Members of the Harrison County Board of Education met for a second time this week to discuss the direction of the school system and how that direction applies to the contract of the current superintendent.
Board members met privately on Monday morning and again on Wednesday afternoon, according to James E. Bennett, board president.
Robert E. Kittle, superintendent of schools, was not present for the meetings.
Kittle's two-year contract, which ran out last September, was approved by the board then with the stipulation that the terms of the contract would be worked out after the first of the year, Bennett said.
The terms that are being worked out are not of a personal nature, such as salary, but involve the school system's direction and goals, he said.
"The board, by definition, should be setting the direction for the system. We are duly elected representatives of the Harrison County citizens and taxpayers," Bennett said.
"After we determine these directions, it's our responsibility to employ an administrator to carry out these directions and our efforts to meet these goals," he said.
The board plans to meet again in mid-April, but Bennett would not comment on when the negotiations might be settled.
"This is actually a personnel matter that will affect the superintendent's contract, so we don't think these discussions should be out for public consumption," Bennett said.
Kittle has been superintendent in Harrison County for the past 15 years. He was one of three current county school superintendents who applied for the state superintendent's job after Henry Marockie announced his intention to retire last fall.
Kittle, Dan Curry of Wood County and Martha Dean of Wetzel County were not finalists for the job.
