CHARLESTON, W.Va. –The state Department of Education is facing challenges when it comes to finding personnel to help getting counties that they’ve taken over the help and support they need.
At Wednesday’s board of education meeting, State Superintendent Michele Blatt acknowledged the issue after being asked by a board member.
Blatt said that the issue has been a part of a continuous conversation.
“Realigning some staff that we have here and then also seeing if there are some additional contracts that we can put in place to actually help with the oversight and actually have some boots on the ground in some of these areas more than we currently do,” she said.
Currently, the department has seized control of Logan, Upshur and Mingo County schools along with Pocahontas County High School. The Office of Accountability does the reviews and helps with the improvement.
Blatt says that in that office there are only four employees in the office which includes the director.
Another problem that may cause them to have to reorganize is potential budget cuts.
“If we end up with federal and possible state budget cuts then we’re also looking at reducing staff here, and so it’s going to be a matter of realigning what the focus is and making sure that we have the right people in the right places to support the work in the counties,” Blatt said.
If they don’t have someone to go in and help these counties, they could potentially go back to what they were doing.
However, also at the meeting Chancellor with the WV Higher Education Policy Commission Sarah Armstrong Tucker said that Blatt isn’t alone in the struggle to find personnel.
“We are also short staffed and don’t have the ability to fend permanent employees there,” Tucker said.
The commission recently took over Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College’s Board of Governors and placed the president on administrative leave.
She said that they have recently did a lot of work with contracted employees, a lot of work with retired superintendents and also some of her retired staff has had to come out of retirement to help them out.
Tucker said that it’s been challenging.
“Part of what we’re going to have to do is take a look at the bigger picture of education, I know the superintendent has been, and I have been, and start to think about who we are now versus how we were built,” she said.
The board is currently looking into Roane and Nicholas County schools as well as the counties they’ve already taken over.