001Good morning everyone. At this time I'd like to call the board of education meeting to order and I'd like to everyone to identify them as I call their name. Todd Fonte is present. William Buchanan present. Katie Addis present. John Andes present. William Gordy present. Elena Mccomomas present. Donald Smack present. Okay we do have a quorum. Can I have a motion to approve today's board meeting agenda and a second? So moved. Motion by Miss Mccomomas and a second by Mr. Smack. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. Okay. On Monday, April 7th, 2025, a close session meeting was held pursuant to general provisions of article 3-305B of the annotated code of Maryland to conduct first round interviews for the superintendent vacancy. A motion was made to close this session and to select Dr.
002Nick Wallace and Dr. Monique Wheatley Phillip as the finalist for the superintendent vacancy. The motion was made by William Gordy and a second was made by William Buchanan. The motion carried six to one with Katie Addis opposed. Now I need a motion to enter into close session for the following reasons. to approve close session minutes from the previous month section 3-305B to discuss appointment employment assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of appointees or employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction or any other personnel matter that affects more or specific individual section 3-305B 9 to discuss matters related to negotiations. Can I have a motion to enter into close session and a second? Moved motion by Mr. Buchanan. Second. A second by Miss Mccomomas. All in favor? Any opposed? We are
003now in close session. Good afternoon. As we reconvene this board of education meeting, I want to remind everyone that we do have a quorum. Um, a close session meeting was held today pursuant to the general provisions of article 3-305B of the annotated code of Maryland to approve close session minutes, to discuss personnel matters, discuss matters related to negotiations, and to discuss school safety. And now I have with us uh uh Reverend Dale Brown from the community uh church and he would be leading us in the invocation today. Reverend Brown, thank you for being here and please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Let us pray. Gentle and loving God, we pause this day to give thanks. We give thanks for each student, each staff member, each administrator, and this board for all the hard
004work that goes into the important task of educating the youth and children of this county. We also pause today to give thanks for Superintendent Taylor's leadership. We pray during that during this time of transition, you would give to each of us wisdom and the ability to think clearly, to see the big picture, and not to pick favorites. And we pray also for the safety and well-being of each student. And we ask that your love and presence might rest and abide upon us in God's name. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Reverend Reverend Brown, thank you for that invitation today. We appreciate it. Okay, board. Um, can I have a
005motion to approve the open session minutes from March and April 7th, 2025? Motion by Mr. Smack and a second by Miss Mccomomas. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you very much. And now I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent for the superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. And good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today. This month, I want to touch on just a few recognitions we have coming up. In late April and early May, we are gearing up to recognize a few remarkable groups of people. First, we will celebrate our administrative assistance and national administrative professional day, Wednesday, April the 23rd, and school nurse day on Wednesday, May the 7th. These often unsung heroes of our schools and offices are really where the rubber hits the road, so to say. They
006are the friendly faces that greet our students, staff, and visitors each day in each school, setting the tone for each school and office they occupy. They wear many hats. They are the ultimate multitaskers and they keep our school system running as smoothly and successfully as it does. Our school nurses take it a step further as they ensure our students remain healthy and happy throughout their learning process. They are invaluable resources and we are so blessed to have each one of them. And our next group I am just as excited to celebrate the first full week of May as we honor and in just a few minutes is a teacher is teacher appreciation week. Tomorrow we will hold the 38th annual teacher of the year celebration and it will be held at the Ocean City Convention
007Center where we will celebrate not only the teacher candidates vying for the title but all teachers in public education, especially those here in Worcester County. During the celebration, we will honor 14 amazing candidates from each of our schools who represent the best of teaching each day. Having the opportunity to learn a bit about each candidate, I sit before you today confident in the abilities of our teachers to engage and inspire our young people to achieve their dreams. I would be remiss if I didn't thank all the incredible teachers that serve here in Worcester County. And I also would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to also recognize our school librarians. While in just a few minutes the board will proclaim April as school library month, I want to commend these certified professionals for
008not only inspiring our young people and their love of literacy, but so much more. I would encourage you to come into our libraries and see the work they do. Our li librarians have created maker labs, are collaborating with classroom teachers to expand the ways students can demonstrate their learning. And of course, they spearhead one of the most successful and nationally recognized countywide programs that we just had, our media expo. all of our people from our teachers and librarians to our nurses to our administrative and support staff and every individual that works here in Worcester County Public Schools are an inspiration and I know the whole community echoes the sentiment that we are so proud of our Worcester County Public Schools family and I know as superintendent I am honored to work with them each and
009every day. Thank you and back to you Mr. Fonte. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. And now I'm going to turn it over to our 2024 2025 student representatives who are going to provide us with their monthly updates from their schools. And I believe uh we're starting with Khloe from Snowhillo High School. So, thank you, Mr. Fonte. Worster Tech recently competed in the Maryland Skills USA state competitions. 89% of the school's 79 participants placed in the Maryland competition's top 10, 73% placed in the top five, and 57% placed in the top three. Additionally, WTHs boasts 21st place winners across categories like medical, math, robotics, and automation, teamworks, and technical computer application. Gold medalists are heading to nationals in Atlanta June 22nd through 28th. Worester Tech's agricultural agriculture program is in the news. Through our partnership with Forers's
010agriculture agent, Megan Purdue, students are taking care of two mother goats, Faith and Samantha, who each recently gave birth to twins. Students are getting realworld hands-on experience taking care of four kids in their animal science course. Additionally, Worester Tech's agriculture program was recently recognized as the excellence for outstanding FFA chapter by the Maryland Agriculture Teachers Association. Worcester Tech's nursing and biomed science student organization, HOSA, had several Maryland state winners in their recent state competition. 12 out of 15 Worcester Technical High School competitors finished in the top 10. Six students were in the top five and two students finished in first place. The state accolades students received in Skills USA, FFA, and HOSA illustrate that Worcester County students are not only excelling in their CTE programs, but are demonstrating that they can transfer their skills and
011compete against their peers across the state of Maryland and win big. Worester Tech celebrates their 2025 teacher of the year, Chef Phil Cropper. We want to wish Chef Crawford the best of luck as he competes for the 2025 Worcester County Teacher of the Year title and trophy this Wednesday evening. Good luck, Chef. Worester Tech thanks the board of education and the executive leadership team for your continued support of our students, staff, and school. We want to wish everyone a safe and relaxing spring break with family and friends. Now, on to Snow Hill High School. As our busy spring continues at Snowho High School, students are celebrating a season of full of accomplishments in the arts, academics, and extracurriculars. On Saturday, approximately 130 students gathered at the Snow Hill Fire Hall for this year's prom themed
012enchanted evening. The night featured dancing, great food, and an exciting afterprom event back at the school complete with inflatable games, a caricature artist, more food, and prize raffles. In athletics, congratulations to Mara Milbourne and Justin Shipley, who were named the 2025 Bayite Scholar Athletes in honor recognizing their dedication to both academics and sports. The performing arts took center stage with several successful performances of Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella featuring outstanding student performances, beautiful vocals, and creative set design. Special thanks to Mr. Watson, Mrs. Klene, and Mrs. Lambertson for their leadership and direction. In the visual arts, students earned top honors at the Fine Arts League of Ocean City's manga and anime youth art show. Daisy Harris won first place. Oh Bordina placed second and Sierra Merritt received honorable mention. Academically, Serena Weaver earned first place at
013the state level in the Maryland Literacy Association's Young Authors contest for her short story girl in the Back Seat. In STEM, Cash Johnson placed seventh in the electric vehicle division at the Maryland State Science Olympiad held on April 5th. In addition to academic achievements, several seniors rec were recognized this month with scholarships. Abby Gascoll received the $2,000 Laurel Anderson Healthcare Scholarship, while Khloe Hoffler and Maryanne Rutsler were each awarded the $2,500 Larry Nudson service scholarship presented by the Rotary Club of Snow Hill. These honors celebrate students who demonstrate outstanding service and commitment to their communities. To further support students futures, our counseling department welcomed representatives from Warwick Community College who helped seniors enrolling for the fall get registered for their classes. We also hosted dual enrollment sess sessions to assist students in completing their applications
014for the upcoming school year. As we continue to celebrate the people who make a difference at Snowho High, last week we recognized assistant principal appreciation week. Mrs. McInness and Miss Salva Rollola were honored for their tireless work and ded dedication to both students and staff. Looking ahead to the coming weeks, we're excited to welcome Cornell Tamus, an international speaker on April 25th. He'll speak to students about overcoming advers adversity, setting goals, and cultivating a positive mindset. Then on April 29th, we'll close out the month with our final fast family and schools together event featuring food, yard games, snow cones, and a tie-dye station, community vendors, and baseball and softball games. We hope to see many of our families join us for this celebration. And just around the corner, our WXL banquet is set for May
01513th, a special evening to recognize excellence and achievement across our school community. Now to Luke. Thank you, Chloe. I'm gonna be starting with the Pocamok High School. Recently, our Pocomoke High School students have achieved great success across a variety of areas. We proudly celebrate our student investing team that earned third place out of 33 teams in the stock market challenge, a testament to their strategic thinking and financial skills. Five of our talented chorus members had the honor of performing with the All State Chorus, representing our school with distinction. We also recognized six outstanding student athletes who have officially committed to playing collegiate level sports, a significant milestone and source of pride for our entire community. Our 2025 prom themed a night in Greece was a truly magical evening filled with joy, elegance, and unforgettable memories.
