Wood County Schools Special Education Director Kara Small, left, and attorney Walt Auvil give the Wood County Board of Education opening remarks Monday during a personnel hearing. The board voted 2-1 to not renew Small’s contract for the 2025-2026 school year. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — After nearly five hours of testimony Monday, the Wood County Board of Education voted 2-1 to not renew the contract of the district’s special education director.

According to Bowles Rice attorney Richard Boothby, who represented the district, the administration chose not to renew Special Education Director Kara Small’s contract because she was dishonest regarding her actions concerning a reduction in force and transfers in the district; refused to comply with clear instructions, particularly regarding communication with building principals about staff cuts; and engaged a vendor to provide more than $30,000 of services without approval, a contract or a purchase order.

Boothby said the standards for a hearing on not renewing a probationary employee’s contract differ from those in termination proceedings.

“The administration does not have to prove that the employee was insubordinate, or that she was immoral, or that she willfully neglected her duty, or anything else like that,” Boothby said. “Those are for-cause reasons for employment termination, and this is not a termination hearing.”

Boothby said it was up to Small to prove the superintendent’s reasons for not renewing her contract were, “illogical, irrational or arbitrary and capricious.”

Human Resources Coordinator Carla Rippeto testified via zoom Monday in the personnel hearing for Special Education Director Kara Small. Rippeto claimed Small did not reach out to school principals when asked to create her Reduction In Force list for human resources. The board voted 2-1 to not renew Small’s contract for the 2025-2026 school year. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

Reduction in force and transfers

Assistant Superintendent of Academics and Leadership Justin Hartshorn and Human Resources Coordinator Carla Rippeto both testified, Rippeto via Zoom, that Small was told repeatedly to contact principals to compile her list for a reduction in force and transfers but she failed to do so.

Hartshorn said he spoke to Williamstown High School Principal Jason Ward in January and he stated he had not spoken to Small. Rippeto said she spoke to Parkersburg South High School Principal Maria Francisco and she was upset with the cuts being suggested.

Hartshorn said Small was asked in a January meeting if she was reaching out to principals and she said she was.

“The ones she said she spoke to, she did not,” Hartshorn said. “Some of them she did. Some she did not.”

Small said significant attention was given to the process of compiling and communicating a list of proposed staffing cuts.

“The initial slate of cuts comes to my attention,” Small said. “The specialist jobs are to gather the information, which is also part of their job descriptions. They are to gather that information and give it to me. Once they give it to me, I’m supposed to go through that data and, per policy, make the staffing projections as needed.”

Small said she sent her projected cuts to the district’s directors of secondary and elementary education and Hartshorn and received good feedback on them.

“We went over it. I made the changes as directed, and then I was actually verbally given a lot of praise for how good my staffing cuts were at one point,” she said.

Principals

Walt Auvil, the attorney representing Small, said Small never told Hartshorn or Superintendent Christie Willis she had spoken to all of the principals in the district or represented herself as having done so.

“If someone tells you that they called several, would that not indicate to you that several isn’t all?” Auvil asked Hartshorn. “When she immediately says I called several, does that not indicate to you that she’s informing you she did not call all of them at that time, at the time of this meeting?”

Hartshorn agreed.

“I think that’s what she meant when she said that,” he said.

Rippeto said she was asked by Boothby to compile a chart that tracked interactions with school principals regarding special education staffing cuts. She said the list also included principals Small had not contacted. Auville asked why this chart was never shared with Small to verify its accuracy.

“When the principals said that she had not been there, spoken with them, that is what we went by. I’m not her supervisor, so I didn’t feel it was my place to double check with her,” Rippeto said.

Small said she tried to contact as many principals as she could after Hartshorn told her to in a January meeting.

“I went straight to Jefferson (Elementary), and I talked to Jefferson’s head principal, and then by the time I drove out to Blennerhassett Middle School, school was letting out,” she said. “So then I went back the very next business day and talked with Matt Null (Blennerhassett’s principal) in person. There were principals that I would call, there were principals that I would drive out and sit down and talk to. … I tried to make contact with everybody.”

Vendors

“Miss Small engaged one of the board’s vendors to provide more than $30,000 of services which this board never authorized, for which there was no contract, for which there was no purchase order,” Boothby said in opening remarks.

Small said urgent circumstances led to hiring a remote teacher through the vendor Best Life. “We were out of compliance. I had talked to Justin Hartshorn in November about a remote teacher to be able to cover the fact that the multi-cap teacher had retired, and there was only one multi-cap teacher left to service all of their children in that entire building, and there was no response back to me…,” she said. “And then … our (permanent) multi-cat teacher broke her dominant arm and could not write the IEPs for 17 kids, and I had to make a choice to get those kids serviced, because we have a legal obligation to service those children.”

Small said through the state mentorship program that helps first time department heads, other special education directors told her they retroactively approve these appointments after the fact.

Board member Judy Johnson said this brought up concerns with her that people were placed in the school without board approval.

“This also means they were not background checked,” Johnson said. “Counties have been taken over this spring because they hired people that were not through board action or did not have background checks on these people, because it’s not safe for children.”

Smalls said Best Life has a background check process in place for all of their employees.

Board President Justin Raber said although Small’s contract for special education director was not renewed she was welcome to apply for another position in the district.