Aug 26, 2016 3 min read

ROGERSVILLE – Monday will be the first day of school for students in West Greene School District. It will also be the start of the first school year for the district’s new superintendent, Brian Jackson.

Jackson, a West Greene graduate and former West Greene High School principal, returned to the district after being hired in April to replace Thelma Szarell, who retired at the end of the last school year.

Following a board meeting Thursday night, Jackson said the district is ready to begin the year and he is happy to be back.

“I do like being back home, though it was a tough decision (returning to West Greene) because the people at California were very good to me,” he said. “Still, it’s nice, I don’t have to travel 40 to 50 minutes a day and I have more time with my family now.”

Jackson was the district’s high school principal from 1993 to 2003. He then became high school principal in California Area School District, a post he held until 2012, when he became that district’s superintendent.

Jackson, who lives in Holbrook, has three children at West Greene and two attending Waynesburg University.

He said he believes West Greene is doing well.

“There are some things we’re going to do differently. I don’t know that that means things were done wrong,” he said.

He noted, for instance, the district has done a good job of developing AP courses. Initially, Jackson said, he would like to focus on developing the curriculum and will be creating teams to analyze data from student tests to determine how to address any weaknesses. The curriculum review is not just to help students do better on standardized tests but to ensure they are ready to move ahead, he said.

“We want our kids to do well on testing, but I don’t want to lose focus of the fact that we need to get our kids ready for whatever skills they need to move to the next level,” Jackson said.

That could be a move to the next grade level in school, or after graduation, to college, technical training or the work force.

During the meeting, Jackson reported teachers returned to the district Thursday for an in-service day and were at school Friday for Act 80 training.

In other business, the board approved a right-of- way agreement between the district and Norfolk Southern that will allow the district to build a track around the football field. Norfolk Southern owns a small piece of property close to the field.

The board approved a three-year contract extension with James Elsenheimer, director of food services.

It also approved a contract extension with Chelsey Holloway, changing her title from administrative assistant to the superintendent to director of data quality and district and human resources.

Holloway said her job now would now involve working more with grants and with the state information management system.

The board again discussed possibly reconfiguring the district’s voting districts. The matter was broached several years ago when the district had difficulties recruiting people to run for the board from some areas.

The district elects three representatives from each of its three subdistricts. The board discussed reviewing census information to make sure population numbers in each district has remained fairly equal. It also discussed possibly making some board seats at large.

The board hired Lauren Willis as a longterm substitute for the school year for chemistry teacher Lurea Doody. It also hired Phillip Gifford as a 12-month custodian.