Hardy County Schools Superintendent Sheena Van Meter would like to reaffirm “that our public schools are more than buildings, they are the heart of our communities.”
West Virginia’s public school system in many ways has entered a period of transition. Those elements of transition have taken the traditional public school system into powerful headwinds.
First, the questionable shutdowns required by the government during the COVID pandemic created significant academic problems in several classes. Mismanagement of COVID related funds by a handful of systems brought some stigma to the entire system, including those who took a fiscally conservative approach.
Nationally and in West Virginia alike, headlines of teacher misbehavior continue to wound communities and undermine the public perception of dedicated professionals who do care about children and work hard to give the best education possible.
Along the way, the social impact of opioid addiction and the decline of the traditional family has shattered the bonds of resilience that formerly maintained households. School systems relied on families to serve as moral teachers and partners in education, but all too often children no longer have these home-based supports and school personnel have increasingly stepped in to help.
Strains caused by social issues led directly to former First Lady Cathy Justice leading the implementation of the Communities in Schools program.
Van Meter notes that these issues have created significant challenges for school systems in the past several years. She shared that “every day, our educators welcome every child, meet needs that extend far beyond academics, and create opportunities that can change the course of a student’s life.”
Finally, the HOPE Scholarship has made strides in supporting a number of alternative methods of education. While it has expanded opportunities for a diverse population of students, traditional public schools have seen a decline of student numbers as a result.
Advocates for the HOPE Scholarship all along have stated that goals include pushing the public school system to better performance through competition.
Additionally, five years after the COVID lockdowns, Harvard and Stanford universities note that West Virginia’s public schools rank in the top 10 nationally in “bouncing back” from the problems caused by those policies, rating sixth in reading and eighth in mathematics.
With discussions about public schools centering on legislative moves, funding, and administrative miscues at the local level the conversation, as Van Meter has explained, often overlooks one critical factor, the classroom itself.
The West Virginia Association of School Administrators launched a campaign this summer called “I Love West Virginia Public Schools.”
One critical component of the campaign lies in bringing the focus of the public back to the core of education, teachers and students. As the WVASA states, the campaign “exists to celebrate, strengthen, and advocate for West Virginia’s public schools.”
“West Virginia’s public schools are not perfect,” stated Van Meter, but she added that “they are indispensable and they deserve our investment, our support, and our pride.”
Kristy Tritapoe, Associate Superintendent of Pendleton County Schools and also part of the leadership of WVASA, echoed Van Meter’s point and stated that education always remains “a learning process. You have to be willing to learn. You will sometimes make the wrong decision. We all make mistakes” and one job of the school system lies in learning from them and growing from those errors.
The campaign operates by emphasizing the positive, by “highlighting the incredible work happening in our classrooms every day,” and promoting “the value of a public education that welcomes every child, serves every child, and remains accountable in each community.”
Focus on the classroom will come as the campaign seeks to “tell the stories of educators and staff who make a difference every day” while championing “the mission of public schools to educate every child, every day.”
Telling the stories also includes conversations about “educational opportunities and responsibilities” while remaining transparent and using tools to measure student success.
The campaign also urges families who support the public schools to share their experiences and student success stories. It also directs anyone towards online resources showing the progress of each school system in West Virginia.
