CHARLESTON – Beginning Aug. 31, the West Virginia Department of Education will have a new deputy superintendent – Upshur County’s own Dr. Sara Lewis Stankus.
The Upshur County Schools superintendent was appointed to the position by new West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools David L. Roach, and she has accepted the position.
According to a West Virginia Department of Education press release issued Thursday, Stankus will join Deputy Michele Blatt as part of the Department’s executive leadership team.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Stankus join our efforts at the West Virginia Department of Education,” Roach said. “She is an esteemed educator with a heart for teaching, learning and children. She will be a great asset as we continue to focus on issues of student achievement and as we advance public education in our state.”
Roach, who previously served as executive director of the W.Va. School Building Authority, was appointed state superintendent of schools last Thursday, Aug. 11, in the wake of former superintendent Clayton W. Burch’s transfer to the post of superintendent of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
According to the WVDE release, after receiving an undergraduate degree in elementary education and special education from West Virginia Wesleyan College, Stankus
earned master’s degree in counseling from Marshall University before completing her doctorate in educational leadership from West Virginia University.
Stankus has served as the county superintendent of schools since July 1, 2018, following more than 30 years of educational experience which includes being the principal of Union and Rock Cave Elementary Schools and a counselor at Buckhannon-Upshur High, Union Elementary and Hodgesville Elementary School. She began her teaching career at the former East Main Elementary School which is now the Stockert Youth & Community Center.
Growing up in Queen, Stankus attended a two-room school where she loved her teacher – the person whom she credits with instilling her first love of teaching and education.
Stankus said she’s very excited for the appointment, and her role will be to support Roach’s vision and goals, she told My Buckhannon during an interview this week.
“The Upshur County Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting on Friday at 10:30 a.m. to accept my resignation,” she said. “They will also discuss who will be the interim Upshur County Superintendent of Schools.”
The agenda for the Aug. 19 special meeting of the Upshur County Board of Education lists both the resignation of Stankus to accept the position of Deputy State Superintendent of Schools as well as an appointment of an interim Superintendent of Upshur County Schools pursuant to WV Code 18-4-1.
