Parkersburg High School Principal Ken DeMoss, right, and PHS counselor Maggie Ohneck address the Wood County Board of Education Monday. (Photo by Larry Launstein Jr.)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Schools Board of Education heard from the three high schools in the district as they discussed programs of study, future plans and ways to tweak those for the benefit of their students.

Principals and other representatives of Parkersburg High School, Parkersburg South High School, and Williamstown Middle/High School addressed the board with their programs and ways to improve them so more students will stay in school.

They also discussed ways to keep non-college-bound students from having to take the same number of classes as those who are college-bound, especially in math.

Wood County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook talked about options students have to be involved in things such as Future Farmers of America.

Hosaflook said, “If students from PHS want to go to the FFA, they go to (Parkersburg) South (high school).”

He said PHS students have no limitations to access these programs.

“We’re going to have to think outside the box and open our schools up,” Hosaflook said.

He also said the idea is to give these programs ways to thrive, and that the principals have done a great job of allowing this to happen.

Hosaflook also said, “Every school is unique, every school is special, and they all do a great job, especially in developing the programs of studies for their particular school.”

The first principal to address the board was Ken DeMoss of PHS, accompanied by school counselor Maggie Ohneck.

DeMoss talked about having an advisory period during the week, where some of the teachers will have class and some of them won’t. Those teachers not physically having students in class will be doing distance learning.

The idea, according to DeMoss, is to keep those who don’t want to come to class engaged in the learning process.

Ohneck then discussed course offerings for next year, including cabinet making shop classes, and Sports in American Culture through West Virginia University.

Betsy Patterson, the principal at Parkersburg South, talked about students staying the course in math and how many credits should be taken.

She said those who are not going to stay the course in math should not take as many credits as those who are interested in pursuing math.

Other representatives from the school talked about upcoming science and math classes.

Officials at Williamstown Middle/High School also presented their class and program offerings.

Larry Launstein Jr. can be reached at llaunstein@newsandsentinel.com