001Oh, can you hear me? Okay. I will if you want to take one and pass it around. I'm gonna take one for myself for reference. There you go. All right. Um I am excited to speak with you all this evening. Uh I am um encouraged by the progress that we have made as a school through the CSI process. If you've heard me talk about it at all in the past, um you have heard me say that we have learned a lot. We have come a long way. And before I get into the details of this, I am very proud of our staff, of our students, and myself to be honest with you, because we we've really dove into this and done our the very best that we can. I'd like to introduce those who are
002with me this evening. Part of them are leadership team and part of them is our LSIC members. Uh Adam Gross is part of our LSIC. Teresa Carter is part of our LSIC. Genesis Malco is LSIC, Lori Thompson is part of our leadership team, Cindy Cox is LSIC, and Rebecca Bernett is part of our leadership team as well. And um a huge part of what we have really focused on to help our overall school achievement is really utilizing the LSIC as well as our leadership team effectively the way they were designed to be used. So, I wanted members of both of those teams to be here this evening. Now, um I provided you all with a one pager, which I have to say was hard to do, of all the accomplishments that we've had. Uh let's
003start with you'll see four goals. These goals are in our strategic plan. So, we'll just work right down through them. In the strategic plan, we focus on the general summit of assessment growing 2% in ELA and two and a half% in math. This year, compared to last year in ELA, we were 54% proficient, which that was a 23% increase. So, I'm very pleased and proud of everyone who made that happen. math was 47% proficient, pretty much the same as the year prior to that. But what I've noticed is as we are growing, we're kind of growing in stair steps. So, we'll grow a little bit of math, have a huge leap in reading, and then the next year we'll have a little leap in reading and a huge leap in math, which it doesn't matter
004to me as long as we're showing progress and the students are learning and we're uh just chugging along. It's a it's a marathon, not a sprint. And then our science, we had 42% proficient and that was an increase of 22%. And I think that that has a lot to do with our increased focus on science, but also incorporating Jason into our lessons as well. Um, so we are not obviously at the end of the year for the summitive yet. The closest thing we have to compare of where we may be by May on the summitive is I ready. And in December of 2024, we were already achieving 2% higher in grades third, fourth, and fifth compared to last year. And then in December 2024, which was our middle of the year diagnostic, we were increased
005by 9% compared to last year. So it's showing steady increases. Like I said, this was three months ago as well. So our expectation is we will have increased growth on the summitive by the end of the year. Now going into um our second goal on in the strategic plan of school climate including social emotional and develop developmental needs of the students. Um through CSI we have really focused on consistent rules making and that's from grade level to grade level K through five preK through five actually and making sure that those rules are communicated with our families holding students accountable for their behavior daily and um making sure that all of the teachers have the same expectations in their classrooms. Again, this is a work in progress, but we've shown great uh improvements in this as
006well. As I said earlier, proper use of the leadership team, LSIC, and the effective schools operations team, also known as our safety committee, have really improved u family engagement, community involvement, and consistency for students. My weekly walkthroughs don't only ensure that engaging instruction occurs regularly, but also validates that the school maintains a positive environment for students. And if there's a time where I see that either one of those is something we need to address, we meet immediately. um instant feedback whether it's positive or negative is G are is given to the teachers as soon as walkthroughs are over because I instantly email the walkthrough to them so they see it immediately regardless of what it is and we have if we have to have a further conversation we do um the West Virginia school counseling
007plan has also been utilized this year and that focuses on social emotional and development needs of the students. So for attendance we are last year we had uh our attendance rate was 93%. This year we are hoping to be at 95% and based on our chronically absent data sheet it looks like we are on target for that. Hopefully we'll hold steady and that will come to pass. Um we have monthly attendance incentives through the CSI process. we make sure that our engagement is or our instruction is more engaging for the students that they are collaborating that they are a part of the process and I think that has also made them feel like they need to be at school they feel like they're an important part of the classroom and their input is important and
008they need to be there but I will say um also positive relationships and friendships encourage kids to come and I have noticed especially this year that when I do my walkthroughs the classrooms just seem fuller like there's more consistency of having oh all the kids were here only one kid is absent so I'm seeing that consistently as I do my walkthroughs as well so um I have talked to anyone who is willing to listen to me weekly walkthroughs have been a gamecher for me it has really helped me keep my my um my hand on the heartbeat of the school in so many more ways than just instruction So that will be something that will continue even when CSI is over because it is a huge gamecher. And then finally, and then I'll let these
009guys talk a little bit once they once you're ready for questions. Um our goal is to have a high quality fun-filled family engagements. We do that throughout the year. Fall festivals, school parties, title one family engagements, and the Pinewood Derby are just a few examples of that. But also this year, teachers are uh inviting families into their classrooms at least twice per year for a more personal family engagement time. Whether that be, for example, kindergarten, they do their um gingerbread houses. They invite families in to help the kids. Um the third grade this year had a move up meeting for the parents where they just talked about, you know, we're not in second grade anymore. We're in third grade now and it's a big jump. and had that conversation all and anywhere in between. Um,
010and then our year three review with Leah Ernest who was our state contact occurred on March 3rd, 2025. And we should have a comprehensive summary in April for what she saw when he when she did her walkthroughs. The teachers had to do a survey that was just about me. That was fun. I enjoyed that a lot. and uh but we're looking forward to seeing what they have to say and I'm excited and I'm very proud of these guys. They've been with me from day one and they haven't quit on me yet. So, thank you all. Okay, I don't want to stifle any questions or push anybody. We voted 15 minutes per school. If we don't, we'll roll over into a regular meeting. I'm good with that. That's what everybody wants to do. I just want
011to make everybody's heads up on that so they know where we're going. All right. Uh ask all the need and if you get behind, we get behind. But don't fuss at me when 6:15 rolls around. We're still doing it. All right. So, questions from the board? Sarah, do you do your walkthroughs on a schedule? Do teachers know when you're coming or do you break that? Okay. They don't. Um, now I I frontload them at the beginning of the year in the summer and I I put them on random dates and some days that works out and some days it doesn't. You know, I might have scheduled them on the same day as an administrator's meeting or something and then I just look around. Sure. But I I frontload all of that before the year even
012starts because if I don't put it on the calendar, it's not going to happen. Sure. So I just make sure that it's there. Okay. Thank you. So what do you see as the reasons for improvement? Um consistency. I I have noticed to one thing that we really focused on was student engagement and application. um our teachers, they work their hearts out and they always have, but it was that extra level of making sure the kids are engaged. And like for example, um something as simple as not reading the directions for them, but letting the students read the directions or um having students get have the time to read their story on their own. All the way to um science projects or working math problems on their own without being directly guided by the teacher because
013they needed to learn that it's okay to make mistakes. And some that's how we do our best learning is when we make those mistakes. and the teacher can guide them through that. It's a little messy at first, but in the end they learn more long rest. Okay. Dr. How did you utilize the You said proper use of LSIC. I don't know what that is. How did you use the LSIC? I'm sorry, what was that? How did you use the LSIC? Okay, so um LSIC, you know, part a big part of that is community involvement and parent involvement. So as we were going through the process and making these changes, we would talk with them and we would see from their perspective, what areas do you think we need to improve on? So for example, we
014may feel like our communication's great and we're getting everything out there that they need to know, but when really there may have been some times or some instances where we could have been a little more clearer on things. That's just one example, but just getting their input to make sure because you know sometimes you can't see the forest through the trees and they were able to help us see areas that we could fine-tune our improvement to make it even more dramatic for the kids. That answer what you needed? This is more of an early question. And before I begin beating up on him, before I begin beating up beating up on him, proficiency information that you provided is phenomenal. It really, really is. It shows that you and your staff are doing whatever needs to
015be done. Now, Mr. Atkins, couple weeks ago, we got a report, midyear report on where we were in all these different grades and proficiency numbers. Um, and very few Well, that's not fair to say. There were people that were sort of mid-range, but there was still a lot down in red. Do these numbers help move that up? If that makes sense. The number she's sharing is last year's end of the year assessment from the GSA. You're referring to the middle of the year already. Yeah. She also addressed that showing that she's had I think she said 2% and 9% growth from the beginning to the middle. And so the anticipation is is from December until May, you will see that continued growth. But we had strong growth in every elementary school in reading and math.
016um from boi when I read well since as I like to say not just the legislature but the state school board and their infinite wisdom they they grade us based on where we are in these categories is this going to help improve the the position position may not be the right word but how how Mercer County is being viewed that yes we are doing a good job it's getting better is this going to get us in in a different color. Yes, absolutely. I mean, you can't have proficiency without progress. And so, all of these principles, I'm certain we'll talk about focusing on the progress and growth. Good. And so, our goal has been uh on the progress side to make sure what Dr. G was referring to, the state requires 2% in LA, two and
017a half in math annually to meet that growth target. And uh so we're working toward we exceeded that the last couple years. So absolutely uh I think that that's uh what they're working on and the I Ready is so aligned with and predictive of GSA. It's they show over 90% correlation but our data is higher than that. Okay, good. Thank you. And if I can clarify real quick about that, you know, like I said, um during the year we don't have anything else to go on besides I Ready and the goals are the GSA. So when I looked at the December scores, middle of the year diagnostic in reading specifically, I looked at three, four, and five. And based on that time, we were already 2% higher than we were last year on the GSA.
018Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure I'm clear on that. Dr. Gross, do you have an extra copies of your report? If uh Dr. Atkins, Dr. Bowling, and myself could get one, that'd be great. So I can bring the one here in just a sec. I got you. Thank you. How do you see benefit from the immediate response to walkthroughs and what is that benefit? So guess um now the changes in the classroom based on walkthroughs took a little bit of time but immediately you were able to see where certain teachers just needed a little bit of support but also schoolwide holes that were there that we needed to dre address as an entire staff and both are beneficial. Um, but yeah, immediately you see, you know what, I thought
019that the kids were engaged and they really weren't and we're going to fix it. So, just as an example, last question for me is, how are you increasing attendance? So, but as I said, there are days where I'm kind of shocked myself at how full the classrooms are because I'm used to seeing previous years. Um, and I really feel like a huge part of that, two things. One is having the kids truly engaged in the instruction during the day. There is a part of them that I feel like believes that their class needs them and they're a part of that classroom community, but also positive relationships, having high expectations. Um there there are several kids in my third, fourth, and fifth grades, even the older ones, that say, "I have to be here because my
020teacher needs me." Um we had one kid, she was aiming for perfect attendance, and she got sick during the day and she hated to go home. She didn't want to go home. But you can't be growing up in the classroom. You got to go home. But yet, that's a goal. And she's like, "By golly, I'm going to do it next year." So that's still a goal that she has and she's not the only one. Okay, other questions anybody? I actually one thing I'm kind of interested in since it's a beginning I probably for the other principles you can kind of I'm going to the same place. I think you've done an excellent job and actually we've already answered a little bit but h how much uh and we don't know yet but how much uh
021do you think the new I Ready program will contribute to testing success? Um I pre and the reading and well the writing programs that we've instituted here in the last year or two. So, um, I'll address reading and math first since that's in specifically in I Ready. I'm a huge I Ready believer. It has made a it's made a believer out of me. The Pathways have these guys will tell you I will harp on them if it's Wednesday and it's like, you know what, we haven't met our minutes, guys. We've got two days left. You better get your minutes in. and I'll see I'll post screenshots if I have to because it really helps the kids know how to answer those highle questions. Um I ready math I I am a believer in that as
022well. Uh I'll be curious to see how much improvement we have in math utilizing the the u new series. I'll become an even more an even bigger believer once we have those scores back. But we have really uh trusted the process and done our best. Now, a a new series is a new series and it kind of takes a a year or so to fumble through it and figure it out. And that's fine. That's going to that's the case with everybody. But I do believe that once everything gets comfortable and the teachers get set with it, it's going to be it's going to show great improvements. Well, um I I was meant to put another sentence in there and I'm getting old and forgetful. We all know that the teachers the number one yeah goal
023and it sounds like your teachers are doing a great job and I'm we got some initial data before this meeting and we're really tickled. I I speak for I hope the rest of us about what we're seeing in our elementary schools and it goes to everybody and all of our elementary teachers and I know that it's the teacher number one. I ready is just a tool. That's right. For the teacher to use. That's right. And that's one thing that I do tell my teachers, you know, because it was this, you know, it's taken from our instruction, but at the and and there is nothing that replaces a good teacher in a classroom, period. What I Ready does though is it calculates the deficiencies so quick, something that teachers are going to have to do anyway.
024In the long run, it saves them time because it just does it so fast that 45 minutes, you're done. Preaching to the choir. I I used to think that, you know, you go back in your your own career and you come out of college and and you're honestly lost. You don't It's a little while. I used to call it there's a science of teaching which probably I already but there's an art and the the teacher is in control of the art to be able to pick up on those things and know how to get that kid encouraged. So again, I appreciate our teachers that do this. Anybody else? Thank you, Dr. Okay, so y'all will know that I'm not completely gone off the deep end. I get two different sheets on the order of our
025meeting. One says pledge of allegiance after LSAC presentations and one says before. So, we're going to say the pledge now. We're going to do that. I thought you were waiting around with me. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That's the Boy Scout in me. All right, Mercer Scope. All right, this thing is on. I'm just going to keep standing. Um, first want to take just a quick minute to introduce our CSV team. We have um Wina Alahhson who is our title one teacher. Then I have Miss Teresa Dinger who's new to Mercer this year as a special education teacher in a multicategorical room. Tammy Vest um is been with Mercer for
026a long time as a multicategorical special education teacher. And also Sam Terry who is our autism teacher. He teaches in the high AU room. So this is our our CSI team. We are designated as CSI for our special ed sale and we are showing some slow and steady growth every year and we are super proud of that. These guys work really hard and they've got some good stories to tell you about our kids and about the things that we see that are more than just the numbers on a test here or there. Although we're seeing that growth with our students on the test scores, some of the things that happen in the classroom are pretty magical and they've got they've got lots to share with you there. Um I'll talk real quickly about the four
027goals that we have and I gave you guys a packet. Um it includes our CSI plan which was submitted to the state and it has our goals in it. Also our data for the last from last year to this year so that you can kind of get an idea on our growth. Um, and it's sometimes it's easier to look at it on a piece of paper than it is when I'm spitting it out to you. Our ELA goal was the same as um everyone in the county and that's that 2% growth in ELA for all of our students. We showed um LA from last from from 22 23 to 23 24 we are showing 4% growth in ELA on the general summit of assessment for our special education students. So we're super proud of that.
