Board Meeting Regular Session - 6/9/25

001Did you get it? Good evening everybody. I'm going to call this regular session of the Mer County Board of Education to order. It is June the 9th, 2025 and it is right at 6:00. So, we're ready to start. All board members are present and Mr. Dr. Tom is with us here today. So, we're going to start the pledge of allegiance. Please 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. Our favorite part of all our board meetings is board recognitions. And we've got quite a few this evening. So, we're going to come down here and we're going to recognize all the fine people and students that are doing great things for our county. Okay, as

002Mr. Prudich said it is always our favorite time of any board meeting when we get the opportunity to recognize outstanding staff and students. And we are going to begin with 110% club for Mr. Michael Jones, special education specialist. He is nominated by Emily Huddle, director of special education department for Mercer County Schools for the 110% club. Miss Huddle says that Mr. Jones consistently demonstrates exceptional support for his colleagues. Whether it is tackling paperwork for other specialists, navigating senior exits, contributing to IEPs, or managing discipline documentation, he readily steps in to assist. His proactive approach and positive attitude ensures that timelines are consistently met. Going the extra mile, he has even visited students homes to secure necessary signatures. Mr. Mr. Jones unwavering willingness to do whatever it takes makes him an invaluable asset to ensuring tasks

003are completed effectively. Mr. Jones possesses a remarkable ability to find the positive in any situation. He cultivates exceptionally strong work relationships with principles, parents, and students alike, frequently developing insightful solutions that benefit everyone involved. His deep understanding of relevant laws, school policies, and coursework provides invaluable guidance to school teams. The Office of Special Education is truly fortunate to count Mr. Jones as a member. Mr. Jones has been instrumental in supporting our department with behavior plans over the past year. His expertise in conducting functional behavior assessments have significantly benefited schools, students, and families within our community. Mike Jones, special education specialist. [Applause] have to use my TV voice there for a minute because everybody was making this racket up here. I couldn't hear all the winners, but I want to congratulate you and thank you so

004much for for taking the time, effort, and energy and all that extra that you do for our students. You are doing something that's very special and I don't mean that facitiously. I mean that very truthfully. Uh you work with challenges every day and it matters a lot to those children and their families and their future. So we appreciate it. Thank you, sir. He's one of a kind. Hey, Mike. Mike, I hate to do this to you, but I didn't get you holding focus. Ship in danger. [Applause] Our next 110% club is for Miss Chelsea Triplet, Mr. Kevin Lynch, fourth grade teachers at Straley Elementary School are nominated by Miss Ashley Smith, principal of Australia Elementary, for going above and beyond with their regular responsibilities in saving a student's life. During breakfast, one of Miss Triplet's

005students became choked. Acting quickly, Miss Riplet called for help and calmly managed the rest of our students while attending to the distressed child. At the same time, Mr. Lynch rushed across the hallway and successfully performed the Heimlick maneuver. Thanks to their quick thinking and coordinated response, the students life was saved. Miss Triplet and Mr. Lynch exemplify the core values of Straley Elementary and Mercer County schools through their professionalism, compassion, and quick action in a serious moment. Their ability to remain calm under pressure, prioritize student safety, and work together as a team reflects a deep commitment to their students and school community. By going above and beyond to protect and care for a student in need, they not only demonstrated exceptional leadership, but also reinforce the trust that families place in the school system every day.

006Their actions serve as a powerful example of the positive impact educators have both inside and outside the classroom. Miss Triplet and Mr. Lynch have a profound impact on their students, school, and the broader community by modeling courage, empathy, and responsibility. Their actions in life-threatening situations showed students the importance of staying calm, helping others, and working together. Their quick response not only saved a life, but also strengthened this the sense of safety and trust within the school environment. Mrs. Triplet and Mr. Lynch from Straley Elementary So, not only are they teachers, but apparently they're healthare professionals on top of that. So, they've been they've been taking their training seriously, obviously. And and I think some of the things that he said were so important to remain calm and collected in the moment and deal with that

007because not everybody has that capacity. I think teachers uniquely do because you have to deal with the craziness all the time. So, Uh we really appreciate that day but we also appreciate every day that you bring to us all your time and talent. Thank you for that. Thank you. Our next 110% recognition is for Miss Melena Wet Wit, third grade teacher at Bluewell Elementary School is being nominated by Lorie Thompson and Dr. Sarah Gross for going above and beyond to contribute to building positive relationships. Miss Wit never hesitates to give countless hours of her time and effort beyond her job expectations to provide our staff, students, parents, and community with opportunities to feel welcome and valued at Blue Blue Elementary. Melena is always a part of planning and organizing of school events and is often

008leading the charge. She enjoys seeing the students have a chance to get out of the classroom and just be kids and especially loves it when students can show off their talents at the talent show. Melena's drive and enthusiasm for teaching and the high academic expectations that she has for her students are reflected each school year in her students outstanding scores and academic progress. She encourages and motivates her students and celebrates their achievements. The list of academic achieve a achievements that she has coordinated is very long and the list of professional developments she has attended over her years of teaching is even longer. Melena serves as faculty senate vice president and is a member of the school leadership team at Bluewell Elementary. Her efforts in the classroom do not go unnoticed. She recently has been asked

009to showcase her teaching in a classroom to be used for future trainings. Melena is a vital part of everything great we do at Bluewell Elementary. Melena Wit, third grade teacher at Bluewell. for I've always said that a good teacher could take kids put them in a barn and teach them and that sounds like what you're doing cuz we teach at blue well and it's kind of like a barn and I'm in the that's even worse. So today you get to have a brand new building to go to in the fall and that's exciting and thrill for you. We want to thank you so much for all you do for the kids. You obviously are spending a lot of time, effort perfecting your skills and working hard and the fact that we're using you to train

010says a lot about. So we appreciate you. She's right beside me. There you go. Well, thank you too. [Applause] be inside next year. So, they didn't put us out. We're going to now move to award for certificates of achievement for the quiz bowl team. The following students are members of Woodfield High School Quiz Bowl team that are four-time county champions and runners up for the state academic showdown. Quinn Brown, Alexander Hudgens, Cassandra Hibbert, Liam Deetsz, Titus Hulcom, and coach Taylor Bolson. These students are coached by Taylor Bolson, chemistry teacher of Blue High School. Congratulations and go Beavers. Sorry. That's not me. Congratulations. She got him. And if you've never been to an academic bowl match, you need to come because they are impressive. And this team right here, oh my goodness. How many of you

011are sitting? No. No. You're saying another year. So, um, what do you like about what's the what's the best thing about um just how random it is? How random it is. Could be anything, right? No, I'm talking one one time one of the answers was bug trees. That is random. Uh I don't remember if I got that one. Well, we are really proud of you guys. Uh beating the beating the rest of the states year in and year out. I mean, I know you know I know you're thinking we didn't get over the hump. Guys, you got right to the hump. That is awful impressive. Awful impressive. But you keep it up and you'll get there. But you know what? So, science, engineering, uh, teaching. What are you guys thinking about doing? Science, education. Okay.

012Who else? Who else? Business. Okay. We need We need good business people, too. Anybody going into education? Any other people? Biologist. Good feel. Good feel. Good feel. Well, we are very proud of you guys. Great job, you've done a great job. Keep it up. Okay. Our next award is certificate of achievement for our Mercer County Robotics League leadership team. A special thank you to the dedicated leadership team of the Mercer County Robotics League who work tirelessly to make this program a success. From setting up local tournaments to coordinating student participation in out of town and outofstate competitions, they go above and beyond to ensure everything runs smoothly. Their passion and commitment provide our students with exceptional opportunities in STEM and robotics. We are grateful for their hard work and vision. And we have Derek Belchure,

013Kelly Stanley, Ashley Smith, and Jeff Richards. Thank you. Thank you. She got two people. I'll have you. So folks, if you if you haven't been to robotics, it's like a stadium sports event. There's no other way to describe it. There are video screens and there are fields of play. These fine folks are the ones that spend countless hours getting all that ready for all those kids. And they do it over and over and over again over the course of the year. And it wears them out and they're exhausted. But they do it because they love it. Because it's important for our students and our kids. And because when you watch those kids do robotics, you understand. It's like it is the greatest sporting event that they could think of at that moment in time. when

014they look at the board and see a great score, they are ecstatic. And when they look at the board and see a bad score, you got to scrape them up off the floor. They're just so downright. But it is these four. Without them, we would not have robotics in Mercer County. I don't know if this is still true or not, but I love this stat. Was it last year that we had more robotics teams in Mercer County than the state of Vermont had in the entire state? We're we're dominant in this state. You go to the worlds. And again, We have a lot of coaches that do a lot of things, but without these four people, we wouldn't have a robotics. So, we want to commend them for that. We're going to ask our four

015robotics leaders to stand up. We have a an additional sneak certificate of achievement here for um Mr. Prudich for Mercer County Robotics. We extend our appreciation to Mercer County Board of Education Greg Pur for his support of the robotics league, his active involvement, including attending events, serving as head judge of our tournaments, and he sets a powerful example of leadership and commitment to student success. His presence and encouragement mean the world to our students, staff, and volunteers. So, thank you, Mr. Pidge. Mr. What is your favorite part? We're not ready, Paul. All of it. From the moment we get there and the judges come in and I've got to teach them and none of them know what they're doing. And they go, "I don't know what to do." And I go, "Well, we'll teach you.

