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Teaching at All Angles

Ohio parents want their children’s schools to educate them in all the traditional subjects, of course, but the idea is that our public schools are a big part of what prepares students for life beyond the classroom someday. To that end, Bucyrus City Schools in Crawford County has come up with an idea other districts might want to consider. According to a report by the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, the district has partnered with Team NEO to credential EVERY staff member as either a career connections adviser or career connections ambassador. This isn’t just teachers. This is every ...

It’s Time for West Virginia To Get Into the Game

West Virginia is more than halfway through the first quarter of its “economic backyard brawl” against its neighboring states — and the score right now sits at 49-0. Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who promised to get West Virginia more competitive with its neighboring states upon taking office in January, appears to need a new game plan to salvage this one. This year alone, our neighboring states have seen the following developments to enhance their edge over West Virginia. Consider: - Pittsburgh, just an hour from Wheeling, will receive $90 billion in energy and artificial ...

Revisit State’s Phone Policy

By all accounts, Ohio County Schools had a good first year with its new cellphone policy. Students would put their phone away during class, but in-between classes would have access. That allowed parents to be able to communicate with children on practice changes, for example, while not impacting any classroom learning. Yet now comes the West Virginia Department of Education with a one-size-fits-all approach for students when it comes to cellphones, based on a new law from the West Virginia Legislature. And this new policy, it appears, prohibits any use of cell phones throughout what it ...

‘Coach A’ a True Light of the Valley

As person after person stepped to the podium Wednesday to laud longtime local basketball coach Gene Ammirante — this year’s winner of the Wheeling YMCA’s Dr. Lee Jones Patron of Youth Award — it became more and more evident how deserving he was of the honor. Ammirante has spent nearly all his life in the service of Ohio Valley youth, in both big measures and small. It was the bus trips from Bellaire to Columbus for his young players to watch Ohio State men’s basketball games at St. John Arena. It was him approaching kids at the YMCA just to help them improve their jump shot. ...

Good News for Employers

West Virginia employers may be getting a little good news for next year, as the National Council on Compensation Insurance has filed a proposed workers’ compensation loss cost decrease of 13.5%, to begin Jan. 1. The change, pitched by the state’s rating and statistical agent, would mean another possible $20 million kept in the coffers of Mountain State employers. In fact, it would mean 21 years in a row of decreases since the state workers’ comp program was privatized. That’s more than half a billion dollars in savings to employers compared with workers’ comp levels before ...

Cut The Nonsense With Federal Funds

The story is becoming too familiar. Lawmakers who support spending cuts, then call for their reversal. Lawmakers who want to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, just not in the program that is politically beneficial to them. U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., has joined several Senate colleagues in a letter that seeks the disbursement of already-approved Community Development Financial Institutions funds. To be fair, some of the federal actions seem designed to force elected officials to beg for the help they pledged to their constituents. In this case, $324 million from the fund was ...