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As new school year begins, positive vibes being felt in Cabell County

CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. — As the school buses were rolling out of the garage Wednesday morning in Cabell County to begin the new year, Superintendent of Schools Ryan Saxe said morale in the district could not have been higher.

Despite some criticism from the outside on teachers and school service personnel during two straight years featuring teacher strikes, Saxe said the Cabell County education scene is nothing but positive headed into this 2019-2020 school year.

Ryan Saxe

“I as superintendent try to make sure my staff understands how appreciated they are. Our parents and our communities, they embrace our educators and our service personnel every single day,” he said on Thursday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline.’

The work stoppage earlier this year and debate into this summer was over a series of omnibus education bills proposed in the legislature that ended in House Bill 206 being signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice in late June.

The bill included charter schools and ESAs, which teachers and school service personnel strongly stood against, as well as offered pay raises for school employees, additional funding for student support services, incentives to fill in-demand positions, and financial support for small or struggling counties.

Saxe said his school district, the third-largest in the state, has taken advantage of some aspects of the bill.

“The teachers and school service personnel saw the pay raise,” he said. “We’ve been able to do the salary bump for those hard to fill math and special education positions. Then of course in our school district we already have a sick leave bonus in place, but being able to capitalize on the sick leave bonus that the state is offering is helpful.

“As it relates to the other components of the bill we are still working through some of those things to see how they will impact our district, but so far we have taken full advantage of those positive components of House Bill 206.”

The school district features 18 elementary schools, four middle schools, two high schools, a career tech center, and an alternative school.

Because of the large number of schools, Saxe said resources in the county when it came to wraparound services had to be spread out.

But now with the bill, that brought $30.5 million for support services in schools such as social workers, psychologists, and counselors, that’s not the case.

“This morning (Thursday) I was at Culloden Elementary and I was speaking with one of the new full-time counselors at Culloden,” Saxe said.

“They were very positive about the fact that they have one single school that need to service as oppose to three or four like would have to in the past.”

Saxe said the mission of the school district and community surrounding it is to remain positive and help every student reach career and college potential. He said the district even has a theme for the 19-20 year of “Be Awesome!”





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