Board Meeting Regular Session - 3/10/25

001I pledge 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 start our first let's those first okay now we get to do what we love to do and that's some recognition so scho what Chang Channel close that on the feed you don't minding we just change the batteries okay we're going to Pivot a little bit here this may be better our microphone's not working so I'm going to be Mr Godfrey with hair as uh as uh Mr Mr Hodes as Mr Hodes said this is always our favorite part of any board meeting that we have as board recognizes we appreciate all of you all being here and we are going to um do this by

002school so the uh first award we're looking at this evening is certificate of achievement for All State Choir participants and this is for Pik View Middle School Addison forner summer mle and Abigail Nolan if they'll come up please none of our Pike PS that's what I have um All State quoir yes sir our next award is certificate of achievement West Virginia American coral Directors Association All State Choir participants Pik View High School we have Samantha Meadows Haley Shrewsberry Christian shrewbury meline Evans and Luke Brown [Music] here get a picture slide down this way out slide down Mr there you go how are you for Mot our next award is certificate of achievement uh West Virginia chamber of choir participant Parker Shrewsberry Pik View High School thank you guys our next award is certificate of achievement

003All State band participants and we will do Pik View Middle School first we have Daisy Hallstead Reagan Lester and Harper Mullins okay [Applause] and our certificate of achievement All State uh band participants from Princeton Senior High School Weston Sanders Nathan Dinger Wyatt Bailey and Owen hecky [Applause] Rel oneing of okay we need to squeeze in with the Tigers here okay all right thank you okay staying with the theme of music for this evening our next award is certificate of achievement West Virginia Society for General music's 2025 teacher of the year uh Miss Sandra Fox the music teacher at spanishburg elementary school and lashme Moka elementary school has been honored as the 2025 Teacher of the Year by the West Virginia Society for General music this prestigious award is presented annually to a music educator who

004demonstrates exceptional dedication to fostering musical growth among students and contributes significantly to the advancement of General music education in West Virginia recipients were selected based on peer and administrator nominations followed by comprehensive application process that includes evaluations of teaching practices Community involvement and professional development Mrs Fox's recognition highlights her outstanding commitment to enriching students musical experiences and her influencing influential role within the educational Community Miss Fox's dedication to inspiring young musicians and fostering a love of Music in her students is truly remarkable thank you Mrs Fox for your passion creativity and commitment to music education Sandy Fox [Applause] oh he got him he got him thank wel I got just a few things Mr Hodes ready for mine I got a few updates okay we got the superintendent's opening remarks got oh you want to

005ask him if they want to take off we oh yeah if you just came for the awards you don't want to listen to all the wonderful stuff we do you may leave now and then I've got um you want to do those presentations first yes yeah let's do those first let's do the presentation before my thing so first we have uh let's do the let's Swip it over and do uh Jody Jody Richmond with the the extension office See's here yeah I see JY Richard okay she need a microphone M Dr Aus J Richardson from the West's office you like to make your presentation Richmond Richmond sry I'm going to confess I actually asked Jody to come she because probably thing they've done this so de home can here okay thank you everybody and thank

006you to the board I appreciate you giving me just a minute or two to talk today about our programs um I think Mr Godfrey has already given you guys the sheet that has our impacts for the year um as well as our budget prests I'm Jody Richmond I'm with the West Virginia University extension service Jen prinston and if you're not familiar with that that's our Community Education Branch um so some of you probably are familiar with 4 4 is our Flagship youth program um and Sarah Brown leads that we have lots of community clubs camps um stem camps going full ahe of steam robotics team things like that so she's doing a lot of really good things um both in the school and in the community we also have two nutrition Outreach instructors or health

007Educators um one of which works with adults and one of it works with you um Jill puit or Jill Pucket is her former name a few of you may be familiar with her in most of the elementary schools um and we have several programs there we have like the cardiac program is a six week program where they take measurements um and they do health education and encouraging um outdoor movement and those type of things and we follow those heads for about five years so we hope to see a trend um with those particular programs a lot of our nutrition programs are not just one and done we do come in a lot of times for either a six week portion or a ninee portion it depends on the program um some other Healthy Living programs

008we have is rethink your drink that one you may have seen at some of the camps or at this County Fair or something like that uh Jill does a lot of cooking for kids healthier future heavy Li Healthy Living Jennifer doeses uh education towards new mothers that are lwi Income um and we have a couple programs that actually gives them free fresh fruits and vegetables um while they're in the six to eight weeks of the program um financial literacy we have Joanne Stafford in our office and she does a lot of our lit ly education um she works with kids to increase the fastb completion as well as do some workshops for kids and parents related to paying for college um I do some things called uh related to budgeting coupons um and your grandson

009is not in J that's a program we do for seniors um to help them recognize scams uh as far as me again I do AG literacy lessons some of you may have had me in your class to do a lot of things like pumpkins and poultry um parts of the plan those kind of things anywhere from prepay all the way up the newer programs we're working on now are related to substance use avoidance and awareness the first one that we have is called train teacher resources for addiction impact now um and that's a program of 4-Hour training for teachers they go through it and they recognize signs of students that may be in trouble students that may have um substitutes in their home and it provides strategies that those teachers can use to work specifically

010with those students as well as providing some information related to um burnout and fatigue in the actual teachers themselves so train is a 4-Hour program for teachers we also have a community version and a team version both of those are just one hour each um we also do the Boton life skills program we're in uh pipe View Middle right now it's an eight-week program where we teach kids about peer pressure and self-image and Healthy Lifestyles and avoiding substance use those type of things um I think that's about all I have does anybody have questions for me in the summer programs do you explain how the summer programs work recruitment we do we have a few different ones um the one everybody always knows is you know 4 AG Camp the kids get to come to

011merca County for two weeks for before each camp we also do work at the state camps so we have a lot of kids that actually go to the state camps and we take them up there merel County actually has one of the lowest um 4 Camp fees of anybody and we do a lot of fundraising so that if the child just can't afford it we have lots of scholarships for both Merit and for both uh Financial need we also do a lot of the steam camps and things in summer um so that's another one that we're working with children a lot um both Jennifer and I do school gardening uh so we work with school and communities that want to have a community garden or a little school garden and it can be something as

