001of education. This is a continuation of the meeting from March. This purpose of this special statuto meeting is to hear and considering objections to officially for property taxation for 2026. The special meeting was recessed in regard to labor framework special statute 11-8-9 statute 11-82 statute 8-12 for 2026 2027 current expense levy is 38.80 80 the and the uh excess will be 3670. Uh the current expense lady for class 3 is 776 and the excess lady changes changes a little >> that was in there that says that the court shall decrease the rate based on >> Yes. Yes. So that's based on last time. Um, so for we do have a letter from the state audience. Second motion by Dr. W. Second by Mr. Keyser. All those in favor of adjourning this special meeting of the
002L County Board of Education indicate by saying I. >> I. I. All those opposed. Vote carries 4 Z with one absent and we are adjourned at 448. All right. Um, today is April 21st, 2026. That's 5:00 pm. I hereby call this regularly scheduled session of the Logan County Board of Education to order. Uh, we're meeting here in the Ralph R. Willis Career and Technical Center. Um, present today is Mr. Rodario, Mr. Keyser, myself, uh, Mr. Dean, and Dr. Pat Joe White. Mr. Markham is not here today. So, we do have a quorum. Uh, I'll now ask everyone to please stand. Miss Kimberly Claire, if she'll please lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with
003liberty and justice for all. >> Please remain standing for a brief moment of silence. Thank you very much. You may be seated. All right. Under presentations, we have uh two presenters. Are y'all presenting together or separately? >> Kind of. >> Okay. So, we have uh we have Mr. Boar and Miss Kimberly Blair here to uh present us with information on middle of the year assessments. Correct. >> Yes. >> All right. The floor is yours, guys. My name is Bo Barry, coordinator of testing for the county and we're in the middle of testing season now with the TAT and the SAT and the benchmarks are ongoing right now. Uh first thing I want to touch on is the upcoming GSA coming up state testing. The testing will be starting in the county on Tuesday, May the
0045th. And in years past couldn't get results until September, sometimes October. It took a long time. Just wanted everybody to be aware we now have a parent portal to the Department of Education and everybody should have a packet at your desk. Uh we look at this and flip over to the first page. This is what the portal look like and parents can contact our principles of school. Contact me at the board's office and this is what it looks like. All they need is a six-digit code and provide their date of birth and their first name and parents will see their child score within 24 hours after taking the test. U if we start May 5th for ELA writing is on May 7th. They can't get their ELA score the writing is complete also. So after
005Thursday, May 7th, parents can cut their get their code and get their child score within 24 hours usually for that. And that applies for the math and the science also. So 24 hours sure beats September, October like in years past, you know, for parents and our families. >> Though if if you don't care, I I have a question. This is of course a great thing for us because as you say you used to have to wait months and months after the testing process when if if the will the portal provide info to the county for like combined scores you know like a let's I'm just going to use and I'm just going to toss out the name because it comes to me. Let's take for example, South Man is participating in the testing program as
006in all of our schools. So, will you all and and the school Southband be able to just do the same thing and pull up Southband's combined scores. We were able to get access pretty quick for for each student, for each school, for each class, but they were they was always under embargo before it wasn't able to be released until September, October a lot of times. Uh now we're getting the scores back quicker and that's something that can happen. Yes. >> Okay. So, so the embargo period is not going to be as long as it was in the past, >> correct? Okay. We're going to benefit from a county standpoint and school standpoint, not just an individual student. >> I think it's still going to be embargoed until we get the okay to release information to
007school verified, >> but the parents on this will be able to see their child's score within 24 hours. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> But the combined school may be embargoed for a period of time. >> Correct. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh and since we are talking about GSA, if you flip the page, here is the scores for the last 10 years. Kind of look at the share of this with you. Uh and you can see pretty much where we were last year. We started the last three years. Each score ELA math has been on an upward trajectory. We want to keep that path more. Uh you can see there was no testing in 2019 because of CO. You can see how everything dipped at that time and we're kind of in the process of
008building back up and we want to keep that momentum going for the last three years. What you see there, uh, science a little bit lower, science a little bit different. We test in math and reading, grades three through eight, but for science, we test in grades five and eight. And the fifth grade test is everything from third and fourth grade and fifth grade. And the eighth grade test incorporates sixth and seventh grade as well as the eighth grade. So you got three years worth of material for science. Okay, that's kind of what we're looking for. And you can see last year scores was the highest it was the last 10 years and math has been improved each year also. Yielding after co and the positive trajectory we have there. And just wanted to touch base
