We are a mountainous county in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. We are trying to maintain four Pre-K through 8 schools, one in each of our geographical areas.

Challenge West Virginia and Put Children First, Inc. along with the Webster County Family Resource Network sponsored a Northern Webster County Back to School Bash last summer and it was such a success we are planning on continuing the event.

Thanks to donations from various community organizations and local businesses, every child that attended received school supplies. Supplies included three ring binders, notebooks, filler paper, pencils, pens, erasers, ruler, glue, glue sticks, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencil grips, scissors, pencil boxes, and pencil sharpeners. We started the event with a pool party; our local fire departments supplied refreshments and we ended the evening with the distribution of the school supplies. We served over 95% of the student population of Northern Webster County (Diana and Hacker Valley attendance areas).

The Central and Southern areas of Webster County were served by a Back to School Bash sponsored by the Webster County Family Resource Network. Binders were supplied by Challenge West Virginia for this event also.

Webster County had one exemplary school - Hacker Valley School! Hacker Valley also placed top in the state on the WesTest Math Scores and came in 6th for Reading/Language Arts!

Webster County is moving forward. The County Board of Education has secured a $500,000 planning grant from the SBA to build a new Pre-K - 8 grade school at Hacker Valley. The new school is to open in Fall of 2008!

Other schools in the county are also getting a lot of attention this year. Goals for other schools include:

Webster County High School - new bleachers on the football field and either expanding or constructing a new theater!

Glade Elementary and Glade Middle Schools - new HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system, replacing a gymnasium, and obtaining new playground equipment.

Diana School - replacing the gymnasium and/or doors and gutters on the existing one.

Webster Springs Elementary and Webster Springs Middle Schools - replacing gymnasium and bleachers and obtain new playground equipment.