028That was we met our goal. We actually doubled it. We're we're proud of that. This year right now, middle of year on already, we are showing 6% growth in ELA for our special ed students. So, we are we're well on target there to and we're going to continue moving and growing. That's good to know that halfway through the year, that's where we are and we can only go up from there. So, we're excited about that. We're doing a lot of different things. um of course the data driven interventions in the classroom. We have hired and we share with Princeton Middle School a interventionist for our students. So she pulls them and you know one of the things that I was actually going to say is there's there's no supplement for that teacher interaction that human
029onetoone interaction with these kids. Um Miss Neil comes in every morning and she pulls those kids and they they comb through their data. They're looking at their data notebooks and they are are working on those gaps and we're seeing that in the data with those students. They're they're growing tremendously based on that onetoone with them. Our title one staff does the same thing but there was just nothing really that beats that having those extra hands-on and we saw that last year with our growth because we were able to have an aid in the multicat classroom and then we had a student teacher in there. So the more adults we had, the better success we saw with our kids. It changed that group size from 1 to nine or 2 to nine to you know just
030so we had two or three kids per adult and that made a tremendous difference. We also last year had a uh part-time interventionist. So we had four adults with that group of kids at one gi at any given time during the day and it made a huge difference. Um, we're doing lots of professional development to try to strengthen that literacy instruction. It's important for us to grow ourselves so that we can help grow our students. Things change constantly. We had an instructional coach in the building for three weeks. Um, actually end of February through the first couple weeks of March and she was actually there to help support our teachers. So she moved into the classrooms and worked on behavior management, classroom management. She helped teach them a little bit about data and about understanding
031the IRA data a little more. She helped them with um with special ed and with their minutes and how to read those reports and actually look at that to try to figure out what other things you can do for these students in the gened classroom to help grow them as well as what we're doing for them in the pull out setting. that was actually very wellreceived and they were like can she stay? I was like well I don't have enough money but we'll try. Um our second goal was math and that is achieving two and a half% growth in math. Last year on the GSA from from the previous year to last year we grew 3% in math actually 5% sorry let me look at the right numbers. We grew 5% in math. Um, and
032I have to talk about science a little bit. We grew 13% in science, which was pretty incredible for our special ed kids last year. We're super proud of that. Um, a lot of that is robotics. A lot of that is that interventionist that came in doing some STEM things and doing robotics with those kids when she pulled them. I think that helped make a difference. It was a connection for them that maybe wasn't otherwise made in the classroom. So, we had some great growth on the GSA. Right now on I Ready, middle of the year, we are up 5%. So, we are we're super proud of that. Math is um definitely a little different with this curriculum and the teachers have thoroughly appreciated coming in and sitting with them. She just came in back in
033January. That gave them a few months to get their feet under the curriculum and really know what kind of questions they had. They really didn't know what they didn't know at the beginning of the year when she came to us. So, that was much appreciated and very effective. Our third goal is attendance. And we do lots of different things for attendance. You can see from the the little colorful paper that last year we were at 93.6% middle of the year. This year we are 94.3%. That's quite shocking considering that we had a flu outbreak in January and February, but we we rolled right on through that. We do lots of things with the kids incentives. We have lots of days of fun and we work really hard to make school the place that kids want
034to be and also our staff. So my staff attendance attendance has improved drastically over the last three years as well as that of the kids because we are constantly doing things whether it be something as simple as a dress up day or we have people coming in to work with them do fun things. We we just we try to schedule things and make it as inviting as we possibly can. So, the kids want to be in school and we're seeing that that is definitely helping. Our Title One team had a great parent engagement night just a couple weeks ago. We had about 200 in attendance. Um I think we it was about a hundred of our students that the the families came out for. That was huge. We made a big ordeal out of our
035back to school bash this year. We wanted parents to come in, feel welcome, feel excited and happy about school. It's it's hard for them. It's hard for them to let go of their babies. So, we brought out food trucks. We bought out bounce houses. We just we had a big party and everybody was laughing and smiling. So, I don't think we had any tears this year of our day of school, did we? Which is not the norm. I mean, even out of our third graders, you know, they're moving to a whole new school and a whole new world. them. We're trying to do things like that to engage our families, to encourage them to come out and to make sure that they know that we love their babies just as much as they do and
036we're going to take care of them so that they're comfortable and it's easier for us to have that working relationship. And our last goal is implementation of our PBIS program. We are in uh year one of PBIS. Last year we we tested and did a lot of trials. You can see uh from our data, it looks great on paper, but I have to tell you the real story there. Last year, middle of the year, disruptive and disrespectful. We had 60 Weevous referrals from special ed students. This year, we have 24, but I have to have to tell you the backstory on that. We uh what they changed the way that they code behaviors in Weeas this year. So, now there are three disruptive disrespectfuls. There's a level one, a level two, and a level three.
037So, if we add all our level one, level two, and level three behaviors together, disruptive, disrespectful, right now we have 99. But we expected that because this is their first year of full implementation of PBIS. We are documenting every single solitary behavior and that was not something that we did in the past before. We documented if there was a punishment, if they got lunch detention, if they had inschool suspension, if they had things like that, that was documented in Weebas. We weren't documenting all of the behaviors of our students. So now that we are documenting those, we expect that number to increase a little bit before it decreases. We are seeing that um we've had to shift and change our program this year and that's something that's going to have to continue to happen. through
038our PBIS team meetings each month we found that the beginning of the year we were doing an end of month reward party for the kids. We figured out real quickly that was it was too far was too long. So the first few weeks of school we did them weekly and then we quickly went I think October we went to an end of month and we did that October, November and it didn't work. So we backed up and we're now doing weekly incentives in the classroom. Our teachers can cash out their points through the store. We we purchase the badges like Princeton Middle has so that we can keep track of that and we can award points to kids throughout the day. The the weekly parties seem to be more effective and the kids are enjoying
039that tremendously. So, we're we're going to continue doing that and we do come back to the table very often. We're looking at our data. We're looking at where those behavior incidents are occurring and we are constantly moving in a direction that we can be preventive and proactive there so that we can really truly see those numbers going down. Um it's hard to tell like without combing through every single behavior write up last year for special ed students which of those were level one, level two, or level three. But the majority of those behaviors would have been probably level one, level two. Normally I try to I try to make sure that I that I categorize those appropriately, but the the new system makes it a little bit easier for us to accurately define what the
040behaviors are with those students. Um we are doing with I Ready, we're doing incentives with our students. Well, so we've got posters and competitions going on throughout the classrooms. We found that that has helped tremendously. We had a little bit of apathy at the beginning of the year with I Ready and like the teachers were pushing back a little bit. The students were pushing back a little bit. They had figured out how to turn their computers on and let their minutes run and and not do anything because they're just smart like that and it takes us a little while to figure it out, you know, cuz we're old and we don't have that. So, it took us just a little bit of time to get our feet under us and find what was going to
041motivate them to actually take advantage of something that was helping them. And uh we have found that that these incentive programs has got them going crazy. So we're making posters. We posters on their doors and you can see the kids out in the hallway when they when they finish a lesson when they pass it at 80% they're out there coloring their squares and they want to know when they're going to have their bubble gum party when we did Coke and Mentos. So they they got to go outside and explode Mentos in a Coke bottle. But it's just little simple things like that that are helping make a difference for our students. But super proud of my team. They've done an incredible job and we we're going to keep going and take care of these babies.
042Thank you. Board members, Shelley, what what's the advantage of documenting more thorough documenting of behaviors and is it worth the time that it requires staff to do so? It really helps us be able to effectively determine what's going on. A lot of times um we we have the same behaviors out of students and it's really hard to pinpoint the function of behavior and it's difficult to pinpoint um what might be causing it without that documentation. So, if we note what time of day it's happening, what class it might be happening before, during, or after, or if it's at recess, or if it's on the bus, it gives us a better opportunity to control those situations and be proactive and prevent it before that kid has a blow up or an issue. Then, you know, we
043we can look at the data and and figure out what's going on without them even realizing that. So, when something new happens, you're going back and looking at the past patterns to see if you can identify what's going on. Yes, we can look at the past writeups. We start looking at sometimes it'll just hit you, you know, you're like, "Oh, like this is every day before lunch. Is he hangry?" Or, you know, what's going on? Or it's it's before math or a lot of times our our biggest issues and it's we knew that, but we really see it in the numbers. Now, the biggest issues are just those unstructured times like recess and sometimes like they get in the bathroom and the teacher can't be standing in the boys's bathroom with them. So, you know,
044it's it's we're so it helps us be able to develop a plan to hit those things before they become an issue. Check a little bit too as they progress through school. The middle school principles will have that and then high school principles have that. You'd be surprised. I know that we used to want to have a blank slate so to speak prejudge but yet when there's a problem when you can go back to what you all documented it really helps solve issues not all the time sometimes you can see certain things I won't mention so it does help on down the line other board members yeah I've noticed I think I'm correct So all the teachers you brought with you are some form of special ed? Yes sir. Is that a special emphas emphasis? Yes
045sir. Our CSI designation was for special ed. Yes. Identified for a special whole school. Well it's good that you asked that because if anybody is watching this they probably are wondering why you were just talking about special ed. So it's good that you identified that. Other questions? I have the same question. the how you see the role of the I Ready. Um I know you mentioned I think you may have already answered it but do you have any other information that you could share with the board over test prep for with I Ready and do you think it's a useful tool? It's absolutely a useful tool and it is pushing u not not just my students but my teachers to increase the the level of intensity of the instruction for them that the the DK
046is we're we're moving up and we're not just hitting like the DK1 DK2 questions. It's forcing us all to look deeper into all of that instruction and make sure that we're pushing these kids to that extent. the kids have really pushed back and I told you they like they they don't want to do it. They're like this is hard. This is awful. I'm gonna figure out a way to get around this because I don't want to do it because they didn't like being challenged. But now that we have we made it fun or they think we made it fun. They want to do it because they want a bubble gum party and they don't realize the opportunities that are that what the gains that they are getting from it. Other board members. So I'll ask
047you the same question I asked earlier. What do you see as to the reasons for improvement? It is really my staff. It is having having the ability to have the extra hands on these students. It is pushing and pulling and even for us our House Bill 3035 meetings bringing those parents in. We brought them in even for our special ed students because we wanted to make that connection with our families. We wanted to make sure that they realize the importance of education and we want them to feel comfortable being able to come to school and have a conversation with us because they may or may not have had a good experience in school. But it ultimately comes down to the staff pouring their heart and soul into these kids and being able to have extra
048hands because we are, you know, every building is cut down very skinny on staffing. We we have to follow those guidelines that are put forth by the federal government and the state, but there's just no replacement for having the extra funds to being able to bring in extra adults to give them that intensive small group instruction. You may not know this information off the top of your head. If you don't, that's okay. But what percentage of your students is in a sped is in sped? Um, I calculated that not too long ago and I was at 26 26 27% I believe. So more than one in four children. Yes. That's a challenge. But you're doing well. You got to keep just got to keep your head up and moving forward. That's all you can do
049in spite of everything crazy that comes from Washington and Charleston. Just keep your head up and keep moving forward. Other board members. All right. Next up is Princeton Middle. Good evening. My name is Tanya Roberts and I'll start by introducing um our team. Uh we are designated as a CSI targeted school for year three for our special education population as well. Uh first we have Miss Tracy Trex. She is our eighth grade science teacher, LSIC extraordinaire and CSIT team member. She teaches around 30 kiddos that have IEPs in her general education science classroom. Uh then we have Mr. Williams who's been with us now for what two years as a long-term sub and we are just so thankful for him. He does all of our small group pullouts for mathematics for sixth, seventh, and eighth
050grade. Uh Mr. Refe, who has taken over uh administratively the special education population and and all those things. Miss Gross, who is our seventh grade inclusion teacher, general ed teacher for the inclusion population for seventh grade, and Miss Cutlip, who teaches math, and she is the general education teacher. and both of them have probably at least 20 to 30 students a piece that are in their general education classroom that have IEPs. Um, so for us, let's see. And my handout is blue and pink. That's how Canva made it. Sorry. Um, but we'll start with just our general goals. And and the goals that we came up with, I think all of us were at um Stonewall. No, not Stonewall. What is that called? Blade Springs Resort this summer. and we all had to come up
051with the targeted specialed year3 groups had to create what our year three goals were going to be for the year. Um and as um everyone's already kind of talked about, we cannot measure and articulate. We know what we want the goal to be for the end of the year for the summit of assessment, but we can't measure that continuously throughout the year. So, we're going to use the I Ready data. So, for example, uh goal number one, we're going to improve our math scores by 2% from beginning to end of year. So, at this point, halfway through, we have our September and then our um December data special education students only, we had a 3.44% increase in math. Uh as far as our growth, the medium progress, we were at 93%. So 93% again for
052special education population only are 93% of the way towards that typical growth not the stretch growth but the typical growth. Uh and then the the really the data piece that means the most to me is when we look at students and we're r we rank them you know kind of uh students who are at or above grade level students who um are one grade level below two grade levels below or three grade levels below. We have gone in math for special education kiddos we have gone from three students that are one grade level or better below to 16. So that means we have taken 13 kiddos that were two or more grade levels below and now they're only one grade level below. Uh and to me for a special education population of kids once they've
053already reached middle school that's just a beautiful thing. Uh and then uh so moving on to reading the I already reading again to improve it by 2%. Uh we have moved from our beginning of the year skilled score was a 504 to a 525. So that's a four and a quarter% increase. 131% is that median growth um towards the typical growth progress there. And the students understand this like they talk about that's my bar and that's my dotted bar. So they understand what typical growth is and what their stretch growth is. And when you have these kids coming down the hallway high-fiving you after their, you know, middle of the year test saying that, hey, I made it. You know, I made it to this. I made it to my dotted bar. I made it
054to my, you know, I made my typical growth. It's just exciting to to have that encouragement from your kiddos and that recognition. Um, so even though that we grew more again, four and a four four and a quarter percent, uh, the number of students grew from 8 to 15, but still with that particular population, we actually have students now that are in the green. So that so that means they are at grade level and I think we had two that moved to at or above grade level. So um that's again for us very good news. The next thing is chronic absenteeism to reduce that by 1%. Uh attendance for students that have IEPs is 94.08% attendance rate. I want to be honest, the thing that we have the hardest time with parents and with everybody