016The celebration continued with a lively and well-attended afterprom event generously sponsored by the students against destructive decisions. Special recognition goes to Abigail Windsor for winning an award for her artwork at the Worcester County Drug and Alcohol Prevention Banquet. Several of our future educators participated in the Man the Shore conference engaging in meaningful conversations around education and leadership development. Additionally, three of our student athletes represented us with pride at the athlete leadership summit hosted by Salisbury University where they hone their leadership skills and connected with peers across the region. Our recent spring blood drive was a heartening success with over 40 students, staff, family, and community members stepping forward to give the gift of life. Meanwhile, seniors continue to submit scholarship applications and finalize plans for their post-secary paths. And one of our most cherished traditions,
017they are also inviting their one, the prek through 12 staff member who inspired them to stand by their side during intent night. Looking ahead, we have a number of meaningful events on the horizon. This week is sexual assault awareness week, and our sad chapter has partnered with the Worcester County Child Advocacy Center. advocacy center to organize impactful daily activities that educate, engage, and raise awareness. On Tuesday, we look forward to celebrating student talent at the Fine Arts Festival, where visual art, music, and performance come together in a showcase of creativity and talent. Wednesday brings our career cafe for the 9th and 10th grade students, providing an opportunity to explore diverse career paths through direct engagement with community professionals. In honor of Earth Day, we are excited to break ground on the Pocomoke High School community
018garden, a collaborative effort as a community school in partnership with me students, families that promote environmental stewardship and hands-on learning. A new session of drivers education will begin on May 5th, offering our students a crucial step towards independence and responsibility. Finally, we are proud to announce that on Thursday, May 15th, we will host WEXL, a celebration of academic achievement in which we will honor over 60% of our scholars for their dedication and success. We extend our deepest gratitude to the board of education for your continued support and commitment to our schools and community. And now on to the Steven Decater High School report. April showers bring busy times at Steven Decar High School as our celebrations, special events, extracurricular activities, sports, and testing all heat up. Looking back, SDHS had a lot to celebrate. First,
019we were delighted to host another successful job fair where over 40 local businesses offered exciting opportunities to our Worcester students. We inducted 101 new members into the National Honor Society in March. And we inducted 27 new members into the Mu Alpha Theta Honor Society two weeks later. It was great to have Decar graduates, Dr. Sarah Keenan and Miss Alex Cladet return to our hallways to serve as guest speakers. Congratulations are also in order for our senior Brooke Burrquist who will be honored as a good citizen by the Daughters of American Revolution later this month. In the world of our daily operations, our guidance department teamed up with Orbert Community College to begin scheduling for next year and Salsbury University was in the house again to welcome all the senior commits and to present random scholarship
020drawing. Additionally, our school just concluded a major blood drive or major drive for Believe in Tomorrow and we have assembled dozens of boxes filled with beach supplies for children stricken with lifethreatening illnesses. We also have club fundraisers including the key club basket raffle for UNICEF and the choir boosters candy celebration. As usual, our afterchool academy is busy with tutorial AP prep and enrichment programs. Looking ahead, our surf rider club is excited to celebrate Earth week complete with tips on energy conservation and plastic reduction and campus cleanup. On April 29th, we are beyond excited to recognize our hundred of WXL honores along with SDHS alum Symphony 21 founder Mr. Daniel Bowen who will serve as our WXL guest speaker. Also looking ahead, we are anticipating nearly 600 prom guests at the Ronald E. Powell Convention Center
021on May 11th. And last but not least, our theater program is currently busy preparing for the annual Shakespeare Under the Stars production of Love's Labor Lost later in May. Meanwhile, in the testing world, we are extremely busy preparing to administer 495 advanced placement examinations, which is over a 100 more than last year in 28 different areas to 311 students. This is in addition to nearly 1,000 MCAP assessments that we are gearing up for. Finally, in the sports world, our spring sports teams all collaborated with our Morgan's message club to raise money and awareness for the mental health of student athletes. Additionally, we are looking forward to our spring signing ceremony on May 2nd, and we are excited to see what our 250 plus athletes will be able to accomplish in the postseason. In closing, we'd
022like to publicly thank the many surrounding businesses and organizations who are donating time, food, prizes, and funding for our after prom committee. We'd like to wish our teacher of the year candidate, Miss Belinda Sawyer, good luck. And as always, we'd like to thank our central office leaders and our board of education members for your continued support and wish everyone warm spirits as warmer days are ahead. Thank you. And back to you, Mr. Fonte. Lucas, thank you. And Chloe, thank you. I mean, you guys uh flawlessly picked up a couple of extra reports there. You did a great job. So, we thank you for doing that. And there's never a lack of activity going on in the schools and we appreciate you being here today. So, thanks so much. It's now time to recognize um members
023of the audience and um joining us today from various organizations. Um anyone here from the WCTA? There you are. Good afternoon, Beth. Thank you for being here. Anyone here from the WCSBA? Thank you, Ivory and guest. Thank you for being here. Chanel, thank you for being here today. Appreciate that. Uh, anyone from the Wester County retired school personnel? Good afternoon. Good afternoon, members. And good afternoon, Helen. And any U PTA, Saks, anyone here from any of those um boards today? Thank you all for being here. We appreciate it. It's now time to uh do recognitions. We have student page recognition, FBLA recognition, and winter sports recognition. So, we're going to come down and we're gonna uh give some recognition to [Music] Good afternoon everyone. Um my name is Jess McCannernney. I'm a coordinator of instruction
024here and I also organize um Worester County's page program. Um one senior each year is selected to be Worester County's student page. students go um they see legislative sessions, they interact with our um state legislators and complete other civic duties. Um this year I'm really happy to recognize Evan Todd as Worester County's uh Marilyn Page. Evan excels at advanced placement courses at Steven Decar High School. He is the captain yep of the academic team and he's also in four uh honor societies including being president of uh Roappa which is the social studies honor society. One of Evan's highlights from the page program was seeing the legislative session on the floor and also pulling the balloon for the last day of the legislative session. He went back. So, very exciting. Um Evan is going to be
025attending William and Mary in the fall. Um double majoring. It gets even better everyone. Double majoring in history and political science and he actually um was accepted into this prestigious honor. Um he will be completing two years at William and Mary and two years at St. Andrews in Scotland. So, he'll be doing um a full immersion. Yes. [Applause] Yeah. Congratulation, Evan, on your future plans and also being Maryland's uh Paige from Worcester County. [Applause] [Music] Hello everyone. My name is Jason Conor. I'm a business teacher and FBA adviser at Snow Hill High School. Um, for the last 15 years, I've been FBA adviser uh at Worcester Technical High School and now at Snow Hill High School. Uh, this year I'm really proud to announce that we have a Maryland state champion uh in accounting too.
026Cash Van Marsh last year as a sophomore uh competed in accounting one and got third place and qualified for nationals. this year being a state champion, you know, is a big deal in advanced accounting in the second accounting course. So, we're really proud of him. You know, super excited to see what he might be able to do in California this year at at nationals. My shameless plug if any of you would like to sponsor Cash. We are looking for donations. Uh it's a little over $1,300 to send him there. Um but, uh either way, uh again, he's been an excellent student in the business program. I'm I'm really excited to see what this student's next steps is going to be. Uh in the 15 years that I've been doing FBLA, I've only ever had four
027state champions and this is my fourth one. So, super excited uh to see again what he's able to do. Uh knowing that he still has yet another year of high school and then obviously seeing what his next step is. I mean, the guy's name is Cash, you know, it's pretty cool. So, yeah. I mean, this guy's got a bright future. Yeah. All right. Cash. Yeah. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] It's always exciting to see our students being recognized. Congratulations. Um, now it's time for us to recognize our winter sports scholar athletes. Um, I'm going to let our supervisor of athletics, Mr. Sam Slay, go ahead and introduce our coaches from here. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh first I'd like to thank our board members for their continued support of this uh you know of this enrichment
028opportunity for our student athletes whether it's band chorus athletics you know the the enrichment opportunities that high school uh provides for these students help to round them into the individuals that they eventually become. So thank you you know for your uh for your continued support. And I also like to thank the administrators of the high schools and the athletic directors. They're the unsung heroes. They're in the trenches every day. They're dealing with all sorts of things. Um, you know, I appreciate it when they keep things off of my desk and off of my phone. Um, so I can't thank them enough for everything that they do every day. So, with all without further ado, we will start with uh Poke High School and introduce Mr. Derek Folks, athletic director. Thank you, board of education. Appreciate
029it. Thank you for the invite. We always count it a pleasure to be able to come and recognize our student athletes and there's no different this year. I'm not going to steal any thunder from either one of the coaches, but what I do want to say is that all of our athletes are students first. And that goes to show in our winter season out of 63 athletes uh 48 were minds in motion athletes and it's about 75% and that is great and always know that academics comes first. So, I'm going to introduce coach Mon'nique Douglas and she's going to introduce her player and she's going to tell you a little bit about her. Thank you guys for having us today. Um, so I have DE Washington with me. She's our senior um with the graduating
030class of 2005. Um D is a true scholar athlete. She was my team captain for the um last three consecutive seasons and she's been on our varsity team for um all four years of her um high school career. She um in addition to being named all Bayside South first team, she also was a minds in motion recipient, she was our MVP for the team for the last two seasons and received several nominations for player of the week. She also received um well actually achieved some career milestones as well. Um she was ranked number two in the state of Maryland for um max prep reporting sites for her total rebounds this season and um she finishes her career with,020 points, 154 rebounds, 234 steals, and 276 assists. [Applause] This is awesome. [Applause] And now I'd like
031to introduce Miss Sudan Redden and our swim team coach and her athlete, Mr. Gavin Grace. Um, thank you and thank you to the board of ed uh members for allowing us this opportunity to speak with you and introduce our wonderful student athletes today. We appreciate the time and effort that you give us. And so I'd like to introduce Gavin Grace. He's a junior at Pocamok High School. Gavin is a an extremely dedicated swimmer. Um, very often swimming at 5:00 a.m. in the morning and then again after school. and his hard work and dedication and perseverance and drive to want to be better is just phenomenal and it's um it just spreads out to everyone and so I'm grateful for him as an athlete but also as his character and a person. He is a Minds
032in Motion um recipient. He is our MVP. He won our uh sportsmanship award um and he is all Bayside swimmer for the Bayside Conference. Gavin also competed at the state um level in 100 freestyle this year and he competed last year and so we are excited that he gets to come back and do it again and we are extremely proud of [Applause] [Music] Gavin. Moving on with our program, next we have Mr. Chris Atkins with Snow Hill High School. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us, Mr. Taylor. Just last time to say hello to you. Yep. Board of Education executive team, thank you for having us. Uh again, being being able to stand up here and talk about Snow High School, uh excelling again at Winter Sports as small as we are as a 1A
033school and doing the as as great as we do is always an honor. Uh to introduce first um some Bayside and regional champions, head indoor track coach, Mr. Bradley Krauss. Good afternoon everybody. Mr. Krauss here. Um, so I've got two of my athletes here I'd like to just quickly talk about and recognize. Um, the first is Mr. Miles Martin. Um, he earned the title of Bayside and regional champion for the shot put. Um, this is my right-hand man when it comes to Yeah, round of applause for [Applause] uh he helps me out tremendously both through indoor and outdoor track. Um, he helps train and teach the younger generation, the younger classes of shot and discus throwers. Um, and he does an exceptional job of that, getting them ready for competition, all while continuing to practice
034himself, make sure he is where he needs to be for competition. And as you see, he continues to achieve and and impress us every single season. So, super proud of this kid. He works tirelessly. He's a great student as well as a great athlete. Um, I'm excited to see what he does this season in outdoor and his last senior year for indoor and outdoor as well. So, Mr. Miles Martin [Applause] Yeah, you go and take a picture. [Applause] And my second athlete I'd like to introduce is Miss Ali Suarez Apache. Uh she's one of my distance athletes. She's a junior. Uh and she's already extremely decorated in the track and field sport. Um she's one of my team captains. She does a wonderful job of leading the team through warm-ups and through workouts every day.
