MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County School Superintendent Eddie Campbell says the first week of the new school year was full of adjustments.
Campbell said that like in all other districts, staffing is an issue in both the professional and service areas.
After new legislation adding aids in classrooms passed this year, many substitutes and aids from special needs classrooms have moved to those positions, creating staffing needs. The district shows four open aide positions in the system.
“Our substitute pool in the aid department, as well as some increased vacancies with special education aids, are causing us some problems,” Campbell said.
Also recently passed Senate Bill 422 requires curriculum, books, and class materials from school districts to be posted online and available for parents or guardians to view. Campbell said staff members constructed the portal over the summer from scratch in time for parents and guardians to have access.
“That is a major undertaking; we’re talking about every grade level and every subject area, for parents and guardians to be able to go in there and see that,” Campbell said.
Over the last several years Campbell and his staff have been working to make sure each student has the same bus driver for trips to school and home. This year the plan is complete and in place and Campbell believes that it will improve overall behavior and help students and families build a relationship with the driver.
“I very much believe the bus driver is an extremely important component of a student’s school day,” Campbell said. “They’re the first people our students see in the morning, and they’re the last people they see in the afternoon when they ride our buses.”
Monongalia County Schools are one of the top academic performers in state standardized testing scores, second by a very small margin behind Putnam County Schools. Campbell credits faculty with staying engaged during and post-pandemic to keep students progressing.
“We are 2nd in English/Language Arts and 2nd in Math, and our people take that personally; they don’t like number 2,” Campbell said. “So I know our folks are going to be working hard to get back to that top rating.”
The district has an enrollment of about 11,000 students, and Campbell believes that number will not change from last year.
“What we think we’re seeing right now is that we could be pretty flat,” Campbell said. “We were hoping to see a little bit of a jump, but our daily numbers now appear to be flat.”
Denial of responsibility! My Droll is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
