Literacy tutor training session to be conducted

By: Clint Thomas, Metro Staff | Posted: June 14, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

Literacy Volunteers of Kanawha County will host a free literacy tutor training session for interested individuals at the end of this month.

The training session will be conducted from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 30, at First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way in downtown Charleston.

Potential tutors must be 18 years old or older to participate. In order to work with children in the tutoring program, they will need to undergo a background clearance check, which LVKC members will help them obtain.

“Training will focus on the four components of reading: word identification, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency,” said session leader Anita Cohen last week. “The strategies that we will practice can be adapted for teaching both adults and children to become stronger readers.”

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State school board approves policy change for diploma equivalency

Members of the state Board of Education met Wednesday in Charleston and approved a policy change. Courtesy of the state Department of Education.

By: Jake Jarvis | Posted: June 13, 2018 | Source: WV News

CHARLESTON — After a slight change to the proposal, members of the state Board of Education approved a policy revision Wednesday that will change how high school equivalency programs are administered.

To ensure students in the program receive employable skills by the time they graduate, the policy revision requires that programs be “a state-approved Career Technical Education Program of Study.” Previously, programs were supposed to be locally developed and personalized.

“The procedures are clarified for what it takes to get an option pathway in order to get a high school equivalency diploma,” said Kathy D’Antoni, an assistant state superintendent. “We got seven or eight comments back on the policy, and because of those comments, we did take off a section…

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Library reopens for Clendenin after 2 years

Books ready for check out at the Clendenin Branch Library. Jordyn Johnson/WVMetroNews.com

By: Jordyn Johnson | Posted: May 30, 2018 at 3:32 p.m. | Source: WV MetroNews

CLENDENIN, W.Va.– Tuesday night Tammy Parker, branch manager at the Clendenin Branch Library, had trouble sleeping, because she was so excited for the next day– a day she has been looking forward to for two years.

Wednesday was the ribbon-cutting of the new Clendenin Branch Library since the 2016 flooding ruined the former branch. It has taken two years for the community to get its library back but due to hard work and perseverance books can be read once more.

“We have been here working to get all the furniture in, the books on the shelves and in the mean time, when I was out in the community, people were stopping me and asking me, ‘When is the

The teen section of the newly opened Clendenin Branch Library, Jordyn Johnson/WVMetroNews.com

library opening?’ and I would say, ‘Oh in a few days or a few weeks’ or whatever, and so everyone was asking, and I was so excited,” Parker said.

The new branch is located in the former Clendenin Middle School. While the branch is still getting settled, those in the area now have a place for reading and computer access.

“There’s still a few things that we still haven’t completed,” Parker said. “We’re still waiting for a couple pieces of furniture and to get the last pieces of our computers ready to go, and it was a lot of work but worth it.”

Midge Forwood is the president of the Clendenin Branch Library Advisory Board and has worked in the branch since its first opening in Clendenin.

“We’ve waited two years, and now we’re here, and I’m happy,” she said at the opening.

Many residents and book-lovers alike have been anxiously awaiting the branch’s reopening.

“I think that, you know, it’s a happy day for a lot of us and especially the Library Advisory Board,” Forwood said. “We work hard to keep it here, you know. We work hard to buy the things that we need for the library, and so we’re just real happy.”

Clendenin’s library is very important to the community, because without it, not many residents would have access to computers and so many books.

“The one thing that we need for our young people is our library– we really do,” Forwood said. “They use our computers. Not every family in this area has a computer, so after school, and even in the summertime, the library is always full of kids.”

Now that summer break is here for Clendenin’s school-children, the branch has lots of activities planned for all ages.

“We have programs planned for the whole summer. We have some big programs,” Parker said. “We’ve got ‘Dino Ed’ coming with his animatronic dinosaurs, and we’ve got just all kinds of programs throughout the summer.”

While the library location changed, its supporters work to make it feel like home.

“We’re going to do a few new things, but we wanted it to be as much like it was as possible to keep the kids familiar with what kind of things we have in the library,” Parker said.

The opening drew lots of members from the community, and now that the branch is open again, it will draw people from all around.

“Once people know that we’re here, know where we are, it’ll be good,” Forwood said.

The new Clendenin Library Branch is located at 107 Koontz Avenue.

Story by Jordyn Johnson

Multiple Kanawha County schools dismiss early after power outage

Schools in the Elkview and Frame areas of Kanawha County are without power and have dismissed for the day. (MGN Online/Pierce Womack / Twitter)

By: Anna Taylor | Posted: May 29, 2018 | Source: WVAH

Several Kanawha County schools have closed for the day due to a lack of power.