055understanding, even when we do like our attendance parties and attendance incentives, is the state measures us based upon very literally your butts in the seat. It doesn't matter that you bring a doctor's excuse. It doesn't matter that your parent wrote you a note. Chronic absenteeism is based upon if they miss more than 10% of the instructional days being in the classroom physically. And that's where a lot of our parents and if they go to our LSIC meetings and those things, that's where uh there's maybe a disconnect because they just think, well, if I write them a note and well, if they were sick and if they have doctor's excuses and all of that is true and and good. Um, we don't file truency unless a student has, for example, at least 10 days that are
056undocumented. But we can have kids who can go, I'm just being honest, they can they can still go to a Med Express or to a this or to a that that will write them an excuse out for 5 days. And that's five days of lost instruction. So, we have changed our attendance incentives specifically this year. Um, and we've gotten some some push back to following the state the overall state idea that you're in the seat. It doesn't matter that you were home with CO and we're really sorry that you're going to miss out on that, but we need you to be here physically here. Um, and we haven't gotten a lot of push back really. We have not, but but that is how it's supposed to go. Tanya, how does that percentage compare to your
057overall population absent? It's a little bit higher. We're I think 93.6. So, it's so less students are absent in special ed than the general population. That that is correct. Okay, that's But that's also this accounts for the excuses that they turn in. Okay, so 94% does account for it does account for excuses. So those are unexcused absences that five whatever percent. Okay. And then our goal number four uh and I think it's interesting that that Dr. Shelley had mentioned uh that their number one incident and increase was disruptive disrespectful behavior as was ours last year. So, in our summer session, uh we decided that was going to be the key thing to target. Uh last year we had a combined 86 incidents for special education students and so far this year we're at 43. Our
058goal was to decrease that by 2%. Uh and we're well on our way. Probably the the most exciting thing, Mr. Lester, who's our other assistant principal who does discipline, he came in um last week and was just really excited about our level three. So these are the level three behaviors again just for special education kiddos have gone from 72 to 31. That's almost a 57% decrease. And we attribute a lot of that just to having consistent staff. Uh those of you that know Princeton Middle School last year and in years past we have had 16 17 daily long-term subs that are signing in our building. This year we have three. Wow. That's great. Um, so we are we're, you know, we're all just kind of working together, uh, trying to do all the things. So,
059um, and then I wrote just a couple of little extras down there. The things that we're using our CSI funding for, of course, Miss Deborah Neil, who we share with Dr. Shelly, she comes to work with our students who are alternate assessment kiddos as well as our general assessment kiddos, but still just the special education population. We do meet monthly. Uh we've had we've held three super Saturday trainings. Um which which to me is just an opportunity where you're you plan for the whole Saturday to spend your time together. We get to break out into small groups for math and for reading to talk about the writing to do the data walls, the data notebooks and to develop that consistent plan. Um we do have and this is like the thing that I'm probably the
060most excited about. You talked about attendance and what makes kids want to come. We started something brand new this year called Shine Time and it um is where kids get it's the one time that they get to pick whose group teacher group that they're in and they do something just fun. Uh Mr. Williams has headed up a volleyball tournament, volleyball Olympics, and we have all kinds of different things going on for the kiddos and it's just an opportunity for them to connect with an adult that otherwise often they don't have. uh and our Shanto time day attendance is is uh I mean we we don't have a lot of kids absent at all. So that's been an exciting change for us. Uh we are on year three for the PBIS program and we're excited like
061Dr. Shelley had mentioned it's the same program platform that we are using at Princeton Middle School. Uh one of our social workers runs our store. The kids get to cash in points and get certain items that are delivered to them on Fridays. Um, we just started our March, well, I don't guess just started. We are on the quarterfinals. They end at midnight tonight for our March Madness I Ready competition. And then we just started our targeted tutoring for those bubble kids that have an IEP. And that's kind of where we are. Board members, is that targeted tutoring done during the school day or before or after? It is. It is actually this year um our three special education teachers, Mr. Williams and Miss Hatcher and Miss Best are using their team planning time um to
062target specific students that have IEPs that otherwise may not get that. And then we are also through some funding provided uh by Miss Grossclo teachers have sold their personal planning time and we're pulling those kids out of resource because what we found at middle school we we've had the before school and after school that students cannot come. Yeah. Um so this provides an opportunity and what we do we pull them out of their resource class but we only pull them out for like a 15 minute chunk 20 minute chunk of time so they get to still go back to that resource. They don't feel punished, but they get to come out and have a very intense like 1:2, 1:3 ratio to target a very specific skill. That's awesome. Thank you, Tanya. Since you're middle school,
063I can appreciate the incentives and all the things that the primaries do. How do you see those working and middle school and how do you do that? You're high school teachers, so how do you do that to get high school kids to want to show up all the time. They want to be there and do this kind of things. If you're seeing an improvement at middle school, well, if you talk to our children about Green Day, that is their favorite day. They enjoy coming. We called it green day at the beginning of the year and now it's Green Day plus improvements. So, for example, we're we've already kind of set the tone for next week. um we start our end of the year I ready assessment for math and reading and the kids already want
064to know are we going to get to have a green day again and for them that means that they're either testing in green and staying at green or they make they should have their high score on this particular assessment um what's the carrot that you've got out there they just they they want some free time that I'm I'm serious middle school kids want to be able to have some time that his daters. It's almost like a recess and really and they love it. Mr. Reinhardt brings his DJ equipment and his 360 photo booth thing and and the kids, you know, PTO can sell concessions and they just think it's the the best thing ever because they they earned it. And that's been our big thing too this year that we have uh it hasn't just
065been like teachers behind closed doors talking about our day. We have not been secretive about it at all. If you ask our kids at Princeton Middle School what we ranked last year on School Digger, they'll tell you we ranked 113th and and we're going to do better this year. They will. I mean, we announce it a lot. Like that's that's the big thing. Be safe, responsible, respectful. It's your turn to change the world every single day. That's what they hear. So, other members, I just want to comment. you presented to us earlier in the year and and you talked about how you focused on each individual child and spoke to them and something that has stuck with me was when you said one student said I really am struggling in reading and I need help
066when if we don't do that one-on-one that may never come up they may never admit that they're never going to admit it in a group for sure but if we're not communicating one-on-one with those students in that kind of situation where they feel secure enough to say that to an adult, I need help, particularly at the middle school. So, I want to commend you on that because I didn't get a chance to tell you that when you presented. Um, so what do you attribute the reasons to improvement are? I would say 150% are staff and working towards a common goal, having people who want to be at Princeton Middle School who are committed to um you know they're they're drinking the Kool-Aid if you will like we're all working towards the same common goal and
067we all believe in every kid. Okay. And what do if you know what's your percentage of fed students? About 24 and a half%. Okay. Never mind. Sorry. So, we're we're 26.2%. So, we're still in that one out of four about one out of four kids. And that gap you and the handout that I gave you, and I'm not going to go into that, but the very last page, it's amazing to see how many of our kiddos are on like the kindergarten level. So, you know, they that that three or more grade level below um is very different when you're working with a kiddo that's at kindergarten level. But, you know, when we grow from five to two of those, that's growth. And that's kind of what we're looking for. You know, just the belief that
068everybody can grow. Maybe not at the same speed, maybe not as quick, but just that they will continue to grow. But growth. Okay. Anybody else? Thank you. And we're on to Australia. 20. Nice try. You all know I'm not a talker. All right. My name is Ashley Smith and I'm the principal at Straley School. And with me I brought Kesha Gibson. She is one of our special ed teachers. I shouldn't say one. She's the only special ed teacher at Straley school. And this is Jamie Saraski and he's one of my third grade teachers. Um we are my RCSI team at Straley, just the three of us. Um because we do have so few staff members. Um, as everyone else has said, we're on year three as being a CSI school designation because of our special
069ed population. Um, we too have the same goals as everyone else. So, I'm going to go through those quickly. Um, our very first goal is um was to implement PBIS. We have um started that. We are on year two. So, I feel like we're all all in a different place as far as um every school. Um however we have all found the same significant um piece of data that disrupt disruptive disrespectful level three conduct um that was going into weas. So last year we had um around 70 entries and that was for the entire school not just special ed. Um when we were filling out our out our data um we were only at 14. So we have made a significant dent in that. Um, and we do feel like that that is training our
070teachers on PBIS. We are doing lots and lots and lots of reteing. Everyone is having the same classroom matrix. Um, and schoolwide matrix so we're all on the same page and the consistency with our students no matter where we're at in the building. Um, goal number two is ELA. So, our uh, reading and language arts and this is only special ed population and um, this is just I ready. So, um, for E, ELA, mid to above grade level, we had 15 students at the beginning of the year. Now we're up to 34 early, um, on grade level, 29 at the beginning of the year, 32 at middle of the year. And two grade levels below beginning of the year, 33, middle of the year, 20, and we want to see that one decrease. And three
071grade levels below 27 to 16. So, we've seen a major improvement um, with that. Goal number three is math. And um not as significant, but we are seeing a jump. And um mid to above grade level, we're we were at six students, now we're at 14. Um early on grade level, nine of the beginning of the year, and middle of the year 19. Um two grade levels below um beginning of the year 40, middle of the year 15, and three grade levels below 29, and middle of the year 16. Um so we're still seeing improvement there. Um our attendance and this is for overall for the entire school not just our special education population. Um we were right below the cutoff at not right below 90% last year. So we were striving to get that
072green um on our um check card. So um we are now at 94.3 whenever we did fill out this paper. That is with the flu like Miss Simpson said. So, um that that kind of gave us a hard hit, but we we are definitely seeing a major improvement there. And I feel like that is um my social worker who got the 100% club not too long ago for making those parent contacts. Um yes, that's something that we've done in the past, but we are meeting with them more often and um beating on lots more doors than we have in the past. Um I had asked Miss Gibson and Mr. Saski to talk about the back page um that you guys were given. That is what we have spent our money on and the resources and
073what we do feel like is making the impact with our students. And there's no one better in my building to talk about what we're doing in the classroom than them. So I'm going to give them the microphone for just a few minutes. Okay. Okay. So um for our PBIS, we purchased two things with our uh CSI money. We purchased Muzum and we purchased a program called Wonderrove Kids and both of those address social emotional needs on different levels. The the Muzum is for the higher level um more mature concepts like for those tween kids and then the Wonderrove Kids is for the younger kids and also what we're using with our special education population. Um we also purchased a special education aid with part of our CSI money. And so like Miss Dr. Simpson said,
074um, we have additional hands in the classroom and that has helped tremendously. Um, excuse me. Some purchases we've made for ELA. Um, one is Mystery Writing. So, if you've heard of like Mystery Science or Mystery Doug, anything like that. Um, they've branched off and now have their own writing series. Um, I can't say that we use it um to fidelity by any means, but it offers a lot of extra resources for us um and tools and it it gives a whole new kind of spin on how we see it. Not just the black and white um writing resources that we might see online uh that the state provides, but really gives a lot of a lot of fun stuff for other kids to write about. Um and then we also purchased time for kids. um
075we noticed that this set of text really aligns with a lot of our standards as well as um mimicking the state test. So the prompts that they get for writing um and the passages there some of them even can come from time for kids. So um we have said okay well if it's good for the juice it's good for the gander and we started uh using those as well. Some of the things that I talked about the last time that we we presented with the LSIC um that we're doing also for English language arts is we're continuing um using the Orton Gillingham curriculum for the special education population and Hagerty. Um my personal goal for the special ed population this year was to work on comprehension. Um and then we we did a schoolwide professional
076development with Sarah Graham from from Sun Valley. And so I've been implementing that in the special education classroom. Um, and then for math, we purchased reflex and fracks. Um, and these are both for fluency. Um, and the special education population also uses those as well as the whole school. Um, and then we purchased Touch Math for the special education classroom last year, and it is, um, it makes math tactile, but it also focuses really heavy on math vocabulary. And then the last two things um aren't necessarily things we've purchased um but ways that we have been getting more community members involved. Um the first thing is getting our third graders involved in this language study through WVU and lingual care. Um so at the beginning of the year we had probably 20ome grad students from
077WVU make the trek dump to stra and um give our kids an assessment on how well they are um listening and then retelling narrative text. Um and so we don't have that data. Every person I've talked to teachers, kids and Miss Smith, we've all said we want to see what's happened um because they came middle of the year and have given them the post assessment. and they're going to do another one uh in a couple well next month. And um so it's been really interesting. We've been able to have um two times a week to one time a week of a very intense um oral language um activity and it has been their work when they compose narratives. So that's been very interesting. Um, and then the other one is getting West Virginia State to
078bring their STEM labs to Straightly. So, they come once a month and bring different experiences focused around one theme. Um, and so the teachers kind of prep them for that theme um by including it into their their daily instruction and really just making it a whole a whole unit and a top-notch experience for them. How many kids do you all send into Nashville or to the Dallas robotics and stuff? just my school. We're sending one team. Mercer had one team and MCOM High had one team. I think Dr. Atkins is going to talk about that in just a little while. But we are very excited. We're sending four kids to Dallas. Purest form of STEM. Give them parts and say, "Here's a problem. Fix it." Um, but I will say was on the topic of
079robotics that it was Mercer County, Mercer County, Mercer County, Mercer County. When you listen to the finals in that top 24, Spanishburg, Staley, Mercer, and it Oakville, Melrose, and it was that we many people commented on that and that's that's I think good representation for us. Board members, questions. Same question I've asked before. What kind of library helping you? It is the depth of knowledge that um it's giving the kids that opportunity to see that depth of knowledge and we like the data that we're getting from it. That was one thing that I don't know that I heard many people touch on, but to be able to pull every standard, state standard out and be able to focus, you know, on the ones that we know that we're lacking or that we haven't gotten to
080yet. That has been um a a great tool for us to be able to use. You know, when I when I look at this, it seems like pretty regimented. And I was wondering I did hear at least one comment but maybe get some push back from the kids. Yeah. And I don't know this is for the other one. If you experience that more so than the kids, how would you come back to actually sitting down? Have any ideas on that? So, one thing that um one of our fifth grade teachers have kind of put on put up on Miss Melanie Mchum has been holding the kids accountable by using like a notebook to write down what they're learning during those times. Um and so that way if they don't have any feedback for them, you
081know, there there can be rewards and there can be consequences for not having those. Also, sometimes it's a misunderstanding of not knowing it. Um, so I know she gave the example of one of her kiddos was struggling with like word parts and understanding a prefix. And so she was like, "Well, okay, wait a second. Let's look at it." And then they were able to have a retach moment um right then and there. And then it's there forever so they can refer back to it if they come across it again or in a text. You just see like some of our kids would be wouldn't like I guess that's the easiest way of putting it. I think that we have lots of incentives for our students. Um we have for instance, it's still up a big
082um mug of hot chocolate out on the wall and the kids go and they color in every lesson that they finish. When the class fills in that mug of hot chocolate, they get a hot chocolate party. Um I know with um Princeton Middle School's March Madness, my daughter on the way to robotics wanted my hotspot turned on so she could finish some of my ready lessons for Miss Cutler's class. So, I feel like we're finding ways that um I think all of us are finding ways to keep them incentivized to to complete their ready lessons. And I guess really we're one of the best traits of a good teacher and a good principal ability to steal. If you hear something, be sure and share with each other if you have problems. Steal. They're borrowed. Okay.
