CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Board of Education held its first meeting with bodies of educators, administrators and parents in an effort to better understand concerns regarding procedures, academics and school climate.
Eight local school improvement councils met at George Washington High School on Monday, where topics of interest included access to technology, school safety and transportation.
The school board is required to meet with local school improvement councils on an annual basis. Because of the size of the Kanawha County Schools system, eight meetings will be held throughout the school year with different councils.
Councils are made up of the teachers, administrators, parents and other representatives of an institution.
“The board members have a series of about four or five questions they ask to go through that is reflective of what the law says we should talk about,” superintendent Ron Duerring said. “From there, they break off and talk to those groups and they’ll just report out what they talked about.”
The councils of Alum Creek Elementary, Holz Elementary, Kenna Elementary, Overbrook Elementary, Ruthlawn Elementary, Weeberwood Elementary, John Adams Middle and George Washington High schools participated in the meeting. All schools below George Washington High School feed into the highest institution.
The councils spoke highly of the technology progress being made in the county, as access to iPads and computers have increased.
A common concern in many sessions regarded transportation and new class schedules. One group noted the end of classes between John Adams Middle School and George Washington High School causes traffic issues in the afternoon.
There is also the issue of a lack of bus drivers; Deurring said the school system needs at least 30 drivers to order to accommodate all of their transportation needs, primarily transporting elementary school students who use the bus more.
“There’s not necessarily a lot we can do about it. We don’t have enough bus drivers,” he said. “On top of that, if someone calls in sick, then we’re short even more. It makes it difficult to cover all these runs.”
Duerring said the school system could use up to 50 drivers in order to fit their needs.