009make everybody familiar with the portal. Any parent that wants their portal information, contact the school or feel free to contact me at the board's office. I'll be glad to help them to be able to get on so they can see their child's school. Switching gears over to benchmark. We are ongoing with end of the year benchmark testing right now. So, we're sharing the middle of the year that we have. And I have a little statement here to to remind everybody. When we benchmark test, it tests a whole year's worth of content standards, not what they've been taught up to that point. So, it's a whole year's worth of standards. And flip over. First thing is reading and the reading scores for grade school. The next page will be middle school. And from beginning of the
010year to middle of the year, you can see positive growth in each area. Okay? uh and we hope to see more improved growth of course with the MDE or benchmark that we're doing now. Kindergarten you can see made a tremendous jump 73% uh proficient third grade made a good jump also with that. Flip over to middle school grades 5 through 8. On the next page, uh not as much growth as as the grade schools, but we see a positive growth except for fifth grade. fifth grade reading uh is pretty they're in middle school it's more complex for them. Seventh reading comprehension is more analysis type things. So fifth grade reading here even though we're still seeing growth and kids are learning skills not quite shown here and we hopefully will see at the end of
011the year next phase will be math for grade school and math for middle school. you miss a tremendous jump kindergarten math and it goes up u compared to reading the the beginning of the year benchmarks are real low for math and you got to remember too beginning of the year if I'm a third grade student for example and I'm taking beginning of the year benchmark I've been testing on third grade standards I haven't been taught those yet >> so we expect those standards to be kind of low be grade level behind if I'm a third grade student I should be good on second grade but not third degree. That's why you see the proficiency beginning of the year low then you can see the growth in the middle of the year is what we see
012here. Okay. Do we have any information that we received uh from students in any grade level at the high school level? >> We do. We take the PAT and the SAT. uh we take uh that in the beginning of the year and we just recently uh took the last week April April 9th we took the SAT SAT for 11th grade. >> So will we be getting some information on that too? >> It takes longer to get that in because that's college board that's not through the state. >> We will get information on those. >> Okay. And anytime you all want information as far as more information is provided here as far as class of schools, grades, what have you, feel free to this time. I'm going to turn it over for some more questions. I'll
013turn it over to Miss Blair. >> Both does a great job working. We we've done that a lot together. We both like the numbers. So um but behind every data point that you guys heard that there is a student and there's also a teacher behind them that is um and support staff member and a school community. We're all working to get those scores up. Of course they're not where we want them to be but what I see and and what we've all seen is tremendous growth. Um we are looking at different questions and asking ourselves are we using our time efficiently and effectively? Are we targeting the right students in the right way? and are we being consistent across all the classrooms throughout our county? Um, and from that reflection that we've already made, we
014already we've already started making some change in some schools. Um, some schools have changed their intervention time because they felt like they weren't seeing the gains that they wanted to see and that we need to see. Um, so I gave you a handout to just talk about where do we go from here? These are our scores, but what are we doing with them? Um what we're doing now is the first thing is we focus on core instruction. Um intervention is what I've told them all for next year. I really want to make that my baby. But we can't make intervention the most important thing without first going over our core instruction. So we're making sure that our classrooms have what they need and that they're aligning with their curriculum and that the students are all
015getting that first tier. They're all getting access to grade level material. Then we move on to uh what I was talking about with my baby and that is our intervention time. So we are going to be implementing what we're going to call a win time which is what I need and it's going to be 30 minutes every day for English and 30 minutes for math. And what happens during that time is students will be broke up into different groups and those groups won't be based on grade level. They'll be both based on a skill that that child needs. So we take these um the assessments that uh Mr. Barry was talking about and we break those down to not just an area but a certain skill and those kids will get intervention on that skill
016and they might be in that intervention group for three weeks or four weeks and then they'll move on to a different group with a different group of students with a different teacher maybe but that's parting what they need. They're not going to be with another group and then like you know kids get bored. I mean I know my own children you know if you're talking about something that they know already you know they get bored. So this is a great time and it's researchbased for students to be on the level that they need to be on and in some schools that could be a first grader move it up to a third grade class so that they can get enrichment. So it doesn't necessarily have to be intervention. So um we really want to make
