FAIRMONT – Marion County Board of Education President George Boyles said last week it was “time to move on,” after the 3-2 vote and lengthy discussion earlier to oust Donna Heston, the district’s current superintendent of schools.
Moving on for the BOE now means hitting the fast lane in the job search to come.
The board plans on posting the job March 30 while accepting applications through April 13 – from a pool of in-state candidates – Boyles said during Wednesday’s special session on the matter.
After interviews, Marion’s BOE wants to have a new hire May 1, so that superintendent can be on the job and sworn in July 1.
Heston will work out her contract through June 30.
“There will be no interim superintendent,” Boyles said, “plus a new board will be taking its place on July 1.”
“New” – in that at least one BOE member, who wasn’t there before, will be also sworn in.
Boyles, a longtime incumbent, is stepping down. His name won’t appear on the nonpartisan ballot for May’s primary.
Current members Tom Dragich and Donna Costello, though, have filed for reelection.
And so have four other challengers: Donald D’Lusky, Betty Fast, Matt Offutt and Sam Brunett, a longtime art educator at Morgantown High School and teacher’s union activist who still resides in his Fairmont hometown.
In the meantime, the board is fine-tuning the job description for its superintendent, which will be publicly posted in coming days.
The decision to not renew Heston’s contract, as said, wasn’t unanimous.
Boyles and Dragich wanted to keep the current superintendent, but Costello cast a nay vote, along with Kevin Rogers and the Rev. James Saunders.
And that was after the board gave Heston, who was hired in 2021, favorable marks during her annual job evaluation Feb. 5.
One of her final tasks on the job will be overseeing the ongoing construction of Safe Schools entrances at 19 of the district’s mostly aging buildings.
