Musical School Chairs

Meeting Summary

I went to this meeting tonight and here is a summary as I remember it.  I will be posting video shortly.

1.    The Interim superintendent apologized re: the short announcement.

2.  He explained that the board has until Oct 1 to submit its proposal.  It was fairly obvious that they had not really considered the proposal with any depth.  He explained that the former superintendent did not want to deal with the issue.  The Thursday night is very near.

3.  There was a lot of people at the Music Room.   Many staff and professionals from all over the county were there..  Some parents were there as well.  5:00 for the meeting didn't give a lot of opportunity for working parents to attend.

4.    Maintenance supervisor, Ron Hall of the board office gave a run-down on the conditions of the building.  He complained that he didn't have enough money to keep these buildings up.  It did appear to this reporter that money for maintenance has not been much of a priority in the past years.  In other words,  all the buildings have been neglected, some pretty severely.  The proposed reconfig would make it possible to build new facilities instead of fixing up the old as much.  The SBA doesn't like to maintain buildings;  they have two goals in mind,  "less buildings" and "new buildings."  Of course,  Pocahontas County has been upgrading its facilities for several years.  So they won't really satisfy the SBA unless they shuffle the children around some and build some new facilities.

5.  The estimated cost of the config is 28 million dollars with perhaps as much as 18 million coming from the SBA.  It was not adequately explained to me as to where that money would come from locally.  Someone mentioned the dirty word, "levy."  And it seemed that there was considerable sentiment among the group to call for a levy.  The main caution was that a levy should not involve athletics as the last one did and was trounced royally.

6.  But it was not adequately explained how the new facilities would be any better maintained than the old ones considering that the school system is "too poor" to afford maintenance on the current buildings.

7.  That brought up the question of Marlinton Elementary School which lies in the floodplain.  That of course, is a given.  Not only is MES in the floodplain but the county has just built a brand new facility, the Wellness Center, in the same floodplain.  The sub proposal consists of moving the board office which is high above the floodplain down into MES where all the student records would be subject to flooding.  (Many people can remember 85 when water was nearly to the ceiling of the MES building.

8.  Then another inconsistency arose in the matter:  what about the fact that the school system has recently relocated the 5th grade from MMS to MES.  In other words,  it was no problem expanding the school in the floodplain until now.  Now the main priority is to get the whole bunch out of the floodplain!  Nobody touched an explanation of this corundum.

9.  Then the big secret of the night came out.  We admire Mr. Beam for being the first to articulate this secret in a public meeting.  It weighs heavily into the equation.  The Pocahontas County school system has been constantly funded for several years at the rate of 1400 students when in reality they have had far less.  Question:  Where has all that money been going?-- Certainly, not into maintenance by board testimony.  

10.  The actual configuration is up in the air and the proposal deadline is on Thursday.  It appears that this was the reason for the rush meeting to get public input.  If they don't apply this year,  they will have to wait another year.

11.  The meeting ended on a positive note with no decision as to what to do.  Sometimes indecisiveness is a virtue.  If that is true,  we have a lot of it!!!  All in all there was a good spirit about the meeting perhaps because only a couple board members showed up to listen to the forum.  The others will have to listen to the Commentators video.

Truth in the Rumor

I have been getting anonymous notes from the readers of the Commentator--rumors that made it worthwhile to do a little legwork for the rest of our readers.  I am reconstructing what I said from memory so please forgive me if I get it a little wrong.  I am sure that someone will correct me and that is fine!!  Here We Go:

First:  The Rumor from Anonymous:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Bizarre Rumor":

Monday, September 28th at 5:00 there will be a Public Forum at MES regarding what they are wanting to do with the schools. The rumor I heard is that they want to combine MMS and Greenbank at the high school property and combine MES and Hillsboro in one (maybe the MMS building?). It' no secret that they want MES moved and/or closed, that was in the newspaper! Show up on Monday to hear what they have to say!

Here's what we know from talking with the interim superintend:

There is a grain of truth.  According to him, the suggestion has been made as follows:

HES would become a K-6 school

GBMS would become a K-6 school.

MES would become a K-6 school but at the MMS facility.

MES would be the new board office.

7th and 8th graders from both schools would go to a new facility at the high school.  Some will remember that GBMS was once at the high school.

MES would move to the old MMS building (which actually isn't so old.)