035And it's it's nice to know that if there's ever a day that I'm not able to be there, I've got her to rely on to help lead the distance crew through their workouts and hold them accountable and push them to be their very best. Um she's a great soul, great person. Um kindhearted um and extremely competitive. She her competitive drive is unmatched to any athlete that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Um, this season in indoor she earned Bayside Championship for the 800 meter and the 1600 meter and was regional champ for the 1600 meter as well. So, Miss Ali Suarez Epiche [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Now to introduce one of our girls basketball players and our entire girls basketball team, head coach Miss Courtney Keefe. Hello everyone. Good afternoon. Um, so Mara Milbour,
036uh, is first team Bayside selection as a senior. She has finished her career with 1,457 points. Um, but more than that, she's a member of NHS, MU Alpha Theta, uh, Beta Club, and, uh, she loves the game basketball. She's a great leader. Um, we're definitely going to miss her a lot next year. Um, and she plans to go to Chesby College in the fall to continue playing. [Applause] [Music] And then we have uh the our whole squad. And I do want to take a second her um Marlin Milbour is also a senior, my only other senior twins. We're going to miss both of them. Um she finished her season. I was so 975 points. We were trying to get to that thousand point mark. We were so close. Um but again, she made second team
037Bayside honors and uh certainly will be missed next year overall. But um as a team, I can tell you this group is just a pleasure to be around. They're good kids. They're well-rounded. There's not a girl on this squad who has a GPA of less than 3.0. So, I think that's worth a [Applause] little together. Uh, we ended this season 17 and nine, which is the best record we've had in 10 years. Um, I got to look at my notes. Sorry, y'all. Oh, so then, uh, yeah, obviously we won that regional championship. It was a packed gym, uh, at Cambridge South Dorchester. uh we kept the lead the whole time and our composure. We pulled it off and took a very long trip to Southern Garrett which was also very enjoyable. So this is a
038great group. I'm happy to recognize them. [Applause] [Music] Coach Kee neglected to say that this is their third regional championship in the past five years and they have played in five straight regional championships. So these girls are are crushing it. So congratulations girls. [Applause] Make sure you can [Music] see everybody on me. One, two, three. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Next to introduce our first team all Bayside athlete is for the boys is head coach Shawn Johnson who also I would be remiss if I didn't say has now played in four straight regional finals and has uh led these young men to become better human beings. So, Coach Johnson, uh, Demar Brunson Jr., first team all bayside this year. He was our leader on the team. Uh, scored 479 points this year, averaged 20 points a game.
039Um, he's well on his way to reaching that thousand point mark. He had 100 almost 200 points last year, so he's on his way to get there. Excellent student. He has like a 3.3 GPA. Um, he's ready. He's my coach on the floor and everybody knows anybody thing about playing basketball, you need that. And he's definitely that. He pushes those guys and I can't wait to see what he does next year. Demar Brunson Jr. [Applause] for this next award. I am not going to allow Coach Atkins to introduce himself because he would probably skip right over it. um his uh quiet demeanor and his unwavering support for Snow Hill High School has given him the opportunity to pres be presented for the second time this school year with an award that is given to him
040by a group of his peers. It speaks to Coach Atkins's uh dedication to his sport, to his craft, and as an educator. Um and he should be commended for uh for all of these things. Um, Coach Atkins has been named the 2025 Bayside Wrestling Coach of the year in addition to the District 8 athletic director of the year. [Applause] So, Coach Chris Atkins And in case his face didn't show it, he hates every minute of [Applause] this. And now I'm going to talk about the reason why I love coaching. uh one of my wrestlers here and right here. Uh we had Herman Alvarez was our Bayside champion and 165 pounds this year. When when I say uh the job of a coach is to create better human beings, I feel like I' I've done a
041pretty good job. Uh this young man finished 34 and seven, had 20 pins this year, finished second in the region, and is one of my uh yeah, one of my boys. love him very much and I'm very happy uh to be able to recognize him. Herman Alvarez [Applause] And now moving on to Steven Decar High School and athletic director Dan de Bronze. How's everybody doing today? Thank you for inviting us to the board today to recognize our winter sport athletes. Uh Stephen Decar had a great winner. Uh we had 298 student athletes participate in winter sports this year. Uh 74% of them, I'm proud to say, qualified for the Minds in Motion award, which is 3.25 grade point average or higher. So, we're very proud of that. um as well as we've won we won
04279% of our uh games on the court or on the wrestling mat. So, we're very proud of that as well. Um up first, we're going to do our indoor track awards and I have Coach Hmel and Coach Billings. Good afternoon. Uh I want to introduce uh Lotus Wise. Lotus uh was our lone qualifier for the state track meet. She qualified in the three and the 500. I get to coach her every day. It is my blessing. She's a wonderful person. She's a better person and she is a track star and she's a pretty fast runner. So, it it it really is an honor to to coach and to uh have her on the team. Uh Coach Humble has her accomplishments that she would like to go over right now. All right, we got two people
043here to brag on Lotus today. So, um, Lotus in the 300 meter, she uh qualified for the state meet. Uh, she ran the state meet with a time of 43.77. To give a perspective on that, that is puts her at seven or second place all time for Decar Records, only um for uh second to the 2007 time of 4.254 254 or 42.54 by Star Belmont. Um Lotus also qualified for states in the 500 meter run with a time of 121.54. That was a personal record for Lotus. Um again that puts her as second place all time for Decar. Um only behind the 2006 time of 120.76. So, she's shy by like um you know less than a second um to Joya Canfield. Um to give you a little bit more perspective, uh just I just
044grabbed one meet um at the Bayside meet um Decatur score the Decatur girls team scored 45 points. 26 of those points came from Lotus alone and that was just four events. um she actually scores is able to score more in outdoor track um because she's able to do um we have long jump and triple jump in outdoor track. So we look forward to seeing how she does. Um unfortunately she started out the outdoor track season with some stress fractures, but she's on her way um on the mend on the way back and you look forward to bragging about her outdoor track accomplishments next time we come down here. [Applause] Hey, next we have our head swim coach, Christina Watts. Thank you everyone. We have one of our girls had to step out to go to
045work, but we have some girls and boys to recognize from our amazing swim season this winter. And our first is Molly Hoffman as first team first team all bayside conference award. Kayn Riser was also first team all bayside conference award and part of the 200 freestyle bayside champion relay. Bryce Gil was first team all bayside champion conference award and Gavin is the same first team all [Applause] bayside. And then we have Kendall Baggley who is our one and only Bayside individual champion in the 500 freestyle. And she was also in the 200 freestyle relay that were also Bayside champions with our other ladies. And Emma Walsh was a part of that 200 freestyle relay bayside champions. [Applause] [Music] Stay with us. Stay with us. [Applause] Okay, next we have uh our girls basketball. Unfortunately, uh
046she was unable to attend today. Um but we did have one first team allconerence girls basketball player today and that was Allison Swift. Congrats to Allison. [Applause] We're going to take care of our boys basketball team next and I have head coach BJ Johnson. Good evening. This is a bittersweet moment for me. Um being that this will be my uh former coach, Mr. Taylor's last time to get to witness this, you know, and we going to miss you, man. You've been great to us and uh couldn't have done it without you, man. And the guidance that you gave me, man. So, uh, I can't, I can't express enough gratitude towards you, man. Thank you. Yep. All right. So, we have our Bayside, uh, undefeated, uh, boys, uh, basketball championship. Um, we have Davin Chandler, Noah
047Tucker, Elijah Fields. My god. Um, Sir, okay, you don't want me to say Sir Judah. Sir Judah Carmarmac, Caleb Lauren, and Solomon David. [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] That was [Applause] pretty stand. And this uh next young man that I'm about to introduce is no stranger to the Bayside Conference. Um you know, we're going to miss him, but the other team's not going to miss him. Uh this kid's probably lost, I think, four games in his Bayside career. And uh he's two-time player of the year at the Bayside Conference. Uh Davin Chandler going to Vanderbelt University. Davin [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And last but not least, uh the leader of our boys basketball program just got his second in a row coach of the year, Coach Johnson. [Applause] Thank you. I have one request. [Laughter] I got
048to tell a quick story since it's my last time. This boy was in the 10th grade. I was his basketball coach. And so I started practice and everybody was there but this young man. So I said to the kids, I said, "Where is BJ at?" Mr. Taylor, I think he's on the phone back that's back when we had pay phones in school. So, I think he's on a phone lining up a date for tonight and the phone was out in the hall and I go out the other door and he's laid up on his phone smiling from ear to ear. Had a basketball with me. So, I threw the basketball about this far away from him against the wall and I've never seen somebody jump and scream and yell and everything. He's never forgot that.
