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Air Quality Alerts Continue And Teachers Gather To Talk Student Literacy On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, hundreds of southern West Virginia teachers are gathered in Charleston this week, learning how to best improve student literacy. Randy Yohe reports on implementing the “Ready Read Write” initiative.

On this West Virginia Morning, hundreds of southern West Virginia teachers are gathered in Charleston this week, learning how to best improve student literacy. Randy Yohe reports on implementing the “Ready Read Write” initiative.

Also, in this show, officials have issued alerts about air quality issues in West Virginia. Eric Douglas has more.

The Putnam County Commission approved an ordinance Tuesday that could restrict drag shows. Curtis Tate has more.

And with the July 4 holiday approaching, officials are asking the public to rethink using fireworks. Delaney Wells has more.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.

Teresa Wills is our host.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Senate Moves Dozens of Bills As Session End Looms

With just two days left in the session, the Senate passed dozens of bills Thursday. Many of the bills related to issues of education that legislators have made a priority all session.

House Bill 2346 declares a shortage of qualified bus operators and allows retired bus operators to accept employment without losing their retirement benefits.

Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, said that an alarmingly large fiscal note that stymied a similar Senate bill from passing had been removed.

“One last important note Mr. President, I’d like to add is that originally, three sessions ago I saw a fiscal note of $999,999,999 and it is now at zero,” Grady said.

During discussion of the bill in committee, Grady – who is a teacher – said she has seen firsthand how the driver shortage is already interrupting students’ education.

The House of Delegates must now approve the Senate’s changes to the bill before it becomes law.

House Bill 2890 modifies student discipline guidelines for schools. The bill was amended twice on the floor to limit the application of new discipline provisions to grades six through 12, and exclude their application to elementary schools.

The new provisions primarily relate to when a student can be excluded from a classroom for behavior that obstructs the teaching or learning process of others. The bill now returns to the House for its approval of the changes.

House Bill 3035, in its original form, was intended to establish the state’s Grow Your Own program to facilitate a career path for high school students to pursue a career in education. However, after extensive amending, the bill no longer contains provisions for Grow Your Own, and is instead the vehicle for several other priority programs.

“This amendment will replace the House of Delegates method of promoting grade level proficiency in English language, arts and mathematics by grade three, which is the Third Grade Success Act that was part of Senate Bill 274, which has already passed the Senate earlier this session,” Grady said. “It would also remove provisions relating to the Grow Your Own program,” Grady said. “The amendment also adds in a modified version of House Bill 3293, which imposes requirements on the state board and local education agencies for addressing learning disabilities, including dyslexia and dyscalculia.”

Senate Bill 274, which had already passed out of the Senate, was similarly and significantly amended by the House Education Committee earlier this week, necessitating the addition of the Third Grade Success Act to House Bill 3035 to ensure it a chance to pass.

The bill is also pending House approval of the Senate’s amendments.

The Senate completed legislative action on House Bill 3224 adds West Virginia Junior College to the list of eligible institutions that can accept PROMISE scholarship recipients.

Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, said the change will help the state address its shortage of nurses.

“West Virginia junior college, they have three campuses around the state and one of the biggest programs that they have is their Registered Nurse program, training nurses at more than 10 locations around the state,” Weld said. “They’ve got an average of 400 students that they do, so I think that this legislation is going to help them build their student enrollment and will help West Virginians who want to become a nurse do so and help us with one of our bigger healthcare crisis that we have in the state.”

After a brief recess just after 1 p.m., the Senate returned to the floor and passed three other education bills.

House Bill 3369 completed legislative action and creates a School Safety Unit within the Division of Protective Services to conduct school safety inspections and make recommendations to county school personnel.

House Bill 3441, which completed legislative action, revises the training requirements for members of the Higher Education Policy Commission, while House Bill 3555 relates to student purchase and refunds of course material and awaits House approval.

Beyond Education

The Senate also passed out House Bill 2814, which would create a Hydrogen power task force to study Hydrogen energy in the state’s economy.

Sen. Randy E. Smith, R – Tucker, chair of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee, said the task force will look at everything regarding the power source, including sources of potential hydrogen in the state, and recommendations to prepare the state workforce for jobs in the new industry.

“The study will include a review of regulations and legislation needed to guide development of hydrogen energy and an examination of how the state can take advantage of incentives created by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” he said.

The bill only needs its passage to be received by the House to complete legislative action.
Also passed out of the Senate was House Bill 3189, the PFAS Protection Act, which would identify and address sources of so-called “forever chemicals” to reduce toxic chemicals in drinking water supplies. The House must now approve the Senate’s changes to the bill before it becomes law.

