Staff Writer
Photo by Joselyn King
Superintendent Kim Miller, left, and Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones discuss the potential for a return to a five-day school week in Ohio County Schools during a Monday meeting.
WHEELING Ohio County Schools just isn’t ready to send students back to school five days a week while nearly a third of students continue to learn at home, Superintendent Kim Miller said Monday.
Last week, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice issued an executive order allowing for full-time in-person instruction to resume in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in the state’s schools.
But it isn’t a mandate, according to Miller. What is a mandate is that school districts continue to offer a remote learning option to students.
JOSELYN KING Staff Writer
WHEELING Ohio County commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a prevention resource officer contract between the county and Ohio County Schools but with an added twist they see as beneficial to the school district.
Commission President Randy Wharton asked that commissioners include an amendment to the agreement that would give school district officials the right to interview new county-provided PROs before they are assigned to a school.
Commissioner Zach Abraham said he had requested such authority for the school district when he served as board of education president.
“I think that’s something they should have, unless someone thinks they would object to it,” Commissioner Don Nickerson said.
Staff Writer
Photo by Joselyn King
Ohio County Board of Education member Grace Norton returns to the board office Monday night following a bout with COVID-19.
WHEELING The Ohio County Board of Education Monday night approved a contract to keep county-provided prevention resource officers in school buildings through the end of this school year.
The agreement achieved is expected to result in reducing the overall number of county-provided PROs from six to five, while eventually eliminating the PRO from Middle Creek Elementary School, Board of Education President David Croft explained.
The school district also has plans to reduce the overall number of deputies serving as PROs in the coming years, while hiring more from the city of Wheeling at a cheaper cost, he said.
Evans settling into his role as president of West Liberty University By
Dr. W. Franklin Evans poses with West Liberty University officials during a ribbon cutting February 4.
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. Dr. W. Franklin Evans says he is trying his best to balance his time between presidential duties, introducing himself to the campus life and getting to know leaders in the Wheeling area during his first days on the job as president of West Liberty University.
Evans became West Liberty’s 37th president and the first president at the 183-year old institution to be a person of color when his term began January 1. The former president of Vorhees College spoke with MetroNews and said he has stayed busy trying to get a better lay of the land and become more comfortable.
Staff Writer
File Photo
Even during a more than four-week stay at Wheeling Hospital, Ohio County Board of Education member Grace Norton, seen here at a school board meeting last year, participates in meetings via phone.
WHEELING Ohio County Board of Education member Grace Norton hasn’t let anything bar her from having her voice heard at board meetings. When the group met this past week, Norton was not in person at the board office, but she was patched in via phone from the intensive care unit at Wheeling Hospital.
Norton, 77, has been hospitalized for more than four weeks, first with COVID-19 and bilateral pneumonia, and now with related symptoms. On Thursday, she was moved from the ICU and was expected to be released soon. But her illness hasn’t kept her from keeping up with her elected job on the school board, or the news of the world from her hospital bed.