In recent years, the board has clamped down on teachers talking to the board members. President Kenny Vance cautions teachers to go through the "chain of command" before bringing an issue to the board. This has resulted in a tremendous amount of fear among the staff for their jobs.

This is why it was surprising that Cully who is the husband of a board member had the guts to speak out about the Teacher of the Year issue. What he did is frowned upon under the Vance/Law/Irvine administration. This also explains why Kenny Vance got so nervous when Cully spoke up (see video we put on youtube.

This is why Cully has turned into some kind of hero to the teachers in the school system. They are proud of his stand on the matter and feel that he was right to complain.

Will his wife receive retribution for his stand. Likely so! It will be subtle at first but will happened within short order. One source has already warned us that the board will try to come down on Pam because of this.

With this in mind, we want to see if our concern are real or imagined. We present a poll as follows:

It is the state boe not the Pocahontas boe that was putting it on. The email the Pocahontas BOE got said had already been notified and Cully even said he seen it on her email. The way people are about not working on holiday weekends I do not think someone went to the board office to send one email to someone in Pocahontas County over a holiday weekend.

Pam and rhe rest of the teachers should have been notified that she had been selected as Pocahontas County teacher of the year long before the Charleston event. This should have been done personally by the superintendent (as it always was in the past), with flowers, picture in the paper etc. At that time she should have received the forms to fill up for the competition for state teacher of the year--in good time for them to be processed. After that, it would be up to the state to invite her to the Charleston event. It would be nice if the superintendent attended the function in Charleston (again, as happened in the past).
However, Cully's grand-standing was over the top; obviously pre-arranged with Norman. If he knew about it the evening before(and, despite the story about the e-mail attachment: give me a break-she is not an idiot! Pam must have known, too)why the heck, did they not drop everything and get her to Charleston next day for the ceremony. The handling of it was tacky and questionable in purpose, which is sad, since a super teacher was degraded before her peers.
Since this is a state-wide program, either we should choose not to participate OR do it properly. The silly system of single school: HES, PCHS etc. teacher of the year awards needs to be abandoned; some schools are so small that the award is meaningless. In fact some schools voluntarily withdrew participation.years ago. There should be a nomination form that can be submitted by fellow teachers, administrators, parents, the public and/or students. The criteria for the nomination form should be selected by a panel of teachers/parents/administrators and should be accompanied by 3 references. An independent panel of educators and public from another county should select the Pocahontas teacher of the year for the county from these. Those not selected could then be nominated multiple times.
All our teachers need more recognition and respect-maybe we cannot afford to pay them supplements, but we can say thank you (cards from parents, 50cts at the drug store, are O. K.). Also, outside achievements should be celebrated and long service and retirement merit awards at a party at the end of the year--with all the BOE in attendance (again this used to be the case)

Nothing was prearranged. I went there thinking that there was a Personal reason for attending. I am glad that I went!

This could have been so easily defused with a simple apology. The poll shows that Dr. Law should do the apologizing and I agree. It wouldn't hurt for Kenneth Vance to apologize too for good measure.

Of course, I suspect that Maria Busick is going to take the hit in the long run. It went down on her watch as well.

One of those notorious "little birds", who coincidentally lives in the great metropolis of Beaver Creek.

I totally concur about the apology-it really is none of our business who apologizes. I would imagine it would be the person who goofed.

For good measure, Cully needs to apologize for losing it, at least to his wife; his approach impinges on her standing with her peers and I am sorry for that, since I like her and respect her work.

Cully did say he was sorry for the pitchfork thing. But Law has not yet said he was sorry FOR ANYTHING.

I have to agree with one source who said that they think Law is on his way out anyway!

bad management, bad supervision, bad leadership

Don't confuse what's required with what is good management and leadership. Dr. Law may not have been required to do anything, but if he knew how to do his job he would have. If this was the only example of his poor leadership and management it wouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately, in spite of his high rating from the board he doesn't really have the tools to build or lead a team.

This seems to echo back to the board's inability to address difficult personnel problems with respect to Norman. Norman wouldn't have been the problem he was if the board didn't allow itself to be bullied into appeasing him for years. Difficult problems only get more difficult with time.

Ok Pocahontas County:

You are putting “Sully” on a pedestal as the greatest husband ever.

Hmmmmmm?

Let’s think about this. He could have told his wife about the email and made the trip to Charleston for her recognition but instead wanted to stage an event in front of the Board about the lack of recognition. “WHY”?

Would it not have made better sense to attend the ceremony for his wife and then address the Board on their mistake? This would have made the board look extremely incompetent and his wife would have received her due reward. Now because of “Foolish Pride”, his wife suffers the most by humiliation and embarrassment of the mistake made and berating her husband land on her “Employer” i.e. “Board of Education”. I wonder what the long term effects this will have on her?

Remember Pam, “Rewards” as a Teacher are measured by the life’s you touch and positively change in children’s hearts throughout your career not in income or certificates received. Keep your head up and Keep Believing.