Jefferson County Board of Education Meeting April 28th, 2025

001Yeah. Yeah. Good evening. Welcome to the Jefferson County Board of Education regular meeting on Monday, April 28th, 2025. If you'd please join us for the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. Before we start this evening's meeting, if you would all join me in just a moment of silence. We lost one of our own recently. It was um Ava Kilmer, who was a Washington High School class of 2021 and the daughter of Andrea Kilmer, who is the dance instructor here at Washington High School. Thank you very much. All right. First this evening we have business partner signings. Good evening. With us, our first business partner signing for tonight is Ranson

002Elementary School and United Bank. Um, with us today is Karen Rodriguez and Nelie Hernandez along with Mr. Asterino, principal of Ranson Elementary School. Um they're very excited to partner. They've already been working together a little bit. They're excited to partner for next week's teacher appreciation. Um and they have a lot of plans for next school year as well. So then we have another business partner signing with Shepardtown Elementary School. So, we have Miss Jodie Payne here from Shepherdtown Elementary, the principal, and she is signing a partnership with Jackie Lewis from Green Tree Realy. She had a bit of a minor emergency, but we're still honoring the business partnership. The partnership is strong. Um, she unfortunately couldn't be here, but um, we are doing the partnership and there's a lot of good things in place that

003are happening right now and ideas for next year. We're so excited about that. So, I'm going to hand this over to Miss Payne. And that's it. Pain. Miss Payne. Miss Payne, you're not off the hook. Come back up. We have some recognitions with um giant company Martins's grocery store with Jefferson County Schools. Go ahead and speak into the microphone there. Hi, my name is Oh, my name is Conor Perkins. I am a may not be on. Oh, is it not on? Oh, I thought it was already on. Sorry. Hi, I'm Connor Perkins. I'm a team lead at the Martins here in Charletown at 190 Flowing Springs Road. And we have been so happy to partner with you, the Jefferson County School District, with our feeding school kids initiative. Um, so since 20 since launching in

0042021, we the Giant Company and partnering communities have been proud to raise over $7.5 million to help feed school kids in neighboring communities. We believe as a company that no child should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. So, in partnership with the community through rounding up at checkout or donating their choice points, we've been proud to raise $9,965.36 for the Jefferson County Board of Education. So, thank you and thank you. Thank you to the community as well for helping us raise these funds. Thank you. Yeah. [Music] All right. Next up, we have student and staff recognitions. And I know we have at least three of those, right, Miss Springer? Good evening, President Skinner, members of the board, and Dr. Bishop. This evening, our introductions will begin with a group of

005outstanding students from Washington High School who were selected for the West Virginia American Coral Directors Association Allstate Choir. These talented vocal students were selected for their hard work, skill, and dedication to music. They had the opportunity to work with conductors and perform alongside the best student musicians from across the state. To celebrate this incredible achievement, I now invite Washington High School's choir director, Ken Cooper, to recognize each student by name. [Music] Oh, okay. I'll do the stick first. We'll start with the all state students and we have Megan Brady, Amara Kase, Ashley Cochram, Christine Larson, Alexa Stunts, Alexa Littleton, Payton Day, Mason Bennett, Aiden Shifflet, Wyatt Talton, and Savannah Ahern, plus six more that aren't here. Keep going. Or are you coming back? Next, we are excited to recognize the members of Washington High School's

006Camarada Chamber Choir for their outstanding achievement this school year. They earned the grand trophy at the Capitol Sing Concert Choir Competition, were named grand champions at the Martinsburg American Classic, and took second place at the Festival of Choirs. Once again, invite Mr. Cooper to read their names. So, we have some duplicate students because many of our students are involved in everything they possibly can get involved in. So, you'll hear some names again, but I will read them. Uh Mason Bennett, Megan Brady, Ashley Cochram, Jacob Cornell, Aman Day, Payton Day, Christine Larson, Alexa Littleton, Jaden Reese, Aiden Shifflet, Joseph Sts, Alexis Stunts, Wyatt Talton, Charlotte Olrich, Adam Wrius, please come up. Finally, we are proud to recognize the members of Washington High School's Tenerbased Choir for their success this year. The group earned first place in

007their division at Martinsburg American Classic. To close out our Washington High School recognitions this evening, I once again invite Mr. Cooper to come forward and recognize his students. So we have again some repeats but a new name Dominic Day come up and join us. Payton Day and Adri Aiden Shifflet, Joseph Stubs, Wyatt Talton, and Adam Whiteus. And then all of these folders that are people that are not here today tonight, but they'll get their folders tomorrow in class. Thank you. Push it back. You're welcome to day, but it's really, really nice outside. Next, we are proud to recognize some of our outstanding FCCLA leaders from Jefferson and Washington high schools. These students brought home top honors at the West Virginia FCCLA Star events this year and have earned the opportunity to compete at the National

008FCCLA Conference in Orlando this July. I now invite Miss Heather Fowl to come forward to recognize each of these students and their incredible achievements. It gives me great honor and pleasure to present to you the West Virginia State SECLA President and West Virginia SECLA state first vice president, both from Jefferson County Schools, Derek Carper and Ava Richards. In addition to both of these um students representing the state as your leadership for FCCLA this school year, they were also um participants at the competitive events. Derek scored a gold medal in career admin career investigation and Ava Richards scored silver medal in nutrition and wellness and both have qualified to go to the national conference in Orlando in July. Additionally, we have four others that will be joining us and unfortunately they are trying to finish up

009a tennis match and racing here, but I don't think it's quite going to happen. But they are right outside on the tennis courts. And that are those students are Hazel Hits, Amanda Basa, and Lily Nicodemus, and they will be presenting the chapter service project, and Noel Nicodemus, who will be presenting the public policy advocate. And all of those students did score with a gold medal. and Noel Nicodemus for the first time in history scored a 100% perfect score at the state competition. So, lots to be proud of here in Jefferson County. Sure. Our last group of students to recognize Oh, no. You're right. Sorry. I think [Music] She doesn't Perfect. And now really we're ready to recognize our last group of students. Tonight we're excited to recognize the outstanding students who were winners at the

010district, regional, and state levels of this year's social studies fair. These students impressed judges and our community with their research and creativity with projects demonstrating curiosity, critical thinking, and a true passion for learning. We are also grateful for the leadership of Harper's Fair Middle School teacher Allison Whitaker who served as county social studies fair coordinator. She's unable to join us this evening, but Mr. Brian Bower will now join us to recognize these exceptional students. All right, we want to give some recognition to these students. Uh, these students placed in either the county, the regional, or the state uh, social studies fairs. So, from Charlestown Middle School, Lorenna Bowers placed third place in the C uh, district. Uh, I'm sorry. Yeah, third place in the district from Harper's Ferry Middle School, Daffhne Stefen. First place in

011the district, second place in the regional. Uh, also from Harper's Ferry, Hazel Turner Pal, and Willow Prevatil, second place in the district. Keegan Bower, first place in the district, third place in the regional. Ameilia White, Addie Smith, Audrey Milner, and Emry Eastman placed first place in the district and first place in regional. From Shphardd'stown Middle School, Brlin and Harper McCoy placed first place in district and first place at the regional competition. Stella Van Hilst was first place for district, second place for regional. Kayla Rosado and Ela Elena Bankhurst were third place in the district. From Wildwood Middle School, Shayla Clark, Colin Pearson, and McKenna Renan, third place in the district. Also from Wildwood, Addison Webb, second place for the district, and Jillian Capranny, second place for the district. And finally, from Jefferson High School, Zoe

012Henderson, first place in the district, first place at regional. Zoe Caval and Sarah Hall, first place at the district. Aiden Cunningham, first place in the district and first place regional. And finally, Anelise Bower and Ally Hickman. First place in the district, second place at regional. Congratulations, everybody. [Music] Now, we have several staff recognitions for the evening. Um, we're going to start this evening with Miss Shana Bush, West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics Middle School Math Teacher of the Year. We are proud to recognize Shaina Bush of Harper's Fairy Middle School being named the West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics Middle School Math Teacher of the Year. Miss Bush makes a difference in many ways, including mentoring new teachers, helping students in need, securing grants for learning projects, and coaching track. As you can

013tell, she inspires students both academically and athletically. And we are excited to celebrate this well-deserved honor tonight. Next we have Miss Allison McCauley, National Society of High School Scholars Educators of Distinction Award. Okay. We are proud to recognize Allison McCully who is selected for the National Society of High School Scholars Educators of Distinction Award. This national honor celebrates teachers who go above and beyond to inspire academic excellence and leadership in their students. Miss McCully was nominated by her student Gavin Smith whose life she has impacted in a meaningful way. While Gavin humbly declined the invitation to be here this evening, he was happy for Miss McCully to have this moment in the spotlight. Please join me in congratulating her on this outstanding [Applause] achievement. Next this evening we have Miss Carrie Jub. First, we are

014proud to recognize Carrie Jub, who was named high school counselor of the year at the West Virginia School Counselor Association Conference, as well as JCS Counselor of the Year. Miss Jeb humbly accepted these honors on behalf of the entire Jefferson High School Counseling Team, sharing that the awards reflect their shared dedication to supporting students each day. While her achievements have been celebrated widely over the past month, tonight we are proud once again to congratulate Miss Shub on this well-deserved recognition. Our last two groups of awards this evening are a continuation of our all-star staff awards from every school. This evening we have Shephardd'stown Elementary School principal Miss Jodie Payne and Shepardtown Middle School Miss Rebecca Horn to come forward and recognize their staff. First, I would like to recognize Railen Berick, our special ed teacher

015at Shephardd'stown Elementary. [Applause] One of the many many great things about this special special educator is um her ability to jump in and make sure all kids are getting an equitable education and she has really partnered with uh teams of grade levels this year at our school and undeniably her kids are benefiting from being exposed to all content that all general education students are exposed to on a daily. So, um, I just am so proud of Rileene and all that she is doing for our students. I also want to take this time to recognize Amy Dinges, our finance secretary. We just received Amy at our school this year. Um, and I just can't imagine ever having somebody like Amy not being at our school. Like she is just irreplaceable in every way. Everything that she

016does, it's for students and staff firstminded and she's a go-getter. She just doesn't do her job. She asks, "What else can I do?" And she already has it done sometimes before the thought finishes coming out of my head. So, I am so glad that uh we were able to get Amy at our school and I hope we keep her forever and ever. [Applause] for Shephardd'stown Middle School. We'd like to nominate two outstanding stars. Our first is our teacher, Miss Andrea Faith. She is a problem solver, an innovator, and dynamic member of our school. Her enthusiasm, love, and passion for teaching, as well as her students, are incredible. She's known for being firm but fair, having rules yet maintaining relationships, and remaining current with latest instructional strategies and technologies to meet the needs of her students.

