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pmann Member 
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First a little about me. Besides my most important job, mom and grandma, I’m the childrens and young adult services coordinator at MCPL. I am on Policy Council for RESA VIII Head Start, and I’m on the boards of the Literacy Volunteers of the Eastern Panhandle and the WVHEA. I’m chair of the Children’s Roundtable for the WVLA, and I’m working on a library degree from Marshall University, with a concentration in childrens and young adult services. I’ve been in Morgan County for 13 years, and this year, the kids who started school when I got here will be graduating. I have watched many of these children go all the way through the school system, and come out at this end as intelligent, talented, well educated young adults. This isn’t a fluke. We are lucky enough to have some exceptional teachers in this community, and parents who care about their children’s education. One of the best things I’ve witnessed recently is a brand new teacher - last year was her first on the job - come into the library just flowing with enthusiasm and excitement. She loves her job, she truly cares about her students, and her students enjoy being in her class. She spends a lot time and effort working beyond the test to motivate her students, and to instill in them a true joy in learning. This is the kind of teacher we need to encourage to come to our community, and stay. One of the most important things we can do for this county, is to make it a place where excellent teachers like this will want to be. We are well behind the surrounding areas in how we compensate our teachers. That needs to change. In my job at the library, I deal daily with many kinds of students, their parents, and their teachers. I talk to the school librarians, the volunteers and the administrators. I hear the tales of school life from every perspective; the good, the bad and the ugly. I work with homeschooling families, helping them find resources to enhance their children’s educations. I see preschool groups come through, eager to know what the library has to offer, and excited about learning, thanks in large part to the wonderful teachers that bring them. We face a lot of challenges in the coming years. Our county is growing by leaps and bounds. I’ve seen this kind of growth before. My children grew up an a community very much like Berkeley Springs. When they were small, our town was small. Families knew each other. Classes were reasonably sized so that every child got the time and attention he or she needed to succeed. By the time we left there, it had grown to unrecognizable proportions. The schools were packed to the gills, the classrooms were overcrowded. The schools had a hard time keeping up with the growth. Many children who could have benefitted from more personal attention got lost in the crowd. Though I hope it will be a very, very long time before we get to that point, growth is happening, and we have to be ready. With our student population already outgrowing the walls of our existing schools, we need to consider our options for expanding, whether it’s by adding additional space in existing structures, or building additional schools. Discipline has long been an issue in our schools. I see too many students who have been removed from traditional classrooms and left to flounder during the school day. We’ve all heard that it takes a village to raise a child, and after this many years in Berkeley Springs, and seeing the good - and not so good - of our children, I truly believe that it definitely takes a caring, active community to educate a child. One caring adult can make a mighty difference. I’d like to be one of those that makes a difference. I hope you will give me that chance. Thank you. Last edited on Fri Apr 25th, 2008 09:00 pm by pmann |
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