Association

Association

 

West Virginia School Board Association FY13 Officers have diverse backgrounds, county board experience

Taking office July 1, West Virginia School Board Association FY13 officers have varied backgrounds, including the education and private sector.

The Executive officers – president, president-elect, vice president and financial officer – were elected at the FY13 Annual Business Meeting held February 17/18 in Charleston.

The organization’s immediate past president also serves as a member of the Executive Committee along with the organization’s executive director who is an ex officio non-voting member of the executive board.
           
Each elected officer serves a non-renewable one-year term.

FY13 officers include:

•  Jimmy Wyatt (Tyler), President. He retired as principal of Tyler Consolidated High School in 2004, having had a 41-year career in public education, serving as an educator in three counties. His wife, Jo Ann, is also a retired educator. His daughter and son-in-law work for Ritchie County schools. During his tenure, Wyatt served on several boards of directors, including those for the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference and the Little Kanawha Athletic Conference. While serving on the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission Board of Directors, he was elected to a four-year term on the National Federation of High Schools. Wyatt also served as a member of the state board of the North Central Accreditation Association.
  
  Wyatt is active in the Tyler County Retired School Employees and serves as vice president and legislative chairman for that group. He and his wife enjoy camping in the Elkins area often and traveling as time permits to visit other states. They spend a lot of time following the athletic and academic activities of their grandson, Austin Weekley, who attends Ritchie County High School.
  
   
• Gary Kable (Jefferson), President-Elect. Kable is semi-retired after having owned a photography business he began in 1982.
  
  After graduating from Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), Kable worked in sales and as a production planner for Halltown Paperboard, an Eastern Panhandle mill using recycled paper to make boxboard for packaging for candy, shoes, shirts, hosiery and other products.
  
  Following that, Kable became assistant manager for a wholesale petroleum products distributorship for a short time and then joined a division of a Fortune 500 company as a district sales manager and then eastern regional sales manager.
  
  After 13 years in that position and due to downsizing, he began his photography business, K-Foto. Kable is married and says he is “helping the love of my life” fight off ovarian cancer. He and his wife, Janice, a McDowell County native, are the parents of three daughters. They have seven grandchildren. Kable is president of the homeowners' association for the development in which he lives.
  
  He is completing his fourth year as a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education, after being appointed to fill an unexpired vacancy.
  
  He is vice president of the board.
  
   
• Jim Crawford (Kanawha), Vice President. Crawford was elected to the Board of Education in July 2000. Crawford, born in Winfield on Nov. 25, 1936, is the son of the late Dorothy Crawford McClaskey and the late John Joseph Crawford. He graduated from Winfield High School and from West Virginia State College where he played varsity football and received a Bachelor of Science degree in education. He received his Master of Arts degree in education from West Virginia University. Crawford is a retired teacher/coach from St. Albans High School. He taught for 39 years and served as an assistant coach in football, head wrestling coach, head girls’ track coach, and athletic director. He is the Director of the Gazette Track and Field Meet, which is held in Charleston. He and his wife, Marilyn, are the parents of one son, Jim Crawford, Jr., who is a teacher in the Kanawha County school system.
  
   
• Doward Matlick (Barbour), Financial Officer. Matlick, first elected to the Barbour County Board of Education in 2010, is a Barbour County native who resides in Kasson. He is founder, owner and president of Sunrise Construction Company, which he has operated for 35 years. The company employs 42 people. Besides West Virginia, Matlick’s company is licensed to conduct business in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He is a member and past trustee of New Beginnings Church. He serves on the advisory board of the Barbour County Schools Career/Technical Center and works in various youth-related programs, including the Barbour County FFA. He is a member of the Kasson Raritan. Matlick also serves as a bank director and is former director of the Tygart Valley Conservation District. He and his wife, Twyla, are parents of five children.
  
   
• Sis Murray (Marion), Immediate Past President. Murray has nine years’ service as a member of the Marion County Board of Education. In terms of association endeavors, she co-chairs the association’s Committee for Developing Standards for High-Functioning County Boards. She also is a member of the WVSBA Strategic Planning Committee and is her board’s representative to the association’s annual business meeting and delegate assembly. As immediate past president she chairs a committee working to develop plans for WVSBA’s 60th Anniversary Conference to be held September 14-15, 2012, in Charleston. Murray has 36 years’ career experience as a registered nurse at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center and Fairmont General Hospital. She graduated from Fairmont State University with a degree in nursing. She has several certifications, including National Certification in Nursing, Certified Nurse Operating Room (CNOR) and is a certified instructor of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Basic Life Support (BLS), First Aid and CPI. She and husband, Al, have two children, Lance and Ann Marie.
   