017Additionally, Miss Faith serves as our FCCLA sponsor where she teaches her students to strive for excellence, to respect to respect each other, and to support our community. We're honored to recognize Miss Andrea Faith as our star [Applause] teacher. Service member is James BS. serves as our dayshift custodian where his diligence and quick eye for detail are noted in zero complaints about missing spots. He cheerfully and quickly responds to any additional requests, support for school events, and to help his peers. He quickly transitioned to his new role during breakfast and lunch duties by building rapport with his students. He's ready and able to help any new student navigate the salad bar, carry bowls of hot soup, and open the fruit and tiny fruit packages. His diligence, respect, and teamwork have earned him the respect of staff

018and students. We are happy to recognize him as a star cardinal as well. [Applause] [Music] That concludes our student and staff recognitions for the evening. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Is there next up we have the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the regular minutes from March 24th, 2025 and the special board meeting minutes held March 31st, 2025 and April 15, 2025? I'll make a motion. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Second. Thank you very much, Mr. Fifer. Any discussion or questions hearing? None. All in favor of the board meeting minutes from March 24th, 2025, March 31st, 2025, and April 15, 2025, say I. I. Oppose. All right. Thank you very much. Next up, we have citizens comments. And just a reminder that all speakers are limited to three minutes and

019speakers are prohibited from making negative or derogatory comments using a name or position by which an individual can be identified. Comments may not be threatening, profane, vulgar, or abusive, or the speaker will be required to cease his or her comments. First up, we have Heather Murray, followed by Reagan Wills. Good evening everyone. Good evening. I'm Heather Murray and I stand before you this evening on behalf of my community and as a parent of minority children within Jefferson County schools. As an educator with nearly 30 years experience, I've ridden the waves of many mandates and experienced the impact. First as an educator, but also as a parent. This evening, I just come to you with a bit of sadness in the wake of the most recent mandates to abolish equity initiatives in the public school settings.

020As such, I just have a couple of questions for JCS schools. Since equity initiatives focus on creating environments that embrace diversity, ensure fairness, and foster a sense of belonging for all, how will this look for the staff and students of diverse backgrounds here in Jefferson County? How will Jefferson County continue to ensure that all populations will receive an equitable education specific to their unique educational needs? How will programming for all students I'm sorry. Oh yeah. How will programming for all students provide the equity, the rigor, and foster the unique learning experiences and dispositions of students of diverse backgrounds? Finally, and most importantly, is Jefferson County Schools willing to partner with community stakeholders to develop a plan and ensure that all students are considered for favorable outcomes. I believe as a community, we can accomplish more

021by working together. And as this little slice of heaven continues to grow, as you all have noticed, it's imperative that we be prep be prepared for all populations that will be representative. As always, I thank you for considering my questions and allowing me an opportunity to speak respectfully. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next up is Reagan Wills, followed by Cassandra Wills. Give me just one moment to reset the timer. Okay. Hi, good evening. My name is Reagan Wills and I'm a junior here at Washington High. I've been an active member of my Black Student Union for about three years and I'm involved in other activities such as the marching band and other school organizations. For starters, I would like to thank the board for their active support in student well-being. Um, and I just quickly

022wanted to address the concerns as not only a student of a marginalized group, but a neurody divergent student as well. I believe these conversations are immensely important in the context of education. As many students from Jefferson County come from diverse backgrounds, I sincerely hope that with these given circumstances that the schoolboard and administrators will help provide more of necessary support and resources so that students like me, and there are many, uh, can grow and have a safe environment to learn and prosper. I know from personal experience um, that students my age benefit greatly from an environment they feel seen and heard in. This can impact a schooling environment greatly and I hope that these practices can be prioritized and preserved. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Cassandra Wills followed by Zonedra Landstone. Good evening, Mr.

023Superintendent and members of the board. My name is Cassandra Holston Wills. Um, you just heard from my daughter. I just want to briefly read a quick statement to dear members of Jefferson County Board of Education. On behalf of the Black Teacher Association Parent Hub, as well as the Hispanic and Latino Association, we are writing to express our sincere appreciation in advance for your continued commitment to community connections within our school system. We deeply value your dedication to ensuring a safe and welcoming learning environment for our students in Jefferson County, particularly those from marginalized populations. We recognize the significance the role the board plays in establishing policies for fostering practices that champion the well-being and unbiased treatment of our students. Your pra your proactive efforts in cultivating a climate of respect, belonging, and understanding are in

024essential for empowering every child to reach their full potential. Creating and maintaining a learning environment free from hostility is a shared responsibility and we commend your ongoing work in this crucial area. We believe that when all students feel safe, valued and respected, our schools and community as a whole are strengthened immeasurably. Furthermore, we want to express the strong commitment of both the Black Teacher Parent Hub and the Hispanic and Latino Association to actively support you in making crucial commitments a reality. We are ready and willing to work collaboratively with the board, administration, educators, and the wider community to ensure that best practices, accessibility, and engagement are still implemented and that a safe and inclusive learning environment is fostered for every student. We believe that through open communication, shared efforts, and a unified vision, we can

025collectively ensure these vital goals are achieved. I thank you for your dedication to doing what is right for all students in Jefferson County and we look forward to partnering with you in this important endeavor. Sincerely, the Black Teacher Parent Hub students and Hispanic and Latino Association families. Thank you and have a good evening. Thank you. Next is Zandrea Lansdown, followed by um Elizabeth Nesbbit on Zoom. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak for just a moment. I'm here because I'm a parent. I'm a parent of a lot of children and all of us kind of look alike and it's kind of important to me that we are seen and we are heard and we are respected just as everyone else is. And I feel that it's very important that with everything that's going on

026outside of the world right now that you all just remember when you start making your decisions on what comes and what goes here in the county that we are still here and we are a part of this organization of this beautiful place and we all need to work together and to do that it's important that we are represented. It's kind of hard for us right now because when you walk into a class you don't see someone that looks like one of your children. sometimes and as much as we want to, sometimes we need to be educated back and forth and sometimes we need to be reminded that we're all same just like we're all different. So that's all I just wanted to say tonight is just to keep your minds open, your mind, your brains,

027your love for people. And just know that all those little kids that I s out back there are our future and we need to remember how we raise them up. Thank you. Thank [Applause] you. Next one is on Zoom. Hello. Hi. Can you hear me? Will you let me know if you can hear me? Hello. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hello. Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear me? Oh dear. Okay. [Music] Uh, what do I what do you want me to do? Hello. Hello. I don't Hello. I'll keep trying. I'm trying to speak and no one can hear me, but I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Hello. I can't do it on my end. You're will probably have to do it yourselves. Hello. Hello. Hello. I can't

028hear anything. I had such a good thing to say, too. All right, let me try at least putting something in the chat. Hello. Okay, there you are. Hello. Hello. Hello, Elizabeth. Is that you? Yeah, this is me. Hello. Hello. I now I can hear some people. But can you hear me? We can hear you now. Oh, okay. Thank you for your patience. Whenever you're ready, you can start. Well, first of all, thank you so much for letting me speak and um for all that you do as the board of education uh and also for the charming award ceremony. Um I speak today on behalf of myself, my family, and another family with a middle school student in Jefferson County. As parents of middle schoolers in Jefferson's County, we strongly support Miss Tanya Frasier and we

029believe her position was vital to our schools. We are troubled by the elimination of her role and the cultural unity and equity department that was fought that was fought for 20 years ago. Um, this is very disappointing. This position ensured that needs of all students were being met, including mine and the Snyder families. I urge you to commit to making equity a priority. We are all DEI. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you, ma'am. And that concludes public comment for this [Music] evening. Next, we have the consent agenda. This is Loring. Good evening. Um, no changes to the consent agenda and the personal actions that was submitted to you for this evening. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So move. Thank you, Mr. Wford. Is there

030a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Any discussion? I have a couple questions. Um, under superintendent staffing recommendations, number eight, school nurse is being eliminated at Blige. It says it was um the vacant positions at the end. Is this the second nursing position? Yes, that's correct. There are um two nurses presently on the Blige campus. And when this um position was brought forward to you at the beginning of the school year, it was for one school year only. That's what it was approved for. Okay. But is it still needed? There's um still one nurse that is um at the school as far as an additional nurse. Um uh you know, we continue to assess those needs and um monitor for any changes, but at this time um no. Um my other question is number 84.