083Thank you. Last year when Mr. Atkins did the presentation on I Ready, I became a believer, especially when I saw grading. It can show you how far behind an individual student is. And I know that you all are are charged with teaching the curriculum to get start here in August and be here in and be here in May. Sorry. But when you've got kids that are two and three grade levels in math or English behind and they're a fifth grade student and they're work they're they're performing at a second or third grade level. The only thing I don't well not the only thing but one of the things I learned that I'm not in agreement with with the I Ready is you only you all use that resource for X number of minutes every week
084and Miss Gross was the one that said she she watches it like a hawk and if you're not up to your minutes you know you're going to get a stern talking to or as my mother used to say a shamy finger. Well, I I've always been an ask for forgiveness versus permission. Why can't we do something for these kids that are two to four grade levels behind and kind of set them off to the side and and lack of a better word, give them more time with I Ready to let them get the skills that they need to go from two grades behind to one grade behind. Why is that not allowed? the curricular diary programs research doesn't support that. They have had millions of kids really um that once you get beyond that 45
08549 minutes a week, it does not help. They've done the research. And I'll go back to honestly this this to me is just a tool that's really a teacher that's where our teachers come in. If I ready to me and you all correct me because you're all the one using it. It kind of points out the deficiencies, then the teacher is the one. Yeah. It's up to the teachers to Is that right? Back up and teach those missing. Right. That makes sense. Yeah. But if you've got a if you've got a ninth grade kid that's in algebra and he can't even do basic multiplication, how are you going to help that kid? That's a teacher thing. I think we had the discussion today um in our meeting as well that you know the person pathways
086are very important because it identifies that efficiency and then it helps the kid on their own pathways but then that's when we also need those teachers to step in with their small groups and working more with the children as well. So I mean they're getting the I ready pathways but they're getting that small group time okay with the teachers to um you know work on that deficiency too. So it's really hand in hand. It's not one program or you know I know I know I've said this a lot in the on my fifth year being on the board. I'm not a teacher. You know I don't understand these things until I say something stupid and then you all encourage me and and educate me. So it's good to know these things um to make sure
087that you all are well aware of it. And obviously the four of you that have shown your your improvement results are doing the right thing. And I'm sure the other schools around the county are doing are doing these same things, but it's it's just beyond me um how we're we're still I think the state with their legislature in their infinite wisdom using the K creating the K3 program, but I said at that time in my opinion they've abandoned secondary schools. But it's obvious from hearing Tanya talk that's not necessarily true. So we've got the resources. You've got mastery prep now for the high school. Um I like some of the questions because I see a lot of apathy with the kids. You know, they don't want to do it so this aren't and you can't
088make them. But I don't know. I just I just want everybody to thrive. And we identified too that there's a lot of children, a lot of a lot of students that they hate being in school, but they, you know, they're getting close to the 10th grade, 11th grade, and we've got to we've got to help them because I think as my job as a board member, we've got to provide any and every opportunity for these students when they leave the 12th grade that they've got a pathway, whether it be at MCT or whether it whatever it might be. That's that's what we've got to do. So, and and it's encouraging to hear you all feel comfortable with with the direction that we're taking. So, thank you for all your hard work or as we say
089to everybody else, thank you for your service. Other other members, Ashley, I just have one quick question. I was um excited to hear about the programs you have going with the universities. Are those in um programs that you reached out to create or did the schools approach you or how did those come about? Um Vicky Poland from Linguaare is who our speech um is contracted through and she brought them to us. They were having trouble finding schools in the state that would welcome them in to do that and it was something that we had talked about for a couple years. And then even beyond what we're doing in the classroom, our students were given the opportunity to participate at home online and they actually paid the students through gift cards to participate in their study.
090Um, and we're really seeing some good good things coming out of it. Um, so I and I don't mind to come back and share that data once we get it um in April, but it's it's funny to see 20ome grad students coming down your front sidewalk. Yeah, I'm sure. before 8:00 in the morning. Um, and then working with all 60ome third graders that we have in one day. Um, and as far as the um, STEM things, that's open to anybody. So, it's um, someone that we do have a contact with there, but I know a couple of other schools have had them come. Um, I don't know that they are going as much as they're coming to our school um, where we I think started out being the first school in the county this year.
091So, they got us on our schedule pretty pretty early. That's awesome. Thank you. What's your uh sped population? I'm sorry. What's the percentage of your sped population? Um last I checked it was 28, but we've had a couple of new students enroll since then. You're getting close to three out of 10. We are. No. Okay. What do you attribute the improvement to? Like someone else said, these guys sitting right here, my staff being on board. Um, Kesha will tell you that I think having the additional help in her in her room this year has been a a tremendous help. Um, and you know, we we're slowly figuring out how we can reach those special ed students. Um, the things that we purchased and that they've talked about, those are things that I purchased for three
092years. So, it's hopefully that we can continue that on. It's not something that's going to run out this year because hopefully we're not a CSI school anymore. Um, so we're we're crossing our fingers that we can continue on just that good trajectory where we're at. Thank you. In answer to your question, Jim, about how do we deal with those kids? If the government, and she just pointed it out, and so did everybody else, if the government would give us more money for interventionists to deal with those kids and and more one-on-one, we could solve those problems. It's really hard to solve that problem in a classroom of 25. It's a whole lot easier when you can do it with four and and you hear them describe why are we succeeding? Well, we have an intervention.
093It's so we have an extra teacher. Oh, we funded our own teacher. Bodies matter. And it just proves again that it's the relationship between the teacher and the student and that interaction where the kids the bulb goes off finally and the kid figures out, well, this person actually cares about me a little bit, so maybe I'll react to them positively. Those things all matter. And if you don't have the bodies, if you keep getting bigger classrooms, bigger classrooms, which is what's happening, um it has a negative impact. But Charleston and Washington don't want to listen, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing. Um Dr. Atkins, when do we find out of the CSS status of schools for this year? I'm not sure when we'll find out about the the finals. Sarah I think said
094April said before then with the last round year four there is a year four um they call the year of sustainability but with the progress they made so there will be a year four regardless or that's what the last round was and I can't say for sure that's what they'll do with this okay well I think what we've learned this evening from all these schools is that We're on a a glide path that's going up. We're improving uh significantly. Um we're using innovation and the best best practices. We're doing everything we can think of and then some. And uh you're all to be commended for doing that extra and we appreciate it. And if there are no other questions by the board, I just the sometimes you say how did you how did you get
095here? Well, I think it's pretty obvious with the we're we're still reaping what we've sewed during CO and our children are. So, basically, you all are undoing the damage, man. That's what I appreciate. And I knew I retired right when CO happened and I told several educators, I feel for you. And they and I said, not now, but when we get back because I knew we'd be back because you can't you you can't lose that much social instruction being together without having setbacks. So, the improvement is is great and I I appreciate the efforts because it it's an effort. Yeah, it is. All right. Thanks everybody. Great job, guys. We're going to take a 10-minute We're going to take a 10-minute recess. We're going to reconvene at 6:30. Good. Good evening everybody. We had to
096start our meeting a little early this evening. We had some LSIC presentations with schools as you may and so we've already had our pledge. So we're going to move into board recognitions. Our favorite part always at board meetings. Okay. Thank you, President Prudich. As he said, it is our favorite part of any board meeting is when we get the opportunity to have board recognizes for staff, students, or community members. Our first board recognized is a 110% club. Miss Savannah Hulk, English learner teacher itinerate is nominated by Miss Amanda Alb, coordinator of pupil services for the 110% club for always going above and beyond in ensuring that our English language learner students receive the support they need to succeed both academically and personally. Savannah works tirelessly to ensure the EL students are not only supported in
097their language acquisition, but they are also thriving in every aspect of their school experience. She has formed meaningful connections with EL families, ensuring they feel heard and valued. Additionally, Savannah takes the initiative to offer one-on-one professional development to teachers, helping them effectively implement EL plans and strategies in their classrooms. Her dedication to the success of EL students is evident in everything she does. Savannah is an incredibly welcoming and supportive representative for Marshall County Schools, especially for families who may be new or unfamiliar with the system. She goes out of her way to make families feel at ease and empowered, ensuring they know the school is there to support them. Whether it is assisting with English language acquisition, guiding parents through enrollment processes, offering academic support, or helping resolve issues related to discipline, Savannah is always
098available and approachable. Her commitment to fairness and her constant advocacy for the students make her a trusted figure among families, ensuring they have a strong ally in the school community. Savannah's impact on stu students, the school, and the community is immeasurable. She is steadfast advocate for every student's well-being, ensure that ensuring they have someone to turn to when they need support. She fosters an environment of fairness and tolerance within our schools, helping to make it a better place for all. Her efforts extend beyond the school walls, positively affecting the broader community by helping families who feel isolated or disconnected become active members of the school community. Through her work, Savannah with families uh trust Savannah and by extension the schools knowing they have valued partners in their child's education. Miss Savannah whole English language learner
099teacher itinerant on behalf of Merc schools. I don't know I can say much more than that but obviously what you're doing is very special and meaningful to our community. It's important to those people that may not be sure what's going on in the world and how do I how do I deal with all this craziness that is Mer County Public School and you're helping them get through it and that is so very important to each and every one of our children and for that we want to thank you so very much. Our next 110% club uh nominees Mr. William Taylor, bus operator for the transportation department, is nominated by Amber Dillo, secretary at the transportation department for always being willing to help. Mr. Taylor has regular MCT runs all day, but he also takes numerous
100trips, taking students to sporting events or field trips. Mr. Taylor's bus is always safe, neat, and clean. Mr. Taylor helps the other drivers with routes and route changes. He works with the paint crew in the summer and does a great job taking care of the lawn work at the transportation department. Mr. William Taylor, bus operator. I get a little opportunity to embarrass you before. So, so Jean Baddy always used to say the hardest job in public schools is getting kids to buildings and taking them back home. And just an observation growing up, I remember how difficult it could be for the bus operators because they were stopping bus a lot and getting up and telling us to sit down. We do that quit. and we appreciate the the managing our kids, bringing them school safe,
101getting them home safe, and all those little extra things you do. And we wish we could do more. Uh we tell our legislators every year to give you more money, and they ignore us every year. But we're going to keep telling we wish we could do more for you, but we wanted to thank you. Thank you. Our next 110% club nominee is Miss Diana Eller, bus operator for the transportation department. Is nominated by Amber Dillow, secretary at the transportation department, for always being willing to help outside of her regular job duties. Diana has four MCT runs every day, taking students from Bluefield High School to MCTech for their classes and then returning them to Bluefield High School. She takes numerous extra trips for Mercer County students so they can play sports and have field trips.
102Diana always helps others, especially the new recruits, with routes, directions on when and where to pick up the MCT students and school parking as needed. During the summer, Diana is on the paint crew for the board of education and did an excellent job painting the transportation buildings and rooms. Diana is fun to work with, and she keeps the transportation department fed with her amazing pepperoni and cheese rolls and her banana pudding. Thanks for all your hard work, Miss Diane Eller, bus operator. So again, I want to thank you for doing all the things and and I heard him say you do the extra trips, too, which you know, when you see a bus sitting there and it's 11:30 at night and they, you know, they got to go back and get up the next morning
103and go, you've done an awful lot to to help our kids and it's meaningful. Those trips are important to those children and you're obviously taking care of getting to in front and we really appreciate that so much. Thank you. Our next 110% club is Miss Gill Roy, substitute secretary at the maintenance department is nominated by Tom Atkins, director of maintenance for consistency going above consistently going above and beyond to contribute wherever she can. She willingly steps in to help, taking on tasks that many others may overlook, such as organizing our blueprints room and answering phone calls with a pleasant attitude, a tedious job that has been put off by many. Jill brings a positive attitude and contagious smile to work every day, uplifting those around her. Her dedication, work ethic, and willingness to take initiative
104to make a meaningful impact on our team. It is always a joy to see her each morning, and we are truly grateful to have her as part of Mercer County Schools. The maintenance department appreciates all that she does and is lucky to work alongside her. Mr. Jill Roy, substitute secretary. So, we really appreciate that you coming in and helping when we need you and being a great joy with this crew that you got to deal with. Bless you on that. Uh, but it's nice that you're willing to help us because we so desperately need your help and it's nice to have people that want to do it and are are there and invested and helping us. Thank you. [Applause] Our next 110% club is Nick Johnson of the technology department of Mercer County Schools. He's
105being nominated by Dr. Ashley Vaughn for going above and beyond and helping with all technology issues that students and staff may have. Nick is diligent in responding to emails and phone calls. He finds the problems for students and staff with any technology issues they may be having. Nick takes the time to research potential causes if he does not have the immediate fix. He has assisted in preparing laptops for virtual students, making repairs on virtual students devices, copier issues at the central office, staff device issues, and software access. Nick works well with parents and staff members. He exhibits excellence, excellent customer service skills to both sides of our system, with parents and with virtual teachers from proximity, emailing Dr. Bon about his positive demeanor and prompt assistance in addressing technology issues for our students and staff.