WVSBA Conference ’12 program approved by County Board Member Training Standards Review Committee (TSRC)

 

The County Board Member Training Standards Review Committee (TSRC), meeting August 7, 2012, approved the West Virginia School Board Association’s Conference ’12 program with the stipulation the Association staff is empowered to make program adjustments as long as the adjustments do not alter the approved programmatic content.

The program is included below:

West Virginia School Board Association
Conference '12 - September 14/15
Marriott Town Center Hotel - Charleston, W. Va.

Thursday, September 13, 2012
7:00 p.m.	WVSBA Executive Board Meeting
Friday, September 14, 2012
7:30 a.m.	WVSBA Executive Committee/W. Va. Association of School Administrators (WVASA) Pre-Conference Breakfast
10:00 a.m.	WVASA Membership Meeting
10:45 a.m.	Registration
10:45 a.m.	Light Luncheon
1:00 p.m.	First General Session "Team Turnarounds: A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams" Presenters -                 Joe Frontiera, Dan Leidl, Managing Partners Meno Consulting - Westover, W. Va. info@menoconsulting.com In today's uncertain economic environment, teams are asked to do more with less. With resources stretched thin, turning around a struggling team has never been harder, and managers must work to identify and maximize whatever potential strengths a team already has. As sports fans already know, behind every great underdog story is a leader who roots out the competitive advantage that will propel the team to victory. In Team Turnarounds, Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl share how this fine art of the turnaround really works, from how to inspire the team to the actual tools for change. Through interviews with team managers and turnaround masters in the NFL, MLB, and the NCAA, as well as managers at top global firms who have successfully reversed their fortunes, they show the six steps every team takes to make a 180 in their performance. - From the publisher. NOTE: Frontiera and Leidl will inscribe copies of Team Turnarounds: A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams prior to their program segment.
2:30 p.m.	Break
2:45 p.m.	Concurrent Sessions (Please Select One) A '"Team Turnarounds: Applying the Six Steps Every Team Takes to Make a 180 in Their Performance"                                 Presenters - Frontiera, Leidl   B "The Energy Sector: Educational Preparation for Existing and Emergent Employment" Presenters - (Invited) Kathy D'Antoni, Ed.D., Assistant State Superintendent of Schools - Division of Technical and Adult Education / West Virginia Department of Education kdantoni@access.k12.wv.us       Chris Hamilton, Senior vice President W. Va. Coal Association chamilton@wvcoal.com Sam Gray, Manager, State Affairs, WV at FirstEnergy sgray2@firstenergycorp.com Charlie Burd, Executive Director - Independent Oil and Gas Association Of West Virginia info@iogawv.com Corky DeMarco, Executive Director West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association DeMarco@wvonga.com   C Participant-Generated Discussions Facilitators - Executive Committee Members - W. Va. School Board Association Lead-ins: Representative of 4-C Economic Development Authority to discuss The Summit: Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve (Boy Scouts of America), Fayetteville, W. Va., with especial emphasis on how county school system perception, services and outlook impacts economic development. (15 minutes plus discussion.) "Showcase of Counties" - A representative of  participating county boards will have two (2) minutes to showcase a local educational service, program or  offering. Participant-led discussions.
4:30 p.m.	Adjournment Dinner (Individual Arrangements)
