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What To Know About Changes To W.Va.’s K-12 Academic Competitions, Events For 2020-2021 School Year

This is a developing list and may be updated.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of West Virginia’s K-12 academic competitions have seen some changes this year. Some are completely virtual, some have been canceled, and some have seen some rule changes.

Here’s how some of the 2020-2021 school competitions in the Mountain State will look.

Science and Social Studies Fairs

The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) reports the West Virginia Science and Engineering Fair and the West Virginia State Social Studies Fair will both be held virtually this school year.

County and regional competitions for these fairs have been canceled, and submissions will move directly from the school to the state-level competition.

If a school chooses to participate, it will need to select a school-level fair contact, and that coordinator will be the primary liaison between the WVDE and the school.

Each participating school will submit one project per grade band to the state for judging. There are three grade bands: 3rd through 5th, 6th through 8th, and 9th through 12th.

These projects are to be considered the school’s “best of fair” and will act as this year’s Science or Social Studies Ambassadors from their county.

All projects will be completed individually this year. No teams or group projects will be allowed. Projects are to be submitted to the WVDE as a 3 to 5-minute video presentation. These can either be a video or voice over PowerPoint. All fair rules still apply.

The West Virginia Science Fair will be held from March 1, 2021 through March 12, 2021. The West Virginia Social Studies Fair will be held from April 5, 2021 through May 6, 2021.

Golden Horseshoe

The Golden Horseshoe Exam will take place this year, but the testing process is still in the planning stages. Specific information will be available mid-November.

Geography Bee

The National Geographic Society has cancelled the 2020-2021 GeoBee.

Young Writers

The Central WV Writing Project plans to conduct the Young Writers competition this school year, but specifics are still being determined. The WVDE’s contact for the project is Barbara O’Byrne: bobyrne@marshall.edu.

Office of Technical and Adult Education

The WVDE has suspended all state-level, in-person Career Technical Student Organization (CTSO) events through Dec. 31, 2020. These organizations include DECA, Educators Rising, FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, JROTC, SkillsUSA and TSA.

Many of these organizations adjusted their strategies from their traditional format of in-person events and were able to conduct their Fall Leadership Conferences remotely, according to the WVDE. Some were held live on a virtual platform, while others delivered content through pre-recorded workshops and by mailing workshop supplies to schools.

In collaboration with the Agricultural and Extension Education faculty at West Virginia University, WV FFA was able to hold three of its career development events virtually.

The Office of Technical and Adult Education has formed a taskforce to prepare a plan for how 2021 will look for CTSO events through virtual, in-person or a hybrid of the two.

Due to the connection with the Department of Defense, JROTC will not hold in-person competitions this school year.

Eight W.Va. Counties Will Be Remote, Virtual School This Week

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that eight counties will be remote learning-only for the week of Oct. 18. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m.

Berkeley, Mingo, Morgan, Randolph, Upshur, Wirt and Wyoming counties, which were in the orange zone on the state’s color-coded map, will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

Doddridge was the only county in the red category and will also be required to teach students virtually this week.

Some counties also shifted in their color zones, according to the state’s COVID-19 Data Review Panel. They included:

Barbour County. Moved from green to yellow due to data validation due to three cases updated to confirmed status and three cases updated with correct county of residence.
Clay County. Moved from gold to yellow due to data validation and transfer of one case to correct county of residence.
Harrison County. Moved from yellow to green due to data validation and exclusion of twenty-two nursing home patients.
Upshur County. Moved from gold to orange due to data validation and one probable case updated to confirmed status.

Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in red include: Doddridge

Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. Extracurricular practices may occur, however, competitions may not. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in orange include: Berkeley, Mingo, Morgan, Randolph, Upshur, Wirt, Wyoming

Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction is permitted with restrictions including face coverings for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted. Competitions can take place against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Counties in gold include: Gilmer, Jefferson, Marshall, Pendleton, Wood

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Barbour, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Clay, Jackson, Logan, Mercer, Mineral, Monroe, Nicholas, Putnam, Ritchie, Roane, Tyler, Wayne, Webster

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Cabell, Calhoun, Fayette, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Mason, McDowell, Monongalia, Ohio, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Wetzel

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map are announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

As of Saturday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports 19,801 total cases of the virus to-date and 399 deaths. 4,839 cases are considered active, according to DHHR.

WVDE Floats Plan To Collect Student Data To Address Broadband Disparities

The West Virginia Department of Education wants to gather data on K-12 students across the state, hoping to pinpoint where digital and broadband access is lacking. The hope is to use the data to highlight specific students’ needs when they are learning from home.

As more students must study online in the ongoing pandemic, such access is crucial and impacts families who live in areas without connectivity. The WVDE wants to assist this effort to find gaps and fix them.

“The broadband issues across the state, in regard to education, became glaringly aware to us in March when we had to go to remote learning,” said Tim Conzett, senior administrator with the Office of Data Management and Information Systems Directory at the state Department of Education.

