MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Martinsburg North Middle School remains under a state of emergency due to a chaotic environment and poor academic performance, but some steps have been taken ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year that may smooth the waters.
On Wednesday, the West Virginia Department of Education met and got a brief update on the school and its plans moving forward. The school, with the help of the WVDE, is creating a system that coordinates social-emotional supports for students in the school, as well as conducting a priority-setting workshop and outlines action steps to hit goals from the Corrective Action Plan. This is in an effort to bring up the astonishingly low recent academic reports, that show just 24% of students are proficient in English, while only 6% are proficient in math.
State Department of Education Accountability Officer Jeff Kelley says the master schedule for the school was re-worked to focus on instruction for students.
“The master schedule was rebuilt to prioritize instructional time,” Kelley said. “Also, it ensures daily intervention for all students and includes collaboration time for teachers.”
In addition to creating support systems for students and re-working the day-to-day schedule, Martinsburg North Middle School appointed a new principal and added a school improvement specialist to the staff.
Taking over as principal will be Kevin Pittsnogle, the former basketball star at West Virginia University under former head coach John Beilein. Pittsnogle, who helped guide the Mountaineers to a Sweet 16 and Elite 8, has experience in the Berkeley County School System, serving as the assistant principal for Musselman High School, where he was in charge of handling disciplinary issues. Pittsnogle will likely have to dip into his experience in disciplinary work, as Martinsburg North Middle School saw at least 160 fights last year and 23 Title IX violations.
Kelley says part of the corrective action plan for the school is addressing the behavior of students.
“This includes new practices and procedures for behaviors, which we knew was an issue up there, which will be communicated with staff and students at the beginning of the year,” Kelley said.
Kelley also says teachers will also get further education moving forward for documenting behavior.
“The administrative team will outline and provide professional learning for all teachers in the use of WVEIS for documenting behaviors and interventions and looking at key data that they will use to provide support to repeat offenders,” Kelley said.
A full-time school resource officer has also been placed at Martinsburg North Middle School for the school year.