Tag: WVPB News

Seven W.Va. Aging Resource Centers Closing Due to Cuts

The state is closing seven Aging and Disability Resource Centers because of budget cuts.

The centers help seniors and residents with disabilities find and apply for services and resources to help them live independently.
 Bureau of Senior Services commissioner Robert Roswell tells The Journal that three centers in Petersburg, Fairmont and Princeton will remain open.
 
Roswell says 25 percent of the centers’ clients are walk-ins. Most centers conduct business by telephone.
 
He says the three centers that will remain open have the most walk-in clients.
 
Roswell says the bureau had to reduce its budget by 7.5 percent.
 
The bureau provides grants to organizations to operate the centers.

W.Va. School Board Seat Vacant for More Than Year

The West Virginia Board of Education is waiting for the governor to fill a seat that’s been vacant for more than a year.
 
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s spokesman, Chris Stadelman, says there are statutory requirements that must be met before someone can be appointed.
 
Stadelman tells the Charleston Daily Mail that the governor is reviewing the vacancy.
 
Priscilla Haden, a Republican, resigned from the board in December 2012.
 
State code requires that no more than five Board of Education members may belong to the same political party. They also cannot be members of a political party executive committee, and cannot hold any other public office or be state or federal employees.
 
Board of Education president Gayle Manchin says the board hopes the seat is filled soon. 
 

New W.Va. Law Could Let Some Criminals Buy Guns

A new law that makes it easier for West Virginians to buy a handgun also makes it easier for some people who have recently committed a crime to buy a gun.
 
The law allows anyone who obtains a new concealed weapons permit to buy a gun without undergoing a federal background check. A check is required to get the permit, so supporters of the change say a second check is redundant.
 
But permits are good for five years, so anyone later convicted of a crime that should bar a gun purchase can still buy one by showing the permit to the dealer.
 
The permit is supposed to be revoked if someone becomes ineligible to buy a gun, but The Charleston Gazette reports there’s no effective mechanism for enforcement.

National Education Association Meets to Discuss Common Core, Standardized Tests

Educators from across the country are meeting over the next two weeks for the National Education Association’s 152nd annual meeting. West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee will be one of the Educators at the meeting discussing issues facing such as Common Core State Standards, and standardized testing.

Two major thoughts the state’s Education Association president Dale Lee offered when reflecting on the state of public education in West Virginia:

  1. Improving education is going to take more investment to effectively implement.
  2. It will take time to see the fruits of those labors.

Competitive Salaries

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “Our graduation rate is on the rise, our teachers are getting more and more education, now it becomes a question of paying them competitive salaries to keep them in the state.”

Lee says, on that front, a state-wide Competitive Salary campaign has the support of 52 of the 55 county boards of education.

Standardized Testing

There’s been mounting concern throughout the state as well as the country over the efficacy of standardized testing. Lee reports that teachers are increasingly frustrated with test-driven curriculum.

“We’re just testing kids to death,” Lee said. He says teachers need the time to teach lessons as opposed to preparing students for certain tests.

“To have everything based on a single test score is just the wrong way for an education system. We need to broaden our curriculum and not teach every kid like they are going to go to college and be an engineer,” Lee said.

Common Core

Another topic of discussion at the National Education Association’s meeting will be the Common Core Standards, a newer wave of education benchmarks for English/language arts, and math adopted by 43 states and the District of Columbia, four territories and the Defense Department. The National Governor’s Association led the effort to create the standards in an effort to provide a clear, consistent understanding of what students are expected to learn. The Standards aim to align schools in preparing students with the knowledge and skills required for successful entry into college and careers. West Virginia has already begun implementing the standards.  

“One of the complaints that I’ve heard is that we haven’t done a good job of giving the proper training to implement Common Core, or the time and resources to do it, and do it correctly,” said Lee.

Lee says next year testing will begin to evaluate how well students are learning those new standards. But he stresses that test scores won’t be a reliable reflection of student achievement until they are taken by kids who have had several years of experience with the new standards. He says reliable data could take four to eight years to see.

Former Mingo Judge Appeals 50-Month Sentence

  A former Mingo County judge who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge is appealing his 50-month prison sentence.

The Williamson Daily News reports that Michael Thornsbury’s attorney has filed a notice of appeal with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

Thornsbury pleaded guilty to conspiring to deprive campaign sign maker George White of his constitutional rights. Prosecutors said Thornsbury participated in a scheme to protect the late Sheriff Eugene Crum from accusations that the sheriff bought prescription painkillers from White.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston earlier this month agreed with prosecutors who argued that Thornsbury deserved more prison time than the 30 to 37 months suggested by federal sentencing guidelines. Johnston said Thornsbury’s abuse of power was akin to that of “a third-world dictator.”

Moving Around, But Keeping Those Appalachian Connections

 

When people ask me where I’m from – I tell them “West Virginia.”

When they ask, “where in West Virginia exactly?…Where’s ‘home’?”…

Well…that’s a little tougher to answer.

You see, I’m a “PK”.

For those who don’t know, that’s a “Preacher’s Kid.”

Specifically, I’m a United Methodist PK.

United Methodist pastors are itinerant.

Meaning…they move from place to place.

They agree to go wherever the bishop sends them.

They’re sent to serve in a given place for a year at a time.

They usually stay longer than a year, but rarely are in one place for their whole ministry.

So my family moved several times as I was growing up – always within West Virginia.

I was born in Charleston, but before I graduated high school and left for college, my family also lived in Westover, West Liberty, Charleston again – different church, New Martinsville and Keyser.

The year I graduated from high school my family moved to Clarksburg.

I studied at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon – and have since lived in Charleston, Morgantown and now Fairmont.

There were a few years there in my twenties when I lived in West Germany and then Columbus, Ohio – but for most of my life, I’ve lived in West Virginia.

For me, this has meant a strong sense of connection with our state and a strong appreciation for her people.

“People” are “home” for me – my family; church members, neighbors, classmates and teachers in all those towns I grew up in; my colleagues in the jobs I’ve held.

Earlier this month I was reminded of this strong sense of connection.

Every June, clergy and lay members of the West Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church gather at West Virginia Wesleyan for a yearly business meeting.

This is a meeting which includes serious business – you know…motions and amendments and amendments to the amendments and calling the question and budgets – but also a whole lot of celebration and worship and fellowship and…connection.

I serve as a lay member of the annual conference and have attended for a number of years in that capacity.

But for many years, I was among the PKs who tagged along with their parents to this conference in Buckhannon – exploring the campus, participating in activities, attending the worship services, embraced by the people of the conference.

The people of the conference and Wesleyan’s campus with its tree-lined walkways, Wesley Chapel and its white-painted pews, pipe organ, hand-carved sculptures of the disciples and the large statue of John Wesley out front…these have been constants in my life and in the lives of many other West Virginia United Methodist PKs.

The connection is strong at this annual gathering.

You have to leave plenty of time to stop and talk as you make your way across campus, because you will run into many friends.

And when the conference ends, the people head to their cars, point them in the direction of their current physical homes, and fan out across West Virginia and Garrett County, Maryland.

They disperse to go and serve their communities and the people there.

At the conclusion of this year’s four day conference, as I steered my car onto Corridor H and then I-79 north, I was tired and glad to be going home…but also thankful I’d just been there.

Sarah Lowther Hensley is a former West Virginia Public Radio reporter and higher education administrator who lives in Fairmont, West Virginia. Her writing appears on her blog Home Among the Hills.

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