Episode 41

Dr. John Stallings: The New Taylor County Superintendent

Published on: 19th January, 2024

Dr. John Stallings is the Superintendent of Taylor County and has remained within the education space for many years at the elementary, middle school, high school, and collegiate levels.

This is an update episode with the new superintendent. We review his first 6 months, the plans for Anna Jarvis, and what is in his sights for this coming year.

Expect a lot of information relevant to Taylor County residents and look forward to learning more about the new superintendent!

For guest recommendations or any other inquiries, contact:

asher.smith@mountainleverage.com

Watch here:

https://youtu.be/jHCKZ7yqSA8

Follow Us:

https://www.facebook.com/unleashtygart

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reneman/

Transcript
Speaker:

Hello, Taylor County.

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I'm Alex Rundman with Unleashed Tiger, and

I'm here with Taylor County Superintendent

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of Schools, Dr.

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John Stallings.

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John, thanks for joining us on the

program.

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Good afternoon.

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Thanks for having me.

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Absolutely.

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So we've got some news we want to share,

but before we get to that, I've got to ask

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you.

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So you've been in education for a while

and you've been out of education for a

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while with retirement.

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What keeps you coming back, man?

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How many times have you retired and said,

I got to get back in this thing called

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education?

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That's an interesting question, Alex.

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I've been involved since 1975 and I

started here in Taylor County.

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I'll give you a little history, a little

timeline of what I've been doing.

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I was here for about 34 years or four 34th

years in Taylor County initially, public

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education, did that.

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And then they told me, told me I thought

that I would know when it's time to

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retire.

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I thought I did.

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I tried it lasted a few weeks and I must

be hyperactive enough that I needed to

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keep doing things.

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Plus.

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My wife of 45 years now, I'm gonna keep it

that way, and longer, indicated, to find

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something to do, you're driving me crazy.

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So I had a friend at the university,

decided to go adjunct up there, and then I

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went into the doctor program, became Dr.

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Stallings, worked there for 10 years, and

thought, well, it's time for me to retire

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from there.

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About the same time, the university was

getting rid of the teacher education

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program for whom I had been serving as the

director.

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Left them.

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That was public ed and now higher ed.

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I moved in, a friend of mine needed

someone to work for Trinity Christian

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School.

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I came there and served as a principal.

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It's grade six through 12.

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That was adventure, but I'd never done

before from being elementary background.

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COVID hit, I left them.

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And then I worked for a little while,

enjoying my time with the Barber Taylor

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Community Corrections Program.

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And then the opening for Taylor County

Schools superintendents came up.

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And I thought maybe I have been taken on a

journey to prepare myself.

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I have been to public ed, higher ed,

private Christian ed, and then the

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community corrections program.

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And it was a definite no if I didn't

apply.

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And when I did apply, the Board of

Education said, well, okay, let's give

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this guy a try.

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And so I'm back.

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And so I'm here because Taylor County is

worth it.

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and it's meant a lot to me.

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I have a family, married someone from

Taylor County, raised two boys from Taylor

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County, raising grandsons in Taylor

County, my son is anyway.

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And I'm enjoying my time here.

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I now can say I've been here six months,

July 1st through January 1st.

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So that's an awesome path.

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And here you are, superintendent.

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We're glad you're here.

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Can you share with us a little bit about

what this transition has been like in the

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superintendent highlights of these first

six months and what you've seen and been a

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part of?

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So it's definitely been an interesting

journey, to say the least.

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I say all the time, every day is a happy

day.

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And some days, it's like a whack-a-mole

game, but it's an interesting experience.

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Early on, I thought, I will make a list of

the things I will do today.

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And I learned early on that was a very

naive plan.

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They keep me busy.

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I'm frequently involved with a lot of

things and I try to be a lot of places.

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I told the Board of Education when they

interviewed me if they expected me to stay

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in my office that they should not hire me.

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I'm a guy who believes in proximity and I

like to be in the schools and I like to be

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at the student activities which I've tried

to do this fall.

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It's a busy schedule, but I am enjoying

it.

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It is exhausting.

