Ohio County Schools Superintendent Promotes Public Education Campaign
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WHEELING -- West Virginia's school superintendents see that the state's school funding formula needs help, and that Hope Scholarship dollars aren't staying in the state.
As such, the West Virginia Association of School Administrators (WVASA) is now looking to promote the successes of the state's public school system, Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller told Ohio County Board of Education members Monday night.
The "I Love WV Public Schools" campaign was created in July.
The purpose of the campaign is to inform and inspire school staff and communities to advocate for public education.
"We need to celebrate and tell our own stories before somebody else does it for us," Miller said.
Some have termed the new marketing campaign "propaganda," she continued.
"This campaign is about advocating for the things we do every day, and we cannot do the things we do every day unless we address the public schools situation," she said.
"My job is to inform you of what is happening, and to communicate as much information as I can. It is very important that we celebrate all the successes that take place, because they take place every day in the school system."
Miller explained at the end of the last school year a group of superintendents got together and decided public education in West Virginia needed to be better promoted, especially in light of the Hope Scholarship program growing in the state.
"It is now time to take a more aggressive approach to public education," she continued. "Educators are typically passive in their position, roll with the punches, work with the kids we have in our classrooms and move on.
"But now there is so many other things at stake."
She provided some statistics indicating how big the job is that Ohio County Schools must take on each day.
Miller reported that Ohio County Schools has about 4,500 students and employs a staff of about 800.
As for the central office, it works out that there are about 352 children per each of 12 office administrators, according to Miller.
"So we're dealing with a whole bunch of people with only a little bit of staff," she said.
Last year, Ohio County Schools served over 800,000 free meals to students, she reported. That includes food provided for breakfast, lunch and in some cases dinner, according to Miller.
Each day, over 3,000 students were transported by the school district to their school buildings and related school events, she continued.
She noted the attendance rate in Ohio County Schools was 95%.
"We know our children are showing up, and our teachers and service personnel are showing up and working their hardest each day," Miller said.
Overall, Ohio County Schools ranked fourth in reading across the state on the West Virginia Summative Assessment scores, and was sixth in mathematics.
"Yes, I'm happy to celebrate those successes, but no, we are not finished. We still have more work to do," she said. "We're working with our finest clients -- our children."
WVASA knew it needed to make a push, and a marketing campaign was created, Miller explained.
"We presented this campaign as a tool to communicate with our communities,” she continued. "It is a tool to have one message -- whether you are in Brooke County, Braxton County or Wirt County -- one single message that a public school system is the pinnacle of our communities. Without a strong school system, you do not have a strong community.
"We know that we educate 90% of the students in West Virginia. Nine in 10 kids are our children, and we need to make sure that we continue in that direction."
Miller said she has spoken with members of both the West Virginia House of Delegates and the West Virginia Senate, as well as Treasurer Larry Pack.
What they have told her is eliminating or reducing funding for the Hope Scholarship fund "is off the table."
She showed board members a list of the top 10 education providers where West Virginia's Hope Scholarship goes, and it mostly goes out of state. Steubenville City Schools actually received about $100,000 from West Virginia, the list indicated.
Ohio County Schools lost about $3 million to a combined 550 children via the Hope Scholarship, according to Miller.
Both distribution of the Hope Scholarship money and West Virginia's school funding formula need to be addressed, she continued.
"We are just looking for meaningful accountability," Miller said. "If I have to produce test scores, attendance, licensed teachers and everything in the middle, then we want anybody who gets federal dollars to have to do the same."