017sure that we take the time this summer to do professional development so that the teachers know and and aids we're going to use everybody in the building to do this intervention. So they're small groups. So teachers, we're going to have our aids, special education staff, a counselor could have a group. Um, in the past as a principal, I led a group. Very difficult sometimes, but it's very important that everybody's on board. That's going to be a huge focus for us next year. Um, and then um I have to say that do I think this is going to be easy? No. But do I think that it's going to be worth it? Absolutely. And I've only been here since January, but I'm surrounded by educators and and I mean that from every single person from we
018have bus drivers and cooks and custodians, uh the superintendent, secretaries, everybody is dedicated and getting better. We've realigned ourselves. We uh we have an open door policy. Um when I first came, Mr. Ellis, what he told me was, "I want you to answer the phone or answer emails." He's like, "If a teacher calls you or principal, get back with them." And I've I've remembered that and I've tried my best to when they call within a couple hours, you know, sometimes we're in emergencies, but I've tried to get back with them. But through seeing that, I' i've seen people um who really genuinely care about the county and and this school system. And I think that if we come into these schools and we want to find a hundred things wrong, we can. But I want
019to find solutions. I'm not looking for problems. So, I'm looking for solutions and I see a lot of great things happening in Log County and I truly believe that this time next year we'll be able to come back and we're all going to be amazed with what the wonderful educators in Logan County have done. That is all for me, but you guys have any questions? >> I talk really fast. I apologize. >> Um, how far do we actually break these results down? And and the reason I'm asking for from our standpoint, >> you know, we're worried about county level. >> Sure. >> But from our administration standpoint, they're worried about it on a lot >> out of being able to narrow things down a lot better. >> So, do we break this down school to
020school? Make it available to our administrators? >> Oh, yeah. So, they not only do we break it down, they can break it down like with um with the programs that we use. So, if you're talking about our middle of the year benchmark, a teacher can go in and break their scores down. Like, so a specific teacher like Miss Blair, if I have an English class, I could go in and see what my phonics scores are. These seven kids, and these programs will actually group those kids, like I said, in it'll say, "Okay, these six kids need this skill." So, um yeah, definitely broken down, but even um it's broken up by the school, by classroom. That's your part, I guess. I'm sorry. >> Oh, you're fine. You're doing good. We uh had data meetings with
021principles uh about a month ago and I met with each principal and went over the data and they did the same thing with her staff and we could break it down to not only each school but each each class uh each subject what area of each subject like in reading for uh phmic awareness or phonics or reading comprehension vocabulary he's broken down for each student need and we take and they take that data that's what they use to make their room small group interventions with they kind of use the data to drive instruction instruction in their classroom. So, we can see this improvement. Well, Miss Lar's talking about how we're going to revamp our groups next year to better serve our children, our students. >> Do they do you all have to depend on you
022all to break it down or do you all can you all go on the dashboard and break it down yourself to however you want? >> Every every teacher and principal and myself even we can get on the dashboards and break them down and look at them. Uh, you know, the teachers can print out individual reports for families if they want one for their child. So there's there's a yeah there's a lot of data to look at and break it down by an individual standard. >> Thing is if I was speaking with my hands again I apologize. >> I said I gonna do better on >> truly like some of the programs we use. It's almost like an IEP for each child. It's an individualized learning. So it breaks it down to what that child needs.
023Um, for example, I mean, I'll use my own son. Um, he had a um he he's a very good math student and his weakest subject was geometry and it it knows that, but then it broke it down for him so that it gave him extra work for geometry and the teacher worked with him on geometry. The following year his high score was in geometry. It went from being his lowest to his highest because it's an individualized for that child. If the children will take the their assessment seriously, it truly is a prescription of exactly what they need. So, this is tied to the GSA, which is through the eighth grade. Are we going to implement this at the high school level as well? >> Well, this like what we're doing doesn't actually go to the
024high school. Um, and I can't I'm not a high school person, so not trying to throw it all on somebody else, but I don't know. >> Yeah. The debt I presented to you as benchmarks is goes from three to to eight, >> right? we get in ninth grade, we're using PAT, right? Instead of three times a year, that's fall and spring, right? We're taking PAT in ninth and 10th grade and we use the SAT in the 11th grade. >> But what but what I'm saying is are are we going to be able to take the data from the PAT and the SAT and do this with it at the high school level, >> secondary principles and schools, they take the data from the PAT and that gives them that to work with with her students.