7:00 p.m.	Second General Session Pete Thaw, President Kanawha County Board of Education, will lead in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance Musical Selections - South Charleston Chorale Group Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America Presenter - Jonathan Kozol, author "...Eschewing social science jargon and deploying extraordinary powers of observation and empathy, Kozol crafts dense, novelistic character studies that reveal the interplay between individual personality and the chaos of impoverished circumstances. Like a latter-day Dickens (but without the melodrama), he gives us another powerful indictment of America's treatment of the poor..." - Excerpt from Publisher's Weekly review.  "...For nearly fifty years Kozol has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy nation. A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called 'the outcasts of our nation's ingenuity.' But Kozol is not a distant and detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the children who have trusted and befriended him. "Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Kozol tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves, but for our society..." "Jonathan Kozol is the author of Death at an Early Age, Savage Inequalities, and other books on children and their education. He has been called "today's most eloquent spokesman for America's disenfranchised." But he believes young people speak most eloquently for themselves; and in this book, so full of the vitality and spontaneity of youth, we hear their testimony." Adapted from Amazon review.
7:45 p.m.	Book Inscription by Kozol
8:00 p.m.	WVSBA 1952 - 2012 ◊ Diamond Anniversary Reception Note: The Kozol presentation and related activities are open to the public.
Saturday, September 15
6:45 a.m.	Breakfast
8:00 a.m.	FY13 Delegate Assembly
9:00 a.m.	Concurrent Sessions (Please Select One) A Meeting of County Boards Under State Board of Intervention Status Presenters - Designated West Virginia Department of Education Officials Howard M. O'Cull, Ed.D., W. Va. School Board Association Executive Director hocull@wvsba.org Barbara L. Parsons, Ed.D., Liaison Special Projects - W. Va. School Board Association Executive Board parsonsbarbara66@yahoo.com Jimmy Wyatt (Tyler), W. Va. School Board Association President wyattjt44@yahoo.com   B "Public Education: Plainly and Simply All Politics is Local" Presenter -   Robert Rupp, Ph.D., Professor of History - W. Va. Wesleyan College - Buckhannon, W. Va. rupp_r@wvwc.edu   C "The Bryce Langford Incident": Video-based Training Regarding School Bullying and County Board Member Conduct Presenters - (Invited): Don Chapman. Assistant Director Office of Healthy Schools - W. Va. Department of Education  dchapman@access.k12.wv.us Technology Format Presentation - Bowles Rice Education Group NOTE: Facilitated by WVSBA Executive Committee Members - Sis Murray (Marion), Immediate Past President, Lead Facilitator Set amid the backdrop of alleged bullying incidents involving high school student Bryce Langford, this video-production is relevant to county board member training and development on several levels, including policies and procedures concerning bullied students as well as county board member protocol and conduct regarding school personnel laws, boardsmanship, ethics and various statutes and state Board of Education policies, rules and regulations. The training videotape follows the Langford incident as a young teacher befriends Langford, helping cultivate the student's talent as a photographer who specializes in black and white photographic media. In order to cultivate his photography skills, some of the work is done after school hours, leading to various allegations and rumors which abound in the community concerning the propriety of the arrangement. Two vignettes have been produced. One involves a conversation that occurs with three community members regarding the Langford incident. The second centers around a faculty senate meeting where several veteran teachers question the young teacher's desire to "save the world and every student in it" rather than relying on policy process. Finally, the young teacher finds herself having to justify selling of the student's photography, although she donated proceeds to "Dignity for All," a local anti-bullying organization. Work on the photography with use of school equipment during and after school hours prompts the county superintendent to recommend suspension of the teacher, although the county board ultimately selects alternate actions. The videotapes were produced using a local production studio and paid actors. The script was written by the WVSBA Executive Director. BoardWorks, a WVBA subsidiary, is responsible for the production. (At Orientation '12, participants engaged in a mock county board meeting to explore issues and themes inherent in the vignettes.)
11:00 a.m.	Conference Adjourned

