have a way of making sure that you're going to be able to communicate, and if they are starting to fail, then you can give them that additional help," said Tice.

Hosaflook said there have been 1,548 responses to the calendars for the 2022-2023 school year so far. The calendar will be discussed more at the next board meeting.

Hosaflook said that as of Tuesday, there were 39 positive coronavirus cases, and 151 quarantines within the district.

"So the number continues to drop …," said Hosaflook.

One of the public speakers, Marie Krinock, spoke about the masking policy in Wood County Schools. Krinock said she was walking by VanDevender Middle School with her dog, and found several masks on the school's premises. She brought the masks to the meeting, and said "… I'm just returning your trash." She then proceeded to dump the disposable surgical masks on the floor of the gymnasium at Emerson Elementary. She said the mask policy needs to stop so the littering stops.

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