October 29, 2009 Big changes in K-12 education needed, speakers at UC say By Davin White Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Savannah Coffman, a senior at Huntington High School, believes a lot of her classmates just don't care about school. It's easy, she said, for a student to hide in the back of the classroom and just stay invisible all year -- but she thinks students might care more about learning, if given a little more one-on-one involvement with teachers. Capital High School teacher Cynthia... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Forum_takes_on_education_changes,64.aspx Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-30T08:00:00 October 27, 2009 PEIA planning to keep 'fat tax' proposal in public hearings By Phil Kabler Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin has declared the issue off the table, but the Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board is still planning to put its "fat tax" proposal out for public comment during hearings around the state next month. On Monday, Manchin told teacher and school service personnel union representatives that he was backing off the proposal to charge higher PEIA premiums... http://wvea.org/news/articles/PEIA_not_pulling_fat_tax_from_public_hearings,63.aspx Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT 2009-10-28T14:00:00 October 26, 2009 Manchin tells employees 'fat tax' is off the table By Phil Kabler Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A proposed "fat tax" on overweight public employees is off the table, Gov. Joe Manchin told representatives of public school employee groups Monday. "He advised us they are going to back away from that," said Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association. Manchin made the comments Monday during a meeting of the work group that has been... http://wvea.org/news/articles/PEIA_fattax_appears_dead,62.aspx Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-27T08:00:00 October 25, 2009 New program targeting dropouts wins funding LAWRENCE MESSINA Associated Press Writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Kanawha County officials hope a new approach toward keeping would-be dropouts in school will prove a model for the rest of West Virginia and beyond. Gov. Joe Manchin recently agreed to a $2 million funding request from Delegate Sharon Spencer, D-Kanawha, and others. The money will build four new classrooms at both of Kanawha County's career technical centers. These centers... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Funds_target_dropouts,61.aspx Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT 2009-10-26T09:00:00 October 22, 2009 PEIA looking at charging obese state workers more By Phil Kabler Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin is asking the Public Employees Insurance Agency to consider following North Carolina's lead to impose higher health insurance premiums on overweight public employees. "He asked me, "Why aren't we doing something like that?" PEIA director Ted Cheatham told the PEIA Finance Board Thursday. "I told him, we had talked about that as a board, but there was no political... http://wvea.org/news/articles/PEIA_considers_charging_obese_workers,60.aspx Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:00 GMT 2009-10-23T11:00:00 Year-round schooling push on the horizon By Mannix Porterfield REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER CHARLESTON — Look for another spirited debate under the Capitol dome in January over the amount of time West Virginia students spend in school. And this time around the block, expect a push for year-round schooling. Lawmakers failed to agree this year on a school calendar bill, one that Gov. Joe Manchin strongly backed in an effort to cement a 180-day year, after the two houses split over the details and... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Year_round_schools_discussed,59.aspx Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-19T08:00:00 Temporary relief from OPEB possible By Lawrence Messina Associated Press Writer CHARLESTON — Relief may be in the making for West Virginia’s county and local governments worried about non-pension retiree costs, a Manchin administration official told lawmakers Thursday. The official, Public Employee Insurance Agency Director Ted Cheatham, said the administration is drafting legislation that would change the way these employers now address the projected cost of “other post-employment benefits” or... http://wvea.org/news/articles/OPEB_relief_possiblity,58.aspx Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-19T08:00:00 October 14, 2009 Class time management trumps school calendar, specialist says By Alison Knezevich Staff writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Rearranging school calendars isn't as important as how teachers spend classroom time, an educational expert told lawmakers Wednesday. "Time itself and the arrangement of [school days] may not be an issue," Gale Gaines of the Southern Regional Education Board told members of an interim legislative committee. "It's more about the use of time." Lawmakers debated school... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Class_time_trumps_calendar,57.aspx Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-15T08:00:00 Tuesday October 13, 2009 Wise aims to quell rate of dropouts W.Va. has three of the 1,907 schools where only 60 percent of freshman progress to senior year by Michelle Saxton Daily Mail Capitol Reporter   CHARLESTON, W.Va.--Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise wants to target and improve dropout factories, or high schools where only up to 60 percent of high school freshman progress to their senior year.   