Charleston , Kanawha County , West Virginia

As members of the West Virginia Board of Education considered how to best answer the criticisms of the school system found in the independent audit, member Priscilla Haden had plenty of questions on her mind.

For most of the nearly five-hour meeting, Haden grilled fellow board members and Department of Education staffers about proposed personnel moves, budget items and the general direction of where Mountain State education is headed.

"I hope to accomplish a thorough dicussion about the audit with my fellow boards members so that not only can we all understand what we're voting on, but the public is going to be given to oppurtunity to at least be introduced to the audit report that we just voted on," said board member, Priscilla Haden.

The board tackled the audit's 130-recommendations, agreeing with most of them that say things need to change in the state's classrooms.

The audit criticized the Department of Education for being overstaffed and failing to prepare students for the future.

The board is entertaining cuts, transfers, changing the school calendar, building bridges with two-year colleges and exploring ways that smaller counties can educate more efficiently.

But above all, the board's president says teachers have to be taken care of.

"Well the most important thing is supporting the teachers, from doing more to provide more training to allow them more flexibility in the classroom, to push more control down to the local level, and at the same time to come in more with accountability and a way to measure effectiveness and once we have that effectiveness measure we're going to use it," said President of WV State School Board, Wade Linger.

Following Haden's interrogation, board members unanimously approved the draft document and want to move forward finding ways to make the suggestions a reality.

Board president Linger says he'll give the audit response to the governor before next week's meeting.

Linger will also meet with lawmakers during interim meetings on Tuesday to answer any questions they might have.

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