Oct 16, 2025
Rick Bush, president of the Erickson All-Sports Facility Development Corporation, center, hands over a $300,000 donation to Kaylee Litman, left, director of finance, and Christie Willis, right, Wood County Schools superintendent, Tuesday during the regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education. The donation will be used to install lights on the baseball and softball complex being built for Parkersburg South High School. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
PARKERSBURG – The Wood County Board of Education accepted a donation and approved a contract Tuesday night that will provide the Erickson All-Sports Facility softball and baseball fields being built with lighting.
Rick Bush, president of the Erickson All-Sports Facility Development Corporation, talked to the board about a donation made by the late Jim Midkiff.
“Jim Midkiff was a long-time police officer. I don’t recall now, my memory fades, (but) he may have been chief of police for a while,” Bush told the board. “He didn’t have kids. He died about a year and a half ago, and as a testamentary gift, he gave to the South Stadium Committee, $145,000.”
Bush said Midkiff also donated $145,000 to the Parkersburg High School Stadium Committee.
He said his committee combined the donation from Midkiff with their own funds and decided to donate everything for new lighting to be installed at the softball and baseball complex being built.
Rick Bush, president of the Erickson All-Sports Facility Development Corporation, talked to the Wood County Board of Education on Tuesday night about a $300,000 donation that will be used to install lights on the baseball and softball complex being built for Parkersburg South High School. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
“Our group has put together a package, including the gift for Mr. Midkiff of $300,000…they have managed to turn that into lighting, and a lighting of the highest quality, MUSCO lighting for the baseball field and the softball field,” Bush said.
According to their website, MUSCO Sports Lighting has offices around the world and has done lighting projects for high schools, universities and professional teams.
Bush said at a recent committee meeting some parents got together and decided to help with the new complex, as well.
“Our group entertained 10 very excited baseball fans, baseball parents, baseball enthusiasts,” Bush said. “”We, along with the baseball parents, are going to fund many of the things that otherwise would have been done through the bond.”
He said this will include a ticket booth, seating and other things not outlined in the bond.
“I think we’re going to end up with one fine baseball field and one fine softball field,” Bush said.
John Merritt, assistant superintendent of human resources, gave an update on staffing for the month of October, noting a strong fill rate for professional substitute positions and ongoing improvements to the district’s onboarding process for new hires.
He said this was the district’s approach to welcoming new substitutes, which now includes hands-on training and job shadowing.
“We’ve had great reviews from some of the teachers that they’re feeling emboldened by having the opportunity to train some of these people. The goal is to try to get these subs to not be fearful of going into certain classrooms and situations that they aren’t familiar with,” Merritt said. “We basically have all the substitutes that are coming into our system, and we give them some training, and they get their picture taken, they do the onboarding, they do the Vector Solutions part of that, which is the training with Safe Schools. And we do it on the third of every month, so we try to make it easy.”
Merritt said the district is looking for male aides but is getting a number of professional substitutes still being hired by the district.
“So we’re going to post again. Hopefully we’ll be ready for flu season when it hits,” Merritt said.
Amber Hardman, director of federal programs, gave a strategic plan update outlining the data-driven priorities for enhancing student achievement, attendance, graduation rates and leadership within the district.
“This plan defines our district’s vision, identifies needs and guides resources to improve our student achievement,” Hardman said. “Our four prioritized goals guide everything that we do within Wood County Schools. The first is student achievement, ensuring that all of our students have the opportunity to grow academically, attendance… graduation rate… and leadership.”
Hardman said progress has been made in every area from the previous year.
“We did meet our goal to double our number of students who were performing at or above grade level in both content areas,” Hardman said. “While we did not fully reach the goal of having the number of students performing below level, we did make significant strides… with 78% of the goal being met in math and 97% of the goal being met in ELA.”
She said chronic absenteeism has dropped from 22.2% to 21% and the graduation rate went up 1.37%.
Hardman said leadership development also remains integral to the district’s strategy.
“By investing in leadership, we’re not only supporting our principals, but we’re strengthening the entire system. Strong leaders create strong schools, and strong schools create better outcomes for our students,” Hardman said.
Eric Murphy, technology integration specialist, talked to the board about a new chart being used for inclement weather procedures.
He said now an employee will only need to look for their contract length on the chart to know what they need to do. He said another code has also been added to reflect the non-tradition instruction days (NTID) the board approved last year.
“That refers to the days when students will stay home and work from home while teachers are in their classrooms, working as well, providing office hours and support to our students remotely,” Murphy said.
Board President Justin Raber asked that a physical copy be given to every employee in the district and Murphy said that would be done but that there was a PDF on the district’s website that employees could download in the meantime.
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