001You ready? Good evening everybody. How is everyone? Mr. Prudish is not able to be here tonight, so you got me in charge. Um, Dr. Atkins, would you like to lead us in 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. Okay, if Mr. Toman and the other board members will join me down front. We're going to start with some board recognizes. Got my phone off. Oh, I forgot about that. I got you. Okay. Good evening. Our favorite part of every board meeting is when we have an opportunity to recognize uh staff and students for and community members this evening for outstanding um achievements. Our first recognition this evening is certificate of
002achievement reading competition winner. Laya Belt, first grade student at Bluefield Primary School, has set the record in Mercer County of the most books read in a school year. Ila has read over 900 books this school year. Ila participated in a reading competition that her teacher Diana Sander had in her class this year using the accelerated reading program. To earn points in this competition, the students must read a book and take a quiz testing their comprehension. Ila has earned around 430 points. Miss Sandifer says that at the beginning of the year, Ila was reading 45 words a minute. Now she is reading 157 words a minute. Ila says her motivation was to break the record two boys set last year in Misser's class who read 600 books. When asked why she likes to read, Ila said
003it is fun and you know more stuff and it helps you to learn. Ila's only struggle on the last day of school was finding a book that she hadn't read yet. Great job, Ila. Keep on reading. Leila Belt, first grade student, come on up. [Applause] You can bring your parent and your principal. You can bring every You have to hold this for the picture. Come on in. [Applause] ready. Thank you. She's doing good. Did you smile? Okay, this evening we also have a 110% club for a community member. Tabitha Maya, kids program coordinator for Mountaineer Food Bank, is a passionate and dedicated leader in the fight against childhood food insecurity. She played a key role in creating the Extra Mile program, an innovative initiative that delivers shelf stable food, fresh produce, milk, eggs, and meat
004directly in the homes of food insecure students using Door Dash drivers. In just two years, the program has delivered over 317,000 pounds of food and has expanded from Mercer County to Klay County, demonstrating its success and impact. Tabitha's work earned her team one of the of only five Save the Children innovation grants awarded nationwide. Beyond the Extra Mile program, Tabitha works across the state to support food access programs, always focused on ensuring no child goes hungry. Her approach is solution focused, grounded in compassionate, and powered by strong partnerships with schools, funders, and community organizations. Tabitha is known for her commitment, humility, and strength. She handles every challenge with professionalism and positivity, always showing up when needed. Her work has transformed lives and removes significant barriers for students across West Virginia. Mercer County Schools is deeply
005grateful for Tabitha's efforts and proudly recognizes her as a true change maker and a deserving member of the 110% club. Tabitha Mays, kids program coordinator for Mountaineer Food Banks. [Applause] Put it in the middle. In the middle. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. And then we have the other one that's going to be next next board meeting because they got a ball game tonight. Okay. That came out on Thursday after the agenda went out the all state. So we thought we could get it. Okay. We'll wait. We're busy. We're busy. Thank you. So congratulations again to Leila and Tabitha. You guys are more than welcome to stay for the rest of our board meeting, but if you want to escape, this is your chance. Thank you all for coming tonight. Me too. I'm trying
006to make a quest. Okay, sounds good. All right, so we are moving on um with Mr. Toman's update. So with superintendent's opening remarks, I also before we start, I just wanted to recognize uh Mr. Becky Wright and Dr. Heather Farley back there working on some leadership classes that they're working on their administration. So they're back there observing. So those two Glad to have you ladies. Gotcha. So that's pretty pretty neat. So just letting you know that uh we're we're putting them to work. We're ready. So good. Sounds good. Good. Also, as I mentioned in the other meetings, the Mer County mission statement and county board goals, we provided those for you all here on the desk. I just want to announce that a few times. Our Jason Argonauts are currently on the Pacific Northwest expedition
007and you can see that on our Facebook pages and Jason Learning pages. Uh Princeton teacher argonaut Jennifer Mlanahan, Princeton High School student uh Miles Munique and Bluefield High student Elena Flynn Finn Codell. They left Friday and they'll be back this Thursday. So just want to give you that heads up. We also rescheduled Dr. Howard call and Jason Butcher for the next meeting to go over their policy update. They did a brief summary at the SEC SC meeting last uh Thursday. An update also Mike Mlanahan uh his uh purpose-driven management signed agreement for the board's request was approved at the April 28th meeting and I signed that. I sent that to you. Also, the WBASA summer conference was last week from the 16th to the 19th at Stonewall Resort. Also, Dr. Atkins and Mrs. Harrison presented
008uh AI how we implemented implemented some AI uh techniques to support for principles and administrators and it was very wellreceived and also Kristen Jackson who spoke at U uh New Orleans was the uh keynote uh that same day. So it was pretty neat to have him there. a young 25year-old entrepreneur that's uh he's the headliner for the AI summit in Phoenix, Arizona this November. So just a pretty neat uh uh Dr. Atkins, anything I'll have you add on 2322 on anything like that? It was it was amazing of uh the feedback and what people wanted from Mercer County Schools that we were I think the uh leading the the way in West Virginia with that. something. Yes, ma'am. Um, at the conference, Mr. Chman was approached by another county seeing if he would allow Dr.
