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Wood BOE meets in Williamstown

By Douglass Huxley 8 min read

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Wood County Board of Education met in regular session Tuesday night in the new auditorium at Williamstown Middle/High School where they held a special recognition of the 2023 retirees.

A full list of names can be found in the online version of this story.

"We greatly appreciate all of your service to Wood County Schools for the years that you've dedicated," Superintendent Christie Willis said.

The board also recognized Pickering Associates as an Outstanding Supporter for providing lunch for service personnel at Williamstown Middle/High School on Aug. 18.

Kaleb Lawrence, assistant superintendent of operations, spoke to the board about the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association (WVSSPA) announcing that Gov. Jim Justice has proclaimed Sept. 22, 2023, as West Virginia School Service Personnel Day.

"It is truly wonderful what our service personnel do each and every day for Wood County Schools, and all the districts in the state of West Virginia," Board President Justin Raber said.

The board also heard presentations from Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction, and Jason Potts, director of curriculum and instruction, on the General Summative Assessment Results, from Cathy Grewe, coordinator of assessments and student services, on the GameChangers extra duty job description and Dr. Yvonne Santin, director of special education, on staffing updates and the need for more school psychologists.

Beatty said all grade levels, three through eight, performed above state proficiency in reading and language arts and Potts reported the same for math.

"I'd like to thank our teachers and our schools for the hard work and for just continuing to seek improvement," Potts said. "Not to be happy where we were but to continue to grow each year."

Grewe said GameChanger is multifaceted with one part of it being a student led group that provide events and programs to encourage students to not use drugs, and the other involving "coaches" that will act as the advisor for the student groups.

"It's designed to educate, support and empower young West Virginians to live healthy, drug-free lifestyles. And prepare to be leaders of tomorrow," Grewe said.

Parkersburg City Council's Finance Committee transferred $90,000 in ARPA funds into the GameChanger Program, aimed at preventing opioid and substance abuse in local schools, during its meeting July 27. This will cover the $30,000 apiece needed to participate.

Santin asked the board to hire a new school psychologist to help with evaluations and testing of students. She said there are four on staff now that see around 20-25 students a month and produce a five to six page report on each, and that they use a few that have retired to help with testing. She said the entire state only has 137 employed, with many coming close to retirement.

She said Marshall University is the only university in the state that has a graduate program so it can be a challenge to find a candidate. She said thankfully Wood County contracts are for 12 months rather than the typical 10 months other districts offer and this would allow them to hire someone who would stay.

"The thinking is that they will stay," Santin said. "Because this is something that will continue unfortunately."

She said the amount of referrals they are getting have gone "beyond critical mass."

Raber said this was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

"I wonder if a school psych is enough, or if we need to look more in depth at this," Raber said.

Board member Ron Tice asked why the board wasn't notified in 2022 by the state that they needed to address this. Santin said they get notified every year.

"Someone should have addressed the issue, brought it to our attention, so we could work on it then, not now," Tice said.

Raber agreed with him and asked the superintendent to ask the state to see what the numbers were like up to 10 years ago, and to develop a plan for the board on how to fix the situation.

"This is urgent and it needs to be at the board level to make sure this system is operating efficiently and correctly," Raber said. "That's what the five of us are elected to do and something's not operating correctly. And I want answers, please."

Board member Debbie Hendershot asked that they table the agenda item to hire a new school psychologist until they received this data but Raber said they would at least need that one psychologist so they approved it.

A full list of items approved by the board can be found in the online version of this story.

The next regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

The following professional and service personnel received a Certificate of Recognition for being Wood County Schools' 2023 retirees:

• Teresa Adams

• Jennifer Amos

• Douglas Badgley

• Roger Baileys

• Jo Badgley

• Danny Boggs

• Barbara Boardman

• Lisa Breitmeier

• Connie Bookman

• Darrell Bunner

• Kenneth Brady

• Candace Cain

• Richard Cunningham

• Carol Clark

• Marla Cutright

• Leesa Dill

• Michael Fling

• Carol Fleak

• Michele Fling

• Loretta Frederick

• Regina Graham

• Angela Gant

• Sherry Johnson

• Sheri Gaston

• Carla McCay

• Sherry Hamilton

• Todd McCoy

• Peggy Hendricks

• Julia Moreland

• Robin Holman

• Margaret Noffsinger

• Catherine Maas

• Antoinette Nottingham

• Walter Mace

• Jane Ott

• Edward McComas

• Dina Pinkerton

• Margaret Owen

• Lois Roberts

• Karen Powell

• Angela Roush

• Lori Rhodes

• Tangie Rumbold

• Jeffrey Somerville

• Janet Sams

• Marvin Walker

• Jane Sayre

• Kimberly Yoho

• Andrea Sinnett

• Jennifer Sisson

• Donald Snider

• Donald Stansberry

• Rebecca Wilcox

List of approved items in the consent agenda:

