On Wednesday, the West Virginia Senate passed a bill that would require the boards of education of each county to provide free feminine hygiene products to grades three through 12.
On Wednesday, the West Virginia Senate passed a bill that would require the boards of education in each county to provide free feminine hygiene products to grades three through 12.
The local boards are also required to develop a plan to make the products available so the student can obtain them discreetly.
A 2021 study conducted by U from Kotex, the founding sponsor of Alliance for Period Supplies, found that two in five people have struggled to purchase period products, a problem the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded.
If the House of Delegates approves Senate Bill 489 and it is signed by the governor, West Virginia would join 16 other states in requiring period products in schools.
The bill now goes to the House for their consideration.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and West Virginia had some of the lowest scores in the country.Deputy Superintendent Michele Blatt spoke with reporter Chris Schulz about what the results mean for education in West Virginia.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Sometimes referred to as “nape” scores, it’s a nationwide measurement of learning, particularly reading and math in the 4th and 8th grades, and West Virginia had some of the lowest scores in the country.
Deputy Superintendent Michele Blatt spoke with reporter Chris Schulz about what the results mean for education in West Virginia.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Schulz: Deputy Blatt, thank you so much for joining me. Could you start off by telling me what was your reaction to seeing the NAEP data come out?
Blatt: Well, the NAEP scores further highlighted concerns that we already had based on our review of our general summative assessment from the end of last school year. We knew we would most likely see a decline. We were a little surprised at how much of the decline we saw, but overall, we were not expecting good results just based on looking at our summative assessment from that previous year as well.
Schulz: What can you attribute these results to?
Blatt: You know, to begin with coming out of the COVID pandemic, and the loss of in person instruction was a huge hit on the scores across all of the states. There’s no replacement for a teacher in front of a student, and that ongoing interaction and relationships that we have in our classrooms. While we provided virtual instruction when our schools were shut down, we know that so many of our students do not have the broadband to even download lessons or to engage on a daily basis.
We also know that it was a huge learning curve for our teachers to just overnight transition to virtual instruction, as opposed to in person instruction. And then thinking of the lack of support that many of our students had in the home. We have a lot of, you know, parents that were working, and students were left alone all day trying to do lessons. We have a lot of students in foster care and various other situations across our state that just without that teacher to support them in their instruction, they were not able to obtain the skills that they would have had they been in the classroom.
Schulz:What does this data tell you about the path forward in West Virginia for education?
Blatt: Well, it tells us that we have a lot of students that we need to get caught up, we have a lot of students with skill deficiencies and skill gaps because of the fact that they did not get that continuous instruction. I think it impacts you know, our younger students. And then even with our eighth grade math scores were our lowest scores across the date. When you miss two and three years of instruction, it’s hard to go back and catch up and to see where those discrepancies are.
It tells me that we need to figure out what skills our students are lacking and where the skill gaps are, and we need to make sure that we can provide the interventions and supports that they need to make up that last instruction.
Schulz:What is an example of one of these skill gaps that you’re referring to?
Blatt: Well, I know at our younger years, we’ve got students that are in third grade, who missed a substantial amount of instruction in their early years of learning to read. So we know we have a lot of students with skill gaps in phonics and fluency comprehension, those areas because they did not have that direct instruction that they needed to learn to read.
Schulz:This isn’t just going to follow our educational structures. This is a community issue more broadly, as I see it, can you tell me what intervention might actually look like?
Blatt: Yes, I would agree with you. One of the things that we have in place is the Communities in Schools Initiative, that is a program that puts a site coordinator in the building to help take care of all the basic needs and safety needs of our students so that our teachers do have more time to focus on teaching and they’re not the ones trying to provide the basic needs as well as if the academic instruction the students need.
But we’re going to need everyone to rally around. We’re going to need to focus really on what it is these students need, working with parents, providing parents with resources that they need to be able to support their students in the evenings and on the weekends. And then also, as you mentioned, community members, any type of mentoring programs or engagement that we can get with our community and business leaders will definitely assist with the issues.
Schulz:One of the things that I heard in the presentation of the data was that COVID-19, and the pandemic didn’t create these issues, but rather highlighted issues in education that already existed. Do you think that that’s also true in West Virginia?