009Atkins to come share with their teachers because they were so impressed with Oh, that's awesome. Well, and I could say we had Jefferson, Berkeley, Putnham, Jackson, uh, Braxton, uh, several wanting to say, "What can we do?" Mann County was very interested. Uh, so we had several that was after that I that hit me up with that. And I I'm sure I'm missing more, but uh it was it was very impressive. And uh I think what I'm most proud of is it's not about me, but everyone on our team, but when when the keynote was asking, have you heard of this or have you used this? There's 180 people in the room, superintendent, directors, and the like. And most people check, but the other things we were talking about and perplexity and again our table was
010pretty much the only that uh that was prior to our presentation. So we knew the presentation. You always wonder what everybody else knows. So that was pretty neat. So it was a good a good day and sounds like you might be taking the show on the road. So that's awesome. Well, there may be some requests later. There's some interest to go see some other things at the AI uh summit at in Phoenix. And then uh I got a text the other day, would I come out California next week? And I I'm not going to request that. I just it's too busy in this time to do those things. But uh the up also the Jason National Conference is uh starting uh Monday next week, but we'll travel the 30th through the uh or the 30th
011through the 20 to the second at Leburg, Virginia. And you have a list of the 10 uh 11 people that are going. And uh Mr. Bailey as a board member is going also and I'm anxious for him to meet the uh the board chairman from Portsmith City School and uh he'll be there also presenting and uh it'll be pretty neat and always anytime you go to something like that you come back energized and sparked and new ideas and what you can get take from other people. So I have that also an update on Timberwood Elementary. You guys seen some of those pictures. I drove by this um weekend. Went through I tried to go through the uh the property beside us and it was blocked off of fence. turned around. So, I did that before,
012but I uh went up and looked around a little bit and uh when we have the ribbon cutting date uh tendly set for Thursday, August 14th, and we talked to the SBA and working on all the things of the special guest and doing that, governor and all that, a governor and all that and uh you know, it's the current governor whether he's available, all the different things of change of guard and when that happened uh you know, all the information there. So, we're trying to get all that key uh information that uh we can get the special guest list and then let you guys know that also. But uh any other information? I just wanted to share that and uh thank you all and we're ready to roll. Okay, sounds good. You have the PowerPoint
013right here too that Dr. Atkins and went together. Thank you for including that. Okay. So, we are ready and we don't have any other policy 2322 updates unless Dr. Atkins and Mrs. Mitchell have any updates on that. I think you have a few things, don't you? I think you had a few notes. Just a couple things. But I do want to call Timber. I want to thank Leslie provided a lot a lot of I do want to follow up with Timberwood that Leslie uh Wellman has provided a lot of guidance and support there because she's been around for the opening of at least two or maybe three three counting Oakville right four Pike View Middle is the first one. So um she has I've been I've experienced that you know from the principal ship but
014not from the district level. So, she's been great and we've been working uh through that and Miss Harrison's going to take the lead on the ribbon cutting planning and those types of things, but it take it did take a little bit of work to get us to that date um because of everyone that needs to be able to be there and also some assurances some from some contractors that where we will be at that point. But I think it's going to work out really really well. The only other thing that I wanted to add because I know there's been some questions about summer learning and opportunities for students and we've talked a little bit about this but I want to go in a little more detail for elementary we offer and this is uh code
015required but we do offer for the second summer in a row the third grade success act summer learning academy and that's for students in grades uh K through third and they are qualifying students. So those would be students that have a third grade success act improvement plan and those are students that have challenges you know in the area of reading and or math and then also are not making progress or having uh very limited progress and so uh we have two uh regional sites again same as last summer one at Princeton Primary which will serve as Sun Valley Athens Melrose Lash Spanishburg oak bell and of course Mercer and Australia here in Princeton and then Bluefield Primary Mary has the other regional site which services bluefield intermediate, blue well, brush for Glenwood, Mountain Valley, and
016Montcom Elementary. Um, we have small class sizes. It is a 1:10 ratio in kindergarten and then 1 to 12 ratio in grades 1 through three and that's the ratio for those classrooms without an aid um during the regular school year as well. And we do have a floating aid for each site to provide support. Um we have a floating school nurse. Each uh site has a principal and a secretary, a custodian and a cook. We do provide breakfast and lunch. It's an 8 to 1:30 school day. Uh but it is very targeted, very focused, very explicit. They do get um each student's individual I Ready scores that gives very detailed information about their deficits, their needs, what they need support in. Um and it went very well last summer. We'll do a pre-EST and a
017post- test uh for all students. And we are providing regional transportation um for students that have that transportation barrier. And students commit to this prior to being accepted in the program. So they know that it that they will be there. It's from June July 7th through 18. I think I I failed to say that at the beginning. And most of the regional sites are schools, but we do have other regional stops and Mr. Rose identifies that based on uh where the children live. You know, he's provided with that. So, make it easier on the parents to get them to a regional location. So, that's what uh summer learning we have available for elementary this summer. Did you see that an improvement from last year when you first did it? the kids that needed to be
018there, were they closer to grade level at those? Yes, that's a great question. We do the pre-EST and post- test and uh in most cases 100% of the students showed improvement and I think the lowest we had was about 90 and uh that individual instruction and providing those small groups really makes a difference and then also preventing any summer slide. you know, they're not out of school for the entire of course, we our school year the school years are close together this time more so than than usual, but they wouldn't have from June 10th until August the 21st. They'll have that in between. So, it it did help. Okay. Uh we have also started our summer programs. Uh summer school started last week. We have 96 students enrolled. Of course, it's proximity learning. Um, there
