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photo by: Joselyn King

Ohio County Board of Education President David Croft, left, and Superintendent Kim Miller discuss issues before Monday night's board meeting.

Ohio County Schools had hopes to have new metal detectors in place at Wheeling Park High School before the start of the new semester.

While the beginning of the term was delayed by one week because of weather and canceled classes, the metal detectors still haven’t arrived, Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones told board of education members Monday.

“We are still waiting for our metal detectors,” he said. “I will need to reach out and see where they are. They should come at any time. Once they are here we’ll get those set up.”

Board members voted Dec. 9 to purchase two metal detector systems from Lauttamus at a cost of $48,438. They were expected to arrive within three weeks.

On Tuesday, Jones messaged distributor Lauttamus, who informed him they would be checking with the factory to find the reason for the delay.

Meanwhile, “closed campus” signs ordered before the start of the school year have arrived just in time for the second semester, Jones added.

“These are important for a couple of situations we’ve had in the past,” he explained. “You have to have them posted on your campus on closed school grounds in order to prosecute somebody that would come on to the campus that you don’t want.”

As the area and the school district continue to struggle with weather woes, Jones termed the new weather service being used by the school district — Perry Weather — as “phenomenal.”

“So far, they’ve been spot on just about everything,” he said. “The best part about it is from the app, you can message a live meteorologist. In about five minutes, they will get right back with a forecast they just read and predicted.

“Instead of reading big things that will happen in the next 12 hours, he tells us things that will happen in real time.”

Jones said the school district had feared power outages from the heavy snow that was predicted earlier this week, but the Perry Weather meteorologist told him locally the snowfall would be lighter in nature and those issues wouldn’t happen here.

“He was right, and he gave us just about the right snowfall (amount),” Jones said. “Everything is right at our fingertips. I’m really happy with that and hope it continues on as we continue to have to make these decisions for delays and cancellations.”

Jones explained that even when temperatures are near zero in the morning, delaying school for two hours can be beneficial even if it only warms up by four degrees.

“When you combine a few hours delay with light and allowing the bus drivers to better see potential ice, it makes a big difference for people to not be standing in that temperature in the dark,” he said.