The public school districts of Monongalia and Marion counties both had a busy 2025, with lots of homework and heart going into their collective day-to-day doings.
Here are some highlights:
Niche numbers are in (and they’re great for Mon)
Monongalia was once again named West Virginia’s best public school district by Niche, a market research firm that charts the highs and lows of schools across the nation.
Morgantown High topped the ranks for best high school with University clocking in at No. 3 that list.
Suncrest Middle was named the state’s No. 1 middle school, an honor it shared with North Elementary in its category.
Other Mon schools charting the top 10 across the boards were Mountaineer Middle and South Middle – along with the elementary schools of Cheat Lake, Ridgedale, Brookhaven and Suncrest.
“Everybody plays a part,” Deputy Superintendent Donna Talerico said. “We have so many good people. And it’s nice to be validated.”
Huddle up for safety
West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute joined the gridiron in Marion County with several school football teams. Safety was the play called in the huddle.
The institute lined up with Riddell, the football helmet manufacturer, which provided high school and middle school with its specially wired “Axiom” helmet — designed to detect concussion injuries that aren’t readily apparent.
Dr. Michael Ebbert, a sports neurologist with the institute, helped oversee the study.
“Having grown up in Marion County, I feel particularly privileged to be part of such a collaborative effort,” he said.
Making history in math
Rio Rohaly, a West Fairmont eighth-grader in Marion County, found himself in rarified air this past fall – when he learned he netted a perfect score in math on the West Virginia General Summative Assessment.
“That’s quite commendable,” Superintendent Donna Heston said.
When he isn’t acing math tests, Rio writes and produces promotional videos for his school and the district.
He also created a primer to help parents navigate computer portals through the state’s Department of Education.
This land is your land?
The Suncrest Neighborhood Association got an A in Monongalia County Circuit Court concerning the property once occupied by Suncrest Primary School.
Judge Cindy Scott ruled that the original 1925 deed for the site on leafy Junior Avenue be respected. The deed called for the property to be turned into a public park, should it no longer house a school.
The old school, shuttered since 2016, was demolished three years ago.
Barbara Hildebrand, a neighborhood association member whose daughter went to the school, asked the Board of Education to not appeal the ruling – for community spirit and the symbolism of the deed.
The neighborhood still has families with young children, she said. A green space could keep alive the legacy of the former school.
Of language and love
Li Jung Chang, who teaches Chinese in Mon’s district, was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the West Virginia Foreign Language Teacher Association.
Chang divides her time between Morgantown High, University High and South Middle.
She has taught here for 17 years in one of the few districts in the state offering conversational instruction in the language.
The teacher told Mon’s Board of Education members that her students couldn’t have been more excited for her.
“They said to me, ‘We are so proud of you.’ Isn’t that amazing? I tell them that every single day.”
‘Avalanche’ back on firm footing
Yes, there will be an Avalanche after all in Mon Schools this summer.
That’s the name of the popular learning enrichment camp that the district had to reluctantly scrap due to sweeping cuts in 2025 through the U.S. Department of Education.
However, the 2025 fiscal year ended June 30 with a happy surprise.
Make that a million happy surprises.
A $1 million nest egg in carryover money will help fund the Avalanche and its Summer Sizzler reading program in June and July.
Weighing the East-West game
West Virginia’s oldest high school football rivalry found itself infused with even healthier competition this fall in Fairmont.
The Bees of East Fairmont have been lining up against the Polar Bears of Fairmont Senior since 1921, and the contest this past November carried even more weight.
You can thank Healthy Harrison.
That’s the name of the wellness program at West Virginia University’s United Hospital Center in Bridgeport.
As a build-up to the game, the collective student body at both schools began huddling up with lifestyle changes – better eating habits, more exercise and the like.
Progress was charted through Chromebook, the laptop computers issued to students and the start of the school year.
John Paul Nardelli, who works in community medicine, said while positive numbers on a scoreboard of health make every participant a winner – those $100 backpacks as a grand prize make for a pretty good incentive, too.
The Rev. James Saunders, who has been a Marion Board of Education member for 30 years, said those are the numbers he likes.
“There’s a lot of things we don’t want to lead the nation in,” he said, “and obesity is one of them.”
Also off the field …
Fifteen of Marion’s 19 schools were showing measurable progress in reading and math test scores this past fall, Superintendent Heston reported.
Fairview Elementary-Middle shone brightly in the arena, in particular, she said.
So did Blackshear Elementary and East Fairmont High.
Heston also put the spotlight on the venerable Barnes Learning Center, which began its structural life in 1913 as an elementary school in Fairmont’s Bellview neighborhood.
Barnes is now an alternative safety for children and teens in trouble with grades or police.
In fact, Heston said, the school was one of the first such centers in the state to introduce programming for elementary age youngsters.
“At the time it was very unique,” she said.
Librarian tells her own story
Charlotte Chung spends her days at Suncrest Elementary School showing students it’s fun to look things up – because when you look things up, and on your own, she said, you really learn.
Truly.
The resident librarian at the diverse school on Collins Ferry Road was recognized nationally in 2025.
Chung was one of ten media specialists across the U.S. with the “For the Love of Librarians” award, sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York City and the American Library Association.
The Suncrest recipient intellectually appreciates her daily interaction, she said – even with some of the more organic queries, she adds, chuckling.
“I had a student ask me, ‘How do worms poop?’ ‘Is infinity a number?’ I love that they immediately think, ‘OK, let’s ask Miss Chung. She’s a librarian.’”
Students get hands-on with cybersecurity
Donna Heston earned an enthusiastic round of applause in a packed auditorium at East Fairmont High when she told students to do precisely the opposite of what they normally hear daily.
“OK, take out your phones everybody,” the Marion Schools superintendent said with a broad smile.
Make that a broadband smile.
The district hosted a “broadband summit” which was presented by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative.
Smartphones were enlisted for a variety of immersive exercises for attendees from East, Fairmont Senior and North Marion high schools.
Career in cybersecurity and other fields were discussed by Bill Walker and other speakers.
Walker, who has a military background, is executive director of the National Cyber Defense Center, which has offices in Morgantown and Huntington.
North-central West Virginia is home to a burgeoning high-tech industry, and people going into the industry don’t have to leave home if they don’t want to, he said.
“And you can make up to $200,000 a year,” he added, while faces lit up by smartphones looked on.