019are 180 courses for them to choose from. They can take more than one class. It has to be approved by the teacher, but they can do more than one. Um, and we offer we're offering two boot camps for Mastery Prep with SAT. We had one last week and to be honest, we were disappointed. We only had 11 students show up at that boot camp. It was at Princeton Middle. Um there's going to be another one held at Bluefield on August the 11th and right now we have 24 signed up and we're hoping that having a little bit of time that we'll, you know, have some more interested in it. Um the schools have been sharing it. They've sent home things to parents. It's been on their web page and then we've posted it from the
020county. I think Amy's had it on there three different times. Um we got those things going on right now. the kids who did attend boot camp in the spring when they came in uh from Texas with our kids and we bust them here. Those kids, all of them have shown increase in scores. It may just be very minimal with a few of them. They all had made an increase if they had attended the boot camp because it's kind of like a step by step. This is how you take the SAT. So, it's very good and we're going to be with them again next year. Are the summer ones only targeted towards middle school students or those are just the locations? It's location. It was where we could get get the people there and we could
021get cooks there or whatever we needed to do. So, so anybody can attend. Yes, um we also Christa Kessinger last week and this week is working with the grant that she had and she's going to different locations in the county. She's been bluefield. Um I know she's been over Pike View. She's been to Montcom. I think she says she's Straley tomorrow. Um and is it the last one? I can't I don't know either. No, it's Thursday. But they're they're doing um some activities with the kids. They had face painting. They had games. They had um the fire department there. They had police officers, the police dogs to try to drum up the attention of the community. And so, um they're doing okay with that. The one thing we have found is that people come out
022better if it's a place they can walk to. If we can get, you know, the in town people and we have that many come out, we're going to have a lot more than we have to rely on parents to to get them there. But but what she has done and what they're doing and providing them the meals, it it has been good. And she told me today she's had a lot more secondary um than what she had had in the very first day or two. And she was pleased to see that. Um and then the other thing is our gaggle that we um are talking about and hoping to to bring to us. We have got the the cost now of what it would be in order for us to start that and it is
023over a little over 22,000 almost 23,000 but the program itself is such a good it's it's called gaggle outreach or reach out and it is a suicide prevention uh mental health type program. Um kids have 24-hour a day access to actually talking to a person when they call the hotline. Um then the hotline notifies whoever the authorities and the school systems are right then. Uh they do not have to have parent permission to call in. They can call in on their own. Um it does do a district alert. If there's any kids that have been um turned in from from like our school system, they would let us know. Um as soon as they find out something, they do a proactive check and then they continue to do uh follow-ups so that once it's over,
024the kids are not just left hanging again. They get the parents involved. Um there it has made the school systems and the parents develop better relationships where they've had it because parents now know the school knows what's going on. The school knows what the parents are doing. So they are working together that way and that has been better. Um who manages that for the county? Pardon? Who manages that for the school system? It it will be um Mandy and Ashley and I are the ones that have been working with with the uh lady Brenda Bushell is her name. Okay. Um, and so she she'll be coming in actually to meet with us, too. But she just tried to give us something that we could at least share so you all would know a little bit
025more about what what we're thinking. Um, and then the only other thing that we had is the attendance policy and, uh, Russell is out of town, but he shared his information with Mandy and I, and I think Mandy has the actual changes. Do you have I can tell them it's not. Do you know? Wait until that Yeah, wait until that's on the agenda. Yeah, cuz that's coming up here under old business. Okay. All right. Thank you for those updates. Um I think we're ready for approval of the minutes for June 6th and June 9th. Do I have a motion? Thank you. Don't have much of a choice, do we? Um okay. Any comments or corrections to um the minutes? The minutes. Yes. Sorry, I'm trying to mark my sheet, which I'm not very good at.
026Okay. Okay, then. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. And that passes three to zero. Okay. Now, moving on to old business. And this is the attendance policy J10. Um, second reading. And Mandy, did you have something you wanted to share with us about that? Um, okay. So, um, after it went through first reading, Russell and I went back and looked at it again, and we decided that there was some information, um, a few years ago that parents and and students who graduated weren't very happy if they had been able to be exempted from all their exams because they then they had no experience with exams. So we went back in and we put every year even if they've met the criteria to be exempt from all other exams they have to take
027at least one exam per year. And we did world history for 9th grade uh for uh 10th grade biology 11th grade whatever math they happen to be in that year and then 12th grade would be uh English 12. So they will have experience with final exams. We felt like that that that is an important piece that students need to have that experience. Okay. And then I see where the comments were received. Do we have those? Yes. Okay. I somehow missed that. I don't know how I missed Oh, I see it now. Okay. All right. Does any do what now? if she if she needed them read to her. I didn't know if you wanted that with Dr. Bowling. No, I couldn't. The comments if you wanted them. I mean, if I've got a little bit
