New Woodburn Community School

SPECIAL TO NEW WOODBURN COMMUNITY SCHOOL

DNR Reverses Deer Population Policy, Set 33 Years Ago, In Face Of Intense Public Pressure

By Victor Rip

This April – after intense repeated outcries against urban deer hunts in West Virginia, and after my own scathing article about destructive DNR deer policies (and perhaps in face of a proposed bill in the WV Legislature to cap deer herds? mentioned in a letter to the editor in the local newspaper) – the Natural Resources Commission was forced to consider major deer population changes proposed by the the WV Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in February.

The Charleston Gazette reports that:

“Paul Johansen, assistant wildlife chief for the DNR, called the [DNR] plan “a major retooling” of the DNR’s approach to deer management.”

…”DNR officials set future deer-population goals at 20 to 35 deer per square mile, depending upon forest type, human population density and other factors. Herd levels in the most overpopulated counties currently range between 60 and 100 deer per square mile.”

For decades, DNR policy grew the state-wide deer herd, attempting to average 40 deer per square mile, to benefit hunters – at the expense of farmers, the timber industry, the safety of people on the roads, crash insurance premiums, people who prioritize non-violence, and the health of wildlife and the deer themselves. This reported DNR policy change of reducing and capping deer herds between 20 and 35 deer per square mile essentially abolishes and reverses the old destructive policy. Read the rest of this entry »

YOU DON’T BUILD SCHOOLS FOR SMALL CHILDREN AT HIGH TRAFFIC INTERSECTIONS

You don’t do it, if you have a lick of common sense. Evidently, Mon Schools does not.

You don’t do it, if you have any idea what comprises a quality educational location: a safe place, a quiet place, a clean place, an ecologically inviting place. The Mileground intersection is none of these.

You don’t do it it, if the location violates basic and vital state student safety mandates. The Eastwood intersection site violates multiple provisions of crucial state mandates.

You don’t build a school for small children adjacent to multiple four and five lane arterial highways, if you are little more than brain dead, or heart dead, or even respectful of crucial state safety mandates. The Mon Schools administration and school board: pathetic and worse.

The pre-k and kindergarten wing of Eastwood Elementary would be about twice as close to the WV 705/Mileground intersection as North Elementary is from WV 705, that same super busy four lane highway that a pre-k student from North ran into, all alone, this past week, as widely reported, after running away from North Elementary completely undetected.

In other words, the predictable coming highway calamity at Eastwood Elementary very nearly happened far ahead of schedule of Eastwood’s completion of construction. The North Elementary building is located near this same hazardous highway that the Eastwood site borders but the North building is twice the distance away from the highway as would be the Eastwood building. Read the rest of this entry »

UNPOPULAR SCHOOL BOARD AND ADMINISTRATION SUBSIST IN THE SHADOWS

Voter turnout in Monongalia County yesterday during the election of two school board members was 22 percent of registered voters, and a much smaller fraction of voting age citizens.

School board incumbent Nancy Walker received 40 percent of the vote of the 22 percent of registered voters who cast ballots. Do the math and it works out that the percentage of the voting age population who voted for Walker was in the single digits, about 9 percent.

Newcomer Ron Lytle received even somewhat less support: 32 percent of the vote of the 22 percent of registered voters who cast ballots – about 7 percent of the voting age population.

West Virginia code mandates that school board members be elected during the spring primary elections when voter turnout is always lower than in the fall general elections. This law should be changed. It allows school boards and administrations to exist and operate with far too little public involvement, let alone oversight. Read the rest of this entry »

DOUBLING DOWN ON DANGEROUS

May 6th, 2010: “When The Dominion Post asked [Monongalia County Schools Superintendent Frank Devono] if he was concerned about [Eastwood Elementary] school traffic traveling through the [impending WV705/Mileground] roundabout, Devono said he’d never viewed it as a concern.”

The vast majority of people have expressed a very different view. Various local residents and officials quoted in the media – Read the rest of this entry »