U.S. Senator Joe Manchin hosted a virtual listening session Friday evening with Reverend Ronald English and other black faith leaders from across West Virginia. It was the first of a planned series of discussions called From Hurt to Healing.
In the wake of national protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, Manchin’s office announced the series in a news release hoping to “amplify African American voices and encourage every West Virginian and American to think about how we can move forward toward an equal and more just society.”
Sen. Manchin began the online forum quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said riots are “the language of the unheard.” Manchin called for unity and compassion to address systemic racism throughout the state and nation.
“You don’t care about the color of a person’s skin when you’re 1,000 feet underground in the coal mine. You care about who they are at their core, because that person will help you come home alive to your family.”
Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston from 1972 to 1993, the Rev. Ronald English offered thoughts throughout the virtual listening session. English, who was mentored by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said moving toward a more equitable future would require learning to acknowledge racism where it exists both consciously and subconsciously. He also noted that he was encouraged by youth leadership on display at protest events throughout the country.
“We did not know that kind of leadership and compassion was among us until it showed up in this way,” he said, “and I think that we have found a fertile ground for further leadership advancement and leadership recruitment in the midst of those who have come forward.”
English also pointed to the coronavirus as a component of the civil unrest throughout the nation.
“I think it is by providential design that all of these events came together at the same time, to alert our attention and to stir us from heart, not just from head, in terms of how we move forward.”
English and other faith leaders took questions, discussed issues, such as how to overcome racism when faced with racist leadership, and underscored the need for transparency and accountability.
For many parents across the state and globe (including yours truly and my 7-year-old son Brynn) the switch from in-class to at-home learning in the wake…
For many parents across the state and globe (including yours truly and my 7-year-old son Brynn) the switch from in-class to at-home learning in the wake of Coronavirus school shutdowns was drastic and fast. I met up online with the head of my son’s school, Elizabeth Hofreuter, for some extra insight into that transition. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Hofreuter has been leading Wheeling Country Day School, a private school in the Northern Panhandle, for 11 years.
Glynis Board: We’re now four weeks into learning at home. What have good and bad reactions been from staff, students and parents?
Elizabeth Hofreuter: I feel like I better knock on wood — I have heard only positive reactions from what I can see when I walk through Zoom meetings. Kids are learning and kids are engaged. They love being with their friends, they love being challenged. We have very, very few parents reporting that they’re having a hard time with their kids. We have a lot of parents reporting from fourth grade up that they’re seeing a new level of independence from their kids that we as parents might have forgotten to give them had this not happened.
Board:Has this changed the pace or pace of learning?
Hofreuter: The pace of life has slowed, period. When I get up in the morning, I have a to-do list and I can’t accomplish nearly as much as I could on any other day. And it’s not just because I have two kids at home — there is a level of unknown and anxiety in all of us. And when that happens, you can’t process the same cognitive load that you could otherwise, and we’re all experiencing it. And we’re realizing that sometimes you just have to stop and go for a walk. But you know, that’s what we need to do all the time.
And the other piece is I know when this is all said and done, we’re going to understand better what people with mental health issues really are going through, because we’re all going through mental health issues right now.
Board:As a perpetual student of all things learning, you’ve incorporated many cutting-edge, evidence-based practices into the culture of learning at your school—things like a center for multisensory learning, applying mindfulness curriculum, and outdoor learning. I wonder how this new online/screen dominant paradigm fits into that culture.
Hofreuter: So it’s definitely going to shift the culture of learning. And we’re starting to have some conversations about how we keep it in addition to the face-to-face success we have with all the other pieces.
The best example I can give you is I’ve been teaching English since 1989. And one of the things I always tried to do in the classroom was have a small meeting with two or three kids and go over the fine points of their paper. The problem was there were always 16 or 17 other kids in the room. This remote learning allows me to only meet with the three kids or the two kids that I want to work with and dive in deeply to what their needs are and not have to worry about the other 16 because they’re not in the meeting. And that has been one of the things that our teachers have talked about. That’s been a real benefit.
So while I think there’s a hybrid coming, I think we will keep the best of this and keep the best of the other, which will make education change.
The status quo has to be ruined by this. To me, that’s the best thing that’s gonna come out of it.
Board:I asked my son Brynn if he had any questions.
Credit Glynis Board / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Like people around the state and the globe, many of our West Virginia Public Broadcasting team are working from home — including our education reporter Glynis Board and her 7-year-old son Brynn. For him, that means emailed school assignments and meeting teachers and classmates online every day.
Brynn Kleine:How will school be different when we come back?
Hofreuter: That’s a great question, Brynn. So one of the things that I’m hearing is that some families are doing much better with a little later start and a little slower pace and we’re going to have to think about what that looks like. It also means that we’re going to tap into the benefits of technology without losing all the great stuff we love about playing in the mud and getting to know our friends and listening to their stories and seeing the really cool socks they wear and all the things that make walking into the classroom fantastic.
