MORGANTOWN – That large, whooping sound you heard in Monongalia County on Thursday afternoon was nothing to worry about.
It was the final day of the 2025-26 school year, and as students were bolting for building exits and their entry to summer, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. joined in, with some cheering of his own.
“Well, it’s been a pretty good year, for sure,” he said.
Thank the citizens who turned out in the state’s primary election two weeks ago for the biggest part of that, the superintendent said.
Voters on May 12 gave an overwhelming yes to the renewal of the excess levy for education, which currently generates an additional $35 million a year to district coffers.
The annual offering, he said, makes Mon Schools, well, Mon Schools – allowing the district to add Advanced Placement courses, additional equipment and extracurricular activities that make the county the envy of its neighbors.
Noted scholars in the classroom and champions on the playing field, also.
Campbell appreciates all of the above, he said. He also appreciated the dialogue, and the response, on subjects that weren’t always popular and didn’t always generate consensus.
The year ended with a soggy whimper last Friday for the collective Class of 2026 at Morgantown and University high schools.
Steady downpours during outdoor commencement at both schools drenched graduates and spectators alike – but then West Virginia University reached out with an administrative umbrella.
WVU President Michael T. Benson offered the use of a suitable campus facility, free of charge, to move ceremonies indoors, if need be.
Parents and other proponents on the western end of the county got the last word.
As a response to their lobbying, the district decided not to farm out Clay-Battelle’s future agriculture teacher to additional STEM-related duties at Westwood Middle.
The district was considering that option in light of Kent Saul’s retirement.
Thursday was also the last day on the job for Saul, who taught at Clay-Battelle for 27 years, while also advising the school’s robust Future Farmers of America club and alumni network.
Farmers, 4-H’ers and other agriculture proponents in western Mon worried that tacking on extra assignments for his replacement would make for too much cross-pollination in a program key to Clay-Battelle’s core identity, they said.
Numbers of them turned out at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, and numbers of them spoke – even if the district by then had reversed itself with a reposting of the job exclusively for the school.
“Thank you for coming to your senses,” Andrew Price said with a smile.
He toils at the working farm that has been in his family for generations. Before that, he flew military helicopters in combat zones for the West Virginia National Guard and medical missions with HealthNet for West Virginia University.
Classes at Clay-Battelle, he said, grew him into the person he is today.
“That’s where I got parliamentary procedure,” he said.
And leadership skills, and shop skills, too, he added, through his alma mater’s vocational-agricultural component.
“I’ve lived a life of service,” he said, “and I started learning it in vo-ag and FFA at Clay-Battelle.”