049But I think it woke him up. He wasn't late for practice ever again. [Applause] All right. Next, but not least, the uh our boys and girls wrestling program led by Coach Jos Josh August. All right. Thank you for having us, Mr. Taylor. Committee. Um, first we're going to recognize our our Bayside champions. So, out of 28 weights, so there's 14 for girls, 14 for boys, we had 11 total. So, that says something about our program and the strides that both the boys and the girls teams make. So for our Bayside champions, uh, Juan Henosa, Elijah [Music] Collic, Aaron August, Jake Salo, Amari Emanuel, Nate McDaniel. Uh Melanie Ruiz is sick today. She couldn't be here for girls. Micaia Robinette, Amari [Applause] Pernell, Shaniah Berner, [Applause] and AJ Johnson could not be here as well today.
050It's all good. Slide over. [Applause] stay right there for the um the rest of our postseason individual awards. The people that are up there, if you just can come back to the front and maybe get your certificate that way. And uh we have a couple more over here for our regional champions. Juan Henosa, Elijah Collic, Rachel [Applause] Plat, Jake [Applause] Salo, Mario Emanuel, [Applause] Nate McDaniel, Ireie [Applause] Carmarmac, Amari [Applause] Pernell, Shania Ber, and AJ Johnson with us. These are region camps 2A east. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] We'll do the same thing. They can just stay up. I got uh our state finalists and state champions. Um, our a finalist for this year, Juan Henosa, Nate McDaniel, Rachel [Applause] Plat, and AJ [Applause] Johnson. And this year we continued our streak with having state finalists with
051with state champions. So for third straight year uh state champion Elijah [Music] Collague. And on the girls side state finalist last year, she got the job done. This year state champion Shania Beneer. [Applause] It's just called [Applause] Okay, sorry we're taking so long. Um, for the team awards, um, the boys team was Bayside champions, 2A East region champions, and state finalist. We lost to a good team, Honeytown, this year, but a great season overall for our boys team. And I'm going to call up uh those young men now. Kyle Wilson, Paul Mina Weieber. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Boys and girls can just over for a sec if you can. We're all one big happy family though. Okay. Uh Jackson Archer, Austin Candaloro, Reed James, Lucas Cut, Alex Reel, Braden Bell, Mal Nichols, Gio Smith, Wyatt
052Cook, Cole Mure, and Malachi Christopher Mason, [Applause] Make sure window side if that's okay. [Applause] And for our girls team, um, we have a bunch of coaches that help out. Um the main coach that puts in the most time with the girls is um long time almost 20 years now, Coach Don Piranha. Uh this year for the girls, this is our first official actual team, a girls team. We've had girls that wrestle, but this is the first year we've had a girls team, and they ended up being uh state runners up. So big accomplishment for them, and we look forward to what comes in the future. Um, with these other young ladies up here, we have Calli McBride, Zoe Re, Sage Sturgis, Betty Barueta, Chelsea Mazarego, Beyonce Rodriguez, Maya J. Johnson Guerrero, and Millia Gonzalez.
053[Music] Slide down. One, three. One more. [Applause] All right, our last team, our unified strength and conditioning team. Our co-head coaches are both here today. Lindsay Owens and Shannon Ben. Here you go, coach. Thank you for having us. Uh we actually have 67 participants on our unified strength and conditioning team. Um today we have 25 of our members here um that are celebrating. We had a successful season. We had many PRs amongst um all of our team members and we finished first in both of the divisions in state um which allowed us to be the state champions for the second time in a row. So congratulations to you [Applause] guys. Guess I need Got some really short people back here. Sure. He's just like, one more. Congratulations [Applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you everyone for your
054time today. Can we get one more round of applause for all of our student athletes? [Applause] Okay, thank you for your indulgence. One of the best parts of our job right there. Um, now it's time for individual and delegation comments. All individuals who forgot this. I'm sorry. I did forget that. I have uh um resolution plaque proclamations. And first I'm going to be begin with Mr. Buchanan for school library month. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. This month is very important to me. U my wife retired as a school librarian and so I lived uh I lived what was going on in the library just about every day of my life. And uh I know all the hard work that uh that is put into to running a media uh center in a school. School library
055month April 2025. Whereas the school library is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. And whereas the school's librarian role is to provide the leadership and expertise necessary to ensure that the school library is an integral part of the instructional program of the school. And whereas the board of education has entrusted the school librarian in each school to teach the skills of locating and using information through traditional resources and new technologies to provide literature appreciation activities and to guide and encourage content and recreational reading to every student. And whereas lifelong learning begins, it is systematically developed through the school library curriculum of the elementary and secondary schools. And whereas the school library contributes to the individual growth and development of all students while fostering both excellence and quality in
056education. And whereas the school librarians of Worcester County have dedicated themselves to work for the quality school libraries for all students. Now therefore, it be it resolved that the Wister County Board of Education thus hereby proclaim April 2025 as school library month and cause upon school administrators, teachers, students, and citizens of Worcester County to recognize and support this action and to participate throughout the month of April in the celebration of school library month. This is signed by Todd A. Fante, President, Worester County Board of Education, and Lewis H. Taylor, superintendent of schools, and Britney Tigner, I think, is going to accept that. Thank you. Thank you. And now I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gordy for teacher appreciation week. Thank you. Teacher appreciation week May 5 through 9, 2025. Whereas teachers mold future
057citizens through guidance and education. And whereas teachers encounter students of widely differing backgrounds. And whereas our country's future depends upon providing quality education to all students. And whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, evaluating progress, counseling and coaching students and performing community service. And whereas our community community recognizes and supports teachers and educating the children of this community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the county board of education proclaims May 5 through 9, 2025 to be teacher appreciation week. And be it further resolved that Lor County Board of Education strongly encourages all members of our community to join in person expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and devotion to their work. Adopted this 15th day of April 2025 signed by our board president. Thank you very much. Welcome to Beth Shley Lynch. Congratulations.
058Perfect. Thank you. Sure. Okay. Thank you. it off to hold up. Now I'm going to ask um Miss Mcomeus to read school nurse appreciation day. Miss Mcomeus and please make sure your mic is on. It's on. National School Nurse Day May 7th, 2025. Whereas students are the future and by investing in them today, we are ensuring our world for tomorrow. And whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when they are at school. And whereas all students have a right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in a school setting. And whereas students today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in school. And whereas school nurses have served a critical role in improving public health and ensuring students academic success for more than
059a hundred years. And whereas school nurses address the home and community factors, social determinants that impact student health. Whereas school nurses act as a lei liaison to the school community, families, and healthc care providers on behalf of children's health by promoting wellness and improving health outcomes for our nation's children. And whereas school nurses support the health and education success of children and youth by providing access to care when children's cognitive development is at its peak. And whereas school nurses are members of school-based teams, school health services, 504 IEPs, disaster emergency planning to address the school population. And whereas school nurses understand the link between health and learning and are in a position to make a positive difference for children every day. Therefore, be it resolved that the National Association of School Nurses celebrates and acknowledges
060the accomplishment of school nurses everywhere and their efforts of meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of health care in our schools and offering gratitude for the n. We offer gratitude for the nation school nurses who contribute to our local communities by helping students stay healthy in school and ready to learn and keeping parents and guardians at work not just on this national school nurse day but at every opportunity throughout the year. Be it further resolved that Worcester County Board of Education does hereby proclaim Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 is school nurse day adopted this 15th day of April 2025. signed Todd Ferrante, president and Lewis H. Taylor, superintendent. Thank you. Can we ask um Moren Williams and Mrs. Amanda Coffer for us? Thank you. On three. One, two, three. Thank you. Okay.
061And now uh for in for individual and delegation comments and all who signed up to address the Wister County Board of Education may do so for one or two minutes regarding information, accommodations or concerns which may need future board attention. Concerns that are specific to an individual will not be discussed in open session and should be directed to appropriate district personnel for investigation. When you're called to address the board, please state your name and address for the record. And up first, I have Pat Barby. As long as you don't attack an individual. Good afternoon, board. Pat, would you make sure you pull the mic up to you and make sure that it's on, please? Thank you. So that our live stream can Yeah, you're on. There you go. Okay. Good morning, Pat BarbY or afternoon,
062Newark, Maryland. Uh the board will make the decision next week from the new superintendent of Worcester County Schools. I am asking that each candidate be considered for what they can bring towards improving Worcester County Schools, offering the best learning experience for our our children. Although we don't know her yet or have aren't familiar with her, Dr. Manique weekly Phillips is bringing 30 years of experience. 17 is a classroom and resource teacher. More recently, she has held numerous administrative positions that will allow her to bring a fresh, objective, and impartial look at the many issues challenging our board and administration such as the safety and discipline issues, sexual content literature in the school libraries, adapting to the blueprint and the financial burden acquired with the implementation of the blueprint. Her current position as consulting administrator school
063operations will facilitate her in establishing a fresh and positive relationship with our county commissioners as they navigate and negotiate yearly budgets. She has expressed interest and willingness to build an open and transparent relationship with our teachers, many of whom are apprehensive of expressing their concerns to the current administration. By far, Dr. Wheatley's Wheatly Phillips most essential attribute is she has a family. She is a parent. As a parent herself, she can appreciate and empathize with parents. She has kids. She's been there. She can emphasize and appreciate the students view. Also, empathize, excuse me. This will build a strong and trusting connection with the Wester County parents. Please impartially review each candidate and make the best choice for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Do I have I don't have anyone else on my list.
