State School Superintendent To Retire At End Of Month

State Superintendent David Roach will retire at the end of the month, pending approval from the West Virginia Board of Education.

Roach’s final day is set to be June 30, less than a year after he accepted the role. Roach was appointed to the position in August 2022 after former state Superintendent Clayton Burch became the superintendent of the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Romney. 

The announcement came shortly after a contentious board meeting Wednesday in which state board members questioned why Roach had not informed them sooner of financial mismanagement discovered in Upshur County Schools.

At one point Paul Hardesty, state board president, interrupted a procedural discussion between Roach and Samuel Pauley, school operations officer for the Department of Education.

“I don’t mean to cut you off but this is getting quite nauseating,” Hardesty said. “You all had in depth meetings yesterday. Why didn’t you have this conversation with him yesterday?”

Hardesty continued and said that reporting on Upshur County Schools’ issues was not following the board’s normal process, with questions being discussed in a public meeting that should have been resolved before being brought to the Board of Education.

“I’m going to try to be professional, be diplomatic, but I have never seen anything of this nature in my whole 30 year education career,” Hadesty said. “This is bush league.”

The state board will meet in special session on June 23 to discuss the retirement and appoint a new state superintendent.