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By Brad McElhiny, WV MetroNews
September 1, 2020
Gov. Jim Justice offered teams with games canceled because of coronavirus spread a chance to play if everyone got a negative test. But three counties said thanks but no thanks almost immediately.
Kanawha County Schools decided not to participate in testing student athletes, band members or dance team members this week for the one-time option to play or perform, according to a news release.
Kanawha...
By Brad McElhinny, WV MetroNews
September 3, 2020
West Virginia’s two big teachers unions are both questioning whether it’s really safe for classroom instruction to resume next week, asking whether there’s enough personal protective equipment.
“My concern is that we’re really not ready,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.
In a separate interview, AFT-West Virginia’s Fred Albert said, “I think there’s a tremendous...
By Mike Nolting, WV MetroNews
September 4, 2020
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia Education Association is offering to take legal action against the state if Monongalia County Schools are not allowed to maintain a class format for an extended period.
WVEA President Dale Lee and Heather Deluca-Nestor, president of the Monongalia County Education Association, met with school system Superintendent Ed Campbell on Thursday to discuss the first day of...
By Brad McElhinny, WV MetroNews
September 15, 2020
“We are angry that our state leaders continue to manipulate the color-coded map guiding the re-opening of school,” stated WVEA President Dale Lee. “Employees and parents need to have a system with continuity and stability in order to make plans and facilitate
learning.”
The WVEA statement went on to say, “The continued tweaking of our school reentry guidelines from day to day does not instill...
By Lucas Manfield and Gabriella Brown, Mountain State Spotlight
September 18, 2020
In August, Gov. Jim Justice introduced West Virginia’s parents, teachers and coaches to a new Saturday night ritual: refreshing a state website for updates to the color-coded map that would determine whether ballfields and schoolhouses would be open the following week.
State officials modeled the map after ...
--New York Times
Schools are not islands, and so it was inevitable that when students and teachers returned this fall to classrooms, coronavirus cases would follow them.
But more than a month after the first school districts welcomed students back for in-person instruction, it is nearly impossible to tally a precise figure of how many cases have been identified in schools.
There is no federal effort to monitor coronavirus cases in schools, and ...
By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
September 23, 2020
After a couple of Christian schools defied him by opening last week, Gov. Jim Justice is now allowing West Virginia religious and other private schools to reopen classrooms in counties where he’s still keeping public schools closed.
The Bible Center School, in Charleston, and Calvary Baptist Academy, in Hurricane, taught...
By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 25, 2020
At West Virginia University, 65 students infected with COVID-19 were housed inside Arnold Apartments, a campus residence, as of Sept. 15.
But by the next day, the number was down to one — at least in the eyes of the state.
It wasn’t a miraculous recovery, but, instead, a change in how West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice chooses to count cases involving college students isolating on campus...
By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail
September 28, 2020
With the latest West Virginia version of the COVID-19 risk map looking markedly different from the original Harvard Global Health Institute map, Gov. Jim Justice took umbrage Monday to suggestions the state is manipulating the map to reopen public schools more quickly.
“I really probably would take terrible offense to someone who would say we are manipulating the numbers,” Justice said during...