Third Grade Success Act In Doubt After Legislative Shuffle

Improving early childhood literacy has been a key objective of this year’s session. Coming into the final week, a plan to boost reading in grades K-3 seemed all but final, until a few minutes in a House of Delegates committee Monday afternoon.

Improving early childhood literacy has been a key objective of this year’s session. The renewed focus came after state and national test results in 2022 showed steep declines in reading and math scores. Coming into the final week, a plan to boost reading in grades K-3 seemed all but final, until a few minutes in a House of Delegates committee Monday afternoon.

Senate Bill 274 was introduced in the first week of the session. The bill, titled the Third Grade Success Act, would enact several changes to how literacy is taught from kindergarten through third grade, which is considered a crucial period for lifetime reading skills.

After some discussions over the potential cost of the bill’s proposal to increase the number of assistant teachers and reading coaches in classrooms, the Senate passed it.

Just a few weeks ago, when the Senate presented its budget, it included more than $30 million for the bill’s implementation, and everything seemed set for the Third Grade Success Act to sail past the finish line.

That was until the House Education Committee took up the bill Monday afternoon.

Senate Education Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, said she’s still trying to make sense of the House committee’s action.

“[Senate Bill] 274, that had the original Third Grade Success Act, actually was, I want to say gutted, and the House Education [Committee] put the dyslexia bill that’s sitting in my committee currently, [it] was put in place of all the other language,” Grady said.

Grady said that while addressing dyslexia is important, the Third Grade Success Act aims to improve the state’s basic literacy and address every student. Grady and her colleagues in the Senate Education Committee have reinserted the language of early childhood literacy, as well as dyslexia intervention, into another bill – House Bill 3035 – in the hopes that the program can still pass this session.

“We were understanding that 274 was going to be the literacy bill of the session,” Grady said. “That was changed all of a sudden, for some reason, there was no discussion in committee, I don’t know why, I haven’t been given a reason.”

“I don’t care if it’s under 274, or if it’s under 3035, but the language that was in the Third Grade Success Act, which is Senate Bill 274, is really important for our students and our teachers in our K through 3 classrooms,” she continued. “It would be unfortunate if we lost that due to some politics. The most important thing to me is that, that language passes so that we can start implementing that in our classrooms.”

House Education Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said the change is simply part of the legislative process, especially with different bills vying to achieve similar goals.

“This happens all the time at the end of the session, that you look at different competing versions, look at who wants to move what where, and come up with the best option that we can do,” he said. “But I’m sure at the end of the day we’ll probably get something accomplished with that.”

Both legislators are hopeful that a path forward can be found to help West Virginia’s students, but nothing is guaranteed until midnight Saturday.

“I’m fairly confident it’s just, at the end of the day at midnight on Saturday night, we have to have a product that goes out,” Ellington said. “If we don’t, then obviously that would not be a good thing. You still have to have the governor sign it. So until it’s all done, and it’s signed into law, it’s still just the process right now.”

State Superintendent Outlines New Literacy Campaign

The West Virginia Board of Education held its final meeting of the year Wednesday morning, and was presented with a new plan.

The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBOE) held its final meeting of the year Wednesday morning, and was presented with a new plan.

State Superintendent of Schools David Roach spent more than 30 minutes outlining the state’s new literacy campaign, called ‘Ready, Read, Write West Virginia’ to aggressively address low academic achievement across the state.

“As I’ve said before, our task is not only to improve our West Virginia education system to levels before the pandemic, but also to take bolder action to elevate and lead the nation in our work,” Roach said. “We know it all begins with literacy, and students who cannot read become adults who struggle to succeed. Literacy and reading have an immeasurable impact.”

West Virginia had some of the lowest math and reading scores in the nation on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, released in October.

Roach outlined eight actions the West Virginia Department of Education will take as part of the campaign. They include expanding career technical programs into middle school, a renewed focus on recruiting, supporting and retaining teachers and principals and building relationships at the state and local levels.

“It must be a part of our culture, as a department of education, as county boards of education, as individual schools, local communities, and as a state as a whole. This is a job beyond the ability of one state agency,” he said. “Instead, we must all work together to make literacy a priority. I am committed to working with anyone willing to support the crucial work of what we’re trying to do.”

Since his appointment in August, Roach has made a return to educational fundamentals a priority.

“When you appointed me to this position, we agreed on a common vision and goal for public education. We needed to get back to the basics of teaching, we needed to focus on reading, writing and math. And we had to do it with purpose and with urgency.”