025Yes. >> Okay. not as is different from what she's doing elementary walking intervention >> but the information is provided to PLC's and so on at the high school level to where principles and staff can identify weaknesses and trouble areas they can use that data that's why we take in the fall and the spring so we can kind of get an idea you know how to work with the strengths and weaknesses of each student >> okay >> that make sense y >> thank you Thank you. >> All right, moving on to 4B, public speakers. There were no public speakers, so we'll move on to item number five. That's approval of the minutes. Uh this is from the special meeting on April 7th, 2026. The meeting from March 24th was was not adjourned. It was recess. So
026those minutes will be on the next agenda. Uh but the special meeting of uh April 7, 2026 was approved by the board uh by the state board. And then uh we'll move on to item number six, approval of action items. And I will turn the floor over to um Dr. >> W. Again, these action items were previously state board except a few. We have to keep the mark. But so far um uh our salary schedule revisions effective for 2026. We had a revision. We um added uh a heating and air conditioning mechanic to electrician to and these are um it gives them a little bit of a pay bump because they do have some licensing and specialized training and um you know we we want to try to keep as many qualified uh HVAC and
027and electricians and others that we can. So that was added into um the salary schedule that's there. Um the school calendar, this is our third meeting with the school calendar and um so uh it's it's been approved for by the state board or by superintendent black. Um we have some out of state trips that were um uh on our agenda. Uh Logan High School's forensic science class is taking a bus to travel to East Alcatraz Museum of Pigeon for uh Tennessee and they are fundraiser funds. Man High School's boys baseball team is traveling, Kentucky for a baseball game. Um even though it's just, you know, across the across the way, we still have to put it on there as an outlet trip. Um and man High School senior class is uh going by Seabville bus
028transports Kings Island and Mason, Ohio May 20th and 21st. uh fundraiser funds are being used for that. Bernardville Elementary is going to the Columbus Zoo on Saturday, May 16th, and that's our school trip allocation. So, we're really excited that our kids are getting to go to see some things that are, you know, they may not get to see any other times. And you know, again, our levy funds support those trips and things. Um Chapmanville Youth Football League, we have anou with them. Uh they're going to use the vac vacant property the board owns on Adam Street uh for youth football activities, practices, games, trainings, and so forth. Um they've been great to work with and u we're glad we have that opportunity to help them out. >> That's going to be a big help. >>
029Um uh we also have anou education alliance of americanore. They're going to sponsor three summer mentors at three locations for summer program at Buffalo Elementary, Chapmanville Intermediate, and Logan Middle School. June 8th through July 30th at $1,200 each and that is being covered by federal funds for summer programs. Now we have and this is um again the state Florida term policy uh Mickey back over to you all. So we had three policies that were on the third and final reading and again these were based on legislation that passed uh required courses of instruction uh policy 2230.07 107 policy 2370.04 learning pods and microschools defining those and the county role with those and then policy 2371 which is the hope scholarship program. So I don't know if we want to go through all of them or
030you guys want to vote on the new ones and then the updated ones. >> I always want to do new and then updated just to just so that they're se since they're separate items on the >> Sure. >> on the agenda. Since they are separate items, I would make a motion that we approve the new policies under uh category F which is 2230, 2370.04, I'm sorry, and 2230.07 and 2371, which is a hope scholarship program. I will make that motion. >> All right. U second, >> Mr. Keyser. Second. Do we have any um questions or um discussion? No questions or discussion. We'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the new policies uh listed under F uh in their third and final reading indicate by saying I. >> I. All those I.
031All those opposed indicate by saying no. The eyes have it 40. and we will move on to item two. Okay, we have 29 my Roman numerals there again 26 updated policies and again uh we worked with Neiola they looked at their updates as the legislature passed new laws and many of these are technical updates where they changed May to shall and things like that or there were some typos and uh these are through the 20 the 20 the zeros through the 2000's policies Next month we'll have additional ones where the technical things are made. So these are on the third and final reading. It's policy 100 which is bylaws 142 qualifications. Uh 143 election 146 resignation or removal of board members 167 voting 175.2 the West Virginia school uh board association and and the national
032school board association uh policy 1530.01 101 evaluation of school leaders. Uh 2114 meeting state accountability measures. 2120 county and school improvement. 2120.01 local school improvement councils. 2220 adoption of programs of study. 2230.01 program study middle school. 2230.02 program of study high school programs. 2261.01 parent and family member participation in title one programs. 2275 Mount Challenge Academy 2370 Alternative Delivery of Educational Programs. 2411 Guidance and Counseling. 2013 AIDS Education Program. 2414 Drug Prevention and Violence Reduction Education Program. 2416 Student Privacy and Parental Access to Information. 2430 District Sponsored Clubs and Activities. Participation Extracurricular Activities. 2431 Scholastic Athletics 2460 special education 2600 educational programs and 2605 program accountability and evaluation. >> Okay, there you are. >> All right, I need a motion. >> Can I ask a question before you ask for a motion? >> Is it
033is it related to the policies? >> Yes. >> Usually you do discussion of questions after the motion's made. >> Okay. So, I need a motion for approval of the updated policies under item G. >> I'll second that motion. >> Mr. Keyser with the motion. Dr. White with the second. All right. You said you had a question, sir. I just uh uh very briefly um we have used the the Blogan County has used the as their policy updater for many years. Is that going to be the plan for the future is to use the Nola company to provide updates? >> Yes. What what they do and again we're kind of playing catchup because of things happened previous years. said from November 1st on I'm here. But uh so what what what they do typically is they