West Virginia Board of Education members Wednesday heard an update on broadband in the state including on the new Kids Connect Initiative that created more than 1,000 WiFi hotspots statewide for K-12 and higher education students.

Officials discussed how they hope to expand this service as well as broadband as a whole. New technology, like high-flying balloons and satellites, and new partnerships, such as with Facebook, are coming, according to the agency. But officials also noted expanding is expensive and that point is exacerbated due to West Virginia’s geography.

“Most of our schools are fairly well suited for equity when they’re in the school,” Conzett said. “But it’s when they’re out of the schools that is the problem.”

Conzett told board members of a new proposal on data collection for digital equity. The proposal would collect data on all K-12 students in West Virginia to identify technology needs in homes and could guide future internet expansion in the state.

“One of the things that this could do for us is to help plot areas where we can see an impact and help perhaps direct some of the deployment of broadband moving in the future,” Conzett said.

This data would be tied to individual students, he explained, and would highlight which homes need more support – whether that’s with a device like an iPad or for broadband needs.

“If we have that kind of information, we can help in counties that are not yet quite to a one-to-one device situation that they provide for their students,” he said.

The data, according to Conzett, would be placed as dots on a map that would show where there are the greatest broadband challenges.

“If I’ve got students that don’t have internet access at home, and they show as dots, and that’s basically all it’s going to be is a dot, then I can see clusters, and where those clusters are, I can perhaps then provide that information to a provider to say, ‘hey, look, you’ve got 50 within X mile radius,’” Conzett said. “So, as far as equity is concerned, it’s more about the inequity that a student is seeing from a home use or a home perspective.”

One board member asked if the data collection could compromise individuals’ privacy.

“That is a good question,” Conzett answered. “Part of that has to be in the language and the communication that we provide. As far as the collection is concerned, again, it’s not a matter of ‘Student A does and Student B doesn’t,’ it’s a matter of being able to help provide guidance to provide the services for those students.”

Under the Student Data Accessibility Transparency and Accountability Act of 2014, the proposal is required to have a 60 day public comment period.

Residents can submit comments on the proposal on the West Virginia Department of Education’s website.

Most W.Va. Counties May Allow In-Person Schooling This Week

Updated on Sept. 27, 2020 at 12:07 a.m.

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that two counties will be remote learning-only for the week of Sept. 27. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Sept. 26 at 5 p.m.

Kanawha and Wayne counties will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

There are no counties in the red category at this time.

Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction is allowed with restrictions including face coverings at all times for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted and competitions can take place against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Counties in gold include: Fayette, Logan, Mingo, Summers

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Berkeley, Boone, Doddridge, Jackson, Marshall, Mineral, Morgan, Putnam, Wirt, Wyoming

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Barbour, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Monongalia, Monroe, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Webster, Wetzel, Wood

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map will be announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

As of Saturday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports 15,158 total cases of the virus and 332 deaths. 3,705 cases are considered active.

**Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story listed Marshall County in the gold category. The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources later amended this action on Saturday at 9:30 p.m., placing Marshall in the yellow category.

W.Va. Department Of Education To Post Virus Outbreaks At Schools Daily

West Virginia schools that are experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 will now be identified daily on the West Virginia Department of Education’s website.

Gov. Jim Justice announced in a virtual press briefing Friday that outbreaks at West Virginia’s primary and secondary schools are defined as two or more cases that are connected to each other.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Education are partnering to update the list daily.

The change comes after reporting by the Charleston Gazette-Mail spurred questions over why cases in schools were not being publicly reported.

West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch said he will be meeting everyday with DHHR to discuss the list.

“We will every day post the outbreaks that are active, the schools, the number of cases,” Burch said, “And we’re even going to post if that outbreak led to a school going to remote learning.”

Burch also noted the Department of Education is hoping to hire more school nurses. He said, right now, there are 450 school nurses employed in the state. New funding from the West Virginia Legislature could help hire more, although Burch did not specify how many new nurses would be hired.

School COVID Cases Not Reported, Newspaper Says

State officials are facing questions following reporting by the Charleston Gazette-Mail Tuesday, that the state government has stopped reporting school-related COVID-19 cases.

At the start of the school year, Gov. Jim Justice guaranteed transparency in reporting all coronavirus cases in the state.

As recently as Sept 8, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources promised to coordinate with local health departments to report COVID cases among students.

However, three weeks into the school year, these cases are not being reported by the DHHR, the Governor’s Office or the Department of Education, according to the Gazette-Mail. The DHHR has cited “inconsistent data” as the reason for the lapse.

The West Virginia American Federation of Teachers union, the largest education union in the state, said in a news release that the state has a responsibility to release the numbers, even if it is technically the duty of local health departments.

The AFT points out that the Kanawha County school system is publicly releasing data, and that other school districts should follow suit.

West Virginia is among 22 states not publicly reporting school COVID data, according to a report from the New York Times.