031I'm uh trying to understand the creation of a new position. Um the child nutrition and wellness coordinator. I understand Miss White is going to explain that. Um well I can start it off and if she feels that there's any gaps, she is more than welcome to to join in. Um but as we assess the child nutrition department and the feeding programs that the school district is required to monitor with state and federal compliance um with a retirement in that department. It was an opportunity like I said is ongoing assessment of that um office um is proceeding that an additional position and and changing that retirement that that position into a more robust job to coordinate um and monitor all the feeding programs in the school district and implementing our wellness policy and program that is

032also um a program that is required by state. Um, it has several responsibilities that are required also during the summer months to be able to close out a school year, but also to prepare us for our feeding programs for the start of a brand new school year. Okay. So, again, just like with a lot of programs, increased responsibilities and expectations on the school district to um proceed with that program with fidelity. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on the consent agenda as presented? Hearing none. All in favor? Just just real quick. Um I want to get an understanding um as Dr. Joy asked about the school nurse for um the RE. Um I thought that when we heard their LSIC that they did need well that's yeah that's you know certain things are

033taken at certain snapshots of time um so that will have to be continued to be assessed but there are changes and movements that they may not be aware of that is the information that they had at that point in time but where we are at today it is continuing to be the recommendation of the superintendent to um uh not review that position right now. Okay. And then number 17, the board tech media specialist. That's um being pulled being pulled as far as as far as um from the county office. Is that a position? It's being removed from the county office. That's correct. Okay. Yes. Thank you. So, I just wanted to make um one comment in in regards to, you know, all of the changes that had to be made due to being unsure of

034where funding is coming from or what the future looks like, that uncertainty. Um, I appreciate everybody speaking up. We're I think we're all in this together as trying to figure out where the chips are going to fall and how this is going to work. I do want to thank everyone um that has been in a position where they have made such a huge impact, the kind of impact that brings people out in droves to talk about them and their their good work. And I have faith in our school staff and in our community that that positive impact will live on and we will see where this goes. But um but I know that some amazing work has been done and I do not think that that will be for not um regardless of how things

035turn out. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor of the consent agenda as presented say I. I. I. Oppose. All right. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Next up, we have the deputy superintendent of operations update. It's an update on the new Shepherdstown construction. Good evening. Good evening. Good to see everyone again. I'll await the PowerPoint that's going to u accompany this, but if you've driven by and seen Shephardd's Town Elementary, you'll note that it's looking very, very much like a school on the outside. And uh we're exciting to mark a lot of progress. A lot of trades are currently in Shephardd'stown Elementary and they are working diligently and very hard to reach completion on the school. So we can go past the first two slides and there for those of you that

036haven't seen it, uh we have the outside of the school. They are still doing work on uh the roof of that school as we can obviously tell by the picture. This represents the front of the school. To the right we'll have the bus loop and to the left will be the car loop as well as staff parking. Continue, please. This is a shot of the related arts wing. What was exciting about that, and you can advance to the next picture, is uh during my site visit late last week, they're pouring the concrete to the outdoor classrooms. As we will remember, um this school has a lot of outdoor spaces, one outside the dining hall and one here outside of the steam in the art rooms so that students can go outside. And I know as

037a lot of people seeing see it laying there and it being at the front of the school, they're going to be concerned about safety. So that will have a nice rot iron fencing around the front of that so that students can enjoy the space safely. Next slide. Here we're looking down into the front hall on the left. That's the front entryway. And then on the other side we're looking at some office spaces. Continue, please. And this looks a little bit dizzying now because they were laying drywall that day and obviously doing the mudding that goes with it. But that is the gymnasium. Same size as Ranson Elementary. To the right of the picture, you can see the stage. Here we have um a different well I I included this to show the color palette of

038the school. So, we're actually looking at restrooms. And on the left is the nice soft green that is in that school. And then on the right would be a staff restroom. And you see the nice soft, it's almost like a a purple color. Very nice feel to the school. Very natural colors in this school. So, that's just a little bit of a color palette. I wanted to highlight the classrooms and the color palettes that we are having in this school. In the classrooms, you'll see there we're calling these a bear den. So, you can see the bear den, which is a sideways oval, uh the reading or booknook. Here's a second color for the school. And the last slide shows us a third, which is a nice soft green. So, those are examples of some

039classrooms. And there they're just preparing one that shows a little bit better view of the reading nook and the built-ins will be to the left. That room is I can tell a prek because to the left we see a space for um those little teeny tiny restroom fixtures we're putting in there. the timeline for the school. Um, as you know, Rancid had beautiful weather and so for Ranson Elementary, uh, the school zipped right along. This project hasn't been as fortunate. Uh, there have been some weather delays. So, in a very recent meeting with the contractor, we made the um I think wise decision to move substantial completion to September 19th, which means we will not have an August opening. But in doing so, we are not going to rush and hurry the staff and put

040the staff in a school where there still aren't kinks worked out. The nice thing about Ranson opening in January was that we had time to work out the kinks to get the freezer started up and start up all the equipment smoothly to have a nice clean school for um the Ranson staff and students when they came in. So, we're going to afford Shephardd'stown Elementary the same opportunity and do a mid-year move. But school for them will be starting on time. Yes. Yes. I don't want anyone to think that they will will skip first semester. They'll be right at home. There's no hurry for them to move out of their current facility. So, they will be learning from Old Shephardd'stown Elementary first semester. Thank you, Kathy, for pointing that out. There might have been kids cheering

041just now. So, not the case. Um, the last thing I want to share with you is just a little bit. You might have driven around and seen this because we're right on the campus. It's just the Washington High School auxiliary gym. This project is slated to complete um next year. If you'll advance a slide, we can take a look at what it looks like. It's just grading. If you've driven by and seen it, uh they're bringing it up to grade. They've moved in construction trailers recently. They um while the students weren't in, they have moved some of the underground uh utilities around so that they can uh start the the plum work that'll need to go into the gym before they lay that concrete pad. So, they're moving right along as well. That project is

042a baby, but so far it's on time. So, that's my update for this evening. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have special programs presentation. Good evening, M. Good evening, Miss Skinner, members of the board. Dr. Bishop, thank you for allowing us to come again here tonight to carry on part two. And I believe, unless Dr. Bishop tells me differently, this will be the last time that we see each other till after summer. Um, and then we will come back in the fall and begin again. Um, I'm anxious to come back to you in in the fall and bring you the results of our annual desk audit, which we've got a little inside peak of. U, but we're pretty excited to bring that back to you for the work that we've done.

043So, um, while they're preparing the PowerPoint, I have a new group of people here with me tonight for some of you. Um, the first person here is Miss Patty Hughes. She is one of our facilitators um that came to us from a little bit below us. She'll she has a little bit of a South Carolina draw to her which we love to have in her office in our office to hear her talk. Um but she is our transition specialist for the county. Starsa candidate comes to us from all over the place. Texas, Alaska, Maryland. Um she is going to be taking on our LEAP or our autism lead next year. Uh Christy Horning is I don't want to say an oldie but a goodie. But Christy is here with us tonight too. And then Miss

044Martin, principal at TA Lowry is here to talk a little bit. Well, so I'll let Christie come up and begin. Good evening everybody. Um just to recap from where we were in March, um when we presented to you, um we talked about the West Virginia tiered system of support, how our students across the board receive intervention services for areas of reading, math, and social emotional learning support. Um we talked about the referral process, childfind. How do we um find those students who may need more support and to um work through the process of identification for special education services? And then the overview um from our school psychologist who talked about all the different assessments and components that are necessary in order to determine um if a child has weaknesses andor strengths and how we can

045best support them. and then eligibility specifically to those areas of exceptionality that the state recognizes. Moving forward tonight, we're going to talk to you a little bit about the eligibility determination and reporting process, initial IEP meetings, progress monitoring, annual reviews and re-evaluations, the importance of transition planning, and the LRE or least restrictive environment and the continuum of services that we do provide all of our students. So when we look at eligibility determination, we are following our policy 2419 that is derived from IDA. Um the group of people who make these determinations are comprised of the um LEA administrator or special education um facilitator from our office um principal or their design, members of the evaluation team like our school psychologists and our related service providers um which include our speech, occupational therapy, uh physical therapy,

046vision specialists, a general educator andor a special educator. parents or the guardian of a student. Um students which is optional but sometimes students starting at the age of 14 elect to participate in these meetings. Uh and then additional individuals um if needed and have specific expertise relating to what may be a concern of the student. This is our team of of folks that help determine the eligibility for services. Next slide. Um again this team of individuals take into account all of the data that is collected for and and about students whether that is formative assessment data um classroom data that a teacher provides the psychoeducational evaluations that our school psychologists complete any of those related service providers. And um another important component is the parent and the information that they share with us either from

047outside um medical professionals that they have um a medical diagnosis um about or just their general knowledge of their student. They're an important component of the eligibility andor IEP process. When we look at meeting criteria for special education services, we talked to you about a three-prong criteria. Meaning that first, they meet the eligibility criteria within one of those exceptionalities and that two, there is an adverse effect to the educational performance of the student. And lastly, that they need specially designed instruction. When all three of those categories have been met, then the student qualifies for special education services. The next slide looks a little bit um and and this is approximate. It can change on any given day, but the number of um students that each of these service providers um have on their case load.

048So currently an average for an occupational therapist in the district looks at 34 students per case load. Physical therapist has 28. The speech therapist um has 37 and developmental prek um services look at 26 for case manager. So we are growing. Um while Jefferson County enrollment may decline, our special education population continues to grow. Next we have the initial IEP U meeting process. And I'll hand that over to SA. Good evening. Okay, taking you further along our journey um through special education, we uh following eligibility of um a child that's going into special education, uh within 30 days of that eligibility meeting, the team must develop the initial IEP along with the parents and all important stakeholders. Um so that has to be held within 30 calendar days of the eligibility determination. Uh required participants

049include parents, the special education teacher, general education teacher, the LEA representative, which is typically a campus admin, um and the evaluator, and any others as needed. Uh first, the team will start off with the development of the present levels of academic achievement or functional performance, um otherwise known as the PLA or Pleps. Um and those are right along with our West Virginia standards and policy 2419. Once present levels have been established um and that really is the foundation of the IEP that's what everything is really built on um then measurable annual goals are written for that child in any areas of need. So whether that's academic areas, functional um areas, executive functioning areas, behavior, and there are a lot of different areas that measurable annual goals can be written to develop um and they're developed

050based on data from the evaluation and those are aligned with our West Virginia um content standards. Once a present level has been written and then we go into we develop measurable annual goals as a team um and determination then we do the determination of related services accommodations modifications and specialized instruction. Once all that takes place then we make placement decision based on this child's least restrictive environment. We'll talk about least restrictive environment a little bit later in this presentation. Um but I think it's important that um we know that's kind of the last piece of an IEP. uh you know with me working with the LEAP program with the autism program it's important that you know we always are considering that child's LRE and all of the tool or all of the pieces of the

051IEP that they need prior to us making a placement decision. So that is one of the last decisions of the IEP team is the placement decision. uh at part of the evaluation process, developing an IEP, and then post initial IEP is progress monitoring. And that is really important for all of our um staff to make sure that we're taking excellent progress information on our students to keep um so that we can guide that can guide us and inform instruction. Uh so progress monitoring is systematic data collection aligned to their IEP goals which are also aligned to the West Virginia content standards or our uh alternate achievement standards if applicable. Tools may include curriculum based measurements uh observations, rubrics, and checklists that's going to be outlined in the IEP. The frequency of reporting is also defined

