By Stephen Smoot
Aside from other business featured on the agenda, the Harrison County Board of Education last week heard a presentation from Roger Deems and Mary Jo DeMarco Bastin. They came to discuss the progress of Project ISAAC at Mountaineer Middle School.
On the Harrison County Schools website, it describes Project ISAAC as giving students a number of opportunities through attending an afterschool program. It states that they will “increase academic performance in basic skills with concentration on reading and math,” join in “enrichment activities” that could include music, the arts, technology, and more, “participate in activities to improve health, wellness, social and emotional behaviors,” and present those involved with viable career or college tracks to adult success.
Project ISAAC does not assign grades and involves students in a non compulsory fashion, but, as Roger Deems told the Board, involves “applying learning to real world situations.” It also includes “no worksheets,” but emphasizes “hands-on learning.”
The hands-on approach often took the form of field trips to learning opportunities as different as martial arts training and making their own ice cream. Deems said “the kids really enjoyed that. They talked about chemical reactions.” He also discussed when the students went on a fishing trip, explaining that most adults assume that all kids have experienced it. “These kids don’t know how to fish,” he said, going on to say that “this is literally a lifelong recreational opportunity that they can learn.”
Another opportunity enjoyed by the students involved a trip to Pierpont Community and Technical College. There, Brad Gilbert, president of the college, personally taught them how to put rivets in sheet metal.
“I wanted to make it exciting for them, so we had a ton of field trips,” shared Bastin. For some students, however, the experience was more powerful. One young lady wrote her to say “thank you for letting us become family. It’s a great place to be.”
The program also took place over the summer, with the relaxed attendance expectations helping it to include athletes. Summer programming, however, relied on grant funding to cover costs. Without a grant going forward, they can continue the program through the school year, but not into the summer.
In other business, the Board heard from a number of concerned Quiet Dell residents over the proposal to sell a historic there that once housed a school, but now hosts a crafts co-op and the West Virginia Civilian Conservation Corps museum. The county commission took possession of the building at one point from Harrison County Schools and both parties have looked into selling the property and splitting the proceeds.
The building entered the National Register of Historic places in 2001. Joyce Harlan from West Virginia Heritage Crafts described diligent work done to populate the museum with artifacts and expand its offerings over the years and 28 craftsmen and women who produce their wares there. “I am very emotional” about this, she shared to the Board.
Board members also heard about the plan to bus former Liberty High School students who want to get a jump start on consolidation plans and attend Robert C. Byrd High School this year. A bus will take those students from Liberty to RCB and vice versa at the end of the day.