Herbert Hoover High, Elkview Middle, Bridge Elementary and Clendenin Elementary schools closed at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Appalachian Power’s website listed a tree as the source of the problem. The power is out for 2,169 customers in the Frame and Elkview areas. The outage occurred about 5:30 a.m.

It is estimated that power will be restored about noon.

Countywide, Kanawha has 2,519 customers reported to be without power.

Kanawha main library purging 51K items ahead of renovation, expansion

Kanawha County Library Facilities Manager Tim Venitsoras looks over boxes of books in the basement of the main library in Charleston. The books are ready to go to a warehouse for storage before the annual book sale in October. Chris Dorst, Gazette-Mail

By: Ryan Quinn, Education Reporter | Posted: May 28, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

In November, the Kanawha County Public Library system’s board unveiled and voted for an estimated $27 million renovation and expansion of the main library in Charleston.

Despite the planned 20,000-square-foot size increase, the system had begun working to remove about one-fifth of the 252,745 items in the Charleston library’s physical collection, and system Director Alan Engelbert said it probably will remain at about 200,000 items when the revamped main library opens.

Engelbert said the items are being sold, donated or, in certain cases, simply discarded.

The expanded library will have more spaces, he said, for people to meet and create, including a cafe, craft room and an expanded children’s area. He said it will include lower shelving and wider aisles that won’t be able to fit as many books but will “be a really nice collection to browse and use.”

He provided a breakdown by “broad collection type” of projected total items to be removed. He said the numbers represent the “minimum that we need to achieve in order to be able to fit our collection” in the new space.

The projected 51,478-item reduction is anticipated to include removing the following (original collection numbers are as of September):

  • 24,078 (33 percent) of 72,614 “reference nonfiction” items
  • 15,381 (16 percent) of 94,335 “children” items
  • 6,630 (20 percent) of 32,896 “fiction” items
  • 2,084 (29 percent) of 7,238 “young adult” items
  • 1,854 (35 percent) of 5,350 “mass-market paperback” items
  • 1,085 (13 percent) of 8,406 “audiobook/Playaway” items (Playaways are audiobooks with their own MP3 players)
  • 314 (3 percent) of 10,915 “DVD” items
  • 52 (1 percent) of 7,517 “CD music” items
  • 0 out of 13,474 “miscellaneous” items

“We are reaching a balance between spaces for people and other types of activities libraries are engaged in while maintaining a very strong collection, both physical and electronic,” Engelbert said.

He said some of the children’s items are from the 1950s and ’60s; young-adult items tend to change rapidly in popularity; paperbacks tend to have condition issues and the reference collection is shrinking “because of the ever-increasing reliance on electronic sources.” He also said “nonfiction will not have as much space in the renovated building.”

Engelbert said between 30,000 and 35,000 items have already been withdrawn, with the majority currently in a warehouse, awaiting futures outside the county library system. He said he thinks there are, easily, 3,000 boxes of books there.

He said most removed — “weeded,” in library jargon — items are put up for sale at the annual book sale in October. He said relatively few of the withdrawn books were likely sold at the 2017 sale, and with the larger amount of recent weeding and Charleston Civic Center renovations limiting the size of last year’s sale, he expects this October’s sale to include an unusually large number of books.

After the sale, nonprofits may take what they want, Engelbert said. He said some items the system doesn’t think would be bought are given to Better World Books, a company whose website says it has “donated over 21 million books to partner programs around the world.”

Engelbert said other books are given to the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority or donated to local entities. He said items typically discarded straightaway include beat-up books and outdated travel, medical, legal and tax books.

Monika Jaensson, president of the library system’s board, said a “significant” number of books have gone to the new Clendenin branch, which is opening Wednesday. The June 2016 flood wrecked the previous branch there.

She also said local entities, like The Bob Burdette Center, are receiving books.

“If people can’t walk in the library because the shelves are too tight, then we’re not [serving] anyone,” Jaensson said.

She said she anticipates that the collection reduction is “going to actually increase the circulation,” while allowing space for lectures and presentations.

“We cannot continue to have the massive amount of books that we have in order to be a new library, to be a 21st-century library,” she said, noting that many now use electronic devices to pick up books. “We’re going to bring conversation back into the library. Important. Dialogue. Important. Learning.”

Pam Smith, president of the Public Library Association, a division of the Chicago, Illinois-based American Library Association, said it’s “very predominant that there’s competition for space in libraries when it comes to how people use space.”

“We need to be much more than a warehouse for books,” Smith said. “I think the focus on serving people and building skills and community, that’s the most important thing libraries can do. That said, part of that role is connecting people with ideas and books.”

But she noted that information comes in various ways, including through physical books, digitally and through people.

Monica Garcia Brooks, Marshall University’s associate vice president for libraries and online learning, said she has seen libraries change, including at Marshall, to where patrons are still using collections, but they might be doing so “on a device or camped out on a comfy chair using our wireless.”

