David George, programs director for the VFW in West Virginia, presented the Wood County Board of Education with information Tuesday night about the VFW’s youth scholarship programs, the Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education voted Tuesday night to create a shared assistant principal position between Emerson Elementary and Franklin Elementary.

Heather Grant, director of elementary education, said the position aims to address the growing administrative needs at both schools.

“We’ve re-looked at data and determined there’s a need at both of these schools for a traditional assistant principal. Both of these schools have a high free and reduced population. Both of these schools have a lot of students with special needs,” Grant said.

“There truly is a need for a traditional assistant principal to support and maintain effective school operations, ensuring compliance with Student Services and just fostering a safe and supportive learning environment at the school.”

Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction, talked to the board about updates to the lead counselor positions, aiming to better support school counselors across all levels.

“The mentorship component has been removed from these roles, as we will now plan to post the mentor counselor position separately as an extra duty position, as we do for mentor teachers,” Beatty said.

She said another key change is the separation of the K-8 lead counselor position into two distinct roles–one for elementary and one for middle school–while the high school position remains unchanged.

“That will allow us to provide more focused support,” Beatty said.

The proposal received positive feedback from the board.

“This sounds like a much better proposal, and it’s not so loaded with the amount of work for just one person,” Board member Jusy Johnson said. “It makes a lot of sense to make it into three different after school duties. So, thank you for going back and considering that and talking to people for input.”

The district will finalize and post the updated job descriptions, establish the mentor counselor position as an extra duty role and communicate these changes to all school counselors in the coming weeks.