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Elkins High teachers, students and parents urge board to retain math and BCA positions
Summary
Multiple Elkins High staff, parents and students testified against eliminating a secondary math position and the BCA course, saying cuts would reduce course variety, increase class sizes and remove critical digital-skills instruction used across classes.
Several speakers asked the board to preserve a math position at Elkins High and to keep the business computer applications (BCA) course at the high school.
Susan Giambade, who said she is being transferred due to elimination of a math position at Elkins High, presented letters from colleagues, parents and former students arguing that losing her role would reduce math course variety and compromise the department’s ability to meet new requirements such as a forthcoming computer science credit. "By eliminating my current position this year, you're creating a hole that will need to be filled in just one school year," she said.
Ed Burda, the BCA instructor, said the course teaches Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint) and reported 115 students currently enrolled and about 70 preregistered for next year. Community members and students described the class as foundational to other coursework and emphasized Burda’s extracurricular involvement and mentorship.
Speakers asked how required computer science credits under HB 2411 would align with Randolph County’s credit policy and whether the tech center could absorb the requirement without disrupting access. Administrators said they would research the alignment and return with clarification at the next meeting.
Board members probed which courses would be lost if positions were cut; teachers warned that upper-level offerings such as pre-calculus and calculus could be affected and that some courses already run with single sections.