106Technology is key to their work and access to materials. Nick's work ensures staff and students are able to regain function in a timely manner. Thank you so much, Nick. Nick Johnson from the technology department. Well, it's about time we recognize somebody from it. We can't operate our system without it and we all know that. So, we've been a little lagging on giving you guys a thank you and a heads up and appreciate it. Uh what you guys do is invaluable to everything we do. You shut down it and it's like any business. We're going home because we can't do anything. And uh we appreciate all the effort that you're putting in. It makes it you got a good crew to work with. Well, some of them. And uh your policy's all right. And uh it's
107interesting work. And I'm sure that that you like working with the kids. We do appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Our next 110% club is Miss Heather White, school nurse for Mercer County Schools. She is nominated by Amanda Alf, coordinator of people services for the 110 10% club for always going above and beyond in her role as a school nurse. Heather is deeply committed to the health and safety of students and staff. She tirelessly ensures that health care plans are not only comprehensive but also that teachers feel supported and wellprepared when managing students medical needs. Her professionalism, dedication, and advocacy for school health service makes her a respected and valued leader within the district. If she hits an obstacle, she finds ways around it or over it when it relates to caring
108for students in Mercer County schools. The health and welfare of our students are in good hands with Heather. She fights for laws that ensure the appropriate care for students and has a wealth of knowledge and information to share with the public related to school public health. She's an advocate for our kids and a trusted resource for parents when they need guidance. She has successfully written two grants this year totaling $16,557 to fund stop thebleleed kits, ensuring Mercer County students now have over 300 kits available. Her dedication does not stop there. She is actively working to equip every classroom in the county with these life-saving resources. Heather's care extends far beyond the walls of our schools. During recent flooding, she was out in the community checking on students and families and personally delivering flood buckets to
109those in need. Just last week, she delivered bumpa socks to Pike View Middle School and Pike View High School to help stock their clothes closets for students in need. Nurse Heather always put students and their well-being first, ensuring they have what they need in and out of school. Thank you, Nurse Heather. Miss Heather White, school nurse. I just kind of fall in again that it's about time we recognize nurses for all the things you do at our store because you do so much every day for every child. We help the staff and troubleshoot and deal with issues and deal with parents that are upset about something and you got to deal with all those issues every day all the time and you you do it when you probably could be making more money in the
110private industry. We appreciate the fact that you're willing to give your life to a kid. us. Thank [Applause] you. Our next board recognizes is an award for certificates of achievement West Virginia All State Choir participants. First from Bluefield High School, we have Arabella Brown and Mike Shoemate. Did I guess right? Michael Shoemate. They with us. No, not with us. Thank Eric Bella Brown and Michael Shoemake. Also, certificates of achievement for West Virginia All State Choir participants from Pike View High School, we have Alyssa Richardson, Ava Green, Carly Spade, and Aiden O'Quinn. and I'm here. [Applause] Well, I I have to admit I'm just a little disappointed because we love to count our art program how wonderful the kids are and they do so well on the achievement. Our next award, certificate of achievement for West
111Virginia Middle School all state band from Glennwood School. Ya Afra [Applause] Burka turn and get a big smile. How old you play? How long you playing? About three years. You enjoy it? You like You like the art? Are you interested in going on? We need you in high school. We want you on the band. Okay. You keep doing it. All right. You keep doing it. [Applause] Our next certificate of achievement is 2025 West Virginia Wrestling State Champion from Princeton Senior High School, Claire Holt. [Applause] And for those of you that don't know, there's a difference between grassland and grass. Brass is what the rock does. And it's fun to watch. It's a little athletic, but we all know it's not real. Grasswing is what she does. And it is extraordinarily difficult. It's exhausting to watch.
112So I know it's exhausting to do. You know, they go hard at it for what? Three minutes. Uh, six minutes. Oh my god. I struck out right there on. Uh, so you enjoy it? Oh, yes. How many years you been doing it? Uh, only since I was a freshman. Okay. So, you glad we got the program now? Uh, we didn't used to have wrestling in in Merc. Well, you didn't. You are glad we have. So, that's a good another reason why we like to have a purpose allow someone to excel. Is this something you want to do on go on into college with? I've had plenty of offers, but I think I'm all right. I've achieved what I want to. Oh, there you go. It's like a job in college. It's not just doing like
113We are so proud of you. Congratulations. Thanks. Congratulations. And that concludes our board recognizes. I try. I know. I know. But loves wrestling and I'm forced to watch it a lot. You need to take I'm going to I'm going to take him to the river. I'm going to take him to a big event. He loves wrestling. We got him here that played football for us here and he he's into wrestling. Wrestling. Yeah, wrestling. We took that game. They've been they've had some some matches out at the at the mall inside. They got the ring in there. Gray was telling me all about it. He's a puppet. Why didn't we go? I said about do nothing about it and you got to call me and do it. One of his friends got an autograph with a
114WWE wrestler. He Oh, he was just so excited. I said, "Well, that's awesome, but hey, that's not on me. You got to call me and let me know in advance." All right, we'll just wait till everybody clears out a little bit so it quiets down some and we'll get going on our regular meeting. Extra trips. Remind me of when I drove Ernie and the football team to Bath County. They didn't I was a high school high school coaches drove buses. I remember. They had they couldn't get a bus driver. So at the last minute they told you we got home about 3 we had somebody had to go to the hospital. Got home about 3:00 in the morning. I stopped in Millsburg and got out of the bus and ran up and down a little
115bit to wake myself up. You got to do what you got to do, right? The next morning or is that a Friday night? I think I think that's it. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, next on the agenda is the citizen or the superintendent, uh, update. So, President Puch, I just wanted to share with the board and I shared with my leadership team, but the, uh, again, this was out in 2022. It's the, uh, reference guide for county support, accountability, recognition, and accreditation. And there's things about board members can ask about LSIC's all those things from personnel to new child nutrition to facilities to uh finance all those things that they look at and where they score from u the transportation department all that I just want to share that back out with you that uh let
116you know and there's not a new one updated yet. I did ask that to uh Jeff Kelly with the office accountability but wanted to share that with you. Also tomorrow at 6:00 at the Chuck Mathenina Center, we have the service personnel of the year banquet is tomorrow. Uh also Wednesday at 9:00, we have a training of purpose-driven management at the central office. It's a central office training that'll be here at the seminar center by Mike Mlanahan. No, we're attending that as well. I believe you are. We are welcome to attend if we want to. Okay. And anything else, Mr. Purich on that? Uh sent out an email out again today. A reminder we'll do another one tomorrow. So, we'll just keep that updated, but we've got about what 31 staff members attending there, I think,
117off top of my head. 30 to 30,000. Yeah. So, something there. So, good. Also, uh any update uh Mr. Atkins, on Timberwood Elementary and anything on any of the the flooding or any updates from your uh following up on that, you got me on a Sunday night update the other day, right? Well, you you always try to beat me on on Monday mornings. I win the day ahead. You're good. Um, currently, um, Empire Empire Salvage is working for an asbesus abatement at Spanishburg. It's a large abatement. Um, you know, you touched on 2322, but uh, it is kind of a family community partnership there. They are lust sanitation. They do our our garbage disposal. They do our doing this asbestous abatement. And one of the things that Miss Booth and I have been talking with
118community along with Dr. Atkins is just just getting the good positive information out. Here's what we're doing. Here's where we are. Here's our progress. Here's our end goal. Uh so we're just trying to answer any questions. Uh a lot of people get scared when they hear the word asbestous. Uh I'm just trying to give Miss Booth the facts so she can explain to the parents and then when they need additional information, I'm giving that information to them as well. Um, I've talked to several families and all feel at ease after we explained how the West Virginia EPA's already been down. They've given us a great thumbs up on what everything that Empire's doing. Uh, Empire's working with with negative air to get all air out of the building and and through hepailters and do all
119the things they can uh to take care of the the students and staff there. However, um, Timberwood had a meeting today. Things are going well. Uh, one of the big takeaways that I figured you all would want to hear this evening was uh uh we were asked what's the percentage of the completion of how much of the project's been done and they said 83%. So, we're uh in installing bathroom fixtures. I'm sure you saw the photos. uh lots of things and again 2322 that's a positive safe environment and we're going to have a beautiful state-of-the-art facility for especially for these two schools that are for lack of better termated and they are they're going to be in that safe positive environment so that they can learn and become as flourish and become as academically successful
120as they can be. So, um, you know, I'll just continue to send the updates for Timberwood, but, uh, things are going well. Uh, we are we are going to have another meeting. I mentioned last time about the little slippage on the back of the hill. We're going to have a meeting tomorrow, uh, just to discuss how we're going to tackle that. We have some a couple options. U none of which are are cheap, but at the end of the day, we don't want to be dealing with it five 10 years down the road. So, that there there will be some information and some change orders coming on that. Where are we on insurance coverage? Have you heard anything on that? Uh the last Leslie heard, we're still waiting to hear back from the adjuster. Uh
121when he left, he said it could be up to four weeks and I think we're about three weeks now. We haven't heard any information back. Are we going to try to do anything with the federal government on remediating? I mean, short of building a wall around Spanishburg, I'm not sure there's a whole lot we can do, but I've seen them put firm walls around schools before, too. Sure. Sure. Honestly, we're we're not that far yet. Okay. I think I think it's definitely been a discussion that Dr. Atkins and Leslie and I have tiptoed in, but we haven't jumped right in. Okay. Fair enough. Tom, when you finish when they finish Timberwood and we're ready to move in, we move out of the schools. What is the course of action that will take place like at
122Brush Fork since we've got those buildings we're spending a fortune on that don't belong to us? How how quickly do you see being able to get our stuff out so they can so it can be on their dime instead of ours? Sure. We uh Leslie sent them an email the other day. I was included in the email just told we're not going to be renewing the lease for next school year. Um then then once we give them the okay then they'll be they'll be coming and pulling their modular. You know we'll that'll be our first thing is get our our property out of it so that they can come get that and then you know there's then we'll go through the process of auction or demolition or whatever the school buildings. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
123Thank you Mr. That's it. That it. That's it. Okay. There doesn't appear to be any citizens input, so we're up to policy 2322. Mitchell, can we get that thing in a football? We could learn if we have skills, couldn't we? Yeah. Um, I guess the the biggest thing that um I want to talk about tonight is our mastery prep. And you know, this is the new year for it. And we've had some push back from students, we've had some push back from teachers, but as the year has progressed and and they have found that it's here to stay and not something that's a choice. Um, we've got more and more on board with it and we are showing some very very small steps of improvement, but there is improvement. But the biggest thing that we've
124done recently is we had boot camps last week and we brought in a representative from Texas from the company um and it was just perfect. He was this real young guy and the kids could really relate to him and each school had a day of boot camp and so um all but Montcom actually came here to the seminar center and did their boot camp day here. They were here from like 8:30 until the end of the day. Uh Montcom we were able to do at Montcom. So they did theirs down there. But um it was really it was it was eyeopening. It was eye- openening to teachers and administrators um and definitely students and parents. Every kid was given like a workbook and throughout that day they went through all these different activities and different
125ways to strategize test questions and and how they needed to get their thinking cap on because all these answers look right. You know, it's not one of those things when you're taking the SAT that two of them you can just get rid of right away and then there's two you look at. There's like four that are all possible good answers. And and so with boot camp, they played some games. They did some activities. Um they worked in the notebook. They worked on computers and um learned how to um manage working on the computer taking those tests because they are timed and depending on where they are with the test some parts they could go back to and some they couldn't. So it's just a a great eye openener for all of them and so we
126really enjoyed that. The other thing that's going on right now um for us is that we're trying to help with are the pet nights at the high school and um trying to give some guidance for the um upcoming especially seniors but juniors and seniors um as far as the dual credit and AP classes and what's going to be available for them. And um to be perfectly honest, I'm going to start visiting some schools because we want to make sure that our own employees, the employees that we have, are sharing the right data with these folks and sharing the right information because we want to give all these schools that have signed up with us for dual credit. We want to give them credit. We've got um New River and um Bluefield State, Marshall and WVU
127and they're giving us what we need and we need to make sure we're giving back to them. They're helping us. So, we need to help them and and let these kids know that it's okay to take classes from any of these schools and that, you know, they are rigorous enough that they meet the college um standards and that we're being held accountable for it. The teachers are being evaluated on it. the uh colleges are are coming in and seeing what we're doing and we're going to them and seeing what they're doing. So, it's it's putting accountability on everybody. Um the other thing that um right now we're really looking at is from the middle of the year test that they took, anybody that falls within that bubble group or a move up group. We had
128some letters that were sent out earlier in the year to let them know that they were in that group and how one or two questions could make a difference for them. Now that we've had boot camps, we're going to do letters to send to say, "Hey, your child attended boot camp on such and such day and you they have a notebook in their possession that they can bring home and and you all can talk about, go over, tells them some different places to go online and practice." Um, so we're trying to get the parents involved so that they too will have some accountability in How will those letters go out? The principles are sending them like in the mail. It it's kind of a template type letter. Um, it's not anything I mean it is
129addressed personally to the parent about that child, but it's a form letter on the mail that it'll go in the mail. No, it'll go it'll go in the mail and that's what we did before the the middle of the year testing. Um, other than than that, right now, um, we were supposed to have a cell phone uh, committee meeting this week, but I learned that the, um, legislators have not yet made their decision on what they're going to do as far as from the state standpoint. Our next meeting is our last meeting. That's when we were pulling it all together to be able to give you guys what we would like to propose. And with not knowing where the state's going to be and we know that the bases of of what we do, we
130think it's better to wait. Danielle and I have been talking today. She spent the whole day in Charleston, just got back. Um, so we will be getting together once we have some information on that. And um, this I don't guess really has to do with the accountability part, but it will as far as how it affects our county. And that is Danielle has some information on where we are with the ACE funding and the adult program and community colleges from today's meeting. So it's pretty much where we are right now with secondary. I have a question real quick. I noticed Concord's not involved. Did they refuse to help or you didn't ask or Concord? You know, we we still talk to Concord and actually I have talked several times to one of the people that's
131on the board of governors over there. Um, but we're no closer as far as they still want our kids to come there on their campus and take the classes. And now they are accepting the credits. They accept the credits. We have one young lady right now who will graduate in May who um has and I don't know the exact number of credits, Dan. Y'all could probably tell that, but enough hours that she's going to start Concord in the fall as a junior in the nursing program. And I think she only has to go 18 months and she'll have her BSN in nursing. She'll be an RN. So they are accepting everything, but they're not willing to let our kids take the classes here from Concord. They want them to come on campus. As a member
132of the Lumin Association board, directors of Concord. I've attended two of the finalists for Concord President and interviews. I asked both of them about working with schools in dual credit. They sounded like both of them to be very welcome. The third one is tonight and I didn't get a chance to talk to her about Well, that's exciting though. That is exciting. And maybe you know if we can get the right people on board with us to see what we're doing, I think they'll do it. I even told one that we kind of some people thought Concord was kind of snobbish, but well, we we just want them to do what everybody else is doing. And so in the fall, we're starting a new program here at the tech center. it'll be uh cyber security and
133that's going to be from Marshall. So I mean we're you you know these these colleges are getting on board with us and and we're on board with them. We want we would like for Concord to be more involved but they are accepting the credits. We are not having that problem. Yeah. Yeah, the Marshall president spoke at our last board conference and he said cyber security was one of the areas that he was emphasizing because there was such a need and and I'm not making an announcement but there have been initial conversations about aviation through CTE. That's not and Marshall's pushing that too, right? And he's pushing that too. Um so we'll see. We we're hopeful. Got an empty. Well, it's it's flight and mechanic repair. We got couple of kids. It's been several years been
134they moved in here from they had moved to Porsche County from another state and they had been in aviation program. When they came they came into our engineering because that was the closest thing we had. But you know the the more we can offer the better it is. It gives more kids an opportunity. Absolutely. program. All right. What's up? We done. Oh, I'm sorry. Dr. Atkins, I was just going to uh wanted to share a little bit more information. Mr. Belchure alluded to earlier about our robotics achievements at the state level. As you all know, last weekend um our grades three through eight teams that qualified um to participate in the state tournament in Fairmont did very well. And you know, we do have in in our opinion the uh the leading program in the
135state of West Virginia. I think the only competition we would have and that's Canal County, which is a much larger district, but we and the board has really placed an emphasis on uh the resources and materials they need to have the best program. And you know, I I looked at the pictures they sent to me and I told Derek and Ashley and and Kelly earlier that I think that what we have really prepares those students to participate and to compete on the state national level because, you know, they're seeing and experiencing those things. You know, it's kind of like um with a a basketball program going to Charleston, you know, you need some time practicing in an arena style um atmosphere to know what that's like. And these kids are getting that. and super proud.
