GREAT
NEWS!! At the Board of Education meeting last evening, Director of
Finance Sherry Bill Radcliff verified that funding for both the PCHS
Science and CTE teaching positions is in the 2024-25 budget! The Science
position has been posted and at least two teachers have applied. As of
today, the CTE opening is not yet posted. Keep checking!
Retaining
these teaching positions will enable the continuation of dual credit
Physics, Anatomy and Medical Terminology classes for at least 35
students in the coming school year. The twenty-seven students currently
enrolled in a CTE cluster will be able to complete once the position is
filled.
At
the last three board meetings, teachers, students, parents and members
of the LSIC kept showing up and speaking with eloquence and passion
about the disastrous impact of cutting Math, Science and CTE positions.
Absent this public outcry, the board might well have assumed that there
was a "lack of need" for these teachers, that these positions were
redundant rather than essential. They might have told themselves that
cutting teachers is simply a regrettable but unavoidable fact of life in
a world of decreasing funding and the rising cost of food, fuel and
insurance.
But
this didn't happen. Because citizen stakeholders spoke up--and they
brought receipts. Respectfully and persistently, on March 26 and April
16 and 22 people checked their fatalism at the door and kept insisting
on the value of instruction.
During
my campaign, I've spoken a lot about communication, vowing if I’m
elected to move the board toward transparency in everything from budget
development to long-term planning for building maintenance.
After last
night's meeting, I can imagine a Pocahontas County in which the shock,
fear and anxiety of this budget season is unthinkable because everyone’s
in the loop, openness has replaced defensiveness, and no teacher ever
again receives a RIF out of the blue, because stakeholders collaborate
throughout the year to ensure instructional needs are met.
I can imagine our school system working like this. If you can, too, please vote for me May 14. And then let’s work together. 
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