WELLSBURG - Teachers at five Brooke County schools soon will be trading their chalk and blackboards for laptop computers and interactive whiteboards, thanks to federal stimulus funds.

Michael Ferrell, Title I director for Brooke County Schools, on Monday told the Brooke County Board of Education that 23 whiteboards will be purchased for classrooms at Beech Bottom, Colliers, Hooverson Heights, Jefferson and Wellsburg primary schools.

Whiteboards are wall-size computer screens on which teachers may display notes stored in their laptop computers. Internet links allow the instructors to mix the information with photos, maps, charts and other illustrations drawn from various Web sites.

Ferrell said the boards and accompanying data projectors and laptop computers will be purchased with $82,800 funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and issued by the West Virginia Department of Education to Title I schools.

Title I schools receive federal funds to employ additional reading or math instructors and provide to staff additional training and materials because at least 40 percent of their enrollment is considered at risk and the number of households with low to moderate incomes.

Ferrell said the school district also has used economic stimulus funds to employ a reading specialist for two years to assist teachers at the five schools in planning lessons designed to improve the reading skills of at-risk pupils.

He said he hopes to provide whiteboards for all other classrooms in the schools next year using federal Title I funds.

Ferrell noted other Brooke County schools have acquired some whiteboards through grants and contributions from business partners. Brooke High School has employed at least 30 of the boards.

The school board also agreed to allow sixth-graders at Wellsburg and Follansbee middle schools to participate in the schools' football, track, wrestling and cheering programs.

The teams previously had been open only to seventh- and eighth-graders. Mary K. DeGarmo, superintendent of schools, said the board was approached about changing that to increase involvement in the teams and the younger pupils' interest in school activities.

Board member Richard Pannett noted the move is on the condition that seventh- or eighth-graders get preference when going out for teams.

DeGarmo said the change is effective immediately but won't affect the schools' existing football teams or cheerleading squads because pupils must have attended 14 pre-season practices in order to participate under rules set by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.

In other business:

The school board dropped the renewal of a contract for Brooke High School's head swimming coach, Gina Twardoski, after DeGarmo explained it was learned that such renewals were unnecessary under state law for coaches who hold other positions in the school district. She said the district employs coaches from its staff and the community, and it has been the county's policy for many years to employ both on a year-to-year contract.

DeGarmo said she and the board have learned state law calls for the school staff to keep their coaching positions from year to year unless they resign or are dismissed through yearly evaluations conducted by the schools' principals.

DeGarmo said the board is forming a committee to oversee updates to the school district's comprehensive educational facilities plan. McKinley and Associates of Wheeling will serve as architectural consultants, and Ron Smith will serve as educational consultant for the state-required plan, which will propose improvements to school facilities over the next 10 years. Once selected, the committee is slated to meet at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 in the board's office.

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)