136Montcom High School, that of course would be our seventh and eighth graders. They did qualify for worlds. Um their their teamwork state championship is their qualifying award that allows them to go to uh worlds in Dallas, but they also were um skills state champion and they won the design award. And Derek can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was the same team that won all three of those recognitions. Um, I remember at one of our events here at Princeton High School, uh, Mr. Bruce alluding to what a great job they did with their notebook and with that components of it. And, you know, it sounds like it really, really paid off. Um, the design award, Derek has given me a little bit of information here. You know, it's all about the engineering
137notebook rubric, engineering design process, the interview, the ability to to explain uh the robot design and their gaming strategy. You know, it's all about design thinking. You know, Greg said earlier, this is STEM at its core. We have a huge huge emphasis on STEM in our district. We're seeing that play out. You know, we have our designation. It was kind of you get that and then now what? But our schools are embracing um using the Jason learning platform using all these STEM initiatives whether it's you know Ashley had Western Union State coming in through all of the robotics opportunities um it's giving kids that design thinking opportunity the critical thinking piece and that's what robotics is really about. Mercer Elementary also has a team that qualified to go to worlds. Uh teamwork state champions is
138the recognition that qualified them for that. Again, that goes back to I don't have that the I think that's self-explanatory. Derek, I'm correct that they the teamwork state championship. Is he here? Is he back there? He is. Okay. Thank you. Uh give me an amen, Derek. Um And then uh they also um Mercer Elementary had a build award and a create award, but I think these were different teams that that won these recognitions. The build award had durable uh based on durable construction, reliability on the field, attention to safety and detail, uh teamwork, working together, effective communication, a big component of what robotics is all about. And then Straley had a uh the same team won the skills they were the skills state champion and then they won the innovate award which was their qualifying
139award that uh allows them to go to worlds and that again is very much based on the judging of the uh design thinking process and um very difficult to achieve that. I think it's also one important to know one final thing that state of West Virginia had eight spots at Worlds and Mercer County Schools has three of those eight spots. Two from elementary and then one from the the middle school students at Mcom High School. So just super proud of, you know, these accomplishments don't come by luck, you know, they don't come by chance. They come by an investment uh in uh the equipment, the materials, supplies, and then just a a group of people that really care about STEM and doing things differently and getting results. And I really believe that that's bleeding over
140into that growth you're seeing in ELA and math on those on the uh the test scores. You know, we don't teach tests, but those tests measure what we teach. And we're really uh seeing a difference. And this is allowing children that may have not had an opportunity to be a member of something or be a part of something before. We have a diverse I encourage anyone that's not seen the kids involved. It's so so encouraging. So just really proud of that. Mr. Belchure, if I miss left something out, you come get the microphone, please. No, you know. Oh, thank So just I've been with this from the very beginning because I it was so interesting to me and they wanted a judge and so I became a judge and I judged and then they said
141we need a judge advisor which is a person that kind of monitors the judges and manages the the process and so I did that and the evolution of the program I can't tell you how impressive it is to see how things have changed from year one not just in the administration of the program which has been incredible. When you go to it, it's high-tech and it's just amazing to watch. Everything's on big screens. Everything's you see all the data before you. As you're sitting there, you know where your team scored. But watching the students more than anything, the first year sold me, but as it's evolved, um it's it's a program that is essential now to in my mind. And why is that? Well, so you take a team from Mercer and they go up
142there and it's their job to do what they need to do to get scored, but they don't get to team with another team from Mercer. They got a random team that comes up there with them. They have to solve the problem on the on the the battlefield, for lack of a better word, with that other team in a minute. and they're you see them confabbing before they start, you know, talking about what they're going to do and then you watch them as their robots do things because both of them get the score from that. So if you have a great team, if you got a great duo or quad, I guess, and they're doing a great job, the other team's not, that's the score you get. You don't get a great score. So watching them
143work together is amazing. Watching them help someone when their robot breaks, watching another student go, let me help you with that. Just amazing to watch. But the biggest thing is the notebooks. So the notebooks and and keep in mind that the basic rule with this is it's all studentled. Adults are handsoff. They're there to guide. They're there to answer questions, but they don't build the robot. They don't design the robot. They don't write about the robot. They don't fix the robot. They're there to guide. And then the the notebook is a the design notebook. There's no way to describe it, but this is what we did and this is how we did it. First year the notebook would go we met on March the 30th the names of the people and it would go we
144built a robot. Then the next next you it'd skip a week and they'd go we tried out the robot it broke. We fixed it and try it again. to this year table of contents bio on each person that's on the team. I I kid you not. Bios I go to school here. This is what I like. This is what I don't like. Blah blah blah. And then they go through the table of contents. We met on March the 3rd and discussed the problem that we were offered. And we took our pieces and we decided this is the approach we were going to take. And then there'll be drawings of what they did. next page. We tried our first robot. It broke. It's not going to work. Here's why. We're going to change this. And it's
145this. You look at some of these and you're like, did an engineer do this notebook? And you're talking about fifth graders or middle schoolers. And you're and you're asking yourself, wow, how did they do this? It's it's about teamwork, Paul. It's about problem solving. I know that one's a big one for you because the problem this year, man, it was terrible. It was way too It was far harder than it should have been in my mind. It was a challenge and you know, they met the challenge is what's great about it. They actually figured it out and they figured ways to do it. So, you'll go in there and you'll see eight 10 different versions of a robot trying to do the same thing. And some of them will work and some of them won't.
146And some of it's hilarious. So last year in particular, I remember there was an arm and it got widgety and went sideways and it stopped working and the kid just reaches down and pops it off and continued on and still scored. It was amazing to watch and it's all children. I see kids there that I know are athlet athletes and I see kids there I know are special needs and I see kids there that I know really don't have any kind of any kind of lane to fit into. working together, talking, then they have to be interviewed. And it's amazing to watch and and yeah, I seem fired up about it because I am because this is a this is the kind of thing that you can see results from. You can see children. They're
147devoted to it. It's like an athletic event. When they get a bad score, you don't have to look at the scoreboard. All you got to look at the kids' face. When they get a good score, you don't have to look at the scoreboard. All you got to do is look at the kid's face. And they're working hard. And it is a great STEM program and and we need to continue to push it. We got to figure out a way to get our high school students engaged and involved in it. Maybe the way to do that is with drones because there is a drone component to this. And you know, drones are kind of cool and maybe some of our cool high school students will think that's fun to do. So, but anyway, I just I
148had to go off on that tangent because I can't tell you if you haven't been to one, you need to go because it's ridiculous. They're they're ridiculous competition. It is a sporting event where STEM is basically the sport. So, I encourage you to go. It's it's a great program. It's helped a lot of children, I know, and and just watching them engage. Um it's a it's an impressive thing. And the more we can do it in my mind, the better off we are. All right. I got a question to you and Derek. Is the problem with the high school getting the students involved or getting teachers involved or both? A little bit of both. Um the the high school MCT has been very successful the last couple of years with the high school program. Um
149Mr. Jones has taken that taken that and and run with it. And um it's something that's you got to have that person that's willing to do it. And it's a long season. You know, when you look at this, we're very fortunate support to have been able to pay our coaches over the last years, which has been awesome. But even taking that, dividing it out by seven, eight month season. It's it's a big commitment. Um on the high school level, and elementary, as evidenced by the events, there were 50 qualifying teams in elementary this year, only 32 middle school teams. It's and it's just a it's a recognized pattern. As kids get older, they focus on something. So, even in the high school ranks, we don't see a huge number of participants like you do in
150elementary, but those that are participating have grown through the program and uh and and really embraced it and are using it. Now, I know that um we are exploring the possibility of getting a program started at Blueville High School. Um Princeton High School already has all the materials from a previous grant when uh Mr. Draftkins was the principal. And so there's there's bits and pieces that are there. We've just got to find the the people that are willing to to throw their hat in just like any other sport and any other coach that's willing to to give that extra time and then come alongside with them and and and help it grow because that's that's the natural next step. Like in athletics, does the coach have to be a teacher or can it just be
151somebody from the community? The way that our policy is written right now, the coach has to be a a head coach of an organization, which would be the school, has to be a professional employee. Now, we just built in this year the ability to have adult volunteer coaches, kind of like we would have adult athletic supporters. Um, but they they have to be under the supervision of somebody that's a professional employee for safety and liability reasons. Um, it is extraordinarily timeconuming. the people that are doing this get a stipen and it looks like a generous stipen until you realize what they're doing and how much time they're spending and it's it's not quite so generous after you kind of do the math in your head. You're like, "Well, coaching it's coaching in a nutshell, isn't
152it?" Yeah. You know, from the from the high school perspective though, there's there's a lot of grandfathers out there that were just trying to line the right people up. But if I've got that coach that's willing to do it, I know Mr. Collins at Bluefield has already um opened up a place in his master schedule to have a robotics class. We have a robotics class at Princeton Senior High School. So the the found like all the tool all the tools that you need are there or can be there. It's just finding that person that'll take it beyond the classroom and actually put them in the competitions. Um it's now an SSAC recognized activity in the high school level. So you also have that that ability and tie in to compete. So it's easier to get
153a robotics class and just get somebody do as a sport possibly. If we had it in a class in our school that would be great at the high school. You're still going to practice from time to time's going to get it like the way that we use robotics at the high school right now. It's it's a resource class. So it's not just those kids that would want to be on a competitive team. So, I still need that teacher or a coach to work alongside with that class program and and have that competitive side where you've got eight or 10 students that are interested in being on a couple of teams that would compete. It's the purest foreign stamp that I've seen in action. I'm sure there are others, but this is the one we've got
154and this is one I've seen. That's it. Anything else under 2022? Anybody? Thank you so much, Dr. Philip. Okay. Um, policy 23:22, you know, when Amber brought this to me, uh, the the pamphlet or the whatever this is of policy 2322. I personnel has such a small section in this, but it's it's so meaningful of what we need to do and we do it and have been doing it for years. But um policy 2322 specifically the HR department's contribution to this policy is basically we ensure that all certifications and lensures are met for our teachers. Um not only does policy 2322 require you to have lure for all your teachers but we've got social workers. We've got our accountants now. We have our child nutrition supervisors. So there there's a whole slew of people that
155are required to have lentures or certifications um to meet this policy 2322. Um Carolyn Brown, our certification coordinator, she's the one who uh specifically takes care of all this information. She uh sends out notices twice a year to um all of our employees that require certifications that will um expire June 30th of this current year. Um she reminds them that they need to take uh college courses or do the e-learning online to obtain certified. Um they don't want to let their certifications lap and lapse and so um by June 30th everybody should have their certification taken care of. Um let's see if you recall um one of the results of policy 2322 when we did not meet standard for um our personnel section we had like 79% and so you look and you talk about
156all the things that I've talked about and how we ensure people are certified but then we get sit at 79%. Well how does that happen? Well, policy 2322 when I guess this was um uh rolled out the state department didn't um when they ran the reports that we were to look at um they had already ranked us at 79% for the year. So a lot of that has to do with we have to meet a certain criteria um for us to meet standard and unfortunately we didn't do that because their data that they were using was not they couldn't explain it to us. Is that right Mr. Toman? That is very fair Dr. Philipex. It was a little frustration with us, wasn't it? It was Yes, it was. It was very frustrating because we never
157like to fill it anything or be below standard with it anything. So at this point um because we brought it to their attention, Mr. Toman did, I did, we talked with several different individuals, they are revamping that and that's something that we had talked about several months ago that they're revamping this reporting mechanism so that we actually um will see the data before they actually distinguish if it beats the standard or if it's below standard or whatever. Well, isn't it nice though? Yes, absolutely. Um, so I feel certain with policy 2322 moving forward we're going to meet standard and we are going to be successful in doing that. Am I correct? If we had if they had done it properly, we would have been one of four states that met the criteria. Is that right?
