Marlinton Elementary School successfully made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) again this year by doing well on the Westest, but principal Ron Hall knows the students can do better.

“This year in our mathematics, 49.33 percent of our students made mastery,” Hall reported at the board of education meeting Monday night. “That’s half of our school. Am I happy with that? No. Is my staff happy with that? No. We’re working on it. We are constantly making some kind of change, intervention with our students.”

Hall said he is proud of the students that are succeeding, but he is more concerned for the students that are below the mastery level.

“We are constantly making corrections, and we are trying to get these scores up,” he said. “We’re doing it with our interventionists. The students have a reading program they can go into on the computer. We’re looking into a math program.”

Hall assured the parents in attendance that, although only half of the school made mastery or above, the school and Pocahontas County as a whole are doing better than most counties in West Virginia.

Board member Jan McNeel said Pocahontas County is 17th in the state and Superintendent C.C. Lester said only one county of the 55 in West Virginia had all schools make AYP.

“Nationally we are failing our kids because they are not picking up, they are not getting the information,” Hall said. “They are not absorbing what we are giving them. We have to continue to strive to do better.”

The board recognized the students who made distinguished in at least one subject on the Westest: Devon Biggs, Jesse Bostic, Brandon Burns, William Day, Alan Gibson, Tessa Kiner, Autumn Lane, Odie Leyzorek, Hadden Mick, Silas Riley, Conner Spencer, Aleaxis Thomas, Jersee Wilfong and Glenn Wilt.

“For your children to make distinguished, it’s amazing,” Hall said. “That is a great thing for them to do. Mastery is a C. Above mastery, distinguished would be your A students. It is extremely hard, so you need to be very proud of those kids and continue to encourage them and help them because obviously what you’re doing is working.”

Hall also reported on several special programs the school has had this year, including National Bullying Prevention Month, National School Lunch Week and National Fire Safety Week.

Physical Education teacher Debbie Irvine explained the Let’s Move program MES is participating in this year. Let’s Move is national program developed by First Lady Michelle Obama to help solve the epidemic of childhood obesity. To show the success of the program, Irvine had students and teachers do the Cupid Shuffle. Board members Jan McNeel and Hanna Sizemore joined in the dance.

Second grade teacher Susan Arbogast presented information on the Mutt-i-gree program she has implemented in class. She said the curriculum goal is to “enable children to grow up to be calm, confident and caring.”

As part of the program, Arobgast’s program collaborated with volunteer Lucinda Tyler to create a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for the Pocahontas County Animal Shelter. The video will be entered in a contest through Yale University and Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan. The winning video will receive $10,000.

One of the lessons the students did with the Mutt-i-gree curriculum was to write an opinion piece on why people should adopt a shelter animal. Arbogast asked three students, Amanda Burns, Kailynn Dean and Sydney Puffenbarger, to read their opinions for the board and audience.

In personnel management, the board approved the following:

• Resignation of Christine Campbell as teacher of English/language arts/reading at Marlinton Middle School, effective November 2.

• Requested transfer of Joyce McLaughlin from cook II at Pocahontas County High School, to cafeteria manager at Pocahontas County High School, effective November 6 for the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year.

The next board meeting will be Tuesday, November 13, at 6 p.m. in the board of education conference room.

Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com