On Monday, February 7 the Clay Board of Education gathered at H.E. White Elementary in Bomont for their regular bi-monthly meeting. The meeting began with the approval of the agenda, followed by the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. The next item was to accept the resignation of Mike Kearns as assistant baseball coach at Clay High School. The CCHS FFA students were approved to take an overnight trip to Morgantown on February 27-28, 2014 to attend the annual small farms conference.
After voting upon these items, the meeting moved onto a discussion session. Betty Gandee, President of the H.E. White PTO addressed the board, voicing concerns of herself and other parents of her home school. Among Gandee’s voiced concerns were long bus rides for students, the lack of a fence for the playground area at the school, recent water issues and employee cuts. Fran Naylor and Amanda Shelton also spoke against the proposed staffing cuts at the school as well; stressing that our children need these teachers and that there must be an alternative plan.
Superintendent Kenneth Tanner as well as Board of Education members insisted that no other options were available and due to the lack of funding in the county, six teacher layoffs and four service personnel layoffs were imminent in the coming year. An update on the water situation was given, stating that recent water tests had shown non-detectable levels of MCHM in the school’s water system. As of this time, students are still being provided bottled water and the school kitchen was still not fully operational.
The next scheduled Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 24 at 6:00 pm at the central office in Clay. Parents, teachers and community members are encouraged to attend this meeting as the proposed staff cuts are scheduled to be discussed and decided upon.
