By Stephen Smoot
“We ask that You would bless us tonight,” prayed J. D. Wilkins, school board president, as he issued the invocation to open the body’s regular meeting last week.
First, the board heard from the Pendleton County High School leadership team, represented by Jeremy Eye and Ali Judy. They gave a presentation on the value of requiring additional credits for students to graduate.
Currently, as Eye explained, “The students need 22 hours to graduate from high school.” Diligent students who take every required course can finish up credits needed to graduate by the end of their junior year. Many then take easy electives or work as teacher aides their senior year, while others take minimal morning classes and work jobs the rest of the day.
A new state mandate for a personal finance credit will raise the required credits up to 23, but that remains the minimum requirement in the state. Only 11 schools require the minimum currently.
Eye and Judy proposed that “we increase that to 24 hours with the eighth-grade class starting now.” In other words, the requirement would begin first with those rising from eighth to nineth grade this year.
“One of the great things I love about this county is its commitment to academics,” said Eye, a Hardy County native. He shared that he brags on Pendleton’s commitment to his former friends and colleagues across the county line. “I brag and brag. Literally academics is our job, but I don’t think we’re challenging our kids enough,” Eye commented.
He added that it should not be a problem for students taking career and technical education classes at the South Branch Career and Technical Center, because even some of the least academically motivated, as Eye put it, carried 24 or 25 credits at least upon graduating.
Sonny O’Neil, board member, expressed that even the new proposed requirements won’t always keep students from spending a lot of time outside of class their senior year, and added that the county still needs to see “what we can do to keep them involved.”
Judy added that class capacity would not be a problem since many Pendleton County High School courses had small student numbers. She added that “we can sell our courses a little bit better too.”
Next came the finance presentation, given by J. P. Mowery. After an explanation of the levy rates, the board approved what had been presented by the state. Mowery then presented a memorandum of understanding for approval. The MOU set the guidelines for SP Photography to be the official photographers for Pendleton County Middle/High School. Part of the MOU specified that photography work would not interfere with academic activities.
Travis Heavner then gave the facilities report, starting with notifying the board that the new lettering would soon grace the exterior walls of the Harold Michael Community Building in Circleville. He also had held discussions with a company in Richmond, Virginia, to repair the stage curtains at North Fork Elementary School.
He then shared that they would soon permanently repair the pedestrian ramp to the Brandywine Elementary School music building and power wash the facade at Franklin Elementary.
