Class discussion: Mon Schools' 2022 anything but uneventful

Jan. 1—After the batteries in both megaphones died, the students just yelled louder.

"Whose school is it ?"

"Our school !"

"Whose school is it ?"

"Our school !"

The discourse often took on decibels in Monongalia County Schools in 2022.

It was a year that saw the district in microcosm with America: Students walked out of class and rallied in protest of the central office mandate they said was more about censorship than anything else.

Meanwhile, teachers and administrators were working against the post-pandemic current of low test scores and other failed benchmarks.

Everyone was reminded that gun violence could easily happen in schools here, as elsewhere.

Along the way, the district produced the state's Teacher of Year.

And one student showed that, yes, if you really want to — you can indeed change the world for the better.

Pride matters ?

A district decision in September generated the very divisiveness it was trying to quell.

With America and Mon County in the middle of a contentious campaign season, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. and other district officials made a call — guaranteed to generate noise either way.

The district ordered the removal of all campaign posters, candidate posters, party-affiliated bumper stickers and the like, from all classrooms and other school property, as the state steamed into the November general election.

Anything and everything, the superintendent decreed, that could smack of ideology, indoctrination, or just-plain party politics in a ballot year with rhetoric already drawing blood.

"We want our kids to be able to think for themselves, " Campbell said.

One of the items on the list, though, included the Gay Pride flag. The sanctioned removal of the flag and its related symbols generated angst among LBGTQ + students from Morgantown High in particular.

They filled the chairs during one Board of Education meeting, and walked out of their school the next day in protest.

For them, a Gay Pride flag or sticker on a bulletin board means a sympathetic teacher and a safe haven.

If the social-shark tank of high school is tough enough already, those students told the board, trying navigating it, if you're still closeted.

Try navigating it, they said, even if you're out, and being bullied, simply because of your orientation.

The district, though, said such orientation is personal and shouldn't be made into political fodder.

And bullying, it said, is a zero-tolerance issue — no matter what.

Students and teachers who spoke to board disagreed.

Schools, they countered, should be central hubs for debate and discourse from all sides — the environment of which, they said, automatically fosters that ability to think for one's self.

One student wondered if what was deemed a preventive measure wasn't really oppression, in disguise.

"If they take that flag, " he asked, "what's next ?"

After Uvalde Passing through weapons detectors at MHS, University High and Clay-Battelle is just of the morning routine these days, and students don't pay them much mind.

Those gray sentinels, though, do serve as a reminder of just what it means to be a student in America, and Mon County, these days.

The high-tech devices were purchased last January, following gun violence that previous fall at a high school in suburban Detroit.

A student shot four classmates to death, minutes after he and his parents met with counselors who worried that the student was giving off threatening signs.

The detectors arrived here in spring — right before the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, during which a lone gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in an hour-long rampage.

All of Mon's schools are already outfitted with measures including ballistics glass and "man-trap " entrances that control the flow of people coming in.

"This is just one more layer, " the district said.

Making the grade (or not)

With a major land-grant university in its district, and a taxpayer support of an education levy that brings an additional $30 million into its coffers annually, schools in Mon generally outperform the rest of the state, while keeping pace nationally in many other measures.

It's not perfect, however.

National test assessments from the U.S. Department of Education this past fall, showed record lows in reading and math scores across West Virginia and the country.

And Mon's district, in particular, is still grappling with dyslexia, as it works to get teachers certified in the specialized instruction for the reading and cognitive issue.

Critics, though, say the district simply isn't doing enough — and hasn't done enough, for years.

Trenton Bailey is a 25-year-old Morgantown native who just earned a graduate degree in engineering with honors from WVU.

His dyslexia was so profound that he was ready to drop out of his freshman year in high school here.

In fact, he did drop out — to go to a private school out of state, where he excelled.

Not every family has such resources though, he and his father, Jeff said.

That's why they formed the nonprofit Bonnie Bailey Dyslexia Foundation, named in honor of the late matriarch of the family.

The foundation has offered its services, including the expertise of teachers certified in the instruction of students with dyslexia to Mon Schools, which, to date has declined the offer.

Teachers here, the district said, are in the process of being certified in those same programs. Student needs are always being addressed, it said.

One parent of a dyslexic student in Mon Schools disagrees.

Right now, there are 1, 650 students in the county with dyslexia, said the parent, who requested anonymity to protect the identity of her child.

There's that number-versus just one just one teacher, in the process of obtaining certification in Orton-Gillingham, a proven method in instruction for the disorder, the parent said.

Educators here work hard and are caring, the parent continued, but the resources are lacking.

"Monongalia County Schools plugs more holes than other counties, " she said, "but at the end of the day, plugging a few extra holes does not save anyone from drowning."

Other voices ...

Along the way in 2022, Mon's school district generated West Virginia's Teacher of Year while introducing another student who is a champion of literacy to the world.

Amber Nichols, who teaches at Eastwood Elementary, earned the state's top accolade for its educators this fall.

Her principal, DeAnn Hartshorn, said the star teacher has a "superpower, " of sorts.

"Amber will look at the kids in her class and she'll instinctively 'know' them, " she said.

Nichols' first day as a teacher was Sept. 11, 2001, at a school in Arizona. Her husband was in the military there, and didn't know if he was going to be deployed after the terror attacks.

The teacher wasn't the only one in the school with a spouse in unform — but all decided to stay that day, despite the principal's offer to them to go home, in they needed to.

"We stayed for our kids, " Nichols said. "We needed to be there for them. That's been my mantra ever since."

Rania Zuri, meanwhile, said she'll always be there for the cause of literary.

The Morgantown High senior launched a program that provides books for youngsters from Appalachia to Israel.

Her literary altruism has gotten her interviewed on NBC's Today show and profiled in the pages of Forbes magazine. She has also taken center stage for a TEDx talk.

"Reading inspires critical thinking, " said the student, who prefers classic literature.

"You learn about people. You learn about the world."

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