012small as a little 4x4 strawberry bed or it can be an entire hot tunnel um so we do those as well well they're supposed to get their Greenhouse done so yeah we were talking we've got are you aware of monom high school yes I think Jennifer was actually talking to them about that earlier this week um and want to work with them uh to to to not only get it planted but to kind of do some more Community involvement things thank you good job next Mrs Mitchell Mitchell do okay now we have a presentation on the uh alternative education update for Mr Mitchell he Mr Mitchell yes can I have there we have some information to share with you we have to look at where we are as far as the percentage of students that

013are attending how well they're doing compared to last year at this time sure sure okay so what we did this year after last year our first year sort of the learning learning year so this year we decided that we needed to we needed to have our own school and that way we could bring the kids all into leas into one place uh so that we could look at the data and be able to pull reports and all those kinds of things um so so by centralizing data within weas with compass Virtual Academy which is the name of our school uh so if you hear that or see that out there you'll know what it is it's our Al alternative and expulsion school we can better support students acccess through data and targeted academic interventions um

014this year uh we also added on the proximity end we added a special education teacher that's in every math class and every English class to support our students not only with but she's also supporting our 504 students so we have have a you know integrated that in and I feel like it's been very successful she does plans for students who drop below a 60% to be able to get their grades back up uh and works with them um one-on-one quite a bit um in addition to adding the teacher we have also added um a time where students are expected to be in their elective courses last year we did not have that this year we do and so that is helping a lot uh to show the importance of the electives and making sure the

015kids are getting into those classes and and um going through the modules to to get the credits for that so just a little bit of an overview for our total enrollment for this year and just remember we had some carryover from from last year because I know that Amber gave you all the paperwork the last board meeting so it's going to look a little bit different because I this also includes students from last year who were in alternative or expel so this this school year we have served 106 students all together so far uh 31 have been Middle School 75 have been high school students our average daily attendance is 77 and a half um our current where we are right now um data is that we have 46 students placed in alternative 24 students

016placed in the expulsion education program we have 19 students with IEP 16 students with 504 plans and then I have a little bit information about uh students who have returned to school either kids that were uh expelled last year and their time what to go back was at the end of the semester or students who have worked very hard in in their principles have allowed them back um and then there's the alternative students returning the number of students that we had at Mid semester that return to their home school from alternative and then there's some academic performance from the past few years um I'll start with 2022 our attendance rate then was 58% we had a passing rate of 47% and a total enrollment of 28 students last year our first year that we had

017the uh virtual school for alternative and expelled it it came up a little we had an attendance rate of 63% a passing rate of 55 and total student enrollment was 43 uh and that's just this is just alternative it it does not include our expel and then 2024 2025 we had this year so far we have an attendance rate of 72% um um so that that's coming up you know and part of that is that we uh we have worked with proximity they um they have access to schooly this year so they have been able to put their attendance into schooo and so just like if the students were at school these students their parents get a phone call if they're not online and so that has helped quite a bit you know with attendance

018and getting that attendance percentage up um you know they they all look really disappointed when I tell them that they're going to get the F the kids look disappointed the parents are very happy about it but um so uh 72% attendance rate we have a passing rate for um uh alternative at 63% now our passing rate overall for expelled and alternative which is not on here is 78% so you know we're we're success I feel like in this program is that that's by by class or by grade by class so yeah um and then we started out with 15 students in the program and that's who I followed through to to the end of the semester and so those 15 students is where that data is based for the alternative program if you flip over

019on the back some of the things that and we've talked about this before you all know that we do these things we meet once a month with the with U Middle School that's the first Wednesday of the month I mean High School's first Wednesday of the month Middle School's third Wednesday of the month um Donna Brown our attendance officer has been working very hard with families having meetings setting up times to work on things figuring out what the barriers are for kids to get online and the students that she's working with we have seen huge Improvement in their attendance um also we have filed six petitions this this year with alternative and expelled students mainly alternative expelled I don't the the attendance issues aren't there quite as much but our expelled student ATT shoot alternative

020students we have um have filed six petitions for treny so they they uh have to be they have to be there or or uh and if she works with them and they still don't do what they say she's going to file the petition um she sets up meetings she works with them every two weeks she'll meet with parents students and and just to get it done and and I will have to say that her work has has uh it has improved the uh the passage rate because when she starts working with them they start coming to class and they start passing um we do have we still are doing things with the kids on those inperson days we just took a group of kids up to Jim to see New River Community College this past

021Wednesday which was I'd never been there so it was very interesting for me as well I really enjoyed it it was it was very good the kids were wonderful um they did a great job and saw a lot of things that I think that um post secary they'll they'll have information about they'll know about and so I'm hoping that that at least one of them takes advantage of of the free tuition they offer up there um we have made sure to be uh uh very conscientious of our trainings with the kids we have had uh trauma informed uh trainings we have had uh Suicide Prevention we have had cyber safety we have you know you name it we are we are working to make sure that the kids that are in this program are also

022getting the what the kids at the school would get that they're not being missed um so in the future just to to think about future goals we want to continue to strengthen virtual students support uh with frequent check-ins and interventions um expand Hands-On learning opportunities and inperson engagement days you know the schools have been helping with that this year and a lot of them have have brought some things to the table that I haven't thought about and so we want to build on that and just make those days uh very valuable for our students um we are working with special ed to enhance the IEP and F Well the 504s uh but definitely with the IEPs we're working with uh all the case teachers at the schools and making sure that everybody is aware of

023where the students are because even though they're in this program they still are a part of their home school and they have a caseo teacher there that works with the students and I think if you if you talk to Miss huddle she would probably say that that we we have fewer suspensions than we had in the special ed uh population and we're having fewer fewer uh manifestations and those kinds of things so I think it is helping with special ed as well and we're going to implement more datadriven tracking for Student Success so we have all these things that we are doing and things that we really want to pursue in the future and uh work on the students with and and try to give them uh the best that we can give them for

024the situation that they're in so what do you think is your secret to getting average daily attendance up that's impressive I think I think having the phone calls home every day really really helped I think that 100 Kids 77 of them are in class every day that's phenomenal hell you don't heck you don't get that at schools and we did not ever have that when we had the alternative in we never and that's kind of why I'm in particular wanted to look at this and I'm I'm tickled with it yeah um last year was a learning year and we learned a lot and we from what we learned we made the changes that I feel like were necessary and I think one of the things that we'll do next year right now our uh our