034have an update in May of each year and in usually the fall of each year and the May update uh lets us know about things that legis reflects recently passed legislation and how it would impact policies. And so once we get all of our policies caught up, it will just be anything in those updates or anything that we as a as a as a county and then you as a board want to to change. So it won't be 30 hopefully 26 policies again once we go through all of them. Thanks. No. So what I guess my question also is as we are working through to update our policies and let's take for example the legislature may go into session and decide during a special session to create some policies that impact education. Then Naola will
035generate that policy to you all to update. >> Okay. >> Yes. And what they do is they give us like a menu of items and we kind of pick and choose which pieces we want or we can write our own if we choose, but they do give us a good template to start with. >> Okay. And >> thank you. That that was my question. And and and just so everybody's clear, if there is a state law, so policy from from the way um our our uh training and and state board association meetings go, policy is basically the law of our school board of our of our county. If there's a state law that's passed that supersedes the policy until the policy is updated, >> right? Yes. >> The the flip side to that is just
036because a policy is old doesn't mean it is not in effect. As long as it doesn't uh inter as long as it doesn't go up against state law or federal law, it can be from 1883 when this when the Logan County School Board was uh established, if that policy is still on the books, it's still in effect. Correct. Like for example, policy in our in those zero one, you know, the policies that the Logan County School Board shall be called this, right? >> That policy will never be changed unless you guys decide to change it. But there are policies that we we look at them, but they don't need updating because it's, you know, the law hasn't changed or they're still relevant. >> So there's no expiration to policy. there's just updating with what's going
037on, what we feel is necessary or what state laws. Okay. I just wanted to let everybody know. >> So, because we have as a as a board, we have been granted the ability to approve policy >> or reject >> or or look at it to to you know, revise it or whatever. That also means that if we I I guess it's the board or something if something occurred that the board felt like they needed to generate a policy to cover, then they would touch base with you and you would touch base with the >> Yes. and the would generate the policy >> and bring it back for the board to approve at a future time. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Any other discussion? I'm going to call for a vote.
038All those in favor of approving the updated policies listed under G in their third and final reading indicate by saying I. I. All those opposed indicate by saying no. The eyes have it 40. The policies are approved and I'm turning the floor back over to you, >> Dr. Agreement for 2627, an option pathway for K12 and uh local education education agency collaboratives at three high schools and Ralph Rulis Technical Center. Um provide three options. One for atrisisk students, uh credit recovery and um HSSE test for those intent on dropping out. So the be high school equipments includes the GED test. Um so we we have anou with the option pathway to do that. Um we have some surplus uh equipment in the technology department. We have two very old vehicles almost 20 well they are
03920 years old. A 2006 Jeep Liberty Liberty it's mechanically disabled. Has 144 over 144,000 miles on it. and a 2005 Fd E150 and it's mechanically disabled and has 183 plus,000 miles on it. So those will be sold at surplus. Um we also have an agreement with Mountain State Educational Service Collaborative uh with the Ralph Rar Willis Career Technical Center to provide financial services by hiring one at will financial aid advisor from April 9th to June 30th at a cost of $4,300 for PEL grant funds. But this is someone who will come in and our our adult programs like the LPN program and those types of things to help them navigate the financial aid piece so that they can um get their um their licenses for those programs. But we need someone to help with that
040and it's uh cheaper just to get someone to to contract that work for us. And again the PEL grant funds which are federal funds pays for that. um budget supplementals. Um fund 11 it's uh I guess we unsupplemented some money $989,843 since it's in parenthesis. We transferred money uh between fund 61 26 $6,921 and $24,000. Some invoices we had u 2.1 million a little over that for county for cares funding we didn't have anything. CTE we had $37,772.85 85 food service $81,3191 IASA56,28740 permanent improvements 34,18276 and PCARD 22,67758 for a total of a little over 2.3 million. All the invoices are available for review at the central office if you want to direct inquiries to from Justice at FB office. Our personnel schedule is also attached. Um for professional, we have several athletics um coaches
041and that sort of thing that were hired um for those positions. Um we had a correction Jonathan Christian is is a temporary sports spring coach countywide authorized paid and we had to correct that from the other meeting. Um, we also abolished two positions at the central office that weren't on the ones last time. We had over a hundred. We missed a few, so we're correcting them here, but all of the people were notified within the proper time frame and were given the opportunity if they chose to to have a a hearing, which we did not. So, we eliminated a a benefits coordinator and a personnel coordinator out of central office um those positions. We have some administrative transfers effective for next school year due to the school merger of Bernardville Elementary School in Omar. What
042happened there is um countywide both service and professional personnel voted to give preference to the Bergenville teachers who were being displaced by the closure of their school first uh refusal of the jobs that were being created at Omar Elementary. So what that for example we had to create several positions because of the two schools combining. So the the teachers at Bernardville had first preference and that again that was an overwhelmingly uh positive vote by the entire county personnel to allow that to happen. So um uh we have a kindergarten teacher that's going to Omar think it's really across the hall kind of thing. They're in the same building now but it's a first grade and a second grade position were created as well as um a third grade position and then a special education position.