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but I am enjoying it.

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Well, I'll tell you, as you know, we've,

we've polled the community for questions.

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And one of the questions, comments slash

questions came in.

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They see you everywhere at all these

sporting events and everything and

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wondering like, what's next?

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And I know, I know you love the creative

arts and what's going on in the county.

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So yeah, I mean, people are noticing you

around.

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So what's, what's next on your docket of

visits?

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Well, they have caught me at a lot of

sports events from day one all through the

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early fall and all the sports events in

the fall.

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I learned early on that there are a lot of

them.

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A lot more than one realizes if you try to

go to all of them.

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And I have tried very hard to do that.

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I was talking to one of our teachers at

the high school who mentioned that her

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students had mentioned to her.

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that Dr.

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Stallings is, he's everywhere.

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He shows up here, he shows up there, you

just don't know where he's gonna be.

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I hope they see that as a positive, but

I've been to choral events, I've been to

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an induction ceremony for the Spanish

Honor Society, I've been to band concerts

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and choral concerts, watched the

entertainers, I'm gonna continue to do all

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those things, and I've been to just about

every middle school and high school.

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sports event in the fall that included

football and soccer and I was invited to

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and attended when I'm invited I try to go

there I was at a golf a golf meet.

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I attended a couple of our local our we

sponsored at West Hale Elementary School

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cross-country events with many counties

coming and doing that.

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trying to think, I've been to a lot of

volleyball games, and subsequently I've

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been now a lot of basketball games where

they sell a lot of popcorn, which is my

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favorite thing to do while I'm at the

game, in addition to watching the event.

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It's enjoyable.

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Go ahead.

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we've got, it's a lot of fun.

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I see you at many of those and I can't

imagine all the events you're going to.

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I don't know where you find the time for

it.

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But I do appreciate it.

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I know the kids appreciate it.

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The parents appreciate it that you're

supporting them in that way.

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You know, I know we, education is so

important.

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We could have brought you on to talk about

anything anyway, but I know we had some

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recent news that you wanted to share and I

think it's important.

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It lines up with, we had a couple of years

ago.

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bond election that we brought your

predecessor in and kind of talked to us

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about what that was.

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But you've got some recent news from the

school building authority that you want to

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share with them.

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I'd love to kind of dig into that around

in a Jarvis.

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I would love to talk about that.

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Thanks for bringing that up.

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Indeed, the bond election that happened a

couple years ago that was successfully

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passed, and we appreciate the votes of the

citizenry of Taylor County having been

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supportive of that.

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For most people that understand that it's

a combination, it's a marriage between the

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school building authority and the

commitment of the community.

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If I might clarify just the difference, so

just.

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just because I'm a teacher person too,

that there are two kinds of calls and

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elections that we have in our county.

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And one is a bond call and one is a levy

call.

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And the difference is simply make it very

basic.

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The word bond call starts with a B and so

does.

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And so.

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Likewise, the levy starts with an L and

that deals more, it focuses more on

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literacy and learning.

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And so that's how I learned.

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Maybe it's because of an elementary

teacher from way back just to

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differentiate the two.

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But we are, when we talk about

Annenjärvis, it was a bond election that

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took place and we were in line, had been

approved by the school building authority

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back then to start moving on a new

building of an Annenjärvis Elementary

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School.

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Unfortunately, COVID hit and took a little

bit of attention.

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And as people understood then, COVID

caused price increases.

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And so the current Anadrvus process was

put on hold because the school building

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authority discovered that some of the

previously approved constructions in other

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counties had some overruns, and they were

in the process of construction.

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So

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Those monies initially earmarked for

places like Taylor County were relocated

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or redistributed to those already in

process.

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The good news, however, is that more

recently, I hope this is good news, I

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inherited the job of going back to the

school building authority and reproposing

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our commitment and our part of the

covenant asking that the school building

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authority kept theirs.

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They were gracious enough to do just that.

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And in December, I was fortunate enough to

go to Charleston and learn that we were in

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fact awarded the money that was being

requested from the school building

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authority to match with our previously

approved bond call funding.