025proximity teachers are only taking attendance in schooo and I think we'll probably try to get them into Schoo full-time so that parents can go in and SE they can still seek grades in proximity but it'll be more like what we do in our County if these teachers are also using School we're learning as we go and and you know it's like other things some of the things that we've done that worked out really good we like yes we want to keep doing that and build on it and other things you know um Andy has pivoted and gone in different directions with them but I think the phone calls that communication with those parents I think has been a big big sale for us this year I want to say something and I hope I don't

026say it wrong or offend anybody or make assumptions but with these kids whether they're expulsion students or alternative they're there for breaking breaking the rules so um that being said is there any special um consideration given to what their career goals and choices are meaning are they do they now that they've hopefully turned themselves around are and and earning their way back into the into the regular school is there any guidance to tell little Jimmy that you know if you do the right things and you want to go to college you can or we send them to miss farm and get let them have a day if you took them out to the where up the Gent have you saw I was to say thought about bringing them here to see the yeah they T

027me Tech as well um gent fres in my mind because that was last week but yeah um Miss farmer she she helped us so much she actually did the tour for us one day and took us around and her KN was killing her I know but she managed to get to get everywhere with us she was was really uh instrumental and making sure the kids understood about what mtech can offer I can also say that in every single orientation that I do and I do a lot of orientation you all know um I um uh talk about pra scholarship especially if they are underclassman like in middle school or ninth graders I really try to you know hit that home because some of these kids are cap they're very capable of making it um a

028lot of them don't know about promise and that's one of my things I want to do this year is make sure that there was a lot of awareness about promise so I do that with the orientation um and I I think that uh you know a lot of parent communication uh has has been happening I I talk to these parents regularly um you know every day not all of them but a lot of them are you all using the same um ability assessments like the I and the uh Mastery prep no and that is something that we will be we we'll be trying to figure out how to do that and we may use our inperson days for some of that um it just it that's on the list no well you know that's 100

029plus kids yeah a lot of kids yeah and I'd be again here I am with my putting my foot in my mouth but I would be surprised if those kids even though they're improving and doing better if they're any better on the learning curve than the ones that are in general school yeah I it would be it would be nice to know and I I would like to see those numbers as well so so that is something that we'll be look so how long does it does a class last just like at school it's 57 minutes so each class is 57 minutes they have three minutes in between so for bathroom break bathroom break grab them a drink and I will say this too and I've only done this with one student so far but

030it's working really really well U Mr Collins was uh very flexible about letting a student come for just a couple of blocks today we weren't sure that he was actually ready to come come back to school but we wanted to give him a try and so he's going for the first two periods of the day to his to his school and because he has Transportation then he comes home and he gets on the computer and finishes his day on the computer and so we're really trying to make sure that we make smart decisions for each student um I don't I don't want to send a student back who's not ready to go back and that they'll have that uh defeat of just being sent right back me and um so I think um I think

031we're we're trying really hard to make sure that we make very individualized decisions that's great good I was opposed to it I had real quick questions you know uh Mr prudish Miss santon and Mr Hodges they when they uh chair or Pride over our expulsion hearings they talk about the kids being able to come back on the expulsion or expelled students that's returning MH um give me a h how does that work okay well I mean we have some that they're their letter tells them and they come back so there may be a letter so they time out rather than they referred back yes and then we have some that they work very closely with their principles um to show that you know that they have done some things we've had some kids who uh

032were in counseling uh I even had one who was going up to the Humane Society and doing community service I mean just really trying to prove themselves so that they can get back into the classroom do you do you have any idea what the percentage would be of timed out versus maybe recommended to come back early I don't I don't that's something we can do we can well you just in in you're just hoping that they will do what they're supposed to do because that's really an indicator of their future success more than right timing now well my sentence is up so I'm back in pop out you know well and the way I've you know worked with these students for 10 years um typically an expelled student has made a horrible mistake it's not

033their it's not that who they are alternative students have Behavior I understand alternative yeah and and so typically I feel like when when our um expelled students go back to school that they are really appreciative to be back there and probably you will not see them again does the would the where would the initiation come from to return them to school would it be from you all or from the principal or combination it typically comes from the parent will will contact principal and ask the principal to consider it and at that point what criteria would the principal maybe request they're going to look at attendance good they're going to look at grades and they're going to look at Believe It or Not kids can get in trouble in virtual school they're going to look at

034behaviors so thank you all right you're welcome anything else yes ma'am I just had one return couple weeks ago who had all alternative and do well think that student set the goal to return though thank superintendent REM mark thank you Mr Hodes I just wanted to share with the board uh returned uh from last week to the National Conference in New Orleans the ASA uh superintendent con uh conference of future driven leadership and uh I be happy to share with you the sessions I attended uh for full full days uh I really got an opportunity to meet uh a heck of a innovator I'm going to get uh Mr Murphy contacting with him pretty well but uh Christen Jackson is a 24 year-old um AI uh he was the uh keynote speaker at the end

035of the conference and got to know him personally a little bit uh at the conference and then he was the um he was the keynote at the end but amazing I got a couple little uh things that he taught me that quick that I can tell uh Mr Hodes what is AI and I can type that up and I can tell you real quick what AI is what should we do with teachers uh what we could do with staff what uh cell phones uh different things with cell phones of policies the pros the cons all those things if I wanted to but uh some neat stuff also talked about a lot about culture and a lot of sessions on all over the place that was all over what uh is going on in in America

036from the politics to uh Federal programs and all those things going on but it was a full session um uh Saturday the the last of the conference uh it it ends on Saturday early afternoon and it it is disappointing that uh the session the last keynote it's kind of empty everybody takes off Friday night and as you guys know when you attend conferences sometimes there days on Saturday are a little different also want to share with you and put in your uh book that we have a trained a trainer we've got possibly five staff from our central office going to go to U Alexandri Virginia for the orange frog experience and it's the happiness of Vantage train a trainer they were also at the conference spent some time with them you know it's easy being

037a green frog but being an orange frog and you guys got an orange frog that you'll have one of those with you but the orange frog is doing things positive and happiness and how that frog is different from everybody else and and doing some things there but this from Harvard done some classes there at Harvard it's a thing there but I'm uh pleased to say right now we secured and I think they're okay say me out saying out loud but Dr Philip is going uh Mrs Huddle's going and Mrs Wellman's going at this time and we're looking at the we got five slots maybe to do that and then have this brought back to Mercer County Schools you also got a uh a band to put on that you spark happiness and uh the crowd