158Four counties. Four counties. I'm sorry. One of three of the other Yeah, we were disappointed. Well, I mean, if they're not willing to correct their mistake in order to do I'll tell I still tell people we met the criteria. They just wouldn't fix it. Good answer. It's true. I'm I'm just being honest. Um, thank you. Anybody else? My part of the policy. So, special ed has a little bit bigger portion than personnel. It's always um so special ed is guided by our ADA. And so our it's called ADA and it stands for annual desk audit. Our results will be released on April Fool's Day, April the 1st, so next week. And so that's what guides our department in picking a goal. We have to choose one goal of something that we didn't meet. And so
159for ADA, they judge us on 20 different standards. And so it's senior exits, graduation rate testing for our special ed kids, um testing timelines for evaluations for us, senior exits, one-year follow-up surveys. It's it's a gamut of different things. And so we'll share those results with you on our April um I think 14th meeting or 15th meeting um that we have 14. Um so we'll share those results with you on how we're doing in special ed world and all of our annual desk audit actually falls a year behind. So all of our data is previous from last year. Any questions? Very good. This is this is good data to have in our minutes when the state reviews those things. That's perfect. Thank you all. They can't ever accuse us of not talking about 2322. My
160gosh. Every meeting we talk at length about it, which is what we're supposed to do, so I'm good with it. They'll change. Is that it? That is it. All right. Then we'll get on to the agenda. Approval of minutes for the March 1025 and March 1825 uh board meetings. So move. Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussion? Then on the motion, all f in figure favor. All in favor signify by saying I. I oppose. Likewise. That carries five in favor and none opposed. Consent agenda. You'll have to pardon me. It's that time of year. Um, board a member number 282 is the West Virginia Extension Service Memorandum of Agreement for the fiscal year beginning July 1st of 25. The amount requested is $41,59710. The current allocation is $33,83. Included
161in this for fiscal year 26 is a $6,500 um allocation for a summer intern. This is all funded through the excess levy and the superintendent recommends approval. Board amendment number 283 is RFP 336 broadband services. These were issued for providing the board of education with broad services at all locations. The total cost for broadband services is $180,000 annually. The board's cost is $18,000. The remainder is paid and reimbured through excuse me. Superintendent recommends approval of the award to SEGRA in the amount of $180,000. For amendment number 284 is the Verata C camera camera upgrades. This is a purchase of 199 Verata CD42 indoor dome cameras with 365day maximum video footage retention. This is to upgrade on our current Viceta sped cameras. Following the upgrade, the cameras that we've been using for SPED will be repurposed
162to cover front doors and key security areas at all Mercer County schools. The total cost for the indoor dome cameras is $446,146. Pricing was provided through the advantage technology using the Omnia contract. Funding is from the 21st Century Technology Grant. Superintendent recommends purchase of 199 Vicotta indoor dome cameras with one-year license from Advantage Technology. Board amendment number 285 is approval of surplus items to be auctioned. There's tractors, snowb blades, truck, and iPads. Board memo number 286 is a purchase of HVAC units for Pike View High School. Uh, director of maintenance has requested we purchase four HVAC units for Pike View High School from Ferguson using the Omnia Cooperative contract. Total cost is $33,91362. The units will be installed by our maintenance department. Superintendent recommends approval of the purchase of the four HBAC units from Ferguson.
163Excess levy funds are utilized for this purchase. Board memo number 287 is an RFP for three RFP 337 which is employee benefits and S125 administrators. This is to solicit proposals from qualified companies that can provide employee benefit and benefit support services to supplement current and future benefits offered by the district. We had a U selection committee which established the rank of the vendors responses. Responses were received from three qualified organizations and scored by the committee. American Fidelity received the highest points at 100. The superintendent recommends the award be made to American Fidelity. Payment of invoices is memo number 288. Uh this is a list of invoices for payment for the month of March. Actual checks have been written or being held pending consideration by the school board. Superintendent recommends approval. Board member number 289 is
164the PECARD transactions. Uh those transactions are attached. Superintendent recommends approval. Are there questions, comments, or discussion on the consent agenda? Yes, sir. I know I probably asked last year, but tell me again, what's what purpose or how do we utilize the extension service agreement? What do what does it provide for Mercer County Schools? That was those packets that I gave you. That's all I did. Um, but how got a more particular question. Well, how involved are they with with our schools with with any of the programs that that they're offering? You know, do we in your board or the board that you sit on, you know, the price went up 8 grand um from last year and part of it is because of a $6,500 summer intern. Um, what what's that intern going to do?
165They are going to Well, It's like Jody explained u last meeting. Um the summer interns going to work in the summer. They do the camps out at uh the park uh 4 camps and things like that. And u there was also an additional amount that we knew was coming because there's a small portion there that WVU had been responsible for but through some reason they could not continue to it continue to do it. And this is also uh keep in mind part of our levy commitment. I think that's already in the levy. Is that correct, Mr. PR? I see. Yeah, it's 4. Yeah. Biggest part of this is 4 and there's a lot of involvement in 4. They're in the schools. Several schools. Um greenhouse. I think there's even one of the things we discussed.
166They're doing green houses. um growing uh things with the kids. Um and there's also hopefully they can get the Montcom and help uh get that program going since we've got the greenhouse going. Okay. This intern, is that a new position? Yes. Yes. Anything else on the consent agenda? No. Um I had Let me go back up here. So, uh, on this advantage print, it's when when we buy these cameras, only thing I wondered about I think 20 I I've lost it here, but 24,000 is if I'm Is that for the license? That's the annual license. So if you go with these cameras, are you really basically do you have to go with them for the license then going forward? Go there's other vendors. Okay. Yeah. You're not but you do have to have the license
167for them from someone. You're not tied into a vendor. Okay. Best price. Do I need to not vote on the first one? I was wondering about that being No, you're No, you're you're on the committee. No, you're No, you you don't have any There's no reason for you to sit out. You're you're our you're our voice. You're our voice there and it it helps us to know what's going on by you being there. So, yeah, we we want you there. And you're good. So, if there's nothing else then on the consent agenda, is there a motion to approve? So, Move. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? And on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Under additional
168business. Board memo number 290 is the GIO apprenticeship mentor and additional apprentice. MCTech is requesting the addition of two grant-f funded positions. A grow your own teacher mentor and a grow your own apprentice. MCTech was awarded the a a grant that will cover the cost of 10,000 of an apprentice mentor and 3,000 of wages for an additional apprentice. It will cover the cost to cover stipens for CIO apprentices that attend county organized and led trainings. GO mark scribbling it makes it hard to read sometimes. Which class? Uh is there a motion to approve? So move. Is there a second? Second. A motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussion? Can you explain what the viewers of these people are? Explain what? So, we received a safety grant. The mentor is the person that's going to
169oversee all of our required to meet with them. They're required to give them resources as far as school. Explain the apprentices. Where are they? Apprentice. Okay. So, we have three hired apprentices right now. We have uh one in secondary, one in elementary, and one in special ed. And so the goal for them is that they came through our grow your own program. They return to work in our school system, and we pretty much are growing our own teachers. So our apprentice um are they college students now or they're already graduates? They're college students right now. They're the ones that are getting paid instead of a sub. I think that's where the first right. So we this would be hiring a new apprentice. So this person we can hire actually we can hire an aid who
170wants to go in a transition to teach position or we can hire a current college student or a high school student. But the goal is that they do things in our school system. And through this grant Dr. Atkins um can use them in any capacity like they can attend our training. They can work with a mentor teacher and then they have our Groger and mentor teacher that will work with them also. So it's supposed to keep them here. It's supposed to make college a little more affordable. Um through this grant, Bluefield State also got the other half of the grant and McDow County got it. So McDow County um hired two. their their county board paid for one and the grant paid for one. Um and then Bluefield State is actually offering free tuition to
171any of the apprentices that come through this grant. So, pretty neat deal. The board, we don't pay anything as far as Mercer County goes. It all comes from the grant. The Bluefield State thing. Three of our graduates, if they go to Bluefield State, they get free tuition. Is that what you're saying? No, we have three hired from the first grant. We have two at Fairmont State and one at Blfield State. They did not receive free tuition. They received uh $10 an hour and then they got a wage increase in their junior year that went to $15 an hour. And then next year they'll actually start their teacher and residency. And if we have any long-term positions um through that, they're guaranteed to get those and they get 65% pay. Um this position is different. They've
172kind of changed how the apprenticeship model works. they want to tie it to a school because the it's okay for our students to be at Fairmont, but it's a lot better when they're here. Um, like the young lady that's at Blfield State, she's actually on the sub list, so she's been, so it's really nice to have here. Um, she can get really acquainted with our elementary schools, um, she can sub up to sixth grade. So, that model, um, tends to work a little bit better, which is why they've tied in the four years to try to keep those kids here. But the new kids can get tourist free tuition. Yeah. Whoever if if this position is approved and we would hire an apprentice, they would get free tuition at Google states. Yeehaw. Good to know.
173Can't beat free. Any any other questions? All right. Then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Uh board memo number 291 is employee discipline. Mr. T. President Purich, I have a recommendation to uh for you all to approve a suspension that um the employee also agreed to. So that would be Eric Farmer, a custodian at Pike View Middle School. A 3-day suspension without pay for March 11th, 12th, and 13th. Ask for your approval for violation of employee code of conduct. Move that we approve. Is there a second? Second. A motion and a second. questions, comments or discussion and on the motion. All on purpose sign I oppose. Likewise, that motion carries five in favor and none opposed. Board memo number
174292. President Prudich, I'm recommending a 3-day suspension without pay for Cindy Cooper, who is a speech uh has a speech position at Princeton Primary School and for a violation of employee code of conduct. Her uh agreed suspension without pay was March 17th, 18th, and 19th. Ask for your approval. President moved. Is there a second? There's a motion and a second. Questions, comments, or discussions? Then on the motion, all in favor sign by saying I. Opposed? Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Last action item on the agenda is personnel number 293. football coach. Is there a motion to approve? May I say one thing, please? There's two coaches that need to come off. So, if you can approve the agenda without two coaches, um, one being Matthew Matthew Wright, um, head girls
175soccer at Pike View High School, and, um, Nathan Cook, Pike View Middle School, head boys and girls track, who had a little, um, issue with frontline where an individual applied for a job, but they did not show up on our listing. um whether it was I don't know exactly what's happened. So, but the the gentleman had confirmation that he did apply for it and so he sent that to us. So, um Miss Lily and Mr. Refe are going to interview the individual and then make a recommendation. So, we took all those individuals off so we can get that cleaned up. So, basically, you're reposting the positions. Well, not technically, right? You're interviewing. Okay. And then we removed one substitute aid from the listing. Um, and I forgot her name. Is there an Amanda or Ashley?
