Thursday, June 26, 2014
Blenko celebrates W.Va. birthday, Page 12 50 Cents Volume 116 Issue 25
Tiffany Tatum who helped turn around the Facing Hunger Food Bank. will step down Aug. 1.
Culloden Elementary comes down
Tatum to leave area food bank By Jim Ross For The Cabell Standard Tiffany Tatum has helped turn around the Facing Hunger Food Bank. Now she’s ready to return to her former occupation of helping churches and nonprofits manage their finances. Tatum, a Barboursville resident, notified the Food Bank board of directors recently that she is resigning effective Aug. 1 because she has bought an interest in ClergyTech and Churchpayroll.com. She will move the operations of those companies from California to the Barboursville or Huntington area. Tatum is a CPA. She earned her MBA from Marshall University. She spent about 10 years working for ClergyTech and its founder, Stephen Paul, when it was based in Chesapeake, Ohio. Paul formed ClergyTech in the mid-1980s. Tatum says she worked there six or seven years. Paul moved to California and took the company with him. Tatum said she didn’t want to move across the country, so she stayed with the company but worked from home. Now Paul is getting ready for retirement, so he offered to sell the company to her, and she accepted. Paul also started churchpayroll. com in the 1990s. That’s an online payroll and bookkeeping service. Most of its clients are small churches with few employees. Among other things, churchpayroll.com keeps them in compliance with federal regulations so they don’t lose their tax-exempt status, Tatum said. SEE FOOD BANK, Page 7
Construction crews tore down a part of Culloden Elementary last week to make way for a new school building. The school board awarded the Culloden Elementary construction project to Wiseman Construction, at the cost of approximately $5.5 million. Portable classroom structures will be set up for the 2014-15 school year.
School board says goodbye to Freeman, Thomas By Amanda Smythers For The Cabell Standard Two long-time Cabell County School board members said goodbye to the board of education and their constituents last meeting, ending 13 years of joint school board experience. Mary Alice Freeman and Bennie Thomas are leaving the board after five years and eight years respectively, after deciding not to run for re-election this past term. “I think a lot of officials stay in place too long,” said Thomas, addressing the board. “It will be good to get new faces in here.” Assistant superintendent Mike O’Dell, standing in for superintendent Bill Smith, said they have always been great to work with. “These folks have given so much to this county over the years,” he said. “I can’t remember a time without them.” “It’s been a pleasure and a privi-
lege to serve with both Bennie and Mary Alice,” said School board president Suzanne Oxley. “You have always worked with integrity and are always looking out for what’s good for the children.” Thomas and Freeman ended their term with celebration, as the school board honored athletic coaches with special awards. “It is rare that we recognize people who donate almost all of their evening hours for athletics,” said David Tackett, administrative assistant of Secondary School Administration. “We have some great coaches in Cabell County.” Three Cabell Midland High School coaches were honored, Robert Morris, Chris Parsons and George Brumfield. Morris received the National Federation of High School Sports West Virginia Swimming Coach of the Year. A Cabell Midland math
teacher, Morris coaches both the girls and boys teams and has grown Midland’s swimming program to one of the largest in the state, said Tackett. The swimming team has made it to the state championship every year since Morris has coached. Parsons received the MSAC Coach of the Year for boys cross country. This is the 13th time in 20 years that he has won the award. Since 2000, Cabell Midland’s cross country team has won the state championship seven times with an additional five runner ups. Brumfield, who was represented by Cabell Midland Principal Kelly Daniels, was elected into the National High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. According to Tackett, Brumfield is the second West Virginia coach to do so. He has been the assistant baseball coach at Midland for four years and was the head coach at Wayne
High School for 27 years, where he also recruited for the Chicago White Sox. He will be honored at a ceremony on Dec. 5 in Nashville, Tenn. In other news, the Cabell County School Board approved the spending of $2.7 million on new laptops, smartboards and carts for teachers and classrooms around the county. All but $853,830 will be paid for by Title I due to the schools’ “Focus” status by the West Virginia Department of Education. Additionally, the board approved the purchase of 380 iPad Minis for a pilot project for 8th grade students at Milton Middle School at a cost of $102,600. The school board will next convene on Monday, July 7 to swear in the new members. At this time, the school board meeting schedule will be decided as well as the new president and RESA representatives elected. This meeting is open to the public.