howing up to speak publicly at government meetings in West Virginia can pay off.
The Rev. Matthew Watts, a nonprofit leader on Charleston’s impoverished West Side, spoke to the state Board of Education during its public comments section for three monthly meetings in a row.
State school board members publicly responded at the August meeting to Watts’ concerns about disparities in discipline rates among different groups of students, such as poor compared to nonpoor students and Black compared to white students.
He spoke again in September, but the board members didn’t respond. On Wednesday, they didn’t immediately respond. But, as Watts was preparing to leave, board President Paul Hardesty called him back up to the lectern.
State Schools Superintendent David Roach said implementing Watts’ pilot project would cost $50,000, Hardesty said.
“I’m in,” Hardesty said. “All I’m going to ask you, is you work with Mr. Roach to get the logistics worked out and we will have [it] on the agenda at next month’s meeting for an up-or-down vote of this board to implement that pilot.”
He told Watts, “it seems like you’ve walked down the road but nobody has walked with you.”
Watts said he will have to see what the state school board ultimately says the money can be used for. He said he probably would use it, alongside some existing funds, to hire a project director and an assistant to start implementing the program.
He said he wants initially to revive a program that his nonprofit, Hope Community Development Corp., ceased in 2010 due to lack of funding.
He said the program put “youth development specialists” in each West Side school, plus the high school those students matriculate into. These adults checked every day on youth the schools considered the most at-risk for low academic performance and bad behavior, he said, and ensured, among other things, that they understood the day’s lessons.
The program also involved after-school offerings both at the schools and in the broader community, plus tutoring and mentoring, Watts said.
“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “It’s just merely providing mature, positive adults to have as many encounters as you can with the young people who need positive encounters.”
He said the program will require more than $50,000 eventually, and he hopes to work with already existing groups and programs in the schools and surrounding community to not duplicate services. Roach, the superintendent, said Wednesday he’s considering Watts’ request to officially designate the West Side as the site of the “Special Community Development School Pilot Program,” but Roach said he still needs to read and interpret the undergirding law.
Watts succeeded in lobbying state lawmakers to put that designation into state law, but he and others have said the designation has never been fully utilized.
“We’re hoping that by getting this designation that it will help all the groups working with youth to be able to attract resources,” Watts said.
Hardesty said after the meeting that he doesn’t yet have much information on what the program he’s proposing to fund will be. He said he asked Roach off-mic during the meeting whether funding was available and whether the proposal had merit, and Roach said yes.
“It was kind of an on-the-fly thing, as you can see from the meeting,” Hardesty said. He noted Watts “has come before the board numerous times” to talk about issues at West Side Middle.
Briana Warner, spokeswoman for the Kanawha County school system, said the county’s superintendent “said that we are indeed amenable to this proposed programming. We’ve been in conversations with Rev. Watts and look forward to next steps.”
Watts said “we think that this state school board, they have shown more interest in this issue of suspension and expulsion than previous state school boards.”
“We think that, this time, the state — West Virginia Department of Education — we think they’re really going to engage,” he said.
The program also involved after-school offerings both at the schools and in the broader community, plus tutoring and mentoring, Watts said.
“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “It’s just merely providing mature, positive adults to have as many encounters as you can with the young people who need positive encounters.”
He said the program will require more than $50,000 eventually, and he hopes to work with already existing groups and programs in the schools and surrounding community to not duplicate services. Roach, the superintendent, said Wednesday he’s considering Watts’ request to officially designate the West Side as the site of the “Special Community Development School Pilot Program,” but Roach said he still needs to read and interpret the undergirding law.
Watts succeeded in lobbying state lawmakers to put that designation into state law, but he and others have said the designation has never been fully utilized.
“We’re hoping that by getting this designation that it will help all the groups working with youth to be able to attract resources,” Watts said.
Hardesty said after the meeting that he doesn’t yet have much information on what the program he’s proposing to fund will be. He said he asked Roach off-mic during the meeting whether funding was available and whether the proposal had merit, and Roach said yes.
“It was kind of an on-the-fly thing, as you can see from the meeting,” Hardesty said. He noted Watts “has come before the board numerous times” to talk about issues at West Side Middle.
Briana Warner, spokeswoman for the Kanawha County school system, said the county’s superintendent “said that we are indeed amenable to this proposed programming. We’ve been in conversations with Rev. Watts and look forward to next steps.”
Watts said “we think that this state school board, they have shown more interest in this issue of suspension and expulsion than previous state school boards.”
“We think that, this time, the state — West Virginia Department of Education — we think they’re really going to engage,” he said.
