Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
At the September 15 Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting, superintendent Dr. Leatha Williams providing information concerning the Third-Grade Success Act and the efforts put forth by the elementary schools.
Part of the act includes the need for aides in first through third grades, for classrooms with more than 12 students. This will help the teacher work with students on their reading and math skills.
“We are targeting our resources for math and reading in K-3 because we have a little over forty percent that are not where they need to be,” Williams said. “They’ll get a time to retest and there are some other provisions. We now have to have aides in first, second and third to facilitate reading. This is where we get our benchmark screener. We screen in the first thirty days of school – we screen three times a year and take the summative assessment.”
Williams also gave a year-to-date report on attendance, stating that daily attendance was at an average of 93.8 percent. A percentage of 26.1 of students are chronically absent, meaning they have missed 10 percent of the days that school has been in session.
When the board was reviewing the financial portion of the agenda, board member asked to have the Bowles and Rice invoices pulled to be voted on separately. She said she was concerned about the legality of procurement of the law firms services and whether or not there was a letter of engagement to use its services.
Bowles and Rice was contacted to help with a legal matter concerning personnel and is not the board of education’s law firm on retainer. Instead of going with the board’s attorney, Williams contacted Bowles and Rice to take care of the issue.
“I had a letter of engagement on file for Bowles and Rice,” Williams said. “The procurement process was followed appropriately and properly.”
“I see that differently, and I understand that very differently,” Regina Hall said.
The bills were all approved after the conversation.
The board also reviewed the superintendent’s goals for the 2026-2027 school year and added a fourth goal after a discussion with Williams in executive session. The goals are:
1. Support for Standard 7: Family and Community Partnership/System Capacity – During the 2026-2027 school year, the superintendent of schools will build school system capacity by establishing a community and school system collaborative stakeholder group to solicit input on Strategic Planning, the Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan and School Safety Planning to include administration of the West Virginia School Learning Environment Surveys. The survey results will be presented to the Pocahontas County Board of Education upon completion for review.
2. Support for Standard 2: Instructional Leadership – During the 2026-2027 school year, the superintendent of schools will strengthen career and postsecondary readiness by improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of Career and Technical Education programs through a systematic program review, development and implementation of Simulated Workplace structures, strengthened industry partnerships and alignment of CTE programs to student outcomes and regional needs.
3. Support for Study Achievement to align with the County Strategic Plan Goal and Alignment with the State Superintendent’s Goal – By the end of 2026-2027 school year, the superintendent of schools will lead the implementation and the monitoring of a districtwide Multi-Tiered System of Support to achieve measurable relative growth of 10 percent in the partially meets and meets performance categories as measured by local and state benchmarks.
4. Beginning October 1 through June 30, 2027, the superintendent will strengthen financial accountability by implementing a consistent monthly budget to actual review process with the chief school business officer and administrators, identifying significant variances, procurement violation and other financial discrepancies and ensuring appropriate administrative follow-up.
Any procurement violations or financial discrepancies attributed to personnel that warrant further action will be documented and brought before the board of education for appropriate action.
In special recognitions and presentations:
• Williams gave a shout out to principals Nebraska Scotchie, Melissa Jordan and Jeanette Wagner, and director of personnel Chloe Schaffner for cleaning the press box at Pocahontas County High School football field. Williams said the two-story building was in bad shape and they worked hard to get it ready for the football season.
• Youth Health Services expanded school mental health grant coordinator Peggy Stull and therapist Erica Clark gave a presentation on the services the organization provides to Pocahontas County Schools. At this time, Stull explained that four of the five schools receive grant funding for services, but Hillsboro Elementary School – which is not large enough to receive the funding – still gets the services the other schools do.
The organization works with students from ages three to 21, and has three therapists assigned to the schools, including Clark.
Brandy Cassell, Cara Rigby Pritt and Lynette Otto provide counseling services and family support services to the five schools.
In personnel management, the board approved the following:
• Employment of Kristine Sharp as substitute teacher for the 2026-2027 school year, as needed.
• Employment of Tina Barkley and Cheryl Cassell as substitute aides for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary, for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Tina Barkley as substitute cook and substitute custodian for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary, for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Cindy Pritt as substitute secretary/accountant for Pocahontas County Schools, at state minimum service salary for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Resignation of Gary Cutlip as bus driver, due to retirement, for Pocahontas County Schools, effective September 25.
• Resignation of Hannah Jordan as substitute aide for Pocahontas County Schools, effective August 29.
• Resignation of Jason Place as substitute custodian for Pocahontas County Schools, effective September 3.
• Employment of Denise Sharp, Rachel McComb and Windy Picarelli, as teachers for 21st Century Grant, for Marlinton Middle School.
• Employment of Marsha Grimes and Stephanie Burge as mentors 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 Devan Gum as $1 assistant cheerleading coach, effective September 15.
In old business, the board approved the following:
• Proposed Policy Revision for the following policies, second reading – Areas of Critical Need and Shortage for Substitute Bus Operations, Substitutes in Area of Critical Need and Shortage, Personal Leave Donation Program and Personal Leave Bank.
In new business, the board approved the following:
• Revision of Policy 5200: Attendance to include Compelling Circumstances.
• to join other West Virginia counties in the Social Media Litigation.
• MOU with West Virginia Schools of Diversion and Transition.
• request to contribute $450,000 toward the HVAC project.
