The Wood County Board of Education celebrated Parkersburg South High School on Tuesday with recognitions for the school’s marching band, after completing an undefeated 2025 season and earning six grand champion honors, a special recognition for one of its members, featured twirler Harmony Watkins - who received the WVSSAC Female Band Academic Achievement Award for 2024–2025 - and being named by the state as a Champion of College Access and Success — one of just 71 high schools statewide — for its comprehensive efforts to prepare students for post‑secondary life. Pictured is Principal Maria Francisco, Angela Evans, head high school councilor for the district, and Superintendent Christie Willis. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — The auditorium at Parkersburg South High School was filled with music Tuesday night as the school’s marching band performed before the regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education.

The school’s marching band was celebrated after completing an undefeated 2025 season and earning grand champion honors at six West Virginia High School marching band competitions.

Randall Reid-Smith, a representative from U.S. Senator Jim Justice’s office, said he was always in awe of the South band when he was growing up in Barboursville.

“They had the most incredible, incredible sound. They had great shows, and they were just a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful program. And it’s so nice to still see that tradition going on here at Parkersburg South High School,” Reid-Smith said.

Reid-Smith also honored Greg Myers in what Reid-Smith said was his final season as band director, citing Myers’ 30 years of service and leadership that helped guide the band to this milestone.

Randall Reid-Smith, a representative from U.S. Senator Jim Justice's office, visited Parkersburg South High School on Tuesday as the Wood County Board of Education held recognitions for the school’s marching band after completing an undefeated 2025 season and earning six grand champion honors. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“This great accomplishment brings great pride to your family, your school and your community… a testament to your 30 years of dedicated service and commitment to teaching the musical arts,” Reid-Smith said. “I was always told that the most noble of the arts is teaching, and nobody shows a greater example of that than you.”

Feature twirler Harmony Watkins was recognized with the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission Female Band Academic Achievement Award for 2024-2025, applauding her ability to balance academic excellence with the demands of a feature‒twirler role.

“Congratulations on this outstanding achievement, which stands as a testament to your four years of dedication, hard work and commitment to your academic studies while maintaining, and this is the most important part, a rigorous and demanding scheduling,” Reid-Smith said. “May this accomplishment bring pride to your family, your school and your community… may your pursuit of excellence continue to inspire others.”

The school was also recognized as a Champion of College Access and Success — one of just 71 high schools statewide — for its comprehensive efforts to prepare students for postsecondary life.

The initiative, led by the school’s counseling department and spearheaded by lead counselor Angela Evans, centers on a weeklong College Exploration and Application program that highlights post‒high school options beyond four‒year colleges, including trade schools, workforce opportunities and the military.

The Parkersburg South High School marching band performed Tuesday during the regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education. The band was recognized by the board for completing an undefeated 2025 season and earning six grand champion honors. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“It has everything to do with college exploration and application week,” Principal Maria Francisco said. “It obviously concentrates on college, but it also talks about students after high school and anything that they could possibly do.”

She said activities include career surveys, college application sessions in developmental guidance classes and a popular tradition where teachers and administrators post where they went to college on their doors.

“We’ll have kids come up and say, ‘When are you posting your college thing?’… The kids love to see where all of the teachers went and the administrators went,” Francisco said.

She said the school also celebrates College Decision Day with public recognitions similar to athletic signing days.

“Our athletes get a college signing day, and these kids get to now just do a signing as well… we’re going to make that even a little bit bigger deal next year,” Francisco said.

The Parkersburg South High School marching band performed Tuesday during the regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education. The band was recognized by the board for completing an undefeated 2025 season and earning six grand champion honors. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

The board also heard about a new online pre-K registration system that will debut this year and is aimed at ending overnight lines and making sign-up more convenient for families.

“We always start our advertisement for our parents in the community January 1, as we come back from school, and pre K registration always takes place on the first week of February, and that’s where parents start securing their spots,” said Heather Grant, director of elementary education.

She said due to state law the process doesn’t follow the district’s lines for where students would attend a school. She said instead, it’s based on a first-come, first-served basis. This would have parents lining up ahead of the start of registration with some spending the night outside in lines.

Grant shared the story of a mother who she said was pregnant with her third child, had a toddler at home and a husband who worked out of town. Grant said the mother told her she wasn’t able to stand in line “all night,” a story Grant said “really got to me” and pushed the district to rethink the process.

She said to address these concerns, the district is using an online registration system modeled on its open enrollment process so parents can apply remotely without lining up overnight. “There’s really no reason we can’t do this like our open enrollment process,” Grant said, adding that parents are already familiar with that system.

Heather Grant, director of elementary education, and Eric Murphy, technology integration specialist, talked to the Wood County Board of Education on Tuesday night about a new online process being implemented in the district for preK registration. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

Eric Murphy, technology integration specialist, walked the board through the preliminary version of the new online portal, noting that it is not yet public but designed to be clear and accessible.

“What we want to do is make sure everybody understands the process,” he said as he described a series of informational pages that explain each step. Murphy outlined two main parts saying one is the online registration part and the second part would be more in-depth information. He said that part is “just the collection of all the things, like immunization records, dental exams, those types of things.”

He said the district’s website will have an example of the registration form that parents and guardians can look over before filling an official one out.

Grant said the timeline and documentation policy remains flexible for families and described a change implemented last year that will continue.

“In the past, they had to have their certified birth certificate and immunizations to get their time stamp… So last year, they could get security of their time stamp on the February enrollment, and they had until Tax Day, April 15, to turn everything in,” Grant said. “We wanted to make it more friendly for parents, and it worked out very well, and that will continue this year.”

Board member Debbie Hendershot asked about grandparents and others who are “not really tech savvy,” and asked if there would be assistance for them.

“Yes, we’re going to advertise that any grandparent, anybody who’s not tech savvy, they can come to the office, and the secretaries are going to help fill that (registration) out for them,” Grant said.

Summing up the core message for families, Board President Justin Raber put it simply: “I think the key takeaway is you do not have to spend all night out in front of a school to sign your child up for preK.”