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And so now we are just starting to revisit

and put work teams together and have

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construction meetings starting again so

that people can start watching for...

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things to move more quickly this semester

and throughout this next year or two where

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we start breaking ground.

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Our plan is to build the new Anadervis

building literally in front of the current

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building.

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We'll move the new building a little

closer to Route 50, but not so close that

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it becomes dangerous, of course.

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But that's in the plans right now.

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People are probably wondering why they

haven't seen us breaking ground in the

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past.

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And I hope that explains that.

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But we're back on schedule, or our new

schedule was just delayed just a little

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bit.

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And we're excited about that.

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So our project is going to be about $18

million.

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7 million of that is now coming to us, 7

million plus coming from the school

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building authority.

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And of the other monies that came through

the bond election,

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not all of that will go toward the

Anadarbis construction, but also go to the

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other schools throughout the county.

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And that was intentional because our plan,

we have five schools, I call them our five

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children across the county and they all

deserve a slice of that pie.

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And those plans are still in part of the

plan.

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So hopefully we can have our community

start recognizing and noticing that.

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I hope that's helpful as a start for some

light.

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We'll talk about that more if we can have

subsequent podcasts to talk about that

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some more.

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Yeah, I think it'd be great.

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Certainly as the progress continues, we

could bring you on.

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I think that'd be perfect.

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I appreciate your grace in doing so.

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You know, there's lots of questions around

this in the community.

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And so real quick, by the way, I love the

bond.

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It's simple bond building, levy, literacy

learning.

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That's perfect.

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Cause it's so easy to get those things

intertwined.

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And this bond's already been passed.

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Now the school building authority has

agreed to their side of the covenant and

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this replay, if you will.

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So again, just real quick on timing.

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So when should folks expect to see

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equipment out there and things start

happening.

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Well, I don't have a specific date for

you, but the next couple of months will be

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the planning meetings with the architects

and then advertisements for things like

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construction companies and things.

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The good news is once we start, there

shouldn't be a lot of we're not have

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because we're using the front lawn of the

current antitrust property.

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We're not having to remove the side of a

mountain.

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We're not having to fill the major ravine.

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A lot of school systems have.

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property that they are purchasing but of

course there's a lot of money put into

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those kind of preparations.

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Ours should move a lot more quickly once

we get those things in place.

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So I appreciate that.

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And I think that's reasonable.

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This design phase, so I've got a couple of

questions came in that are kind of around

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that.

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So one is just the idea, I remember we

went through this before the bond

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election.

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And well, after the bond election, there

were several questions that came in and

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since around the capacity of the school.

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It seemed though, and I don't have the

specifics in front of me and I apologize,

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but it doesn't seem like it was built, it

was built for maybe like 30 more students

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than what are there today.

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And people were concerned.

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Are we building something that already is

going to be a capacity?

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And so is that the kind of thing that will

be re explored in this design phase or is

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that, is it still the capacity really kind

of set at this

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Well, that's a hard, kind of a moving

target, but indeed typically the decision

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for the amount that's funded through the

school building authority is based on a

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formula that they use.

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And they take the current enrollment and

they look at the growth over a series of

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years at any location such as our county.

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You know, our population is growing in

some portions of the county, but not every

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portion.

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and they factor that in.

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The size of the building is also based on

the amount of funding that can be

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earmarked for making that happen.

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I hope that helps address some of it.

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The growth of the school is factored in

and we hope that we continue to grow.

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Some of that is dependent on interest.

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Typically an experience happens where as a

new building is added to a community, the

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interest and people look at that and say,

gee, I'd like to have my children, my

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grandchildren go there.

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Isn't that a nice new place?

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We're not a booming metropolis in Taylor

County.

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So it shouldn't be as much a concern as in

some other locations.

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Gotcha.

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It does.

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I mean, I think the devil's in the details

to your point.

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There's a lot of formulas that go into

this.

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There is a, I guess there's always hope

and there's excitement about the growth,

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but to your point, I mean, our recent

history doesn't show that.

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I would bet on Taylor County going

forward, but I think you're right too.

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New schools always generate some

excitement, but you only have so many

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people in the community.

