By Stephen Smoot
In its second meeting for the month of March, the Hardy County Board of Education commenced its meeting with the customary invocation delivered by Superintendent Sheena Van Meter. She prayed “we thank You for the gifts and talents You have given these kids.”
First, the Board and others honored the Moorefield Middle School girls and boys seventh grade basketball teams. Both won the Potomac Valley League conference title. More importantly, they racked up points in the classroom too. It was shared that the girls team had a cumulative 3.66 grade point average while the boys achieved 3.31.
Van Meter stated “that’s great for both the boys and girls.”
Orrin Staggers, counsel for Hardy County Schools, then introduced two individuals who qualified for teacher positions based on requirements laid out in the Troops to Teachers Act. Veterans must have an honorable discharge and a bachelors degree in the subject. Both qualifiers had to endure long waits as State officials reviewed paperwork.
“It took a long time because they were the first ones,” speculated Van Meter. Attendees applauded the two qualifiers.
Emily Thorne then delivered a report on child nutrition. State officials came to review the program at Hardy County recently. She shared “they were very pleased with the things they were seeing” and “very happy to see our updated hazard plans.” Suggestions for change or improvement were both limited and minor. Additionally, most County schools saw a slight uptick of consumption of school provided meals over numbers from this time last year.
Thorne explained an apparent oddity in the nutrition reimbursement numbers, noting that since school started later in 2025-26 than the previous year that the reimbursements for August would seem off, but be evened out by the end of the school year.
She had also described efforts to maintain old equipment at Moorefield Middle School, noting that the freezer and other devices were aging. A great deal of maintenance was required in this school year and replacing these devices may be necessary soon to avoid larger repair costs.
Later in the meeting, Thorne successfully encouraged the Board to maintain relations with the Panhandle Eight consortium of school systems. Eight greater Eastern Panhandle counties pool their food purchasing efforts to obtain greater leverage in purchasing at the best possible prices and for the best possible terms. HCS works with Gorton, who Thorne praised as working well with the regulations concerning red food dye bans.
Peggy Williams followed with a presentation of West Virginia Department of Education Policy 8200 that governs local school system purchasing. She noted that it establishes differences in spending regulations on commodities versus services. Discussion centered on the line between simple purchase ordering and the need for a project to go out to bid. School Board members agreed that a $50,000 dividing line would be flexible enough to provide for day to day needs, but also allow for bidding over that mark to ensure cost efficiency and transparency.
An issue that has put more work onto school systems lies in requirements to verify that a vendor or contractor is properly registered in West Virginia. Contractors must be verified before they receive their last payment for work performed. It has pushed some businesses away that would have otherwise worked with the school system. Board President Dixie Bean asked about contractors in Virginia and Maryland who at times come to perform work.
Williams stated that some contractors decided to decline work because “some didn’t want to pay taxes in the state.”
She later on delivered an educated formulation on how much the school system might be able to carry over into the next fiscal year, around $1.5 million. Williams explained that her conservative estimates in some areas could result in even more. She had not counted on funding from Secure Rural Schools for National Forest lands, but the County received $59,000, about $55,000 more than last year.
In answer to a request from a local levy committee, Van Meter suggested that should the levy pass that each month a school board meeting have a transparency item. That item would allow for sharing the funds spent from the levy so that taxpayers have an accounting of it.