043So those were all as part of the merger the positions that were created. Um we also this time of year before May 1st we have to appoint a treasurer for um the school system and and appointed Miss Ronald Justice our school treasurer for the 2627 school year. Um we employed a a nurse substitute teachers um as well. There's some people on FMLA that is listed there. And then we did some realignments. And what that is is instead of uh uh maybe at a school they had enough seniority that uh so at Buffalo Elementary we moved a kindergarten position to be a fourth grade teacher for next year. So they they didn't need the kindergarten position, but they needed a fourth grade. So we were able to do that. And at Chapmanville Regional High School, uh
044we did the same thing. um went from a full-time driver's ed teacher to half driver's ed, half social studies because that's what we needed there to to realign their positions. Um uh so we rescended a position at man elementary prek from iterate school counselor um on the 12 on the basically she's decided to stay so she's going to remain in the tender one there from December. Um we had a couple of resignations three and then u a reduction in force. This is again one that was off the list of clical error um for music at the high school that was a risk. On the service side uh we have um this is again for 26 27 school year. Um uh these uh these people we placed in these these were amended. So these were some
045administrative transfers for uh service personnel. We employ some substitute aids, cooks and custodians. We rescended a aenerate special needs aid. Uh they're going to remain on the subs list and then we had some reservations. And then we had some reduction force at the bus garage. Um and these were mostly extracurricular runs. We had a a secretary to the LM program. These are some that were were already taken care of, but and from all the other list. We had about 10 list going around. So they're caught up with those >> on the driver's ed teacher that came spoke >> and I think it was suggested that he would cover man and Chapman. What whatever became of that? Um we're still working through those things. So what we're doing right now in uh we're uh you know
046that's we're working through all of those u first you know as as the high schools are getting their list of what kids want to take and and again as we look at those if we see there is a need to add a position or resend a riff we we do that. So we're >> I didn't know if y'all got that far or not. >> We're still working on it. Um I was at Logan High School today and then the the principal there had post-it notes trying to get his schedule put together so he would see what he could do. >> Well, the way you word it, it will be complicated from man. >> Well, I think it's going to be man to lo but again it will based on enrollment and and like I said
047>> how many kids have taken >> how many kids it >> Thank you. by by the time that everything kind of shook out personnel wise. >> Mhm. >> Uh we're looking at possibly maybe a hundred cuts or how many? >> Yeah, it's right it's it was right it's hard to it's right around a hundred positions were impacted. However, that we had many many positions that had long-term subs in them. So, some of our teachers maybe were cut, their position was cut, but they're going to be able to bid on a long-term sub vacancy because a long-term sub was in there and you can get the job. So, that's all shuffling out now. We posted those jobs as quickly as we could internally. So, it's an internal posting only our employees could see those and they've
048been bidding on those jobs and we've been working on placing people there as quickly as we can. I I just wondered because in in keeping up with the news and all, I I saw a couple weeks ago where Canal County had to cut many employees. Uh and and many of their employees may be certified for positions where we had long-term subs, >> right? >> So, you might have carryovers maybe from county to county. >> Yes. as we post positions. Yes, we may have certified people being from another county into some of our positions. >> That's what I'm hoping because, you know, especially in the math, science, special ed is where our greatest needs are. >> And really, you won't even know the the final >> rifle and everything until after the 10th day of school
049next year where we see where all the transfers land, where we see who chooses what elect, where the interest is at. So we're not gonna really get an answer to any of these until after we are inside the first front school >> as soon as you know we should probably 90% of it will be you know always you know a family or two moves in put you over on a you know you have to hire a third teacher in elementary that kind of thing. So those things happen but we you know we realize that and and you know we'll never short change our children you know but like I said state code this is the only time we can cut position but we can add them back anytime that there's a need um the superintendent
050report I guess still have any other questions um so um just some things Jennifer Wooten who is an elementary school teacher at Logan Elementary is has been selected for the West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which is our state math group. I used to be a member of that. She's their community uh relations representative for the entire state. So, she's serving in a leadership position. Uh Jennifer uh presents on last few years she presented at um the the the state uh conference and and does a wonderful job, get a lot of positive reviews, but I want to recognize her for that. Um I think was it last week, Mr. We uh met with the Southern West Virginia uh community and technical college. We're partnering with them and Ralph R. Willis uh to work on
051an LPN to to RN program. >> Awesome. >> So, um basically if there are students that want to enroll in their RN program, but they're not quite ready, they come here, go to the LPM program, finish it, and then you know get into the RN program at at the the community college. So, that that's a great partnership. We're looking forward to that and it'll it'll strengthen our workforce and and give people lots of options. Um today I went over to Logan High School and met with the principal student advisory council. That was probably the highlight of my week. Um just talking to the kids. They talked about everything from lunches to academics. So and everything in between. So, it's always fun to meet with students um and uh just uh hear hear what they want
