Ohio County's school board is scheduled Monday to choose a new superintendent in the wake of its abrupt and divided vote in late December not to renew current Superintendent Dianna Vargo's contract.
Board member Christine Carder said there were 10 applicants. Gabe Wells, the school system's spokesman, said the board narrowed applicants for the position to six who had doctoral degrees. One dropped out of consideration, and the board interviewed the remaining five to whittle the finalists to two. Those two received final interviews Friday, and whomever is chosen will take over the school system July 1.
Finalists are Mark Miller, currently superintendent of Buckeye Local School District in the state of Ohio, and Kimberly Miller (no relation), the principal of Ohio County's Woodsdale Elementary School. Wells said Kimberly Miller was previously the county's student services/curriculum director.
At a Dec. 29 meeting, board Vice President Gary Kestner made a motion to not renew Vargo's contract, and board President Shane Mallett and fellow board member Tim Birch supported his motion. The other two board members, Sarah Koegler and Carder, voted against Kestner's motion.
Mallett told media after the vote that the board wanted to move in a "new direction," but declined to specify to the Gazette-Mail in early January what that meant. He told a reporter that his preferred direction would become apparent during candidate interviews.
The Gazette-Mail filed an open records request Feb. 1 in an effort to find out more about the board's decision, but Patrick Casey, a Wheeling attorney developing a response to the newspaper's request, said last week the response wasn't ready yet. He said he hopes to have it ready on Monday, the day the board is set to hire its new superintendent.
Wells said Vargo, who declined comment, has served the Northern Panhandle county for 32 years, the last four as superintendent, and she previously was assistant and deputy superintendent and a principal and teacher at Wheeling Park High. Last school year, the first year that West Virginia gave the Smarter Balanced test statewide, Ohio County had the state's highest English language arts proficiency rate, with about six out of every 10 kids meeting "proficiency." It was No. 2 in math, with a 38 percent proficiency rate.
During discussion at a Feb. 8 meeting, which included an agenda item that Carder requested to possibly reconsider the decision regarding Vargo, Mallett criticized test scores at county schools.
"Our students need to be prepared to compete against every person in this country, and in this emerging economy, our children need to be prepared to compete throughout the world," Mallett said, according to a video The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register posted online. "We cannot compare ourselves and be satisfied that we had higher scores than other counties in the state of West Virginia."
He pointed out Wheeling Park High School, where only 28 percent of students were proficient in math. Fifty-seven percent were proficient in English.
"Sadly, last year, every grade level in Ohio County decreased in proficiency in math, which is a basic and needed skill," Mallett said. "The duty of the central office administration, which makes approximately half a million dollars a year collectively, is to give our principals and teachers the tools that they need to successfully prepare our children for the future. It is clear that this is not being done as these scores are unacceptable."
Mallett, Birch and Kestner voted to not reconsider renewing Vargo's contract.
State education officials have stressed that scores from Smarter Balanced aren't comparable to scores from the Westest that preceded it. Among the differences, they note Westest wasn't based on the Common Core standards and was easier, while the new exam is meant to better gauge students' critical thinking skills.
A recent report in the journal Education Next found that 2015 state testing proficiency rates in West Virginia were more similar to Mountain State students' proficiency rates on the National Assessment for Educational Progress, representing that West Virginia's standardized test scores now have more, as the report's authors' put it, "truth in advertising."
The board meeting will be 6 p.m. Monday at 2203 National Road in Wheeling.
Reach Ryan Quinn at
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