Brooke has candidate for superintendent
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WELLSBURG -- The Brooke County Board of Education left community members with a cliffhanger after excusing themselves for a two-hour-long executive session Monday to discuss its plans for an interim superintendent.
Board President Theodore Pauls said the board has a candidate in mind, but will not announce it to the public until 4:30 p.m. Friday, at the school board office, 1201 Pleasant Ave., Wellsburg, when the board will vote on the candidate.
The vote Friday will be open to the public.
Need for an interim superintendent comes after the abrupt resignation Wednesday of Superintendent Toni Paesano Shute.
Hours before Shute's resignation Wednesday, the board's vice chair, Stacy Hooper, announced she'd been notified by the state Department of Education that Shute allegedly had requested and been given access to Hooper's emails and confidential student records.
While county superintendents are permitted access to their employees' e-mails for active investigations, Hooper is a special education teacher in Marshall County and as such, the state said Shute had no standing to request the information.
In other business, community members who attended Monday's meeting discussed their grievances with the Brooke schools, in addition to their opinions on the renewal of a levy that is to be voted on in February.
If passed, the levy would generate $6.1 million.
Walter Ferguson, a Brooke County resident for 81 years, said that the only way to fix the county's problems is to pass the levy.
"This is a great community to live in and grow up," said Ferguson. But without civility, we have nothing. Teachers and coaches need motivation. There are problems with attendance, and not only with students but with teachers."
Adam Haught, vice president of Brooke High's faculty senate, attended Monday's meeting on the faculty senate's behalf. Haught had a series of questions that the senate wished to be answered.
The first question asked was if everyone on the board supported the upcoming levy. The answer was a unanimous "yes."
"It is much easier for us to address problems with funding than without," explained board member Chris Byers who went on to say that if the levy is not passed, the board's budget will be cut 25 percent.
The second question asked by Haught was if there was a legal obligation to follow through with the levy.
"Yes," answered Pauls. "We can't change the wording in the levy after it is voted on."
Lastly, Haught asked if there was anything that could be done to limit the lack of substitute teachers.
Assistant Superintendent Nicole Ennis assured Haught that they are hiring teachers now, and a discussion broke out on the possibility of a job opening being posted every five days.
The possibility will be looked into, the board members said.