052in the IEP, but it's typically done quarterly at a minimum. Usually those IEP progress reports will come home with the general ed uh report cards. Again, using progress data to uh inform instruction, revise goals, or adjust services is really important. We don't want to just arbitrarily report the data, just like we ask our gened teachers to use that data to inform instruction. It would be the same for a student with an IEP goal. If they're making progress, great. Let's keep going. If they're not making progress, let's meet again and see where we can revise or what we can do to better meet that child's needs. Um, and all of this is documented using the WVDE approved progress reporting tools. We is wonderful. Um, that's built right in. Um, it makes it very easy for our

053staff um, to get in and report that progress um, quarterly. Next slide is about annual reviews and reevaluations. So, the initial IEP has to take place within 30 days, but every year annually the IEP has to be reviewed. Um, so and that can take p place at any point in the year. It just has to be reviewed every 365 days or 364 because if we want to meet that deadline um and that and in an annual review will update goals, services, and progress. It's also important to know that reevaluation is required at least every 3 years unless the parent or team agree it is unnecessary. So if they come to that three-year time and they say, you know, we don't really need any additional data to consider eligibility, the student will continue eligibility, then that's

054okay. Uh that also that process can also be initiated earlier if additional concerns ar concerns arise, if the team is considering a possible change in exceptionality um or if there's just additional areas the team really needs to look at and consider that that three-year reevaluation process can begin sooner. Um during evaluation reviews, academic achievements review, developmental needs reviews, functional performance. Again, we're looking at the whole child and their entire educational experience. At that point, it may involve new assessments or review of existing data. Um, and we are ensuring that continued eligibility and need for special education under policy 24/19. Thank you. Miss Patty is going to talk to you about transition and how important that is. You can go back one slide, please. Thank you. Uh thank you for letting me speak tonight. Uh I

055am um going to give you a little overview of the transition process beginning no later than a student's 14th birthday. Um the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that uh we do a coordinated set of activities that facilitate a student's movement from school to post school. And so uh no later than then we began a transition process and it bridges the gap because it allows a student- centered process uh a gap between school and postchool life uh by preparing our students for uh life after high school through personalized planning. It focuses on the areas like education, employment, and independent living. And we work with each student to help identify what um their goals are in that area. It's a comprehensive approach because it not only includes working with the student, but actually the whole team.

056We work with the parents, we work with uh the students, with the teachers, transition specialists, and even community agencies at some point. Um it impacts our student outcomes by exploring career interests, gaining work experience and developing a skills that are needed for competitive employment. Uh and such. Change the slide please. Um essential elements here we assess students in three key areas for their transition. Uh it is employment, education and training and independent living. Um great efforts are taken to make sure that our students understand um I have an opportunity to take different interest inventories and things like that. And by doing this, we're able to help them create not only a course of study in high school that's going to help them uh prepare for the future, but also have uh wonderful work opportunities and

057things like that that may be possible. Um we coordinate those uh services by um working not only with the students as I said before, but the parents. uh some of our outside agencies include the division of rehab services and uh the vocational rehabilitation portion of that and then also some of our students who have more severe disabilities. We work with uh agencies that are maybe more adultoriented through a Medicaid waiver process um and different community stakeholders. uh with students involvement in this um we really have to think about nothing about me without me and that's uh one of my big goals in working with our students who are 14 and older is these are big decisions that are being made and so we want to make sure that the students are integrally involved in every

058aspect of this. Uh we also have community partnerships which include businesses um agencies and um sometimes their mom and pop um have their businesses they own. Sometimes uh we work with uh companies, sometimes we work with um school-based enterprises. So transition planning, I could talk an hour on it, so it's hard to uh put it in a few minutes here, but I would say that um my years of working in high school, this is one of the most meaningful processes that we can go um lead the kids through to help prepare them for life after high school. Thank you. One of the things that um Patty and Christy won't mention because they're very humble people, but they recognized that there was some transition um things that were missing in the county and those things cost

059money. Um, over the last 10 months, I guess 10 to 12 months, Christy and Patty and a team have brought in over $100,000 in grant money to bring in multiple programs um to help build the transition process for these students. So, I I I have to commend them for the work that they've done and they will continue to do. But, um, that's a that's a huge amount of money when we start thinking about going into that population. But, we're going to talk just a second about LRE. That's a big buzzword and sometimes that becomes the most contentious part of the IEP meeting when we start talking about LRE or the least restrictive environment. And what you see on the slide here is the continuum that goes from the least restrictive at the top to the

060most restrictive at the bottom. Um we have the general education environment. Then we have the consultation where the teacher, the special education teacher or the case manager works with the general education teacher and just make sure that everything is going okay and what supports are needed. oftentimes we'll have a special education aid that is in the classroom supporting and then we get into collaboration where there's a push-in model um where there's a portion of the instructional block where the special education teacher pushes in. We also have the co-eing model which is a partnership between two teachers that Miss Martin's going to talk about um the TA Lowry has really jumped on for the last two years. uh we do have the pull out model which becomes more restricted because a student is pulled away from

061their general education peers. Then we have our specialized programs for us those are the leap and the able the life program loy house and then finally when we start talking about a separate school which is non-public then that's when we become our most restrictive environment. So Miss Martin's going to come up here and next slide there if they can. Miss Martin's going to come up and she's really going to talk about the co-eing in the general education classroom or and what that partnership between two teachers looks like. Good evening. Thank you for having me. We are really excited at TA that we've been able to initiate co-eing in uh this year our fourth and fifth grade classrooms and next year in our third grade classrooms. Um the co-eing process has taken a lot of co-planning

062time. Um each one of our grade levels has a co-planning time with their team. But to look at how we have been able to implement co-eing has um really taken the time to look at assessments and to look at what will benefit the students whether it's still a pullout program or that co-eing and we have found that co-eing has been very successful. The co-eing is really the best of both worlds. There are two teachers in the classroom, the general educator and the special educator. And our co-eing pairs have been so welldeveloped that you can't tell which is the general educator and which is the special educator if you don't know those teachers. Um so it has taken assessing from the county level. We have county data teams. We have in-house our school data teams to

063look at data to look at what benefits those students. Um, and again, currently we have a fourth grade co-eing class, a fifth grade co-eing class, and we're excited that we'll be able to bring that to the third grade next year as well. Um, we the benefits on the next slide when we talk about what are the benefits, we have two specialized teachers in the classroom, a certified special educator and a certified general educator that get to plan together and really do give the best of both worlds to the students. um we have supportive environments um in those classrooms and our results we can say that 100% of the special ed students that are in the co-taught class have increased according to their as web score. So it's been a very very positive um impact that

064co-eing has had um powerful learning um PLC's professional learning communities that we've created in our building as well. So, it's been a very positive um positive journey for all of our staff and I can't thank our staff enough because they have really um dug in and jumped in full force with it. So, it's been a huge benefit for our students. Thank you. So, at this time, we will open it up to any questions that any board members might have for um any members of the team. I have a few questions. Yes, ma'am. Slide six. Um, you mentioned related services, but I'm wondering the average case u capacity for special ed teacher. Sure. Sure. So, um, policy 2419 says it cannot go over 30. Um, and it's going to vary from school to school depending on

065how many special education teachers are there. Um, Christie, I would wager to say that we keep it at 20 or below. We do have some schools that the high schools have a higher number of students just because of the the number of long-term subscrib just to ensure that if they have questions that they are helping program. So for example, the OTA um average 34 uh on the case load, do they spend an hour per child? So for 34 children, what's the what does that actually mean in terms of how much time are they with these students? Because it's one thing, the special ed case manager, they're teaching likely all day. Um, so it's very prescriptive. What's the OT job look like? So it's very prescriptive to the individual student. As you go up into high

066school, typically those numbers can decrease. The the minutes that they see per student can decrease each month. Um, at our younger grades and our kindergarten, first grade, second grade, they can be higher. Um, so I' I'd hate to roll a number out to you because it's not accurate across the board. I can I can absolutely uh break those numbers down and get them to you. If you'd like to know the average minutes per uh minutes per month for each one of those, we can definitely um send that out to you. But the other thing that we have to remember is that our OTS that do service our service our campuses like TA Lowry, like Driswood that have our higher need programs, typically their numbers are going to be a little bit higher. Um but that

067does not mean that the number of students they have is equally as high. So, they could have lower numbers, but they have more minutes because the needs of those students are higher as well. Um, I I have a question about the IE cap that you mentioned in a previous meeting, and I'm wondering if it's a federal or state uh law that allows you to impose that cap on parents. Um, because I haven't been able to find that. So, is this just a Jefferson County? No, ma'am. That is a federal mandate where each district is permitted to set the level based off of trending numbers or trending um cost based on where you are in the in the state or where you are in the country. So a smaller more rural area might have a different

068amount than we do over here on Eastern Panhandle, West Virginia. Um so because I couldn't find that, where would that be? It is in policy 2419, but we also just um on Friday got our got some updated guidance from the West Virginia Department of Education, Office of Special Education on the IE for us as districts, our district leaders. So, we can also um push those things over to the board members as well. Okay. And then um my other question is related to slide number 12 because uh you explain a lot of the levels of service provided. The biggest question that I hear from parents is the difference between the IEP and the 504. And I I think you did talk about that a couple meetings ago, but um the bigger question is how do they

069qualify? And uh parents are afraid that they don't get equal uh protection with a 504 or equal services. So can you just clarify that? Which so you asked me a couple questions there. the parents don't understand how they get which one of those two and then we talked you talked about the procedural rights. Um which which question did you want me to kind of address first? So you how do how do how do students become eligible for an IEP as opposed to a 504 or how do they get a 504 instead of an IEP? Where what that's a really broad question. I I I don't I wasn't asking about how they qualify. I guess I I'm trying to understand what rights do students have if they have a 504 versus an IEP because um parents