052and just how um some of the things we've been doing such as uh the early college and and partnership with Marshall has really helped them uh kind of think about their careers but also kind of push them academically. Um and that was just good to hear. And then they had they had comments on anything and everything. They would like their library remodeled just a few things. It was a it it was it was fun and and uh they were just super uh it was just great to be with spend about an hour with them. Um uh on April 9th, myself and the team went to the West Virginia Association of School Administrators conference on that day. Um basically uh we they shared with us updates on the legislative session and provided um everyone with a
053green book which tells us what changed in the legislature. it wasn't as thick this year. That was a good thing. And uh they then they spent most of the day talking about financial best practices, how how does anything uh it was good to know that we're doing things that we can way they should be in aligning with what they say. Um tomorrow Hope Gas u executives from Hope Gas will be visiting Ralph R. Willis uh to discuss a potential partnership with the new CTE program around energy. So we're really excited about that. Um and uh I know that um uh Miss Adams is is excited about hosting that. We're all going to be up here and we're also invited if you'd like to. We're excited about that. Um elementary summer school enrollment is underway. Um
054and uh high school and middle school, you know, credit recovery and that that will happen as as their counselors meet with them. Uh the teacher of the year dinner is Tuesday, April 28th at 6 PM at Logan Country Club. Um of the Logan County um community and educational foundation is sponsoring the event for us and it's always a well-intended event um by our by our staff and it's always good to honor our teachers and our service personnel that uh go above and beyond. Um this there is a a bill that was passed by the legislature last year u regarding cyber SWAT. It's a online safety program uh that that was uh mandated by the legislature. Um we had a call out and um for parents to be informed of that and they have options to
055opt out if they choose to. Um all the information is that it's on the website. We did a call out last week and let them know this was coming. It's part of a mandated, you know, it's a it's a it's a it's a state law and uh basically it's an interactive um thing to help our kids see like the choices they make when they're on the internet. If they decide to talk to this person, you know, that could be, you know, just to give them some awareness of of where that would go and uh and it's their age appropriate. I think it's from 3 to 12 is where it starts. So, but again, um if parents want to opt out, they have that option. But all the information is on the website and or they
056can call their school and get the papers that way. And that's all I have for updates. >> All right. Thank you so much. Uh we'll move on to item number 10, board comments. And we will start uh on my left here with Mr. Rogario. >> I have no comment. >> No comment. All right, Mr. Kaser. Uh Mr. Barry and Blair, thank you all for you all here today. It's good information and uh seeing positive trending and hopefully these end of the year results we see the full full throttle that kept going in that direction as we proceeded through the year and you know I I a lot of good good things happening. Uh see a lot of stuff going on vocational school right now. uh a lot of positives in that area and and I
057think an area that's critical to our county right now is being able to to stay to keep jobs and to be able to build jobs within the county. And you know, one thing we learned have learned throughout this process of estate takeover is that um it's it's not all on the shoulders of the board. There's other extenduating circumstances that uh direct how that flow goes. Uh, for example, uh, you know, we went to test scores and not one of us on this panel up here are in a classroom teaching and neither did we have the ability to make policy to affect what was being taught at that time. But whether, you know, that was buried on the decision on when the board started getting control back. So, you know, there's a lot of things that
058are out of our hands, a lot of things that are in our hands, but a lot of things that are out of our hands that that have to do, but uh I'd like to thank everybody, not just in this rhythm, but that's involved with our school system right now because tonight we, you know, officially the decision was made in February to give our board back uh decision making over policy, But tonight we took the first step and took the first vote this board has voted on in what Tony two and a half years. >> Three and a half. >> We took the first vote that we've had in a long time with and I thought it was a good way to do it with Dr. Pat White with him being retiring off the board this
059year for him to make the first motion to do that first vote and go back into things. I thought that was uh deserving. But, uh, I think we're making progress and I think that we're seeing it in all the areas right now and and just want to thank everybody cuz it's from top to bottom and what what what's happening is is a reflection of what the whole team is doing right now. So, I appreciate what everybody's doing. >> Thank you, Mr. Kezer. Dr. White. >> Thank you, Mr. Kzer, for your comment. Um, I think that as as we look at things, as time progresses and not only our school system, but school systems throughout the state are all faced in very many similar situations. I mean, we did approve some policies tonight that uh it
060was first time in a long time that some policies have been approved. But also keep in mind though, we're all in the same boat as in regard to operations of school systems. School systems have to keep current with their policies. If they don't keep current with their policies, they'll end up getting so far behind that situations may occur that you didn't even dream of. And I think that as I say, as as time progresses, not only for this board, but for boards throughout the state, we're going to see things that are rather than people make the comments to the press or whatever about antiquated policies, we're going to see comments made about updated policies that we are going to be current. And I think as long as any board, no matter when they're elected or
061when they serve, keeps that in mind, they'll be in good shape. As long as, you know, boards continue. If something comes up or something that you read at the state level that has occurred in the legislature and all of a sudden you don't think personally that that particular policy can impact your board, you're sadly mistaken. You you must keep current. You must keep current whether you want to or not. If you don't, the boat will leave you. And it it doesn't take long for that boat to start shifting the moving out in the water. So, let's you know, please keep that in mind as things go on that you've got to keep current. You've got to keep up to date and current no matter what your situation is. And that's all I have to say.
