Photo Courtesy/WV Department of Education
West Virginia Board of Education member Miller Hall has resigned from the board,
CHARLESTON – Miller Hall, the former president of the West Virginia Board of Education, has resigned as a member of the board, making him the fourth senior education official to step down or transfer this month.
“Throughout my 47-year career in education, my focus was always on children and doing what was best for them, and from this, I never wavered,” Hall wrote in a resignation letter dated Monday. “However, I have made the decision to step down from my position as a member of the State Board of Education.”
Gov. Jim Justice announced Hall’s resignation Monday during a virtual briefing with reporters from Charleston. In his resignation letter, Hall said he and his wife Joyce are moving to Pennsylvania to be closer to their grandchildren.
“(Hall) did an incredible job, that’s all there is to it,” Justice said. “We wish him the very, very best. Miller Hall will always be a great West Virginian and everything. At his age now, he wants to be closer to his grandkids. I don’t know how it gets any better than that.”
Justice appointed Hall to the state Board of Education in 2017 to fill an unexpired term. He was appointed for a full term in 2019. Hall’s term expired on Nov. 4, 2028. Hall was elected as president of the state board on July 8, 2020, and served until board member Paul Hardesty was elected president on July 13.
Hall is the latest in a line of high-profile Board of Education and Department of Education officials to exit since the beginning of August.
The state board voted Aug. 10 to transfer Clayton Burch, the previous state superintendent of schools, to the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Hampshire County as its new superintendent. Burch was replaced as state superintendent that same day by former School Building Authority executive director David Roach. Burch served as state superintendent since June 2020.
Both Hall and Burch were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in January by Putnam County parent Travis Beaver, Upshur County parent Karen Kalar and Raleigh County teacher Wendy Peters along with state Treasurer Riley Moore, Senate President Craig Blair, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and Justice. In June, Hall and Burch filed a response to the lawsuit in support of the parents, breaking with the governor, Legislature and state treasurer.
Also leaving the Department of Education is Assistant Superintendent of Schools Jan Barth and Heather Hutchins, who served as general counsel for both the department and the state school board. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported last week that Hutchins was replaced as general counsel for the board with Stephanie Abraham a former attorney for the Logan County Board of Education and wife of Brian Abraham, chief of staff to Justice.
Hall is a Beckley native and a former teacher and principal at Woodrow Wilson High School. He served as an assistant superintendent for the Raleigh County school system. He also served as a basketball and football coach for middle and high school sports in Raleigh County.
“I love Miller Hall and that family,” Justice said. “They absolutely have been the greatest with me that you could ever imagine. When my son Jay was going out for basketball tryouts and just destroyed his ankle … Jay was in a wheelchair for a long time and Miller was the principal of the school. Day after day after day we’d drive to the school and Miller would meet him there and help him get into the school.
“A person who truly loves children and loves children I would say beyond good sense,” Justice continued. “He devoted his life to education. What a job he has done. We will miss him.”
