July 22, 1997

Mr. Glen Alan McClung
Superintendent
Ritchie County Schools
P. O. Box 216
Harrisville, West Virginia 26362-0216

Dear Mr. McClung:

This is in response to your letter of July 17, 1997, in which you request an interpretation from our office regarding the hiring of a principal for the Ritchie County Middle School/Richie County High School.

You have related to this office that you wish to hire one principal and one assistant principal for the facility instead of having two principals. Essentially, the high school principal position and the middle school principal position will both be eliminated. Two new positions will be created at the school, which will be principal and assistant principal. These new positions will need to be posted in accordance with W.Va. Code 18A-4-7a.

Principals are hired according to qualifications. Seniority is not the dominant qualification unless the county chooses it to be. When the positions are posted, the county can decide what qualifications are important for the positions. Obviously, there would be no other persons with the same qualifications as the two people who currently hold the positions at the school; such as experience working as a principal in a consolidated middle/high school situation, experience working in the same facility with the students, etc. The county can decide which qualifications are important when hiring the principal.

Hoping that I have been of service, I am

Sincerely,

/s/

Henry Marockie
State Superintendent of Schools