038is watching you so anywh you want to do any of that but uh the the orange frog experience uh also want to share with you that we have the administrative meeting this Thursday at uh 8:30 and then the breakouts also Mr prudish called me and I think with you all's communication together that Mike mclanahan purpose-driven management I'm meeting with him tomorrow at 10:00 and then from there on March 11th we're going to do a training with the central office staff and I'll get all the details when I meet with him tomorrow but that will be 9:00 on the the 26 that I believe that you guys may be participating also if I'm not mistaken um with that uh update on flooding and not only spanishburg Elementary at Oakvale uh we've had the adjuster that came

039in U I believe last week we're waiting for information there and Mr Atkins anything to sorry to put you right on the spot but I think you're prepared to answer anything on that we got some things going on with uh different facilities what we got to do to uh uh C cut the uh lower so many feet out of a room to prepare to get ready some abatement and get some stuff done so we're in the process of doing some more things at different facilities so Mr Atkins go ahead yeah all the all the sites that S pro up where they visited and provide their services they're all dry they're all clean um there is some retaining moisture so what Mr T was talking about where flood cuts and they basically go in and cut

040out two to four feet of the drywall or the stucco or whatever ever the substance is so that you can get inside the wall of tral ball so that way there isn't any mobile growth um we we're on kind of on hold like he said we're waiting for information back from the adjuster so that we know what they're going to cover and then what we would be financially responsible for and then um once we get that information we um I talked to Gordon Lusk today with Empire Salvage and they are going to go ahead and I'm meeting with him tomorrow one at spanishburg to begin the uh long conversation about the abatement at Spanish work we have quite a bit of abatement to do and once the abatement is done uh and we get the

041information from the adjusters that's when we'll look at uh bidding out the process for rebuilding and where we'll go from there so it's it's going to be a long it'll be through all summer I'm sure at least so it's it's not going to be a quick process that's where we are sir Timber would update else they have a copy of that so sure uh yeah we had um our progress meeting today I sent the the photos out this morning um Amber and I talked before and it was just a when I sent the thing she was busy so you'll have that smar in your email the the progress um notes from DC alers but we do everything's still on track there are going to be a couple more change orders coming but there is one

042issue that uh is starting to show its head and it's kind of like at Mountain Valley if you remember the back hill was having some slippage issues there so we're uh um dci's waiting for information from the civil engineer right now from zmm and how we're going to tackle the back slope that start to slide a little bit but we're going to take care of that in the back of the school yeah yeah it's behind the the very back of the school where where there's a cul and the playground but it's starting to slip a little so uh what we talked about today was mainly kind of like what you see on the side of the highway where you see it kind of stepped so that hopefully we can it's just rock you know water

043runs through shale rock not around it or it just runs straight through it so it's running straight through and pushing our top down nothing nothing we can't deal with and Engineers on now and then they're basically um they'll give us a couple proposals and see how we want to tackle it but at this point in time everything's still on track uh still tracking toward um June 11th for substantial completion and U rock and roll great very good I have a couple things couple questions and I'm going to look at Kristen talk about this um I was watching news last week and they were talking about what was what the uh National Guard was doing in Mata with bulldozers and and you know front-end loaders and everything out there just cleaning up junk and stuff like

044that then I've watched what's happened what we've seen from the news um with helping the folks in McDow County well you know we've got children and families in our own school system that are hurting and here I I hope I'm not overstepping but is there any way that Mercer County Schools Mr tomman whoever else wants to think about it that we can't put together some type of a drive whether it be clothes or things that that some of these families in MOA and and and um and spanishburg and some of these others can something we can do in the next week to two weeks whether we put something out in the schools and say we're you know we're we're looking to do this I just think that we ought to be doing something you know

045ex instead of letting all these other entities do it I mean we're we're a big caregiver for the kids I know a lot of our schools have uh clothing closets to help for students that are um in need of clothing I've I've literally been in a building when a student has come in and their their clothes are wet or dirty and they've gone into the clothing closets to help those students so I know we have that resource um I even had food come in today I'm partnered with several churches around the entire County and you know the count the part of the county that got hit pretty hard I have a really really strong uh Community partner over in m um that I buy the food and him and his team bags it and it

046goes out to about 200 kids in the greater lash me and pipe view area I'm also partnered with spanishburg and they do the same as well so have we identified not to leave anybody out but the the kids that are ours have we identified our kids that were brutally affected and that and and making sure that as their Partners in in education that we're helping those kids I I have spoken to one of our two affected principles um I've actually talked to Melissa Boop just the other day when I was in her school and um her students mainly had flooded basements um nothing to substantial which I'm very relieved to hear um our social workers are also on the ground doing a great job when when a student comes up in need they identify those

047students and I've actually had folks in the past when when someone that maybe wasn't in need is now in need they'll reach out to either the principal or even a social worker will reach out to my office and we'll get them on that list and we'll help them um also Alicia Crawford and her work is doing an amazing job with mountainer food bank with over 200 meals that go out for 200 boxes of fresh fruit with produce and and such so I feel real strongly about what we're doing as a county that is helping our students in need already and if we need to identify more students absolutely we need to identify those students well you just informed me quite a bit things that I didn't know and when I watch these things I just

048I just want to make sure that I mean these are our kids and we want to make sure that they have within within realistic parameters that they have what they need I I can tell you just the blessing of of working in this County and knowing that our principles our social workers our teachers they are so good about identifying students that that need that help um and we work together as a team to make sure that if someone needs something we get it done yeah you know whether it be clothes or food or you know medical um I've seen social workers make sure that the basic stuff like shampoo is there too toothbrush um so so we work really hard as as a team in this County to make sure our students that need that

049extra support we get it to them good okay all righty thank you say before we go further I should have said this already if you haven't noticed Mr prud is not here been a while since I've done this so if I'll skip or need some help jump in you take care of this 23 yeah and we'd have no citizens input correct so 2322 policy update on U on U West vir support and accountability of schools so uh Dr a you want to go first I'm going back to 2322 why we have it on the agenda the state department really wants to look at what we're focused on on school Improvement and what we're doing that way so and they may be watching us that's exactly right and uh so that was agenda item that I

050had that we put on here uh when I came to Mercer County Schools so Mr a Dr Atkins sorry well I had planed just to kind of dovetail on what Mandy presented for secondary and relation to alternative education and I know that is you know obviously part of uh 2322 and standard seven talking about safe schools and safe and supportive School environments so I just wanted to share a little bit about our elementary alted program and as you know it's uh very different than secondary and it's also very new in its current form we piloted it starting in 2008 18 along with Raleigh and M counties and throughout Co and those types of things um we didn't get it developed to the level that we had hoped and of course there wasn't as the type