028of if if people who have took have taken the time to make a comment, I think maybe we should look at the comments and sometimes I think they need an explanation of why it was written that way and what was h if there's any application to those comments. Do you all understand what I'm saying? Okay. Do we know who makes the comments? They're on them. They're on here. Oh, I see. That's okay. I don't think it'll take long. You had Alicia Heights and Sandy Gmore and Sean Williams. Sean Williams. Yeah. Okay. Sean. Yeah. So, Rosemary can contact them or somebody. We will do that. Okay. I didn't see Shawn Williams. Beth heads up. Were any of those comments incorporated any changes or No. Um, not yet. We actually um the the one that uh Russell
029and I found very interesting was a comment from Sean Williams and it was u the piece about um you know we have very high level students doing really wonderful things but still having a lot of days missed a lot of attendance issues and so um she recommended that students um h that are up for saludiatory and validator to those sorts of uh top scholars accolades. Yeah. That they be held accountable for attendance as well, which is a different policy. So Russell did share that with Rosemary and and I'm sure she's looking at that to see, you know, if we if we want to look at changing that. So like making attendance a requirement to be a top scholar. Yep. That's interesting. I think uh there was a a salvatorian that had 24 absences and Miss
030Williams just felt like that that that was way too much. Well, clearly it's too much for anybody whether you're Saludiatoran or not. So, truly, yes. I'm not sure about So, that's something that won't be incorporated now because it's up for approval tonight. That's kind of what I was pointing out. Yeah. Do we need to You mentioned the way you worded that. It sound like we're not going to do we need to table it to not vote tonight so that we No, I know. I mean, I'm just saying it sounds like if there's unresolved I mean I'm not for or against that. That particular piece would not if if it was determined that an attendance uh stipulation need to be added to a it would be added to the top scholars policy. It would be added
031to some somewhere else. So that that really um I see what she's saying, but I'm not sure if I agree with singling those students out when if there are others that also have attendance issues and their attendance is maybe possibly considered more important if they're not doing well. I don't know. I mean they all should be there clearly but well she also made the um Miss Williams I think it was her I read she also pointed out that the difference between excused and unexcused absences for the purpose of exams and pointed out that uh she said it would seem common sense that in this policy I guess place here allow for accurate documentation to guide judgments the absence of this distinction would lead to students coming to school with contagious disease. What she's saying is
032that either way it appears that they're getting an excused absence. Doesn't that come from the state how they define the state doesn't do doesn't do excused absences now? So I don't think I think that's what I'm saying is that that's not our doing that's the state's doing. Well, and one thing to interject when I started hearing that about students that had missed those that many days to be honest in that top scholar group a lot of times it was not that they had missed the day they were gone from the school that day on a trip like a field trip or college visit college visits. Yes. It wasn't that they just weren't in school. And when we started looking into it, we checked into five at four of the schools just randomly picked said, "Okay,
033let's see where these kids have been." And um it really is hard when it's the tech center and you know we've have that issue anyway with the tech center and the other high schools with attendance. A kid may have gone with the tech center all day long to go to an osteopathic school visit but they didn't report to their home school that morning because they left too early so they're being marked absent at the home school or they may have gone with the home school on one of the college visits or something like that and they didn't show up at the tech center. So communication again is key I think in this. The other thing that I can't believe that's still a problem. Can you not? Well, I mean, second semester seniors are never going
034to have good attendance. I mean, I don't I hate to say that. And I I mean, even personally, I was like, Leslie can vouch for this. I I did not let my kid miss school ever unless there was a I mean, there were many days when none of her friends were there and Kate Smith and Sophie Stanley were there because Kelly and I made them be there. And but then by second semester senior year, I was even more relaxed about I mean I hate to admit that publicly, but there's variables that we just Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure second semester seniors really are our target for improvement. I just don't know that we're going to get as far. I mean, I think they should clearly be in school, too. But I just I don't
035I don't think that that is the focus of attendance. Second semester seniors, there's probably nowhere in the country that has good attendance for that. The only other thing with the attendance policy that we know that that we're going to um be able to take care of is the state had said we were going to go to a quarter day attendance. We were going to check quarterly throughout the day and they have now pulled that out and we're back to the half days. So that would be difficult to implement. Oh gosh. Terribly. Especially for these kids that go back and forth. Yeah, if we move to the exams um model where they're having to take exams based on their attendance um this the classroom teachers responsibility to keep up with the number of absences. Yes. So
036even though the state says it's a half a day, you know, and because Miss Rogers also, and again, these are high school teachers and I feel their pain. I think as Miss Rogers pointed out, and I know this is definitely an issue with students checking out at the end of the day and they just don't want to be there. That and and late as well is a huge issue. they come in late and they leave early. So that's something that we definitely need to consider um that the classroom teachers keep up with that. So there is a consequence for leaving. I agree because there are kids who, you know, they know they can nobody's going to say anything much if they miss a class and they may come in for the next four or five
037classes, but they've missed the first two. Well, if they were absent in that class and it's that particular subject that year that's got to take finals, they need to be there to take their finals. So, that kind of helps Miss Rogers understand that there would be a consequence unless the class they were missing would maybe be in the English class, which they have to take the exam anyway, right? So, they may that's not a deterrent for that teacher. I mean for that class that that the kids miss in the English class because in the back of their mind they're thinking they're gonna take it anyway. I mean these kids they're they get it. Oh they the ones that understand the rules are going to take advantage of the rules if they if they need to.