• Amend the 2023-2024 Administrative Salary Supplement to include Assistant Director of Finance at the Director II Supplement level

• GameChanger Coach/Facilitator Extra Duty pay of $5,000, one per school, at Jefferson Elementary, VanDevender Middle, and Parkersburg High School

• School support organizations as listed:

Elementary Schools:

Blennerhassett Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Criss Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Emerson Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Fairplains Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Gihon Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Greenmont Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Jefferson Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Lubeck Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Madison Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Martin Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Mineral Wells Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Neale Elementary: Parent Teacher Organization

Vienna Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Williamstown Elementary: Parent Teacher Association

Middle Schools:

Blennerhassett Middle: Blennerhassett Middle School Athletic Boosters, Blennerhassett Middle School Band Boosters, Blennerhassett Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association, Blennerhassett Middle School Local School Improvement Council

Hamilton Middle: Hamilton Middle Athletic Boosters, Inc.

Jackson Middle: Parent Teacher Association

VanDevender Middle: VanDevender Boosters

High Schools

Parkersburg High School: Baseball Boosters, Boys Basketball Boosters, Girls Basketball Boosters, Cheer Boosters, Crew Boosters, Cross Country Boosters, Football Boosters, Soccer Boosters, Swimming Boosters, Tennis Boosters, Boys Track Boosters, Girls Track Boosters, Volleyball Boosters, Wrestling Boosters

Parkersburg South High School: AFJROTC Booster Club, Band Boosters, Baseball Boosters, Basketball Boosters, Cheerleading Boosters, Choir Boosters, Crew Boosters, Cross Country Boosters, Football Boosters, Golf Boosters, Boys Soccer Boosters, Softball Boosters, Tennis Boosters, Track Boosters (Boys and Girls) Girls Soccer Boosters, South Theater Boosters, Speech and Debate Boosters, Southern Belle Boosters, Swimming Boosters, Volleyball Boosters, Wrestling Boosters

Williamstown High: Academic Boosters, Athletic Boosters, Band Boosters, & Strings Boosters

Wood County Technical Center: FFA

• Memorandum of Understanding between Wood County Schools and Lasting Solutions to provide services as stated through June 30, 2024

• Memorandum of Understanding with WVU-P for WCS Health Services to provide instruction to students in the EDUC 401 course to achieve modules in "Classroom Management of Health Conditions"

• Memorandum of Understanding between WVDE, Student, and WCS for Lisa Hindy to complete coursework to obtain Deaf/Hard of Hearing certification

• Memorandum of Understanding between Wood County Schools and KVC Behavioral Healthcare, West Virginia Inc., to develop a school-based mental health program to assist students for the 2023-2024 school year through June 30, 2024

• Memorandum of Understanding between Wood County Schools and Westbrook Health Services, to formalize the terms and conditions under which the parties shall work together to expand the presence of mental health services at Hamilton Middle School through June 30, 2024, and is contingent on grant funding

• Contractual agreement between Wood County Schools and Amanda Collins, LPTA, Physical Therapy Assistant, to provide physical therapy services to students of Wood County Schools for the 2023-2024 school year commencing September 13, 2023, and ending July 31, 2024, at the rate of $34.00 per hour, with a maximum of $35,000.00

• Contractual agreement between Edible Arrangements and Wood County Schools for the purpose of furnishing and delivering fresh fruits and/or vegetables to specified schools for the 2023-2024 school year. Specified Schools: Fairplains, Jefferson, Franklin, Martin, Madison, Kanawha, Emerson, and additional schools may be added depending upon grant monies

• Contractual extension renewal with CIMCO, Inc., for boilers and inspection sites at the cost of $49,075.00 with a callout of a technician's hourly rate at $105.00 per hour and overtime rate at $140.00 per hour

• Pay App #2 in the amount of $81,252.90 to United Construction Company Inc., for the playground projects at Blennerhassett Elementary, Gihon Elementary, and Jefferson Elementary

• Pay App #3 in the amount of $20,883.50 to United Construction Company Inc., for the playground projects at Blennerhassett Elementary, Gihon Elementary, and Jefferson Elementary

• Pay App #4 in the amount of $477,397.80 to Murray Sheet Metal Co. Inc., for Edison HVAC renovations

• Pay App #14 in the amount of $79,375.24 to Grae Con Construction Inc., for the Blennerhassett Elementary Addition project

• Increasing a purchase order to Carver's Electric, Plumbing, and Heating Inc., in the amount of $165,063.96 for Erickson All Sports Facility emergency repairs

• Pay App #2 in the amount of $43,629.30 to Grae Con Construction Inc., for the Jefferson Auditorium project

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