| While resigned assistant school superintendent G. A. McClung is under investigation
over a $2.3 million contract he awarded a longtime friend "Pork Chop" Booth,
McClung has been accused of using false credentials to obtain his position with the
state education system.
McClung, a former superintendent of schools in Ritchie County, claimed on his
resume he had a master's degree in history from Hollins University in Virginia. The
school offers no such degree. McClung says it was an error created by a typist.
He is being investigated by the U. S. Attorney's office, the Legislature's Committee for
Special Investigations and State Superintendent David Stewart, related to the sale of
replacement furniture for southern West Virginia schools following last year's flood.
The cost of the furniture may have been inflated several times over the going
price.
Meanwhile, a company owned by "Pork Chop" Booth called National Equity, brokered
another exclusive multi-million dollar deal with the State of West Virginia for other
services. Booth and his associates have reportedly been involved in more than one
operation described as "scams," and had been hauled into various courts.
The investigation also includes a company that was given a multi-million dollar flood
clean-up contract. That company was to have overseen the building of a new $30
million high school in Lincoln County. Officials have put a hold on the Lincoln County
project.
State education officials are under scrutiny after the President of the State Board J.
D. Morris resigned, after stealing student loan funds from the Clay County Bank.
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