In September, leaders of the small school system in the Eastern Panhandle received warning from state Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine, who ordered education auditors into the county last month.

Kenna Seal, director of the state Office of Education Performance Audits, said in a 129-page report that Grant County school officials are not following state code or policy, that serious deficiencies exist at the schools and at the central office, and that student performance has declined as a result.

State board member Lowell Johnson said what has happened in Grant County recently is not in the best interest of students, and criticized its school board members.             

"I really think they ought to be ashamed of themselves, just to be blunt," Johnson said.

Paine appointed Ted Mattern, a former county superintendent in the state and a member of West Virginia University's Board of Governors, to step in as Grant County superintendent beginning Nov. 16 for at least 120 days.  

With the state board's approval, Paine now has the authority to hire and fire personnel and oversee the most routine business in Grant County. Earlier this year, the state board also took over Preston County Schools.   

Sharon Harman, interim superintendent in Grant County, will be the assistant superintendent under Mattern. Harman is the county's third superintendent in less than a year.

Grant Superintendent Tina L. Edwards announced her resignation in early September, and the contract of her predecessor, Marsha Carr-Lambert, was not been renewed in December 2008.

Earlier this year, Carr-Lambert filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Elkins against Grant County school board members Dottie Riggleman, David Jones and Joyce Riggleman, the three who voted against renewing her contract.

In the lawsuit, Carr-Lambert alleges she faced retaliation for her part in the investigation of former South Branch Career and Technical Center director Robert Sisk, who was arrested on misdemeanor charges of alteration and deletion of computer data and petit larceny for allegedly removing a school computer's hard drive. In August 2008, Sisk was acquitted in a magistrate court.

In June 2007, Sisk left the center to take over as interim president at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College in Moorefield.

Carr-Lambert had served as a member of the administrative council that oversaw South Branch, a vocational center in Petersburg that serves students from Pendleton, Hardy and Grant counties.

In April 2008, the state Board of Education declared a state of emergency at South Branch and gave Paine direct oversight of the technical center. State board members took control after Seal told them the center had a hostile, volatile and unsafe school environment, including physical confrontations between teachers and administrators and walkouts by students and staff.

In the newest audit, Seal noted that ACT test scores in Grant County have declined, Petersburg High School does not have any students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses and science and social studies are not taught on a daily basis at the high school. Also, auditors found that special education students' test scores are lagging at more than one school.

The county's biggest problems, however, are related to leadership and cooperation from the top down, Seal said.

According to the audit, Grant County school board members unanimously agreed this summer to hire Carr-Lambert to an administrative job at about the same time they voted to hire Edwards as superintendent. Neither Carr-Lambert nor Edwards was listed by name in that section of the audit, although it was clear from interviews whom the auditors referred to.

The majority of board members backed off the agreement to hire Carr-Lambert, which worsened the split on the board and made it very difficult for Edwards to work with board members.

"That created some escalating and appeared to not die down," Seal said.

The other two Grant County school board members are Kirk Wilson and Jerry Ours.

The tensions also led to divisions within the central office staff, and employees taking sides. Some employees even "seemed to be unsure of what duties they were assigned," according to the audit.

"This is an anomaly," said Howard O'Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Boards Association. "I have never seen a board as fractured as this board."     

Auditors found some employees wearing multiple hats, such as one elementary principal who served as an assistant principal at a second elementary school. Also, the principal at Union Educational Complex also served as the county attendance director.

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.