051of need during code times and then there's always funding issue so we did write um uh the elementary AED Grant and Amy Harrison wrote that um and we got the $250,000 maximum on that grant for this year to help support um our alted program we talked about this a lot last year it was part of our Ley call to have funds to help support these types of programs and so in elementary this is an in-person program um and a different type of thing and if you're keeping up with the legislature something that's being talked very much um about these days and uh you know we're ahead of the game on that we're one of 10 counties in the state that received that alted grant for elementary schools and I don't know how many districts have

052a program in place um but we are proud of ours it is housed at Mountain belly elementary school that's uh was part of the plan when that school open it's centrally located uh in the county so it makes it easy for all schools to be able to access that and use the services uh there with bus transportation and um that type of thing we do have two certified teachers two classrooms one for primary age one for intermediate age and that's not a perfect science but we try to keep it that way with certified teachers we had never had that before um we it is a and we model this very much spent some time model this very much off that original model the um Raleigh County and M County model you can see anytime on

053metro news or if anyone talks about elementary alled they always reference Raleigh and M um my goal and our goal is is that they're going to reference rym and Mercer very very soon um because we plan on having one of the best not the best program in the state and I think we're very well on our way to accomplishing that it is a 4-day inperson program uh the teachers forego their plannings all week so that for the consistency of the students and so you know a large portion of the day till uh the first half nearly of the day on Fridays is their planning time ACR and their lunch and then they use remainder of that day to do scheduled meetings with parents intakes updates um you know transitions back and if the students have

054have an IEP or a 504 whatever the case may be gives them a great opportunity to do that and then also they use that time for professional development uh collaboration and then also observation um in classrooms in their school and it sto me anytime if you have a question I'm just talking Mark did you have a question I just um and this really has something to do with something else but uh on IEP 504s SATs um and I've been out of it a while who who uh by guideline who who can attend those meetings as far as on the for the team on the parent side what constitutes a parent their legal guardian and I mean Emily may be able to answer that question better than than me go deeper and ask the family like

055you mentioned we do that later okay thank you um for continuous Improvement I did include there that uh the teachers of the programs you know they're they're dealing with challenges uh Beyond curriculum but they have spent time learning the the curriculum and uh for ELA and math instruction but they have been certified in the minded up as a social emotional learning curriculum they have done that they've been certified in CPI which is Crisis Prevention intervention and also uku which is a restraint free trauma informed process and I'll um talk a little bit more about that later but those are trainings they have done they have also visited uh the Raleigh County program and plan to go back we have Hannah Cooper she's the coordinator she's a behavior specialist from the state department coming down in

056a couple of weeks just to observe the program provide us support because again we want our program to be the best and uh we we are willing to listen and to learn from anyone there is an extensive process um for the students to get into this program we have an admin checklist that requires that a lot of things are are ruled out you know that you're looking at um things like attendance and also if they have academic needs if there have been you know Behavior assessments done if we have maximized the uh academic interventions that are available at the school level through special ed services and if we've done those types of things and also if they're working with a professional uh counseling organization um outside of the school system we do have an uh

057anou that you all have approved with Children's Home Society that if there are Transportation barriers for the family that they can't get a child to counseling that they can receive that Counseling in school and then they also receive that um at Mountain Valley in their uh in the elementary audit program as well we are working with them and Mrs G's working with the director there to try to do some group counseling services with students that have similar needs in the program and and that's a growth area that we're looking at um the most important information on this paper and I just Tred to put a summary together for you all but um this year we've had 16 different students participate um in the program we currently have um five in each room uh five in

058the primary room and five in the intermediate room and I said earlier that wasn't set in stone because you may have a student that's in third grade that is developmentally Ure academically behind to a degree that they may do better in the in the primary age room or or you may have you know vice versa uh we did find early on that um a lot of our um intermediate students were fifth graders so you know it kind of separates itself out and then in the second semester we're starting to see more kindergarteners in the primary age so it's kind of fluid um but we've had 16 total 10 there now so me six have met their goals you know they are reviewed uh no less than monthly and more often than that as needed and

059once the team there's a full team and Mandy participates in that and uh she does a very good job working with them and providing uh support and she enjoys those um because she said she sees she told me that she sees success there and really enjoys working with those Elementary situations uh but it's very important uh and I've talked Mrs Gill's the principal there Mr Haye provides support support there is an itinerate admin but that it's a team decision if they've met their their goals and their criteria to be able to return back to the general setting of their school um and also I think it's important to note that we've had students from 10 of our 16 elementary schools place there so it's been helping you know countywide and at this point we have

060not had a waiting list I think I'm very close to that maybe being a situation uh for the primary room but uh at at this point we have not had that that uh issue but any questions yeah what qualifies the student to have to go there well and I I almost brought the the checklist the admin checklist to give you all but it's it's just a very technical document of this this this this this and for for lack of better words it would be you know extensive disruption and misbehavior um in the school a lot of the things again you're reading on metro news but more violent Behavior um toward staff you know um students um come to school to learn they deserve to uh not interrupt the education they you know be free of

061interruption but our staff also deserve to come to school and to work and to know that they're not going to be hit or bit or or spit on and things like that so you know those are qualifiers that um they have those uh excessive behaviors that are repeated and then again we have checklist of evidence that we've tried lots of things at the building level you know if I were still principal what what have we done you know have we look have we worked with the families is there a plan in place they have academic needs that may be manifesting as Behavior because they're so far behind um or because they don't understand um you know are there abuse and neglect type situations things that need to be you know reported or addressed are there

062food Securities and um you know Crystal was talking earlier all the work that Alicia does and that our school social workers um out in all the schools do such a great job of Meeting those needs and ruling those things out providing discipline interventions providing support interventions providing uh making sure they're having professional counseling you know trying to do lots and lots of things uh because this is a last resort and I and I feel like the principles have done an incredible job with that and that's why we're not overcrowded or have a huge waiting list or anything like that because they've done what they what they need to do and then sometimes when you have that conversation with families then that helps um to provide motivation to everyone really working together as a team to