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And I'm sure there are design from an

architecture standpoint plans for...

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possible expansion in the future.

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Those kind of things, not that those are

on the list right now, but from a funding

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perspective, you can only do what you can

do, I think.

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And that's an important component.

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course, it's important to also, Alex, to

remember that our plan was never to build

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a building that's too small when we open.

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Our plan would be to make sure it's

sufficiently prepared to receive that

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increased enrollment.

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Yeah.

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Can we revisit?

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I mean, I think appreciate that answer.

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Can we revisit the and I know you weren't

here.

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You weren't superintendent when this was

going on, but the decision it continues to

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come up.

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And obviously, I think, you know, this

bond passed narrowly in terms of typical

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levy passages here and those things.

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And I think that's it's reasonable.

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I mean, it's a lot of money, but at the

same time, it's an important decision for

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our community to build a new school.

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But the question comes out, build versus

remodel.

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And do you have, I mean, I know it's hard

to ask you after the fact, but do you have

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any of the insight as to the justification

around why build a new school versus

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leveraging, you know, what, what many of

us who maybe have been around like

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beautiful long enough to still see that as

a new school, even though it was built

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many, many years, decades ago.

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Well, indeed, one of the things that the

school building authority uses when they

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factor proposals is that they give a

score, a ranking score, for all the

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schools in your county.

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And that's based on not the age of the

building, but the condition.

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And in many cases, I guess remodeling can

end up costing you more ultimately than a

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new facility.

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And that happens because using antedrivers

as an example, driving by the school,

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looking at the exterior of the building

from the distance of the highway, it looks

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pretty nice.

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However, the internal conditions of the

building such as the HVAC systems and

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those, you can only continue to improve

those or repair those.

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Remember that building was constructed in

:

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And during my tenure, even before I took

my journey to the higher ed and public and

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private ed, all those things, there were a

lot of components of the school that had

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been repaired.

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The HVAC systems, for instance, are

outdated and not as operational as they

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could be.

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They're functioning, but it is, like I

said a minute ago, that is sometimes much

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more frugal or reasonable to...

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rebuild and to try to keep patching in.

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And plus parts aren't always available

forever.

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We did add twice to the building, I

believe in 96.

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And then again in 2003, I believe, the

additions to the building as we grew.

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That's because we brought, as you'll

remember, the Westside School that no

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longer exists.

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Used to be the kindergarten building.

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and they moved that up on the hill with

the rest of the building when they

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expanded and then subsequently redid the

cafeteria area.

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All of those additions were trying to get

everybody at the same campus.

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But back to the facilities and the

conditions, Flemington Elementary School

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and Grafton High School were built as you

recall in the:

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Structurally, they're still strong.

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There's nothing, they may be the older of

the buildings in the county, but they are

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by no means the one that needed to be

scored as the most needing to be replaced.

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And that's why Anajagas was made as the

decision for the county.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

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I'll tell you, it's funny.

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Maybe that's part of the thing that skews

our perceptions because we've got this

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high school and the cell that have been

around for a long time, a lot longer than

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in a Jarvis, but yet the bones are good

and they've been able to expand certainly

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at the high school in a way that's allowed

that building to have new life for many

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decades more.

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Crazy.

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Hey, you mentioned, mentioned Flemington

again, we had, we always have questions

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come in whenever anything around the

education system in this community.

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Our community really gets it, how

important education is.

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And there's always the question around

Flemington Elementary School.

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It's a great community out there and a

great school.

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And the question is always, what is the

future?

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Do you have any insight, any comments on

what you see, get a sense for what the

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future of Flemington Elementary School is?

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Well, I'm glad you asked that question.

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Let me just start out by saying my first

teaching experience was Flemington

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Elementary School.

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So it's near and dear to my heart.

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Just clear that up, everybody.

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But Flemington is an orphan.

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They had their high school when I first

came around.

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And I know that they were disappointed

when a decision was made several years ago

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to close that and consolidate everyone to

Grafton High School.

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It...

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I'm sure that still hurts.

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There are a lot of people that, my wife is

a graduate from Flemington High School.

