CHARLESTON - Donald Spence, Principal, Dingess Elementary School was Senator Chafin’s guest at the Feb. 24 meeting of Legislature. Senator Chafin introduced a Senate Resolution to honor Mr. Spence’s achievements, furthermore, the Dingess Elementary staff members and their hard work.

Spence was a lifelong native of Mingo County, was raised and is currently living in Delbarton, with his wife Traci and three daughters. He is a graduate of Burch High School, and he continued his education at West Virginia Tech and also has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership Studies.

He has long been involved in the education realm and has been an administrator of Dingess Elementary School for 4 years. He is a modest man who gives credit for the accomplishment of the Dingess students to his teaching staff and says that the day’s honor belongs to them.

Of 189 of students of Dingess Elementary 152 are on the free lunch program. However, under his guidance more than 75 percent of these students ranked “proficient” on reading and math WESTTEST2 scores in a year when the testing was intentionally more intense. Donald says that most test statistics show students with low socioeconomic status score lower on standardized tests than their wealthier peers, but Dingess Elementary scores blows that theory out of the water.