038So I agree. But I do think communicating with people who make comments is a good thing because that way it doesn't look like they just did it and we just That's a great suggestion. So you don't want them to not comment. Excellent. I just I will take that on. And we're pivoting a little bit where I'm going to have Dr. Bowling involved with the comments and policies that way to have that. But right now, there's been a little bit of loophole that we're trying to find out how we can correct that and get that information to you. I guess put that on there. Mr. Trman, what I'm pointing out is if we've got these comments, is this the um right time to vote tonight? And I agree with you that I don't think it is,
039but I think I again I want to make sure Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Adaf are all right with that. Or do we want to soak in what comments we got with Russell not being here also our tennis director to get those comments to say do we need that at the next meeting? That's we had a conversation about we had a conversation about 3:00 today about where we at on this and we got comments. So what are we doing with it? It's not going to be applicable until August anyway. So as long as we have it finalized okay, Malef I'm fine with that. Okay. Yeah, I think it's important to look at the comments. I'm not sure that any of the comments on the particular policy are going to change anything with the policy. Um, but I
040I do think it's important to look at and consider. Absolutely. Okay. So, with everybody in agreement, we'll just table that until at least the next meeting. Is table the right word? Maybe that may be the incorrect term. I don't know. Next meeting. I just would move it there. Okay. We'll move it to the next meeting or if we think we need longer than that, we can even move a couple. I'd appreciate that. Maybe a couple out. I worked with every one of these individual. I know there are some excellent teachers and I know these are teachers who definitely want their students to achieve. Well, they care about attendance or they wouldn't have taken that's why I think it's important what they've said and that we we consider. Well, should we move it to the second
041meeting in July then to give it a month to resolve? to the 28th. 28th. Do you want to move it to July 28th? Is that good everybody? That's probably up to Amanda. Mandy, is that okay with you to move it to the July 28th meeting? school start. Yes, exactly. Well, that'll give us several weeks before school starts. So, it'll You think that'll work out? Okay. Yes. Okay. Amber, you'll take care of that. Okay. The one thing that I'd like to and I'm out of the loop here as far as our giving out our calendars. I'm I can't remember. Are we still doing the calendars? Have they already been sent to be printed? So, is the old policy in there? Attendance policy? I need to answer that. Okay. All right. Anything else on that topic? Okay.
042So, that is it for old business. Moving on to new business. We are on to the consent agenda with board memo 418, which is um bid number 950 for classroom supplies renewal number two. Um these will replenish our warehouse. Um there's an overall price increase of 7%. And um it is recommended to um give the bid to Pyramid Quill School specialty and stationers. Next is board memo number 419, placement of student from Concord University. Concords uh requesting that Jennifer Collus be placed to complete 20 hours of observation and public school law at the central office during the summer semester. Of course, all placements are contingent upon forms and background checks and site supervisors, I'm assuming. Yes. Okay. Next is board memo uh 420. um to approve Princeton Rotary volunteers for the extra mile program for
043them to um assist with packing food boxes at Pike View High School this summer. Um and their support will be invaluable. So, we certainly appreciate Rotary um volunteering to do that. Next is board memo 421, contracted services agreement, orientation and mobility. Um this is with 13 vision services for the 2025 2026 school year. Compensation is $150 per hour with a minimum of five hours. Um they're required to submit proof of lensure and insurance. Um previous year amount paid was 22,500 and the year to date uh for this school year is 24,750 and Mr. Tomman recommends approval. Um and you have the contract there if you want to look at it. Then board memo 422 is non-resident student transfers to Mercer County. Um board approval is necessary. We have one student from Tazwell County um transferring
044to Pike View High School and one from Monroe County to Princeton Senior High School and Mr. Toman recommends approval. Board memo 423 is contracted services for speech language therapy. Um, this is with Sarah Kinder. Sarah Tinder, I'm sorry. Uh, Twin Cities Therapy for next for the coming school year, $65 per hour. Um, an evaluation rate of $125. Um, the prior year amount paid was 46,75625 and this year to date is $46,29250. So almost $500 less than the previous year. Mr. Toman recommends approval. Board memo 424 is also for speech language therapy for Crystal Thompson. Compensation is $95 per hour um for on-site speech language therapy. Previous year paid was 96,90750 and yeartoate 91,91250. So again another decrease and Mr. Tomman recommends approval. Um board memo 425 is career connections business partners. Um we have a
045list attached of the business partners. Um board approvals required for insurance purposes and Mr. Tomman recommends approval. Board memo 426 is placements of masters of social work students from Concord. Um they're requesting that two students be placed to complete 15 hours per week. Um one will be at Princeton Primary and one at Montcom Elementary. and they have practicum instructors at those locations. Mr. Toman recommends approval for that as well. Um, board memo 4207 27 is missing. We don't have it. Is that the 26? I mean 427 is the aiology. Okay. But it's listed in the agenda as 426. Okay. All right. So that's contract to services for aiology. Um this is with Rebecca West for the coming school year. Compensation is 550 per day or 275 for half day. Again all of these contracted services
046have to have lenture and insurance. Um prior year amount 28,600 year to date this year 27,500. Um board memo 428 renewal of college contracts for placement of students for clinical experience. Um, these are contracts with the following schools. Blfield University, Bluefield University Counseling Placements: Bluefield State, Concord, Grand Canyon University, Liberty, Salem, and University of the Cumberlands. And Mr. Toneman recommends approval, and we have the contracts attached. Um, board memo 429 is request for proposal 340, which is for audit services. Um a request was issued for the purpose of conducting an audit. We received two responses. Um and the eval the proposals were evaluated and um Perry and Associates was ranked highest by the selection committee with an overall ranking of 95 points. Excuse me. A one-year contract with two one-year renewal options um will be
047established. Um the cost of the fiscical year 25 audit will be 23,100 plus expenses um with a total of 24,948 plus expenses that includes a processing fee. Um total cost for all three years is 69,300 um including fee 74,844 plus expenses and Mr. Toman recommends approval. Um, okay. Board memo 430, payment of invoices. So, we have attached the list of vendors and amounts. Um, the checks have been written but are being held pending our approval. And board memo 431 are PECARD transactions um that are attached and he recommends approval as well. And that is the end of the consent agenda. Correct. Okay. Any co comments or question? Yes, ma'am. Yes. The uh board memo. Well, several of them, but we can refer to 421. One of the things, and this might be a lesser question
048since it involves money. Compensation will be paid at $150 per hour with a minimum of 25 hours. Are they talking about one child? This is special ed, so I'll let her answer. No. So they work with several of our students and it's with our blind and low vision students and it's per their IEP student high school. Well, another question then Emily or whomever who determines I mean in that in that circumstance I I understand but who determines the hearing and the speech and these things? Is that a teacher? Contacts somebody in the consult, you know, and who who in central office is kind of like the go-to person. So, they have to meet eligibility requirements per the state per the state. And who determines who does that testing? So, I mean, do they tell say