176Let me look. It's on the service side. I'm sorry. Um, let me look at my text because I Is it for new a new Amber Wagner? Wagner. Amanda Wagner. Is that who it is? Yes, that's on the last page of the personal Wagner. Yes. Um, I can't remember. Just move. Just remove that one. Just remove her for now, please. Okay. So, everybody understands those removals? Yes. Is there a motion to approve? So, move with Dr. Philip's suggestion. And there's a second. uh out of an er e effort to be transparent and because of my legal background you say everything about everything my nephew Will Webster is being named one of the coaches uh I don't support Will doesn't support me I see him maybe every month or so and say hello um but I wanted
177people to know that I'm not going to recuse myself he we we are family but the relationship doesn't require it All right, he's on there twice under Pike View Middle. Is that Matthew Wright that's our principal? Yes. Okay. Just curious. And then under the I got the the service. You got the service. Okay. All right. Any further questions or discussion? Any need to go in executive session? There appearing to be none. And then on the motion, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Likewise. That motion carries. Five in favor and none opposed. Mr. Tomman, that's the end of our action items on the agenda. I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Atkins. Mr. Mitchell, any updates from administration? Go with you two first. Anything? Mine would be like Well, I I'll get I'll
178get Danielle then. That's fine. If we're Yeah. And then go ahead. pass back to Dr. Phil Peek and Mr. Atkins. Sorry. Yeah. Just real quickly, um April 14th is our big day for um all of our RIP and transfer items um to be listed on the board agenda. So, that'll be a pretty lengthy agenda for you all to look through, but um we're working on it now to complete. And do you all have any questions about anything that I can answer at this point for you? How many riffs? We have more than 40. Yeah. And a lot of that is um because of the AB, the adult basic ed, our uh community and schools grant and um just our normal cuts that we would make through title and other grant fun. Is it different than
179normal? Right. We we don't know. It's different from the normal where they get rifted and hired back. Yes. So years ago when I first started in this position, we would take all of those positions, just send it and we would um either give them a transfer notice or a reduction in force if they didn't have a a license certification rather than AB. And so we saw this trend where, you know, every year we got funding for it. Well, now we've been instructed by the um um Mindy Marshall. Yes. At the State Department that is indicated to us that we needed to make sure that we took care of the AB um the individuals who teach the adult programs here at the tech center and those um then we've got separate information for the communities and
180schools. We're hopeful that we'll get all of them back, but at this point in time, you know, we're not sure. More unsure than normal. Yeah. Well, the legislation that's working its way through has not passed to start with. There's indications the governor doesn't particularly like it. So, that's the second thing. And that doesn't even come into effect until 26 at the end of the school year. So, you would think that we would get those programs back at least this year. Yeah. We're hopeful and hopefully it's not any reduction in funding or anything like that, but right now we're just not sure. And so, we plan for the worst and hope for the best. Absolutely. That's the best way to do it. Hope we don't lose anybody in the meantime. And and I have had conversations,
181Dr. Atkins have had conversations, Miss Fitchel has had conversations with all of these individuals um specifically to tell them, you know, where they're at with things. But, you know, we're hopeful and then in their conversations of mine as well, we're hopeful that they'll be rescended back and all this will be a moot point. I always I've joked and said all my hard work will be for nothing, which I'm hopeful for. That's the only time you can hope that your work goes unnoticed. But um I hope that people we all hope that people get their jobs and they don't take off. Absolutely. Mr. Atkins, Miss Harrison, you got a couple things. Now talk really fast. Um one thing that I wanted to report to you was Dr. Atkins and I have applied for a $25,000 grant
182uh to go towards summer learning programs. Um, we'll find out um at the end of the month if if we receive that. Well, maybe a little bit later than the end of the month. Um, another thing I want to talk to you about was um the Purple Star Award, uh, which is a a designation that schools can get to show that they, uh, provide support to military connected families. They do some special activities. They reach out to families um and they just try to uh make sure that they're taking care of those kids whose parents could possibly be deployed. Uh Lacassa Hajes Oakville has been a Purple Star award school for many years. So this year our push was to get all of our schools um registered as Purple Star award schools and then our
183district can also become one. So, on the next board agenda, there will be a resolution saying that Mercer County Schools will be a Purple Star award district uh and that we um you know, make sure that we take care of our military connected families. The last thing I want to talk to you about, also tell them about who the contact is with that. Malice and um Oh, and Robert Malice. Malice at the State Department. I'm so sorry. And Jessica Lynch is actually the one that um helped us uh push for the district because we were told we would have to wait another year before we could do that. But I think that she pushed for us to be able to get uh the county distinction which is a great thing. She's also they're looking to
184be our guest speaker for the military patronage pledge and that's just coming down for that. So we we'll get more information but she's committed to that. So which is super great. And the last thing I'm going to talk to you a little bit about is AI. Um, that is something that I'm super interested in, even as a former English teacher, believe it or not. Um, it's something that I've kind of uh dove into and and been researching. And Mr. Toman brought back several platforms uh from that AASA training that he went to in New Orleans. And uh, a couple of them I've I've been really playing with and having a great time. I'm going to have to show you some of that later. And we are going to have an AI training this Thursday at
1853:30 at the central office. Uh, but I'm going to age myself here. Do you remember, you know, back in 9394 when the internet first came out? My dad has always been techsavvy and I remember coming home from college one weekend and dad's like, "Yeah, you can get on the internet and you can look at this." And I wasn't very impressed, you know, because there weren't that many websites back then. I was like, "Eh, you know, whatever." And I think AI has probably started that way. Um, you know, with the internet, it took a long time and now we can't imagine a world without it. I think AI is that way as well. It's it's going to be changing daily. Um, it's amazing. It It truly is amazing. It can save teachers so much time and
186we just need to choose the best platforms and train them and and just assist them with it. It's a cool thing. It really is. In the in the uh keynote that was at uh in New Orleans messaged me this weekend, Sunday, that he's going to be at the WASA here in West Virginia. They got a hold of him to come up here and do that at the there. So, it's pretty exciting. But, uh well, any every time I hear somebody, it's usually one of us older people saying something negative about AI. All I can think of is some guy with a horse going those four-wheel things aren't going to be anything at all. Just we don't care about those things. They're not they're not our future. I can that's I so I keep trying to
187remind myself don't be that person. You know we need to we need to figure out how to use it appropriately and efficiently and that's great. I'm glad you right. And just like you know we have to teach kids what's reliable and is not reliable on the internet. The same thing goes with AI. we just have to teach them the the correct way to use it. Um, and the last thing I was going to talk about is the 21st century uh community learning grant. Um, after we looked at it, it's it's definitely more for a community learning um setup. Um, we could not provide the number of hours per week for an afterchool program that they require. they require a minimum of 10 hours of afterchool time uh for after school tutoring or program or whatever.
188Um our issue would be with um attendance. Uh it would be hard for students to to commit and and teachers as well 10 extra hours each week after school. So what we did and um Dr. Atkins and Mr. Tone and I spoke about it and we uh reached out to the Wade Center and I sent them all of the information and they are going to apply for it and I told them any data that they needed from us that's you know that we're allowed to get we would be happy to help them in that process. That's awesome. That's what we should be doing working with each other. two little pieces when she mentioned AI that the one little one superintendent was speaking the other day and said it's not you know the invention of the
189microwave coming in the kitchen it is renovating the whole kitchen is what AI is and then it says think of somebody that you need a I'll use the word geeky assistant whatever you need what do you need to get better that is AI and anything to assist you that way that uh you can find any of the information was talked about and it's huge but I got different things I'm excited to get with Brent and some of his team and sat down for a couple hours maybe. So, we'll moved it. Yeah, that one you sent me. I don't think it was entirely accurate. I I was looking at it and you said you said scan yourself in there and look and I'm reading and I'm going I'm not that guy. That's the little much. And
190your brother was very impressive when we looked up. No kidding. Well, but actually but he actually is impressive. It is very It is very impressive and all the things from uh He's been in it too. I love that. Yeah, he's been in it. He's been Man, he's been in it. We spent some time just going through there and going through some stuff. So, it was pretty interesting. He's been to Brazil three times this year. They love him down there and Grey's Anatomy and all the stuff there. I mean, it was it was impressive by just typing in his name. Speaking of cuz he sent you a po a photo and a Well, I bet I sent him 20 texts. You got to send it in. She needs it. And we had several photos that pulled
191up on that, didn't we? So those he probably sent you a photo from 20 years ago. Yeah, they had several. No, no. Miss Huddle, anything. Miss Farmer, anything you want to add from your day and we'll wrap it in Charleston. Um, we had a CTE meeting this morning. It was at 8. And then, um, we met with some legislators, whoever would speak to us regarding, um, the House bill that transfers our adult programs to CTC's. Uh, unfortunately, our three Mercer County delegates are all very supportive of the bill. Um, we did speak to them, though. We do feel like we have some support from delegates um in other areas. So that was good. Um one of the delegates from Raleigh FET area is um very instrumental right now in um trying to get this bill
192squashed. So we're hoping that we made some headway. Um it's going to be a unique task that our board will have. Um if this bill does pass because um pretty much we give our space to the CTC, they do with it what they want. Our employees are at will employees and it'll be a very um interesting predicament. We'll have a year transition period um to go from our adult programs to CTC's adult programs. So, we're hoping that it doesn't pass. What was the justification that our local delegates gave for supporting it? Well, our local delegates didn't even know that we had adult programs at Big Tech. Oh my god. They also did not know that uh one of the the big reasons that they gave was so that students would have access to their PEL
193grant. Um so I did educate them that we have a financial aid coordinator who is trained in financial aid. She goes to the same trainings that people from CTC's go to and we do offer PEL grants. We offer everything but student loans. Um so they did not know that. So that was good information that we were able to give. But thought CTC was free now. It is didn't know that either did they? It is if um you qualify and jump through the hoops. So this was something interesting that one of the delegates gave us information on today. One of the reasons he's in big opposition to the bill is CTC's are required with West Virginia Invest to drug test once a semester. There have been 1,400 drug tests in five years pay for through West
194Virginia invest. So he said obviously it's not getting done and that was something that they were very adamant about putting into the bill. So he said that if they can't take care of what they've already supposed to have been taken care of, how can they absorb our programs? But that was uh neither here nor there. So we're we're hopeful that we get our money back. We're hopeful that our teachers don't lose their jobs and that they're not moved to at will employees because that means adjunct. So you're taking a full-time faculty member and moving them to adjunct is pretty much what that looks like. Now if they teach our students though, we're okay. Is that not correct? Yeah, but we don't have duplication in our adult and our day. So, we have we have a
195cosmetology instructor that's part adult, part high school, and we have a dental assisting instructor that's part high school, part adult. The rest of them are strictly adult. So, then we have two people in our office staff. The the bill is the last time I read it, we don't lose anything we own before. Is that still the case? The equipment, right? So the the committee substitute for the bill was that all equipment transfers even if we bought it before. Yep. Unless it was bought with Perkins money which is strictly high school. Even if we're using it for our high school programs. If it was bought if it was bought out of an ACE advantage or an ACE block grant then it goes to the CTC. Even if we're using it which office employees are under that
196funding? Kim Motorback and Kim Murberry. Well, well, you know, if that ain't broke, I'd break it. Well, we talked highly of, you know, we talked a lot about our completer rates. So, at MTech, we have an 80% complet. So, we um you know, we highlighted that number. Um most all of the the ACE programs in the school are above 80% or 75 to above. So, we tried to harp on that number. We tried to harp on the, you know, the the impact that we think we have with adult students, especially our LPN students and their bridge to Blill State. Um, Bloomfield State's president also spoke to a lot of the legislature. Um, he was very supportive. He does not want this bill to pass because he said that there is no comparison to the caliber
197of our program to what CTC's give and he said that's why they don't offer a bridge to other programs. They offer it to ours and to ACT and Beckley. So, so was this started as some type of political push from the community colleges? Is that what started it or It was started by the higher ed policy commission and then the WVDE actually um wrote a large portion of the bill which we found out today. We had been told otherwise but the delegates shared some information with us today that they had received. Yeah, the state department is pushing this. Yeah, it takes it takes a lot of the burden off of the state department and puts it on the higher ed because they don't want to have to oversee what's going on. They don't have to
198oversee. They don't have to divvy up the money. They don't have to do anything. Yeah. So, it was a unique day. That's probably what's happened to the positions. We also have 141 high school, middle school, and adult students going to Fairmont Thursday. So please you guys say a prayer for us. We're going to Is that for skills? You ask? Yes. They're going to skills. So the first time we have taken uh middle schoolers, which is going to be interesting. So we're hoping that they do well. But that's good news. Mr. Mitchell or Mr. Mr. Murphy, I'm sorry. Hey, Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell. So the uh school safety. So, we uh got a meeting with Mr. Joan Atkins tomorrow discussing some school safety initiatives that we've got in those are the uh the push button um
199emergency crisis alert buttons. Uh we're looking at all the options available out there just to make sure we flush out um any particular um options as well as software options and app options as well just on the phone. So, we've got some discussions with him on that. Um, additionally, I want to leverage his expertise with the uh the camera purchase that uh was approved tonight. We're going to take some we'll have some cameras, some rata cameras that are very capable of um doing analytics at the school buildings. And what that means is they can analyze who's coming into the building. if there was a particular person that um was not to be allowed on school property, it could alert school administration that that person did walk into the parking lot or something like that. Um
200and it it does some weapons detection if they're visible objects that are that are being carried into the school. It can give alerts before that actually happens. So, they can do some some really neat things there and some good school safety measures. So, we want to leverage his expertise on placement of those cameras and and how best use those in the county. Um, these will also allow us to do some uh the the vape detectors that we've got. It will allow them allow us to tie that to a camera. So, we can send the school administrator uh if there was a vape detection, excuse me. We we can send them the the actual clip of who walked into the restroom and who walked out of the restroom uh during that time that the vape was
201detected. So, we we do um you know, we've got some initiatives. We need to look at some additional detectors I think on that but allow Yeah. I interrupt a second. I Everybody sitting at this table um is extremely tired of all the expulsions we're having to do with regards to vapes and uh THC's and everything like that. I had um Amber get me the numbers and they're just they're just it it's ridiculous. So I went to was talking to an SR sro SRO I'm trying to learn the acronyms but one of our campus cops and I said what would be the best thing for these for these detectors? Well, he said one if they'd be used. Um because the ones that are in there in some some of the schools, you've got a one in
202a bathroom that's far into the school and you've got an administrator that's down on the other end of the school and they're just weren't getting utilized. While I was sitting there talking with Brent, he had two alerts come up on his screen in his office that said there was vape detection in such and such school. So I said, "Do these things have the ability to do two additional things?" Because he was telling me about the cameras and we can place them outside the bathrooms and it gives you a little clip of who it is. Well, I said, "Do they have the ability to let off some kind of an audible alarm?" Whether it be a ugah horn or a car horn or whatever it might be be the first one. And the second, could it
203wirelessly or some way be affixed to a light above the vestibule or the going into the bathroom and lets it just flash like a white light or something like that. That way you know something's going on. So he he dug in, called Vicata while I was there and he's been back and forth with him. So that's that's what this thing can do. Now, is it going to stop it? No. but it can slow it down. It's kind of like the drug dogs that you had in school the other day. You know, if something like this can can curtail it while they're in school, we've got to do it. You know, and and maybe if we need to find funding, we can't go there. It's not on the agenda. I was talking. I know, but don't
204talk about funding. Well, I have ideas. Okay. Well, I that's why I asked him and I appreciate Brent looking into this um to see what we can additionally do with the cameras. Got which you already have, right? Anything else? No, sir. Anything else come before the board? We second. Any objection? We're done.