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WV MetroNews
PRINCETON, W.Va. — Voters in both Mercer and Ritchie counties renewed school system excess levies in countywide elections held Saturday.
In Mercer County, voters renewed a five-year excess by a nearly two-to-one margin, 3,161 for the levy and 1,648 against. The excess levy provides the school system approximately $13 million a year.
Ritchie County voters renewed the county’s $5.8 million annual excess levy by a vote of 1,038 to 175.
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WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Steve Paine says it’s going to take consistency and accountability to see improvement in the state’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores.
Paine appeared on a recent episode of MetroNews ‘Talkline’ to discuss the NAEP results that showed the Mountain State to be one of three states to have...
By Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews
Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School Social Studies teacher Brian Allman was sitting on the top row of the bleachers in the school gym Thursday morning for an assembly–not realizing the assembly was to honor him.
Allman was soon to learn that he was the recipient of a Milken Educator Award giving to top teachers across the country. The students cheered as Allman snaked his way down through the crowd giving high fives to many of them along the way.
...By Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board has five public meetings scheduled over the next two weeks to give state workers an opportunity to comment on the proposed 2021 health insurance plan that will begin next July.
The first meeting, a telephone town hall, is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Meetings are also scheduled to be held Wednesday in Morgantown and next week in Charleston,...
By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
Gov. Jim Justice’s administration has asked state agencies to prepare for a possible $100 million mid-fiscal-year budget cut and get ready for budget cuts for next fiscal year.
Meanwhile, West Virginia public colleges need more money to repair and maintain buildings and grounds, the state’s higher education oversight agencies say.
And the state School Building Authority, which helps fund prekindergarten-12th-grade school...
By Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Board of Education will consider putting a 47-page policy dealing with public charter schools out for public comment when its meets Thursday in Charleston.
The proposed policy, which has been worked on during the past several months, supplements the language state lawmakers approved on the charter school issue in the education reform bill passed earlier this year and signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice...
By Brad McElhinny, WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s three unions for educators are lining up to challenge charter schools in court.
So far, the West Virginia Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers-WV and the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association have been acting individually in filing 30-days notice of their intent to sue the state.
But over time their legal challenges may be consolidated into one case in...
By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail
PEIA reserve funds are projected to reach 25.6 percent of overall annual expenses by June 30, 2020, well above the 14 percent recommended reserve the agency attempts to maintain, creating an estimated $26.5 million surplus that PEIA will be able to put toward the 2020-21 plan year, executive director Ted Cheatham told the Joint Committee on Government and Finance Tuesday.
“We do have every intention to spend down both the state [employee...
By Shauna Johnson, WV MetroNews
BELLE, W.Va. — Lessons in generosity don’t just come during the Thanksgiving holiday at Riverside High School in Kanawha County.
Next to Riverside’s cafeteria in a small room that used to serve as storage space for sports equipment, five students work each school day alongside Jessica Workman, a Riverside teacher, to stock the Warrior Food Pantry that’s open to...