 

 

State School Board Association seeks to overhaul county superintendent evaluation process

Efforts aim at better school boards

By Jim Wallace

The West Virginia School Board Association, the state school board and others are getting close to settling on standards to help all school boards function well and guidelines to help districts under state intervention regain local control. Those were among the major issues members of the West Virginia County Board Member Training Standards Review Committee (TSRC) considered at their meeting this week.

The WVSBA’s Committee for Developing Standards for High-Functioning County Boards has been working for months to come up with both standards and rubrics to help school boards operate as effectively as possible.

“The purpose of this whole project was to improve student achievement by improving county school board operations.” – Barbara Parsons

“The purpose of this whole project was to improve student achievement by improving county school board operations,” Barbara Parsons of the Monongalia Count school board said. She is the committee’s programmatic officer and liaison to WVSBA’s Executive Board. She said the committee looked for standards that support student achievement and for the most meaningful standards, because brevity counts.

Parsons said it is hoped that the standards eventually can be used to develop an assessment tool that would help identify boards at risk. She said it could “prevent them from sliding into the abyss” before they need to be rescued.

The standards are scheduled to go before WVSBA members for their review at the fall conference in September. Later, they will go to the state school board for its approval.

 Gayle Manchin, a state school board member who is chairwoman of the TSRC, commended those who developed the standards for high-functioning boards. “We are looking for everyone to accept responsibility and accountability for what they do,” she said. That includes students, faculty, administrators and board members, she said.

Parsons said her committee wanted to make sure the standards for county school boards are aligned with state board standards for exemplary schools, superintendents and others engaged in the education process.

“The initial purpose of it was just to be a guideline for all boards as to what they're supposed to do,” she said. “There seems to be some lack of clarity and some confusion. As we know, anybody who is elected may run for a variety of reasons, some of which don't fit these standards. So it was our hope we could kind of standardize the process.”

 

Takeover counties get special attention.

WVSBA Executive Director Howard O’Cull said the standards for high-functioning boards also could help identify those districts that could be on the verge of being taken over by the state school board. The WVSBA also has been working on guidelines to help counties get out from under state intervention. O’Cull said bringing together board members from those counties several times over the past year to discuss the issues among themselves has helped.

One of the main reasons for intervention is leadership, “which means at the local level that the boards have gotten themselves into positions where they’re not looking out for the children,” O’Cull said. “They're looking out for issues other than children and are putting other priorities in their place.”

Other reasons for state takeovers include problems with facilities, finances, personnel and curriculum, he said.

“Some of those boards are in denial about their issues. Yet some of those boards have been under state control for like 12 years, and you’ve had six board elections. And board members who’ve come on later in the scene, they’re not necessarily sure why the intervention occurred, so they have to rely on folklore, which is not exactly the best thing to do.” – Howard O’Cull

“I think it’s been eye-opening when the counties have come together,” O’Cull said. “Some of those boards are in denial about their issues. Yet some of those boards have been under state control for like 12 years, and you’ve had six board elections. And board members who’ve come on later in the scene, they’re not necessarily sure why the intervention occurred, so they have to rely on folklore, which is not exactly the best thing to do.”

Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, suggested that board members should receive more training about budget priorities. O’Cull said there will be more training on that.

Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, commended the WVSBA for its work to help counties under intervention, because he has seen people in those counties react poorly to takeovers. “Initially, there’s shock, and then it turns into resentment, and then it turns into anger,” he said. “And all along the way, the loss of trust is a huge issue.” After several years, trust is lost among the public, the stakeholders who elect board members, he said. “The public begins to resent and mistrust the state board,” Brown said.

Although local board members typically know why their district has been taken over, there is a breakdown in communication between the board members and the general public, he said.

O’Cull said the WVSBA Executive Board at a recent meeting began to put together a process to identify counties moving into financial difficulty or other problems. “We’re beginning a process to work with those boards so they won’t fall into situations other counties have,” he said.

“We know there are some counties out there right now that are in trouble in finances,” O’Cull said. “I know of two or three that are on the verge of leadership problems. Once these counties are identified, it’s a whole lot better to be proactive now, whether it’s through the School Board Association or whomever else, than it is to get things to a posture where – because of finances, because of curricular issues or whatever – the state then has to come in and do what the state is literally mandated by law to do.”
 
Parsons said the Executive Board agreed to form a committee to look at financial exigencies and provide troubled boards with a series of steps they could take.

O’Cull said several state interventions have occurred in counties with declining resources. “You get yourself into a box that you just can't afford to keep the system open,” he said. “Then you get into leadership issues. Then you get into communication issues with the public and things like that. So we’ve got to be proactive in dealing with those issues, so boards and systems won't suffer. When systems suffer, kids suffer.”

 

McDowell County presents worst-case scenario.

Manchin said the situation in McDowell County shows what happens when trust is lost, people are not well informed and you are actually stymied by statute on what can be done. Since the state board took over the McDowell County system in 2001, she said, the superintendent has been replaced several times.

“The problem is that replacing the superintendent does not correct the issues that abound in McDowell County.” – Gayle Manchin

“The problem is that replacing the superintendent does not correct the issues that abound in McDowell County,” Manchin said. “Replacing the superintendent does not in any way address the fact that many children are coming to school hungry, that many children don’t live in a home with a parent because over half of the parents of these children in McDowell County are either incarcerated or addicted to drugs and alcohol. So replacing the superintendent does not address those problems, and those problems continue to prevent children from being able to achieve in school.”

What is needed in McDowell County is a partnership of many groups addressing many types of problems, she said, because the Department of Education cannot do it alone.