070are afraid that if they get a 504 the um maybe it's not looked at as seriously as the IEP. So, um is that true? And if not, then why have a different why not just give everybody an IEP? Why would you give a student a 504? Sure. So, both the 504 and the IEP are both federally required or are federally mandated and federally protected. Um it's two different acts that protect a a 504 versus an IEP. Um the Individuals Disabilities Education Act and then we have um the Disability Act that came in in 1978 I believe. um both of them because they are protected both of them hold the exact should hold the exact same weight in a classroom uh for an administrator for a parent for whoever it might be. Um there should not

071be any difference in whether the accommodations are being met on either one of those two. Um when you talk about why don't we just give everyone a f an IEP as opposed to a 504. If you flip back two slides, I believe it was the one that Miss Horning did um that is I apologize. Um the one right before the eligibility determination has the uh case loads on it. When we talk about an IEP, it's really important that we understand and that and our facilitators do a good job that it has to be met for all three prongs. we go through a checklist whether we're looking at autism or we're looking at learning disability, whether we're looking at OI, all three prongs must be met. That's per state and national um laws. And if all

072three of those prongs cannot be checked, a student cannot be found eligible for an IEP. Where are these three prongs? Um they're on this, if you look at the slide before the case load, it talks about the criteria that all all three of those must be met. Um and we actually the state provides us with a checklist and everything has to be checked off there. All the committee members have to agree to that. Um and then if they they don't agree then we go to the next steps of that. But if any of those three are not able to be checked or affirmed by the group then an IEP cannot be put in place for the student. oftentimes that is where we can go to look at a 504 for the student if there is

073a documented disability that falls under the criteria that that is provided to us. But I I I mean I see students with 504s that meet these criteria. They need specialized instruction uh because they need accommodations and etc. This is so and and I understand what you're saying. But we have a process that we have to follow. We have professionals that go through those things. I can't I'm I'm not in a position to say that you're wrong, I'm wrong, that any of us are wrong. We have a process that we have to go through and that those things have been documented. Um so, you know, if we look at each individual student, then the parent can we can review that with the parent to talk about why your student didn't meet the eligibility criteria for an

074IEP. Um but I can't, you know, I can't get into that right now. Thank you. I would just say quickly thank you for um the work that you guys are doing for the transitional piece. um personally as a parent who was in that position 15 plus years ago now um there when there wasn't really anything there I can tell you how important that is to start early and to get into that process to get involved with um at the time I think we used the in Martinsburg West Virginia whatever the transition service was I can't remember the name of the the title but I remember they assigned us someone um and then that person quit and by the time they trained another person, you know, it was late senior year before there was really any

075work done there. So, the earlier they can start, the better. Um, I'm convinced that uh the co-eing classroom that my child had um the opportunity to have um from second grade on and those transitional services are why they are functional, successful, no issues today. So, um, those two things are extremely important, um, to get that early intervention and get going. So, thank you so much for the work that you're doing. And it's unfortunately gotten worse, Miss Ogden, in terms of, um, the the DHHR's ability to provide services or provide a worker. We are now, I think we're up to, if they're not 18 and a senior, they won't even attend a meeting. It's right. So, that's the work of them that our team is doing is even more important to to kind of get those

076going. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Mr. Wink, I have a quick question about the specialized programs with the transition planning um the leap, the able to life, and the lolly house. Are we do we have capacity still in those programs? I know like with the OLC, we've been at capacity and haven't been able to service as many kids as we've needed to. Are those programs is there? Today we have a availability tomorrow. I can't tell you what's going to happen. No, we do have availability and um you one of the things that this board has been able has been willing to do for us is when we come to you and say we need more, you open those up and you say okay. Um so we are we're we're getting to the seams and then

077we go to Dr. Bishop and say we need another classroom and he looks at me and smiles and says okay, we'll take it to the board. So, um, but we're, you know, we're working to to to ensure that we don't meet capacity, um, on on our programs. Thank you. So, just a quick question. Um, I want to go back to the IEES. Um, if a, um, Miss Patton, could you move the microphone closer because I don't think it's picking you up. Apologies. Um if a parent is asking for outside uh testing or outside evaluation for you know the IE um is it normal for us to determine what tests the outside um u psychologist can give. who when we say we who are we representing are we Jefferson County schools I'm saying Jefferson County special

078programs so yes so in terms of so Jefferson County special programs are deemed to be the expert as a community or as a team in terms of this is what we're offering or this is what we have offered. Now, when we work outside of that or we don't necessarily assume that parents understand all the ins and outs and nuances of the Woodcock Johnson or any of those the why at those kinds of tests are given, many of those tests um do have they do have protocols in place for a reason that are nationally developed to say the more that you give a test, the more frequent a student becomes with them, familiar they become with them, and the easier it is for them to score higher. those are nationally normed um procedures that our school

079psychologists are deemed to to follow and they pass them down to us. So when we look at the tests that um for an IE we do oftent times say hey this test was just given a year ago 18 months ago there was there hasn't been anything that would really determine that a student is going to score differently. um we haven't had anything like uh traumatic brain injury or you know any kind of surgeries that would maybe alter the mental capacity of the student. So those are things that we we do exclude if we're going to pay for the IE um and for those things and we do have the right to say here are the tests that we have are too frequent for us to be able to to allow to have happen again because

080we just don't feel like it's going to change the processes of what that is. parents more than willing I mean the parents more than able to do whatever they would like to pay for it themselves but if we're paying for it then those are the things that we look at and there are a broad battery of tests that can be done for each individual thing as well though right okay because I'm just thinking like this if I go to the doctor and the doctor tells me I have a heart problem and then I decide that I want to get a second opinion then when I go to the next um cardiologist ologist, the insurance company doesn't say to me, "Well, you can't get another uh, you know, test to determine if something's wrong with your

081heart." So, I'm just wondering um is it something that that Jefferson County has um decided that you can't get a second um determination? So, I I think we're going down a rabbit hole that I don't know whether um in public forum I want to go down. Um is it okay for me to just kind of not answer that question, Dr. Bishop, and do that oneonone? Is that okay? That's what I would suggest. Yes. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your presentation this evening. We do appreciate it. All right. Next, we have the OLC update. [Music] Good evening again. So, first up, I'm going to give a presentation on the OLC from the Department of Responsive Ed. Next slide, please. So, just a rundown on the staff. We have an administrator, Mrs. Vanell, and

082we have three teachers, one paraprofessional, and one afternoon halftime options pathway teacher and Miss Ty. Moving on, excuse me, to the process. How is a student enrolled in the OLC? student is enrolled through the SAT or IEP process after administrator from the home school and OLC have communicated. How does a student transition back to their home school? At the end of each semester, the SAT or IEP team reconvenes for progress monitoring with academics and behavior and make a team decision. And we did implement a new process of half days this year in the home school to slowly transition the student back full-time. So with the half days, we still have some kinks to work out, but with the half days, we have an 83% successful transition rate back. As far as our enrollment students we

083have served for this school year, we have a total of 36 students. Our current enrollment is 15 in the day program. Um, and that is six students max per classroom. Kind of what Miss Skinner was talking about earlier at the max capacity. We have 10 high school students. We have two options pathway students and we have three middle school students. Right now we have 12 students in our three to five program. And the 3 to 5 program provides an alternative option for students to be successful with additional focus support in a smaller setting. Moving on to our options pathway. This will is currently housed in the OLC but starting next school year will be housed in each high school. This is designed for students that are behind in their credits, in danger of not graduating.

084So, there's three different options and this is all run through Miss Ty again as the afternoon halftime teacher at the OLC. So, option one is GED prep combined with CTE classes. Options two is for senior seniors only and it's for one class. So, for example, if they failed multiple English classes or multiple math classes, they would be enrolled in options two. And then options three where the student maintains their school schedule but signs up for the GED. Um if the student is successful in this GED then that will not count against our graduation rate the following year. Then some of the connections student staff connection. Students earn three earned breaks throughout the school day and this time is used for student staff social emotional connections and they do this through games, physical activity, exercise and

085social time with peers. The OLC is heavily involved in community service. They partner with Ranson Community Garden, the city of Ranson, Meals on Wheels, Kids Power Packs, and staff use these opportunities to serve as models and demonstrate appropriate problem solving, teamwork, and collaborative skills. In addition to goal setting, progress monitoring, advisory, students work with the EPIC adolescent health coordinator for 40 minutes per week. They engage in progress monitoring, goal tracking, and attendance is also monitored through the live school program. The live school program then determines recreational project time and currency for their economy system at the school store at the OLC. Moving on to the future 2025 and 26 school year, the program will move to Rise where staff and students will have new classrooms, a gym, and a cafeteria. Our goal is to prepare

086for an enrollment of 40 students. Proposed staff changes include an addition of a science teacher. So that'll move up to four core teachers. Um and the options pathway, as I just discussed, will move to each high school. The additional student enrollment will provide support to students, families, and secondary schools. This PowerPoint slide moves right onto JVA. So, I'm just going to go through JVA and then I'll break at the end for questions. So, rundown of our JVA staff. We have Miss Fitzgerald as the coordinator of virtual learning. Miss Atinson, Mr. Waltz, Miss Fort, Miss Toyul, and Miss Lick. Um, the JVA staff was decreased by three for the start of this school year. However, historically, JBA has served the highest number of students totaling 670. How does a student enroll in JVA? This is by

087choice during scheduling season in the spring. For the following school year, after the school year is underway, enrollment is through change of placement or a SAP meeting. Counselors, registars, administrators from secondary schools complete work and hybrid request form and they direct students to review the family and JVA program details. A meeting is then scheduled in this Fitzgerald. the student and the family to review JVA expectations and procedures prior to the student's first day to ensure a successful start. Students and families can also view the orientation video which is posted on the JVA and Jefferson County schools website. As far as a breakdown of numbers for middle school, Charlestown Middle School has 17 JVA students, Harper's Ferry 16, Jeff Shepardtown Middle 10, Wildwood Middle 5 for a total of 48 middle school students currently in the

