The candidates for Monongalia County Board of Education sat down with members of The Dominion Post Editorial Board this past week.
Incumbent Ron Lytle and newcomers Christina Fattore Morgan and Shawn Smith spent an hour answering the board’s questions, ranging from the Renaissance Academy to potential book bannings and a host of topics in between. We recommend you revisit Jim Bissett’s story from April 2 for more details.
There are two open seats to represent the Eastern District on the Mon County BOE, and we think any of the three candidates would serve our county well.
They are all passionate about education and about improving education for current and future generations. They had similar thoughts on staff recruitment and retention, on classroom discipline and safety and on creating a school system that makes kids want to learn.
There were some minor differences: Lytle focused on improving facilities and giving kids more hands-on learning opportunities; Morgan emphasized the importance of open lines of communication between the school system (not just individual schools) and students’ families; and Smith underscored that teachers — and bus drivers, and kitchen staff and custodians — need more support from the school system.
On the issue of potential challenges to books (read: book bans), Lytle remarked that he had yet to see any such challenge. Morgan thought such challenges should be handled by the BOE so such decisions wouldn’t have to be made at the individual school or library level. And Smith said there should be a framework for the challenge process that starts within the school and then could escalate to the BOE. But all agreed that reading and access to books are important for our kids, and we should trust librarians to stock their shelves with material appropriate for the age groups within their schools.
If there was any real break among the three it was that Morgan still has concerns about the proposed Renaissance Academy while Lytle and Smith are fully on board. Morgan worries about the day-to-day operations and the impact to other schools’ budgets. She thinks focus needs to be on recovering COVID-era learning deficits and the issues plaguing schools now. Lytle, of course, is one of the RA’s biggest cheerleaders and Smith supports the proposed STEM school. Lytle sees it as the future of education — a place where students happily go to learn instead of being dragged there. Smith likes the increased options it will provide students and the chance for more hands-on learning. Both note that MTEC has the highest rate of attendance of any Mon County school — and both think the Renaissance Academy would pull similar numbers. (The bond is on the ballot this year, but the RA wouldn’t be ready to accept students until at least 2027.)
For this race, the devil is in the details. In the broad strokes, the three aren’t that different — except when it comes to the RA. In the finer details, they have separate approaches to accomplishing similar goals. But we think any of the three candidates would serve our community well as members of the board of education.