016You'll be fine. You'll do great." To actually watching the kids do it to being done and watching these four just exhausted and beat and just I don't want to ever do this again. and they brought it back up on the horse again. Do it again. It's impressive. It really is something special. I commend you all. If you see a robotics thing, go just drop in for a minute if they're open to the public just for a few minutes. You might not lease for a while because I'm telling you, it is really awesome. And we also stream it. So, you know, you can always do it that way. There you go. It doesn't say Ashley. my name. Oh, we have one more 110% club that is uh one that we're sneaking in in here for two

017people that deserve to be recognized that we are incredibly proud to make And I just lost my mic. We're incredibly proud to recognize Leslie Wellman and Tom Atkins for their compassion and quick action while traveling for work. After witnessing a hit-and- run accident involving a woman from Pittsburgh, they immediately stopped to help, staying with her until the emergency services arrived and ensuring she remained calm and supportive. They even followed up after her to check on her well-being. The woman later wrote to Superintendent Tone, expressing her deep gratitude and reminding us of the kindness that still exists in the world. Mercer County Schools is truly fortunate to have individuals like Leslie and Tom on our team. Congratulations. So, what is it with us in attendance of people's medical emergency? We've really gotten that training down good

018at the beginning of the year. Uh, just you did what West Virginiaians do. you saw somebody that needed help and you extended help and it it it's such a nice thing to be able to celebrate and we appreciate what you say. We may have to work. She's she's a big realtor up there and she said just move down here. Everybody's just And then you want to let's bring it up. You get up here in this picture. Somebody will take your picture with us. And uh so we've got our purple star bear that came in and they got damaged, but we got all our schools are recognized as Purple Star, the military. and Merc County School District is is recognized as a purple star district. I have that in my superintendent's update. We wanted to share

019that with two. Very good. Thank you for all your every every school was and now we got all of them. So that big game of district. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I'd like to say you are welcome to stay if you want to, but if you're going now is the time to go. [Music] Got you. That was pretty funny. Oh, Mark's great. I love it. He's He's paying attention. after a brief recess to let the room clear out because nobody ever wants to stay. Uh we'll get back on our agenda. The next matter on the agenda is the superintendent's opening remarks. Yes, President Purich. Just wanted to again on on my superintendent's uh presentation and the remarks there just to let you know on our table you do have the Mercer County Schools mission

020statement and Mercer County Board of Education goals for 202425. We'll be working on those. But I think sometimes it's uh good. I see a couple other counties that they're stating those sometimes. So you got them right there. And if ever ask uh what is our mission? You guys got that anytime that you need that. Also uh Mr. Gail Webb and Mr. Collus uh has a gear up newsletter that you'll be getting quarterly. So I want to present that. They uh we'll also document that in the board minutes as we have that. Uh want to also share with you the um last day for students is tomorrow, June 10th. Uh the SCSC meeting is Wednesday at uh on June 11th at 9:00. Uh Jason Butcher wanted to invite you all to get on there to see

021any of the policies. So I'll be li live streamed on uh teams and if you want to go in person it's in Beckley. I may go up I'm not sure I get Mr. Ray always wants us to attend in person so I may be uh do that since last meeting Mr. Prudich but uh but it's over the policy manual update that he put together Mr. Call also the WASA summer conference you have that agenda uh Dr. Atkins and Mrs. Harrison are also presenting about some AI information there and I get a uh honor to introduce the keynote who I met at New Orleans and uh he's a guest speaker there for uh the WASA u conference that's uh June 16th to the 19th. Jason National Conference is June 30th to July 2nd in Leburg, Virginia.

022Uh you have that on the agenda to approve my travel uh or uh take a look at that and hopefully you approve that. uh the purple star award the district and uh all schools are recognized. They were all recognized at our administrative meeting but they did they got the big uh banner got uh destroyed or something happened with something in their office so they got it down here today perfect time they had flooding in their office there so so uh we have that today uh Dr. Bowling put together an expulsion end of the year update. It is an interesting packet. You need to look through that has certain percentages uh the total number of what we had this year. Uh hopefully tomorrow we don't have any uh the last day of school to change anything

023on that. But the the update that wanted to give you there. Thank you Dr. Bowling for that. She used some AI on some information with that and putting some neat stuff together. So if you get any questions on that later uh please let me know. also that uh we're pretty proud of is our data wall that we have in the in the conference room. So again, Dr. Bowling along with everybody putting pieces in there and again kind of like a state of the state. What have we done this year? And it's uh pretty interesting to have that. So you got a hard copy uh sometimes a principal look at that and add some things. We wanted to do anything we could to uh do what we're doing that way. when we get on a um

024a a Teams meeting, a a Google meeting, a a Zoom meeting, that's in our background, all that information. It's pretty neat to state those things on there. Also, the Timberwood Elementary update. Mr. Atkins put together information there for you. Also, and then the ribbing cutting date to be determined. We're looking at the week of August 11th to Friday, August 15th, and we haven't determined that, but just wanted to give you any of that information. Anything we could answer? Just wanted to give you that update from my uh information to you today. Any questions? Uh, no questions, but I wanted to go ahead and add this on top of it. I got the letter that I usually get every year about the audit and the Lacy Petri of the coordinator of school finance from the state

025department basically gave us a thumbs up on our audit said you're fine closing the file. Let's move on to next year. So that's always a good thing and thank you for our treasur and our treasur's office for making sure that that's all done well because it always is and we appreciate that so much. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you. There's no citizens input today. So, we'll move on to policy 2322. Dr. Atkins, I'm going to ask Mrs. Will come up. She's going to share presentation. Teresa Gu's going to come up for 2322 and share a presentation about our elementary ed program. but we refer to it as the Take Two Academy. And Mrs. Will is the principal at Mountain Valley, the school that um hosts this uh countywide elementary program, and she will go over

026the information about that. Hi. So, I'm basically going to talk about Take Two Academy. So, um Take Two Academy, of course, is housed in Mountain Valley Elementary. So, it's for our students that have some challenges in their homeschool environment. So they can be sent to take to academy where they can continue their education there. So the program will be um some nine weeks is the program when the students get there. So this year we've had 18 students come through take 2 academy. We anticipate four starting with us in August. So it was equally divided. So we had nine students in the K through2 and nine students in three through five. So we have two separate rooms. So um so you can go if a student is in three through five they're in one room and

027K through two they're in a separate room. So we have two teachers a teacher for each um grade K2 teacher for 35 and then we have aids that go in the room and assist. So we are happy with the students that you know completed the program. said they successfully completed the program and went back to um either their home school or an environment that was more appropriate for that child. So what do you do in take two that's different from a regular classroom? So I I think that's a great question. One of the things that I love about take two is it small environment. So, in a regular classroom, you're going to get that tier one instruction, but we don't really have that tier one because you don't have that large whole group, but you

028have tier two and tier three. So, we have those smaller group settings and that one-on-one setting. So, that helps students that sometimes just the large group is overwhelming, the noise and things like that that take from them. So, we're able to offer more support so we can focus on that behavior so we can get to it right away. Because if you're in a classroom with 20, 25 students, sometimes that's hard to do. If you're in a classroom with six students and you're having some challenges, we can go and address those immediately and we can do it in more of a private way because there are six students. We can pull them to the back, pull them to the side. So, you can do that while an aid is continuing on with instruction. So, you're not

029missing that instruction. Um, we're hands-on, so we can do a lot of hands-on activities. That's hard to do again when you're in a classroom in 2025 that if that's overwhelming for some students here in take two. We can do that hands-on and keep it that way and keep that engagement. And again, a lot of times it's just they need that smaller environment and the students seem to really like that, but we can focus too on that social emotional support. So that's something that they really get into. So that's why they're mind uptrained. So they can go into that curriculum a little bit more in depth than you could if you were in a classroom that doesn't really have that kind of time. We're all focused on um our reading math that we got to get

030through. But in take two, we're still doing the reading and math, but it gives us that time to focus on that social emotional behavior and those supports that we need to offer those kids. Is there much coordination between the take two teachers and their home school teacher? So that is something that we're improving on. I think that was something that we looked at each week. How can we improve on that? When we have the intake meetings and we have those on Friday, they're very in-depth. We invite the parents in. The parents get to come and visit the program. They bring the students in. So we have that opportunity to really meet those parents, the families, the teacher, the principal. So, one of the things we cleaned up on because this is this is the thing