088high school. Jefferson has full-time 105 students and 128 hybrid students. Washington has 108 full-time students and 115 hybrid students for a total of 456. roles in JVA. Students with social emotional challenges, students that struggle in the physical school environment, students with chronic medical concerns, students that thrive in their home environment, students and families that excel with a flexible schedule, students that may otherwise unenroll from our schools, students who are enrolled at a half-day Rumsy. We have 20 students that are in JVA in that situation, students taking dual credit courses, and students approved for early graduation. Uh, so why sign up for a hybrid JVA class? Students that are in brickandmortar in high school for a full day of classes can sign up for a hybrid class. Um, and they do this for a variety of

089reasons. They might not have enough room in their schedule. They might be taking more than seven classes through a hybrid class. There might uh the new graduation requirement of personal finance. Some students want to get in JVA for that. Provides a flexible option with the explosion of dual enrollment. Their school does not offer the course. We do offer some of those through JVA. And also it does serve as enrichment for homeschool students. JVA does serve as an intervention. This is daily and chronic attendance. JVA helps with JCS attendance percentages and typically decreases students chronic attendance rate. And I have some numbers on the next slide to speak to that. It also serves an alternative to expulsion. A student with chronic medical concerns that we discussed, a student with social emotional challenges, and a student that

090may have physical challenges navigating a brickandmortar setting. Some attendance information. Per JCS county goals, JVA's operated under the premise of defining chronic absenteeism, which has been a goal of the whole county, Mr. Brown and his department. JVA is focused on bubble students and those in danger of being chronically absent. That was just addressed by letters going home. So if you look at students on the bubble, Jefferson High School students in JVA, there was 22 students in danger of being chronically absent. Only two of those have fallen in that mark. In Washington High School is 24 and only three of their students have fallen under that mark. middle school. Um, at JVA as a whole, we were able to keep three out of the four under that mark. The average grades by subject for JVA, English

09180%, math 84, science 87, social studies 86%, world language 89%, and electives 87%. As of the end of semester 1, 473 active students. We have 1,775 course enrollments. The average time logged into Egeneuity, which is our learning platform, was 2 hours per course per week. And that does not include any time that the student wasn't logged in that they were spending on that coursework. 76% is the average reported grade. 83% of successful enrollment completion and unsuccessful completions include drops and failures are under 10%. For questions, I have some questions. Um, what's the average length of time a student is at the OLC? The average of time is a semester. Okay. and um the um the uh GED program that's separate from the adult ed program. Yes. Um so for the uh JVA, what's the average

092length that a a student is there? The average length that the student is enrolled in JVA. I don't have that number. I can get that for you. It's kind of all over the map. It kind of depends if we're including the hybrid students with the hybrid usually a year, right? So, I mean, if they're there for a year, that gives time for to get test results. That's why I'm asking because there I asked this last year. There doesn't seem to be any accountability with the um the virtual um JVA. How how do these students test scores compare? Are they um learning? Are we testing these students the same way as the the students in the brick and mortar? Yeah, they took the SAT um the the SAT window closed Friday and they're currently doing the

093WBGSA testing this week. So, I can get those numbers for you after we get those results back. Yes. What's a little bit tricky about that is all of the students, they're not they're enrolled in their home school according to we able to get the attendance too. So sure, you could I mean it just seems that because it just would help to see something because when we hear from the other schools, we see, you know, how the students compare with their test scores and their attendance and we rarely ever hear about the um JBA or OLC. Sure. Um, all of these classes are purchased from this one company. Is that what it is? Yes. Egeneuity. Um, and is that like West Virginia state approved or aligned with curriculum? It is aligned with West Virginia standards. Yes.

094It's not a West Virginia specific program. No, it's a national program, but it is aligned with West Virginia. and all the students have a West Virginia certified teacher. I I just don't remember. Did the board approve that curriculum or anything? I just don't remember it. That would have been prior to my or Mr. Helman's time here, so we could find out for you, but uh egeneuity was already in place here prior to our starting. That's correct. Um Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I just had a couple of quick questions. Sure. Thank you for presenting. On slide six, you talk about the connections for OLC and you talk about how the breaks are earned. What if they don't earn them? What do they do? They just have additional time with the teacher on instruction. So, okay.

095They're kind of, you know, punitive or No, they're not punitive. They just get additional support instruction wise. Okay, sounds good. And then um I wanted to know on slide 14 talking about uh JVA. Sorry, I'm trying to get there. Okay, so talking about JVA, can you help me understand that chart a little bit better? Because the way it looks to me, and I'm not sure that I'm reading it correctly, is that for example, at Jefferson High School, there were 22 students that were in danger of being chronically absent and 20 still stay that way. So this is not a successful intervention tool. No. Um good question. So so 22 were almost reaching that chronic absentee. So we we were putting them on the bubble and 20 are still under that chronic absentee mark. So two

096have okay been not successful. Good. I thought I was reading it wrong. Me too. And then the difference between slides 15 and 16. I wanted to ask you about that. So you outline the average grades by subject on slide 15 and they are all between 80 and 89%. But then on slide 16 you talk about the fourth bullet point down says that 76% is the average reported grade. Yeah. So we have some other courses that aren't on p on um slide 15. So some of those other courses like PE health and some of those we didn't include on that slide. So when we added all of those up we got an average of 76. Yeah, it seems like some of those other ones that are really pulling that average down. Yeah, I'm glad that the

097key ones are the core ones are higher. Some of our electives for whatever reason tend to be lower in JVA. Okay, interesting. Great. Thank you. I would just ask maybe um as we go forward in the next, you know, coming years, I know I think last year maybe that we had the same data as far as like the 83% of successful enrollment completion. I don't remember what the percentage was, but maybe after next year we'll have three good years of data postcoid. Um, and I know as you said there's a lot of students who take advantage of this and it's very helpful for lots of different reasons. Um, so to maybe kind of trend that and see if there's changes that need to be made based on what the success is in there and you

098know how the kids do based on what the subject is as well. But sure be helpful to kind of start tracking some of that. I'm sure you do. So thanks. Thank you. Are we just using egeneuity or are we still using West Virginia Learns to supplement things? Just what? Just Egeneuity. All right. Thank you very much. [Music] All right. Moving on to unfinished business. We have discussion possible action on remaining 2000 program Neola policies. two the series 2000 policies were presented to you on March 24th. Uh the request was that they put be put out for public comment. No public comments were received. So I'm asking you to approve uh series 2000 policies that are before you this evening. And you're uh referencing the 2120 list, correct? That is correct. Yes. All right. Would you

099like me to read them all? Oh, I'll I can do it. Okay. All right. Is there a motion to approve the um Neola policies 2120 2120.01 2220 2230 2230.01 2230.02 2230.06 2240 2271 2312 2371 2411 2412 2430.02 2 2451 2452 2460 2520 2600 2623.01 Is there a motion to approve those Neola policies? Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Twford. Any discussion? Yeah, I have questions. 2271. um dual credit. Uh I have page 28, but it's in the green where it says student eligibility. It says overall cumulative grade point average of the higher learning institution. I don't know what that means for a student to be eligible. What page are you on? Um I mean I'm on this computer. It's page 21, but it's 2271 dual credit. Okay, I'm I'm

100with you. And you said it's in the green section, student eligibility. Okay, I'm with you. And um the following criteria must be met for eligibility. And the first one doesn't have any meaning to me. I I don't know if I'm missing something. What does that mean? Overall cumulative grade point average of the higher learning institution. [Music] I'm read Hold on. I'm sorry. I'm just reading to to get the context that may be um like if it's a Blige class or a class, they have their own That is correct. Yeah, they have their own GPA, their own um calculation of that grade point average. Does the cumulative part mean that if they're taking multiple dual enrollment that they have to be succeeding at both or all three or have many? Correct. I Let me get some

101clarification on that. Let's pull that one if you don't mind. 2271. Um, and just on that same topic, it says that if uh a student isn't um accepted, they can appeal, but there's no direction for uh students or families as to how they might appeal. We have a long list of administrative guidelines that we have to write that accompany these policies. So, part of that appeal process would be outlined. Okay. Thank you. [Music] So, Miss Skinner, if we could pull 2271 until I can get clarification on that one, please. All right. Miss Ogden, would you mind revising your motion to remove 2271? So moved. Seconded. Thank you. Any other discussion or questions? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the Neola policies 2120 2120.01 2220 2230 2230.01 2230.02 2230.06 2240 2312 2371 2411 2412 2430.02

1022451 2452 2460 2520 2600 2623 and 2623 2623.01 01. All in favor of that say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Thank you. Next, we have discussion and possible action on the 5,000 students policies. This uh stack uh that you've had a chance to look at uh this over the last few weeks, I guess nearly a month now. Uh they were also put out on March 25th for public comment. No public comments were received. Uh this represents approximately 1/ half of the series 5000 policies and I'm requesting that you approve this uh section of them this evening. And this is the list starting with 511.02. That is correct. All right. Is there a motion to approve the 5,000 students yolola policies 511.02 02 5112 5114 5130 5136.01 5140 5215 5223 5230 5420 5430 5460.01 5464

1035512 5513 5514 5515 5516 5517 5517.03 3 5605 5610.02 5610.04 5630 5710 5724 5771 5820 5830 5855 5860 5880 5885 and 5895. Is there a motion to approve those Neola policies? So move. Thank you, Mr. Tweer. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Ogden. Any discussion or questions? Hearing none. All in favor of approving Neola policies 5111.02 5112 5114 5130 5131 5136.01 01 5140 5215 5223 5230 5420 5430 5451 5460.01 5464 5512 5513 5514 5515 5516 5517.03 5605 5610.02 5610.04 04 5630 5710 5724 5771 5820 5830 5855860 58 5880 5885 and 5895. All in favor of those policies say I I opposed. All right. Thank you. Next we have new business discussion and possible action on the prek calendar. Miss Lynn, is she here? Thought I saw her back there. So, you have a pre

104on and Miss Lynn's way up here, you have a prek calendar. Uh, a few of the dates on here are different than the previous calendar that you adopted in terms of some of the breaks and so forth. So, It's not working. You try to put it on. Maybe it's turned off. How to do this? Okay. How's that? Okay. I'm sorry, Dr. Bishop. What was your question? Just the preK calendar. Any differences that are uh different from our regularly adopted calendar? No, I I I lined the dates on the pre-K calendar with the calendar that uh with Mr. Brown and we put in um our professional learning days for our prek teachers. We have to have so many um minutes according to policy. So, we had that all done up so that you could approve it

