There has been a great deal of discourse throughout the Hancock County community and beyond since Monday night when board of education members voted on, and approved, the termination of the school system’s former director of finance, followed by the announcement that representatives of the West Virginia Department of Education and others had been in the county in recent weeks to go over the financial record because of incomplete information and other discrepancies.

Before the meeting was even over, the rumor mill had gone into overdrive, with questions, commentary, and a lot of accusations.

I won’t be going into detail on those latter aspects, because much of what I saw or heard that evening (and in the days since) could easily be considered slanderous or defamatory in nature. When you accuse someone of doing something, you better have proof and not just speculation based on whispers.

The reality of the situation is that we all have questions, but none of us have all of the answers.

This is what we do know for certain:

In the first week of October, the West Virginia Department of Education released its annual County Approval Status and Accreditation report. In that report, Hancock County Schools was noted as needing assistance in the areas of CBEM Effectiveness, Finance, and Transportation.

Under the state’s rankings, “Needs Assistance” means the school system, with assistance from the state, must develop an action plan and monitor the plan’s progress toward showing improvement.

The next week, during a special session on Oct. 7, the Hancock County Board of Education agreed to reformat aspects of its meeting agendas to include more details reports on finances, personnel and facilities issues.

In the areas of finance, that includes a comprehensive financial status report provided once per month along with a status of the current school year’s budget and how it compares to what had been approved, a requirement to have each purchase over $5,000 listed on the agenda, and approving a contract with Educational Consultant LLC to assist in tracking the school system’s finances.

The following regular school board meeting, held Oct. 14, was the last one attended by now-former finance director Joe Campinelli. Erin Harvey, now appointed as the interim treasurer, would be on hand to present finance reports beginning with the Oct. 27 meeting.

That brings us to this week, when everything else came to light.

I don’t know where things are going from here. I can foresee a couple of options, especially given some of the potential pathways the school district may need to take, and I know there are going to be a great deal of unhappy residents going forward.

The only real advice I can give in this situation is for everyone to take a philosophy of openness.

School officials need to be open and transparent with the steps they are taking and why. Residents need to be open with their thoughts on the matter. Open dialogue is an absolute must.

This is a time where finger pointing and accusations, deserved or not, are going to be flying around freely, but that won’t help the situation. You can’t find a solution to a problem by playing the blame game; only through honesty and cooperation.

Hancock County Schools, no doubt, will look very different in the next year or so. That’s, unfortunately, something that can’t be avoided. This is a path that hasn’t developed suddenly. It’s taken time. How much time is still to be determined, as is the steps needed to put the school system back on a workable way forward.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)