According to Roach, the ‘Ready, Read, Write West Virginia’ will also implement and expand existing state programs, like First Lady Cathy Justice’s ‘Communities in Schools’ (CIS) initiative.

“We always talk about the overload that the teacher has, they have to have the basic needs met of the student, before they can even learn, and CIS does that,” he said. “That’s what we need in every school that helps the principal and our teachers to teach and take things off their plate.”

Report: Pre-K Programs Put W.Va. Students Ahead in Literacy

According to a study by New America’s Education Policy Program, West Virginia leads the nation in developing children’s literacy skills.

West Virginia was one of five states graded as “walking” in the report, meaning the state is making solid strides towards a comprehensive birth through third grade literacy policy.

The report notes West Virginia landed at the top of the list due to its robust pre-K programs. In addition to state-funded pre-K, West Virginia has low adult-to-child ratios in pre-K classrooms and high standards for teachers, requiring a bachelor’s degree with specialization in early childhood education.

West Virginia ranks alongside New York, Oklahoma, Connecticut and Wisconsin in the top-tier based on 65 indicators in seven policy areas also including educator qualifications, equitable funding and standard assessments.

State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Martirano said closing the literacy achievement gap by the end of third grade will increase opportunities for all West Virginia students to graduate high school with the skills needed to be college or career ready.

Little Free Libraries Popular in Huntington

Huntington is just the latest city in the state to catch on to the Little Free Library Trend. It’s a new fad that’s changing communities and reading habits.

Matt Lockhart is a lawyer in Huntington who decided in late spring and early summer he wanted to put a Little Free Library in his yard.

“This one is a little interesting, fashion accessories, the complete 20^th century source book. And a bunch of little kids books like beaty bear, there was some Dr. Seuss books in here the other day,” Lockhart said. “When I saw the idea of a little free library I thought that would be a great thing to do, to put in our backyard to kind of bring back a sense of community to this area.”

Lockhart saw one other one in Huntington and decided he wanted to see what it would do for his community and what it could mean to kids in the community.

“Our number one goal with it was to just simply bring a smile to people’s faces, whether it’s parents or kids,” Lockhart said. “It’s really kind of turned into a, it’s put a smile on our faces because we’ll look out the back window and see a mom with two kids and a stroller. It really kind of restores your faith in humanity.”

What’s a Little Free Library? It’s a structure that’s not unlike a large mailbox that sits in the front yard. But it’s larger and built to look like a little house. You’re free to leave books or take others. It’s an honor system that allows for all ages to take books home and read them. Books range from ones parents read to small children, to the newest Harper Lee novel. It’s all part of an effort Lockhart said has served a dual purpose, building community and making reading fun for kids.

“This lady came up with a little boy, she was pushing him a stroller and she said ‘I just want to thank you so much for putting this up here, we go on a walk every day and exchange a book, and while I’m walking, he’s sitting in a stroller reading a book,” Lockhart said.

Jonas McNearney lives a few houses down from Lockhart and his Little Free Library on 1^st street and 12^th ave. He’s got three children and said the library is something his kids look forward to every week.

“It’s really cool because of the fact that we get to get them involved with the community and exchanging books with their friends in the community and meeting new people in the community,” McNearney said.

Todd Bol is the executive director of LittleFreeLibrary.org and the man with the original idea of putting a small building in his yard in 2009. His organization sells Little Free Libraries for folks who can’t build their own Bol encourages people to join his organization, paying $40 to be placed on a national map along with other Little Free Libraries. And members received a placard to place on their Little Free Library to signify they’re part of the group. With over 32,000 Little Free Libraries around the globe, Bol said they’re bringing communities together all over the world.

Making reading cool and interesting is something Tri-State Literacy Council Director Megan Shoub said is a great added benefit of the little libraries.

“One of the best ways to address literacy issues in the future is to make sure kids have those skills now,” Shoub said. “If we can get kids excited about reading and interested in learning and make that something they do for fun and it’s readily accessible to them, not every kid can go down to a library on their own.”

Elizabeth Sheets and her husband Scott put a library in their yard and in front of their daughter’s school at St. Joe Elementary.

“In today’s world of technology and people are going to iPads and Kindles, I still want to hold a book and I’m hoping the children can still have that feeling of holding a book and opening the pages and looking through it and learning at the same time,” Elizabeth Sheets said.

Little Free Libraries exist all over the state from Lewisburg, Athens and Williamson to Logan and Morgantown.