W.Va. State Board of Education votes to make official statement to Legislature on proposed resolution - WSAZ

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - The West Virginia Board of Education voted Wednesday to make an official statement to the public regarding a proposed constitutional resolution during the regular State Board of Education meeting.

“I think the board has been vocal in the past about where it stood on many bills, and this year I think we heard earlier you have hundreds of bills going through and they have voiced their concerns on other issues, but this one they want a formal statement specifically about the constitutional amendment,” said State Superintendent Clayton Burch.

The resolution would essentially make it so the State BOE would have to go through the Legislature to make any changes when it comes to education across the state.

“In 1958 when the version we’re under now of the Constitution was created, we know it was created with separation of the Legislature’s role versus the state board’s role,” Burch said. “I think, yes we do see this passing, actually does take authority and oversight that the board has on education.”

The board and superintendent say they want to include all voices in the statement such as teachers, service personnel and students.

The status of Lincoln County Schools was also among the topics of discussion on Wednesday.

In November, Lincoln County was placed under a State of Emergency after a report showed inadequate purchasing procedures, excessive overtime among employees, lack of oversight of supplemental pay process, purchasing inconsistencies and non-compliance, inadequate records regarding bus repairs, maintenance and parts replacement and maintenance and schedule of bus fleet that exceeded the preventative maintenance window and may have resulted in buses breaking down.

The State BOE assigned an improvement team to the county to try and fix the issues.

On Wednesday, Paula Stanley who is the school improvement specialist, said there has been big changes at the schools, and teachers and students are now excited to get back into the classroom.

“We’re there for kids, we’re doing the best for kids, we’re doing everything above and beyond that we can do for the kids and that’s our job, that’s our job,” Stanley said. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Stanley threw the idea out of potentially “closing the book” to the board meaning, lifting the State of Emergency and dismissing the improvement team. However, Burch said they don’t want to do that quite yet.

“We were very pleased to hear the team we put in there that’s working day in and day out, the progress they’re making both on the financial sides of the findings. Remember, there were 33 items in that report of non-compliance,” Burch told WSAZ. “That is still ongoing, there is still a lot of work to be done, we have a team that will be going into each and every school. The board will receive ongoing reports until we decide that those 33 items were met.”

Also discussed among board members Wednesday was a new summer learning or extended learning program. The program is funded by roughly $33 million in grants and divided up between each county depending on population. Counties were able to apply for the grants and if they have excess funds, they’re able to use them for extracurricular activities in the upcoming school year. Currently, 54 of the 55 counties in West Virginia have applied.

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W.Va. State Board of Education votes to make official statement to Legislature on proposed resolution - WSAZ
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