064Do we have anyone else that would like to speak today? Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. President, may I please ask for a brief recess? Yes, that's exactly where I was going. Dr. Andy's, I had you on my mind. Thank you very much. I deeply appreciate We're going to ask for a brief recess. It's going to be five or 10 minutes and we'll resume. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, we're going to resume our meeting everyone and um we're at number 6.1 expanding the expression tool and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Wallace. Good afternoon. Thank you uh Mr. Ferrante. Um, I'm going to introduce um, Miss Belinda Gulas who is going to share with us an expanding expression tool along with the Wester County Public Schools graduate, Miss Zoe Jackson. Um,
065and I will say this tool in a little bit different format was presented to us at ANS um, with our ML ML teachers. Um, and I am super excited. I know Miss Paris is here to see it too because we're super excited how Cedar Chapel has taken it um, and given our students another way um, to expand their expression. And so I'm going to turn it right over to you. Thank you, Dr. Wallace. We appreciate that. Uh we are excited here, of course, to talk about expanding expression and of course my my helper here as well as a phenomenal, amazing, wonderful, on top of the world graduate of Worcester County special education teacher that just blows it away every single solitary day. Um she was one of the very first that embraced uh EET expanding
066expression tool and really used it in her classroom very quickly. Uh it made me smile. It was on a principal's day and on my door was a giant one of these like size of paper each one of the circles and it had all descriptions about me. Um my favorite was that I was bad and bougie was my very very favorite one. Yes. Bad and bougie. and I will never ever ever forget it. My entire life I will be 100 years old on my deathbed saying I am bad and bougie. Um, so just to talk about expanding expression, um, again, we we saw what Angela Paris was doing with this with multilingual learners and said, "Oh, wow. This is about language. Our kids need language because they have communication devices. They 99% of our students are
067non-verbal or limited verbal communication ability. So when we talk about building language for our students, we're really talking about finding ways for them to practice their language and bring that language to the next step. Uh why are we using it? Because it is a phenomenal tool for therapists, educators, parents, and it's just about developing language. We've taken it a little bit further and changed it up a bit for our students. But here are some of the basic components. You're going to say, "Well, what is expanding expression? It is a tool that we use that is a physical and visual reminder of different parts of explaining and expanding our expressions. And so Zoe's going to talk about what each bead means. So there's several beads here and each one represents something different. So the first one
068is the green um the green bead which is the group. So like what category it goes in so they can kind of identify what it is. And then it goes further on to the blue bead, which is um what does it do? So like what action does the thing do? Um if it's a um an apple um they eat you eat an apple. So that would be the action that goes with it. And then it goes on to the little white one which has an eyeball on it. So like um what does it look like? So um an apple's red. So that's what they would do with that one. And then they would keep going on. And then there's a little wooden one. So what is it made of? Um so an apple has a
069seed. It has a stem. So they would continue and describe it. And then the pink one is kind of the same a little bit. So like what what parts does it have? So like again like the apple would um be the seeds um the stems. And then um the white one is where um would you find it? So like an apple I would find it at on a tree on apple tree or um wherever the kid associates an apple with. So maybe um on the table or at home would be where they would have it. And then the orange is what else do you know? So just getting anything else that the other beads didn't hit um that the student knows already about it. Thank you Zoe. So how do we use that? Zoe explained
070all of the different parts of that. Students would actually hold their beads and board members, you got a little set of beads there in your little plastic bag. So students would hold those beads and run through that visual reminder or teachers would model that for them in order to make sure that they're able to step through each of those those components, those seven components of the EET system. Additional modifications that we can make for our students who are non-verbal or limited verbal communication and are struggling with language. So students can have a average IQ and still be nonverbal or have limited verbal communication and have communication devices as well. But this tool can help those students build that language even more. So Zoe's going to talk a little bit about how we overlap that with
071augmentative and alternative communication or AAC. So, it's really nice to pair this with um a communication device, especially with the folders that are in the communication um devices that you can see on the screen up here. So, for the first one, if you're going through this by bead, bead by bead, um the first folder you would hit would be like the depending on which kind of system you have would be uh the things folder or the categories and then it would have it broken down into the groups. So like there would be a food group, a vehicles group, um and all sorts of different things like that which is really nice. And then they can keep going through their communication device and go to the action pages. So like what does um this um thing
072do that they have picked to describe or write about which is very helpful. So it's also teaching that pathway with the communication device. So um they can connect it and make a real clear connection of how to describe or write something for us. Um, and the same thing with an eye gaze um device too. So they can use um their eyes and um um look at the category on the screen and tell us what they would like to write as well. So students would hold their eyes their eye gaze. So down here at the bottom the device reads where their their pupils are and then they can hold their eyes on a specific cell. So they would hold their eyes on category and then that would open up and then give them all kinds of
073categories to choose from. So even students who are not able to use hands are able to use their eyes to communicate which is pretty phenomenal. For students who have some a bit more language and even some writing skills, this might be a prompt that we would put in front of students with um some kind of object that we would put in front of them in order for them to use the tool as well. Again, a visual prompt to help them expand their language. For students who need more picture support, they would have they would use the pictures that are here in the second column in order to support looking for or coming up with ideas to put in to this prompt. Other students would use a more basic prompt. When teaching how to use the
074different beads and and presenting the different beads to students, we might start with just the green bead. And we might do some activities about sorting into categories. So students would have several pictures of different things and students would begin uh sorting those into different categories. Most of the time we use something called a core board. And I meant to bring that and walked right out without it. Um which has all of the core language that we use on a day-to-day basis. We can hold up the coreboard and we can make lots and lots of sentences using that core language. But when we need to talk about something specific, we need to pull out something called fringe boards. So we use a lot of fringe boards here. And again, in order to expand expression, so if
075we're teaching white, what does it look like? We're going to put out some fringe boards that has all that have all different kinds of descriptors and words that students can choose from in order to describe what they are seeing. Here's an example of what uh a fringe board that we would use for students to describe the parts of something or what something is made of. If we were talking about animals, this might be a board that we would use a fringe board that we would use with students so that they could describe different animals and the parts that different animals have. in working with where we would do lots of activities for students to match. Where do we find the pencil? Well, we might find the pencil in the desk. So, these would be activities
076that we would use in order to teach the concept of these seven components in the EET. In order to support our staff and our families as well, we provide lots of resources for them to engage in. Here are just a few that we have um in here. This whole presentation is on the front page of our website. So, if you were interested, it's there. Several resources within here that have much more explanation and actually videos. Uh, one is where a student they introduce they introduce the concept to her and say, "Here's an apple." And she goes on and talks about a worm that could be in the apple and you can't eat the apple. But she didn't describe the apple. They worked with her using the EET system and came back and did another video
077of that. And you can see where she describes the apple with all seven components and how that could easily be translated into an a writing activity as well expanding their expression expression not only verbally but written expression as well. So here's an example of what we might put in front of a student. We would go through these different areas and students might fill in all of those areas with different pictures that have different descriptions that go with each area of the component. As I said, we also use it to describe people, autobiographies, biographies. So, we've used it during American Education Week. We did something a turkey ram that we do every year. Um, and so each staff person gets a turkey gram from a student and each student gets a turkey gram from a staff
078person. And so everybody sits down and they worked through this this year in order to provide each person each each student and each staff person in our building with their their own turkey gram. What's great is with all the adults, you go into their rooms or their offices or wherever they are and you see all of them hanging on their walls. I giggle each time I go in because there the turkey gram is still sitting and it's April. Um so they absolutely love them. So, we did one more project that we really really had a lot of fun with. For April during poetry month, we like to use our EET device or EET tool in order to create different um I guess this time would be a CCSS grant. So what we did and and
079I nagged him a little bit as well as his secretary and a couple other people around him to answer my questions. So we created a really adorable book all about Mr. Taylor with all kinds of interesting things in here. Some serious stuff in here like he likes the color blue. He likes pizza. The one I found interesting is he likes anything cool in the gang. Um, I knew all the sports ones were coming, but uh, the best part, of course, is that he loves to visit Cedar Chapel Special School with lots of pictures in there as well. So, Mr. Taylor, I'll give you a copy of this. So, students used this in every classroom and then they created EETs. This this was their their template here, this uh, CCSS Graham. and they we've created a
080whole book where students completed their own EETs about Mr. Taylor um from the story that they read where they've seen you what they they might have engaged with you. I love a couple of them. There's one that says that you are shiny. It's my favorite shiny. And you were blessed also with Bad and Bougie, too. I just have to say and I'm I'm sharing Bad and Bougie with you. So, uh, we just wanted to share that with you and, um, for you to know how much our students, uh, really do care for you. You're very welcome, Linda. I have to tell you, um, Dawned me too about it. And the last day she handed me, please just answer the question. Can you get this filled out? I said, just put anything. I'm too busy. I
081didn't know you were doing this. There's always a method to my madness. I got you, though. always a method to my madness, guaranteed. Um, just a few more things about our EET. We have a poetry uh display. Um, we it's on our website, but we also have it on display that used um EET with that at the Worcester County Arts Council. Thank you. I had to think of it there for a minute. Worcester County Arts Council. And actually, this piece right here by Kennedy is on display there. We will also have CCSS poetry night which will happen May 8th at Worcester Technical High School where they have done a whole new project of artwork using the EET with creating poetry. So any questions board Miss Satis not really a question but more of a comment.
