Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
It was fitting that the Pocahontas County Board of Education’s first Local School Improvement Council [LSIC] meeting was at Pocahontas County High School Monday afternoon as the board moved forward with hiring an architectural firm to design and install the school’s Major Improvements Project [MIP].
The board received an MIP grant from the West Virginia School Building Authority to replace the sewage system and to make repairs to the vocational building at PCHS. To begin the project, the board needed to hire a firm to help with the logistics of the project.
At the meeting, Randy Jones, Bill Shelton and Blair Friar of OWPR Architects gave the board a plan for the MIP.
The board asked Jones and his colleagues questions about the timeline and the project’s start time.
“We need about two to four weeks to get the survey acquired and get all the information you all will provide for us so that we can then get with the wastewater treatment person that will help us design this system,” Jones said. “Design will take one month, so that’s going to be relatively short.”
Jones explained that all plans and paperwork for the project must be approved by the SBA prior to the start of the project. With the SBA analysis and review, the project could be underway within a few months.
“Ideally we’d like to get it started within four months, and that doesn’t put us in a great position with weather,” Jones said. “We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.”
During the discussion, the board suggested working with as many local contractors as possible. Positions needed for the project will include a Clerk-of-the-Works, surveyors, excavators and contractors.
The board approved to engage OWPR Architects, per WV Code Chapter 5G, for the School Building Authority of West Virginia project known as PCHS MIP 69-501-2018.
Because the LSIC meeting is designed to give students and teachers at the school a chance to present information to the board, PCHS principal Joe Riley gave the floor to several Career and Technical Education [CTE] students and teachers to report on the Simulated Workplace program.
Under the Simulated Workplace, each class is treated as a business and the students create a business plan and operate the class as their own business. Students and teachers in ProStart, carpentry, welding, business, forestry and agriculture explained that they created a business name and logo, and are making products to use at the school and in the community.
Several of the programs received grants to enhance their classrooms and purchase materials for their “businesses.”
After the presentations, superintendent Terrence Beam commended the students and teachers on the success of the CTE programs.
“Our CTE programs – I’d stack them up against anybody,” he said. “All of our programs are strong programs. I talk to other superintendents and they’ll have a couple of really good programs and some that they have a few kids in. All of our programs are really good. They truly are. They’re highly competitive in all the things they do, and the kids learn a lot in those classes.”
As an example of the competitive side of CTE, forestry teacher Scott Garber reported that the forestry team recently competed on the state level. Due to a clerical error, one student’s scantron was not graded correctly and he did not get scored. If it had gone as planned, PCHS would have had the top four forestry students in the state. Instead, the three other team members were top three, which is still a great accomplishment.
While sad they did not move on to the national competition, Garber said the students handled themselves well and represented the school with pride.
In miscellaneous management, the board approved the following:
• Pocahontas County Board of Education to enter into agreement to join an Education Service Cooperative comprised of counties from RESA I and RESA IV.
• For Green Bank Elementary-Middle School seventh grade students to travel by school bus to The Mountain Institute, departing October 23 and returning to school on October 24.
• To place Policy EE-A – Pocahontas County Schools Wellness Policy on 30-day comment.
• Teresa Mullen and Valerie Lambert to transport four students to Ripley to participate in the Cast Iron Cook-Off competition, retroactive to September 14-15.
In personnel management, the board approved the following:
• Employment of Thomas W. Boothe as positive youth behaviors/healthy lifestyles instructor for SPLASH at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, at $20 per hour, up to five hours per week, for up to 25 weeks, plus additional planning/ meetings before program begins, for the 2017-2018 school year.
• Employment of Lauren Brooke Dickenson as vocational/community outreach instructor for SPLASH at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, at $20 per hour, up to five hours per week, for up to 25 weeks, plus additional planning/ meetings before program begins, for the 2017-2018 school year.
• Employment of Lesa M. McCarty as project site coordinator for SPLASH at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, at $23 per hour, up to nine hours per week, for up to 25 weeks, plus additional planning/ meetings before program begins, for the 2017-2018 school year.
• Employment of Amanda Ryder as homework help teacher for SPLASH at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, $20 per hour, up to nine hours per week, for up to 25 weeks, plus additional planning/meetings before program begins, for the 2017-2018 school year.
• Employment of Louise Burner, Alison Flegel and Gregory Morgan as ELA tutors/enrichment instructors at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, at $20 per hour, up to seven hours per week, for up to 25 weeks, plus additional planning/ meetings before program begins, for the 2017-2018 school year.
– Note: All SPLASH positions of employment and hours per position contingent upon adequate student enrollment and/or attendance and availability of WVDE grant funding.
• Employment of Crystal Ervine as girls basketball coach at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, effective for the 2017-2018 season, at a $750 supplement. Position pending sufficient number of players to make a team.
• Employment of Cynthia Shreve as after school tutor at Hillsboro Elementary School, at $20 per hour, two hours per day, two days per week, not to exceed 23 weeks, effective September 27, 2017 through June 1, 2018.
• Resignation of James E. Groves as custodian III at Pocahontas County High School, effective at the end of the day on October 2.
The next board meeting is a Local School Improvement County meet at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, Monday, October 9, at 3 p.m.
Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com
