Miss Stover and Lucy Gonzales of Clay County Middle School.
Posted: April 17, 2018 | Source: Clay County Free Press
For over 30 years, the West Virginia Young Writers Contest has celebrated student writing in the state. The YWC grows out of a deep commitment to writing in all subjects, and to the publishing, displaying and celebrating of student writing. (more…)
Posted: April 17, 2018 | Source: WV Divison of Natural Resources
News Release: April 17, 2018
Media Contact: Samantha Smith, Commerce Communications Director
(304) 957-9364 | samantha.smith@wv.gov
Contact: Kayla Donathan, Wildlife Resources Section
(304) 558-2771 | kayla.m.donathan@wv.gov
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Approximately 500 students from 55 schools participated in the 13th annual Archery in the Schools state tournament, hosted by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources at the Summersville Arena and Conference Center on March 24. (more…)
By: Briana Warner, Communications Director | Posted: April 16, 2018 | Source: KCBOE
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Charleston, W.Va. – Kanawha County Schools announced today that they’re accepting applications for their new virtual online school pilot program for middle school students, which will begin this Fall. The pilot program will allow 30 Kanawha County 6-8 graders to participate in a full-time or part-time virtual school program. This program is free to students who are currently being homeschooled and public school students in Kanawha County. Applications are available at the Kanawha County Schools board office or on the KCS website.
“Our high school pilot project has been going very well and we are pleased to be able to offer the program to middle school students,” said Kanawha County Schools Executive Director of Virtual School, Valery Harper. “The virtual online school option meets the needs of so many students and provides another tool to give our students a world class education, no matter their situation.”
The Kanawha County Schools virtual program, and other virtual programs across the state, are possible after state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 630 – the Accessibility and Equity in Public Education Enhancement Act – during the 2017 regular legislative session. The bill allows for the creation of virtual programs by county boards.
The Kanawha County Schools Virtual School Policy is available on the KCS website through this link.
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You can reach Briana Warner at bwarner
Submitted photo West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Department of Physics and Engineering has been successful at the recent West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, a program sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Shown here are Department Chair Dr. Albert Popson, John Harvey, Angela Meyer, Connor Farrell, Dr. Tracey DeLaney and Ethan Randolph. Not pictured is Paige Stinson.
Posted: April 17, 2018 | Source: The InterMountain
BUCKHANNON — West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Department of Physics and Engineering was successful at the April meeting of the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, a program sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (more…)
Charleston, W.Va. – Kanawha County Schools has launched a tip line for students and parents to utilize if they want to report possible criminal activity. Previously, this information was coming in to the system through multiple channels and this tip line form provides one place for all tips to go, while also allowing for the person reporting to remain anonymous.
The tip line form is available here. The submission goes directly to the KCS Safety & Security Office.
The tip line form is available:
“The security of our students has never been more important and this tip line is a centralized way to receive tips from our school community,” said Executive Director of Security, Keith Vititoe. “This should not replace calling 911 in the case of an emergency, but provides a way for parents and students to share information for appropriate administrators to look into. We thank our entire KCS community for supporting the safety of our students and staff.”
Briana Warner, Communications Director for Kanawha County Schools can be reached at bwarner
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DuPont Middle School students and their sponsor who took part in the “You Be the Chemist Challenge” April 13 at West Virginia State University included, from left to right, (front row) Max Hall, Jenny McBrayer, Olivia Minor, Dashaya Booker, Halley Burke, Joseph Cook, Bryant Welch, (back row) Hayden Henderson, Kaleb Rameriz, Charles Melvin, Zoe Spencer-Clark and DPMS teacher/sponsor Kristy Peters. CLINT THOMAS | Metro
Posted: April 13, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail – Metro Kanawha
West Virginia State University hosted the annual Dow Chemical “You Be the Chemist Challenge” on April 13, in the James C. Wilson University Union on the Institute campus.
More than 60 competitors from 11 area middle schools competed in the challenge, an interactive academic contest that encourages students in grades five through eight to explore chemistry concepts and their real-world applications.
Competitors came from the following middle schools: Andrew Jackson, Calvary Baptist Academy, Charleston Catholic, Clay County, DuPont, East Bank, Hurricane, McKinley, Sissonville, Stonewall Jackson and Winfield.
The youths competed against one another through numerous rounds of multiple-choice questions that tested their knowledge of chemistry concepts, important discoveries and chemical safety awareness.
The Hurricane Middle School team of Gianna Muto (first place), Olivia Akins (second place) and Laynee Caldwell (third place) swept the event.
Sponsored locally and nationally by Dow Chemical, the challenge is an academic competition created by the Chemical Educational Foundation.