063allow their child to be successful because we want all these children to be successful um to before you know even if they go here they can be successful and we've had some that have graduated from it but um there are several things that parameters thank you anything else Dr reins Mr Mitchell thank you I can say didto to a whole lot of what he said um because a lot of it does carry over then into secondary from the elementary um the biggest things for us right now are that we have done the middle of the Year benchmarking so we have now a comparison between the beginning and the middle um Ashley has those um that data she has the statistics of what we've got from that right now that she'll share with you in just

064a minute um but I do think as far as um taking accountability what we're doing with the alternative program this year the changes that Mandy's made with that and how she stand on top of that um the IR ready and the SAT prep that we're getting from um gear up with the middle schools and then these trainings that are being offered at the evenings next week Ashley has it set up to we'll have a boot camp for Mastery prep we'll be at each of the high schools one evening each uh we provide transportation and snacks for the kids so we're hoping that that we'll have a lot there the Middle School principles have been um actually either writing letters to or making phone calls to the parents of kids who are right on that cusp

065of the ones that we can move the ones that we know just a a question or two more on a test is going to give them um into a Mastery level so we've been working on that and identifying those students um and I will say that every time we put a student in the expulsion uh virtual program Mandy she was saying that about orientation she has to do an orientation with that family so that they're very well aware and informed of what what's expected from their end of things and she's monitoring that closely I think Donna Brown and Ken Lester are mored with her and are also assisting with that in a very positive way so today um Ashley was able to go in and update our wall in the conference room with the most

066recent data that we had so Ashley would you like to share with them is that the copies you have right there too for us is that is that something board can have yes and Dr Bing put these together for me today um so she'll give you the copy and let Dr v share thank your cop you did your so um look at your packet the first page just is a reminder to everyone what the four levels of performance are and typically we look at these um on individual students just to see if they are um in the you know which category they are at uh being from a level one to four so this particular packet is really grouping the whole school into those categories um similar to what we would see on our um

067report card I'm saying report card our balance score card um and our accountability data in the fall so I'll just go Page by Page um just reminding everyone this is year one of us using Mastery prep um we do have continuous support they have mentioned that there are some upgrades to be able to pull data um easier uh on the teacher level even on the county level um you know it's not a perfect thing but the company seems very willing to work with us and from what um the representative has shared with us it's going to really mimic the I reports next year uh so I'm very glad to hear that right now I have to take each grade level pull or pull each School separate grade levs average everything separately so um not difficult

068it just just takes a little more time than hitting a button so when you look at the second page of your packet you'll see all grades at each School group um even though the yellow and red is concerning what I do want to point out is from the beginning of the year every single school did have Improvement in math okay um even if it's one point there was Improvement in math um in English three of the four School uh schools had a decrease um that's we're seeing that for basically every grade level in secondary um I do think with the SAT and high school level the testing has changed we've even started making uh preparations for next year's beginning of the year training so that we can meet and really discuss with English teachers how

069that preparation um needs to um how the change in testing really needs to affect the instruction and and we really uh realize that countywide January 3rd and I'll talk about our January 3rd training here in a moment um with our ninth grade data um you're seeing similar uh things here um you've got half of your schools improve improving in math um three out of four are showing a decrease in laa 10th grade you've got three out of four showing Improvement in math and three out of four have shown Improvement in ela as well there so 10th grade it seems like we're really chugging along I'm going to make a joke my daughter's in 10th Grade and um I'm glad to see that uh but they're also um learning higher order math concepts there too so

070uh they're getting into geometry and they've already had algebra one so those are uh very tested Concepts within the SAT can I interrupt just a second yeah we all when you say you're seeing a decrease is that the scores are lower than they were at the beginning of the year they are um that's not good so it's it's not um it's it's not great with the ELA that's good um yeah going are you looking at the ninth grade I've just been looking at them all through yeah just overall I will say um with the English and math the one thing that we know we're doing this year is we have really been pressing the math math trainings math evenings with parents um camps um intense um tutoring with the students and we really hit that

071with math which we have not done with english because in the past the math was the one that was lower so so if you got a number and then a parenthesis and a minus is that a good thing or a bad thing um a minus would be the change from the beginning of the year so it's it's lower than the beginning of the year that's a bad thing so the the score the score is lower yes is this it's okay to say it out loud this is a section score so um when you combine those you have a composite score for the school so if you're looking at 400 and 400 you've got a 800 average composite for the school we didn't include composits on this um I do have those numbers ready to go

072um but I will say three out of four of our high schools do show overall Improvement in the composite scores there was only one school that did not have Improvement overall so this data is is a is from the first of the like October when were they no this is the middle of the year only but the first test is what he's asking the first test was taken when the test was yes in oer the the beginning of the the middle I'm sorry beginning of the year was in October thank so from October to when was the um we tested in February February we tried to test in February all the different well we tried to test in February then we had flooding and all of that business which kind of messed the schedule up

073which you know LED with some St along the way but um this data was pulled on the 3rd of March do you have any I noce hard question to answer be any clue as to why we're going down so um there are a few nuances with this um what I I really would like everybody to realize that we are testing 9 through 12th grade on the SAT it's not PSAT 89 it's not PSA 10 um it's not PSAT nmsqt it is the release form of the SAT so when you are using that with ninth and 10th graders they have not had the upper level math the upper level Ela so when you do look at the math and I just looked at districtwide what we were showing below a scores in um we have low

074scores overall in advanced math and that includes nonlinear functions and equations and right triangles so if you have ninth graders and kids that are just now taking geometry in 10th Grade they haven't gone over all of those Concepts so um they're not going to be as successful on that math portion but but how how how can they go down when they receive an instruction from October to February well and we're seeing that with with middle school too I I don't have an answer with that I mean a specific answer but what I will tell you mark you probably remember this we spent years really focusing on the essay with the SAT and using cross-curricular writing and writing across the curriculum trainings our students now don't even take an essay portion with the SAT so the

075questioning has changed when you have a multiple choice question you may have four options but three of them could really be the correct answer they are very close um they may have one comma or a semicolon added and you have to pick the correct choice I think when we had our January 3rd training that everybody was really surprised at how difficult the test was because we took many versions of many tests um the ELA and the math and I think our principles were shocked at how difficult those assessments were oh it's it's no doubt it's difficult and the thing that we have to change in the classroom is um in instruction and even on our unit test we do not give students three out of four options that are this close to correct they have