031that we're going to continue to improve and find areas where we can improve on. So, one of the things we did and I think it was about starting January that I asked the take 2 teachers to email the homeschool teachers weekly. So, every Friday, and this started around January, maybe February, every Friday, the homeschool teachers could get an email so that way they knew how the students were progressing or or where they were at in the program. So that way nobody was shocked if anything happened when we had the meetings maybe that they go back to a certain placement. So that was something that we did improve on. Yes. Teresa, are you all using the Ready? Yes, we do. Same thing that they're doing in school. We sure do. We use the same curriculum. You

032know, we can just offer that. Uh, you know, anything that you're going to use in the classroom, we try to stay on that so that way if they return to the classroom, they should be able to return and just get back up on base. When I came out to visit with you that day, we were talking and you you had made mention that um the kindergarteners, even though the first graders are only a year older, that they're kind of a different breed of dogs and you were really thinking about trying to find a spot just for your kindergarteners, have you have you been able to find, you know, have any luck with that? So Hannah Cooper from the State Department actually came down to our school two times. So that was a wonderful visit. So

033that was something that it's not just us. Anybody with an alternative learning program is having the same problem. I just I was on a conference call and K through two is the number one thing particularly K. So um we did we did some changes. Um she suggested we put dividers in there which we did. After we put the dividers in there that really helped. Um we've done some you'll have to come back because I you would love the changes that we've made. the changes that she suggested, we just got right on and it made a big difference. Great. So, yeah. So, come back out and see them. Who are you? Got all these initials. Which one? Oh, okay. So, the Ukaru. So, the Ukaru is the one that we've talked about before. So, that's something

034that Mercer County has switched to that we're UK train. That's where we use the pads. So, we make sure that all of our teachers and aids are UK trained. So that has the first part of that training is really that mindset and what our students are experiencing. So that's that first day of training. But then the second day of training does have the pads that we can use and that's to protect our staff. So if there are any issues of aggression that um our staff members can use the pads to hold in front of them and sometimes we have that and we have had to use those. So yeah so it's helped a lot. That's great. What do you deem success to move the child out of the program? So, we keep a lot of

035data. So, we track that and how the student does during the day. So, depending on what they come in with, and this is something else that we're cleaning up on. Again, I think this is a program that we're really trying to improve on. So, we've got to learn from things and just tweak every now and then. So, we are collecting that data, but when the um students come in, they have to have goals. So, and some of the things that we've done in the past, we get the child and they've had so many goals that it's almost impossible to hit, if you will, right? So, we look at that and one of the things they told us is hit two main goals. What are the two big goals you can, you know, really work on.

036So, we look at that percentage because we can't really say like sometimes we would get a goal that would say 100% compliant. Well, none of us are 100%, right? So we've got to get to somewhere that's really doable, manageable. So if you look at like 80%. So we look at that data and then how they improve. But they track that quite a bit and talk to the students. So once we see that they have met those goals, then we start to have those conversations back with the homeschool and then we'll have a meeting and I'll discuss it as a team. What would be the longest that they would possibly be in the program or is there a time limit? Well, they can stay in the program if we if we feel like they haven't met

037the goal, then we're going to continue on. So, and we'll do another nine weeks. So, could they stay even for longer than a year? They could. I don't think so. I mean, there's no there's no limit technically that they The goal I know is to move to them and improve. The goal is to transition them back, but we know that some students, you know, they're it's just not there yet. And so, we'll do another nine weeks. So, we haven't had anyone there for the full year. Okay. But we do anticipate some returning before returning came later. Well, they they may have been there nine weeks and we wanted to go another nine weeks and we're just not finished with the nine weeks or they did come late. Yes. Could have been one or the other.

038Yeah. Is there much backlog to getting kids in the program or have you had openings for the most part? Oh, that's good. Okay. Okay. So, we do not have So, how are the parents reacting to it? So, at first they're some um because sometimes when you say alternative learning, that's not something that they're really happy about sending their child. But once they come in and meet us and then meet the teachers and see the room and and just see what we offer, they really do love the program. So it's um in fact this brochure with the pictures on there, I mean they were willing, yeah, show our kids. We don't mind use the pictures. So they gave us the okay to use the pictures in the brochure and they actually said go ahead, let the

039state department use them, too. So Hannah Cooper asked if um they wanted to use some of our pictures. So the parents were always Yeah. Sure. What about followup with the um after they leave? So when they go back to their home schools, we have an aid. So we kind of call the aid of floater aid, I guess, if you will. And the aid will go back when they transition back. So again, the teacher, our teachers will continue the email with the homeschool teachers just to see how everything's going and and they'll touch base like that. Okay. We've not had anybody return after being uh transitioned back, have we? Or have we? After they've returned, they've come to take two and we've sent them. We've transitioned them back. Has any come back a second time? So,

040when they were in, we changed the concept. It's take two academy now. Previously, when I had it, we just called it alternative ed, right? Yes, we have had some in our take 2 academy that was in alternative education before. So, because this is my fourth year doing alternative ed, so I knew some of the kids. Do you think they do you think they wanted to come back? Um, sometimes, yes. And sometimes they do not want to leave. They love the small environment. They love the one-on-one. And we see that we will see um students that I guess sabotage maybe right at the end to keep from going back because they love it so much. But it is one of those things. It's a small environment and it's just so engaging and hands-on. So they can

041do those different things that maybe they really long for or maybe they don't see that attention in a larger classroom and they get a lot of that intake too. So possibly since since these students are considered alternative settings students, whatever the reason might be in addition to your teacher and the aid, do you have any kind of um counselor type access that can maybe assess maybe there's a an issue that needs to be addressed from a clinical standpoint or anything like that? So we do so we have ch children's home society. So they came in come in but that's another thing when I say we've improved on some areas. There was a conversation that I had with them um again after Hannah Cooper came down just having some conversations with her and then I wanted

042to have a conversation with Children's Home Society how often they were in our school and now um and that was probably around March April and they picked up their visits. So they're they're once a week. So they come on Mondays to meet with our kiddos. So they'll either do group settings or one-on-one settings. So some of the kids that they can do one-on-one with, they will do one-on-one, but they also do group counseling. Great. Um wonderful program. One thing that always occurs to me is if you're being successful at something, sharing them. So as far as procedures, I think share procedures and the one that you can share is probably small settings, but if you find Ernie find procedures that are successful, then they're worth sharing. Yes. So yes, that's exactly right. So when we

043go back, when the students go back and we have those meetings, the teachers write down what worked in our program. So they give them a page, if you will, that says maybe try this, they like this, they like the positive rewards and things like that. So yes, they do do that when they return on our return meetings. And sometimes what happens if they and it's not true for every kid. I know Mr. Atkins and I, we tag team kids sometimes and but uh if you find something that's successful with one, a lot of you'd be surprised. It may be successful with other classroom behaviors that are going on that may be not um continuous, but date may be something just happened in a day. So, right, I hope you do share and the teachers can

044learn and I I always call that the art of teaching. It's not it's you don't get that from a textbook. You get that from experience. Congratulations. Thank you. Other questions? We look forward to continuing the program successfully. Thank you very much. Thank you. I do want to thank Mrs. Gw. She's done an incredible job. This is our inaugural year of the Takeo Academy in the form that it's in now. And um it has evolved as the years progressed. Um there is a extensive application process that we've worked through. You know, our goal is to have the best program in the state. Um we believe that we're very close to that now. And Miss Cooper that has uh come down and supported us and worked with us feels like that we are very well on our

045way to being one of those um that's named in the Metro news articles and things about this is the place. This is where they have something that's special and uh the the small tweaks and changes that we've made throughout the year and then the application the administrator check sheet that is the cover sheet for that process. We've made a few changes to that um and Miss Huddle special ed director has helped with that as well because one of the main pieces is to rule out some special education needs things like that prior to um the referral to an alternative program. So, um, been very successful and Teresa's done a great job. I do want to share for Mrs. Mitchell, she texts that, um, for secondary that they do plan on having two boot camps this

046summer for the SAT prep. I think they've had great success with that. Um, the ones they've already done and the results are in the document that Dr. Bowling shared. And then they plan to do highdose tutoring in the fall with ninth and tth graders. and that the cell phone committee only recommended a few changes that have a good policy that we just have to work on consistent enforcement, you know, countywide. So, and I think that's in there tonight. Is that right? It's on agenda three tonight. So, that was from Mrs. Mitchell. She is not with us this evening. Is that it for 2322? Yes, sir. All right. Then we'll move into the consent agenda. I'm sorry, Minutes. We got to approve the minutes of the 52325 special meeting and the 52725 regular meeting. Is there

047a motion to approve? Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Are there any additions, corrections, or deletions? There appear to be none. Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. Opposed? Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Now the consent agenda. All right. So board memo number 396. It's RFQ872. Uh the handwriting consumable workbooks. Uh this request is as a quote to purchase 3,289 of these handwriting consumable workbooks for the 2526 school year. As handwriting is not an adopted subject with the the state. There's no purchasing contract available with the state. Uh so several vendors issued bids. Superintendent recommends approval of RFQ872 for the 3,289 handwriting consumable workbooks to James and L. Clarksburg, West Virginia for $55,89656 excess levy funding will be used. What grade level is

