The mother of a Keyser High School student who had requested a 20-day leave of absence to show his sheep at several state fairs appealed to the Mineral County Board of Education on Tuesday to reconsider their denial of the request.

Board members discussed the request for 20 days’ leave of absence at great length during their Sept. 2 meeting and came to the consensus that the amount of time was excessive.

Tuesday, parent Yvonne Parker said not only were the board members given some misinformation, but she was not pleased with the way the request had been handled.

“When I spoke with (Principal Charles) Wimer, he said it was fine,” she said.

“Then, when I came home, there was an article in the paper stating that it was 20 days, and it was denied.

“It’s actually 18 1/2 days,” she said, noting that the time period “also takes into consideration some days the children already have off.”

“In other words, there were times when he was going to miss school, but there was no school.”

Parker said her son is taking animal care and English, and she felt the absences would not affect his grades.

“In fact, if he fails English, it would only be because he’s dead, because he’s reading on a college level,” she said.

Parker said she felt the lessons her son would learn by showing his sheep in the various state fairs would be invaluable.

“I have no problem with him having some work to make up by missing school, but I do have a problem with him not learning how to lose gracefully, which is part of showing animals,” she said.

Parker said her son did his own research on the various breeds of sheep and purchased his own animals.

“It’s giving him responsibility,” she said.

“This is what he wants to do. That’s why I’ve asked for this time for him to learn something outside of school,” she said.

Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth asked the board members if they wished to place the request back on the agenda for further consideration.

“I don’t,” was board member Bob Shook’s answer.

“No sir, I don’t either,” Watson said.

“I think 10 days is plenty,” board member Craig Rotruck added in reference to the principal having authority to approve up to 10 days’ absence.

“I want you to know I researched this … and I’ve not found anything to justify this amount of days,” Rotruck told Parker.

“The board is pretty much in consensus,” president Terry LaRue told the student.

“We certainly wish you well.”

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Nursing Information. Tags: Bob Shook, Craig Rotruck, Keyser High School, Mineral County Board of Education, Terry LaRue, Yvonne Parker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.