Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
At the October 6 Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, director of community engagement, school improvement, curriculum and federal programs Stephanie Burns gave a presentation on the new family engagement program that is part of the strategic plan for the 2026-2027 school year.
Burns said all school staff has been trained in the family engagement program which is improving the way families are included in their children’s education.
The program includes training for families in many fields, including reading, numeracy and cyber security, which focuses on making sure the students are safe on their social media pages.
“We coordinate and integrate parent and family engagement opportunities with community involvement,” she said. “We work closely with some community organizations, like Family Resource Network. We have already planned several this year.”
One of the activities is crockpot meals. The event will include recipe information and help families learn with their children how to cook a delicious meal in the crockpot. The FRN is helping by providing crockpots for the event and the families will get to take their meal home.
“Another activity which we have had in the past and will continue, is snuggle and read,” Burns said. “The families are provided a book, a teddy bear or something to snuggle, and the families read aloud to their child. We do a read aloud training to talk about the importance of reading aloud.”
Burns shared statistics that show students are twice as likely to achieve higher grades and higher test scores with family engagement implemented.
“With family engagement, everyone wins,” Burns said. Your students, your educators, families, schools, school districts and communities.”
In updates:
• Superintendent Leatha Williams shared the results of the first benchmark testing for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The elementary students had the IReady test and state benchmark, while the higher grade levels only did the state benchmark.
The results showed that there are students who are testing far below grade level or one grade level below.
At the high school, 146 of the 234 students were tested and of those, 34 percent were far below grade level in English/language arts and 35 percent were far below grade level in math.
Williams did not have the benchmark results from last school year, but did say they would wager a guess that the scores are a result of chronic absenteeism, an issue the schools are working diligently to fix.
She added that in comparing the results from this year to last, there has been improvement.
“On the last benchmark, we had significant improvement,” she said. “We had remarkable growth, but again, when students are out of school, they’re not learning. That’s why we have to measure ourselves from the beginning of the benchmark to the last benchmark because that’s where we see the remarkable growth occur.”
In personnel management, the board approved the following:
• Employment of Beverly Shafer and Loretta Rexrode as substitute aides for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Patricia Preston as substitute custodian for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Kayla C. Reed as substitute secretary/accountant for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Kimberly Taliaferro as site coordinator for the Green Bank Elementary-Middle School Site 21st century grant.
• Employment of Amy Hefner for fresh fruits and vegetables program at Hillsboro Elementary School.
• Employment of Jeanette Wagner as athletic director at Pocahontas County High School.
• Employment of Denise Sharp as mentor for teachers for Pocahontas County Schools, effective for the 2026-2027 school year at a rate of $25 per hour, up to $600. Assignments will be made by the director of personnel.
• Resignation of Natasha Trainer as head softball coach at Pocahontas County High School, effective September 23.
• Resignation of Paul Hill as head baseball coach at Pocahontas County High School, effective September 25.
In old and new business, the board approved the following:
• Fee Schedule for Policy 2371: Hope Scholarship and 9270 Home Instruction. To participate in football, there will be a fee of $100; $50 for all other sports, per sport; and $10 for extracurricular activities, per activity.
• Proposed Policy Revisions of the following: 4120.12 Areas of Critical Need and Shortage for Substitute Bus Operations: third and final reading; 3120.12: Substitutes in Areas of Critical Need and Shortage: third and final reading; 4432.02: Personal Leave Donation Program: third and final reading; and Personal Leave Bank: third and final reading.
• Memorandum of Understanding between Youth Health Services and the Pocahontas County School System for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Memorandum of Understanding between New River Technical and Pocahontas County Schools.
• Contract between Faciliserv for bleacher inspections and Pocahontas County Schools.
• Travel request for four employees to travel to Denver, Colorado, for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference.
• Vital ECM for digital scanning of special education records at a cost of $1,219.
• Contract between Diamond J. Heating and Cooling, LLC for refrigeration services as needed, determined by the director of maintenance.
• Contract for Larry Bell – Techniques and Strategies for Mentoring Struggling Learners, November 2 presentation, for $6,800. Funding source Step 7D.
• Permission to post an extra duty contract position for a Family Engagement Coordinator, to be funded through Federal Programs and Step 7D.
• Mutual Agreement with Stephanie Burns to align her title and compensation with similarly situated central office directors and to maintain consistency and uniformity in compensation.
• Permission to post for a sanitation plant operator/truck driver/groundsman/painter.
