The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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March 2, 2010

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Lawmakers took a giant step forward in approving a measure to allow West Virginia’s counties to set their school calendars.

That makes sense. County school superintendents know the lay of the land, literally, in their counties, and working in tandem with transportation directors, should be able to make the best calls in terms of school cancellations.

Laying out a school calendar that’s written in stone is impossible in a state where topography and weather conditions are so divergent.

But now, a bill passed 83-12 by the House of Delegates would reserve seats on “calendar committees” for teachers, administrators and school workers. The county’s superintendent would select the chair.

The proposed legislation calls for each committee to propose at least two calendar plans annually. Any new calendar must survive a vote of the county’s school employees. A committee must start over if either the county or the state board then rejects its plan.

The bill has gone to the Senate, where a similar measure had been introduced.

Again, legislation requested by Gov. Joe Manchin and passed earlier this session allows counties to set when their school years start and end. It aims to ensure the state’s policy goal of 180 days of instruction, while also requiring counties to account for icy conditions and emergencies when crafting their calendars.

It’s still not clear to us why oversight committees are needed.

Why should we appoint more people to supervise the work of school officials we deem to be capable of doing the jobs they’re paid to do? We don’t see the need for all the extra time, energy and effort that would have to go into that oversight process.

There are far too many education issues to be addressed to tie up school officials in what appears to be one more unnecessary layer of administration.

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Editorials
  • Drug screening

    When it comes to coal mine safety issues, representatives of the United Mine Workers often are leading the way.

    February 10, 2012

  • This is why

    Operation of Fayette schools
    won’t return to local control  
    until there is some consensus

    February 9, 2012

  • MSU

    Mountain State University is at a critical crossroads and southern West Virginians need to step up and show their support for the school and its hundreds of students and employees.

    February 8, 2012

  • MSU

    Community needs to show its support for our university

    February 8, 2012

  • If you don’t think so, you’d better think again

    EPA regulations turning the screw on coal industry

    February 7, 2012

  • Airport projects crucial

    Tom Cochran and others at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport can breathe a little easier, or at least take a deep breath and exhale, after word came from Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s office last week that a deal has been struck between the two chambers in Congress to authorize long-term funding, into 2015, for the Federal Aviation Administration.

    February 5, 2012

  • Thumbs — Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012

    February 4, 2012

  • It’s not a choice

    Whether a bill to eliminate tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike when the current bonds expire some eight years from now is passed by the Legislature and signed into law or not, one thing is absolutely certain — the state Transportation Department has the responsibility to maintain that 88-mile stretch of Interstate highway.

    February 3, 2012

  • On the shelf

    A Senate bill (SB168) offered by 13 of the upper chamber’s members that would have given counties the option to boost the pay of county commissioners, sheriffs, county and circuit clerks, assessors and prosecuting attorneys by at least $10,000 each has apparently been shelved and will do nothing but draw dust this legislative session.

    February 2, 2012

  • The time is now

    Drug abuse.

    February 1, 2012