“Libraries would prefer to buy, I don’t know, 30,000 e-books in one fell swoop, knowing that all of their patrons could use those materials 24/7, no matter where they are,” Brooks said.

Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.comfacebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.

Kanawha Board of Education moves ahead with Herbert Hoover demolition plan

By: Douglas Soule, Staff Writer | Posted: May 25, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail

The Kanawha County Board of Education voted during a Friday special session to remove a previous motion that required the West Virginia School Building Authority board’s approval for a contract to demolish Herbert Hoover High School.

“I think we need to go ahead and move forward with the demolition of Herbert Hoover,” Kanawha board member Ryan White said during the meeting.

The contract allotted $382,777 to Charleston-based Rodney Loftis & Son Contracting, even though a lower bid of $338,888 was offered by Baltimore- and Fairmont-based Reclaim Co. LLC.

As a result, Reclaim filed a protest against the county school board and the SBA, said Jim Withrow, general counsel for Kanawha schools.

On May 10, the school board voted to give Rodney Loftis & Son the demolition project, but added an amendment that required the SBA board to give approval to the contract, as well.

At the time, White said he didn’t know why the SBA staff recommended against Reclaim’s bid.

“Our thought process was their staff is not accountable to us, so let’s have our approval be contingent on [the SBA board’s] approval, because their staff is accountable to them,” White said.

On Monday, the SBA board members on the Construction Committee decided not to put a vote on the demolition contract approval on future agendas, and board Executive Director David Roach also said he would not put the matter on an agenda.

A bid tabulation sheet provided with the special meeting’s agenda said that Reclaim was “disqualified per SBA recommendation.”

Reclaim wrote “not applicable” on a form where bidders must list the subcontractors and equipment/material suppliers they plan to use for a project.

While Reclaim legal representatives said May 10 that the company didn’t plan to use any subcontractors, the form says that, “if no subcontractors will be used to complete the project, indicate on the SBA Form 123 that all work will be self-performed and provide the name and contractor license number of the contractor that will be performing the work.”

The form also says the “SBA shall be the sole interpreter of this document to ensure that the information provided by the prime contractor meets the intent of the form.”

An SBA official said Reclaim also submitted this form to only the county, not the SBA, despite the wording at the top that said the form “must be submitted to the SBA within two hours of the close of bid.”

The bid protest filed by Reclaim argues that the form sent to the county was forwarded to the SBA and that irregularities in the form should have been waived for the lowest contract bidder.

The demolition project will be paid for by the SBA and Federal Emergency Management Agency flood recovery funds, Withrow said.

Armstead concerned about rebuild timeline for flood destroyed schools

The Herbert Hoover basketball gym sustained major damage in the July 23 flood. Chris Lawrence/WVMetroNews.com

By: Jeff Jenkins | Posted: May 24, 2018 | Source: WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead doesn’t like the timelines the state School Building Authority has produced for the construction of two new schools to replace flood-destroyed schools in Kanawha County.

As MetroNews reported earlier this week, the SBA, working the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is projecting the new Bridge/Clendenin Elementary

Tim Armstead

Tim Armstead

School will open in time for the beginning of the 2020 school year and the new Herbert Hoover High School by the start of the 2021 school year, five years after the June 2016 flood.

MORE Read Armstead letter here

Armstead sent a letter to several officials Thursday including FEMA Region III Regional Administrator MaryAnn Tierney, state School Superintendent Steve Paine and state SBA Executive Director David Roach.

Armstead wrote, “I along with the parents of the students affected are concerned by the length of time indicated…..As you are aware, students in this area have been through a tremendous ordeal and it is essential that we provide them access to the completed classrooms as quickly as possible.”

Armstead wants the various agencies to “identify the areas where the process can be expedited.”

Lawmakers learned of the timelines during interim committee meetings earlier this week including information about a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bat Survey on the proposed property for the new Hoover school that is one of the reasons for the projected Fall 2021 opening.

“What is of the upmost importance to us, if that is the case (bats on the property), that we timber between this November, November of 2018 and March of 2019,” Hoover Principal Mike Kelley told lawmakers.

FEMA is paying most of the cost for the new schools so there are several federal requirements that have to be met.

The Bridge-Clendenin School is estimated to cost $34 million and the new Hoover school $58 million.

Timing of bat study results could push back construction of flood replacement school by one year

By: Jeff Jenkins | Posted: May 22, 2018 at 1:47 p.m. | Source: WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s possible site preparation for the construction of a new Herbert Hoover High School in Kanawha County won’t begin until November 2019. A pending bat study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could push the timbering of the site back by one year, state lawmakers were told Tuesday. (more…)