Board: Brynn has been enjoying learning from home. He was explaining why the other night that he feels like he’s learning a lot and enjoying himself and that he likes that he doesn’t get into trouble at home because he can’t fight with his friends… so that spawned this next question:
Brynn Kleine:Will learning at home ever be a regular option offered?
Hofreuter: Brynn, I know this is hard for you to understand. But right now in the world we’re living in, sometimes it’s best to take one decision at a time. And right now is not the time for me to make that big of a decision because there are still so many unknowns.
The idea that our children are home alone and not fighting with their friends is something they actually need to do. Because we learn a lot about edges and boundaries and that sick feeling in our stomach when we have a fight with our friends that we don’t want to have anymore, and I don’t want that to be lost either.
Board: Internet access is clearly an issue throughout West Virginia. What advice do you have for educators and families who don’t have that access?
Hofreuter: I am coming from a very blessed position that most of our families can afford and have access to good WiFi, which makes what we’re doing possible. But not all of them do. And we got nervous at one point and said, what are we going to do if we all lose WiFi?
And we said the message would be:
Read. Read whatever you can. Read to your kids, whether your kid is 16 or 10. And you don’t have to read a book, you can read the sports page, not that there’s any sports to be reporting on right now. You can read whatever’s on the back of the cereal box. Read, have them read — that in and of itself is such an amazing learning experience.
Go outside and suddenly notice things that you don’t normally have time to notice. And you may not know the answer why that bug looks like that. But asking the question is an amazing learning feat in and of itself.
But to teachers around the state, we chose school and we chose education because we wanted to be part of learning, but also because we love working with children. But part of the way we draw our energy is in their presence and being present for them. And I think teachers are being present for their students by what they’re doing with remote learning or what they’re doing packaging materials, but they’re not getting the same thing back.
And I know this is emotionally depleting for a lot of teachers and the only thing I would say is: This is also an opportunity for the world to see your worth, which I think we lost somewhere along the way. And I really hope when we come out of the other end of this, we take some time to realize just how special the field of education is in this country.
Elizabeth Hofreuter is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She joined Wheeling Country Day School as Head of School in 2009. Prior to WCDS, Liz served 18 years in independent education, during which she served as an adjunct professor in Education for Bethany College and in English for Wheeling Jesuit University. She was awarded the Klingenstein Center Fellowship in 2015 where she co-wrote the paper, 21st Century Education.
In this time of crisis West Virginia Public Broadcasting is reaching out to community leaders working on the frontlines to help their towns and…
In this time of crisis West Virginia Public Broadcasting is reaching out to community leaders working on the frontlines to help their towns and regions.
Danny Swan is executive director of the nonprofit Grow Ohio Valley — an organization based in the Northern Panhandle committed to promoting regional food security.
He shared these thoughts on regional food security and ways Grow Ohio Valley is trying to improve individual and community health throughout the upper Ohio Valley and throughout the state.
Credit Grow Ohio Valley
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Grow Ohio Valley
Danny Swan, executive director of Grow Ohio Valley.
The first is food availability, that’s just: Is there enough food in our community to feed everybody? And we think yes, there’s a resounding yes there.
The two more nuanced components of food security are, food access: Can everybody get their hands on that food? Let’s say vulnerable populations, homebound people or homeless people? That’s a food access problem.
In West Virginia, we have a third problem that needs to be looked at, which is food utilization: Is the food of a high enough quality that it’s giving your body nutrients and as your body in a condition that it can appropriately absorb and use those nutrients?
Glynis Board:So given the World Health Organization’s leadership, what does that lead you to do differently right now?
Swan: Something that we’re all noticing as a nonprofit and social service community in Wheeling, and I’m sure in many other communities, is the need for really tight coordination and communication. So we have lots of organizations that are doing great things. Some of them are overlapping in their services. Some have assets that are being underutilized, that if other organizations knew about, could operate more efficiently.
One thing that we’re working on with the help of the great people at the Family Resource Network and information helpline is getting all the nonprofit leadership together to coordinate our efforts to make sure that we’re addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.
What’s happening in the homeless camps? How are people eating and staying hygienic? What’s happening with homebound elderly, which is a huge issue across the state? How are they getting their food? How is how is the isolation and mental health being addressed for these groups of people? How about kids who are used to getting their meals at school? How are they getting food now? How are especially if vulnerable families — exacerbated by lots of people getting laid off from their jobs — how are they getting food?
I’m really impressed and inspired by this nonprofit group and how we’re stepping up to fill this leadership role collaboratively and how the non medical components of the response to this pandemic are being met by grassroots organizations in our community.
Board: You are finding yourself inspired?
