Monongalia County Schools made its senatorial deadline last week.
That was under the mandates of West Virginia Senate Bill 422, which requires the state’s public districts to make curriculum and other teaching resources available online for parents, legal guardians and other caregivers.
“That’s the biggest initiative we worked on over the summer,” said Eddie Campbell Jr., Mon’s superintendent of schools.
“It was a laborious process, but we got there,” he said.
“There,” as in having all materials available by the first day of school, which was Aug. 22 in the district.
Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and Sen. Michael Woelfel, D-Cabbell, sponsored the legislation, which was designed to bring more transparency to state schools.
While the materials online aren’t available to the general public, parents and caregivers each have electronic access by way of password, which gets them into the documents portal.
For Campbell, it’s just a digital extension of what his district has long been doing anyway, he said.
“This might make it more convenient,” he said of the portal.
With certain textbooks, novels in the library and other materials occasionally sparking ire and contention at school board meetings nationwide, does he see other avenues of divisiveness becoming more convenient, as well?
“I don’t,” he said.
“There’s no secret to what we do. We’ve always made our curriculum available to the public. You should do that, if you’re a school system.”
The portal is also set up for digital dialogue. Parents and others with access can make comments or complaints.
In the meantime, Campbell has no complaints on the first week of school, which is now in the books.
“I think everything has gone as planned,” he said.
That includes revamped bus routes and other particulars for the county’s 11,000 or so students.
“You’re always going to have things you have to work out,” the superintendent said. “Two or three weeks in, and you’ve got it, usually.”
Students are getting a break this weekend, meanwhile.
After a two-hour early dismissal Friday, they’ll also have the day off for Monday’s Labor Day holiday.