049Emily, we've got a we've got a student at Bluefield Middle School and we think they've got hearing issues. Does that come from a teacher or somebody else or parents reach out and say, you know, I think little Jimmy's got ear ear issues. How do they how do they determine that? It's twofold per policy. Every student prek for first time West Virginia entrance. So it could be a student that has been in Tazwell County schools and transfers here. We have to test them in speech, hearing, and vision within the first 45 days of them coming to school. So that's our prek kids and anybody who transfers. So that's the majority of where we get those kids. And then say they pass and then they're in second grade. And a teacher usually is the one who recommends
050that and then they go through the SAT MTSS process and then we have to get consent from a parent to test them. Well, I've become friends with not friends, friendly with several students in two or three different schools that have speech issues and I ask them if they if they're receiving um any kind of therapy, so to speak, and they say no. And then I think why not? Speech is our largest exceptionality and um Miss Groman can attest to that as far as the spending that we do for speech. So if they do not qualify for speech that probably and they still have a speech problem, that means that they per policy, if you have maxed out at speech services, meaning you've tried various speech therapists, various interventions, and you've just maxed out, you're never
051going to say your R is correct. That's fine. Then per policy we can dismiss you. Okay, that's fine. That's all I had. I was curious about a lot of these therapy um contracts. How are we getting by with less and a decrease instead of an increase? Is that a need issue or is that just a better These are just some of our contracts. the next board meeting we'll have some more of our speech contracting companies but um as far as like Becky West it went down a little bit and yeah several of them went down I thought that was that's just based on students need and population have kids transfer in and out or graduate it's just unusual for us to see anything go down in this day and age so knock on wood next
052meeting yes okay any other comments or questions about the consent agenda do I have a motion for approval so move Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Um, all in favor indicate by saying I I oppose. So that passes three to zero. Okay. Moving on [Applause] to additional business. Um so first up is board memo 432 um policy J11 which is a new policy regarding um homeless students. Um this is a new policy and no action is required at this time. Do we you have anything you want to share with us about this policy? Any update uh M Crawford anything on on this policy? Um no I think that the There we go. Um, the policy just helps us to be consistent across the county. Um, it's not required, but it it
053helps with that and it helps to be transparent with our parents so that they know their rights. Um, they're not necessarily going to go and look up law, but they're going to look to us for guidance. So, having a policy in place helps with that. Um, and it simplifies our monitoring, too. So, it's something that we can um easily show evidence for that we have systems in place to address our homeless students. Thank you. Do we have any estimation as to how many student homeless students we have countywide? We're over 900 now. Wow. What? You have you have to understand how Yeah. Explain maybe the definition of homeless. Mr. Bailey. So, the homeless definition changes depending on what entity that you um are looking at. So we follow McKenna Vento and that the categories that
054define a homeless student are doubled up meaning one family living with another family because of economic hardship or domestic violence be something like that where they they're not able to live on their own. That's 80% or more of our homeless population. And that's the same across not only the state but the nation doubled up as the highest percentage almost 10% of our population. more than 10%. What do we have Ernie? 80 some hundred kids. Mhm. And then um shelter is one of the categories um which means like they they're in a shelter which right now we don't have any homeless shelters in Mercer County. So we do have students actually in other shelters outside of our county that are still trying coming to school here. Um, then unsheltered. Uh, that could be what people typically
055think of as homeless, living on a park bench, maybe staying in a campground, but it also means substandard housing. So, if they're living in a home that um, you know, is the roof is it's just leaking in and you have rain pouring into your house or it's an unsafe structure, even 15 people in a single wide trailer, like that is that's substandard housing. There's not enough space for each person. And then the last one. What did I do? Oh, a hotel motel. Um that's the other category. And we have always several several students, not a lot, but several students living in hotels or a motel for quite a long time. Um just not able to secure stable affordable housing. If children are taken from a home by child services, CPS or whatever it might be,
056do they still have the ability to attend school? Yes. So that doesn't necessarily mean they're homeless. If they're in state custody, that kind of falls under something falls under with foster, but they still have some protections under Mckin Vento like um being transported to school and school of origin. It's a little bit different process, but those same rights apply. Do you feel like we're doing a pretty good job identifying these kids? I do. I think that our student support staff and our nurses um they have really done a lot um with just picking up on things that uh like if a family says they don't have enough food in the home for instance like the extra mile program that's just an indicator that's just a symptom. So knowing to ask follow-up questions understanding the definition
057of homeless like especially substandard housing those have helped to um open up conversations and get more information. Not every child is going to personally identify as being homeless, right? But that doesn't mean that we can't provide those same supports to them. Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments about that? Okay. So, that policy is just for first reading and out for comment. Okay. Board. Thank you, Felicia, for your information. Um, next is board memo 433, budget supplements and transfers. Leslie, do you need to tell us anything about that or basically we're still got the other mics. We're supposed to be getting those mics. He's nodding his head back there soon. Yeah, we are. They're being configured today. Checks in the mail. there's a fire we're going to hold his feet to. So, one of
058the things that that we're required to do by law is have the board approve any budget supplements, which would be a new grant that are coming in. And unfortunately, we are well unfortunately fortunately we are still getting grants that are being issued right now and we have until June 30th and we're required to accept those and make budget adjustments um before June 30 or we lose those funds. We can't comply with that requirement that you approve those um if we don't have a board meeting. So, Mr. Tomman actually brought this to us that this is something he's done in other counties. We've done this the past several years. We ask for your authorization for us to make these transfers and supplements so that we are in compliance with Gazsby and State Code as well as
059allowing us to bring these to you July 9th. So, this is just pre kind of pre-approving for us to see them later. Okay, that makes sense. I'm sorry, I keep saying the night. That is not the first. Yeah, sorry. Okay, but the first meeting in July. Yes. Okay. Anybody have any questions about that? Okay. So, we don't need to do anything to approve that or we do. I don't see where it says. Yeah, I would authorize that. Okay. All right. I didn't see I see that now where it says it's you. Okay. So, do I have a motion on board a memo 433? Second. Second. All right. And all in favor indicate by saying I. I against. Okay, that passes three to zero. Okay. Next up, we have board memo Let's keep scrolling down. Okay.