“I have heard a woman say at a meeting, ‘If it takes a village to raise a child, who raises the village?’ And part of the issue in McDowell County is that we do not have a healthy village.” –Gayle Manchin

“I have heard a woman say at a meeting, ‘If it takes a village to raise a child, who raises the village?’ And part of the issue in McDowell County is that we do not have a healthy village,” Manchin said.

The Reconnecting McDowell project is the type of multi-faceted approach that she and others say is needed to turn around conditions in the county. The American Federation of Teachers has taken a lead in that effort, which Manchin hopes will build a model for helping other counties in West Virginia, as well as other parts of rural America.

Manchin and others made a presentation at a recent AFT conference in Detroit, where she said many people represented urban areas, but fewer represented rural areas. “Inner-city, urban schools have no problem getting money from foundations and grants, because they represent large numbers of students,” she said. “Some of those inner cities have more students than we have in all of West Virginia, but that doesn’t make it fair.” Manchin said West Virginia must work harder to pull all the pieces together to get grants.

The problems McDowell County has been facing could develop elsewhere, she said, and she expressed concern in particular about problems at one rural elementary school in Wayne County. She said those problems are moving on to the middle school where former students from the elementary school go.

A nonprofit arm of Reconnecting McDowell has been formed, and Manchin will serve as chairwoman of its advisory board.

Bob Brown, who has been a leader in the Reconnecting McDowell project, gave the TRSC an update similar to the one he gave to legislators at their recent interim meetings.

“This has been an incredible journey for me thus far, and it has just started,” he said. “And it is one of the most exciting and rewarding things I have done in my career.”

Brown said he recently gave presentations on the project to union people at an AFL-CIO conference in Chicago. He told them the project is just as important as negotiating a good contract or getting good legislation passed.

 

Suggestions could alter future training sessions.

The TSRC also reviewed evaluations from participants at sessions the WVSBA has had at its winter conference, orientation for new board members and retreat for school board presidents. Among the comments received are that the programs should:

• Eliminate repetitive programming (such as dropout prevention and truancy);
• Tell board members what they can do with information rather than just provide the information itself;
• Be shorter and to the point; and
• Be aligned with needs, roles and purposes of county boards.

“The main thing I think board members are saying is, if you give us information, then tell us how we can apply that information to our situation rather than just simply saying, this is the situation.” – Howard O’Cull

“The main thing I think board members are saying is, if you give us information, then tell us how we can apply that information to our situation rather than just simply saying, this is the situation,” O’Cull said.

Video-based training worked well at an orientation session, he said, so he believes new board members want more technology-based training. They want more participatory training, such as mock board meetings, O’Cull said, and they generally don’t like panel discussions, although panel discussions following video presentations can be useful.

Other suggestions from members at orientation sessions include:

• Use veteran board members to help new ones;
• On school law, don’t just tell board members what not to do but tell them what they can do;
• For finance sessions, provide information in advance so members can work on it at the orientation; and
• Eliminate sales pitches but show how products work.

 

Fall conference agenda is shaping up.

The WVSBA will celebrate its 60th year at its fall conference, scheduled for September 14-15 in Charleston. O’Cull said the first general session will be “Team Turnarounds: A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams.” The presenters will be Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl, managing partners of Meno Consulting of Westover.

Attendees who want more information about team turnarounds can attend a breakout session with Frontiera and Leidl. Another breakout session will be: “The Energy Sector: Educational Preparation for Existing and Emergent Employment.”

“I think this will be good, because there is quite a bit of discussion about the energy sector in our state, emerging energy policy, energy policy about coal, what kind of jobs are in those fields and what kind of preparation kids need or other people may need to get into those particular areas of employment,” O’Cull said.

Manchin agreed that school board members should be aware of the effects of the growing energy sector and also about the effects of the Boy Scout complex being built in Fayette County.

“We have been talking about declining population for many years. For the first time in many years, we’ve got two big things happening in the state that could certainly increase population.” – Gayle Manchin

“This is a great issue for school boards to be thinking about,” she said. “We have been talking about declining population for many years. For the first time in many years, we’ve got two big things happening in the state that could certainly increase population. And one of the first questions that people are going to ask when they come to an area, if they are being recruited or they are coming here for business purposes, is what the school system looks like.”

Manchin said school board members should think about how they can be advocates for public education amid such economic growth. She said it could be an exciting opportunity to recruit teachers and families to West Virginia. “I think this program is very timely,” she said.