Swan: Oh, it’s totally inspiring. Yeah, it’s bringing things into focus. There are opportunities here to make our community stronger. This pandemic, while of course, cause number one is making sure that people stay safe, and that we get as many people through this healthy as possible — there’s this other thing happening, wherein there’s opportunities to bring the issues affecting vulnerable people — we can address these if we work together, sharply and collaboratively with an abundance of communication.
Credit Hannah Hedrick / Grow Ohio Valley
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Grow Ohio Valley
Swan: And it’s also bringing some of our own messaging into focus. What are the key messages that we need to do to have a healthy population?
Board:Great, and so what are those messages?
Swan: We’ve really identified five key messages:
Eat healthy food. This is a better time than ever, it’s always important to eat healthy food, eat lots of fruits and vegetables — try to get five servings a day of fruits and vegetables. Right now that’s brought into clear focus by the pandemic. Eat healthy food, you’ll strengthen your immune system, and metabolic and diet related health conditions can improve rapidly. So do what you can to get healthy food.
Shop small and local if you can, for several reasons. It’ll help these small businesses stay afloat in your community. And you’ll be shopping in a place that has just a few shoppers in it as opposed to a supermarket that has hundreds of shoppers or even thousands.
Stockpile for two weeks, but don’t hoard. You can accomplish a two-week stockpile probably for less than 100 bucks in one shopping cart at a grocery store. Borrowing your neighbor’s pickup truck is not required. Stockpile sensibly and don’t hoard because when you hoard you’re creating resource scarcity that can really affect the vulnerable people in your community when they need to be able to have access to food.
Plant the garden. This is a better time than ever. It’s always a great idea to plant a garden but right now it’s a way to get outside and still respect to social isolation and distancing recommendations. To be outside, get some exercise, be out in the sun with your family, and — most importantly — growing healthy, nutritious food that will be inexpensive coming into your kitchen as you harvest, again, boosting your overall health profile and your immunity. So get out there and grow garden if you can. Check out Grow This West Virginia through WVU extension. They’re doing some really great stuff. They’ll even mail you seeds to help you start your garden.
Volunteer if you can. Lots of social service agencies doing great work and all of our West Virginia communities. They need volunteers. Most West Virginia volunteers are elderly people. Those are people who are unlikely to be able to keep volunteering. So if you’re a college kid and you’re furloughed or you’re a young adult and you don’t have other complicating risk factors, look for places that you can volunteer that will structure the experience in a medically approved, public health-safe way so that you can volunteer and help your neighbors without adding risk to yourself or your neighbors.
Editor’s Note: In full disclosure — West Virginia Public Broadcasting is also engaged in a youth storytelling program together with Grow Ohio Valley and Ohio County Public Schools. We’ll hopefully be hearing some reporting from those students later this spring.
At his daily press briefing today, Wednesday, March 25, Gov. Jim Justice announced West Virginia Schools would remain closed until at least April 20. The…
At his daily press briefing today, Wednesday, March 25, Gov. Jim Justice announced West Virginia Schools would remain closed until at least April 20.
The governor also responded to the recent jump in confirmed coronavirus cases, which rose from 20 to 39, as of Tuesday evening. State Health Officer Dr. Cathy Slemp reported that most of those victims were outpatients who did not require hospitalization.
West Virginia University’s Chief Health Officer Clay Marsh, who also joined the governor’s panel of health and emergency experts, said that the increase of positive cases — from 3.3 percent to 5.1 percent of all those tested — was an expected jump.
“There’s nothing that is really surprising from this,” Marsh said. “But it does really support the steps that we’ve taken.”
Marsh stressed the importance of heeding state-issued guidance, encouraging residents to stay home as much as possible, maintain social distancing recommendations, handwashing and to avoid touching one’s face. He pointed out that the coronavirus has statistically significantly higher infectivity rate than influenza.
“Every person who is infected with influenza will at least predictably infect 1.2 to 1.6 new people,” Marsh explained. “A single person with the novel coronavirus will infect 2.6 to 3.1 people.”
Marsh reiterated that it’s an important time to stay home in an effort to protect neighbors, family, and healthcare workers, adding that unlike China and Italy, health analysts are finding 38 percent of victims in the U.S. are under 55 years old, and 20 percent are 20-40 years old.
Justice announced statewide school closures have been extended until April 20, and West Virginians are not expected to file state taxes till July 15. That corresponds to the federal tax schedule, which was adjusted in light of the nationwide COVID-19 pandemic. Justice has also waived all interest and penalties on state property tax filings from the March deadline to May 1.
All updates should be available on state websites by Thursday.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s latest executive order reacting to COVID-19 means non-essential workers need to stay home, but some small businesses are able to remain open — including an European-style bakery that sells wine and other products in the Northern Panhandle.
