{"id":661242,"date":"2026-03-06T12:15:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/?p=661242"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:34:01","slug":"heston-ready-to-move-marion-county-schools-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/06\/heston-ready-to-move-marion-county-schools-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Heston ready to move Marion County Schools forward after contract extension controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRMONT, W.Va. <\/strong>— Marion County School Superintendent Donna Heston said she plans to focus on the next year and the students in the district after an erratic contract negotiation with the Marion County Board of Education.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Donna Heston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After receiving a satisfactory evaluation, the board declined to renew her contract. The BOE said she exceeded the standards for two goals and met the standards for three others and then, weeks later, voted 3 – 2 not to renew her contract.<\/p>\n

During a special meeting Thursday, the BOE again voted 3-2 to offer her a one-year contract extension after a 90-minute executive session.<\/p>\n

“They did come back to the table, and they reconsidered the offer and voted on that,” Heston said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town” Friday. “I am just focusing on this next year and how I can help Marion County Schools.”<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the special meeting, speculation was rampant on social media about the possible reason. One reason was a board member, James Saunders, had a handpicked candidate and acknowledged that during the special meeting. He then said the interest in that candidate was at the time Heston was interviewing for the job five years ago. Saunders also reminded the public the BOE has no legal obligation to reveal why a contract would or would not be renewed.<\/p>\n

“It really isn’t about Donna Heston for me, and this month has not been about Donna Heston, but I like to focus on Marion County Schools and getting us out of this idle period we’ve been in,” Heston said.<\/p>\n

Two schools in the district have earned National Blue Ribbon honors during her tenure, and the district has employed technology like facial recognition and metal detectors to enhance security. Academically, they’re leveraging vocational and technical options while still providing a traditional public education.<\/p>\n

“Just this week we had an aviation summit where we brought in people from the industry to talk to our middle school about career opportunities available in the state of West Virginia,” Heston said. “Those are the types of things we like to see in the headlines about Marion County Schools.”<\/p>\n

Many of the aging facilities in the district have created financial challenges. Federal and state grant dollars are being used to complete the improvements in many of the 21 facilities in the district.<\/p>\n

“We continue to operate them with a budget that has constraints on it because you’ve lost student enrollment,” Heston said. “We’ve been creative\u2014the last five years we’ve sought School Building Authority funding, we’ve sought grants, and we’ve sought federal grants for safe entrances and safety upgrades.”<\/p>\n

Heston said this fall she will meet with the BOE to agree on a new set of goals, and the possibility of consolidation will enter that conversation.<\/p>\n

“I’ll enter into that process this fall with this board of education, and they’ll set goals for me,” Heston said. “I certainly will do as I did for this last evaluation and every evaluation before that, and I will do it with the data.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superintendent will sign 1-year deal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":542008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHeston ready to move Marion County Schools forward after contract extension controversy - WV MetroNews<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from wvmetronews.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/661242 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:57:56 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=_-125.html \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heston ready to move Marion County Schools forward after contract extension controversy - 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