Elliott County Schools’ new Superintendent, Dr. Michael Melton, joined the school board on July 1.
Melton has nearly 30 years of experience working in education as a teacher, principal, and in various administrative positions. Melton said his experience in facilities maintenance, bus garages, family resource centers and counseling services has been helpful to his work in the ecosystem of a school district. Melton said this helps him better connect with his staff.
“At least I know when somebody has a question, I kind of know where they’re coming from, at least understand where the pitfalls might be. And then at least have some experience on how to solve some of those and be proactive,” said Melton.
Melton highlighted one of the issues plaguing Elliott County schools, a lack of mental health awareness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We all are just really one bad day or one bad event from being mentally ill. It could be a chemical change, it could be an accident, it could be anything. But we’re more aware now, so I think because of that being acceptable, well then, we’ve got to look at developing policies,” said Melton. “Multi-tiered systems of support, emotional support, those types of things to address those issues. Building social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence in our students, inside our buildings, as well as our adults.”
Like many school districts, Elliot county schools face staffing issues. According to Melton, Elliott schools have just enough faculty and staff to run smoothly. Melton said several retired teachers have come back to work to help lighten the load on everyone, but that is not a permanent fix. In addition, negative change in the number of their support staff like bus drivers and sanitation workers could put them in a tough situation. Regardless, Melton said the school year has been progressing well.
“Well it’s a wonderful community here, of course I’m just an old eastern Kentucky boy. You know, I was in Letcher county for years, then I was in Bath county, and now I’m here in Elliott County and its just, you know, good country people. They’re proud of this school system, they’re proud of this community, they are hard workers, and they want what’s best for their kids,” Melton said.
The new superintendent added that when you couple that with a hard-working and caring school community, success is guaranteed.