048this for? Yeah, I was just curious. K2 board amendment number 397 is a purchase of McGraill social studies material uh submitted for our recommendation from the textbook committee is uh AP geography teacher guide digital access student print edition and digital uh the state board provides a list of all approved vendors from which we can purchase and this one has met all requirements the adoption is for July 125 to June 3031 the cost of the complete program with All supplemental resources is $2,739.70. It's funded through the excess levy. Superintendent recommends approval of the purchase of the McGra Hill social studies material. Board me number 398 is proximity learning for school instruction. Proximity is packaged a school instruction for the 25 summer including English language arts, math, science, social studies. There is no limit on the number

049of students can be enrolled. Our live instruction will be 30 minutes five days a week. Uh the reason this is before us again is because there will be no charge to parents for this service and the funding will be cost because we've seen this before. The cost will be fully covered through the excess levy funding. Board amendment number 399 is the purchase of a HVAC unit for Pike View High School. 398. We just did that. I thought we just did we skip Oh, never mind. Sorry. You're throwing me off. I think I clicked on the second thing from the information. Sorry, it's fine. Purchase of or me number 399 is a purchase of an HVAC unit for Pike View High School. Mains directors requested that we purchase an HVAC unit from Ferg Ferguson using the

050Omni Cooperative Contract. Total cost is $46,7825. Units will be installed by the maintenance department. Superintendent RE recommends approval of the purchase of four HBAC units from Ferguson in the amount of 46,7825. Excess levy funds will be used for that purchase. Board a memo number 400 is a renewal of a contract for the placement of students with clinical for clinical experiences in fiscal year 26 with Concord University Department of Social Work and Sociology. Uh the purpose is to allow candidates for clinical experience in our schools for the 2526 school year pending receipt of background check naming a site supervisor in any appropriate forms that are required. Board memo number 401 is bid number 975 vocational training program. This is a practical assessment exploration system. Uh competitive bids were issued for the purchase of this program which

051provides realworld skills to students have learning disabilities. The system will be installed at Bluefield High School. The bids were advertised. One response was received from pays production uh in the amount of 39,875. Superintendent recommends approval of that bid. Two pays productions for that amount. Funding is provided by the West Virginia guidepost to graduation. Uh board member number 402 is uh the request from Mer County Technical Education Center to add uh a bunch of dual credit for Mercia Countyy's approved list uh in assisting students getting their associate degree. It folks it covers uh the better part of one page and another. The superintendent recommends approval. Board number 403 is the request of a non-resident student to transfer to Mercer County specifically from Monroe County to Pike View High School. Superintendent recommends approval. Board member board memo

052number 404 is student device charging carts for Timber Elementary. Director of technology is seeking the purchase of 19 30 bay device carts for Timberwood Elementary. Purchases from Zones, Inc. using uh a uh it looks like a state contract. Total cost is $36,441.62. Superintendent recommends approval of that purchase and that amount from Zones LLC and this is funded by the 21st Century Technology Grant. Board memo number 405 is the sale of maintenance equipment. The director of maintenance is requesting we sell uh a Ford 3 F350, a Chevy F350, another Ford F350, and a Dodson 300 forklift. Superintendent recommends approval. Last action item on the consent agenda is board amendment number 406, which is the payment of invoices for the month of June. Checks have been written or being held pending consideration by the board. Superintendent recommends

053approval. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move second. I'm just gonna pick one of each of you. Okay. Um, any questions, comments, or discussion on the consent agenda? Yeah, I got a Go ahead. Couple questions on the handwriting thing. That when you say handwriting, I just mean cursive, right? No, it's also the printing. It's denilian is actual handwriting, not print, but is denilian is handwriting. It is print but um what other than like Zer blosser it is a precursor to cursive and so the design of the letters we've used it as long as I can remember helps students transition to cursive better when they learn that in the second half of second grade. Okay. So it starts the cursive starts second half of second grade. Yes sir. After Christmas. Okay. Well

054two comments on this one. Oak Bell's thank you cards to me for reading were in cursive and I thought particularly second half very readable. They weren't beautiful but they were very readable. I thought I like that. And then the second comment when we get these comments on our expulsion hearing things that the kids wrote. Thank you. It is horrible. Or maybe it's the clientele we're dealing with on those situations. But what is what's the status of getting them to just print where we can read as well? I think that'd be a question for Miss Mitchell, but I um it may be again with the ones that uh that you may have. That'd be a great activity for them to work on. Yeah, I think you're right. Punishment. You got an underrated doctors don't write that

055bad. Uh another question. AP geography. Who teaches that? believe that's going to be offered only at one school right now school and that school is Princeton. Okay. Eric is one. Okay. That's good. And the dual credit all those things are all new. Wow. Okay. That's I'm done. Getting ballpark and uh if these were approved how many dual credit we'll offer next year? I don't know. I don't know right off. Um, these came from a meeting, New River had a meeting with Concord and Bl State and they made a true two plus two. So, our students in criminal justice and in Gro will get associate degrees instead of getting general studies, they'll get elementary ed and criminal justice. So, then they go two years to Bluefield State or Concord, wherever they pick and it just speeds

056up their process. So, that's what these new classes are. Awesome. Anything else on the consent agenda? I had a simple for Mr. Atkins. The the units when they're replacing these units, uh, and it could be not just Pike View, but the other schools. I know seems like things are constantly getting smaller. Are these units are they exact replacements? I know they're not exact because they're 20 or 30 years old, but are they smaller? to like fit in spaces better or no the way the design is it pretty much has to be the same where it's it's huge with new duct work and it's the rooftop units new curbs new everything so we try to get everything exact exact replacement that's why a lot of times you'll see that I think what's what's there now are

057dyans and dyans are going out of business but there's a company who still makes what they carry so yeah we try to get the exact model and typically we'll have one of the HVAC guys will go out and then they'll talk to the gentleman in Ferguson's and they'll do their homework before we replace anything. But they're all about the same size. Well, the ones I was particularly wondering about is the ones where we've had to actually cut balls down and things to like where we had to do that cheerleading room there. Yeah. Or um I think it would make sense to make it Well, of course, when you do it, I can't remember if we had to build it back or not to make something that you could actually get into the next time. Yeah.

058Pike High is is the worst. This is the most poorly designed HBAC. We don't have hardly any rooftop units and they're all in in the hallways and they're jammed in there and they're awful to get to and they're awful to get out and it's kind of I don't know I don't know that that's the reason they're in such a poor shape but they're all in the plenum and they just there's not a lot of air moving and their water source heat pumps anyway but um they're 30 years old. Yeah. Any other questions? Then on the the uh issue of the consent agenda, all in favor signify by saying I. I oppose. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Board amendment number 407 is an adjustment to superintendent's vacation days. The current contract

059we have with him does not allow him to carry over vacation days, which means use them or lose them. He is he has acred I I am allowed to carry over 15. I'm sorry. Up to 15. Yes. But you you're far in exceeding of that right now. Right. Right. You have a balance of 28.5 days. That's correct. Uh he's requesting that that 10 of those be converted to vacation days. And this would allow for flexibility in planning time off without disrupting county operations. Is there a motion to approve? Yeah. Move approve. Okay. Is there a second? There's a motion and a second. All right. You are we talking in a 10 time period? They'll be able to carry over 25 days as opposed to 15. Is that what you mean? That's correct. Yes. For this

060year for any year going forward. It'll go next. It'll go to next year. Continuing as long as you got your contract, it'll be 25 each year. You gave me that. Yes, sir. Right. Be it'd be for two years, right? Okay. Any other questions? Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Likewise. Motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Board memo number 408, come on computer, is superintendent's request to approve travel for the 2025 Jason National Conference in Leburg, Virginia, June 30th to July 2nd. There will be 10 Mercer County student employees attending this and this relates to uh the vision voices and visions of STEM. Superintendent recommends approval. Is there a motion to approve? So move. Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussion?

