By Stephen Smoot
In the final meeting of August, the Pendleton County Board of Education and superintendent enjoyed good news from different quarters while also working on administrative needs. J. D. Wilkins, board president, gave the usual invocation and prayed, “Keep our students safe in schools and on the roads and at home.”
Discussion first went to personnel moves. Though Pendleton County Schoos retains its Communities in Schools grant, the board voted to close the CIS counselor position. Duties of the counselor will still be performed, so services will continue.
CIS has worked to fulfill needs of students in struggle for any reason. Championed by former First Lady Cathy Justice, the program has earned accolades. In a tight financial state, however, its future remains uncertain.
Board members also approved retaining independent investigation services for use when needed in such areas as Title IX federal regulations. In-house investigations, particularly in a sparsely populated area, could lead to conflicts of interest. The board agreed that having objective investigations serves as a benefit “in such a close knit community.”
Board members also approved working with audiology and sign language services to attend to students with those needs.
J.P. Mowery delivered the treasurer and financial reports, which contained mostly favorable news. He shared that as of the last day of fiscal year 2025, June 30, the school system had “a very healthy cash position” of $2,463,621.79. He added that in the fiscal year, the school system earned approximately $122,000 of interest from its bank accounts.
The financial report added first that the school system carried over a balance of $1.8 million from one fiscal year to the next, “to the good,” as Mowery describes, which was about $100,000 more than it carried over last year.
“Not only have we stayed even,” shared Mowery,” but we gained a bit.”
Mowery, as is customary, tempered the good news with his financially conservative approach. He informed the board that “we can do capital projects . . . but we still have to pay attention to everything else,” which includes the status of state and federal funds for different aspects of the school system.
“It’s a good report right now,” Mowery concluded.
Travis Heavner provided a facilities update, leading off with work undertaken by Lantz Construction to repair a music room wall at North Fork Elementary School that had been damaged by a vehicle.
“They had been able to take down some of the block that was damaged and put some material up there to keep it secure until the other block arrives,” Heavner explained. He added that he expected work to finish in “about three weeks.” That said, he also shared that they had discovered some wiring damage as they went through the walls.
Paving at the bus garage had also taken place the day of the meeting.
One item of concern lay in the air conditioning units at Pendleton County Middle/High School and Franklin Elementary School. Power surges caused some issues. Heavner explained that “this is typical after the buildings sit idle in summer.”
Wilma Pitsenbarger, board member, returned to the subject of NFES and asked what “could be done to keep vehicles from hitting the same area.” Heavner replied that they will “go down there and put up some blocks,” and add directions for safe parking. School buses have already been rerouted to avoid the problem area.
Mowery added that the new middle school lockers were paid off and said “we got some donations to help with that.”
Board members then heard more policies for review and readings. The first two added to county policy the expanded vacation time for professional and service personnel. Mowery said, “We do have our year round service personnel and they need vacations too.”
Another policy addresses open enrollment based transfers, including those to schools out of the attendance zone. If the transferred student develops negative issues, such as chronic absences, behavioral problems, or other potentially disruptive problems, the school system has the right to rescind the transfer.
It was pointed out that such transfers often correlate with chronic absence issues even after the move.
The board approved the policies after their legally required second readings.
Sonny O’Neil, board member, asked about any state guidance in that matter. Mowery answered no, but that some adjustments over time may become necessary.
Next, the board approved memorandums of understanding with Birth to Three, which provides services for families needing support with children at those young ages. Two were approved with Pendleton Community Care. One concerned division of labor in school nurses between campus and PCC, and the other focused on providing “basic primary health care” and “behavioral health services.”
More good news came in the form of academic achievement in the 2024-25 school year. In all but three of the 16 categories, Pendleton County proved proficient. The three that missed the mark, did not do so by much. Hevener noted, “I feel we did well. It was a challenging year.” She then cited the numerous weather interruptions last year compared to others. Additionally, Hevener told board members that the central office would soon produce an academic growth plan for the county.
Wilkins said, “Congratulations to the whole school system,” and Hevener added that “it shows the hard work of the teachers.”