Blatt: I do. We have been focusing for the last couple of years on the fact of how great of a need our students have with social and emotional health and their physical needs. Just as you mentioned, the community that surrounds our schools, and the, in some places, the lack of support for public education, all of those things are definitely something that the pandemic highlighted.
I do think there’s a positive in that the pandemic did highlight the importance of our schools and in-person learning, because that’s the place, the school is the place where the students are getting the meals that they need, the instruction that they need, maybe the mental health counseling, behavior, assistance and all of those things. So if there is a positive that came out of it, it’s that I feel more people did see the value of our public school system and all the support that we provide.
Gov. Jim Justice doubled down on his stance against vaccine mandates at Monday’s press conference.
West Virginia won’t require children to receive the COVID-19 vaccination for school enrollment, according to Gov. Jim Justice.
He doubled down on his stance against vaccine mandates at Monday’s press conference following the Center for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine experts’ vote that the COVID-19 vaccine be added to the children’s routine vaccination list. This was not a mandate.
“As long as I’m your governor, I will do everything in my power to prevent the federal government or West Virginia Legislature from mandating these COVID vaccines in our school system,” Justice said.
Schools and local jurisdictions have authority to determine vaccination requirements for school enrollment. No state so far has required the COVID-19 child vaccine for school enrollment.
Around 20 percent of West Virginia kids ages five to 11 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19; the number is 40 percent for 12 to 15 year olds, according to state health department data. Both numbers are behind the national average.
Justice encouraged children to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
Vaccination information from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources is available here.
The West Virginia State Capitol is recognizing the occasion by shining blue lights on the building from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday night. The governor’s office has also proclaimed Oct. 20 as Lights on Afterschool Day.
Thursday, Oct. 20 marks the annual nationwide National Lights On Afterschool campaign.
The West Virginia State Capitol is recognizing the occasion by shining blue lights on the building from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday night. The governor’s office has also proclaimed Oct. 20 as Lights on Afterschool Day.
The event is organized by Afterschool Alliance, a group that advocates for more access to after school programs for students across the country. More than 8,000 organizations have been involved since its creation in 2000.
Loren Farmer of the West Virginia Statewide Afterschool Network said these types of programs are important because they help keep kids safe and give them more opportunities to learn and build social skills.
“Afterschool plays a huge role in making sure we keep our kids safe in hours when they’re out of school. The peak for juvenile crime is typically between 2 and 6 p.m.,” Farmer said.
The network is housed within WVU Extension, which has helped organize the campaign in West Virginia alongside the Salvation Army’s Boys and Girls Club of Charleston.
Research from the Afterschool Alliance shows that 86 percent of parents in West Virginia support public funding for after school programs. Farmer says with more funding, they could accommodate some of the demand for after school programs, particularly in rural communities.
“In West Virginia, we don’t have any dedicated state funding for after school,” Farmer said. “We do have the federal 21st Century Community Learning Center’s grant, which is administered through the Department of Education. But we do not currently have any state level funding specifically for after school.”
The same study says 12 percent of West Virginia students were involved in after school programs in 2020.
That’s a seven percent decrease since the group’s previous study in 2014, though 46 percent of children also say they would participate in such programs if they were more readily available.
Students at Morgantown High School staged a walkout Wednesday afternoon to protest the removal of Pride flags from classrooms. Monongalia County Superintendent Eddie Campbell asked all school principals to remove Pride flags just after the start of the school year. He cited a county policy that bans political activity in classrooms.
Updated on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 at 11:25 a.m.
Students at Morgantown High School staged a walkout Wednesday afternoon to protest the removal of Pride flags from classrooms.
Monongalia County Superintendent Eddie Campbell asked all school principals to remove Pride flags just after the start of the school year. He cited a county policy that bans political activity in classrooms.
Morgantown High School senior and student leader Lonnie Medley, who uses he/they pronouns, said the Pride flags made school safer for LGBTQ students.
“Today, we unfortunately have to have a walkout to fight for our rights because yesterday at the board meeting, it didn’t seem to go very well,” they said. “There are so many people that don’t have accepting homes and school is the only place where they feel safe.”
Medley said that despite best intentions, even school is not a perfectly safe place.
“So a lot of people think that we are safe in school without the flags, but that’s not how it is,” they said. “We are unsafe, we get bullied, we get harassed every day. And the only places we are safe are the places that have pride flags, and accepting symbols.”
