Photo by Douglass Huxley The Williamstown High School State Champion women’s track and field team was honored at the Wood County School Board meeting Tuesday night. Those in attendance were, left to right, Madelyn Anderson, Sydney Anderson, Ava Lightfritz, Brookelyn Reynolds and Alyssa Sauro

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education met Tuesday night for its regular meeting and recognized local sports teams for winning state championships, rewarded service members for their work, talked about the bond resolution approved by voters on May 10 and addressed the recruitment of teachers.

The Williamstown High School girls’ track team and the boys’ tennis team were recognized for winning state titles in their respective sports and received awards for their achievements.

Service staff awards were also presented to employees of Wood County School, with Martin Elementary School cook Jodi Lockhart winning Service Staff of the Year.

Bowles Rice attorney Thompson Pearcy spoke to the board about the bond resolution passed May 10, which will raise $60.85 million in funds.

The bond, which will see the bulk of the funding go to three new schools to replace Lubeck Primary School, a new consolidated primary school in North Parkersburg and a new consolidated primary school in Vienna.

Williamstown High School’s state champion men’s tennis team was honored at the Wood County School Board meeting on Tuesday night. Those present were, from left, Connor Erb and Rainer Holl, and coaches Diana and Dave Leo.

“So I want to be clear tonight too,” Pearcy said, “that the adoption of this ordinance will not issue the bonds, it is yet to come.” If this is so passed, we would go to the Attorney General, he would review and hopefully approve the registration procedures today. Then, at that time, we would work with a financial advisor to price the bonds to get them issued.

This issue will be discussed at an upcoming school council meeting.

Stephanie Cunningham, Administrative Assistant, and John Merritt, Assistant Superintendent and Director of Human Resources, spoke to the board about teacher incentives and recruitment. They announced that they have hired 27 new teachers but have 16 special education positions still open.

“Kudos to our full-time special education staff who stepped up in the most important way to help with a lot of this when substitutes are around.” said Cunningham. “They stepped in in the most important way. We therefore cannot say enough positives about our current employees. »

Options were presented to help fill those positions, one being a $1,000 per year bonus, but nothing was voted on at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Wood County School Staff of the Year awards were presented at the Wood County School Board meeting on Tuesday night. From left to right were Wood County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook, transportation aide Elizabeth (Libby) Wright, bus driver Melissa Plumly, truck driver/warehouse clerk Richard Hall, staff of service of the year, cook Jodi Lockhart and assistant superintendent of support services Michael Fling.

The next school board meeting will be June 28.

Douglass Huxley can be contacted at [email protected]