CHARLESTON, W.Va. –The West Virginia Board of Education received updates at their meeting Wednesday, from two superintendents whose schools have been under state of emergency.
Logan County Schools were put under a state of emergency in 2022 and Superintendent Jeff Huffman presented to the board that they were excelling in some of their previous struggle areas and are actively continuing to improve in other areas.
One of the things he stated that they have continuously improve on is student learning.
He said that they have implemented professional instruction for the teachers.
“We have embarked on a journey that we have charted that will extend over time, to address instructional needs in our classrooms that is going to strengthen the skill sets of those who are providing instruction which will ultimately result in improvements for our students which is the name of the game,” Huffman said.
He said they built a relationship with a company called Solution Tree which provided the teachers with that valuable instruction time. This relationship allowed 400 teachers to be involved in professional development training during the summer before the 2024-2025 school year.
Another thing Huffman said was that the culture was hard to measure but he believes it has drastically improved.
He said that when he first went to the schools and got the principals together, he thought they would never talk to one another.
However, he said communication between everyone has gotten better since 2022.
“That collaboration between the district office, administration, and school administration is moving in a positive direction, we are moving away from the component that plagues far too many school systems which is “us vs. them”,” Huffman said. “It’s not an “us vs. them” system, it is a system of us supporting students and that is the direction that we are heading.”
He also said that they are actively improving school facilities. They are working on some electrical work at some schools and working on improving HVAC system and the boiler room at other schools, those improvements should be done in August 2025.
On the other hand, Upshur County Schools, who has been under state of emergency since 2023, Superintendent Christy Miller presented her update, stating that while in some areas they have improved, there are still areas that still need active attention.
Miller said that there are still some academic concerns, relating to the reading and math levels at some of the schools in the county.
Right now, 50% of kids are reading at their grade levels, however she wants that to be at least 70% to 85%. And she was concerned with eighth grade math, which right now is at 17%.
Another concern she had was special education, which she said the schools never had a plan or process for that, but they are working on a draft in order to correct the issue.
In order to help these areas improve, Miller announced that she will stay with the county for another year because she knows that they still a long way to go.
“A large task is still in front of us, but together we are stronger, we are prepared, and we are prepared for success and a very bright future united for excellence in Upshur County,” Miller said.
Despite the areas that still need work, Miller highlighted two areas where she has seen improvement during her time with the county.
The first one was attendance. She said that in the 2023-2024 school year the number of absent students was at 24% which she says has dropped to 19% during the 2024-2025 school year. She did say that they have implemented a plan that should help drop that number to 10% by the 2028-2029 school year.
Another one was about behavior in the classrooms. Miller said they have seen a decline in aggressive conduct, illegal drugs and substances and out-of-school suspensions.
She said although the absent numbers are declining and behavior has improved, they are still working on making those numbers better.
“We cannot teach, we cannot learn if we are not present and that is something we are working really hard on,”
The board did not say when it would lift the state of emergency for either county.
Story by Morgan Pemberton, MetroNews