Good Mansion Wines has been operating in downtown Wheeling since 2006. The shop recently expanded to include a bakery and lunch deli — closed currently to dining-in — but still open seven days a week and offering curbside pickups. It imports most of its products from Europe. One of the shop’s owners, Dominick Cerrone, is concerned about healthy shopping practices amidst this pandemic as well as the region’s economic viability and diversity as we emerge from the crisis in the future.
Credit courtesy of Good Mansion Wines
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courtesy of Good Mansion Wines
Dominick Cerrone, Wheeling native and one of the owners of Good Mansion Wines.
***Editor’s Note: The following has been edited for clarity and length.
Glynis Board: When did you start to be concerned with this COVID-19 pandemic situation? When did it hit your radar?
Dominick Cerrone: I think it hit my radar and our radar fairly early because of all of my family in Italy and being in touch with them and constantly being in touch with Italian media. I was very aware of how potent this virus is and what impact it could have on the economy.
And so, our shop immediately — not only did we reinforce existing hygiene policies that existed from day one, but we expanded those even further and really got out a very strict policy in our store.
Board: Outside of your own shop, what kinds of government policies do you think are critical going forward for small businesses throughout the region? Are you speaking with other businesses dealing with this crisis?
Cerrone: We’ve reached out to several businesses, but also probably more importantly to some of the community organizations that are kind of quasi-governmental, to encourage the population now to think hard about the impact of this virus on not only the health of the community, but the economy of community and to begin an initiative and a collective discussion about how where you’re shopping today is going to impact the way your community looks after this pandemic.
This is not a short-lived pandemic. This could be a way of life for awhile. Small businesses, small restaurants, small retailers, as long as they’re able to be open, and that they’re deemed essential, are dependent on that cash flow. And small businesses have a lot of cash flow. If you want the economic diversity and the diversity of product in your community, you have to really ask yourself, what do you want your community to look like after this.
And if you are comfortable with just having a Kroger and a Walmart and gas stations, then go ahead and shop at those, but if you’re intent on having access to a much broader selection of quality, then people really should be thinking about the economic health of the community.
I argue — without being a medical expert — that I honestly believe there are health benefits to shopping locally because you’re much more able to keep your social distancing and and kind of stay healthy in smaller shops, if you can get what you’re looking for it those smaller shops rather than the big box supermarkets.
So, that’s not to say that if, say, somebody has to go to 10 stores to get their needs, that that might be any collectively better than just going to one store. But if you’re going out and — using the instance of Good Mansion Wines — you just basically need some wine and some a couple fresh baked items and some dry goods for a dinner — whether that’s pasta or rice or canned tuna, or whatever. If that can be done at a smaller shop, you should really think hard about whether — for the economic health of the community but also for social distancing — if it’s a good idea to go to the large retail shop or to support a local business and be able to also keep your distance.
Board:Is there anything you want to add about Italy, about your family there, about the folks you’re working with there – any other observations?
Cerrone: I can certainly say as citizens of the world, we deal with small Italian families. They’re all family businesses. These are very small enterprises with very high-quality product. If you’re interested in helping out an economy that’s kind of at its at its brink right now, that’s another reason to consider coming in and supporting Good Mansion Wines, because of the efforts that we make to connect to those families.
It’s very hard. I have family in Milan, I have family throughout [Italy]. I have family in the medical field. I have family that’s a senator in Rome. Their life is very, very compromised right now. And what’s most concerning is hearing what’s happening there and realizing that within a mere several weeks we could be living the same kind of life.
It really makes you want to kind of, as [Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] Dr. Fauci said, go where the puck is going to be, not where it is right now.
The West Virginia Department of Education and Marshall University unveiled a new initiative this week. It’s a framework a year in the making to address…
The West Virginia Department of Education and Marshall University unveiled a new initiative this week. It’s a framework a year in the making to address the wave of students flooding public schools who are coping with various forms of substance use disorders at home.
The state’s Department of Education worked for a year to build an infrastructure to support the mental health and social-emotional needs of school communities.
It’s called the ReClaimWV Initiative. The department published a web site dedicated to identifying partners and resources available as well as goals and plans to help address the crisis. The site links to resources and information about trauma, substance use, and mental health. It identifies partners and organizations that are working on various aspects of the problem, and highlights action plans the department hopes to take going forward. Resources are listed for educators, families, students, and communities.
Key partners including Marshall University’s Autism Training Center which houses the West Virginia Behavior/Mental Health Technical Assistance Center (TAC). TAC provides training and assistance and can help resources be dispersed around the state.
A press release from the department pointed out that the substance misuse epidemic may be the single worst crisis impacting students in the state’s history, and that it’s changed the face of education as teachers must now focus heavily on meeting foundational social and emotional needs before they can hope to address academic needs. The release also pointed out that the education system is often the only remaining comprehensive support system left in communities today.
