Liz McCormick

More than $800,000 has been awarded to four county school boards in West Virginia to help with school safety needs. 

Grant, Pocahontas, Upshur and Marshall County Boards of Education will see a portion of an $824,774 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia launched a hotline for West Virginia voters with questions or concerns about the upcoming general election. The hotline is also aimed at helping voters who may experience issues on Election Day.

Marshall University’s President Jerome Gilbert announced the school will impose pay cuts to 650 employees due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on enrollment numbers this year. 

This comes after a pay cut to 140 employees in July. 

When Congress passed the CARES Act earlier this summer to help Americans navigate the toll from the coronavirus pandemic, West Virginia received more than $1 billion.

Of that figure, $86.6 million was put into a fund called the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSERF). That fund was spent two ways: $78 million was dispersed to all 55 county school districts, divvied up based on the number of low-income students in each district. And $8.6 million was withheld by the West Virginia Department of Education to be used for emergencies related to COVID-19.

On this West Virginia Morning, we visit Williamson where folks are taking an innovative approach to healthcare – they’re trying to keep people from needing it. Also, in this show, we hear from colleges and universities in the Ohio Valley as they navigate the financial and economic impacts of the coronavirus.

Debra Corbett always loved education. Coming from a family of educators, it was something she said she always wanted to do. Her mother, aunts and uncles were all teachers.

“I heard a lot about, when the family got together, about school, about kids,” Corbett said. “It made me want to be in education … to somehow support parents and make a difference in student lives.”

Corbett retired this year after 31 years as principal of Ranson Elementary School in Ranson, Jefferson County. Prior to that, she was an elementary school teacher. She said her biggest takeaways in her career are the importance of compassion, to be gentle, to show support to teachers and students and help them see they can succeed.

A webinar series aimed at helping West Virginia students and families figure out how to best pay for college is kicking off this week and will continue through the end of April 2021.

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the Community and Technical College System of West Virginia will host 20 financial aid webinars to assist prospective students in applying for scholarships and financial aid.

Across West Virginia, families have been promised the option of virtual schooling in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And many families are considering it for fall 2020. About 50,000 children so far in West Virginia have already signed up for virtual school, according to the West Virginia Department of Education.

Before schools closed for the coronavirus pandemic earlier in March, state superintendent Clayton Burch said he always thought of public education as a “great equalizer.” 

“After March 13, I don’t know that I would stand here and continue saying that, when we found out how many equity issues we identified,” Burch said Monday at a meeting of the House Education Committee.

Residents and university students in Shepherdstown will have access to a new health care facility starting next month.

WVU Medicine East announced this week that its new medical office building is expected to open mid-September.

A coalition of teachers and public school advocates are asking for West Virginia schools to start remotely for the first 14 days with in-person instruction beginning only after 14 consecutive days of no new coronavirus cases in the state.

The Our Students First Coalition also wants state officials to allow students to return to in-person learning – on a county-by-county basis – if cases drop to zero in certain areas.

Updated on Aug. 12, 2020 at 9:50 a.m. 

All of West Virginia’s higher education institutions have varying return-to-campus plans in place for the fall 2020 semester. But how will plans be enforced? And what consequences exist if students refuse to comply?

As the nation continues to grapple with conversations over police brutality and racism, some police departments are trying to tackle the problem by teaching better communication skills and recognizing bias among their officers.

Police in Jefferson County recently completed a two-day training focused on de-escalation, implicit bias and racial profiling.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia received documents from the City of Martinsburg Friday afternoon — all related to treatment of Black Lives Matter protesters in late May. 

The ACLU-WV filed a freedom of information act request more than a month ago, and having not received the documents within the legally mandated time frame, filed a lawsuit earlier Friday. The documents arrived thereafter. 

The city of Martinsburg elected its first female mayor this week.

Harriet Johnson, a Democrat, received 564 votes – a little more than 35 percent of the vote, according to unofficial election results.

WVU Medicine’s two Eastern Panhandle hospitals have lifted the zero-visitation policy put in place to combat the coronavirus.

Hospital inpatients and emergency department patients at Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center are now permitted to see visitors.

There have been a lot of questions about what public schooling in West Virginia will look like in the fall, but there’s also quite a few questions about higher education.

Colleges and universities have been releasing updates on their websites in recent months about what they’re doing to prepare for a return to campuses in the fall – but uncertainty remains.

West Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Ben Salango, a Democrat, joined members of the state’s American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO chapters Monday to call on Gov. Jim Justice to outline how he intends to use federal money to help public schools open safely this fall.

Last week, Gov. Jim Justice ordered all public schools in West Virginia open for the 2020-2021 school year beginning Sept. 8. Schools must provide 180 instructional days and must have a five-day school week.

Of course, this could all change depending on how the coronavirus pandemic evolves. But county school boards are starting to prepare for that date and discuss how a return to school in a pandemic would look.

The debate over whether to wear face masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus steered much of the discussion during a virtual town hall in the Eastern Panhandle Wednesday night. The Jefferson County Commission hosted the event with local medical professionals.

A month after passing a resolution strongly encouraging Shepherdstown businesses to require face masks inside their establishments, the Shepherdstown Town Council is formally calling on Gov. Jim Justice to mandate face masks in public spaces across West Virginia.

Updated on July 2, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. 

Scientific evidence is mounting that wearing a mask is an effective way to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But in many states, including West Virginia, officials have been reluctant to mandate mask wearing in public.

In the Eastern Panhandle, one town has passed a resolution that “strongly encourages” mask wearing and gives businesses the option to get local police involved if customers refuse to wear one inside their establishments.

Thousands of people have found themselves working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, essential workers don’t have that luxury. But that’s not the only type of work that can’t be done from home.

Scientists across the country have struggled to maintain access to their research, including researchers who take care of living collections — those libraries of living things, usually housed at academic institutions, and used for study or preservation. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia is investigating the treatment of several protesters recently arrested by the Martinsburg Police Department.

At least 11 people were arrested in Martinsburg the weekend of May 30 and 31 during demonstrations protesting police brutality and racism. 

High schools throughout the United States and in West Virginia have had to reimagine graduation for the Class of 2020. Many have already had drive-through, or drive by, graduations, some have done virtual ones, and others hold out hope to also have some sort of traditional ceremony later this summer.