061You already selected the 10. Yes, working on uh number nine. We got to figure nine out and we we're we're close to that. Okay. All right. So, we're good. Yes. Got nine. Do you want to know the nine? Did you do like an application like you did for the Google or No. No, we did not. We went to uh So, what I got is myself, Dr. Atkins, uh Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Huddle, uh Mrs. Rogers, Ronda Rogers, Mr. Murphy, Donna Seismore with uh works with Brent, uh Kayla Harden that works with Brent. We got Shireen Lo, the teacher of the year, and I have a a board member interested. So, we're just finalizing that that Mr. Bailey is interested and uh then we'll figure out uh what we're doing that way. So, I've got 10 rooms

062already booked and uh the travel and u we'll get everything else finalized. All right. There's nothing further than on the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. I I oppose. Likewise. Motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Thank you. Board memo number 409 is RFP 339 STEM. Uh this is a pro this is a proposal to provide the board of education with a STEM program. Uh the proposal was advertised and we received one response from Jason Learning. Superintendent recommends approval of the award to Jason Learning. The amount of 69,998 county funding will be utilized to fund this program. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussion? Tell us about the program. Yeah, tell us about the program. It is

063Jason learning what we've had this time. We had to go through the process of Oh, okay. Yeah. we had to follow. It's what we've had uh ever since uh I came here we started. No, and it's it's the same thing. It's the Argonauts. It's it's the access to all the tiles. It's access to any of the training. Uh also giving us five uh promotion uh to attend a conference also. So that's a quick off the top of my head. I I just thought it was maybe something totally different. No, no, we had to we had to do that with we bid when we bid and put out the RFP. Uh, as you know, in West Virginia, we have all these strict rules that what we've got to do and put everything out there. Uh, anything

064we do, we've got to be transparent and put it out there. So, we sir, not to be a penny pincher, but is this how much more is this coming year going to be than the previous year? I think it's right there. If it's if it's if it's 2 or 3,000, I think it's about the same, wasn't it? I don't know if it's it may be 2,000 more because you remember we had that 2,000 bit of uh that I was able to go to that STEM. uh uh consortium and I think that's not in there. I think that's a difference that's not in there anymore since AASA took over that instead of Jason learning doing the STEM. I may come back to you that uh innovation STEM uh group is going to Colorado and Texas uh

065this year. You know we went to uh uh Dr. Atkins and I went to Indian Hill in uh in Cincinnati, Ohio and then I took a group out to Google and Stanford. So they're putting out things on that now. And what that is is usually a association fee. I think $2,300 for me to be a part of a consortium. And then from that point, it costs I was $200 or $400. Dr. Bowling. Was it $200? I think two 200 if I added anybody to that since I was a member. So that's something just to keep uh looking at. And and just as you know, you guys prove my travel. That's something I've done as a superintendent my whole career. you guys haven't done that, but since I came in anytime I travel out of state,

066uh I want to bring those to you. And uh sometimes we did that uh for every employee in other places, but since we're a border county, I think that could get a little crazy for you to or border uh state too. That would be tough for you to approve all those things. But that's what we've got. Jason learning, uh again, I think it's done a lot of stuff. It's continued with the STEM uh uh emerging school that that us and Dodgers County are the only ones in West Virginia that are a member of that. And I think there's uh Dr. Atkins and I think M. Rogers is doing a presentation at the Jason conference also. And uh I think I've got a little piece. So anything else, Mr. Bailey? Oh, sure. All right. And if

067you go, you may be presenting, too. I might get you right there. So get ready. I can talk anywhere. Then on the motion, all in favor sign I. I opposed. Likewise. Motion carries. Five in favor, none opposed. Board memo number 410 is the Sun Valley Gymnasium Project. It's being recommended that the board contribute $500,000 to the total of the Sun Valley Elementary School project. Uh then we will initiate the next step including identifying additional funding sources, design specifications, and coordinate with architect and constructional projects. I request approval of the Sun Valley Genevities project and the designation of initial funds. Is there a motion to approve? There a second. Second. Motion and a second. I have questions. I do too. Go right ahead. Well, you said $500,000 we would donate. No problem. This says $250 to

068elementary and 250 for previously designated replacement of septic system. And you have to do the septic system to do the gym. I understood this said previously and I understood the last meeting it was said I think Mr. Toman said it that we had already done the septic so it sounds to me like we're only donating 250,000 to the elementary gym building. No and the septic wasn't mentioned what was mentioned as an email when you asked me that we were looking at the possibly 500,000 is what I said to you. So we looked at that and then when the septic come up I didn't send an email back to give you that information. I put it in here on the agenda, but what you not, but somebody at the last meeting did say that that septic

069was already in the works or done. I don't I don't It's definitely not done. Um we met with two different contractors just trying to get an opinion on what to do. Uh we what we talked about in the last meeting was that the septic when ZMM did the the where they were going to plot and put the gym, we they didn't think it was going to interfere with our septic, but our septic is failing now. So we have to replace the septic anyway. So that was that was what Leslie mentioned in the budget meeting was that we had earmarked 250,000 for the septic to be replaced or repair and then that was already approved and I think what Mr. Toman's present is to for you all to approve another 250 so that so that it

070can begin the fundraising for the gym. We need to have conversations with the the foundations to determine what they're willing to give it and then we'll know what to do at that point. Is there there was an estimate that's not a fact yet 1.7 million, right? That's what I don't want to say. We shouldn't be talking about what we what the estimate contractors get that information and that's what the bid will be. How much on this thing we're passing right now, how much of that will actually go to construction of the building? 250. Is it I probably shouldn't ask a secret, but we're going to obviously it seems to me at some point we'll have to do more. We may. Are we kind of considering that that we'll have to do more? Did you see

071the pictures of Spanishburg school? No. What? We got an email. you need to look at that and and then you'll understand why that that there's other issues out there right now. Okay. All right. But let's this gives us the whole point of this is to get us a starting point so we can go and communicate with the foundations and solicit donations. That's the whole point of this. My my thought though and I'm naive about all this stuff that if we put forth a little bit more to begin with, they might be willing to put more. If they think we're being chintzy, they might be well, they'll be made fully aware of the total cost of the project that includes the septic system. That's all part of this project. It's all part of it. And also

072members of the board, we've talked to several foundations and Mrs. Harrison and I and once we get this approval, we'll start sending the letters. There's an application. There's a couple deadlines in uh on in the 20th uh 20 23rd or something there that's coming that we got to get that. So, that's uh several different ones. I know Mr. Baileyy's been on the phone, stopped by, gave me some some uh front people to talk to, but I've talked to all the different foundations and and they are very seemed very supportive, but just needed in writing uh some verbal information and also one one foundation needs a full application filled out. So, we're working on that. I think I hit that June shots same. I got you. And this gets us on that path. If we get

073if we don't do this, then we're not on that path. I know we need to do something to get on, right? That's what this is all about. So, there's a motion and a second. Go ahead. Go ahead. Is there any way This is probably more of a Tom question. One of the foundations that I I spoke with said that they don't have the they don't have the resources that shots and Honeyuts do and that they could help but in a smaller scale. and what they would like to be or how how the request is made to them is that we pick something in the whole project. We're talking 20 $25,000 and that's what we request from them is signage lot, you know, something as a part and and then we'll talk about the whole overall

074project. Is is there some way that you can work with that when we get to that point? I think yes, we could once we had like a line item of everything that was going to be in the build, we could say, you know, so and so help pay for the asphalt paving for the walkways or you're right. Sure. Do you off the top of your head know what those bleachers at Timberwood are costing? Lesley, $26 million somewhere in there. Yes, in that line item in there part of that 26 million. Why can't I know that we we've got to have a contract this conversation, but why can't we just if we once we find out the building size we need, why can't we just buy the building? That doesn't work like that. We at Timberwood,

075I think we have 19 subs subcontractors that work under the general contractor. So, if you're asking me to me or the general contractor, it basically I think what you're saying is why couldn't we do it? I'm not a contractor. I know. And I can't I don't mean it like that. I understand what you're saying. I just, you know, it just blows me away that this pro project is over a million bucks for a steel for a metal building. Yeah. But you got you got a slab. I know. I know. You got plumbing, you got electrical, you got fire suppression. I understand. It just keeps blowing me away. See some of the some of the issues we're having. We've got to have geotechnical data. We've got to have engineers come in. We got to do the

076right footers when we build. And if we're going to build something, we need to build it right. Understand. And and there wasn't a criticism by any means. It was just a stupid question. I thought, well, maybe we could save money if we bought the building. There aren't any stupid questions because we're discovering as time goes on that some buildings that weren't built quite right are now causing us some problems. Absolutely. Um Okay. It just I mean I I agree with you. It makes sense that you can go out and buy a metal building that's not real expensive, but we need more than a metal building. I mean, I I've talked to him about it and I I learned that that we'd still have to have a contractor. We'd still have to have somebody run the

077project. Uh, and then they'd have to be there be subs and by the time you add all the subs up, it might actually cost more. You know, if if you're putting a building up that you're putting tractors in, that's one thing. We're put kids in it. You're right. You're right. Oh, I'm serious. I hope there's no tractors in it. I hope we're not putting tractors in it. Okay. So, any other any other questions on this project? All right. So, we're moving forward then, I guess. So, on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Likewise. There's another step in the process. Board memo number 411 is the recommendation for the 26 salary schedule, salary indexes, and extra pay schedule. Superintendent recommends approval. Is there a motion to approve? So move. Is there

078a sec? There's a motion and a second. Uh I have in big letters here any changes? Question mark. I didn't think so, but you can't always tell. No, sir. So you just changed the 2526 from 2425. There is one word that's highlighted. I don't know that it makes any difference at all. It says the following inter increments. It's on the very last page with time served and the width is bolded. I'm guessing that might just have been a typo that was corrected or something. It doesn't change the actual pay rate at all. It's it's under certified master plumbers second line. The following instruments with time served is attorney. We didn't we made no changes to that. Okay. It just then it it just got bolded for no apparent reasoning, which happens. That's error. That's fine.

