The best way to catch up with Janet Pennington, I’m learning, is between meetings. We’re sitting in one of the classrooms tucked into a corner of the brick and mortar sprawl that is Greene County Career Technology Center. It’s half an hour before the monthly Joint Operating Committee (JOC) meeting, and we have our notebooks out for a pre-meeting/interview of our own.
CTC director Mark Krupa settles us in and says, “I hardly ever turn on the air conditioning. You can ask the students! Hope you don’t mind.” Pennington, now treasurer of the JOC, laughs. “When I started teaching, we didn’t know what air conditioning was!”
We’re here to talk about Pennington’s over 50-year career of both advocating for and teaching kids—and then their kids and grandkids—how to find their potential. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, we’re discussing Pennington’s love of learning in the same place where her mother, Anna Powelko Burich, found her own potential, back when this career path was called Vo-Tech.
For Pennington, a coal miner’s daughter who grew up in Penn Pitt, education of any kind is everything.
“I’ve always been an advocate for kids and learning. My mother had to quit school in ninth grade to take care of the family when her mother got ill. She told me she really hated missing those years of high school.”
But Anna Powelko made up for it after getting married: she raised a family of four, got her GED, then enrolled in the first nursing class offered at Waynesburg Vo-Tech School, graduating as an LPN. Times were a-changing by the late 1960s when her book-loving daughter graduated from Mapletown High School, but there were still cultural norms to be reckoned with, Pennington points out. “Lucky for me that both my parents saw the value in educating a daughter at a time when people felt it was a waste of time and money. My two choices were to be a nurse or a teacher. I actually wanted to be a nun, but teacher won!”
When Pennington graduated with a degree in secondary English from California State College in 1972, she started teaching that fall in Monongalia County, WV schools in an uncertified area, with the promise of furthering her education to get her credentials. A month later, “I was offered a position as a Title I English Teacher in the Southeastern Greene School District and jumped at the opportunity to teach the subject that I loved.”
For the next 37 years, Pennington would keep her promise to reach further, becoming certified in Elementary Education, then pursuing a Master’s Degree as a K-12 Reading Specialist while raising her own family. (“Brad graduated from WVU with a degree in marketing and Joe got his BS and MS at Duquesne University and his doctorate in physical therapy at WVU,” she texts me later. Her only grandson Hayden is a sophomore at Waynesburg University majoring in Healthcare Management.)
Each part of Pennington’s career has been a steppingstone that reflects the trust her community of parents, fellow teachers, and administrators have in her to carry forward great educational dreams with the times.
Another laugh. “When I retired from teaching in 2009, I was ready to stay involved, so I ran for school board and was elected. Now I’m serving on board with some of the students I taught in school!”
Pennington was also ready to go back to working as a reading interventionist in the Monongalia County schools. “People ask why I still teach at this stage of life. My answer is that I love helping students learn. Seeing a child finally get a concept is amazing. That light bulb moment always gets me!”
Krupa pops in to tell us that the board meeting is about to start. He and Pennington disappear down the hall, leaving me with time to look over the letters of recommendation submitted when she was nominated, then inducted into the Allwein Society in April 2024. This prestigious state award program “recognizes school directors who advocate on behalf of public schools and students.” The eligibility requirements read like the story of Pennington’s life as a tireless advocate for what every student needs.
Fellow SESD board member Christine Spiker noted in her letter that Pennington kept up with educational advancements by going to state and national school board leadership conferences. She also did countless ZOOM meetings during Covid, working through health and safety issues as schools geared up for 21st century learning and students returned to the classrooms.
“As a tribute to her leadership, Janet was nominated by Superintendent (Richard) Pekar as a leader in modern governance,” a Diligent Corporation honoree of the Modern 100 Community Boards, “supporting community leaders working for positive organizational change.“
As a member of the state board’s platform committee, Pennington helped draft proposals for education improvements that delegates would present to the state general assembly, then on to the governor and to the US Congress.
The results of that positive organizational change are clear when I join Pennington and other school district representatives who make up the JOC for the public meeting and stay to chat afterwards.
This is Pennington’s first year to serve after being drafted by fellow Mapletown board members to support students from all districts who come here to build careers in the 21st century workplace.
“Our classes here are a great way for students to find out what they want to do, and what they don’t want to do,” Krupa points out. “What’s really great is some get paid through our apprenticeship programs while they’re still in school.”
In the end, when they find the right fit, whether it be auto collision and repair, automotive technology, building construction, computer networking, cosmetology, culinary arts, emergency and medical services, electrical occupations, health assistants, precision machining, or welding fabrication, the students graduate ready to further their education in their area or go directly into the workforce.
“When I got here 12 years ago, we had trouble placing students. Now employers are coming to us, begging for workers. We could place more kids than we have.”
Moving into future jobs is also on track with CTC Eats, a newly acquired, student-run “classroom on wheels” food truck. The truck will be on the road this summer, giving culinary arts students a chance to learn to cook on-the-go goodies while learning the entrepreneurial skills of running a business.
Krupa also notes that for the last few years, Fox Ford and Ford Motor Company have supported future automotive workers by encouraging students to enroll in the Ford Asset Program. This program gives students a chance to work at the local Ford dealership where they can earn college credits and eventually become Ford master mechanics.
Pennington admits she’s more than a bit excited that Mapletown graduate Joel Menear is receiving a scholarship to play esports at Waynesburg University. “I presented the idea of an esports team to the board after attending a conference in Philadelphia.”
Digital game playing has grown into a global electronic sports industry that teaches the essential skills of teamwork, strategic thinking, and digital literacy, all needed in the 21st century workplace. “Joel will major in Sports Announcing and his game is Rocket League. Dr. Chris Davis, Waynesburg University Esports Director and Head Coach will present Joel with his WU Esports jersey at the (Mapletown) senior awards ceremony on May 24. I’m so proud of him!”