060Uh 434, which is employee disciplinary hearing and action. Mr. Tomman. Yes, ma'am. I have a The hearing was waved, and I'd ask you to uh approve a six-day suspension for Cynthia Cooper. That'd be August 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 25th. and uh she'll return back to work on the 26th. I ask you to prove that the suspension uh without pay due to violation of policies and guidelines. Okay. So, just to be clear that she accepted the That's correct. punishment and waved a hearing. Okay. So, Mr. Bailey made a motion. Do I have a second? Oh, second. Okay. Yeah. All right. All in favor indicate by saying I. I I I thank you. All right. So that passes three to zero. Okay. Next uh board memo 435 is personnel and does anyone have any questions
061or comments about personnel? Okay. Do I have a motion? So move. All right. And I assume second. Second. Got it. All right. I'm paying attention now. All in favor indicate by saying I. I and opposed is no one. So that passes three to zero. All right. So that's it. So now we are down to discussion and we've got four minutes left in the hour. Hint hint. No. If anybody has whatever we need to discuss, let's discuss. And we have on there schedule a work session with two board members out. It may be hard to do today, but we'll get together and look at dates. Uh I think Mr. Prudich mentioned uh to look at u possibly facilities and uh different discussions there that uh possible. Maybe Amber can even Amber can look at your schedule
062and send us out some dates and see when we're available. We can do that. I know people have different travels schedu before August, but I think we want to look at what uh we got a needs project coming up. We got some different things with some uh amount of monies of what route we want to go. We got the legislature that looked at some different things with the needs projects, all those different things of uh maybe just send us some different dates in different weeks in case somebody's gone for a whole week and And it's fast. Like I said, June's already four of us there. Hopefully may not be able to get all five, but then administrative updates if any administrator has any updates if uh during the day. Yeah. Yeah. For me. Yeah. Yeah.
063Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, that's always the difficult that you have. But any time of the day, I think we look at 9:00 is what we try to do. But again, we have several things in reference to that. Leslie or more information coming on Spanishberg or Yes, I will give a brief update. Okay. Well, go ahead. Your turn. You've got the mic, so that's perfect. Okay, perfect. Um, I will say that Mr. Toman um had asked me to keep reviewing um special circumstance reviews in other counties. So, I want you to know that we are aware of watching, you know, what other state what other counties are having issues with. We did finish our federal review for last year's um Esther of Art and Dr. Philipek and I are going to present and discuss that together
064because um it involves personnel a great deal and we want to make sure that you all understand how how well both groups the business office and and personnel have done um for our county. Great. Um we did have the structural engineer at Spanishburg. We are going to have to make some uh structural repair there on the new section. We haven't gotten the report yet, but um we're having some geotech services done first. I really don't want to give a dollar amount at this point. We will require some support at the foundation level, some pillar support. Um any idea of a rough time frame on that? No, it is safe to there are no issues with students or staff being there. So that's not an issue. can open the school year as normal. Okay. Other than
065the flooding? Yes. Other than the flooding, right? Okay. You have any other updates that you need to share with us? No. Anybody else have any updates? I have questions. Oh, you have questions for Leslie? Well, that's as good. She and Rosemary are as good and Mr. Tolman are as good a place as any to start. We've got um and I know this from my involvement personally with football program at Bluefield High School. um the the the lack of revenue or having any any control over the streaming, you know, it's costing it's costing I'm and I'm sure Princeton may have this I'm not sure. I would assume that Princeton may be having the same thing because loss of revenue um the people that are streaming it are the ones that are making the money and Bluefield's
066not getting anything. I don't know if Princeton's getting anything, but you might want to get together with those those principles and see what we talked about that a while back. I don't remember. Nothing was really ever done. Yeah. That I'm aware of. Um and you know, with with what's going on with Tazville County and and Mitchell Stadium. Um you know, this this is is Bluefield High School's um home game this year. So, um, we want as many people in the gate and less people listening to it on the radio, obviously, and moving forward. On TV, is it on TV, too? Yeah, it's on TV. That's a streaming video. It's always been on radio. It's always been on the radio. Yeah. You know, I don't I'm on the sidelines, so I don't know. Anyway, but that's
067something I think we need to address uh just to see what what's available because you've got the radio station in Blueford involved. They're going out and selling ads. You've got the streaming people are going out and they're selling ads and we're the product. Bluefield and Princeton are the product. Maybe this is something we can talk about in the work session as well. Yeah. Um, you know, I'm I'm the one that's always kind of the Yeah, thinking from other perspectives. And I also happened to have um when my kids were playing, I had in-laws at home who couldn't travel. they physically could not travel and they got to hear their grandkids play sports or watch them we they streamed them. So I think you know it might be good to have the community some input from
