(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Wood County Schools Transportation Director Chad Bloss talked to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about adding two dedicated transportation runs out of Jackson and Hamilton schools for extracurricular activities and on improving communication with parents for student safety.

PARKERSBURG — Maria Francisco, Parkersburg South principal, provided the Wood County Board of Education an update Tuesday night on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Wood County Schools, Parkersburg South High School and the Erickson All-Sports Committee highlighting positive changes in the management of banners and reserved parking at the Erickson facility.

“In discussion with the Erickson board, they have agreed to turn over the banners to Parkersburg South High School athletics,” Francisco said. “The banners that I’m speaking of are the ones that you will see — the white ones on the poles as you are driving into the Erickson All Sports facility. .. Parkersburg South Athletics is going to now manage the banners coming in, which means we will also get back revenue.”

She said another significant change involves the management of reserved parking at the facility.

“The Erickson All Sports facility does not have the personnel anymore that wants to deal with reserved parking… They have turned over all of that as of Aug. 1 to us,” Francisco said, noting the number of reserved spots has grown to 142.

When asked about the fees for reserved parking, Francisco clarified, “$50; however, if you have reserved football seats, we are going to sell that parking space to you for $40. We didn’t put that in the MOU because we do change that from time to time.”

(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Lynn Reins, CEO of the Parkersburg Boys and Girls Clubs, talked to the Wood County Board of Education about the club’s summer program closing out Friday, saying it marked a season of remarkable growth and impact.

She also addressed the cost of banners saying currently the banners are going to be $300 for the first time, and then $200 for each year after that.

“And that is the same as our banners in the horseshoe, so we’re just going to keep that consistent.” Francisco said.

She concluded by saying the partnership between the school and the facility board was “amazing.”

“I attend every meeting personally, and we have found a lot of common ground in partnerships with agreements and getting in vendors, agreeing on give and take on concessions and those kinds of things,” Francisco said. “Our relationship is excellent, and we are moving forward towards making, again, Erickson, the best place to play in West Virginia. It’s almost there.”

Wood County Schools Transportation Director Chad Bloss talked to the board about adding two dedicated transportation runs out of Jackson and Hamilton schools for extracurricular activities and on improving communication with parents for student safety.

“If you look in your packet, what you’ll see is you’ll see the addition of two extracurricular runs, and both of those runs are going to be out of Jackson and Hamilton,” Bloss said.

He said the initiative stems from concerns raised during school closure discussions about how students would access after-school activities.

“One of the things that we had come out of the school closure document was transportation for these VanDevender kids that want to do extracurricular activities in the evening,” Bloss said.

He said the new runs are scheduled from 5-10 p.m. on an as-needed basis.

“We posted it on an as-needed basis, because we don’t really know what the fall is going to look like, the winter is going to look like, the spring is going to like. Right now we have three kids at Hamilton, two playing football, one playing tennis, and one kid at Jackson playing football. That needs transportation after practice,” Bloss said.

He said pickup locations have been strategically chosen for accessibility with pickups at the Wood County Public Library and Jefferson Elementary.

“Both of those spots are in the walk zone of the old VanDevender (school),” Bloss said. “We’re hoping that this will allow these students to continue to participate in sports.”

In addition to transportation logistics, he said the department is focusing on improving communication with parents because he feels that is one of the things his department is missing. He said a new letter outlining expectations for both students and parents has been sent out. The letter clarifies policies, especially for younger students.

“A lot of times the parents will call and say, ‘Well, my kid’s in third grade, I shouldn’t have to be at the stop.’ Well, the policy states, if your student’s third grade or under, yes, you do have to be at the stop,” Bloss said.

He said parents are also asked to sign an acknowledgment and specify approved individuals for student pickup.

“We want (them) to list who’s approved to pick this student up, because a lot of the time it’s a struggle with the driver…. If that parent’s not there, is there somebody else approved to get this student off the bus? Because we just don’t want to leave them in the middle of nowhere with no one there. Safety is our number one goal,” Bloss said.

Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction, talked to the board about the Teaching and Learning Academy, held July 21-25 at Williamson High School, that brought together teachers, administrators and aides for a week of professional growth and learning. She described the event as “our most exciting week of the summer,” that featured nationally recognized keynote speakers, over a hundred breakout sessions and a record number of participants.

“In total, we hosted 107 sessions in five days. 446 individual employees came through the doors at Teaching and Learning Academy that week. And if we add up every single individual session sign-in, we had 3,029 session sign-ins for the week,” Beatty said.

Melissa Armann, a kindergarten teacher at Martin Elementary, talked about her time at the academy and highlighted the importance of ongoing learning.

“When you get to the point where you’re not changing your practices every year, it’s time to go.” Armann said. ”

She talked about how one presenter taught her about member sense trajectory and how that develops, “which is really going to change the way I do my small group math instruction,” Armann said. “I saw Sasha Long, from The Autism Helper, who talked about the stages of behavioral escalation, which I feel like is something I probably knew but had forgotten, and I think that’ll make me really more mindful and respectful of children that are in crisis.”

Tana Stanley, a seventh-grade science teacher from Williamstown Middle School, described the academy as a highlight of her summer.

“Each summer, I dedicate time to thoughtfully consider the past school year, what went well, what I can do to improve, and how I can grow as an educator,” Stanley said. “One of my highlights each summer is the Teaching and Learning Academy offered locally by our school district.”

She said her participation this year led to an unexpected opportunity after telling presenter Paul Gavoni about how she has her students grade her at the end of the year.

“(He) was so intrigued by [my reflective practice] that he invited me to be a guest on his national podcast… That was a super cool experience,” Stanley said.

The presentation concluded with thanks from Beatty to those who made it possible, including the staff at Williamson High School, custodial teams, summer help and the federal programs department.

“They deliver by hand every single textbook for every single school, tens of thousands. But they also load up and deliver and pick up all my summer school crazy, and they make sure all the teaching and learning materials are where they need to be, and they work tirelessly every day,” Beatty said.

The next regular meeting of the board is scheduled for Aug. 26 at the Jefferson Elementary Center. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. It will also be streamed online.