The goal would be to get MES out of the flood plain,  strength the need for HES which has an extremely low student count.  The board office would no longer be on the second floor of the old Jr. High (out of the floodplain)  but would now be in the flood plain in the current MES building.

No plans for the multimillion dollar Wellness Center that just opened.

Arguments for moving MES consist of the fact that MES currently has little foot traffic impacting the town.  There would be a nice cafeteria in the Board Office.  The Board would continue to be a water and sewer user.   The Board Office would have a very nice public meeting room (the previous music room) HES would not have to be closed.  The Board Office is expensive to heat.  

Arguments against moving MES to MMS.  Traveling distance and mountain terrain.  7th and 8th graders from the lower end and the upper end of the county would have additional traveling time and miles.  Not moving might force the closure of HES.  

NOW THERE IS A PUBLIC MEETING but it is just not on the agenda.  I am including a picture of the agenda for the meeting tonight.  It will tell you that the board is regularly to meet at the Board Office at 7:00.  THE PUBLIC MEETING IS AT 5:00 Monday evening IN THE MES MUSIC ROOM.  No action is to be taken and because it is not on the agenda this reporter assumes that the entire board will not be present to hear public comment.  (All public meetings of school officials have to be announced when a quorum of members meet together.  

This means that by law one would not expect more than two board members at that public meeting.  (The question is not whether they take action, but whether they meet to discuss anything.)  If there are three members or more,  I want to know about it.

Extra

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Warrior Down

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Even More Memories

Down Memory Lane With the Class of 1965

MHS Group Photo--Class of 1965-- 3 pics slow load--Patience Req. Download and Print

Bizarre Rumor

Anonymous Tip:  Hi, Mr Norman. I was told a bit of news 

today that concerned me. But, I'm not sure how to verify 

it. I was told that the BOE is scheming to combine 

Hillsboro and Marlinton Elementary. 


This being done under the guise of a mold issue at ME.


Would you be willing to look into the matter and if it is 

true get the word out.--Anonymous



Editor's Note: I get lots of tips on what is going on in 

Pocahontas County but there is a bizarre coincidence

here. Just this evening (a few hours) I was asked by a 

knowledgable person how I felt about ME being moved.

Political behavior in Pocahontas sometimes parallels 

reality pretty well.

Can anyone help us with some answers 

here?

Just keep this quiet for a while and we'll 

have the investigative staff of the 

Commentator look  into it!!

We need the Pope up here in WV to straighten things out!!!

Logan County Family Court Judge Gave Legal Advice, Had Sexual Relationship With Secretary

Updated: Friday, July 17, 2015 | Leslie A. Rubin

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LOGAN, W.Va. – A Logan County Family Court Judge who abruptly resigned last week was facing disciplinary action, according to a public admonishment made public on Friday.

The Honorable Ronald E. Wilson, chairperson for the Judicial Investigation Commission, signed the document on July 13th.

The commission found that formal disciplinary action was not essential since Jason Harwood had agreed to resign his position and never again seek judicial office in West Virginia.

Harwood submitted his resignation letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Workman and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, stating that his resignation would be effective at 5:01 p.m. on July 10th.

Harwood was sworn into office in late December 2008 and formally took the position in January 2009.

According to the admonishment, Harwood had an improper sexual relationship with his secretary, identified as TFM, after he hired her in 2009. TFM was promoted the position of Family Court Case Coordinator in 2011 after Harwood requested that she be promoted to the position. TFM served as the coordinator until the end of March 2011.

Harwood has acknowledged that it is not appropriate for a judicial officer to engage in such a relationship, according to the admonishment.

Harwood and TFM continued to have e-mail contact after she left his employ. “On some occasions TFM sent e-mails in which she discussed certain cases pending before him concerning her friends. It appears that TFM felt she could discuss these improper subject with Judge Harwood, and he did nothing to discourage her from contacting him or discussing the matters,” the admonishment states.

“Judge Harwood developed an unfavorable reputation in his work environment and perhaps in the community concerning his attitude toward women as sex objects, which was contributed to by his use of language of a sexual nature and his crude utterances about a woman’s physical appearance,” the admonishment states.

The investigation found that Harwood violated multiple canons of the state’s Judicial Code of Conduct because of the relationship with his secretary. Harwood also gave inappropriate legal advice to a friend who had a case pending in another county’s family court system.

Judges are not allowed to give legal advice, according to the Code of Conduct.

Harwood served as an Logan County assistant prosecutor and a public defender before being elected family court judge.