By Stephen Smoot
As the Pendleton County Board of Education gathered to hold its second meeting of the month and the year, they took care of a legal obligation. For the second straight meeting, a public hearing took place in which an abbreviated 2025-26 school calendar plan was read aloud.
The calendar document shows the days that school begins and ends, holidays, breaks, and days off. It synchronizes with the school calendars of Grant County and South Branch Career and Technical Center.
With no comment, the board convened the regular meeting with J. D. Wilkins praying that, given the extreme weather, “We pray for safety for all.”
The board heard a presentation from Rebecca Miller, coach of the Pendleton County varsity cheer squad that placed fourth in state competition. Miller has worked to rebuild the program in recent years and has helped to guide them to success at the regional and state levels.
This year, they won the Potomac Valley Conference for the first time since 2017 and also their region, which they have not won since George W. Bush was president.
She came to talk about “the future of cheerleading,” pointing out that the girls on the squad practice and perform all year long. Miller added that youth organizations and Raymond’s Gymnastics had built tremendous interest in competitive cheerleading.
Miller asked for an assistant coach who could help her with the cheerleaders not on the competitive squad and junior varsity. She added that she will “need to get the appropriate staff” to help her keep the program moving in a successful direction.
Chares Hedrick, Pendleton County Schools superintendent, said, “We’ll bring something back to the board on Feb. 4,” the date of the next regular meeting.
Katie Hott, board member, praised Miller and the team, saying, “Congratulations for all you do. That takes a lot of work.”
Next, Carrie Nesselrodt spoke of the possible establishment of an Early Learning Center for elementary aged youth struggling with behavior and other issues in the classroom.
She indicated that across the state, school systems deal with elementary age behavior problems getting worse in both frequency and impact. Nesselrodt shared that other schools see some “very extreme behaviors” that become “very disruptive to the classroom.”
The school system would call the facility an “Early Learning Center” because of the possible stigma attached to “alternative education,” which it essentially is. Students who have significant issues in a traditional classroom would move to the Early Learning Center with smaller class sizes and more time devoted to developing personal behavior improvements with “social and emotional learning.”
Nesselrodt stated that while counties in the region, such as Mineral, have alternative education programs, she is looking at Wyoming County’s model.
The school system would bus children as needed to the facility, which would be placed at Franklin Elementary School. Referrals would go through “a vigorous process” to determine if the center would be the right fit for the child’s needs.
Though many students seem to prefer the alternative setting, the goal lies in “slowly introducing them back” to their regular classroom.
Sonny O’Neil, board member, inquired if parents have the right to refuse. Nesselrodt stated that because these students “have not been successful in their regular environment,” they are “unlikely to succeed” if they need alternative education and are refused entry into the program.
The attendance report continues to spotlight the school system’s success in boosting that all-important metric. North Fork Elementary School’s sixth grade recorded the best fifth month attendance percentage at 99.259 percent. Franklin Elementary had the best school percentage at 96.448 percent.
Ninth grade scored best in the county with a 97.314 percent. Nesselrodt pointed out how rare it is for a high school grade to come first.
Overall, the county has a 96.124 percent attendance mark for the fifth month of the school year.
Pendleton County Schools has made a priority of reducing chronic absenteeism, addressing students who miss 10 percent or more of instructional days. On day 90, Pendleton County had a 12.27 percent chronic absenteeism rate, over a four percentage point improvement since the 60 day mark. Brandywine Elementary has an 11.76 percent rate, Franklin Elementary 8.33 percent, and North Fork 7.69 percent.
Pendleton County Middle/High School’s numbers on day 60 were at a 20.85 percent mark, but have improved to 15.71 percent.
The state says that a school system meets standards at less than 10 percent, partially meets standards at 10 to 19.99 percent, and does not meet standard when over 20 percent.
Nesselrodt also distributed a chart that shows how each school and the county as a whole have seen attendance percentage improvements year to year starting in 2023, showing the effectiveness of programs and other interventions.
Wilkins said, “Thank you for the update and the good news.”
The next meeting will take place at PCM/HS at 6 p.m. on Feb. 4.