While those schools make up fewer than 12 percent of all high schools in the nation, they... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Wise_to_quell_rate_of_dropouts,56.aspx Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT 2009-10-13T09:00:00 Cops: MHS Teacher Was Drunk Instructor’s name was redacted from officer’s report By Alex Lang The Dominion Post   A Morgantown High School teacher was drunk, failed a field sobriety test and refused a Breathalyzer test, before being removed from school Monday, according to a police report.   The report, released Friday, indicated that officers were called to the school at 1:51 p.m. Monday.  MHS Principal Robert DeSantis told officers that a teacher was intoxicated.  While speaking to the teacher,... http://wvea.org/news/articles/COPS_MHS_teacher_drunk,55.aspx Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT 2009-10-12T10:00:00 October 10, 2009 Priscilla Haden: Innovation Zones key to transforming schools CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- President Barack Obama has called education one of the three building blocks of innovation. I'm proud that in West Virginia we too have recognized the importance of innovation in our schools and taken steps to encourage enterprising approaches to improve student achievement. Already we have taken steps to incorporate 21st-century learning into the classroom with the addition of world-class rigor to core... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Innovation_zones,54.aspx Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-12T08:00:00 10/08/2009 Health Officer Addresses State School Board MetroNews Staff Charleston   The state Board of Education got a lesson on swine flu during Thursday's meeting in Charleston. Dr. Cathy Slemp, the state Health Officer, updated the board on where the state stands when it comes to the H1N1 virus. Right now she says the state is on the upswing, with more cases being reported everyday. That's why... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Health_officer_addresses_WVBE,53.aspx Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT 2009-10-09T09:00:00 Swine flu invades border counties in W.Va. Associated Press CHARLESTON (AP) — From coal mines to classrooms, West Virginians are bracing for swine flu to spread as pockets of cases were reported Tuesday in several border counties. Cabell, Jackson, Mercer, Monongalia and Wood counties experienced spikes in the number of cases, said West Virginia Bureau for Public Health spokeswoman Marsha Dadisman. Schools were among the hardest hit. West Virginia University in Morgantown has seen 460 cases of... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Swine_flu_spreads,52.aspx Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-08T08:00:00 Jackson Students Carrying Swine Flu WTAP-TV There are 63 cases of swine flu in Jackson County and the majority of those cases are students. Wendy Crawford with the Jackson County Health Department said that there are 34 confirmed H1N1 cases in Ripley High School. Superintendent Blaine Hess confirmed that 200 of the students at the high school were out sick Monday. 1,005 students attend Ripley High School. Ripley Middle School has 10 confirmed cases and 140 students were absent from the school on... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Jackson_students_spread_swine_flu,51.aspx Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-07T08:00:00 Parents call for BOE to close school October 06, 2009 @ 10:15 PM BILL ROSENBERGER and LAURA WILCOX The Herald-Dispatch HUNTINGTON -- More than two dozen parents scolded Superintendent William Smith and the members of the Cabell County Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday, demanding that schools be closed in response to the H1N1 flu death of a Cabell Midland High School student. About a dozen actually spoke, and most were argumentative and yelling to the point of crying out of fear that... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Parents_call_for_BOE_to_close_school,50.aspx Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-07T08:00:00 October 5, 2009 W.Va. teachers head back to class The Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Teachers from nine southern West Virginia counties are going back to school, thanks to a $1.6 million federal grant aimed at improving history education. Concord University will administer the program, designed to recruit 90 teachers from elementary to high school for graduate programs at the college. The program is called Prism-WV and America's Founders. The teachers will apply the skills they learn in... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Teachers_head_back_to_school,49.aspx Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-06T08:00:00 Board, Union Should Talk The Intelligencer POSTED: October 5, 2009 Regular meetings among Hancock County Board of Education members and officials of the union representing many teachers are a good idea. However, they should not be held as was the practice in the past - behind closed doors. Hancock County Education Association President Melanie Donofe suggested the gatherings during a board meeting last week. She said quarterly meetings involving the board and HCEA representatives, as had been... http://wvea.org/news/articles/Union_Board_should_meet,48.aspx Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT 2009-10-05T08:00:00 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:50:13 GMT http://wvea.org/shared/handlers/newsrss.ashx?cid=7 10 Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:50:13 GMT