For years, the mantra of attracting people to the Mountain State for work went along the following lines.
It’s a script, as it turns out, hasn’t really changed much – even over years of stereotypes, stagnant economy, and other particulars of perception.
Just come here.
Pay us a visit.
Check us out.
Once you actually meet us, you’ll love us (trust us).
In Monongalia County Schools these days, all of the above is currently playing out this school year.
Multiplied by five.
During its regular meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday, the district formally introduced a quintet of teachers who have decided to live in the Mountain State and work in Mon’s school district.
Say hello to Andrew Calandrelli, Andrea Mulligan, Nicole Radick, Maria Vito and Jessica Willis.
The five are participants in “Teachers Ascend into West Virginia,” a program created in 2022 by WVU, the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and the West Virginia Department of Education as a way to answer teacher shortages across the state.
Across the Mountain State’s 55 public school districts that year, there were 1,200 job openings in classrooms – that weren’t filled.
When it came time for the pilot program, the collaborative’s executive director Donna Hoylman Peduto, who grew up in neighboring Marion County and began her career in education as a teacher and reading specialist in her native Fairmont, knew right where to look, she said.
That would be north-central West Virginia, she said.
With one county and one district, in particular, she said.
“This is a program that was taking a chance,” she told the BOE.
“Mon County is the home of innovation. Whenever there’s something innovative, a little risk-taking, always go to Mon County first.”
The program offers a $6,000 stipend and additional support of up to $4,050 in additional tuition opportunities through WVU’s College of Applied Human Sciences, the university reported earlier.
There’s also a wealth of outdoor recreation opportunities, Peduto said, and the program will even line up summer employment to help beginning teachers with young families to support.
Peduto appreciates the geography encompassed by the program so far, she added.
Calandrelli, who is on the math faculty at Morgantown High School, moved from St. Louis for his position.
Mulligan hails from Ebensburg, Pa., and landed at South Middle, to teach music.
Radick got to her fifth-grade classroom at Skyview Elementary by way of Richmond, Va.
Vito motored down Interstate 79 from Bentleyville, Pa., to Morgantown for her physical education teaching appointment at North Elementary.
Willis left a teaching job in the Pittsburgh area to join the special education faculty at Cheat Lake Elementary.
There’s also the boomerang, ex-pat factor. Calandrelli and Radick are WVU graduates.
Eddie Campbell Jr., the Mon Schools superintendent, knows all about that.
Campbell, who came back to his native West Virginia after teaching and serving in administrative posts in northern Virginia, Alaska and China, gave the five As for initiative and advancement.
“You’ve chosen a wonderful district and a wonderful state to teach in, and we’ll work real hard to make sure you stay here,” he said.
Mulligan, the South Middle music teacher, quickly picked up on West Virginia’s welcoming song, she told board members.
Her kids were grown and out of the house, she said. Her husband had a job opportunity, and they moved here not really knowing anyone, she said.
“Everything was new,” she said.
“My school has been very welcoming, and it has been a wonderful way to get to know the people.”