068the community there too. Well I don't think you're not saying not to stream it. You're saying we should do the streaming so that we can make the revenue which I know Greg brought that up a couple like a year or two ago but I don't know that anything he's mentioned that a couple times. So, you know, we could they have the capability. A Lily told them at Bluefield they have the capabilities of doing it. The problem is syncing up with with the radio station or somebody that can give the audio and there's nothing worse 2022. Mookie Collier who was a player at Bluefield High School. He was playing in um the college I guess it was the um um the the black what's it HBCU HBCU championship against um Dion and I taped it because
069it was the the day of a service for my mother's passing. So I came home just to kind of relax and and and unfold and I turned on the TV to watch the tape to watch the game. There was no audio and I kept thinking what the heck, you know, I cleaned it up. Um, what the heck was was going on? It was miserable to watch and not hear somebody talk about whatever they were doing. So anyway, I just think it's something, you know, even if it's a few bucks or they sign a contract and we're the product and they're promoting the product out there, you know, it ought to be something for everybody. By no means am I saying don't do it. Sure. And I know Brent, this has been important to Brent, too.
070So, yeah, I know Brent was involved when Greg brought it up before. So, maybe maybe I don't know if that's appropriate for work session or appropriate for another future agenda item, but we probably need to involve principles. Absolutely. In that process as well because and again, it's hard for us to get the people to do it. I'm glad. I was going to say we don't want to add to their workload without them agreeing to it. We would have to pay them, I'm sure, to do that. Pay who to do what? Anyone that if we are streaming it ourselves, we would have to pay those employees to do that. Um, so there are lots of options and and well, just so we're a part of the conversation like Mitchell Stadium sign contract, we weren't a part
071of the of the conversation, nor was Tazwell and that's obvious and I have a problem with that. Well, we've been a part of it before. I went over there and argued with him about it myself. I know. I know. All right. Any other No, I'm done. Okay. Mandy had something. Um I just wanted to mention a couple things. One is uh this year was our second year for the Mercer Mobile Student Health on Wheels. Um that's where uh Mercer County Health Department has gone around to almost every school in the county to make sure that students who maybe didn't have uh transportation to and from school to be able to get their sports physicals and their immunizations um in so that they are ready to go for this summer and into next year. Uh after
072reflecting from last year's um uh where we went and did the same thing, we decided that we weren't reaching the fifth graders who were coming up to to sixth grade. And so we uh you know thought, well, we we need to help those kids as well. So, not only did they go to um the the secondary schools, they went to all the elementary schools and did sports physicals and um not immunizations for that group, but sports physicals for those kids. And so, this year, our numbers increased greatly. We had 611 sports physicals and 182 immunizations that we gave out. that will help us tremendously with attendance at the beginning of the year because we haven't been allowing students to come to school without their immunization. So, that's going to be a huge piece of that.
073The other thing that I wanted to mention was our smile program. I was going to ask about that. That was great. Let me back up real quick. Uh we we had some students that during the sports physical were identified as needing help um mental health uh is help and we actually had somebody who was um urgent and had to be referred to a doctor right away. Um I think they they southern high not sure where they but they they went immediately for help because they were they were contemplating suicide at a very high level. So not only did we reach the kids with the sports physicals and all that we were able to identify mental health needs of several students one being urgent and there's no cost of the county for those services that the
074health department provides? No. That's great. Um the other thing is the smile program. Um really happy with how it has gone this year. Every school has been visited and some have been visited more than once. Um 497 students have been seen by a dentist. That's great. And I don't know if you all have seen um Mr. Prudish's email that he sent out about chronic absenteeism. One of the things on there that was listed was dental that and that being a reason for students having chronic absentee um healthwise. So we are combating chronic absenteeism through this program as well. So uh 497 students seen by a dentist, 1415 cylinders back there. And I can tell you from personal experience with my son, he hasn't had had a cavity in a mer and he had those seals
075and I mean I'm thrilled to death with that. Um and then beyond just the regular dental visit, we had 215 restorative procedures completed. That means that kids who need fillings or needed some type of additional work in um above and beyond the the average cleaning also got some um u restorative care. Um and we had a couple of students who were actually were in such bad shape were referred out to other dentists to take care of issues that they they had. they were severe and the nurses are pleased with that program. So, I'd had several of them contact me in support of that before we had it. Right. And the nurses are completely supportive of this and they have been instrumental with this program. I need to mention that because they have been there. They
076have guided the principal and everybody through the process, you know, helped identify students and made sure that things went very smoothly. And um the people from the smile program have even commented on how nice our nurses are and how much they appreciated them. I don't think they they've seen that in every county, but here it's been a very good partnership. Well, please thank them for us. Okay, I will. Thank you. That's all I have. Anybody else have any updates for us? No. Okay, I move. Well, then Okay, Mr. Hodes isn't here, so Jim will take his place. Do I have a second, but Mr. Godfrey second. All right. Jeez. And we are ajourned.