Fellow Morgantown High senior Will McGahey is hopeful that the walkout opens some eyes, but is ready to keep taking action to ensure the return of Pride flags to classrooms.
“Hopefully we helped the boards understand that, you know, people like us are here,” he said.
McGahey said community activists plan to organize more actions until the Pride flags are allowed back in schools.
Chris Schulz
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Seniors Will McGahey and Lonnie Medley stand outside Morgantown High School Sept. 28 as students stage a walkout to protest the removal of Pride flags by the county superintendent.
Original Post:
Students, teachers, parents and community members gathered outside of the Monongalia County Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, to protest the removal of Pride flags from classrooms at Morgantown High School (MHS).
Earlier this month, the county superintendent sent a letter to the county’s principals asking that Pride flags be removed from classrooms. The justification for the action was county policy 3231.01, which bans political activities in the county’s classrooms.
“The policy specifically bans literature being printed or distributed that deals with candidates, issues or points of view,” said Rev. Jenny Williams. “It’s clear from the content of the policy that it’s aimed at keeping election politics out of the classroom. I’m not really sure why the Pride flag is coming under that and the board will have to be able to state that tonight.”
Sam Hunley and Paige Corob are both seniors at MHS. They both arrived early to the meeting to take part in the demonstration against the flags’ removal, mingling with the crowd of more than 100 demonstrators.
“It’s really affected the LGBTQ youth in our system, and this is us coming together and standing against it because it means more to us than I think anybody understands,” Hunley said.
Corob called the decision heartbreaking, and disagreed with the characterization of the flag as political.
“It represents respect, and it shows the protection that we have, and that at the end of the day, we’re always going to have people that are supportive of us and supportive of loving who anybody loves, regardless of who that might be,” she said.
Chris Schulz
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Community members demonstrate outside of the Sept. 27 Monongalia County Board of Education meeting in support of Pride flags in county classrooms.
The decision had already garnered public discussion at the board’s Sept. 13 meeting where 13 community members spoke. At Tuesday’s meeting, 37 people were signed up to speak.
All public comment at Monongalia’s Board of Education meetings is limited to one hour, so each speaker was given just one minute and 37 seconds to speak. Most of the speakers were in favor of the Pride flags, or against their removal.
Staff from all three of the county’s high schools presented the board with letters outlining their concerns over the removal of the flag, and representatives from the faculty senates of University High School and MHS spoke in person.
Former Monongalia County teacher Rose Bell spoke about the experience of her nonbinary grandchild who used Pride flags to identify safe havens in their school.
“In those classrooms, there will be no bullying or harassment, and it won’t be tolerated,” Bell said. “The pride flag is an indicator that the teacher in that classroom is a trusted adult who will help them when there is an anxiety inducing situation, in or out of the classroom. Continuing to display the pride flag will ultimately provide a safer school environment.”
Speakers drew cheers from the crowd that had remained outside of the building, audible even from within the meeting chambers.
Some who spoke were in favor of the flags’ removal, such as Republican candidate for House of Delegates in district 78, Gino Chiarelli.
“Don’t let the crowd fool you. The overwhelming majority of people, parents and taxpayers in my district … believe you made the right decisions,” Chiarelli said. “Many of them fear backlash that they might incur because they dare stand against the political mob that is outside. So I want to say that I stand in solidarity with your decision. You made an excellent choice and the people of my district, the people of Morgantown at large, support you 100 percent.”
Chris Schulz
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Former Monongalia County teacher Rose Bell speaks at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Monongalia County Board of Education.
Later in the meeting, superintendent Eddie Campbell outlined the course of events that led to the removal of the flags. He said that after receiving concerned comments from community members that the Pride flags violated county policy, he consulted with outside legal counsel and took action.
“The guidance that I was provided with was ‘This does fall under your policy related to political activity in the classroom,’” Campbell said.
Campbell did not reveal what lawyer or firm he had consulted, and comments later in the meeting implied that not all board members had seen the legal analysis.
“I contacted our building principals, not the board, not these five people, I contacted our building principals,” Campbell said. “I said, ‘Please address the issue in your buildings. I want absolutely no consequences on the teachers that are displaying the flags.’”
Board member Daniel Berry said he interpreted the policy as applying to candidates running for political office and political parties. He expressed concern at the precedent the decision might set.