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And that community identity, like most

small towns, that is pretty much the hub,

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one of them.

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Other than their churches, that school is

their community center.

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And it does a great job, by the way.

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And the facility is a smaller school, but

it is still.

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great location for educating children.

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So it is not in my understanding or my

plan or would be my suggestion, even

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consider doing anything other than to

continue to have that as our catching the

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southwest corner of the county.

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It's essential.

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Like I said, it's a community center in

many cases.

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That's another reason that some of the

funding from the recent bond call included

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some upgrades and things, not

reconstructing the building, but the focus

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on that is people will recall for all the

other four schools other than Alujarvis or

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in addition would be more security related

issues.

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Unfortunately, we're speaking of that

because sadly it happens and we're hoping

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never in Taylor County, but

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we'd be ill-advised not to prepare and to

be...

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Go ahead.

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I think that's wise.

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I mean, we normally will get questions

around that.

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This time we didn't, but I think it's,

obviously there's way too many times we

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see around the country challenges there.

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So I think most of us can really see that

and appreciate that.

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You know, another thing that a concern

that's out there and I appreciate the

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answer on Flemington.

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I know the folks, if you've got more

questions, just keep them coming and

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we'll, next time we bring you on, we'll

talk about it.

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But the, one of the other concerns we hear

in the news constantly about teacher

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shortages, job shortages, those kinds of

things.

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Can you explain just a little bit about

what's happening in Taylor County?

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Are we seeing those same challenges?

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Are there different solutions we're trying

to come up with to make sure we don't

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suffer from the same kind of shortages

they're seeing across the state?

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Sure, I'm gonna reach back a little bit.

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When I was at the university, I was

working in the teacher education program

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first, if you don't mind me folding that

in.

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At that time, when I was at the

university, it was approximately 700

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classrooms across the state that did not

have a certified teacher in them.

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That's terrible.

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I know that has not decreased much.

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But in Taylor County, we do our best to

make sure that we place certified

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teachers.

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And my assistant superintendent, Dr.

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Jody Decker, is working very hard on that.

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When we find openings, we're trying to be

as aggressive and post positions as soon

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as possible, so we can get those positions

filled with certified and well-prepared

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individuals.

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Teacher shortage for Taylor County is not

so much an issue as it is across the

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state, fortunately.

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Just like the addition of more recent

legislation indicated that most school

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systems in the state of West Virginia

should increase first, second, and third

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grade classrooms and add an aid there.

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That's over the three-year cycle.

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first grade one year, adding second grade,

and then subsequently the third grade.

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Taylor County was proactively looking at

that.

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And this year we introduced both first and

second grade a little ahead of the

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schedule.

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We found that to be both frugal and wise,

and we're ahead of the game.

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And we'll stay on top of that as much as

possible by looking at third grade next.

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So.

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with regard to shortages, I don't know

that we're suffering from that so much

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because, like I said, our personnel

director, our assistant superintendent is

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trying to stay on top of that as much as

possible.

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that's not helping, we'll get up with your

question.

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Well, that's welcome news.

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I know some communities are really

suffering.

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So I think that's welcome news.

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And I imagine that the person who asked

that question is just hearing statewide,

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but the challenges are.

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So I, I love the idea and I appreciate you

offering to maybe come back again in the

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spring.

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I suspect when we release this, there may

be some more questions.

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And, um, you know, I think then we can

maybe get an update on things.

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I think that would be great.

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Um, so I appreciate that.

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I do want to ask you one question.

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So having moved here in the early 70s and

having spent and chosen to stay here and

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invest here and spend your heart and soul

in here and try to help in ways that you

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can to help to make our education system

better and ultimately our community

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better.

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I would love to get your perspective.

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It's a question I like to ask anybody

whether you're born here, moved here,

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whatever, is what do you sense or what do

you see as is that a bit of magic or

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superpower or the gym or some value that

comes from?

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growing up in or living in or being a part

of this community here in Taylor County or

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even potentially North Central West

Virginia at large or even Appalachia for

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that matter.

