Led by a team of expert instructors and designed to assist in developing and maintaining mindful resilience, mental fitness and relaxation, this series will take place from noon to 1 p.m. every Thursday from Sept. 12 to Oct. 17 on Zoom.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to attend up to six one-hour sessions that will offer a variety of simple yet practical tools to be mindful in daily living.

Recordings of each session will be available on the Mindful Steps YouTube Channel.

Register to attend.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As school districts come into session across the state, West Virginia Department of Education’s efforts to advance safety standards in schools continues to take central focus.

School Safety Director Jonah Adkins said WVDE’s School Safety Unit with the Division of Homeland Security has been taking a variety of measures to enhance those standards statewide.

Adkins said a big step they have recently been taking is through emergency preparedness drills they have been conducting across districts in each region.

The effort began in Logan County. Wednesday Putnam County Schools were conducting the drills at an undisclosed school location.

He said the districts utilize the department’s deployment system to send out a “real threat” alert as what would be conducted in the case of an actual emergency.

“It’s a test obviously, but treating it as if it were a real threat to see response times from law enforcement from EMS services and whomever else may need to be involved,” Adkins said.

He said it’s a process that needs continuous refinement to make sure schools have the quickest emergency response time they can have.

Adkins said the challenge is that with many schools being located in rural areas, the presence of law enforcement isn’t always close by, and that conducting these drills help schools take matters into their own hands as well, if need be.

He said, however, that many counties continue to work on employing School Resource Officers and armed security within their schools. Adkins said it’s most encouraging for them to keep qualified officers on hand.

“That is very positive I believe, the more presence that we can get from law enforcement officials in our schools, especially within rural areas, the better I know I’ll feel each day that students are in our buildings,” he said.

Adkins said they are looking into implementing SROs in every school building in the state. He said it would be roughly just over $30 million to achieve.

Adkins said the biggest challenge is acquiring the manpower that comes with it, and finding not just any law enforcement officer, but the appropriate one to serve within that capacity.

“I think everyone I talk to is in agreement that is really does take a special person to fill that role, someone that can build positive relationships with students at the same time as they are protecting the school,” he said.

Adkins said some counties are also further advancing safety technology in their school districts through the installation of facial recognition software at the entrances of each building.

He said he paid a visit to Marion County who recently installed the technology, and he said he was impressed to see how it works.

“It really is impressive because what they can do is they can keep all of their students and staff metrics, so when someone approaches the door it automatically recognizes that this person is supposed to be here, if it’s someone they do not recognize, principals, secretaries, they get an alert,” Adkins said.

Adkins said they hope to one day implement the facial recognition technology throughout all of the schools in the state.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs will take on the West Virginia Mountaineers on Nov. 27 in the first of three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

The bracket for the 8-team event over the Thanksgiving holiday that was revealed Wednesday morning sets up a matchup against either Indiana or Louisville in the second game on Nov. 28. On the other side, Arizona takes on Davidson while Providence and Oklahoma battle. 

Here’s the complete 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis schedule.

Nov. 27 – Quarterfinals

9 a.m. PST — Louisville vs. Indiana (Game 1)

11:30 a.m. PST — West Virginia vs. Gonzaga (Game 2)

2 p.m. PST — Oklahoma vs. Providence (Game 3)

4:30 p.m. PST — Davidson vs. Arizona (Game 4)

Nov. 28 – Semifinals

Noon ET – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner

2:30 p.m. ET – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser (consolation bracket)

5 p.m. ET – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner

7:30 p.m. ET – Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser (consolation bracket)

Nov. 29 – Championship

11 a.m. ET – Seventh-Place Game

3 p.m. ET – Third-Place Game

5:30 p.m. ET – Championship Game

The Mountaineers, ranked No. 83 in Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 projections, head into their first season under new head coach Darian DeVries, who helped guide Drake to the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four seasons. His son, Tucker DeVries, is set to join him down in Morgantown, West Virginia, for his senior season. Tucker, the No. 15-ranked transfer on EvanMiya.com, was twice named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and put up 21.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game last season.

West Virginia also landed sophomore guard Sencire Harris (Illinois) and junior Javon Small (Oklahoma State). Former Washington State point guard Joseph Yesufu is also part of the Mountaineers’ incoming transfer portal class that ranks 17th in the country on EvanMiya.com.

Gonzaga has won the last five matchups against West Virginia, including the last time the two schools met in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the 2020-21 season, when the Bulldogs prevailed 87-82 behind 21 points from Joel Ayayi.

Both of Gonzaga’s potential second-round opponents made drastic changes this offseason as well. The Hoosiers look like an NCAA Tournament-caliber team on paper after coach Mike Woodson brought in Myles Rice (Washington State), Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford) and Luke Goode (Illinois) to mix with three of the top four scorers from last season. Ranked No. 31 on Torvik, Indiana returned the reigning Big Ten Rookie of the Year in Mackenzie Mgbako and 6-foot-5 senior Trey Galloway.

Woodson also brought in former Gonzaga and Arizona big man Oumar Ballo to hold down the frontcourt.

Louisville is expected to be relevant once again under new coach Pat Kelsey, who brought in a transfer portal class that ranks second in the nation behind only Saint John’s. Wisconsin transfer Chucky Hepburn, a 6-foot-2 senior, was Big Ten All-Defense last season and No. 21 on EvanMiya.com’s rankings. Koren Johnson (Washington), Aly Khalifa (BYU) and J’Vonne Hadley (Colorado) also headline the list of newcomers.

Of course, the storyline to follow will be the potential matchup between Mark Few and his old assistant Tommy Lloyd in the Battle 4 Atlantis title game. The Wildcats appear ready to compete for the Big 12 title after they returned All-American guard Caleb Love, rising junior Jaden Bradley, sophomore KJ Lewis and 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas. Lloyd lost some big names in the transfer portal, namely Kylan Boswell and Ballo, but he brought in two proven scorers at the mid-major level in Anthony Dell’Orso (Campbell) and Trey Townsend (Oakland).

Should the Zags and Wildcats handle their business in their first two games, a potential top-25 matchup between West Coast powers would mark the first head-to-head meeting between Few and Lloyd.