It was a day to honor the hard work and academic accolades of students prior to the business of the day for the Pendleton County Board of Education and superintendent.
J. D. Wilkins, board president, in his invocation prayed that “You would bless us as we all gather together here to serve the business of the school system of Pendleton County.”
Superintendent Nicole Hevener recognized first the winners of the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe Award. This honor goes to students who have demonstrated superior knowledge of the history of the Mountain State.
The award has a special connection to Pendleton County. Virginia colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood in 1716 led an expedition into the Shenandoah Valley and nearly beyond. Historians say that the expedition crossed the western ridge into what is now Pendleton County west of modern Harrisonburg, Virginia.
A little way into what is now Pendleton County, Spotswood handed out the first golden horseshoes, inscribed with “Sic juvat transcendere montes,” or “thus he vows to cross the mountains.”
Weston Boyer and Hannah Heavner earned the awards from Pendleton County Middle/High School for 2026.
The superintendent then introduced Ross Pownell to deliver his state social studies fair presentation. Pownell also wowed the superintendent and board in April with his state science fair presentation. His topic evaluated the importance of extracurricular activities to student engagement and achievement, especially in a time of tightening budgets.
He posed “four main essential questions.” These included exploring the meaning of “school climate”, how do students participate and enjoy benefits, does participation in these improve how a student experiences the school, and what benefits do teachers and staff see in student participation in extracurricular activities.
After presenting a history of school-based extracurricular activities and how that changed over time, Pownell surveyed students and staff. He reported strong numbers seeing benefits in student participation. Pownell noted that Pendleton County Schools was “ahead of its time and had girls playing basketball as early as 1952. Nice!”
Wilkins stated, “Good job putting it all together and you always do a good job with your presentations.” Hevener added praise for Hayley Craig, West Virginia History teacher at PCM/HS, saying, “She does an excellent job and we want to thank her for all that she does.”
J. P. Mowery, Pendleton County Schools treasurer, delivered the financial report. The budget for fiscal year 2027 will be $20,635,000 compared to $20,252,009.97 for the previous year, a two percent increase. He then shared that “if you factor out the pay raises and associated fixed costs, it would be a slight decrease based on the actual budget to be presented.”
That includes the yearly $50,000 set aside for the permanent improvement fund. Charles Hedrick, former superintendent, established this during the COVID years and it has never been tapped into. By the end of fiscal 2027 the fund will have accumulated $350,000. “It’s not required that we have that done, but we’ve been setting it aside,” said Mowery.
He added that no funds were needed for purchasing buses with recent purchases filling out the fleet’s need.
Mowery anticipated another healthy “carryover” as well from fiscal year 2026 into 2027, which starts July 1. Last year that came out to approximately $1,500,000 and this year his “conservative” estimate of that is $1,767,000, though Mowery noted that figure could rise. Later in the meeting, he described the number as “significant,” but “it’s still less than the state recommends.” Mowery explained that “they’d like to see us at probably closer to two and a half or three million” carried over from fiscal year 2026 to 27.
“It’s a very full budget. It’s a balanced budget,” Mowery reported.
Looking forward, Mowery anticipated a decrease in federal funding next year. He stated, “That likely means a position paid for out of federal funds in the past will be moved . . . to the general budget for 2027, which we can obviously afford.”
Mowery shared that the ending balance for the month of March was a little more than $2,961,995.73. March’s end of month balance for 2026 was $3,226,562.75. He said, “That’s certainly solid, the fact that we are holding our own and increasing a little bit.”
Board members then received a thorough presentation on how the nutrition costs are calculated and met. Towards the end, the price of adult and visitor meals in school lunch rooms was discussed. Years have passed since the $4 breakfast and $5 lunch prices had been examined.
With the cost for the school to produce a breakfast now $5.19 and lunch $6.90, the Board approved recommended raises in price for adults and visitors.
Travis Heavner provided the facilities report, sharing that a presentation for a state grant for facilities work will take place on June 23. He added that the project to address the atmospheric pressure at Franklin Elementary School would start in that same month.
A Homeland Security grant that was temporarily frozen during the last federal shutdown is still in that status, Heavner shared. He stated that an automatic email said it may take as many as 60 days “to catch up.”
Also in June, Heavner stated that a critical response group will help with a state-funded mapping of school facilities for emergency response purposes. It will help to create a grid pattern map, check on safety features, and work to enhance communications with 911.
Later in the meeting, Heavner addressed maintenance needs and concerns in the central office building in Franklin. Those included replacing a gutter in the rear of the structure and adding snow guards to the pitched roof. “The two projects combined should cost $5,486,” he stated.
Carrie Nesselrodt then gave the nine-month attendance report, sharing, “These are the numbers we like to see more than the last couple of times that we’ve viewed it during illnesses.” She reported the “amazing” percentage for North Fork Elementary’s third grade at “almost 98 percent.”
Franklin Elementary had the best school percentage at 95.19 percent. Third grade at all three elementary schools topped other grades at 96.27. Pendleton County’s school population as a whole attended at 93.69 percent.
“I’ve been tracking just daily attendance for the last couple of weeks,” said Nesselrodt. “It’s looking really great . . . everybody’s in a good position . . . so I think we’ll finish the year strong.”