076to pick the most correct answer um we all know that writing styles are different um we have to really align that portion uh with our Ela and that's why we want to get our English teachers together um really 6 through eight and then 9 through 12 to really focus in on those uh test taking issues that we we need to really uh alter our instruction to make sure we're preparing students that way well if I was to look at this obviously the maybe the trauma I don't know exactly when but that would definitely be a factor kids have their minds on other things but uh I also think that our uh 9 through 12th well not so much our ninth grade because they're still in the habit of benchmarking they've never gotten out of that

077but 10 through 12th it is a change for them um so they've gotten out of using already um I think a few of us have have students at the high school so it is different for them um what about student apathy towards the test it's a huge issue a as you know honestly if I was looking at this that's the first thing that I would think because they didn't um I do think yes and our high schools you know they are incorporating incentive time you know even if it's you know um a lunch change or something of that nature lunch outside or or something any carrot we can dangle in front of them we're trying to figure out what that that carrot is that will make a difference and this again this our first year

078it's our first year using the well just like m al yes it's our first year so maybe we will look harder at the second year but learn oh I don't know what's the we have definitely learned some things with this um one of the things I was going to brag about we had a Desmos training with our High School Math teachers um we welcomed the uh Middle School Math teachers to come because Desmos is an online calculator tool that is used from 6th through 12th grade but we really wanted the focus to be on the SAT portion and use of the graphing calculator um you know our teachers didn't want us to use a calculator on the test or even in class because you know people used to tell us you're not always going to

079have a calculator well haha we've got one all the time now and so on the SAT the calculator the graphing calculator is available for the whole test and not that we want to instruct on different concepts with purely using the calculator but if you get to this point in the year and you know that a a student can plug in an equation to a calculator they can be taught that test strategy um our teachers were very receptive of that training we had um kind of low attendance but very um wonderful teachers that are willing to do that at the beginning of next year and I know the ones that we did have have gone back and met with their departments that way they can share out the information um I'll speak from my own daughter's

080classroom they have used Desmos every single day in Algebra 2 since we had that training just learning different tips and tricks on you know how to get to the answer where are tools because just like with everything else if we don't know the how to use the tool we're not going to be very effective with that my head's spinning to be honest oh I know that especially with the English it um well and the fact that we don't T accept in the 11 grade you know when we used to test 9th 10th and 11th kids stayed in that routine they it was important the we've got to figure out ways to make these kids think this is very important because the ones that that truly concentrate on it and are working the hardest on it

081what we find they're the ones that want to go College you know the others don't pay it well but and I understand that I mean I as a I understand that I understand that but but that's not our problem that's the state of West Virginia decided to put us in this so we're going have to swim or so we got to figure out what we can do to make it important but as far as the calculator thing it'd be like me going to carpentry class over here and handing the kid um a hammer and not showing them which end they're supposed to use I mean they've got to be able to use the tool utilize the tools that are available to them well and I that's probably one of the most important things is utilizing

082the tools are available absolutely um we I'll brag on our County a little bit here but you know we have to do registration with the state now vendors have to do a registration with the state Desmos had not completed that so that tells me that they have never conducted a training in West Virginia at least since that one into effect um so you know we have had that with our teachers and and um some of our really um overachiever overachieving uh teachers we will get that shared out enough Dr B Mr Mitchell anything else anything on 2322 we're ready to move on you guys uh thank you thank that finishes that that finishes that yes sir okay we need approval of amendments from February 24th and February 28th move second moved in second all in

083favor say I I I pass 30 brings us to the consent agenda I'm correct board M 262 blueville State wants to put a student in the classroom to uh observe teaching special needs and inclusion classes board memo 263 Libra University is requesting put a student in a room for 60 hours of observations oops got the wrong one 264 go Guardian teacher license renewal director of Technology request renewal of go Guardian teacher license for one year um you can ask question play if you want 265 we need a car for driver's education replacement due to an accident 266 reading list would like to add nickel boys at the AP 11th grade approved leading reading list okay I keep losing my place here 267 yeah transfer of surplus pedicure ped pedicure chair yeah because we're going to

084give them if we approve it to McDow County it's good time 268 the payment of inv voes for what period there February that's all the percentage of okay yeah any questions regarding that I had a question yeah sir West virgia Supreme Court of Appeals $20,000 anybody have any idea what that might be just to be nosy um that Leslie's not here family issue yeah no big deal have do we I can get that to you I can check unless that's a the Fe for unless write a check supposed to be done I was just being nosy don't worry about it is it the new supreme Sub Court maybe I don't know if there's a fee on that you make a motion first to then open for discussion sure yall figuring out the answer back there

085I wasn't I was looking at these scores um is it is it about the juvenile uh prob officer that we share the cost with the oh I don't know we don't know so I I don't have that right here so instead of having all the audience we just roll that's a we'll get back okay any further questions on the consent agenda no one said no I was waiting for we supposed to do a motion first or well ask questions okay I got a couple right but uh ask your questions then we'll do the motion 2 264 and defense with Paul he didn't know he was doing this until he got here so y'all keep that in mind um the goguardian which I get all these confused what what is that one again so this piece

086ask if I read so the go Guardian it the state Prov provides us the client for the alerts for the general filtering so we we do not purchase that that is purchased through the state for us for filtering for our students and staff what we're talking about here is go Guardian teacher that's another layer that we add to go Guardian to the platform it gives the teachers the ability to see what the students are doing in real time so for instance if you've got a class excuse me you can monitor your class see what they're doing in real time um you can also create scenes where you can only allow certain websites to be accessed to in your class and you can also block certain websites in addition to the filtering if you know that

087there's some time wasting sites that you don't want your students on you can as a teacher you can block those do you have any idea how much that's utilized by teachers uh very quite a bit because we actually had an outage recently and that was the majority of my calls um okay yes the majority of the teachers are using it they they find it a very good tool the when they can't be around at every they can't see every student's computer I just and yeah they they use it and they they like it a lot we've got we've got so much money going to other places if I just long term if we're utilizing it fine if not then that's something we may look at before we decide on using it again no that one

088when we took it away we got a lot of call on the car I'm really behind on this one I we don't lease cars anymore is that correct I think I remember that so we have to buy them right right and we had an accident okay uh on the reading list I don't know who can help me with this one when a book is or a book is asked to be approved for a reading list and it says AP uh English for example is it utilized by other English teachers could it be at 10th or nth grade level or is it pretty well we adhere to the uh that book being utilized by the class that's that it's stated in the um anybody know that one I know from no my experience that when I'd

