Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
In July, on her second day as the superintendent of Pocahontas County Schools, Dr. Leatha Williams was informed that the West Virginia Department of Education was placing Pocahontas County High School under a State of Emergency due to issues discovered after a special circumstance review.
Not one to tuck tail and run, Williams met with WVDE support specialist Deirdre Cline and together they worked out a plan to address the issues in the State of Emergency and requested the state department give them six months to implement that plan.
The plan has been in motion for the past six months and at the Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting February 3, Will-iams gave an update on the progress of the plan, stating that she and board president Emery Grimes will appear before the West Virginia Board of Education February 11 to give a progress report.
It will be decided at that meeting if the State of Emergency will be lifted or if further intervention will be required.
In her report, Williams went back to the beginning, when the special circumstances review took place.
“The review examined compliance with state law, policies, evaluated student scores and county performance, and verified report data through interviews, documented reviews, classroom observations and transcript analysis,” she said.
PCHS was found to be non-compliant in five areas – the comprehensive school counseling program, grade transcribing and scheduling, leadership, positive and safe environment, and special education.
“I am proud to say that we have addressed each of those very thoroughly,” Williams said.
It was discovered that. the comprehensive school counseling program was not being implemented and that the most recent plan was from 2022-2023. There was also not a plan in place to develop student PEPs – Personal Education Plans – which is a requirement for all high school students.
Furthermore, it was revealed through interviews that instead of a guidance counselor, homeroom tea-chers were advising students.
To address this issue, Williams said Marlinton Middle School counselor Missy Hill and Pocahontas County Schools social worker are spending several days a week at PCHS until a counselor or graduation coach is hired for a full-time position.
The next issue – transcripts and scheduling – took a lot of time to fix, due to the number of issues regarding student transcripts. The review revealed that students were taking classes that were no longer in the WVEIS system and the report card did not match what was in the computer system.
More concerning, interviews with teachers revealed that there were instances when grades were changed due to pressure from parents and not because of a grading error.
Staff worked diligently to make sure all transcripts were corrected and now in order.
For the 2024-2025 school year, the schedule was not set in place prior to the students returning, so they did not know what classes they were taking until two weeks into the year.
This has been addressed and Williams said that work is being done to ensure all students have a schedule for the following year before the current school year is over.
To address leadership concerns, Williams said the central office staff is working on its communication with PCHS staff and there will be more high-quality professional learning opportunities.
The next area was positive and safe school environment.
“I think this is one that concerns me the most,” Williams said. “I was kind of surprised when I went to Pocahontas County High School and I learned the students had the door access code. Everybody had the door access code, so if you’re between classes, you just punched it in. That’s a true breach of security and safety.
“The school crisis prevention and response plan was submitted on time; however, the Department of Homeland Security reviewed it and it was returned August 13, 2024 for revisions,” she continued. “As of October 22, 2024, the required corrections to the plan had not been submitted.”
The security issues are being addressed, with administration gaining access to all cameras and getting the revisions made to the crisis plan. The board also recently hired a school safety officer, who will be stationed at PCHS.
“With our new school safety officer, we still have some lockdown procedures that haven’t been practiced at the high school,” Williams said. “We’re going to have our very first safe schools training with “I Love You Guys” February 16. It will be countywide.”
Many upgrades were also made to buildings to help improve the school environment. The gym got a new floor, the bathrooms were upgraded, the office got a facelift, and several classrooms got a fresh coat of paint.
The final issue was special education and this review led to the entire county undergoing a review for special education compliance.
The review pulled five student IEPs – Individual Education Plan – out of all the IEPs in the county and revealed none were verified.
The special education department countywide was placed under its own special circumstances designation and Williams said she and director of special education Philip Anderson have been working with the special education teachers to make corrections.
Williams admitted the past six months have been stressful and difficult at times, but it has also been rewarding to see everyone working together to make the school system better.
“The first act was building a culture of inclusiveness,” she said. “A climate of value. And I didn’t start at teachers. I started with bus drivers, cooks, custodians, board members. We ‘set the house on fire’ with [guest speaker] Larry Bell. He bonded us and, in that moment, we remembered who we were and why we were educators.
“I think it gave us the momentum to move forward.”
The board thanked Williams for her update and agreed that a lot of work has been accomplished in the past six months. Grimes added that he hopes the review with the WVBOE goes well and the State of Emergency is lifted.
In personnel management, the board approved:
• Requested transfer of Tessa Gum from teacher of special education at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School to teacher of fourth grade at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, effective for the 2026-2027 school year.
• Employment of Terri S. Sharp as custodian III at Pocahontas County High School, effective February 4, for 102 days for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year and shall be 220 days each year thereafter.
• Request of Angela Taylor to be removed from the substitute aide list, effective January 22.
• Employment of Susan Ray as teacher for the 21st Century Grant positions contingent upon an adequate number of students for the program, at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School.
• Employment of Paul Hill as baseball coach for Pocahontas County High School, effective for the 2025-2026 athletic year.
• Employment of James D. Sharp as assistant basketball coach for Pocahontas County High School, effective for the 2025-2026 athletic year.
• Request for parental leave of Aaron Pugh, effective March 10 through April 30.
In other business, the board approved:
• to post positions for one dollar baseball coach, one dollar softball coach and two one-dollar track coaches.
The next board meeting will be Tuesday, February 17, at 6 p.m., at the board of education conference room in Buckeye.
