Elizabeth A Fuller

EDUC 650
8/2/21
District Level Shadowing Reflection

I shadowed Mr. Ronald “Keith” Thomas, the director of Student Support and COVID

supervisor at the Cabell County Board of Education. I met him at board of education in his

office. We were originally scheduled for me to shadow him for two days (July 28 and 29);

however, he had a death in the family so we had to postpone until Monday. I brought Mr.

Thomas a biscuit from Tudors Biscuit World (because I know the way to most human hearts is

through the stomach) in order to break the ice. His secretary, Angie Blankenship, told me that

he was caught in a meeting and that he would be back with me soon. I waited for

approximately 30 minutes for him to return and during that time the phone was ringing off the

hook. I got to the board office at 7:30 and he was already stuck in a meeting? Ouch! We talked

for a minute about his trip and how sometimes we don’t get to see the ones we love until it is

for a saddening reason. His phone rang and it was a parent. They were upset because their

Kindergarten student was not accepted as a transfer student yet, and school was about to start

in a couple of weeks. Mr. Thomas was very calm and explained the policy behind the wait for a

transfer for Kindergarten aged children. He continued by telling them the reason for the policy

is to ensure that all students who would attend that school as their home school have a place

before they accept any transfers. He suggested they wait and they would be contacted after the

first five days of school with an answer. The parent was not happy. They stated that they would

just homeschool their son. He stated that they could do that and then if their transfer request

was granted, he could begin Kindergarten at the school. The parent again was not happy about
this. Mr. Thomas calmly continued stating that he understands, that he was sorry but that is

just the policy for Kindergarten transfers and that it was to ensure all Cabell County students in

district had a seat. He probably repeated that same sentence in a super calm and relaxing,

caring tone about 50+ times! This parent was not trying to take no for an answer.

We next had to go to a meeting with the treasurer regarding how requested grant

money would be spent. Mr. Thomas explained that he needed two more LPNs for the high

schools (to help take some of the COVID load from the only RN at the schools) and that he also

needed two more elementary counselors and two social workers. He said that was his wish list,

but he would take what he could get.

For the next two hours, I sat in a meeting with the superintendent, assistant

superintendent, and the deputy superintendents. They mostly discussed financial items such as

grants and how best to spend the COVID monies. They also discussed the mask mandate. I am

glad I did not have that job during these hours. Very heavy discussions. We had to then head to

Cabell Midland High School on a matter that I was not privy to the information. We stopped and

grabbed a drive through sandwich (which he ate while driving) and he was in a meeting with

the main principal in the building and I just talked with the summer school teachers that were

there. Picking their brain, if you will.

We left there and drove back to the board office and we were able to talk about his job

duties, whether he liked being a principal better, etc. Then, before I knew it, it was 3:30. He

stated that he often works late hours every week and sometimes on weekends when he was

the “COVID man” and it was the hardest part of the job because he has a young daughter. We

ended by him showing me a “Certificate” that the other superintendents made for him that
made him a “Doctor of COVID inspection” and he said they called him into the court and

presented it to him with a white doctors smock and stethoscope! No matter how long and

difficult the job may be…..at least they can try to have fun and have a sense of humor.

sure students get their breakfast and get to their 1st mod (to have their temperature taken and

eat) in a timely and quiet fashion. Some students want to talk to all their friends in the hall etc;

however, they cannot do this at this time due to COVID restrictions. When that duty was over,

we walked back to the main office where he began showing me where he checked on subs with

secretaries. Luckily, we only had two teachers that weren’t covered for the day. Mr. Archer and

Mrs. Lewis, our secretary, began calling some teachers for “teacher for teacher” coverage.

Teacher for Teacher is when teachers may give up their prep (pay is 45 dollars) to “cover” that

mod until either they can get a substitute. After we got the subs lined out, there was a

commotion in front of the main office and some loud laughing as water exploded all over the

main arena. I have never seen men jump up and run out of that office so fast in my life!

However, they didn’t run as fast as the culprits. Dennis (the head custodian) was called on the

radio to come to the arena. I thought Dennis would be super angry, but he just laughed and

said, “Well, that was a good prank”. After patrolling the upstairs to see if the students were still

around (which they were long gone), Mr. Archer took me to the video surveillance room to

check the cameras. It was quite easy to see that the main culprit was one of my students.

Uggggg! I easily identified her. It appeared that she (along with two other female friends) had
taken a trash bag from the upstairs girl’s bathroom and filled it with water like a giant water

balloon and threw it over the balcony into the floor of the main arena. Upon checking the

bathroom upstairs, we found they had also TP’d the bathroom and had drawn a large (about

four foot), very descriptive penis on the wall in lipstick. Dennis was NOT laughing about this

one. The girls were called to Mr. Archer’s office. I listened from the next room (since I am the

current counselor of record for two of the girls) as Mr. Archer called parents and notified them

that the girls would be receiving 3 days of out of school suspension. The main culprit received

10 days and was going to go up for expulsion due to her probation violations. Mr. Archer

showed me the multiple papers he had to fill out for each girl. I also didn’t realize how much

more paperwork it was for the student who had an IEP. WOW! After the girls were picked up,

he talked to me about cameras and how it would be hard to figure out who is responsible for

without them, because kids are so fast and street smart. Another way to find the responsible

student is social media. There were two students videoing the main student throwing the water

and completing the “art work” on the bathroom wall. Luckily, the rest of the morning was very

fast and uneventful.

Next on the principal agenda was lunch duty. There are currently five sections

throughout the school building where students must eat lunch this year. These places were

made due to the 6-feet social distance restriction at the beginning of the year. After lunch

there was a teacher meeting that I was not allowed to attend, but it involved the teacher not

dressing professionally and various social media posts. During the meeting, I spoke with Mr.

Eastham, the 9th grade academy principal, about what he thought the biggest obstacle was for

him and his academy this year. He stated that virtual school had a very negative impact on 9 th
grade and that, due to failures, he was going to have a huge number of returning freshman for

the 2021-2022 school year. He asked if we (meaning the counselors) would be able to get the

summer school word out to parents, so maybe some would be able to recover credits and move

on. I told him, absolutely! Next, Mr. Archer explained that he is not the best at checking his

emails and knows that is something he needs to work on. He told me that every time he checks

his emails there are a bunch! No matter how many times a day he checks them. I looked at his

screen and he had 74 messages, which that would drive me crazy!!! He says that daily, during

6th mod, he tries to check his emails and voicemails again to see if he missed anything while the

dealing with the happenings of the day! During 7th mod, we met with Mrs. Kammer who is an

assistant principal, about moving a teacher’s homeroom. Mr. Archer gave me a small word of

advice, when you make a schedule, stick to it, and try not to deviate because it creates a ripple

effect with multiple other people’s schedules.

In conclusion, Mr. Archer is our Curriculum principal, but as the associate principal, he

wears many hats, and his job has so many different responsibilities. It is difficult to focus solely

on academics. He does a great job handling the multiple responsibilities that are handed to him

on a daily basis combined with his list of yearly responsibilities. It was nice shadowing him, and

getting to see him in a different light (beyond being my immediate supervisor as a counselor).

He is very professional and is very respected by the staff throughout the building. I believe he is

a huge asset to Huntington High because of all the roles he serves and all the problems he fixes.

I learned a lot today about curriculum and instruction, but more importantly about interacting

with people and managing difficult situations. It was also solidified that there is no employee at

this school that loves Huntington High more than Mr. Archer!