Kathi D’Antoni, assistant state superintendent in the Division of Technical and Adult Education, said changes in the energy sector affect educational programming, economic development and school enrollment. She said her agency is reviewing all of its career and technical education programs to see if schools are oversupplied or undersupplied in any areas. D’Antoni is scheduled to be a presenter during that session at the fall conference.

O’Cull said another important issue that will be addressed during the fall conference is bullying.

 

Most board members get required training.

The committee also reviewed the final report for 2011-2012 of training received by school board members. Each school board member is required to receive seven clock hours of training each year. Of the 291 individuals who served as school board members sometime during that school year, 272 received seven or more credit hours of training. Of those who did not meet that requirement, 13 resigned and four died during the year. O’Cull said that among current board members, the only one not newly appointed to a board position who failed to get the required seven credit hours fell just 45 minutes short.

West Virginia is among about 20 states that require school board members to get training and it is the only one to require orientation for new board members, he said. Board members who do not get the required amount of training face the possibility of being removed from office, O’Cull said.

The Training Standards Review Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for October 2 at 10:45 a.m.

 

WVSSAC report prepared for Association Executive Board

By Jim Crawford

The following are among the items I reported about relating to the July 25, 2012, meeting of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission Board of Directors meeting.

Several items were discussed, including revenue generated from the state baseball tournament and state track meet.

In terms of statewide sporting events held in Charleston,  the WVSSAC is going to require stricter identification procedures for acquiring hotel lodging and that cash payment for such might be eliminated, subject to the policies various hotels may have.

This process was adopted  due to incidents involving lodging at a hotel during the state Basketball Tournament. 

The Board of Directors also received reports from various coaches' committees, including a rejected request from the Track Coaches Committee which was asking to present eight award medals.

The group also deliberated  on the disciplining of a coach and the Board ruled on two transfer hearings, one involving high schools in Monongalia and Lewis Counties. Both were heard in terms of "hardship cases."

The Board voted to allow the students involved to be eligible for sports participation immediately.

Finally, the Board of Directors defeated a motion to give  retired non-educator coaches passes to athletic events. The motion was defeated failed because it is in code.

I also would like to point out that every  high school principal gets a handbook regarding WVSSAC rules and regulations concerning athletics in West Virginia.

Our next meeting where I will represent the association is August 28 and 29. 

 

 

Executive Board holds annual summer business session

The West Virginia School Board Association Executive Board held its annual summer  Business Session August 3 and 4 at Lakeview Golf Resort & Spa which is located near Morgantown.

Among various business items, the Executive Board:

• Received a report from Deputy State Superintendent of Schools Charles Heinlein who discussed the state Department of Education’s Process and Guidelines for superintendents and Local Boards under Intervention Status” commenting on the process for intervention county boards of education to regain local control of their school systems. He also discussed county board accreditation (Office of Education Performance Audits) and commended the School Board Association for being proactive in terms of developing standards for school board service as well as in efforts to identify and assist county boards, including county boards where state intervention has occurred. 
   
• Discussed “Proposed Effectiveness Standards with draft Rubrics” as presented by the association’s Committee Relating to Developing Standards for High-Functioning County Boards.  Barbara L. Parsons, Ed.D. (Monongalia) who chairs the committee said the Committee’s Standards had been approved by the state Board of Education and that the rubrics would be presented to the Association membership for approval at the FY13 Delegate Assembly Meeting. That meeting will be held in conjunction with the Association’s Conference ’12 on the morning of September 15. Parsons is President of the Monongalia County Board of Education and serves Liaison for Special Projects for the WVSBA Executive Board.
   
• Reviewed efforts some county boards have made, notably Pocahontas County, to include input at the county board level.
   
• Appointed a three-member committee comprised of Parsons, Sis Murray (Marion) and Kenny Vance (Pocahontas) to begin to develop ways in which the association can provide technical assistance to various counties upon board request, particularly counties struggling in terms of finances, leadership issues and other factors that could invite state control initiatives.
   
• Appointed three co-regional officers to fill vacancies having occurred as a result of the 2012 Primary Election. The newly-appointed officers include:

Charles Sams (Monroe) – Region 1

1. William R. “Bill” Davis (Logan) – Region 2
2. Robert Wilkins (Barbour) – Region 7

The Region 8 position has yet to be filled. That region encompasses the Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands Counties. 

