After spending about two and a half hours Wednesday in a closed session called for personnel issues, including the annual evaluation of state Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano, the West Virginia Board of Education announced it was satisfied with Martirano.
"The board is very pleased with the academic progress reported today, and we are satisfied with the performance of our superintendent," board President Mike Green said after the board emerged from the closed session.
None of the board members still at the meeting when Green made the statement disagreed with the statement. Green declined the Gazette-Mail's request for further comment on what he perceives as Martirano's strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments and failures.
State law requires the annual evaluation, and says the board shall "publicly announce the results of the evaluation."
Martirano, who didn't request to have his evaluation in public, also declined comment.
This was his second annual evaluation since becoming state superintendent in September 2014. The board's statement following last year's evaluation was also positive, with then-board-president Gayle Manchin saying "He has done a very good job in a very difficult environment."
Martirano currently makes $230,000 a year. When asked if his salary was discussed in the closed session, Green said "whatever we discussed in executive session as relates to personnel matters is personnel matters and we're not going to discuss that publicly."
Among the academic information reported Wednesday was the state's increasing high school graduation rate and preliminary data showing that the statewide proficiency rates on the annual end-of-year standardized tests for West Virginia public elementary, middle and high school students increased from the 2014-15 school year to last school year in nearly every tested grade on all tested subjects.
Board members also evaluated Martin Keller Jr., whom they hired last year as the new superintendent of the state Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Romney. After coming out of the closed session Wednesday, they didn't say anything about the results of Keller's evaluation.
Since the board voted without discussion in 2012 to fire then-state schools superintendent Jorea Marple, Martirano is the first person hired to the position on a permanent basis. Five months before her termination, the board gave her an evaluation accompanied by glowing public praise.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.