Newly appointed School Board member Jason Arnold was sworn in by County Clerk Jean Simers during the opening of the Calhoun BOE meeting on Thursday, January 18th, after being postponed due to weather on Tuesday evening.
Board recognition was given to Calhoun Football Players selected for Little Kanawha Conference.
Freshman Rome Riddle, pictures above with Superintended Michael Fitzwater, was selected for Special Honorable Mention Offense and was the only one present for the meeting. Other players honored were, Jayson Gibson (Second Team Offense, Logan Tinger (Second Team Offense), Gabe Waldron (Second Team Offense), Trenton Nelson (Second team Defense), Owen Taylor (Second Team Defense), Adam Hughes (Special Honorable Mention), and Landon Hardway (Special Honorable Mention).
Superintendent Michael Fitzwater reported that concerns regarding the electric school buses that will become apart of the the Calhoun County Schools Transportation Fleet were a “
business decision,” stating that grant funding would be paying for the buses and the new addition would allow the mileage to be reduced on the diesel gas buses. He said that the electric bus would likely be used for the Career Center run which has put many additional miles on the fleet. “They’re throwing so much money at us,” Mr. Fitzwater explained, “We can’t turn them down.” In addition to the electric buses, Tyler County has given Calhoun County Schools. 5-6 busses. The additions add not only the buses to the fleet but the amount of money given to the school for transportation costs from the State also increases.
Mr. Fitzwater reported that the Bench Mark Testing results showed improvement in Calhoun County through research done by Dr. Richard Duncan, Roane County Schools Superintendent. West Virginia’s 17 small county School districts (those with fewer than 2,000 students enrolled) make up a small portion of the State’s 55 county school districts. (30.9%)
When comparing student achievement as measured by the West Virginia General Summative Assessment, however, these counties are overrepresented in the list of those that have met the challenges of learning loss after the COVID 19 pandemic.
Only 13 of 55 school districts in WV have recovered from learning loss in mathematics. Of those 13, 8 have fewer than 2,000 students. Calhoun County showed the highest improvement rate of those 13 with a 3.76% growth in Math between 2018 and 2023.
Benchmark testing results for grades 5-8 are as follows:
With regard to instruction of students, Mr. Fitzwater said that there are plans in place to give the schools system an entirely different look next year. The School is going to get back to the basics and prepare kids for the future by looking at both trade and advanced education careers, and do a better job at showing kids their options.
Two teachers announced their retirements, Norma Randall-Myers and Lorri Cunningham. Mr. Fitzwater said that there are other retirements that will soon be announced as well.
