Hancock superintendent sets goals for schools

NEW CUMBERLAND - The Hancock County Board of Education met in special session Wednesday, accepting Superintendent Dawn Petrovich's goals for the district for the next year.

Petrovich focused her report on five goals, most involving efforts related to the performance of the students within Hancock County Schools.

"All superintendents must have at least one goal related to student achievement," Petrovich said.

One particular area of focus is to improve the way the county monitors progress in a student's education, especially in the high school levels.

"We have benchmark systems for elementary and middle schools," she said, noting she has been meeting with the county's high school principals to establish a similar benchmark system for Weir and Oak Glen high schools.

This would assist in determining whether students need additional assistance in their classes and also where schools stand in meeting educational standards established by the state.

The school system also wants to refocus its standards on student attendance and graduation, with board member Larry Shaw noting attendance issues have been a discussion with school systems across West Virginia, including during a recent conference.

"That was one of the discussions last week in Charleston," Shaw said.

Petrovich said there had been some leeway granted in recent years because of the COVID pandemic, but the importance of attendance is, once again, being enforced by school officials.

The discussion of graduation rates brought a question from board member Ed Fields as to whether Petrovich was happy with the current 24 credit graduation requirement in the county, with Petrovich noting she has been looking into the possibility of an increase in the future.

Board member Jim Horstman asked whether there was still attendance incentives tied to final examinations. Petrovich said the policy had been eliminated in recent years, with all high school students now required to take exams, but explaining it sometimes negatively affected attendance.

"What we found is they missed more school, because it didn't matter," she said.

Petrovich noted her other goals included continued practices of weekly updates to the board of education members and monitoring of the system's financial status.

Board President Chris Gillette noted the board and Petrovich should consider the possibility of adding the development of a strategy for employee retention.

"That's an ongoing problem with the whole state," Gillette said.

Issues of safety were briefly discussed, although Petrovich said they were not included as an official goal for the year. She said there have been ongoing discussions with the Hancock County Sheriff's Office and Weirton Police Department, which have been providing assessments of the school buildings.