MORGANTOWN — Four words kicked off the latest incarnation of the Monongalia County Board of Education (BOE), which met in special session Monday night.
“OK, let’s get started,” Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr., said.
Campbell, a teacher and administrator who most recently headed Tucker County’s school district, was presiding over his first meeting as Mon Schools’ chief.
He was hired last month to replace Frank Devono, who retired after 13 years on the job here.
The new superintendent laun-ched his career as a teacher and coach in Virginia.
Campbell, a Wheeling native, also has an international resume. He was principal of a high school near the Arctic Circle, in Alaska, and was also the director of an American school, in Shanghai, China.
In Tucker County, which is the third-smallest school district in the state with just three schools and 1,000 students, Campbell oversaw an operating budget of $13 million — with no additional levy for support.
“I sign every purchase order,” he said, during a meet-and-greet earlier that was part of his job interview. “I like to say I buy every pencil.”
In Monongalia County, Campbell will be in charge of a $127 million operating budget.
He was sworn in before Monday’s meeting by Monongalia Circuit Judge Russell Clawges, who also administered the oath to Mike Kelly, a longtime incumbent who was reelected during the May primary; and Sara Anderson and Melanie Baker Rogers, who are both serving their first terms on the board.
Anderson and Rogers won the seats vacated by Barbara Parsons and Clarence Harvey Jr., who both decided not to seek reelection in May.
The post-primary meeting also included an internal election: Ron Lytle was elected BOE president and the board also voted Kelly in as vice president. Both will serve two-year terms.
Education was also a component of the meeting.
BOE members also hold seats on the county Extension Service, Morgantown Monongalia Met-ropolitan Planning Organization, Community Lead-ership Forum and Mylan Park Foundation.
The new superintendent and newly elected board members got a brief rundown on what those organizations do.
Appointments, and re-appointments, were also made to those boards.
Lytle, who was elected to the BOE in 2012, said serving is a good way to meet local officials while learning about issues that may not come before the school board.
“It’s an outreach for us,” he said.