062>> Thank you, Mr. Watts. Um, I'll just uh like to thank uh Mr. Barry, uh, Mrs. Blair, she's already she had a softball game to get to with her daughter, so she's already uh stepped out. But thank them for their um presentations, giving us an update on um not only um where we're where we stand uh with achievement, but what the plan is going forward. That's what that's one of the things that I I really like to see. And and in my job, you know, I I tell people all the time, a lot like what Miss Blair says, don't just come with me to a problem. Come with me with a problem, but give me how we going to fix it. And you guys have a a a really good blueprint literally for excellence to
063to address some of the um shortcomings that we have on our achievement scores. And you know, you can sit here and argue all day whether whether test scores are indicative of student success. That's the only thing we got. That's that's the best model we've got. So, that's what we got to go by. So, why not fix what we can see with the data that we have from the testing and and go forward. So, I really like that. I agree with Mark. there's a lot of of good things um that are happening in the county and I think the the the winds have kind of shifted a little bit and we're and we're really starting especially in the central office. I know we're coming through a really difficult time with with rift season and and cutting
064these positions. I know it's hard. I know it's it it's it's tough on the county. It's tough on our employees. I get that. But hopefully we come out of the other side of it. um a little bit better streamlined um and a little bit better to provide the services that we need to our students because at the end of the day, yeah, we employ these people and these these people are are our our neighbors and our family, but we're here for the education of children. That's the number one priority we have, the safety and the education of our children. So, um it's it's been a painful couple of months. I'm not going to deny that. Um, but I I think the the winds are starting to shift a little bit and we're we're starting to
065focus again on, okay, we've got through that. What's the best way moving forward to educate these kids and provide them with what they need? Um, and that's what we're charged with. So, I really appreciate you guys, you know, coming to us with a, you know, an obvious need, but but an outline for a solution. Um, our administrators in the central office, I I think are doing a fantastic job. Um, and uh, like Mark said and and everyone else, we really appreciate the work that's being done on a day-to-day basis. Uh, because that's not our forte. That's y'all's forte. Y'all do the day-to-day stuff. We just kind of do the policies for right now and then hopefully step it up as we go forward. So, that being said, uh the only announcement we have is the
066next board of education meeting will be held on May 5th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. and it will not be here. It will be at the Chapmanville Regional High School auditorium. So, that's the the little theater when you go in. Uh there's a um there's a concession stand to the left, just past the concession stands, a little hallway. you'll go by there and and and go down into the to the auditorium. Um, and that'll be um our regular schedule board meeting and it will be our u chance to do our academic recognition for uh a lot of our kids that have done uh really really well this year in um in different um um academic uh competitions and and um opportunities that they've had to and we we want to take the opportunity to acknowledge them.
067Uh would it be possible maybe as as an FYI for our next in our next board meeting to have uh information regarding times and all related to graduations? >> Yes. Yes. We working on that. >> Okay. And could also while while you're working on that usually in the past what's what's happened is as the notices has gone out to the high school also kind of like a reminder that that particular day of graduation they set aside some parking close by that we can pull in and have access to >> since we're going to have to go to three different places in and get out. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to add to Mr. Barry, great presentation. I appreciated that. Really educated me on it. >> All right. There being no further business before this
068board. I need a motion for adjournment. >> I need a second. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Rogary will beat you, Pat. >> All right. I was planning I was pointing to you, Pat. I know >> you ain't got very many to do and I want you to get you can't. >> All right. All those in favor of adjournment indicate by saying I. I. >> All those opposed indicate by saying no. The eyes have it 40. We are adjourned at 5:56 p.m.