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EDITORIAL: School's in for Next Four Years: Boards of Education Members in Region Face Separate Challenges

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 09:09 CDT

By The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

May 10--By now, with any luck, we can call the roll in one election. In the one race that was nonpartisan and final Tuesday, voters in Marion, Monongalia and Preston counties attended to electing boards of education. We congratulate all these winners to perhaps the most important public service and responsibility of all: The education of our children. They should all enjoy this moment of victory and take comfort in knowing the voters have entrusted them with this charge. Each one of these counties' voters can breathe a sigh of relief today and revel in the quality of the public servants they have elected to oversee their school systems. Each has its own particular points of pride and accomplishment that these boards can build on in the future. From Monongalia County's numbers of students passing advanced placement classes; to Preston County's steady progress in erasing a more than onetime $1 million deficit; to Marion's success at measuring up to the No Child Left Behind Act; there's been no lack of progress. However, at the very same time each of these school systems come with their only sets of problems and perhaps even imminent crises. In Monongalia County, for example, when it comes to the looming cost overruns to build a new University High School, many wish like a child that if something is unpleasant it will disappear when he covers his eyes. But this issue and others aren't going away. They're just getting closer. In Preston County's case, issues of maintaining aging schools and some modern ones are always near at hand and have become the priority. Replacing outmoded heating systems at several schools during this past winter was perhaps the most apparent need facing this system then, but other needs are as dire. Including such major projects as new roofs, warped gym floors and outdated electrical systems. And finally, in Marion County, echoes of the same issues facing Monongalia and Preston counties also exist there, from building plans to maintenance, but perhaps not as acutely. Although the slate isn't as clean as many of the incumbent, and especially new, board of education members would like, there are reasons for hope.

Clearly, the most significant one is the commitment that these men and women themselves bring with them to their positions as board of education members.

While another is the ever-increasing realization by our state government that it's vital that it meet our education needs in a responsible manner and no longer simply pass off unfunded mandates to school systems.

And although there are reasons for concern, too, most of us who voted are present, and ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work in behalf of these school systems.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

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