Julia Roberts Goad

Staff Writer

CHARLESTON — Mingo County school personnel are some of the most reliable employees in the state, according to the West Virginia Department of Education (DOE).

West Virginia Senate Education Vice Chair Eric Wells requested information detailing the attendance rates of West Virginia public school professional and service employees. This information, compiled by the DOE, provided a comprehensive view of the attendance of these two groups for the 2011 /2012 school term.

This report shows Mingo teachers averaging only 9.93 absences per year, the fourth highest in the state in the calculated attendance rate.

The attendance rate for Mingo County teachers was 94.51 percent.

“By missing fewer days than their colleagues around the state, Mingo teachers are in the classroom providing quality instruction to their students at a rate greater than teachers in all other school districts across West Virginia,” Superintendent Randy Keathley said.

Mingo’s service employees also received a positive report from the DOE.

Missing the top slot by less than one full day (.33 days), service employees in Mingo County ranked second in the average number of days absent.

Mingo service employees were on the job more than service employees in fifty-three other counties in the state, with an attendance rate of 93.59 percent,sixth highest in the state in time on the job.

Mingo students are also to be commended for attendance, the superintendent said.

“On any given day, over 96 percent of our students are in school,” he told the Daily News.

Keathley said while he was pleased with the information, he didn’t need the report to assure him of Mingo BOE’s employees’ dedication to their jobs.

“It really didn’t surprise me,” Keathley said. “I am out in the schools, I see teachers in their classrooms every day; we have very few substitutes. This simply tells their dedication to the kids.”