“I used to teach at Morgantown High and we had in the cafeteria, every flag of every country,” he said. “I think we’re going down a slippery slope, and that we might just have sterile white walls. I’m just really worried, and I think this probably needs to go on a future agenda.”
Board member Jennifer Hagerty reiterated that the Board of Education had taken no action on the issue of Pride flags, and questioned the legality of the decision.
“The ACLU, I think somebody brought this up in their speech, is pending litigation on this exact matter, overturning the board’s ruling on this exact conversation,” she said. “So I think we’re stepping into some legal territory that I personally think we need more information on because we aren’t quite prepared to make any decisions on Pride flags.”
Board member Ron Lytle focused on student comments about feeling unsafe, and said that safety should be the community’s priority. He questioned the necessity of the flag in that process.
“Be careful what you put up around you to protect you, because it sooner or later becomes a jail.” he said. “I can say, without a doubt, that if we would put the flags back up this week, we’d be right back where we’re at 10 years from now, this would be a wasted opportunity, absolutely wasted.”
Even after a protracted discussion that lasted almost an hour, the board took no action, although many members expressed interest in studying the matter further and taking the issue up again at a later date.
The board’s meeting carried on to issues of budget and expenditure, but most attendants and speakers left after the discussion of Pride flags.
Outside, now dark and with the demonstrators gone, a group of students congratulated each other for their bravery in speaking or for showing support by attending the meeting. Despite the outcome of the meeting not going their way, the atmosphere was positive.
“I’m incredibly disappointed with the outcome of tonight,” Corob said. “But at the end of the day, we all have each other’s back. We love like brothers and sisters and siblings, and no matter what we will continue to fight for what we believe in, and we will continue to stand up for people who deserve human rights.”
A walkout is planned at Morgantown High School at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28.
A coalition of educators, county representatives, nurses and others gathered inside West Virginia’s Capitol Tuesday urging voters to say no to two proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot this November.
A coalition of educators, county representatives, nurses and others assembled at West Virginia’s Capitol Tuesday urging voters to say no to two proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot this November.
Joe White, executive director of W. Va. School Service Personnel Association, joined representatives from WVEA, AFT-WV, deputy sheriffs and county commissioners in a show of solidarity against proposed constitutional amendments 2 and 4.
“The threat is great, we do not need to expand the power of the legislature,” White said. “We need to have some local control, and say, within each county.”
Amendment 2 would give the legislature power to regulate property taxes used to fund schools and libraries. White said an estimated $515 million dollar tax cut would mostly benefit out of state businesses while counties, public schools and libraries, parks, senior services and others stand to lose out.
Amendment 4 would allow the legislature to overturn any proposed rules on education on matters that include what is taught in West Virginia classrooms.
White said the same legislators who are seeking to change the status quo on education introduced 173 bills on education reform in 2021 alone and urged voters to get out to vote in November.
“I encourage y’all to stop this in its tracks and to vote no on amendments 2 and 4. It is not good for the people, it’s not good for the students and it is not good for the state of West Virginia,” White said.
President of the West Virginia Education Association Dale Lee, and Fred Albert, president of the American Federation of Teachers-WV joined White and others present in calling Proposal 4 an attack on the public education system.
Lee said the “disrespect” on the part of the legislature toward the state’s education system partly stems from resentment over 2018-2019 work actions when teachers and school service employees went on strike over low pay and high healthcare costs.
“I think a part of it is those who have a different belief and education philosophy that they are more concerned with, private school or homeschool, than they are public education,” Lee said.
He said bills aimed at improving those options will take money away from public education and dictate to teachers what they can teach, as well as how and when they can teach, including critical race theory.
Former president of the West Virginia NAACP Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio, a black man, earlier this year accused Republicans of using Senate Bill 498 as a “weapon or tool in their campaigns” stoking unnecessary fear among citizens.
Lee called critical race theory a political buzzword for what he said is actually a law school class that is only taught in a few states.
“Nowhere in our West Virginia public schools do we teach it. We teach truths; we have to allow our students to become critical thinkers,” Lee said.
He cited the example of Catherine Johnson, saying it was 50 years before anyone knew who the great American mathematician and hero was.
“Those are the truths that need to come out. It’s not about a race being superior, the buzzword they want you to believe,” Lee said. It’s about truths – letting our history be taught in a manner by our experts that have kids think about what happened.”
