Mon Schools, 2023: Special-ed discipline woes and a 'Renaissance' in STEM education

Dec. 29—Monongalia County Schools went into the year talking about buildings and will close out the year — talking about buildings.

Several facilities in the district sustained damage of varying levels after an unprecedented weather pattern known as a "bomb cyclone " roared across the area in the days just before Christmas 2022.

Near-lethal wind-chills wrought by the storm and its vortex of Artic air masses caused temperatures to plummet 30 degrees in 30 minutes, at the height of it all.

Flooding was the most common cleanup afterwards, Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. reported.

Nine of Mon's school buildings, more than half of those in the district, were flooded when pipes let go.

Cafeteria freezers couldn't handle it in some schools, and whole HVAC systems in others were cold-weather casualties, he said.

Matters of discipline In February, a storm of another kind hit at North Elementary School.

That's when the district disclosed previously unreported incidents of aggressive disciplining of special-needs students by teachers and other staffers at the school on Chestnut Ridge Road normally heralded for its top test scores and international diversity of its student body.

The fallout led to the dismissal of the school principal for failure to report the incidents in a timely manner — but she countered by saying they weren't reported to her, as they should have been.

A vice principal, charged with assault, retired as the case was being investigated.

The contract of a long-term substitute teacher at North was terminated by the district and classroom aides faced penalties as well, after being charged.

Board of Education members, meanwhile, grappled with issues of accountability in all schools regarding such cases, along with particulars over how footage from security cameras in classrooms housing such students should be reviewed at the end of the day.

Reach for the stars In autumn, Emily Calandrelli came back home to encourage young students — especially young students who happen to be female — to not be intimidated about pursuing lofty career goals in science, technology, engineering and math.

That's what Calandrelli, a product of Mon Schools and an aerospace engineer who studied at WVU and MIT did.

Now, the Morgantown-Suncrest native travels the world as the host and co-executive producer of "Emily's Wonder Lab " on Netflix.

The coolest part of her job, she told students at Mountaineer Middle ?

Being able to call Bill Nye, the Science Guy, on his personal cell phone, she said — if she has a question about an experiment or equation she's going to feature on her show that week.

Altruistic page-turner Recent Morgantown High graduate and global literacy advocate Rania Zuri, meanwhile, continued to tell her story to the world.

Zuri, 18, who will enter Stanford this fall, launched a book-reading club for classic literature that turned into an effort to get books in the hands of economically disadvantaged students across West Virginia, rural India and other spots on the globe where "book deserts " are common.

She was interviewed on national TV and gave a well-received TED talk when she was still in high school.

The advocate for the printed word also recently made the Forbes "30 under 30 " list, which recognizes young influencers and innovators across the nation.

STEM renaissance Mon Board of Education members, meanwhile, spent their last meeting of 2023 earlier this month talking about the Renaissance Academy, a planned standalone high school devoted to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) it wants to have open four years from now.

The multimillion-dollar school, which would be built on a rise of reclaimed land near Blue Horizon Drive, would boast tech-laden learning labs and advanced course offerings for students to explore.

Campbell and BOE members want the academy as a springboard — both for students directly entering the workforce after high school as highly trained professional employees and for their classmates who continue their STEM pursuits at a traditional four-year college or university.

The Renaissance Academy, meanwhile, is the planned centerpiece of the district's 2020-30 Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan, or CEFP, a paradigm-shifting, dice-roll updated every 10 years.

Call the CEFP an operator's manual of district doings, heavy on both the practical and visionary sides.

Eastwood Elementary, to date the county's only official environmentally friendly green school, was the linchpin of the 2010-20 edition.