Dear Editor:

I decided to end my term as a member of the Pocahontas County Board of Education due to some health concerns. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have supported me in the past. There is nothing in Pocahontas County that is any more important than the quality of our schools and the students that they nurture. I have enjoyed working with all the schools and have learned more than I ever dreamed about the magnitude of work that is required to keep them running as smoothly as possible.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all voters in the county to give great consideration to those you elect to the BOE. This person(s) should be there for the students and the greater good of the county. The BOE must follow many state and national regulations and mandates and there is little room to make the changes that many believe should take place. The BOE is responsible for hiring the superintendent and overseeing a balanced budget (little wiggle room here as well). The only employee that answers to the BOE is the superintendent. Everyone else follows a chain of command.

Pocahontas County is blessed with many dedicated and caring teachers and support staff who do their best to follow the many mandates and still be there for the students. BOE members are not micro-managers of the schools.

As we proceed to hire a new superintendent, it is my hope that the people of the county will support our decision and be there to assist and support the new team.

Again, I encourage all to get out to vote for the candidates who are most concerned for the students and the future leaders of our county.

Ruth Taylor, 
Retiring Board Vice President,
Southern District


Dear Editor:   

One of the side pleasures of caring for animals occurs when I take them to schools. Kids are fascinated to see our wildlife in real life. They are excited and love to ask questions and tell their own stories.

I have been doing this for years as well as have the folks from Three Rivers Avian Center in Hinton  and Roy Moose from Richwood who brings rattlesnakes for kids to see.
We all take precautions to make sure the kids are in no danger.

This spring I had the rare opportunity to have a baby, black bear cub I named Rose. She was growing so quickly that there was only a small time span for me to show her to the kids.

Fortunately, the schools in Hillsboro, Green Bank and Frankford saw the value of my bringing Rose for the kids to see.

I was amazed to find out that even here in Pocahontas County a large percentage of the kids had never seen a live bear. And their faces and exuberance demonstrated this. Even the parents and teachers who attended were wide-eyed.

One principal not only thanked me for bringing the cub, but remarked that the kids would remember seeing Rose long after they forgot other things they had learned this year.

I can partially confirm this because when I was 8-years-old my mother took me to see the first public presentation at the Washington, D.C., zoo of Smokey the Bear, a cub rescued from a forest fire in 1951. I cannot remember any other thing from that year.

But, with this letter I am also saddened that two of our school principals, along with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Law, forbade me to bring Rose to the Marlinton schools. None of these men could give me any reason other than they wanted to “protect themselves.” 

I am saddened for all those kids who did not get to see first hand a real live example of the West Virginia state animal, the black bear.
Joel Rosenthal
Hillsboro