KINGWOOD — Preston County Schools fared well in the recently released state school accountability scores, the superintendent said Monday.
Preston Superintendent Steve Wotring briefed the Preston County Board of Education on the scores Monday. The results can be seen online at https://wveis.k12.wv.us/essa/choose_district_sum.html?selected_district=070.
“We’ve got work to do, but I am thrilled to death with our progress,” Wotring said.
Last year seven Preston schools were in the red — meaning they did not meet state standards — in math. This year there were four in the red. That’s “still too much,” Wotring said, “but we had put so much emphasis on English language arts in the past year. Almost all of our professional development this year is centered around mathematics.”
Preston High School (PHS) math scores improved five percentage points, he noted. In English language arts, Preston County went from seven schools in the red last year to two schools this year.
“Which is amazing,” Wotring said. PHS again exceeded the standard in post secondary achievement by graduates.
One thing Preston didn’t improve on was attendance, and board members renewed their opposition to a new state policy that counts all days students miss, including excused ones for sickness or doctor’s appointments, as absences in the total. Even a student who is recuperating from surgery at home and receiving services outside the school is considered absent by the state.
Wotring said he and other county superintendents talked to the state superintendent of schools about those concerns at the last state board meeting. “The entire State of West Virginia dropped in attendance,” Wotring said. Preston’s attendance rate was 92.69%.
The county did not have any schools ranked as “low performing” by the state.
Also Monday, the board approved a new honors policy for PHS by a 3-1 vote, with Board Members Pam Feathers, Jack Keim and Robert “Mac” McCrum voting for the policy and Bob Ridenour against it. Board Member Jeff Zigray was not at the meeting.
The policy eliminates the valedictorian, salutatorian and Knights Honors at the school. Instead it ranks graduating seniors by their cumulative grades of all courses they took in the ninth through 12th grades.
Beginning with the Class of 2022, students will be recognized at graduation, “in some way chosen by the school, such as a sash, sticker on the diploma, different tassel, etc.”
The school will recognize graduating seniors with a 4.25 GPA or greater as graduating summa cum laude, those with GPAs of 4.0 to 4.249 as magna cum laude and those with a GPA of 3.75 to 3.99 as cum laude.
Ridenour urged his colleagues to vote against the policy change.
Wotring said every year there are parents and students who play a “numbers game” in an attempt to gain top spots in the class. And, he said, West Virginia University gives a scholarship to the valedictorian but, if that student doesn’t attend WVU, another student can’t be designated to receive it.
“If administrators are having problems dealing with parents that are complaining that their child should get this honor or that, I’m sorry. That’s what we pay those administrators big bucks for. They should be able to take care of problems. And I don’t think this is the route to go,” Ridenour said.
Ridenour again expressed concern that a CTE student, even though he or she takes challenging courses such as electrical engineering, can never get the same GPA as a student who takes advanced placement academic courses.
Wotring said staff at the high school requested the policy change and other counties’ policies were looked at when revising Preston’s. No public comments were received on the policy revision.
