Marion Board of Education releases results of a personnel investigation
Jun. 7—FAIRMONT — The results of an outside investigation surrounding a Marion County Schools employee came back with no bad news to show.
Following a series of rocky personnel hearings earlier this year, concerns were raised about verbiage used by Rocky DeLorenzo, the district's head of personnel. The investigation found that there were no issues with his statements.
Some of the personnel who were up for transfer alleged that DeLorenzo told them the school board would vote three to two on all the transfers. The personnel said that implied DeLorenzo had previously discussed the transfers with the board.
At the hearings, DeLorenzo denied this, saying that he was merely positing the scenario that the board could vote three to two.
Monday, Board President Mary Jo Thomas settled the matter with a statement from the board after spending about 30 minutes in executive session being briefed on the results of the investigation.
"The board has reviewed the investigation by an outside source about allegations made against Mr. DeLorenzo during personnel season," Thomas read. "It is the conclusion of the report that there were no findings."
That was the board's second trip behind closed doors Monday night. Earlier in the agenda, the board met with several concerned students from Fairmont Senior High School about the board's abstention from renewing the contract of the school's girl's cross-country track coach, Mark Offutt.
At the board's last meeting, they held an extensive executive session regarding the contract renewal. Thomas said Monday that their abstention from the vote at the previous meeting was just delaying the decision until the board had the full story.
"We had a lot of questions after hearing one side and we decided to delay the decision," Thomas said after Monday's meeting. "Rather than vote no before the questions were answered, we delayed."
And the board's questions were answered judging by the results. The board voted 5-0 to renew Offutt's contract.
Upcoming programs
The board was briefed about upcoming events happening this summer, one of which was the county's first Tech-Education summer camp, happening later this month.
The camp's goal is to inform middle school students of other post-secondary options aside from college, many of which can be started in high school at the Marion County Technical Center.
"One of the goals the board gave me this year was to increase exposure to CTE programing, particularly at the middle school level," School Superintendent Donna Hage said. "It is federally funded and is hands-on learning, which is very appealing to students."
Another of the announcements made Monday, was that North Marion High School has been selected as a new expansion site for the state's GameChanger initiative.
Launched in December of 2021, the program is a partnership between West Virginia and the WV Game Changers. The program will eventually establish drug use prevention centers in every school in the state by 2027, but for now, North Marion is among the first few to join the initiative.
"It's very exciting because [the state] chose 12 schools — that's 12 elementary, middle and high schools — and North Marion is one of those 12," Hage said. "That was definitely something that Principal DeVaul sought after to get supports for her students."
Other business:
* Board member James Saunders publicly apologized for a comment he made at the previous board meeting toward EFHS Principal Mary Westfall. Last month, after learning board members were not going to hand out high school diplomas, Saunders said he would go up on the East Fairmont stage and knock Westfall off in order to hand his grandson his diploma. He apologized the next day on social media.
* The board honored track teams from all three area high schools for their accomplishments.
* The board honored the East Fairmont Middle School rocketry team, who recently returned from the national championship in Virginia.
* The board honored Fairmont Senior High School girl's lacrosse for their third consecutive state champion title.
Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.
