In unanimous votes, Kanawha County's school board finally approved Thursday a "social media policy" - an alteration of a previously proposed, criticized version - and OK'd a contract for construction management services on the schools that are planned to replace the flood-damaged Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary schools.
Charles Wilson, the Kanawha public school system's executive director of facilities planning, also said Thursday that Hokie Lane appears to be the leading site for the new Clendenin Elementary, and Given Fork (also known as "the church parcel") appears to be the leading site for the new Hoover facility. He said final decisions on locations haven't yet been made.
He said the temporary portable classrooms for those schools' students now are expected to be installed sometime around March 1 for the Clendenin Elementary children and sometime around mid-March for the Hoover students, though it could be April or later before the school system is ready to move students into them.
"We're gonna get in there as soon as they'll let us," Wilson said.
Since their school year started in August, Clendenin Elementary students have been sharing the Bridge Elementary building with its students, while Hoover students have been attending classes at the Elkview Middle building in the afternoon while the middle schoolers attend classes in the mornings.
Wilson said the two new schools are projected to cost a combined roughly $77 million, with an expectation that at least 75 percent will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and 25 percent by the state. The construction management services contract was awarded to PCS & Manage Inc.
Wilson said the firm was required by the state School Building Authority, which is involved with the FEMA-funded school rebuilding projects. He said PCS & Manage will receive about $1.2 million through the design phase, and an additional payment will be negotiated and paid to the firm for the construction phase.
In other business, Kanawha's new "social media policy" has a scope beyond what its title may imply to users of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It says "Social media can be engaged in by various ways, for example, through text messages, instant messages, and email."
After an official first reading of the policy at its July 21 meeting, the Kanawha board posted it online for a public comment period, which normally lasts 30 days.
In that version of the policy, Kanawha's public school system would've claimed wide latitude to monitor communications.
The West Virginia branches of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Teachers union criticized that draft - the ACLU alleged it would've violated the Fourth and First Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as state law - and the issue didn't reappear on a Kanawha board agenda until November, when the board had an official second reading and placed it out again for public comment.
Jim Withrow, the school system's general counsel, said the policy received no comments during its second time on public comment and that it wasn't changed any between the iteration proposed in November and the one approved Thursday.
The school system used outside attorneys from West Virginia-based Bailey & Wyant to develop the final version, which still contains much similar language to the first version that was placed on public comment.
Comparing the first version with the one approved Thursday, they both state that: "Users should have no expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send, receive, or display on or over the school district's CIS systems, and the school district's authorized third parties' systems, including their personal files or any of their use of these systems."
The definition of CIS is generally the same: "computers and other electronic devices, network, internet, electronic communications, information systems, databases, files, software, and media."
While it claims the school system has the right to "inspect, review, or retain electronic communication containing School District information or information created or maintained as a part of a User's employment with the school district," it still doesn't specify how broad "School District information" should be defined.
And the policy says the school system has the right to "inspect, review, or retain electronic communication containing School District information" on "User's [sic] personal computers, electronic devices, networks, internet or electronic communication systems."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.