POINT PLEASANT — The Mason County Board of Education has recently become the first county in the state of West Virginia to its board agendas and documents in an electronic format.

According to Superintendent William Capehart, the board is currently taking even bigger steps to ensure that the public knows about the new Web site that contains agendas, calendars, policies and other information accessible for viewing and download.

Greg Martin, who delivered the update to the board on Tuesday and the person in charge of the technology advancements for the board, said the electronic documents are “coming together very well” and that this is a “learning process” for everyone.

The school board’s Web site is www.edline.net/pages/mcboewv. On the new site, parents, students and the public are now able to browse the site and get updated news on board related topics such as the new school calendar.

Martin also presented the board members with the three proposed calendars for the 2010-2011 school year.

The calendars are posted on the Web site in forms A, B, and C. Martin stated that all calendars will be given to principles in the Mason County school system. From there, online voting will take place, with service and professional personnel casting their votes. Once all the information has been submitted, the board will approve the new calendar.

According to the Web site, calendar A has the first and last days of instruction set for Aug. 23, 2010 and June 1, 2011; calendar B, Aug. 27 and June 1; and calendar C, Aug. 23 and May 25. All calendars have 180 instructional days and 20 non-instructional days.

Capehart stated on Thursday that during the monthly administrative meeting with all principles, the employees were updated on how to access the Web site and place their vote for which calendar they prefer. Voting continues from now until May 3.

In other reports, Jack Cullen presented results from the West Virginia Report Card to the board.

The report card, which was established in 1988 by legislature, describes critical rate information and trend data to update school systems on where their schools stand on a state and national level.

The grade for Mason County schools came back above the state and the national level for graduation rates. Attendance rates also were up. But in areas such as math and special education, Mason County was below the average.

However, Cullen added that professional development is in place and steps have already been taken to address the data from the report cards and implement them where needed.