079I just wanted to make sure. I didn't think there were any changes. Um so there's a motion and a second. Any questions? Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I opposed. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor, none opposed. Board amendment number 412 is budget supplements and transfers. Budget transfers are1,899,7425. The budget supplements for $355,896.31. Superintendent recommends approval. Is there a motion to approve? Move. Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussion. Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Board memo number 413 is the first reading of policy I49, summer school. It's being uh changed to update clarify language, make grammatical changes. No actions required at this time. Mr. Toman, Mr.

080Poo, I have um Dr. Vaughn back there. Anything she can answer? Dr. Vaughn, you okay with that? Answering anything on the summer school policy? Um obviously this policy hadn't been updated in several years. I thought it was updated last year. Um obviously it was not. So, we're updating it just to align with what we've done the last few years with the virtual platform um and update the language that goes with everything that we've done for the last couple of years. So, this will it's fluid enough that if we do use a different platform um a virtual platform we could do that and it gives us the allowance to uh charge or not charge at the end. So, just putting us in alignment with what we're doing. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. V. Anybody questions? All

081right. Well, that'll go out for first reading and we'll see it back in about a month or so. Board me number 414 is the first reading of the policy I41, Mercer County Blended Robotics League. Uh this is a there's some significant poly change policy changes in this one in terms of pay and content. uh few more descriptive terms uh the additions of volunteer uh scorekeeping. It's just a lot. It's a lot of homework. So, Mr. Tyman, any any other uh special information? I do have Derek, Mr. Derek Belchure in the crowd that uh in the audience that helped put that together along with uh Dr. Atkins has been pretty involved with it also, but anything Mr. Belchure changes on it that's otherwise stated I don't have any other comments, but I can answer a question

082if you have. So, this policy will allow for non-emp employees to be head coaches under appropriate circumstances. Is that correct? That is correct. So, the RECC Foundation Robotics Education Foundation has several coaching certification platforms and classes including the judging adviser that you're familiar with. the the thought is that we would put somebody through a certification course made up of all the parts um as well as any background checks, things like that that we would do for kind of trying to mirror it after how we how we do with SSAC um activities where we allow that certification plus whatever other steps that we have in the county to bring those folks in to be able to coach. And this is really just more of a kind of looking out into the future and anticipating that at

083some point we may have programs that have a ton of kids that want to participate, but just not coming up with the teachers. Right now, we've been blessed to not have that happen, but had a couple schools here and there each season, but that's always a possibility. Then you just have somebody that doesn't want to take it on, and then you have a a large number of students that may not get to participate just because we don't have somebody to coach. Anything else from anybody? I thought I'd heard that that was already a problem at some of the high schools. Uh I know it's a problem at Princeton Senior High School. We Princeton has uh over $10,000 worth of equipment sitting in a room that we got through and Mr. Rashim, correct me if I'm

084wrong. I think that came through grants as well as money spent and we just we just don't have a coach for it. Um I've got student interest. I have uh a handful of kids that ask on a weekly basis if I found anybody since I got there in August. Yeah, that's that is a a problem that we have right now. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Then that'll come back to us. Thank you. After we hear some public comment, board memo number 415 is policy changes for G38, the use of cell phones and other electronic devices on school property for first reading. Mr. Toman, President Purich, I have uh the first reading. Um Mrs. Mitchell is not here today. She gave a few pieces of information to Mr. Atkins, but or Dr. reckons, but uh I

085not I can't remember what she said in the email there that uh they had the committee. There's a few things that changed. Uh I know uh exactly Mr. Bailey, not not a whole lot, but uh few things that uh we question, but again, they had their committee, they had several committee meetings on that and uh that was the that was the pieces that they put together. I think there we get some feedback on it. I have uh I have some information that I probably wouldn't mind it, you know, even uh when you look at staff with social media and things like that. I know in our current policy, Mrs. Harrison is always doing things on social media and all that, but we need to specify who and who can do those things. Do we want

086all our staff to be able to be using their social media during schools? Some things need to be looked at that we'll take a peek at that and and what we're looking at are our cell phone policies for adults. Also, there was some things on there we questioned about elementary um about elementary may be able to put it in storage or whatever. We had a question regarding that, but Dr. Atkins got some answers clarified by a member that was on that committee. So yeah, our elementary representative on the committee um cell phones are still as they have been by that policy prohibited in elementary schools, but if students have them for after school activities if they're in um recite ball or in a robotics program or things like that that they would be required to

087be, you know, left in their um book bag or locker or whatever they have and locked up. So that was a sentence that was added that Mr. Tom had a question about. I was not on the committee but um one of our principles elementary principles that was I checked with her and she said that was that justification. Um of course again as Mr. Toman said this is first read so that's the opportunity for everyone to make comments uh formally and then um can revise as as deemed appropriate. Um Mrs. Mitchell said that the cell phone committee only recommended a few changes. Overall they were happy with what we have. um just have a need to enforce it consistently um across the district that it can't be by school, but it has to be um district-wide

088consistent enforcement of that um current policy and then of course slightly revised based on the committee that she worked with over the last several months. Comments? Yeah, I comment. I was going to play grumpy man. I have a whole list of things I was going to talk about, but since Miss Mitchell's not here, would it be appropriate rather than doing a formal thing if I could meet with her and just sit and share this my thoughts? Well, you share them with all of us. If you want to send them an email, that'd be I'd be interested in your thoughts also. Okay. Uh let's see here. I mean, if you want to send them to us, you want to go over maybe that's probably like take some of the things are just grammatical. um on on

089the 3.1 I have to find it here. 3.1 uh elementary students are prohibited self from cell phones at school. It used to be prohibited from having cell phones. Seems to me right that the having ought to be put back or the from taken out. We thought the same thing, but we we had that conversation. That's a great first read comment. Yes, sir. Okay. In 3.1, those two sentences way to just it could be corrected, I think, with the transitional phrase to make exceptions, but it sounds like two contradictory statements in the same policy. Um, then on the middle school, um, I think we need to reward 3.2. uh prohibited during the school they say specify school day as defined in the thing rather than just say in school that needs to be clear on that.

090Um 3.3 I know that people on committee agreed with this but and by the way I apologize I was supposed to be on this committee never made a single meeting things just kept coming up and I'm so sorry. um way that's set up, teachers are going to have to take time at the beginning of the class to gather these things or make sure they don't have them. I think that's going to be a continuous fight. My experience as a teacher is unless principles are really really on teachers, you're going to have teachers that'll do this, you're going to have teachers that aren't going to do this, and that's going to frustr who do it. Uh I faced that in so many things and this is a serious thing. Small thing but on the bus 3.4

091uh not be visible. I guess that's okay but implies to me it's okay to hide them. It kind of seemed like we're giving them to hide. Go ahead and hide these things. We don't care about you hide it. 3.9 Mr. before before you go on. Okay. On 3.4, could somebody explain that to me because I was it never made sense to me. or used on the school bus unless permission from the bus operator. And the only time a bus operator can get permission for a cell phone used on bus if they were on extracurricular like that. We don't normally allow students to have their phones out during transport. Uh we don't allow pictures or selfies being taken on the school. But again, it's one of those deals that one driver may allow them to have

092them out and listen to their music while being transported and other drivers is going to say no, you can't have it out at all. So, I mean, once we got it set in stone, we're going to have to make sure that all drivers abide by the same rules. Yeah, it is important that in that what you said about extracurricular trips because coming back from track I got 15 minutes will be at you call your parents well otherwise I'm waiting there for a lot of times that's held up if they stop to eat or something like that you got parents school want to know where the child's at you know it allows the kids to be able to talk say hey we're we're heading back from Beckley now so we'll be at school in 30 minutes

093or whatever the the simple change is to get rid of the cell phones not be visible. No, you need to know or you just delete that part and it'll say cell phones shall not be used on school bus unless permission is secured from the bus operator. That shall not be vis shall not be visible part. That's kind of I don't know where that came from or why that's there, but I'm on the committee. the driver that jumped in, he said that as far as management wise, it's a whole lot better if they have their device because they're not causing problems. The visible part came from like trying to record people or he said if they're just sitting there playing a game listening to music, it actually helps behavior wise. Throwing that out there. I am

094when I got the grand in the back of the vehicle, you put that little You put the device. Absolutely. And everything I mean it's everything's peaceful. We don't have to play the flat game like we used to. I was just wondering I understand the problems, believe me. I understand the problems taking pictures, doing things they shouldn't, but this is the one case where I would think and again I'm not a bus driver, an operator. Um there's I'd like to hear from the operators what kind of problems. Then you look at rewards versus problems. One of my problems with it is the is the administration as it's referred to. U is weak. Just weak. Calling it a three or four level violation is meaningless to a high school student. We know that because of vaping. If

095they want to vape and we send them home, they don't care. That's pretty obvious at this point. We have to hit them where they live. Now, I can imagine the students on the committee didn't want any of that, any part of that. Oh, no. No. I don't want you to be able to take away my my rights at school and my ability to go to events and be an athlete and be in in sports. I don't want you to be able to take that away. No, that wouldn't be fair. Well, that's how you get kids to not do it. There was a young lady from Princeton that was on a committee and she she said that there should be some type of enforcable punishment, so to speak, because she said they've gotten out of control.

