Parents, health providers and instructors urge board to retain Emtek programs as administration seeks cuts

Community members, health-care employers and program instructors urged the Monongalia County Board of Education on April 15 to preserve several career and technical education offerings at the Monongalia County Technical Education Center (Emtek) as the administration proposed personnel reductions tied to a projected decline in county revenue.

WVU Health System’s director of talent acquisition, John Rubin, told the board that WVU relies on Emtek-trained students as a recruitment pipeline and urged the district to continue surgical technology and emergency‑medical-services training. “Surgical technologists are instrumental in our ability to provide life changing and in some instances life‑saving procedures for our patients,” Rubin said.

Current and former Emtek students and local practitioners described the programs as workforce pipelines. Gabrielle Chico, a recent graduate and certified EMT, described the program as “life changing” and said Emtek alumni are serving locally as volunteer firefighters and emergency-care providers. Chelsea Hayes, Emtek’s EMS instructor and a licensed paramedic, told the board the program has produced students who are on ambulances and in volunteer stations now and said the state faces an EMS workforce shortage. “We have the opportunity to help turn staffing shortages around here in Mon County,” Hayes said.

The administration asked the board to eliminate or restructure several positions and programs as part of required reductions. Jennifer Carradine, representing administration, said the district must eliminate at least 9.75 county‑funded professional positions for the 2025–26 school year because of a roughly $4 million revenue decline; she asked the board to uphold recommendations to eliminate Emtek’s EMS instructor position and reduce adult health‑occupations staffing while preserving the licensed practical nursing (LPN) program. Carradine said the EMS program had low historical completion rates and was originally supported by a three‑year Perkins grant; she said Emtek had partnered with the Shirley M. Kimball Training Center to help current students finish.

Surgical‑technology instructors and industry partners said the program should be preserved or transitioned with stronger coordination. Ashley Howard, Emtek’s surgical‑technology instructor, described an existing memorandum of understanding with Pierpont Community & Technical College that allowed students to complete an associate degree and urged the board to ensure continuity with Pierpont and WVU Medicine rather than cut the program outright.

Parents and students also urged the board to retain South Middle School’s Chinese language course. Tai Fung, the Chinese instructor, described recent competitions and student scholarship offers, and parent Laura Capage said losing the program could “squash somebody’s dreams.” Administration said Chinese enrollment has been lower than other world languages at South Middle School and proposed eliminating the position while guaranteeing that current students would be able to complete the two‑year sequence needed for a full high‑school world‑language credit.

Board action later in the meeting: the board approved the regular personnel list and a personnel addendum later in the session; the recorded vote on the personnel list was 4 ayes and 1 nay. The personnel approvals encompassed the personnel actions discussed in the hearings, though the board did not take separate roll‑call votes on each individual program during the public comment period.

What happened next: the board moved into executive session for personnel matters, then returned and approved the personnel list and the personnel list addendum by the tallies noted above. Administration said affected employees retained eligibility for other positions within the district where applicable.