Persons interested in that position should contact Association President Jimmy Wyatt by email - wyattjt44@yahoo.com.

The appointed members will serve until March 9, 2013.

• Discussed the association’s FY13 budget which includes an increasing emphasis on entrepreneurial services with about 55 percent of the budget to be derived from non-Membership Subscription Fees (MSFs) sources. The association’s budget for FY13 includes projected revenue of $468,054 and expenditures of $441,449.
   
• Directed O’Cull to complete and release, on behalf of the Executive Board, the 2012 Deadlines & Important Dates County Boards of Education - Dr. O’Cull reported on the demand for this document and suggested securing advertisements to underwrite cost.
   
• Voted to complete the latest in a series of studies relating to board actions and decisions as reflected in county boards of education minutes. An Analysis of the Actions and Decisions Made in West Virginia School Board Meeting Minutes 2005-2010 (commonly referred to as the “Minutes Study”) is research unique in the field of school board studies, according to O’Cull. The first such study was conducted in 1990, covering the years 1985-1990. Research findings are used to develop modules for county board training and development, according to O’Cull. He also said the studies provide a way to  “delve into” what county boards “do” in their meetings, although the study does not relate to meeting “time” devoted to the emergent categories of actions which typically include “managerial” rather than a “vision focus.” O’Cull said this was not uncommon among county boards because school boards “by their nature are prone to operate on basis of an administrative agenda as supplied by the county superintendent – the source of most board information and recommendations for decisionmaking.”
   
• Agreed to pursue development of an association handbook which would be available in an electronic format. Parsons is leading this effort.
   
• Decided to wait until rubrics for Standards for High-Functioning County Boards are developed prior to engaging external assistance in developing an association strategic plan.
   
• Reviewed evaluation results of several past association meetings. These reviews, based on participants’ evaluations, are to be presented to the County Board Member Training Standards Review Committee (TSRC) for review by that group.
   
• Discussed a regional training session to be held August 18 at Cacapon State Park. About 20 county board members and county superintendents plan to attend, according to WVSBA Administrative Assistant Shirley Davidson who is handling registrations. O’Cull said the program will relate to recently adopted legislation that affects county boards as well as some court and Public Employees Grievance Board decisions having “policy bearing” on local boards. Greg Bailey of the Morgantown office of Bowles Rice will present the program. The session also includes a discussion of concerns of Region 8 county boards.
   
• Endorsed O’Cull’s pursuit of alternate means of providing county board member training and development, including video-training, whole-board training, on-line book-based training initiatives, and similar formats. O’Cull said such before deployment these programs would require approval of the TSRC. He said that group has been emphasizing these type modules and venues.
• Directed association counsel Howard E. Seufer Jr.,  Bowles Rice, to provide comments relative to the state Department of Education’s proposed “Non-Approval Accreditation Status and Intervention into County Educational Systems: Process and Guidelines for Superintendents and Local Boards Under Intervention Status” document. The comments are to be shared with Heinlein.
   
• Agreed to form a committee whose role is to discuss broad-based committee to study financial exigency strategies for county boards, including varying levels of exigencies which might entail consideration of cross-county sharing of central office administrative services. Dr. O’Cull will present a proposed means to make the study viable, making a report regarding such at the September Executive Board meeting.
   
• Approved payment of National School Boards Association dues in the amount of $15,658.
   
• Received a report from Crawford concerning efforts at the legislative level to increase compensation for county boards of education members. The matter will be discussed at the association’s September Delegate Assembly meeting.
   
• Directed O’Cull to survey the membership regarding legislative issues of interest to county board members. He is to provide this information to the executive board in September.
   
• Deferred consideration of a request of NSBA Southern Region States for West Virginia to host a future meeting of that group. O’Cull said the association last hosted the event 1990. There are 12 states in NSBA’s Southern Region. There was some concern about the costs of hosting the event along with staff dedication to the effort and other issues.
   
• Considered a new association logo and motto. These will be utilized at the organization’s Conference ’12 which, in part, will be used to commemorate the association’s 60th Anniversary. The revised association motto would be ‘“Promoting Excellence in County Board of Education Leadership Since 1952.” Future association projects, services and initiatives would be branded with the new logo and motto, according to O’Cull.

The Executive Board’s next meeting will be held September 13, 2012, in Charleston.

Executive Board meetings are open to all members as well as the public.