082I I saw this um I think was this last year at um are are you guys doing this in other schools too? Because I think it was done at Buckingham. Um Dr. Welch was escorting us around the the building and one of the students actually did this and it was really neat because he literally went he'd hold one bead, go over it, then he'd pick up the next bead and it was really neat to see how he used it to create, you know, the the information around whatever. I I I can't remember what it was now, but it was just really neat to see how he used this and applied it to um what he was doing with it. Um so awesome job with that. I think it's really neat. Um and just another question,
083what's is there significance with the flashlight or is it just if you the little piece of paper it says shining a light? Thank you. Little little light to shine light on it. Very It's a really neat concept and I really like it a lot. So thank you. Well, the part that I love the most about it is that it provides universal access for all students everywhere, no matter where they are, and it provides access for students in the general education classroom, right? Everywhere. And I I thought that that was neat, too, because as this boy, you could see that he did have some challenges as he was going through it. It helped him. But I was just thinking, wow, this would be great for just kids to use in general to learn, you know, a
084wider vocabulary when it comes to writing um and and doing different things. So yeah, it actually started in the general education classroom. We just pulled in and adapted it and added more pictures to it for our students who need picture support. Awesome. Thank you. Y Belinda, I want to say something about Cedar Chapel Special School. Um all of you know that Dr. Andy's has been one of my mentors um when I took over as superintendent and a lot of times when I call him or talk with him, I say this is a superintendent conversation, not a board conversation. But one of the pieces of advice of many pieces of advice that he gave me, he says, "When you're having a really bad day," he said, "Go out and go visit schools or go sit in
085a classroom." And sometimes you think, "Well, you're too busy to do that." But one of I I've always done that. And the school that I go to is Cedar Chapel Special School. And I want to tell you something. Um, I invite all of you to visit Cedar Chapel Special School because when we complain and we talk about other people and we don't like the way certain people are doing certain things, go walk through that school. Every time I do that, I come out and I think my problems are minimal. Um it's it's a Cedar Chapel is the name but Cedar Ta Chapel special is what you will see in that school and those kids uh in their own way light up and a lot of times um Miss Gouius has to tell me exactly what
086they're doing when they're happy because you don't know but she working around them. But I'm going to tell you something. I love all our schools. Don't take me wrong, but that is the gem of this school system. There are 54 56 kids, depends on the year, that go there every day. And we are blessed to have that school. But if you think life is rough and you don't like something somebody's doing, go take a look at that. I encourage all of you to go in there and walk around and you'll appreciate things a little differently. I know I do it. and Belinda, I want to thank you for your leadership and for providing that school for a variety of reasons, but also for the superintendent who gets readjusted every time I walk in there. Thank
087you. Thank you so much. I think it's so easy to embrace because it's an atmosphere where we just meet kids where they are and kids can be who they are and it's okay and we embrace that about them. no matter who they are and how they come to us, we just um an amazing staff that just meets them where they are and just keeps moving them forward. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. [Music] Andy's Linda. I just want to say one of one of the most gratifying things in our lives is being able to express ourselves, whether it's feeling, emotion, it's like breathing. It really is. And this tool is allowing these young kids to express themselves. and it's uh it's a great thing. So, we want to thank you for bringing it
088to us and showing it to us and we appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's magical when they can they can connect with what they're trying to say in their communication devices and they can then learn that pathway themselves which is just uh an amazing and we are also grateful that you have a Worcester County graduate working in that school. That's exciting. And one more thing, can we have a copy? Can all the board members have a copy of that? Mr. I do have an electronic copy. Okay. I do have an electronic copy. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you. And now I'm going to turn it over Miss Shorts for the blueprint update. Why does this always happen with a blueprint update after that? And I just want to say
089Zoe Jackson is a Snowhill Elementary proud um graduate of Snow Hill Elementary when she had a principal who thought a great deal of her. So congratulations Zoe. Um actually I don't have much of an update this month. Everything seems to be on hold with the blueprint. Um although the legislative session has ended um we have no news on funding for the blueprint. I I believe that will happen when the um governor strikes his budget, which will hopefully happen in May sometime. We'll have more news on what might get struck from our blueprint budget. Um our implementation plans again um I believe that sometime at the beginning of the school year, we will be um getting feedback on our plan from this year, which will go to um 2027. Um, so possibly our new superintendent will
090be part of that review. So, we're still waiting to hear about that, but really nothing very much going on in the land of of blueprint right now. So, um, I will continue to keep you posted mostly probably around the legislative and um, governor's budget will be the the biggest news, but other than that, not much going on unless you have questions for me. Board members, anyone with questions for Okay, thank you very much, M. That concludes curriculum and instruction. Thank you so much. Now, we're moving on to administrative operations. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. App for personnel exhibit. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. Um, your April's personnel exhibit for the board's consideration retirements. We have Sandra Freriedman, teacher at Steven Decar Middle School. And we have Lewis Taylor, superintendent here at central office.
091New hires, Ernest Bingham, custodian 2, Steven Decar High School. Regan Chung, uh, teacher elementary at Berlin Intermediate School. Matthew Driscoll, English teacher at Steven Decar High School. Erica Yule, educational assistant at Berlin Intermediate School. Paige Folk, teacher at Poke Middle School. Laura Hutchinson, secretary, grade five, Berlin Intermediate School. Margaret Keenan, special ed teacher, Buckingham Elementary School. Aaron Kelly, educational assistant, Snow Hill High School. Christina Lank, secretary, grade six, Central Office. De'ario Munford, custodian two, Buckingham Elementary School. Molly Simpson, teacher, grade six math at Berlin Intermediate School. That they are your new hires. Your separations this month is Gary Carter, custodian 2, Steven Decar High School. Conrad Fain, teacher, Pocamoke High School. Maryanne Francone, educational assistant, Berlin Intermediate School. Jennifer Luwendowski, occupational therapist, central office. Aaron McGriel, occupational therapist at Cedar Chapel Special School. Promotions. We
092have Carly Dixon, school counselor at Pokemoke Middle School. Bennett Doly, teacher at Steven Decar High School. Amber Hall, media specialist at Pokemoke Elementary School. Michelle Rafo, teacher at Berlin Intermediate School. Tyrie Thornton, head custodian at Pokemoke High School, and Suzanne Truit, secretary in transportation at central office. The superintendent recommends approval of the personnel exhibit as presented. Thank you, Dr. App. Um board, can I have a motion and a second to approve the personnel exhibit as presented? So moved. Motion by Dr. Andes. A second by Miss Mccomomas. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you very much, Mr. Mr. Dr. A, thank you very much. And we're going to stick with you for the ratification negotiated agreements. Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. Yes. Um, we are here today to officially ratify our negotiated agreements with uh both
093of our units. Uh the Worcester County Teachers Association and the Worcester County Educational Professionals Association have ratified the agreement which includes a step and increase for eligible employees, a salary increase or salary scale adjustment and modified language in both of those contracts. Um, by signing these contracts today, it will mark the official ratification for both the board and the associations for the 2526 school year. The superintendent recommends the approval of the signing of these negotiated contract agreements. Okay. So, can I have a motion and a second to approve the negotiated contract agreements as presented? So, moved. Motion by Mr. Buchanan. Second. A second by Mr. Smack. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, Mr. Ver, at this time we're going to do the signing. So, I'm going to ask um for you and Superintendent Taylor
094to come forth and as well as Mr. Ivory Smith to come forward first to sign for the support group. Need a blue. This is memory understanding for summer school. These are a four group. Just like you come up to your shirt, All right. This is the signature page for the contract. [Music] This is the silver view. And what group of benefits? Mr. Board, I'd like to thank you for your support. Like to thank Ivory and Bess and their chief negotiator, Mr. John Carneahan for a collaborative um sessions that we um did this year and many years. So is truly a partnership with both the associations and I appreciate you very much um as the uh board's chief negotiator. So thank you for the collaboration outgoing superintendent. Um also I've had the privilege of working with
095both of these people my entire tenure as superintendent. We had another chief negotiator early on and then I've had the great privilege of working with John the last few years and it is truly Dwayne said it perfectly. Um even when we don't always agree, it's remained professional the entire time. Um we respect where they are, they respect where the board and and and myself as representing the board. Um and Dr. strap has done just a terrific job along with his teams. Most are on the uh executive level. Um it's it it blew me out of the water this year that we got it done in a day with each unit, but they were determined. They got in there, they rolled their sleeves up, both groups, and uh Beth and Ivory, I'm going to miss you
096guys. Um the the professionalism and the the camaraderie that we've shared as professionals has been second to none, and I personally and professionally want to thank you today. Thank you. I just want to say on behalf of our board, you know, we we were uh apprised by Dr. App of the negotiations as they went on and we appreciate you and we thank you for all that you do for the school system and we just want to you to know that we appreciate you working with the board in order to make this happen. So, thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Okay. And now I'm going to turn it back to Dr. All right. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. For your consideration, board, there's a um new policy in front of you, VC10, employee contractors record
097retention, storage, and um destruction. Um, we established procedure to secure uh storage and timely destruction of our employee and contractor records in compliance with the Maryland Public Information Act. So, this policy outlines the retention, access, and destruction protocols for employment records held by the Finance and Human Resources Department. Um, superintendent recommends approval of the new policy VC10 employee contractor record retention storage and destruction as presented. Thank you, Dr. App. Can I have a motion and a second to approve new policy V- C-10 employee contractor record and retention storage and destruction as presented? Board, I need a motion and a second. So moved. Motion by Dr. Andes. Second, a second by Mr. Gordy. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. And I guess I'm going to stay with you, Dr. Thank you, Mr.
