Not too long ago, the number one concern in public education was, well, the education being offered and whether or not the quality of the curriculum was on a high enough level compared to what was being taught in other countries around the world.
Lori Kestner, a member of the Marshall County Board of Education for the past 17 years, believes progress was made when that was the focus not just in the Northern Panhandle but throughout West Virginia.
“I can remember a time when we were very concerned about our students not being educated so they could compete in the world because, with the Internet, it was easy to see that everyone was going to be connected,” Kestner said. “We talked a lot about raising the bar for public education so that our kids could compete for jobs in the area where they wanted to live whether it was here or it was abroad.
“At that time, we were concentrating on what we were we teaching our students so we could determine what more they needed to better their education,” she recalled. “We knew we had to improve their math skills, and we recognized that we had to increase the amount they were working with technology so they could compete against people from other countries. Even though that concentration led to a lot of improvement, the focus has changed.”
And not for the better, in Kestner’s opinion, especially following a coronavirus pandemic that forced the students to learn virtually for most of the past year.
“We’re now focusing on things like someone’s t-shirt that could offend someone,” Kestner said. “No one is talking about our kids having lost a year of their education. There are kids who will never recover from the past year because of how much has been lost for whatever reasons. Why are we talking about this?
“Instead of talking about how we can improve our classes in mathematics so our students will be better prepared for whatever employment they will seek, we’re talking about where a kid is going to go to use the restroom and if it’s a restroom for boys and girls,” she said. “No one is talking about how we can best help these children when it comes to their education, and that’s very frustrating to me.”
The Covid Map
W.Va. Jim Justice recently discarded the state’s Covid Alter Map that included five different colors based on statistical information that determined if students could attend in-person classes or if they were forced to remain online.
Not only did the system expose broadband issues in each of the state’s 55 counties, but it also became apparent not every student was capable of online learning. Once the third surge of Covid-19 diminished in February, all West Virginia schools were permitted to welcome teachers and students back into buildings, and state officials are optimistic that is how the 2020-2021 academic year will end in late May.
Kestner, though, hopes during the summer break the focus of public education will return to, well, education.
“We’ve gotten so far away from teaching the kids what they need to know, and instead we’re busy teaching them to be what we want them to be,” the BOE member said. “We want them to be political. We want them to be angry at the world. It really bothers me that, with this generation of children, the kids are not being prepared for the world’s job market even though they inevitably will encounter it.
“We have changed our focus away from helping them to be competitive in the world to being lost in the world,” she continued. “I hope we can switch that back for the good of the children as soon as possible, and hopefully over the summer we can renew our focus. This pandemic has been a confusing time like no other any of us have experienced, so hopefully we can put it behind us and get back to work.”
Pandemic Positives
Leadership.
As the superintendent of Marshall County Schools, Shelby Haines operated in the district according to the governor’s mandates and the coronavirus statistics, and that included food distribution, online and packet learning systems, and Zoom meeting after Zoon meeting.
The Marshall County Board of Education continued meeting, as well, with pandemic precautions in place. Marshall County’s Covid color changed often, and that meant the school system’s faculty and staff members had to adapt sometimes on a daily basis. What Kestner witnessed, however, was impressive dedication.
“I believe some positive things have come out of all of this mess we have been in for more than a year now, and one of those positives is that it was brought some leaders in Marshall County,” she said. “If not for the pandemic, maybe they would have never emerged, but they did because their leadership was needed.
“In our school system, several people stepped forward and did some incredible things that they didn’t have to do,” Kestner continued. “They delivered things to the children of the county, and they made sure that the children in our system had what they needed during a really difficult time. There were teachers who pretty much adopted some children who needed the help.”
So, while she is concerned about upgrading the school system’s curriculum in the future, Kestner is optimistic about the devotion displayed by the district’s employees.
“We’ve heard so many things over the past year like the teachers didn’t want to go to the schools, and they didn’t want to work,” the board said. “But I would say about 85 percent of our teachers in Marshall County couldn’t wait to get back into our schools and back with their students.
“Maybe it wasn’t like that everywhere, but I can honestly say that it was that way here in Marshall County,” Kestner added. “So, through all of this, true leaders were born, and that’s absolutely a huge positive that we can all be thankful for because they made a big difference in the lives of those children.”
