By Stephen Smoot
The Pendleton County Board of Education convened its second regular meeting of the month last week. To mark the second day of welcomed precipitation, J. D. Wilkins, board president, included in his invocation “thank You for the rains . . . may they gently come.”
Charles Hedrick, Pendleton County Schools superintendent, addressed the threats of violence that rocked 44 counties in the state. Other school systems across the nation saw the same problems. Fifteen arrests have been made so far and the incidents are being investigated by both the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Pendleton County was not specifically mentioned in the series of threats.
Late in the meeting, but with the topic high on the board’s list of priorities, Carrie Nesselrodt, director of student services, delivered the attendance report for the first month of school.
Hedrick shared that research confirms that a system must “improve attendance to improve academics.” He went on to say that “it certainly makes sense, but the data shows it.” He explained that attendance would remain a top priority.
Nesselrodt’s overall assessment started with “it’s going pretty good,” then focused on the improvement shown by North Fork Elementary, saying they “have a really great attendance percentage” and adding that “they’ve been working very hard to boost attendance.”
Boosting attendance involves each school developing its own attendance plan. Nesselrodt explained that these plans will “address attendance at different levels of support. All students occupy one of three tiers. Tier one includes the vast majority of students who present few or no challenges. They can thrive in a traditional classroom setting. Tier two includes students who occasionally present problems while tier three has students who present the highest level of challenges in a classroom setting.
Nesselrodt then showed the breakdown of attendance percentages for each school and grade. The county as a whole enjoyed 94.912 percent attendance. Brandywine Elementary School took top attendance honors for schools with 96.174 percent. BES first grade had an astonishing 99.772 percent. Across the county, second grade scored best with a 97.671 percent attendance score.
The board approved signing a memorandum of understanding with Davis and Elkins University to continue the Upward Bound program. Hedrick shared that the program “initially started in 1997 or 98. Wilkins added, “It’s been beneficial to a lot of our kids.”
Upward Bound assists certain groups of high school students in finding better opportunities to attend college.
- P Mowery delivered the financial and treasurer’s reports which once again reaffirmed the strong financial basis for the county school system. Although a revenue stream related to COVID funding ends, the school system has spent responsibly and sits in a good position as those funds dry up.