The Herbert Hoover High School Marching Huskies take to the streets on the magic kingdom during Disney’s Performing Arts Parade. (Photo: Hoover High)
By: Jessi Starkey | Posted: April 12, 2018 | Source: WVAH
ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — For the Herbert Hoover High School Marching Huskies, the road to Disney World has not been magical.
This June will mark two years since the band members lost everything in the 2016 flood. Senior Shelby Bowles said she will never forget the feeling of that summer afternoon.
“I just thought it was going to be a normal marching band year,” Bowles said. “All of a sudden we had no instruments, no uniforms and we had nowhere to practice. We didn’t even know if we were going to be able to stay together as a school. We didn’t think we would be able to have a band on the field that year.”
The days that followed were filled with hard work and perseverance. The students started practicing in church parking lots, open fields and the outside hallways of their portable classrooms. If there was a space large enough, they were determined to march.
“We had to find a way,” Band Director Maleah Fisher said. “They are good kids. They have a good work ethic. We just had to be resourceful.”
After submitting an audition tape, the marching huskies were hand selected to march in the Disney Performing Arts Parade. Fisher said at the time of the submission the band still didn’t have uniforms. Fisher submitted a photo of what the uniforms would look like, and reassured the parade staff they would be ready to march.
“When we found out we had been selected the celebration just spread,” Fisher said. “We announced it at the football game and everyone in the stand just got so excited. We knew at that time, it was game on. We formed a fundraising committee just for this trip.”
The students got to work fundraising by group and individually. Band members raised thousands of dollars to make the trip possible. Their story even reached people across the country, and Fisher said they received donations from people out of state who wanted to help.
“It was a great opportunity,” Morgan Henry said. “Looking back we were horrified after the flood. Once we started helping each other and cleaning up, the community came together. It’s hard to put into words what it was like performing at Disney. I know everyone’s adrenaline was up.”
The marching huskies’ story even started to spread around the magic kingdom. Fisher said many people reached out to them to ask more about their journey.
“I had a talk with them before we performed,” Fisher said. “I reminded them, you’re representing a small town that has been through a hard situation. You can show these people there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
By: Carrie Hodousek | Posted: April 10, 2018 at 6:29 p.m. | Source: WV MetroNews
ELKVIEW, W.Va. — Nearly two years ago, Elkview Middle School Principal Melissa Lovejoy had no choice but to help her school community recover from a devastating flood. (more…)
Kanawha County Board of Education President Jim Crawford listens Monday to plans for closing Bridge Elementary School. Photo by: F. Brian Ferguson, Gazette-Mail
By: Ryan Quinn, Staff Writer | Posted: April 9, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
The Kanawha County Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to cancel the contract with the construction management company the West Virginia School Building Authority had assigned to the planned new Herbert Hoover High and consolidated Bridge/Clendenin elementary.
The move, which took place in a five-minute meeting, adds Kanawha to the list of public school systems that have dumped or have moved to dump their construction managers following backlash from schools superintendents and leaders in the school design/construction industry to the SBA’s assigning of these firms.
The SBA has publicly abandoned forcing or urging counties to use the companies. Scott Raines, the SBA’s director of school planning and construction, said in October 2017, under grilling from then-new SBA board Chairman Brian Abraham, that SBA written policy wasn’t followed in the advertisement process for construction management firms.
After that advertisement process, the SBA had assigned two companies, PCS, based in Ohio and West Virginia, and MBP, which is based in Virginia but has offices in multiple states, to public school building projects around West Virginia.
Charles Wilson, the Kanawha school system’s executive director of facilities planning, estimated the cancellation to save roughly $2 million, though he noted that figure is a “moving target.”
Raines has argued in the past that the construction managers ultimately saved money. PCS declined comment Monday.
Wilson said the county will still have to pay PCS roughly half a million dollars for services it has already provided.
“We had a lot of meetings with them and FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and the SBA, trying to get things set up,” Wilson said when asked what the roughly $500,000 went to. “They did our preliminary estimates and costs of construction and they also provided preliminary schedules for the duration of those projects.”
If the contract would have continued, Wilson said PCS’ work would’ve included “monitoring the schedules, monitoring the budgets, constructability reviews, dealing with various prime contractors on the job as kind of a go between between us and the contractors.”
He said “clerk of the works” would be hired to oversee construction for each project.
“The architects will provide additional services under their contracts to cover the areas that the construction manager — where we need construction management,” Wilson said.
“After meeting with the architectural firms for each project, we went through the various options and I started looking at some costs, and it became evident that we could find a better project delivery method that would expedite the project and save money,” Wilson said.
PCS got a $1.2 million contract, with the possibility of more money in the future, for work on schools to replace Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary, which closed after being damaged in the June 2016 flood. FEMA is planned to provide most of the funding for the projects.
Also Monday:
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.
