Preston County BOE approves school schedule

KINGWOOD — Preston County students will start school Aug. 21 this fall and finish by May 24, 2019, if they don’t have to make up more than 10 days.
The Preston County Board of Education approved the calendar Monday. It calls for staff to report back on Aug. 17.
May 30-June 28 are designated as possible make up days, but 10 days — usually snow is the culprit for school cancellations — are built into the calendar. Five are Brain Freeze Days and five are available because Preston County students have an extra 30 minutes of instruction daily, which can be counted toward the 180 required instructional days.
Holidays are Labor Day (Sept. 3), Buckwheat Festival (Sept. 28), Election Day (Nov. 6), Veteran’s Day (Nov. 12), Thanksgiving break (Nov. 19-23), Christmas break (Dec. 24-Jan. 1), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 21), Spring break (April 19 and 22) and Memorial Day (May 27).
Also at Monday’s meeting, Preston County Health Department Director V.J. Davis said the annual after prom event will be 11 p.m. April 28 until 6 a.m. April 29, at the Craig Civic Center.
The event is free to Preston High students, whether they attend the prom or not. Activities will include a mechanical bull and inflatable obstacle course. There will also be a variety of foods and grand prize drawings for $300, $250 and $150.
Last year more than 100 students attended, and about half stayed all night, Davis said. About $5,000 is spent on the event, which is supported by the Preston Prevention Partnership, Preston County Commission, businesses and individuals, Davis said. The event began about 10 years ago.
The board also approved the setting of a digital sign at West Preston being provided by school boosters. And the BOE adopted Houghton Mifflin math texts for grades K through 12.
In other discussions, County Superintendent Steve Wotring said:
Robin Hagedorn of Bruceton School was named the teacher of the year, Sue Clark of PHS service person of the year and Rick Myers of Central Preston Middle coach of the year at the annual dinner last week.
He and Board Members Jack Keim and Pam Feathers have been selected to serve on a panel on school board relations at the West Virginia Association of School Administrators’ Annual Conference at Lakeview.
The county will wrap up its aspiring principals program Tuesday. Fifteen people participated. “We’ve got some good people in the pipeline,” Wotring said.
He has been asked to deliver the final keynote speech for the West Virginia Center for Professional Development for the New Principals Academy. The event will be at Bridgeport April 19.