(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

As the old song says, one is the loneliest number. So, it must be pretty lonely for James Paul, the former executive director of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, being Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s lone appointment to the state Board of Education.

Morrisey named Paul as his first appointment to the 12-member board in February, succeeding long-time member and retired Catholic schools educator Debra Sullivan, whose term was up.

Paul is the director of state education opportunity for the America First Policy Institute. In 2022, the state Professional Charter School Board selected Paul to be its first executive director. He served until the end of 2025.

Prior experience includes work at the Education Freedom Institute, the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Commonwealth Foundation. He has a doctorate in education policy from the University of Arkansas.

All remaining school board members were either appointed or re-appointed by former governor and current U.S. Sen. Jim Justice during his two four-year terms. Board members are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate and serve nine-year terms. The governor appoints nine members. The remaining members, including the state superintendent of schools and representatives of higher education and community and technical colleges, are non-voting members.

Morrisey and the board of education do not have the easiest of relationships. Both are embroiled in a lawsuit awaiting oral arguments before the West Virginia Supreme Court over Morrisey’s executive order last year allowing for religious exemptions to the state compulsory vaccine law for school-age children.

Morrisey believes the religious freedom law passed a few years ago by the Legislature opens the door for religious vaccine exemptions without the need for amending State Code, while the Board of Education believes until the law is amended or the courts say otherwise that they are required to enforce the compulsory vaccine law.

Morrisey took this challenge personally instead of seeing it for simply what it was: a difference of opinion on the law. When Raleigh County parents first filed a lawsuit against state and local education officials last year, Morrisey constantly referred to board members as unelected bureaucrats. Technically true, but he didn’t mean that lovingly.

Morrisey also has had a bad habit of announcing education programs without bothering to consult with the board or the Department of Education. Earlier this year, Morrisey announced plans to partner with the Star Academy at-risk student program. Never mind that the department had already implemented a four-county Star Academy pilot, with all four counties ditching that program one year in.

Or the signing of House Bill 5438, which would implement the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling program statewide. Except the Department of Education already uses the LETRS program thanks to the Third Grade Success Act passed by the Legislature back in 2023. To hear Morrisey tell it, he is the one who brought LETRS to West Virginia.

No doubt, Morrisey would like to have more say in how the Board of Education operates. But assuming he only makes it one four-year term, he only has three more opportunities to appoint new board members.

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That leaves Paul as the lone Morrisey appointee, and he is certainly making his presence known. During last week’s Board of Education meeting, he questioned county administrators about their new “I Love WV Public Schools” campaign, specifically why they were not including the state’s six brick-and-mortar public charter schools and two statewide virtual public charter schools in their promotional campaign.

Keep in mind, while charter schools are public schools, none of them were authorized by county school boards. In fact, the Professional Charter School Board was created by the Legislature specifically because when a group went to a county school board to get a charter school created, that county said no. However one feels about public charter schools, why is it the job of county school systems to promote a charter school for which it is not responsible?

The state Supreme Court will likely have to answer the question this fall as to whether public charter schools, as authorized by the Professional Charter School Board, are considered separate school districts and therefore in violation of the state Constitution.

In that same meeting, Paul challenged a motion to accept the 2025-26 state superintendent goals and accomplishments report, which also sets goals for the 2026-27 school year for Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt, arguing that the goals set were not trackable and vague.

Lastly, when it came time to make a motion to accept a new back-to-back term for Board President Paul Hardesty and his leadership slate of Vice President Victor Gabriel and Secretary Nancy White, Paul made a competing motion to nominate board member Scott Rotruck as president and Chris Stansbury as vice president.

Paul’s motion died from a lack of a second. It’s unclear to me that Rotruck, whose term is up on Nov. 4, or Stansbury, whose term is up in 2028, were aware they were being nominated. Both had participated by phone for last Wednesday’s board meeting. But I’m unsure why one would offer such a motion without having someone lined up to second the motion.

No doubt, the board needs someone to keep it on its toes. The board is not perfect, and while many of its actions are controlled by the laws the Legislature passes, it is not completely blameless in regard to educational attainment, which has improved back to pre-COVID levels but was still low prior to COVID.

Much work remains to improve Reading, Language Arts, and Math, though there is evidence that the Third Grade Success Act is making a dent in these numbers. It will take a few years yet to see if that work carries through to middle and high schools.

However, it remains to be seen whether Paul is the right person to keep the board on its toes or whether he’s just being a stone in their shoes.