096Hit them where they and we're starting this thing off and saying free school day. Well, and then you get in here and you've got all these exceptions and exclusions. So, it's not a selfie self-free school day. Absolutely not. You know, I that's that's a matter of philosophy whether you let them I mean some places say they can't be in the buildings. Some places say you can use them before school and at the end of school and at lunchtime, but that's the only times. Ultimately, one of the things I thought of was the argument in the classroom. I'm not going to give you my phone. My parents paid for this. The solution to that is very much like I've talked about with people in the that are being disruptive in sporting events. You don't argue with

097them. You say, "Fine, you have a form. You fill it out. The kid violated cell phone policy." You take it to the office that day and that's it. We're done. You violated cell phone policy. What are the consequences now? instead of arguing in classroom and wasting time. And once you do that enough and kids understand, well, they don't have to argue with me, they don't have to take the phone, they're just going to fill out a form and and not argue and take up class time and then I'm going to get the hammer here later when oh, I can't play in the football game next week because I didn't follow the policy or I can't go to I can't go to the prom this year because of the I violated the policy. you know, we

098if we if we're serious about it, if we're serious about dealing with it, then we have to have some means to get to to the heart of it. And we got to make it simple for the teachers to administer. I hate to say it, but it's my personal opinion watching human nature. Um, and I've not said this thing about many things in my life, but it's almost it's almost an unsolvable issue. It's a manageable issue. It's working other places, Mark. It is. I mean, this has worked in other places. I don't believe taking cell phones out is working in other places. That's not what we're doing, though. No, I know. We're bring them in and they can don't have them period. is Tazwell not allowing them to use them in the morning and the evening

099and at lunchtime. I thought that was their policy. They did allow them to do that. They go in their lockers and that that's one of the things here. Our kids are going to and or pocket or purse really. So that is no policy. If you got them in your pocket, you know they're going to still be Exactly. They are. There was a situation that happened the other day at Blue. Wasn't Blue Hill. Where was it? At one of our schools. parents called and were chewing chewing people out because the kids had already called and told them stuff. Well, that happens all the time. But that became from that came from a cell phone. Yeah, of course. So, if they're if they you know, and you Ed, you've had experience in other other counties. Mhm. And

100you tried the boxes or the bags or something and you said they just didn't work. The yonder bags, they they may tell you they're working now up there. I I don't know. I haven't been in contact, but they uh the hard part is the transition time and having somebody man the the bags the bags and who sign off and then the vandalism to the bags and that was the issue that was just a but again it was it was it was a hard no for a while in Wetzel County with the yonder bags. But again, it's they've got a lot of money that they're able to to purchase that also. That was a a huge expense to replace them and all that. But those are the neoprene bags that they're locked in like a like

101your clothes that uh if you buy something at the department store and has a little tag on it that you can't get in unless you got a certain key. So you carry that you carry that neopre bag around with your phone. That's kind of but you can get into I think it was Columbus, Ohio read the article on and saw video on they they put there's an expensive thing manila envelope with AB and CD on it. When the kids walk through the door, they drop their phones in those envelopes. They leave them there until they leave that afternoon. They pick them up and take them out. That's not very expensive. And that solves all these. But where do you store them? And how do you protect them and file cabinet? Take them in the file

102cabinet. Who's going You got it in the office in the file cabinet. Who's going to go in there to store the phone? Put in the principal's office. Well, have to be a big file cabinet. I mean, I'm just thinking about how many students buy more than one. I understand that. Can I go and finish my list? I got a bunch more 3.9 says, um, you can use them during lunch at discretion of building administrator. Now, the first question is that discretion an individual can use it or the whole school body can use it. And secondly, if if we do that, that's going to go against what was said there earlier about every school being the same because, you know, one administrator is going to say yes and the other one's going to say no and

103so you're no longer the same anymore. Uh three well we've already talked about 310 the whole thing about putting them in a pocket or a purse and all that basically and what is that old what's it Einstein who said that doing the same thing over again insanity that's what this is that's insanity 314 saying we cannot use them in an emergency that's going to be hard we have to settle this everybody I understand agreed on the committee that you have to sell this to the parents. Selling at their parents is going to be hard. And I would think particularly hard if they can have them in their pockets, in their purses, and wherever, and they can use them three times during the day. And then you say to them, "Oh, if there's a shooter in

104the room, in the school, you can't use your phone." You know, if there's a shooter in that school, that kid's going to be calm as parents. And what are we going to do when it's all over? Are we going to punish them? It just don't seem to make a lot of sense that we can really do that. And then on 4.3, I may be reading that wrong. Uh and another disary offense described the Mercy County policy J18 West agenda board policy 4373 shall be a violationist policy as well as J18. Yes, but why not 4373? If it's violating the one, it should be violating the other, shouldn't it? So, that's a thought. Um, and then 4.7, this is my last one, I promise. The way I'm reading that, if you do this thing that's bad

105enough to get to level C, you no longer are punished with level A and B, which you take away the phones and all that. Seemed to me like if you get to level C, all three levels ought to be u like level A is compensate phone and return the parent or guardian. Um level two is banning student from having cell phone or electronic devices while at school. And then you go to level C is level three and four is violation of suspension and possible expulsion. They don't care. Shouldn't we already done those other two as well? So that's all I got. Well, you know, it's tiered. Level one. First time we take your phone, only return it to the parents. Second time, you can't have cell phone in the school anymore. Third time, it's a

106level three or four violation. That's what that means. It's a tiered. So the other two have already been done. Yes. Yeah. It's a that's a it's a process, right? Again, my fundamental problem with it is is it's hard to administer. You got to make the and there's no discussion about how we're going to administer this in the schools. It needs to be uniform across the county, not just in one school different than another. It needs to be simple. It needs to be it needs to not be disruptive in the classroom. Uh, and that's why I think simply telling a student, "Put the phone away." And if they say no, or you say, "You've got to give me your phone." And they say no, you say, "Fine." You write them up. Send them on their way.

107And then we deal with it later when it's not disruptive of the educational process. Easy on the teacher. Doesn't require any effort on their part except to fill out a form. Um, but the the violations are just they're not going to get to the heart of it cuz you where you going to search kids when they come into school? You're not supposed to have a school today. You're not supposed to have a phone on you today. I've got it in my purse. Are you going to check my purse every day to see if I have a phone? No, you're not. So then we're not going to know until we catch them with it and then they're a level two violation now. use that. So there needs to be just my observation, you know, I did

108it with my own children and I doing it with my grandkids. I know what they like and that's what they lose. Gray, you're being disruptive. No video of any kind. That's just easier to snaps two just like that, man. You just got to warn him. You're going to lose all access to video. That's games, that's TV, that's your pad. And he snaps two like that because he loves that stuff. I agree. I just think in the as a when you're talking about in a family, you're talking about a small, you only have to know what the currency is for a couple kids and you're in more direct control is when you're talking about a school of 600 or 800 kids, it's going to take more effort to identify what the currency is. True. But the

109currency that we do know is is there's school events, there's access to to sports, there's access to graduation things like prom. I mean, I would never take away walking across the stage. You've earned that right. But prom is a privilege. It's not it's not a right. So, I mean, if you if you let kids know you're serious and you and you hit them a couple times, they'll learn. You're But you're right. And you have to figure out what every particular kid likes. Yeah. And some cuz some don't care about any of them. Well, that's true. And those we deal with in a different way. But but there's an awful lot of them on their cell phones that you watch and you're like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah. You you like the social atmosphere. We'll take that from

110you." I think taking away sports is going to be a difficult proposition. I just I I can just foresee if you try to the star football player over having a cell phone and the coach is going to be all over the principal and blah blah blah. Wouldn't be the first that wouldn't be first defense. Yeah. But if you know if you know the rules, you can't complain. It's like getting on a football field and then going I I got nine and a half yards. I should get a first down. That's not the rule. Danielle and you you were on the committee. How much research was done about what other people have done around the nation? None of people have done this. We should know. So, what did you find out? Well, what we found out

