PARKERSBURG –Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources John Merritt gave the Wood County Board of Education a personnel agenda Tuesday night with a list of employees that will be affected by the RIF (reduction in force) and transfer.

The list included those who are transferring or being considered for transfer, employees who received another probationary contract, probationary employees who received a continuing contract and those who were on the non-renewal list.

“If an employee’s name is not on this list, they will get a letter mailed tomorrow (Wednesday), stating that the board approved probationary employees and their name was not on the list, the reasons why the name is not on the list and they have a right to a hearing.

“And there’s about 75 on each,” Merritt said. “So, that would be 75 non-renew employees, 75 transfers, so 150 letters will be going out.”

He said the names on the personnel agenda given to the board cover about 90% of the personnel actions and those that didn’t appear on this agenda would be given to the board during their meeting on March 26.

Merritt said there were some positives.

“You’ll see the names listed here for both professional and service, but one positive thing of service, with the addition of second grade aides next year, almost every employee has a transfer location. So, there were very few non-renews, so to speak, for those programs,” he said.

Newly appointed Boardmember Rick Olcott said Merritt obviously had a number of positions and a list of identified positions that will need to be reduced at each school and asked if the board could receive a copy of that.

“We can come up with that list,” Merritt said. “We had that list, we got backed up from where we were today,” Merritt said.

Board President Justin Raber said that information would be beneficial to the board.

“That would help us by understanding the impact on the schools,” Olcott added.

Dr. Jason Hughes, director of the Wood County Technical Center, told the board the center is seeing rising enrollment numbers and interest from students. He said he has had over 1,000 students this past year sign up to say they want to enter into a program at the Tech Center, located on Blizzard Drive, or the Caperton Campus, located on the campus of West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

“We’re very happy with those numbers as you might imagine,” Hughes said. “I always think about capacity. 1000 plus students interested, with a capacity currently of about 546.”

Olcott noted the information Hughes presented to the board stated their enrollment is just under 500 at the moment.

“So, your capacity discussion will be welcome,” Olcott said.

Hughes told the board new programs are being added to two area high schools with a plumbing program coming to Parkersburg High School and a coding and game design program at Parkersburg South High School. He said the center is also looking to add medical assisting and manufacturing. He said he has been working with Chemours on a vibrant community grant.

“We are in progress with this grant. It has not been awarded, it’s a potential grant, but it’s looking very promising and it would be six figures over a five-year period,” Hughes said.

Boardmember Judy Johnson praised Hughes for his work with the tech center.

“It’s growing and it’s doing so well,” Johnson said. “Thank you for growing that, it’s important to the community.”

The next meeting of the Wood County Board of Education is scheduled for March 26 at 6.p.m.

The meeting will be open to the public and streamed online.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com