105so that we could give it to our families who are now registering for prek. So, we request your approval of prek calendar and the prek calendar since it's following the regular calendar, we don't need to do anything with the special hearings or things like that. Correct. Correct. Okay, perfect. Is there a motion to approve the proposed prek calendar? Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Bratton. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the prek calendar say I. I. I. opposed. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Next, we have discussion and possible action on prek curriculum adoption. All right. Good evening. My name is Jamie Blake and I'm a prek teacher in the county and part of the committee that looked at different um curriculums uh that we may be providing

106to our prek population. All right. So, I've already introduced myself, but I'll let everyone else in introduce themselves. Just one second, James. Do we have the PowerPoint? I don't think I was supposed to go first, so that's why we're a little confused. I'm so sorry. Could you please bring up the adoption materials PowerPoint? I think they were prepared for it all to be together. The social studies adoption and the prek uh adoptions are on the same PowerPoint to be presented tonight. So, both adoptions and that's right now they're trying to decide who's going to go [Music] first. We will do whichever comes up first on the PowerPoint. Social studies. Social studies. Just kidding. We're All right. So, we have discussion and possible action on the social studies instructional materials adoption to be placed out for

107public comment. [Music] Good evening. Um, yes, we are coming before you tonight to ask that you put out for public comment the instructional materials for social studies. Um, just as a reference, uh, this will begin for the beginning of next school year, uh, and will be the instructional materials for a five-year cycle. Uh it used to be six years but the state recently updated that policy. Next slide please. You can see in the PowerPoint this is where prek and social studies is combined. Um those are the recommended uh adoption materials. Um, you will notice that as we get into secondary, a lot of the vendors are different per grade level, per content of social studies because the history changes so much that some vendors are stronger uh in certain areas than others. Um, next slide,

108please. High school is quite a robust list um there for your uh viewing. Next slide, please. Uh, these are our committee members. Uh, first and foremost, I want to thank the teachers that are here tonight. and if they could just stand to be recognized for their time. Uh if you were part of a committee, will you stand [Applause] please? Um I I can speak for all committees. Uh they they spent numerous times after work. Uh they spent numerous times after work that they gave of their time uh away from their families. And so we are extremely appreciative um of all you've done. Um, as a reminder, the instructional materials are 100% um, teacher chosen. Uh, so they are able to choose exactly uh, what they would like to use. Um, next slide, please. Uh, these

109are the five non-negotiables. So, every instructional material mentioned here tonight have met these five criterias. Uh, the state of West Virginia um, we have to teach content standards. uh every material that we are asking for public comment uh tonight have met these five negotiables uh and they also meet the minimal requirement of covering at least 80% of the standards. Again, teachers teach standards not curriculum. Uh the curriculum is just a resource to make sure that what the state is asking us to teach um we are actually teaching. Uh I say this every time I stand before you but the greatest resource that we have is the teacher in front of our students. um great great teachers do great things and so again this is just what they can use to make sure that they are

110covering the standards uh that the state is asking us to teach. Next slide please. Uh and so now I'll ask preK to come up and just give you some of the reasons of why uh they are asking for their recommendation. Thank you. Sorry I went ahead of time but prek is where it all starts. So we're kind of used to being at the forefront. So um we are pro um proposing the creative curriculum. We were looking for um a whole child approach where it's just not focused on one one aspect. Um the studies that the children help to choose are hands-on and play-based. Um there is guidance for individualization in all the activities and the data that we collect. There's a social and emotional development aspect to the program and it has a robust formative

111assessment component that the teachers can utilize using this program. Next slide please. Uh and I believe now our K5 representative will come up and uh talk about why they are asking for recommendations. Um for K5 we're looking at exploring social studies West Virginia. Um our reasons include it is inquirybased which gives the students many opportunities to explore using the framework of asking questions, investigating, finding evidence and finally communicating ideas. It is also interdisciplinary literacy integration in the new um new West Virginia book. Um and it includes the science of reading including things like word study, vocabulary exploration, fluency practice and lots of writing. It has an emphasis on real world application. So it gets things through uh to students so that they can then apply them in the real life. It is flexible and engaging

112lessons both for the students and the teachers. So they have a lot of resources and a variety of ways they can teach including primary sources, small readers, digital resources, readers theater and group projects. And to go along with that is the project based learning style so students can show um what they can do and have some choice in their learning. [Music] Middle school will be next. [Music] Good evening. Middle school social studies teachers build on similar skills in civics, economics, geography, and history, but we teach very different content at each of the grade levels. Thus, our committee has carefully selected three different textbooks that each align with that grade standards. But at the center of each of these choices are these elements, engaging lessons. Foremost, educators need engaging content for our students. These print and

113online sources provide intriguing images, video, text, and interactive activities, easy to understand organization and navigation, and stories and ideas that connect students to their learning in a way that makes material relevant to their lives. Multiple assessment opportunities throughout these materials. Formative and summative assessments are provided in print or online. Teachers can build assessments, allowing them to modify the number and type of questions. The products that we're recommending also include countless projects and inquiry based activities that allow students to show what they know in different and personal ways. Interactive mapping for students. All of our texts have interactive mapping features which bring geoloccation to life in a way that 21st century citizenship demands. Our seventh grade in particular will be working with new standards next school year that will emphasize geography and GIS technology. And our

114National Geographic digital tools will allow students to complete assignments on or create projects in a three-dimensional mapping environment. Dynamic online presence with each textbook system that we've chosen. Students can complete work with a print book or online. If a student is absent or homebound, they won't fall behind. In many cases, a student can even complete their work through an app without internet access and that work will automatically upload when they log in at school. Abundant teacher resources. This is an exciting year for our social studies team. Our eighth grade West Virginia history teachers in particular have selected a program that will provide more standards aligned resources than have ever been available to them before. With the textbook that we chose for seventh grade, every single lesson, every day has an out ofyour seat interactive component.

115The sixth grade teachers will have a new ability to collaborate with our English teachers using Ridable, which is a software that the students are already familiar with that they can use to enhance their students reading and writing skills. These are just a few examples. Thank you for letting me share a little bit about our middle school recommendations. And then I believe high school is next. Uh good evening. Uh for high school we have a variety of different subjects uh AP classes and electives. And for all of the textbooks we are recommending uh there are five core reasons as to why. Uh first they all have realworld activities. So they have lessons that are interactive. to have students engage with the material and make it relevant for their lives. Um the McGraw Hill Company in particular,

116we have current events students can access and relate to the content they are studying. Um there's also an overview of different career opportunities for them they can investigate uh after high school. Um they really just engage the students the textbooks with the material and make it relevant for their lives. Uh second, there's an inquiry format um for our students with these books. Uh they have students investigate the historical subjects um that they're they're studying, provides some more conceptual understanding for them. Um all of the textbooks we are recommending uh go through and provide contextualization background for the students and then go through and learn the topic in each chapter. uh provides activities that allow them to analyze um sympathize the material, evaluate the material and they can apply the material um that they have learned.

117Uh there's also a variety of primary and secondary sources for all of the books as well as interactive maps uh and videos. Uh number three, there's all the resources can integrate easily with Canvas um for our LMS. So it's really uh helpful for that. Uh number four, all of the textbooks provide the teachers with editable um pacing guides and lesson plans. There's a lot of materials available for teachers, including PowerPoint presentations they can download and use of various activities as well. The AP books we are recommending all have DBQs, practice tests, and align very well with the College Board's uh course and exam guides. And then finally number five, all materials we are recommending and textbooks are also available in Spanish. Uh so the resources, assessments, uh lessons all also have a Spanish component. And

118for the ebooks, uh they can be translated into over 120 different languages. So that provides us the ability to reach those students uh that we need to. Um so overall, we believe these are the uh the best recommendations for our students. uh thank you for your time and consideration this evening. So at this time just again we are asking that we put these materials out for public comment uh for the next two weeks and then we will come back uh and ask for approval for adoption. Uh furthermore there will be a group of educators who will attend the standards roll out for social studies in Morgantown the last week of June. Um so that will further more understand kind of the alignment of the standards. So Thank you very much. Any questions? Yeah, I have

119a question. Um, is it safe to say that personal finance is no longer a part of the social studies curriculum? Yes. I mean, I don't want to speak for high school, but yes, that is correct. It's a separate It's a separate class, but not under it. It is under It is not under social studies. No, they removed that when they made it a graduation requirement. I didn't get what you said. They removed that when they made it a graduation requirement. They took it out of social studies. To make sure. Yes, ma'am. Where is it though? Um I believe it's in CTE. Um it's its own separate class. Um would these books be purchased like actual books? Do students get a book all students or is there just a class set? What's the plan? It kind

120of differs through programmatic levels. I know secondary we are looking at class sets um but also purchasing extras for those students who possibly like in their IEP need the book to take home. Um elementary student each each student will get a book in elementary. Each student will get will get a book in elementary. Yes. Every student one book. Yes. It is so hard to hear what that's okay. I can't see because of the lighting and so I can't read your lips. So then it's 10 times harder. Um, the last thing I I appreciate that the the older level books, high school level are uh spa available in Spanish. Is that true for the other levels? And that that has become Yes. a a normal accommodation for almost every vendor. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. You're

121welcome. Um, and just so the public knows, we will have these um out during 8 to 4 work hours, but we'll also have two evenings of the first week on Tuesday. We'll have a time from 5 to 6 for those people who can't get there between 8 and 4. Uh, and then the second week, uh, I believe, sorry, first week on Wednesday, second week on Tuesday from 5 to 6. So, there are after hours available. So, the one question I had u Mr. Walters already answered about the AP. I was thankful to hear that from a a very successful AP teacher who is very beloved and teaches multiple classes. So, the fact that they have what you need for that, I appreciate. Um, the other question I had was regarding eighth grade West Virginia history

