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West Virginia Schools Get Funding for Teaching Innovations

The West Virginia Board of Education has voted to approve grants to seven schools that will share more than $1.6 million for innovations in education.

According to education officials, applications were received from 43 West Virginia elementary, middle and high schools and career technical education centers.

The seven are John Marshall High School, Dunbar Intermediate School, Greenbrier West High School, Mary Ingles Elementary, Philip Barbour High School, Tucker County High School and Spring Mills High School.

The funding is intended to help public schools with flexibility to redesign how they instruct students and improve educational achievement in science, technology, engineering and math.

It can also support community-school partnerships, entrepreneurship, career pathways and the arts.

AC, Power Issues Cause Closures of 7 West Virginia Schools

West Virginia’s largest public school district was forced to close seven schools on Friday for problems with its air conditioning and power systems.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the closings add another set of problems as the district struggles to recover from a devastating flood in June that destroyed two schools and damaged others.

Maintenance Director Terry Hollandsworth said “multiple issues” contributed to the problem.

American Electric Power spokeswoman Jeri Matheney said the company’s systems were not the cause for all but one of Friday’s closings.

Two schools, Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary, were destroyed in the flood. Students at those schools will share facilities at the damaged Elkview Middle and Bridge Elementary. School officials were working furiously to make repairs before the school year began this week.

West Virginia Schools to be Assigned A through F Grades

The West Virginia Board of Education has voted to adopt an amendment to its accountability policy that will give schools A through F grades.

The board said in a news release that it approved the revised policy at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

The grades will be based largely on students’ scores on the statewide Smarter Balanced standardized tests.

Christy Hovanetz, a representative from the Foundation for Excellence in Education Senior Policy, told the board that most statewide teacher unions do not support the grading system for schools.

Board President Mike Green argued that the new grading system is not punitive, but is meant to give attention to low-performing schools in an effort to improve them.

The amended policy will take effect on July 11.

Kanawha County Schools Dropping 90 Positions

Kanawha County’s school system is planning to have about 90 fewer positions next fiscal year because of a shrinking budget.

Kanawha County Schools’ human resources specialist Kim Olsen tells The Charleston Gazette-Mail there are 52 teacher position cuts planned for next school year, but the cuts have led to only four teachers altogether losing guaranteed jobs next school year.

Human resources specialist Tabetha Gillespie says about 20 “service” employees, including custodians and classroom aides, are also losing guaranteed jobs.

Superintendent Ron Duerring says much of the $2.3 proposed million budget decrease is due to a 590-student drop from last school year. The school board could still change the budget, based upon what the West Virginia Legislature and governor approve for the 2016-17 state budget.

West Virginia school systems often can cut many positions without laying off current employees because of numerous annual retirements.

W.Va. School Principals Learn How to Effectively Deal With a School Shooter

130 new school principals attended a training today in Charleston focused on effectively responding to an active shooter on school grounds.

In the aftermath of a number of school shootings throughout the country, the West Virginia Center for Professional Development hosted its two-day Principals’ Leadership Academy for new principals.

The academy brought in two officers to lead the discussion. Lieutenant Eric Johnson, the commander of the Metro Drug Unit and active shooter instructor for the Charleston Police Department was one of the instructors. He says if a person’s first thought is to hide when a shooter is at your school or business, they’re doing it wrong.

“We provide a simple acronym through this training,” Johnson said, “It’s ADD, and that stands for Avoid, Deny, and Defend. The first step is to avoid the shooting, avoid the killing, get away, escape. If that’s not possible then deny entry into an area where you can get yourself and others secured, and if you cannot deny that entry, or if that comes to an end, then you need to defend yourself. If you cower to a corner, or if you hide, the statistics have shown through all these events that have happened in the last fifteen years that the killing will continue.”

Johnson says it’s very important for principals to know how to use the Avoid, Deny, and Defend tactic at their schools because it takes first responders at least 3 to 15 minutes to arrive depending on a school’s location. He says principals will have to take charge and make decisions quickly to protect as many lives as possible in those minutes.

Tawny Stilianoudakis is the principal of Buffalo High School in Putnam County.

“You can’t sit there, as the lieutenant said, you can’t always sit there and think everything through, because lives could be lost,” Stilianoudakis said, “so you do have to have in your mind, played it out, and know exactly how you can react when those situations occur.”

Lieutenant Johnson says what will prepare schools the most is to ask when a shooting could happen, not if.

State Board of Education Acts to Maintain Student Privacy

The West Virginia Board of Education is pledging not to share students’ personal information with anyone outside the system.

     The move was codified with a resolution passed at the board’s regular meeting this week and will eventually become policy.

     The Charleston Daily Mail reports that the action was taken in large part to appease those are concerned with West Virginia’s adoption of the national Common Core standards for education.

     Opponents worry that data about students that is collected by the school system will at some point in the accountability or testing process be leaked to outside parties.

     The resolution says that it is board policy not to release information to any entity except in a format where the data cannot be traced back to a specific student.