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I'd love to hear your perspective as

someone who moved in, planted and made a

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life here and give back every day.

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Thank you.

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Well, as you know, I came from Maryland.

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I'm a Marylander by birth and West

Virginia by choice.

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I tell people that all the time.

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Came here through WVU, having graduated

from there and taking my first job at

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Clementine Elementary School.

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Taylor County just has a unique

personality, if I can say that way.

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Everybody, most people that you meet in

Taylor County,

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are committed to Taylor County.

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It is not a metropolis.

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It does not, it is in many cases, not the

most affluent places.

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But that, you know, money isn't

everything.

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There's so much more to personal benefit

and investment and collegiality and just

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:

getting to know one another.

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You know.

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We have another church, a number of

churches throughout the community.

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They're very strong and could always use

more memberships of that, of course, but

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individual philosophies, of course,

dictate.

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But when there's a problem in Taylor

County, especially with Taylor County

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schools, it seems to me that people are

more willing and ready to rally as opposed

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to dismiss.

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Such has been demonstrated with the levy

and the bond elections that have happened.

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This county has always had people say,

we're doing this for the children because

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we believe in our children.

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And that's really why I'm back.

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I really never left.

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I've always lived here.

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But philosophically, I believe in what the

county has to offer.

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That's helpful.

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:

back.

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:

Sorry, Asher, we're gonna have to cut that

out.

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:

My internet died completely out.

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:

Hopefully you were able to finish.

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:

But Asher, did you, did I, did you hear

all of him or did our whole thing go?

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:

Okay, cool.

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:

All right.

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:

So we'll back out and, or you can back out

Asher.

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And if you've got all the him, I'll just

pick back up saying, you know, that's

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:

awesome.

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Thanks for coming on the program.

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:

You didn't ask me any questions, did you?

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:

Who me?

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:

No, no, other than just let me know when

we can schedule our next visit.

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:

Okay, perfect.

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:

All right, good.

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:

So Asher, you want to pop back out and

then I'll go ahead and close it out.

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Sorry, but that's good.

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I'm glad you didn't get dropped because I

got dropped, I was like, I don't know.

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Okay, awesome.

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:

All right, okay, great.

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Let me reset here.

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Okay, great.

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Well, Dr.

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:

Stallings, thank you so much.

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Taylor County Superintendent of Schools,

we're glad you're here.

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I appreciate you coming on the program and

I absolutely will bring you back on.

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:

And one of the things I just love to do at

the end of every one of our podcasts is

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:

give.

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:

You the last word.

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What is it you'd like to tell the people

at Taylor cap?

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I think most importantly, I'd like to

thank people for your patience.

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:

We have a lot of things that we need to

do.

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:

There's a lot of children that need our

support.

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It cannot be done one or the other.

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:

It needs to be done together.

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And each time that we find what's being

presented as a potential problem, we're

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:

trying to view that as an opportunity to

do things together.

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And I know that sounds a little cliche,

but I mean that sincerely.

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People asked me when I first told them I

had been appointed, they asked if I was

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:

crazy because I was not retired again.

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:

But I think I'm hoping, hopefully

demonstrating that I do have a sincere

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:

commitment to the county and who knows how

long they'll have to put up with this guy,

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but I'll do my best to continue to serve

as I'm expected to.

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:

And I appreciate the patience, thank you.

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:

Excellent.

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:

Well, thank you and we look forward to

have you back on and in the meantime, good

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:

luck with the rest of this school year and

beyond.

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:

I appreciate that, Alex.

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:

Thanks so much.

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:

Be well.

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:

Thank you.

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About the Podcast

Living Unleashed
Living Unleashed is hosted by Alex Reneman, CEO of Mountain Leverage, a technology company founded in Grafton, West Virginia. Alex is also the founder of Unleash Tygart, a non-profit who's mission is to build a better community in Grafton and the whole Tygart Valley region. This podcast discusses possible solutions for the problems that we face in our own lives and communities.

Living Unleashed hosts interviews of candidates for local elections and the voices of a diverse range of West Virginians who discuss their thoughts on various community-centered topics.

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Alex Reneman