A Kanawha County school counselor was recognized for his work at a recent White House function.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports 37-year-old Todd Roatsey and other state representatives for the National Counselor of the Year Award attended a ceremony Jan. 28, where they met First Lady Michelle Obama, among others.
Roatsey was named the Elementary School Counselor of the Year by the West Virginia School Counselor Association. The organization nominated him, and he was approved, as the state’s national counselor representative.
Jill Cook, assistant director of the American School Counselor Association, which presented the national award to Katherine Pastor at Arizona’s Flagstaff High School, says Roatsey was among representatives from 47 states and the District of Columbia.
Roatsey works as a developmental school guidance counselor at Pinch Elementary.
The March of Dimes gives West Virginia low marks for preventing premature births.
West Virignia earned a D on the 2015 March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card. The report card compares the state’s preterm birth rate with the March of Dimes’ goal of 8.1 percent by 2020.
In 2014, West Virginia’s rate was 10.8 percent, up from 10.5 percent the previous year.
The March of Dimes said Wednesday in a news release that three counties’ 2013 preterm birth rates were worse than the statewide rate. Kanawha County’s rate of 14.1 percent was the highest in the state, followed by Cabell County at 13.7 percent and Wood County at 12.6 percent.
West Virginia was ranked 35th on a disparity index that measures the gaps between racial and ethnic groups.
Members of the Kanawha County Community gathered at West Virginia State University earlier this week to discuss race and the ongoing battle for equality.
Community members, officials and students took part in a discussion at West Virginia State looking at different racial issues effecting West Virginia and Kanawha County. The discussion was organized by students and the American Friends Service Committee.
“Taking Action for Racial Equality” was a discussion focused on finding ways to reduce racial disparities in the state. It was part of a series of events that began last November at the Summit on Race Matters in West Virginia that drew nearly 200 people. Takeiya Smith is a West Virginia State student from Charleston who said it was important for students to lead the discussion.
“It means a lot to me because I’m from here and we’re not talking about changing things in the entire world, we’re talking about changing things right here in West Virginia, Smith said. “It makes me feel really good, I’m 21 years old and I know I’m doing something that’s extremely significant that matters and it’s really fulfilling.”
The forum focused on ideas generated at a June meeting at the East End Family Resource Center. That meeting generated possible community solutions to racial inequality in voter engagement, criminal justice reforms and investments in affordable housing on Charleston’s West Side. Eight issue teams presented solutions and then participants had the opportunity to pick team they wanted to join in order to take action.
Credit Clark Davis / WV Public Broadcasting
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WV Public Broadcasting
Breakout groups discuss issues.
Smith said each discussion of race in the region is a step in the right direction.
“Having a victory on one racial justice initiative is not going to eliminate racism all over the country or all over the world,” Smith said. “But that’s ok because we’ve taken one more step toward where we need to be and that’s equality.”
Among those issues was reinvestment in Charleston’s West Side where Reverend Matthew Watts said they just need others in the region to believe in the community.
“The West Side is arguably West Virginia’s most challenged community. If we were a separate municipality we would be the 9th largest city in West Virginia with over 18,000 people,” Smith said. “We have the highest concentration of African America people of anywhere in West Virginia. There are over 4,000 children in one neighborhood. So we’re trying to bring attention to the West Side and how it can be a model community and how it can be transformed from the inside out.”
Other issues discussed including the Second Chance Employment Act which would allow for the expungement of one non-violent felony five years after time served in order to allow the person to have a clean record. And issues like LGBTQ safety and equality on West Virginia State’s Campus. West Virginia State will host another meeting in January to track the progress of the various actions teams assembled during the event.
Sixteen schools in eight West Virginia counties will share more than $12,200 in grants for sustainability projects.
The grants are provided by the state Department of Environmental Protection and ZMM Architects & Engineers as part of the Green Apple Day of Service, which is scheduled for Sept. 26.
The day of service gives students, teachers, parents, and residents an opportunity to volunteer with local schools in an effort to create safer, healthier and more efficient learning environments.
The projects are in Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Monongalia, Putnam, Upshur and Wayne counties.
Four additional West Virginia counties have been declared endemic for Lyme disease, bringing the total to 11.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Kanawha, Marshall, Roane and Wetzel counties were declared endemic for the tick-borne disease as of Aug. 15. They join Berkeley, Hampshire, Hancock, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan and Wood counties on the list.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state health commissioner, says a county is considered endemic for Lyme disease if it has at least two confirmed cases in patients who had not traveled recently and could only have been bitten by a tick within that county.
The state Bureau for Public Health says there have been 149 cases of Lyme disease in West Virginia this year — nearly double the 77 reported in the same time frame in 2014.
Work is scheduled to begin Monday on removing part of a manmade hillside at Yeager Airport that collapsed earlier this year.
A Kanawha County judge’s ruling in a lawsuit cleared the way for the work to begin.
Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit ruled on Friday that material collected from the site must be stored in the same place. Tabit also said all parties involved in the lawsuit must be notified before any testing of the material is done.
A portion of the emergency over-run area at the end of the airport’s runway collapsed on March 12. Airport officials are suing companies involved with the over-run area’s design and construction.
Meanwhile, Yeager announced on Saturday that executive director Rick Atkinson will resign, effective Monday.
