Hancock County School administrators and board members are learning the consequences of poor leadership ­–mainly the transformation from decision-makers to spectators.

At this week’s Hancock County Board of Education meeting, new superintendent Walt Saunders informed both the audience and the board about how meetings will run for the foreseeable future. The board will hold meetings, but all decisions will come not from the board, but from the West Virginia Department of Education.

Such is reality after the state department took over Hancock County Schools due to gross mismanagement to the point where the district was struggling to make payroll.

“You will see things a little different,” Saunders noted. “It is still an open meeting, but a closed discussion.”

Saunders presence itself is a byproduct of that takeover, named superintendent after the state department removed former superintendent Dan Enich from the job.

It’s surely frustrating for the Hancock County board members to lose control of decision making for the district. Local control is usually the best way to go, but in cases like this, there was no other option but for the state to step in.

Yet current and future board members, administrators and parents can look at this situation as a launching point. Working with the state to steady this ship should allow the district to regain control of its future sooner than later. Everyone should enter future meetings with open minds to help how they can. The students of the district deserve nothing less.