111was most people say in theory that this works or it's great, but if you talk to the people actually implementing it, it's not like Tazwell County has this no cell phone policy. I can text my nephew at any point in the day and he responds back in 2.5 seconds. Like it it's great to say these things. The biggest thing our our committee struggled with and we all agree cell phones are an issue but taking them away all that does is diminish the little bit of public support we have and anger our parents. So that was a big thing our our committee struggled with. Why not teach kids how to use phones instead of just banning them when they get to college, when they get out in the workplace. They're going to have on them. Well,

112no, they're not. There's plenty of locations where uh when you go into certain professions, you're not allowed to have a phone. My my wife's classroom, when they come in the classroom, guess what the first thing they have to do? They have to put their phone in one of these carriers and they get it on their way back out. So, that's not necessarily the case depending on where, you know, where you wind up in life. there are certain um areas where privacy is still a a concern for people and you know of course healthcare is one of them but uh the way I look at it I I kind of I am agreeing with you it's almost to me almost unsolvable the way I see it there's three tiers there's the classroom management tier or part

113there's the commons area part and then of course there's the buses And um what did I just don't I just I don't know to me and I'm as guilty of this as anyone else now. I didn't used to be especially since retirement. I got time to be on my media devices. It It's addictive very much. It's like putting It's like putting alcohol in front of an alcoholic. I'm sorry, but it's where I feel and or a drug out in front of a drug addict and then say, "No, you can't have that." Now, I don't know if y'all seen the videos of the kids where they put the chocolates in front of the kid and then you leave the room and you tell that kid, "You can't have that chocolate." Now, how many of those kids

114are not going to eat them M&M's when you walk out of the room? That That's what I'm saying. That's that's what kind of our committee went back and forth and we talked a long time about the bags, putting them in the bags. Mh. We talked about doing that in home room and then we asked the kids, you know what what would happen if every day during home room you came in, you put your phone in a bag, you got it at the end of the day. Their response was, I wouldn't go to home room. That's what I was going to say. They won't go to they don't go to home room anyway half. It it we couldn't find a solution that was going to work without having an administrator or a secretary or somebody devoted

115to nothing but cell phones. and our committee agreed that that wasn't what we thought the intention of school was was to we we agree but school is definitely not designed to sit on your phone while you're being instructed. Absolutely. And I don't think there is a parent in the in this society that thinks that's okay. It's okay for my little Johnny or my little Sally to be on her phone while the teacher's doing instruction being disrupted to get a educ and being disrupted. They're there to be educated. So it the idea that we should just give up is just I I I don't live like that. I I I don't accept that there's not a solution that you you do something if it doesn't work you try something else until you find out what does

116work because right now as you say at any given time you can text someone in high school and probably get a response pretty quickly. Now, they might be in between classes, but they might also be sitting in class waiting for waiting for a text. Mr. Atkins, going forward, what we're going to do, we're going to have lead lined roofs, and they're going to be Faraday cages, and so problem will be solved. There you go. But I I know we expect on this, but I don't think I guess what I'm trying to say, I don't see there's not an easy solution. It's going to have to be solved by at all three levels. our bus drivers, our bus operators, our classroom management teachers, and our administrators. I mean, and I don't I wish I could remember

117the name of the book that I read about this. I think I mentioned to you, but this does so much harm that we're not even accounting for the addiction and all that. And basically what I've found out when they do it like they take the phones away completely. First of all, you have to do an education project. You have to let the parents remind them, tell them all the harm that these cell phones are doing. That's got to be a really, really big job. You just can't say we're doing it. You got to sell it. And then secondly, the students and the parents both after it was done and it was in scale for a while, they both loved it. The kids like the idea, oh, we're actually talking to each other at lunch anymore.

118We're not just looking at a phone. And the parents love at least the kids are getting a break six hours a day that they're not on the phone. Maybe we as parents can't keep them from doing it, but you schools are doing it. I Hey, did you research anything like Columbus or any place like that who actually takes the phone away when they come into school? Yeah, Miss Mitchell had a PowerPoint and she went through several different districts and what the districts did and then I mean she had probably it was something from a book maybe if you'd mentioned it to her that might have been what she had brought up but she had a PowerPoint. I'm sure she'd share it but it went through different research studies. Um, our committee talked about all those

119things. Maybe we ought to find two or three schools systems that tried it and do what we've been doing. Stand of representatives there to sit down and talk undercover though, Mr. You got a good point there. You got a good point. Yeah. Go undercover for a day or two and then they could talk to them. Move on. Yeah. I think it's time we move on. But it's going out for comment. Public comment anyway. Yeah. It's not been voted on tonight. No. So, I'm going to flip-flop the agenda just a little bit and move to the uh personnel agenda at 4:17. Uh you should have received a updated uh personnel agenda when you got here. Is there a motion to approve? So, may or second motion and a second. Any further discussion? Is that all you

120need, Dr. Phil? Just what's different between the first one and this one? So, we had a recommendation for the therapeutics. We had a recommendation for the therapeutics um nursing position here at MCT and the individual decided that she did not want the position and so we had time to go with another person. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Any desire to go in executive session? Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. We're going to take a brief recess. Could I say one thing? You people do are working on this. You don't know how much respect I have because it's on 416. Mr. personel personal agenda. Oh, yeah. If there's any updates. Yeah, just brief. Very

121brief. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um All right. So, we have a uh employee disciplinary hearing we're going to have here in just a few minutes that will be a closed hearing. So, uh, let's do the administrative updates real quick. Any any brief updates? If any of the directors have anything or any any information, you're feel free to speak up or otherwise we'll dismiss you all and those that need to stay will but any updates. I do have a question. We got the email on Spanishburg. It was Princeton primary also of concern. There's some issues there. We've already met with the structural engineer there. We're waiting. Leslie doesn't like to talk, so I will. We've already met with with one and we've asked for the same one to come back to to do the analysis at Spanishburg.

122I've already pulled over and sent them some copies of things that we have, but uh uh we just kind of keep you all informed of some things that we found that are probably going to be very costly at Princeton primary as well. I don't think there is there is advance there but hopefully we again shall uh in a swamp in a swamp. In a swamp and shall Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh we're going to take a brief recess and uh we'll be right back for a closed hearing. Huh. We back on. It's just We are back from a closed hearing back in regular session. Um the matter of board memo number 416 which is an employee disciplinary matter. Mr. Townley President Putage my recommendation is to suspend Jamie Farmer bus operator for 5 days uh

123without pay. Uh that would be uh June 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 16th. ask for your approval for it's been him u without pay for Mercy County policy G24 employee code of conduct for violation. Uh any desire to go in executive session to discuss this matter? Doesn't appear to be any. Uh is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation? Move to accept it. Is there a second? Second. And there's a second. Any further discussion? Yes, sir. Go ahead. In reading the letter Mr. Tolman sign, I guess it went to Mr. Right. Five days. What about the other I mean, if it's true, and I'm assuming that it is, some pretty nasty words we're seeing. And there's supposed to be some kind of um not training, seminar, something professional conduct training. It says sensitivity training.

124Yes. Is that should that be a part of the the language in in the um recommendation? Recommendation. I mean, it's in this letter. The the only thing we're addressing is whether he gets paid or not for a suspension. That would be an administrative matter that would Mr. Timelin would take. Yeah, we'd have that. That would be part of his administrative right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. What Mr. Bailey was talking to? I didn't say nothing about anybody. Okay. And I and I I totally understand that, Mr. Farmer. That's not really what we're doing tonight. This relates to the 13 violations, many of which you've already admitted and several of which we saw on the video. Okay? That's a a matter between you and the administration. Okay? Um if you have satisfactory evidence, you need to

125give it to Mr. I find him to be a reasonable individual. And if he if you've got evidence, I'm sure he'll consider it. Okay. All right. Anything else on the motion? Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Um Mr. Farmer, I'm not big on lecturing people and I'm not going to lecture you, but I am going to say that that I hope that going forward that you are very careful in your safety procedures because that's just about the kids. That's all that's all I'm concerned about is the children. Okay? As long as you're doing what you're supposed to do, you know, not everybody gets along. You know, there's personality issues between a lot of people. Again, I'm concerned about

126the safety of the child. And my my biggest concern was that there was a child sleeping in the back of your bus that you didn't seem to know about, and that does concern me a good bit. Okay. The safety we get marked up if you don't do your pre-check. Am I correct about that, Mr. Rose? Then then the county's in trouble with the feds and with the state and and we can't have that either. So, so please just do the things that you're supposed to do to keep keep your bus safe and do the things you're supposed to do to make sure you cut that radio on. Keep our kids keep our kids. Well, one thing I I had a kid, my daughter was left on a school bus or bus one time and as

127a parent, it's not a fun thing to go through. And the bad thing was it wasn't called at all at first. And what called for us was my babysitter called and said, "Was our daughter sick?" Now, you can imagine what we went through for just a few it wound up being maybe 15 minutes because we didn't have any idea what happened. So it's it it it was it was and you know I understand it it it happens but that was you know 30 years ago but but that that's important to know about where those kids are. I mean I I I can see things happening but but we got to be careful about that. Okay. Is there anything else come before the board? We journed.