098Fonte. I'd like to ask uh our transportation manager, Miss um Kim Heiser, to come up and make a presentation to the board. Can make sure that's on. Yep. It's pull it close to you, Kim. I think it is on. I think I left it on. Good afternoon. Thank you. Yep. Uh before you today, I have an exhibit that I am um presenting for purchase of a new school bus. We have a contractor, Mr. Scott Shockley, in the Snow Hill area that currently operates a 2013 school bus that has to go out of service uh by August 6, 2027. Mr. Shockley's requesting permission to purchase a new bus and sell his current bus to one of our current contractors to be used as a spare bus. So, a little history. Uh, in December, I came and
099I asked permission for Miss Lewis to purchase a new bus. They have come to an agreement where she would like to not purchase a new bus, allow him to purchase the new, and she'll buy his bus to be used as a spare bus. So, for budget purposes, there will be no impact uh on our request. Uh, the superintendent recommends approval of this exhibit as presented. Okay. Can I have a motion and a second to approve motion to approve the purchase of the new and used school bus as presented? Motion motion by Mr. Buchanan. Second by Miss Mccomus. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you, Miss Heiser. Thank you. Next. Back to you, Mr. Fonte. Thank you, Dr. R. And now I'm going to for physical operations, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Tolbert.
100I'm sorry to do Dr. Wallace. That's okay. Um, thank you, Mr. Fonte. Uh, we continue to have a strong partnership with our with our sheriff's office. Um, and so one thing I wanted to share this month in an update as you as we sat through quite a bit of winter sports successes um to to this afternoon. Um, that requires extra games that are many of them at many of our schools were played at home as they go through playoff runs. Um and so a a challenge that we've been facing in recent years um in trying to cover have our sheriff's office helping us cover more and more events um has been a budgeting challenge for them. And so um I'd like to thank Dr. Brian Cook who was in the room um and Mr. Sean
101Goddard who reached out to the Maryland Center for School Safety um and received another $24,562 in additional grant money um for us to give the sheriff's office to continue covering um our events that take place uh after school. So, we thank them for their partnership um and we're grateful to write over that check to the sheriff's office to help them out with their funds. Um, we also are continuing I wanted to just give you a brief update to shore up our buildings um, as we're completing some of the projects that the board has approved earlier this year. So, back to you, Mr. Fonte. Thank you, Dr. Wallace. Any questions for Dr. Wallace concerning that? That's great news. Thank you so much. And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Tolbert for physical operations. Thank you,
102Mr. Fonte. First up, we have Mr. Dar Price. As you know, right in the middle of planning for a Buckingham Elementary School project, doing a schismatic design and right on top of that, we're getting ready for a Berlin immediate school project and we're looking at doing the feasibility study next year and Mr. Price wants to talk about doing some interviews with some architectural firms. Mr. Price, thank you, Mr. Tolbert. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. On February 3rd, we released a request for proposal for architectural engineering services for the Berlin Intermediate feasibility study and edspecs. On March 1st, we conducted a walkthrough of Berlin Intermediate for any interested firms and 13 firms attended the walkthrough. On March 13th, we received RFP responses from 12 firms. We reviewed and graded each one of those and I want to
103thank Mr. Slikum for taking the time to review and grade each of the uh responses. Following tabulation of each firm's grades, the superintendent is recommending the following four firms be selected for interviews. Becker Morgan Group, Crabtree Warbon Associates, Grimman Parker, and Horde Copeland Mock. And with your approval of the four firms today, we will schedule interviews by the selection committee on May 7th. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Price. Any questions for Mr. Price concerning the process? I think he went over this with the board anyway. So, uh, if not, I need a motion and a second for the approval of the following AE firms for, uh, the, uh, Berlin Intermediate School feasibility selection study. So moved. Motion by Dr. Randy's. A second by Mr. Gordy. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. Price. Thank
104you. Thank you, Mr. Price. Uh, the next item, Mr. Fonte, is the refresh of our Apple iPad uh, devices. As the board may remember back in FY20, uh the board made decision with the county commissioner support to move forward with a onetoone initiative using Apple iPads for all our teachers and all of our staff. Uh we went through one refresh cycle a few years ago. It's now time to do the second refresh. Uh in this refresh cycle, we have to replace also the cases and the peripheral devices, which includes the crayons and the pen pencils. Um the total cost of $4,954,890. Uh that pricing is off of the MEAT contract which is through the state of Maryland. Um the existing devices will be sold to a third party vendor to help offset the cost of
105the new lease. Um I'll certainly take any questions that the board may have. Um Mr. This is a multi-year lease till 2028. Is that correct? That's correct. It's a four-year lease, Mr. Bronte. Okay. Any other board members have questions regarding the Apple lease agreement? If not, the superintendent recommends this for approval. And I'm going to ask the board if I can have a motion and a second to approve the lease agreement with Apple as presented pending legal review. Motion. Motion by Mr. Smack. Second. Second by Mr. Buchanan. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. Tolbert. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. Uh the last item I have for the board is the monthly financial report for the month of March with total non-sary expenditures of 5,54,149.64 and superintendent recommends approval of the March financial report
106as presented. Okay. Board. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the March 31st, 2025 monthly financial report as presented? Motion by Miss Mccomomas. A second by Mr. Gordy. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Does that conclude? It concludes fiscal operations, Mr. Fonte. Thank you very much, Mr. Tolbert. And now I'm going to open it up to my fellow board members for board of education comments. Mr. Gordy, can you speak into the mic for me, please? [Music] Try to trick me. Um, Mr. Tolbert, the the four million shot had just gotten by me. the $4 million worth of new computers. Is that what I heard you say? $4.9 million is the total of the new lease. Yes. Okay. That's almost five. Is that uh part of our routine
107budget? Are there grants out there? Is that coming straight out of our budget process? We we have the annual amount included in our annual operating budget we have for the past few years. Uh we actually uh included an increase this year uh to cover the new lease that we're requiring. So, it is in the proposed budget uh for that new lease that we're entering. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Um status for board comments, right? Is that okay? We're all board comments. Um I just wanted to um first clarify one thing. Um board president Ferrante at the beginning of the meeting um just let the public know that um there was a vote taken and closed on April 7th. Um, and I just wanted to clarify my vote since I was the only one to vote
108against it. Um, I wasn't voting against the two applicants. Um, I was merely voting against the vote because I felt that it was necessary to have three finalists instead of two. Um, mainly to open up the pool um, for consideration for ourselves as a board and for our focus groups as they meet with them next week. Um, so that was really the main reason why I voted against um, that that motion. Um, and then that leads me into the next topic that I just wanted to touch on briefly. Um, obviously we all know that this superintendent search is going on right now and there have been a lot of people who've reached out to me specifically um, in in regards to their opinions on it. Um, and I just wanted to make sure that everyone
109knows that as a board member, it's very difficult because we are in a a situation where we need to listen to not only the parents and the teachers, but as as well as the the employees of Worcester County Public Schools. Um, and obviously everyone has an opinion uh when it comes to this this um application process. Um and and many um employees have reached out to me in the last week uh mainly people who are part of the teachers association uh and are asking that their voices be heard. So I'm I'm mainly just offering this up as a suggestion. This is not anything that you need to do or anything like that. Um, but it's it's basically I'm I'm offering this up since I've been hearing it from constituents and that is that I would
110just uh suggest that maybe the teachers association come up with some sort of a anan unan anonymous survey as well as potentially the um support staff uh just so that they feel like they their voices are heard when it comes to those focus groups specifically. Um, and that's that's their concern when it comes to that. Um, and also while we're on that topic, um, I do want to say that we have received a lot of input, um, very strong opinions on both sides and at the end of the day, I uh, as well as I I don't I can't speak for other board members. Um, but I feel like it would be better reciprocated and felt if um there was a name attached to any letters that are sent to us so that we we
111know who um we are to reach back out to uh with any concerns uh in the future when it comes to responding. So, thank you all for for anyone who has contacted myself and other board members in this process. Um, but it would be very helpful uh if you were able to attach a name to to the statement that you are making. So, thank you very much, Dr. Andy's. Uh, thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. Uh, Congress at this point in time is debating federal aid to public schools. And on page 58 of our budget book, we list those sources of federal funding. So, as an example, uh the Every Student Succeeds Act, all those titles that you see there are sources of public funding. So, as an of federal funding, I'm sorry. So,
112as an example, we're estimating that we're going to receive 2.13446 million in title one funds. And we utilize those title one funds at Pocamok Elementary School, Snow Hill Elementary School, and Buckingham Elementary School, which are all title one schools. In addition, there's title three, which is language acquisition, title four, student support, and so forth and so on. And all of those are listed on page 58. So, we receive funding through the title program, Every Student Succeeds Act, to provide additional supports for students who need it, who need it. Also, the second area of federal funding we receive is special education. And again, if you look on page 58 of our operating proposed operating budget, you will rece you will see that we will receive from the federal government 2.1 we anticipate we're going to receive
113$2.1 million in federal support for special education. That's not enough. It's not enough to address the issues that we have, but it's $2.1 million that are critically important. The third area of debate in Congress will be Medicaid. That's our third source of federal dollars that come into our school system. So, as an example, if we provide a service to a student who is eligible for Medicaid through special education like occupational therapy, physical therapy, or speech therapy, we have an opportunity to build Medicaid to build Medicaid to receive some of that funding back. It's it's never it's never the same dollar amount. So, as an example, I'm just making this up. This is all made up. Uh that service might cost us $100 and Medicaid might give us $60 reimbursement as an example. But that's a
