CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine issued a clear warning to Grant County school officials Thursday, and called for an immediate audit of the Eastern Panhandle school system.

Grant Superintendent Tina L. Edwards abruptly announced her resignation Tuesday, and school board members are so "fractured" that their disagreements have disrupted the ability of students to learn, said Howard O'Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Boards Association.

The problems in Grant County are also largely geographic, O'Cull said, with factions from Petersburg butting heads with the western part of the county.

"They've been developing over a long period of time," he said.     

To avoid a state takeover, Grant school board members need to resolve their issues, hire a strong superintendent and rally around that leader, Paine said.   

"We prefer not going in," said Deputy State Superintendent Jack McClanahan.

Student achievement has also plummeted in Grant County, in part because of leadership issues, Paine said.       

Paine made it clear that an audit is the first step in the process toward the state's takeover of a troubled school system.

In recent months, former Braxton County Superintendent Carolyn Long, who advised Paine Thursday of the deteriorating situation in Grant County, has mentored Edwards.

Edwards also faced a lack of support from some staff employees at the Grant County Board of Education office, Paine said.     

Grant Superintendent Tina L. Edwards abruptly announced her resignation Tuesday, and school board members are so "fractured" that their disagreements have disrupted the ability of students to learn, said Howard O'Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Boards Association.

The problems in Grant County are also largely geographic, O'Cull said, with factions from Petersburg butting heads with the western part of the county.

"They've been developing over a long period of time," he said.     

To avoid a state takeover, Grant school board members need to resolve their issues, hire a strong superintendent and rally around that leader, Paine said.   

"We prefer not going in," said Deputy State Superintendent Jack McClanahan.

Student achievement has also plummeted in Grant County, in part because of leadership issues, Paine said.       

Paine made it clear that an audit is the first step in the process toward the state's takeover of a troubled school system.

In recent months, former Braxton County Superintendent Carolyn Long, who advised Paine Thursday of the deteriorating situation in Grant County, has mentored Edwards.

Edwards also faced a lack of support from some staff employees at the Grant County Board of Education office, Paine said.     

"Somebody needs to help resolve our problems," Grant County school board member Dottie Riggleman said. "We do need help."

She declined to comment further because she's named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by former Grant Superintendent Marsha Carr-Lambert, whose contract was not renewed in December 2008.

Carr-Lambert filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Elkins against Riggleman and fellow school board members David Jones and Joyce Riggleman, the three who voted against renewing her contract.

In the lawsuit, Carr-Lambert alleges that she faced retaliation for her part in the investigation of former South Branch Career and Technical Center director Robert Sisk, who was arrested on misdemeanor charges of alteration and deletion of computer data and petit larceny for allegedly removing a school computer's hard drive. In August 2008, Sisk was found not guilty in a magistrate court.

In June 2007, Sisk left the center to take over as interim president at Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College in Moorefield.

Carr-Lambert had served as a member of the administrative council that oversaw South Branch, a vocational center in Petersburg that serves students from Pendleton, Hardy and Grant counties.

In April 2008, the state Board of Education declared a state of emergency at South Branch and gave Paine direct oversight of the technical center. State board members took control after state education auditor Kenna Seal told them the center had a hostile, volatile and unsafe school environment, including physical confrontations between teachers and administrators and walkouts by students and staff.

Seal, director of the state Office of Education Performance Audits, also is expected to lead the audit of Grant County schools.

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.