122because I I heard sixth and seventh, but I didn't hear a lot of mention about the eighth grade book and how it actually does it even meet the content standards. I mean, so this year for the first time, we actually had three vendors who bid on West Virginia history. Um, from ever since I've been here, there's only been one company that's made a West Virginia history book. So, no, we had three vendors who did West Virginia history, so they actually had choices. Uh, and I believe the teachers are very thrilled that it aligns 100% with the the standards. Uh, they have online resources. So, yes, eighth grade is thrilled uh that they had choices this year. Will it still have the same resources as the other books? Yes, still online, still hard copy, still have

123teacher resources. Uh, yes, we're very pleased that vendors have have done some West Virginia history. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Any other questions on the presentation? So, mine is not a question, but I just wanted to say this is super impressive. the fact that so many of you showed up to be here today to show off the hard work that you did. I think that is amazing. And I think tonight between seeing what you all put together and seeing you all here to support each other in this and then having the social studies uh fair student recognitions today and seeing the hard work that you've put into those excuse me to those students come to fruition. Um, and then my own personal insider knowledge on this year's Golden Horseshoe. I am just super super happy about

124everything that's going on in social studies this year. So, thank you guys. At first, I thought I was a little confused on how many people thought that the Neola policies were so captivating, but now I understand. So, but um, thank you very much. Let's go ahead and take these one at a time. Um, first, is there a motion to for action to put the prek curriculum adoption out for public comment? So, move. Thank you, Miss Twifford. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of putting the prek curriculum out for public comment, say I. I. Opposed? Thank you. Next, we have um possible action on social studies instructional material adoption. Is there a motion to put the proposed social studies instructional materials out for public comment? So

125move. Was that MW? Thank you, Mr. Wer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of putting the social studies instructional materials out for public comment say I. I. Opposed. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. All right. Now, back to the policies. You guys run home. Thank you. Thank you. We shouldn't have put these last and more people would have stuck around. No, you have before you this evening and the request is that these be placed out for public comment for the next two weeks. This is the second um section, if you will, of the 5,000 series policies. And again, the request is that they be placed out for public comment for the next two weeks. All right. Is there a motion to put out the

126following Neola Neola policies out for public comment? Policy 511 511.03 5113 5113.01 5113.02 5120 5136 5310 5320 5321 5330 5331 5335 5335.01 01 5340 5341 5350 5410 5421 5460 5461 5511 5517.01 5530.02 5531 5531.01 5540 5600 5611 5630.01 5722 5772 and 5780. Is there a motion to put those out for public comment? Move. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of putting out the following policies for public comment. 5111 511.03 5113 5113.01 5113.02 02 5120 5136 5310 5320 5321 5330 5331 5335 5335.01 5340 5341 5350 5410 5421 5460 5461 5511 5517.01 5530.02 5531 5531.01 01 5540 5600 5611 5630.01 5722 5772 5780. All in favor of putting those out for public comments say I. I. Opposed? All right. Thank you very much.

127And before I was done with that list, they're all gone. Um, next we have board member comments and committee reports. Miss Fountain. Um, I would just say congratulations to the people who were recognized, the teachers and staff um that were recognized earlier. I can honestly say that um my children have benefited um from them personally. Um I'd also say know I know we recognize all these clubs and students each week, but it doesn't go unnoticed that you can't have a club unless you have an adviser. And it takes more time and more dedication from staff and personnel to be able to to give of themselves to support the students. Uh sometimes travel, sometimes other things. It's very very difficult sometimes for students to get uh those those uh sponsors. So for those of them that

128that stand up and do that, I just want to make sure to say thank you. Um, and so the leadership of the students was just it's very impressive to see. Not only do they try to serve their communities here, but they're reaching for those state level positions, which is really fun to see. So that's it. Thank you, Dr. Joy. Um, so on the agenda tonight was a retirement of Rory Benjamin, Harper's Fairy Middle School teacher. and during his tenure at Harper's Ferry Middle School, he also coached football, basketball, track, served as athletic director, and he's an asset to the school. Last month, we approved the retirement of Harper's Ferry Middle School band director, Charles Wall. Harpers Ferry Middle School is losing two retirement two longtime teachers who've worked at the school for over 20 years.

129An additional note, both men graduated from Jefferson High School together and um attended or got jobs at Harper's Ferry Middle School together. So um Harper's Ferry Middle and Jefferson County are losing two dedicated long-term employees. Um, I also wanted to um thank all the uh everyone who came out to support their co-workers. Um, I I know that there are um serious concerns about staffing and there are some cuts that um I know are required by law to give notice. um those kinds of things. So, um I I hope that anyone that's in that um situation gets the uh correct information about how um the system works. Um I don't know if that makes sense, but if you have questions, please reach out to Dr. Bishop or um the union reps. But there are um certain

130state laws that require that employees be told when there is no uh clear funding stream. So um I I I just it's it's heartbreaking to lose any employees, but um I'm not good with words, so I'll stop. Thank you, Mr. Bratton. Thank you. I just um would um like to follow um what Miss Lori Ogden said um to congratulate um everyone who was um recognized this evening. Also want to um congratulate any teams that um may have um over the the last month while we were out. um if you've um made it to states and or if you won states or um whatever the situation is. Um also to congratulate all of our seniors who are now committing to different um colleges. Um just so proud of um each and every one of you. And

131I would also just like to thank our coaches in this area because right now we have um we have community members who are coaches for our AAOU teams and they're traveling. They volunteering with our students. Um so thank you each and every one of you for everything that you do. and um because not only are you coaches, you're also mentors to our children. So um and thank you to all of our staff um for everything that you do. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Tweford. So, um I'm going to read so that I don't get choked up. Dear Jefferson County residents, JCS staff, and board members, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation from the Jefferson County Schools Board of Education effective June 2nd, 2025. I have accepted a promotion with my

132company, and I'm relocating to the Pacific Northwest. It has been an absolute pleasure to serve the students, teachers, staff, and residents of Jefferson County, West Virginia. as vice president of the Jefferson County School Board for the last year. I am so proud to have been able to champion many of you and your excellent place in our school system. My experience on the board has been both insightful and productive. To my constituents, you are the reason I decided to step up and serve. It has been so rewarding to hear from you and learn from you. I have loved being a voice for you and making decisions that represent your desires. Please get involved in our county and be part of creating a bright future. You really can make a difference. To the JCS staff, you have

133been through so many changes and no doubt have more on the horizon. You have great vision and skills to see it through. As a family, we've had the pleasure of working with so many of you and we will treasure those memories. I will miss working with you and I'll always be invested in your success. All right. To my fellow board members and to Superintendent Bishop, you have the potential to be such an amazing force in this county. Please learn to see the value in each other. put aside any personal agendas and find a path forward, negating the past and focusing what on on what is most important, which is our students. My wish for your continued leadership of Jefferson County Schools is greater unity and prosperity. Thank you for the opportunity to serve and I'm

134sorry it has to be cut short. Thank you. [Music] All right. Um, Dr. Bishop, do you have any comments this evening? No, I don't I don't have anything. [Music] And we do have an executive session this evening. Yes, we have the need for executive session. And it's for um discussion and possible action on real estate personnel action hearings and transfer hearings. Correct. That's correct. All right. Is there a motion to go into executive session for possible action on real estate personnel action hearings and transfer hearings? I motion it. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Ogden. All in favor of going to executive session say I. I. Opposed. All right. Thank you very much. [Music] Oh yeah, tomorrow is Tuesday. Oh, we don't we don't have a tracking time. No, it's

135it's right. It's Wednesday. Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday is ROC. [Music] Yeah, tomorrow's tutoring Sam t the little kid on and something else. Oh, and then she has a nail appointment. And then Thursday is something else with school. Friday is track meet and tanning appointment for prom on Saturday. Did I go? Oh, yeah. Last Friday. Yeah, that was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. All right. Thank you very much for your patience. Is there a motion to go back into open session? Some move. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Twifford. All in favor of returning to open session, say I. I. Um, first up we have is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Carol Wittington on the transfer list? So much. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Second.

136Thank you, Miss Bratton. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Carol Wittington on the transfer list, say I. I. I. Oppose. Thank you. Next we have um is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation? Got dark in here. Hang on. Um to place Jennifer Fagan's on the transfer list. What' you say? Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Jennifer Fagens on the transfer list? Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Bratton. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Carol Jennifer Fagens on the transfer list, say I. I. Oppose. Oppose. Motion passes. 41. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Veronica Babington on the transfer list? I move. Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second?

137Second. Thank you, Miss Bratton. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Veronica Babington on the transfer list, say I. I. Opposed. Opposed. Thank you. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place April Thomas on the transfer list? Motion. Motion. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Tweifford. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place April Thomas on the transfer list, say I. I. Oppose. Opposed. All is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Margaret Hart on the transfer list? Motion. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Tweifford. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Margaret Hart on the transfer list, say I. Opposed? Opposed. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation

138to place Rebecca Rhodess on the transfer list? I made. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Ogden. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Rebecca Rhodess on the transfer list, say I. I. Oppose. Opposed. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Trudy Kaylor on the transfer list? Motion. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Swiper. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Truly Kaylor on the transfer list, say I. I opposed. Opposed. Thank you. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation to place Karen Hartlo on the transfer list? Thank you, Miss Ogden. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Twifford. All in favor of uh upholding the superintendent's recommendation to place Karen Hartlo on the

139transfer list, say I. I. Opposed. opposed. Thank you. And these are positions that are federally funded and um that's why they're on the transfer list. So I hope you understand that that it's not a choice. It's a necessary evil. So um all right, next up we have and I just wanted to say, you know, thank you all for meeting with us and allowing us to start the process so that we can hopefully fix it. Hopefully find the funding that we need to keep you where you are because you all do a fantastic job. Yeah. All right. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation for termination of Felicia Hair of CTMS Cook? So moved. Thank you, Miss Tweifford. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Bratton. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's

140recommendation for termination of Felicia Hara, CTMS Cook, say I. I. I. Oppos. Thank you. Is there a motion to uphold the superintendent's recommendation for termination of Paula Pair of CTMS Cook? Motion. Thank you, Miss Bratton. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Tweifford. All in favor of upholding the superintendent's recommendation for termination of Paula Pair, say I. I. Opposed. All right. Thank you very much. And 10:39 meeting adjourned. [Music]