by Kate Evans
Berkeley Springs High School Principal Mitchell Nida shared student and school achievements during his strategic plan update presentation at the February 18 Morgan County School Board meeting, which was held at the high school auditorium. The high school serves 582 students in Grades 9-12.
Good things
Nida said many good things are happening at the high school, inlcuding attendance incentives, Hunter Hook competing in the Poetry Out Loud competition in Charleston, Math Field Day and Social Studies Fair winners and football heroes.
Berkeley Springs High School Team 1 placed second at the 2025 Academic Showdown Region 7 competition at Shepherd University. The high school’s team will compete in the Academic Showdown finale in Charleston on April 30, Nida said.
School leadership
Nida said that the School Leadership Team consisted of himself, Assistant Principals Brian Raciborski and Tammy Bittorf, Counselors Candice Pennington, Victoria Lyons and Ryan Wratchford, Community in Schools (CIS) Liaison Quintin Thompson, Graduation Coach Spencer Shives and Social Worker Heather Deal.
Team Leaders are Lauren Mahoney-math, Chuck Walker-English, Renee Fincham-science, Joey Giles-social studies, Dave Aberegg-career technical education, Holli McCumbee-physical education, Pam Didawick-art and Mike Wilder-special education.
Nida said that the School Improvement Team was Nida, Raciborski, Wilder and Didawick, along with Logan Osborn-social studies, Betsy Banks-career technical education, Tiffany Remsburg-English and Katie Kaiser-special education.
Demographics
The Berkeley Springs High School student population is 97% Caucasian, 2% multi-racial, 1% African American and 0% Asian. The poverty rate is 43% low socio-economic status and 57% non-low socio-economic status, he said.
SAT exams
Berkeley Springs High School juniors that took the 2024 SAT exams were 45% proficient in reading and 21% proficient in math. Morgan County proficiencies were Nida said West Virginia juniors were 18% proficient in math and 51% proficient in reading on last year’s SAT exams.
Benchmark data
Nida said that beginning of the year IXL reading benchmark data for Grades 9 and 10 was 25% above grade level, 11% on grade level, 7% below grade level and 49% far below grade level.
Middle of the year benchmark IXL reading scores for Grades 9 and 10 were 28% above grade level, 7% on grade level, 8% below grade level and 44% far below grade level.
Beginning of the year IXL math benchmark scores for Grades 9 and 10 were 1% above grade level, 3% on grade level, 10% below grade level and 80% far below grade level.
Middle of the year IXL math benchmark scores were 4% on grade level, 9% below grade level and 82% far below grade level.
Nida said that Berkeley Springs High School strategic plan goals are “to increase our state summative assessment scores on the SAT for both math and English each by 10%, to decrease chronic absenteeism by 10%, and to increase total number of students on track to graduate by 5% by the end of their second year.”
Nida said that high school students scored 45% in English Language proficiency and 21% in math on the 2024 SAT exams.
Action steps for raising proficiency scores by 10% meeting this goal included increasing rigor school-wide and ensuring bell to bell engagement, encouraging and/or assigning after-school tutoring, graduation coach supporting students, benchmark testing and SAT practice at MC After 3, he said.
Chronic absenteeism
High school chronic absenteeism was 26% at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Nida said. Daily attendance is currently at 91.13% with chronic absenteeism at 28%.
Strategies to decrease chronic absenteeism by 10% are to work closely with student ambassadors, consistently track attendance data, staff and student surveys, staff regularly greeting and welcoming students, school-wide social contracts, building positive relationships with all students, attendance incentives and their therapy dog Skye.
Action steps
84% of students were on track to graduate by the end of their second year at the end of the 2024 school year, Nida said. Action steps to increase the on-track to graduation percentage by 5% are regular monitoring of student cohorts, regular support for at-risk students, referrals for SAT, credit recovery for failed courses, assigning after-school tutoring for failing students and step-up day for rising freshmen, he said.
Other actions are scheduling back-to-school night, parent palooza, eighth grade PEP night and family bonanza for student and parent support. Class meetings will review expectations and procedures.
Parents, community
Parent and community involvement events included their Back to School Night, the Parent Palooza, the Morgan County Career Fair, high school teens reading to Widmyer Elementary students, eighth grade PEP Night, Military Signing Day and Skye the Therapy Dog.
Nida said that long-term school improvement needs are aligning benchmarking programs with the SAT and repaving parking lots.