114third source of of dollars for us. And the fourth source of dollars that the Congress will be be debating is our food nutrition program which provides additional support for our students for free reduced meals program that we have. And in order to qualify for a student for a free meal under the current standards, a single parent, single mom, let's say, with a child has to have an income of less than $26,000. just one example. If you want to see the entire chart, you can simply go to the Maryland State Department of Education website or you can just simply do a search and look at the food uh qualifications for free or reduced meals. If a student qualifies for a reduced meal, the single parent, the mom in my example, and the child have to have
115an income between 26 and $36,000 in order to be eligible for a reduced meal. Now, personally, I don't know how you could ever make it as a single parent with a child on $26,000. So whenever we say that we have 48 or 50% of our students who are eligible for free reduced meals, we're talking about a significant number of folks in our community who what I call are hardworking poor folks and they're making a difference. So where does our federal dollars come from? And again, you can look at the page 58 and then on page 90, there's a description of every single grant, a paragraph that talks about each of those. So, every student succeeds acts as a title program. Number one, federal dollars. Number two, federal dollars is special education. Number three is Medicaid
116reimbursement. And number four is the food nutrition program that comes out of the United States Department of Agriculture. So, the US Department of A actually funds that through a grant program. What I'm suggesting is that in order to help our uh federal legislators uh Senator Alselbrooks, Senator Van Holland, and Congressman Harris truly understand the impact that those dollars have and what we use those dollars for. I'm suggesting that we send a letter of information. Just a letter of information that says, "Here's the sources of funds that we get. Here's where they come from. And oh, by the way, here's what we do with the money. So, example, here's what we do with our title one money at Pocamok Elementary School, Snow Elementary School, and Buckingham Elementary School. And here's the stretch services that it provides
117for our students. The same thing is true in the area of special education. when we get to two million $2.1 million, here's what we do with those dollars in the area of special education and how they support students with significant needs. And then the same thing is would be true for Medicaid. Here's the dollars we receive for Medicaid reimbursement. Here's the actual cost of what it costs to provide those services. And here's the kinds of services that we provide to our students who need either speech therapy, occupational therapy, or physical therapy or other kinds of therapy programs that that they require. And then finally, what we do with the food and nutrition dollars, which we operate the largest restaurant in Worcester County. We operate the largest restaurant in Worcester County. So, what I'm suggesting, I'm
118not suggesting that we take a position one way or the other. I'm not suggesting that we lobby. I'm not suggesting that we market. I'm not suggesting any of that. All I'm suggesting is that we put together a letter that's anformational letter. We send it to Senator Also Brooks, Federal Senator Van Holland, and Congressman Harris that truly lays out and explains what we do with these dollars in Worcester County that makes a difference for our students. Uh, Congress is debating it right now. They have a they call it a blueprint, not the Maryland blueprint, the federal blueprint, which says here's what we need to do. And as I understand it, the Congress is considering cutting $880 billion dollars from the federal budget. And what I'm hoping is by helping to inform our leaders, our federal folks,
119our senators, and Congressman Harris of exactly how those dollars are spent, maybe, just maybe, we can hang on to some of those dollars to provide support for our students. So that's my suggestion. Uh, I'll be happy to answer any questions or take any questions from any members of the board on what I'm suggesting. Thank you. Oh, one more thing. One more thing. I'm sorry. I apologize for for those of us who who celebrate the holiday that's coming up. I hope for everyone a very reflective Good Friday. Spend some time reflecting about what Good Friday truly truly means to all of us who are Christians. And the second thing is on Easter, please celebrate, please celebrate Easter and make memories with friends and family. Thank you, Miss McKillis. Okay. Are you going to write the letter?
120Not on. Oh, I'm not on. I'm sorry. Are you gonna write the letter? No, we'll take care of it. I I would be happy to help, but I'm Okay. I think that's an awesome idea. I honestly do. I I think what we're dealing with at the moment is we just need to get this kind of information out. And it's, you know, like you say, it's neither one side or the other. We just need them to know these dollars are used wisely. That's that's it. [Music] Okay. Mr. Buchanan, I had the uh the opportunity last week uh to participate in reading day. Am I on? Yeah. Reading day at Pogmok Elementary School and it was great. Uh you have a captive audience when you read to elementary school kids. Uh but when you ask them a
121question in regard to the book that you're reading, they they keep on ask telling you more information. It just goes on and on and on and on. So you have to get to a point you can kind of like, okay, let's read a little bit more. Uh but that was that's great. That's great. And I know most of us participate in that. Um the second things which is very uh dear to my heart tonight is the uh fine arts festival at Sna High School uh where all the art and music in this county is being uh put out there for the parents and community to see. And uh I'm glad that u that I can walk in there tonight and and look at all the artwork and listen to all the music, but at the
122very end I don't have to stay till 10:00 at night taking all the artwork down, which is what I had to do year after year after year. So if you have a chance tonight, uh go see the fantastic art and music that's being presented uh out of our schools. Thank you. Um Dr. Strange. It would be my recommendation since we're going to be back here um to do an open uh next week that we put together the letter and then we can put it on the agenda when we open up and we can get a board motion to approve it. How about that? Does that sound okay? Okay. And secondly, I just want to complement in our superintendent search process. We've had a very robust engaged process. Um, this is one of the most important
123things that the board does is to hire the new superintendent and we take that process very seriously. It's been it and it's also a very inclusive process and that's why we have a lot of focus groups out there who come together. Um, they they look at each applicant and they do their pros and cons on what each applicant the the good parts and maybe the not so good parts about what they bring to the table. And I think it's um something that we pride ourselves on that and we've we've got a lot of community members that come out and engage in this process. And I think that's very important for our school board. Um as to uh to reflect on what Mrs. Addis said, I would just say that anyone who has any concerns can
124certainly voice them to any board member here. We are always open to hear you. Um, I would also say that we do want you to sign your name to it because names who are um, letters that are sent anonymously mean nothing when they don't have anybody to back them up. So, we really need you as an individual if you want to make a comment or anything. Our emails are listed. You can certainly email us. I know we will all get back to you or we will respond to you about your concerns. And also, I want to wish everyone a happy Easter. I also think you should spend time with your families. It's a very enjoyable holiday and I look forward to spending it with my family and Mr. Smack. Yes. So, am I coming to
125your house? Fried potatoes, ham, eggs, biscuit. You're welcome. Sounds good. Yeah. Um, everyone have a blessed This is Holy Week. Let's have a blessed a loving and think about our Lord and Savior who sacrifice his life for us. I'm thankful for it. Tears in my eyes, brother. Y'all have a blessed blessed Easter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smack. Appreciate that. And now, um, is there any other board members that would like to make any comments? If not, I'm going to took it turn it over to Mr. Taylor forformational announcements. Okay, I have a few announcements um as well. Uh you've already heard that tonight at 5:00 at Snow Hill High School will be the Fine Arts Festival. Again, it's a great night to come out and see the amazing work, both vocal music, instrumental music,
126and the art that these kids produce year in and year out. It totally amazes me. Um tomorrow night, April 16th is our 38th, I believe. Carrie, am I right? I guess that I saw it on something. But 30th annual teacher of the year banquet in Ocean City. Always an exciting night, not to only uh celebrate 14 incredible individuals, but to celebrate the profession of teaching. And so I want to thank Carrie Steers and her team for their leadership each year and putting that event together. It's always a a wonderful evening. Um and I'm grateful that our board will be attending. Uh schools will be closed um Friday and Monday 18th through the 21st to celebrate uh spring break for those who celebrate Easter, the Easter holiday as well. And on May 6, we will have
127that's the first Tuesday I believe in May, we will have our budget hearing at I'm not sure. Mine says 7, but I think it's 6 6 pm um at the um county commissioner's office room. That's where it was held last year. That's where we we will be there again this year. And then on May 12th, the Worcester County Public School Retirement and Service Awards Ceremony will be held at 400 PM at Worcester Tech. Again, that's um uh on May the 12th. We will be celebrating retirement and service year awards and our HR department heads that up. Board members, I want to remind you that in your packets that there are a list of our high schools and the events that are coming up. Um again, May is a busy month. Uh we start the first
128one is April the 29th with the WEXL banquet at Steen Decar High School and it goes from there. Um so again I want to remind you to take a look at that chart and I know it's very difficult to be to all of it but anything that you can attend we would greatly appreciate and I too want to echo what has been said today for those who celebrate Easter um again very well said Mr. smack from my perspective as well as a Christian believer. And for those of you that don't celebrate, please have a a a happy spring break and enjoy your, as Dr. Andy said, your family and friends in the process. So that'll be it for me, Mr. Fonte. Back to you. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. The Wister County Board of Education is
129going to hold a special meeting Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 in the in this meeting room, Sarah D. Thompson meeting room at the Worester County Board of Education central office located here at 6270 Worcester Highway in Newark, Maryland. Uh the open session will begin at 5:30 and we'll immediately consider voting in to convene into close session under general provisions of article 3-305B of the annotated code of Maryland. The board will adjourn the meeting from the close session as no further action anticipated. The board information is posted on the website www.wisterk12.org board located under board meetings and board docs. And now u board members I would ask for a motion to adjurnn this meeting today in a second. Motion by Mr. Smack. Second. A second. Nobody wants to adjurnn. And a second by Miss Mccomomas. All in
130favor? I. Any opposed? We are now ajourned. Thank you very much.