Perkins named Brooke board president
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WELLSBURG -- Antoinette Perkins truly enjoys being a part of the education system in Brooke County.
“I have been very blessed to be here and to have been able to teach so many great students in Brooke County schools during my career,” Perkins said Monday evening, shortly after being named as the president of the county’s board of education during its special reorganizational meeting.
A 1969 graduate of the former Follansbee High School, Perkins is beginning her 10th year as a member of the school board.
“We all want the same things for our students and for the citizens of Brooke County,” she added. “I’m very proud to be from Brooke County, born and raised. I am a graduate of Brooke County schools, and my kids both are as well.”
Perkins has replaced Ted Pauls as board president. Pauls, who held that position for eight years, came up short in a re-election bid in May.
“We want the best for our students and to offer the best available education,” added Perkins, who taught in the district for 37 years. “We want to give them the best facilities and teachers, and we have to be watching our budget.”
The rising cost of insurance remains a concern that has to be monitored closely, she added.
“We have to watch our money, and we’ve done a very good job with our finances and keeping things in check,” she added. “That’s probably one of the biggest things -- making sure we stay where we need to be financially, with the number of personnel we hire and things we have to take care of. We’re very fortunate that we have a new baseball field and a new softball field that we were able to totally pay for because of the way we watched our finances.”
Keeping the focus on the students and letting them know the board cares remain important, she explained.
“I love going to activities and seeing these kids participate,” Perkins said. “You get to know them and they know who you are and it makes them feel really good, like ‘Wow, she’s on the board and she comes to watch me play.'”
Michael Traubert, who was elected to the board in May, took his ceremonial oath from Karen Whetsell, secretary to the superintendent, before the start of the meeting. Superintendent Jeffrey Crook explained that Traubert and returning board members Stacy Paris (formerly Hooper) and Kristin Newton, who had been re-elected to the board in May, had taken their official oaths prior to the meeting.
Also during the meeting, Dr. E. Robert Marks was elected as board vice president, Perkins was chosen as the representative to the WVU Extension board, Marks was chosen as the representative to the Northern Panhandle Community Criminal Justice Board and Newton was selected as the representative to the Brooke-Hancock Family Resource Network Board.
In other business, the board:
• Accepted a bid for $13,961.05 from Famous Supply Co. for two Bradford White electric hot water tanks for Brooke High School; and
• Granted permission for a school bus to be used on Thursday by the Brooke County Sheriff’s Department for tactical training at the Brooke County Animal Shelter.
The board’s next regular session will be at 5 p.m. next Monday.