089get books for AP History nobody else want them it was just us so they I don't know if they were prohibited from using them but nobody did well that's kind of my question this B well because some I mean I've been looking at these and they're definitely should be I mean as a science teacher there are certain things that I would share with my seniors in anatomy and physiology but I definitely wouldn't share them with my general biology class that's what I'm getting at well I do think very selective that's who does the readings like I think the AP classes in particular are the ones that have these outside of class reading projects and material they'll have some in the summer and that's consistent throughout the county they have they through in the summer and

090they've got the ones that they do throughout the school year and those are designed most of those are designed for to have your upper and well I guess then the other side of this coin if if a book that was approved for the AP English was being utilized in the 10th grade that's not on a 10th grade so it probably shouldn't be used should be sagger based on grade level like they have certain books that they would use in ninth grade certain books they use in 10th Grade 12th grade teachers not stilling I would assume these are books is bought as a classroom set so it's in that classroom for that class and for level I mean even Elementary do that that answer my question thank you that's all any further questions okay now I

091entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda make that motion second all in favor I I okay board M 269 food study memo mer County Schools have been selected to participate in the National School food study commission by the USDA and conducted by Mathematica uh so I think that's all I need to read on that this is motion motion second this is not a first reading it's not so we need a motion then yes sir second moved in second all in favor I I okay let me get this up a little bit oh man I keep loening got it every should be no it keeps student device right there you got it right there yeah okay but I look get them up I got you okay 270 purchase of student devices director of Technology request

092to purchase Lenovo uh laptops move second they moved in second all in favor say I you didn't have to answer anything BR he didn't let us oh on you have time to just Kidd okay fore um okay this is a school calendar thing Pro the school calendar and we're having to make a change and based on the graduation date yes we had um the calendar that was approved was approved for this coming year next year the 20 um 5 26 school year it was going to be the same way as it was this year when we were going to do before uh Memorial Day and that does not meet the compliance that we have to be in with the state and they have actually put now on their calendar that no class will graduate prior

093to 5 days um from the end of the school year where it's set so we we have to change that you guys had approved what we were going to do but that's not going to be okay for next year based on when school ends so we're going to have to make that change we have not submitted to the state department and once you approve this it'll be it'll be able to be approved by the state department so what the date was on the same as last year which would be incorrect so if we were to submit that to the state they would reject it so therefore we're correcting it before we submit that did they accept it did they accept it last year yeah the mistake was ours they AC on us yeah well the

094calendar was right that we submitted to them but all we put on the other piece calendar what the one that went out to all the students and parents was what was incorrect so the same thing was put on this one would have been incorrect but we didn't submit it yet so it looks like they're working on there's been some proposed legislation I don't know if it'll go anywhere to start school on Tuesday after Memorial Day and in school uh excuse me Labor Day then Memorial Day so if they do that the the code have to redo all this anyway right it would all change but I that's been submitted I think every year they try to got to move it back so it's been something that somebody puts out to start instead of taking August

095away from from the communi so that is that fair Mr yes sir the thing that I don't understand it was this mistake just and these happen I understand a replication of last year's mistake because we were looking at what we did this year so it replicated itself or I mean because some I think it's fair to say that we looked at Memorial Day that holiday and just Tred to keep it with the tradition that way that we had but it did not follow the guidelines is that that's correct that's a way and then so now we submit that and it will be the the 29th I believe is what the date is next year and this year is the 30th and once that's approved both by the board and by the state department then if

096there's snow days that would continue cause us to continue to go beyond that point it's already in place it's already been approved and we don't have to change anything a this time we wouldn't have had to based on days but it was because of where we put the um put the graduation date on the calendar that we gave out to everybody the board actually had approved May 30th you guys had approved May 30th and that is what the state had approved but then when the printed calendar came out what we all got it was on the 23rd yeah that was actually pointed out to me by somebody in this room and I wasn't smart enough to figure out what they were talking about until later but um the I just it's just an embarrassment that

097we don't that we need to get this right absolutely that's why as soon as all that happened the first thing we did was went back and said you know let's look at what we've got planned for next year and so we we got a copy of it and truly it would have been wrong it would have been pushed back to us this year though because we would have been submitting wrong corrected last year we submitted right and then we printed wrong so we want to make this to you know when it goes out this next time we don't want to have anything like that again so is there any consideration this coming year to discontinue the hard copy calendar that goes out and have it online we have talked about that yes it don't even

098if it's online it's still got to be right it still Absol yes absolutely absolutely and I think there you know is that a a a board decision I think it's wondering how many people like to have that and and have those things you get that request so that's that is expense I think we looked at that is it uh what was it 14 $177,000 that we looked at that to say do we want to continue that but I think that's that's something that uh you know do we want to stop that have those things so that's that's been that's really a different discussion absolutely now while we're on this back when we had this conf before there was talk about trying to find some way to avoid conflict with the sports was that considered at

099all I think there's nothing you can do with the sports with all the sports that we have that would have to be something that ssac would be willing I think Mr Offrey said there so that's something we're going to have to do in our County looking at our graduation date itself no he's talking about sports that's what I'm talking about that's what I'm talking about if you want you you know they're not going to make state championships on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday we know that right so that's what you need to look at not as far as our graduation I've been to graduations in other states that were on Tuesday nights that's well you know several years back we did graduation in M County on Sundays and exactly my girls both graduated and you know

100why that was a good idea there's no SS anything absolutely so that's what I'm saying we need to look there as a county I think go to a different am I not right if we're going to have a discussion like that it ought to be done before we submit this or do we submit it then discuss no absolutely it would have to be something again it's kind of another it's going to be another discussion because right now what we're looking at is what are we going to do next year and we had approved it at our board but we can look at that before we submit anything to the state because you guys will have to vote again because what what was approved is not going to be what we're able to do for next

101year because because what's been approved by the local board was for us to have graduation next year Memorial Day weekend we're be in the same we pass this tonight 29th May 29th does that mean we're locked into that we can't make any change yes it does for next year we will be locked in yes sir should we have a discussion about the sports thing before we passes what's the deadline for yeah that that's I think something we look at the following that's what I was going to say that's a discussion probably we need to have next year okay then well let's vote on this one we don't want to I mean I I don't want ustion we don't have a motion don't we aree the motion we need a motion so we're ready to vote

102we're ready to okay no we don't have no motion you got one now second is it okay been moved in second all in favor say I I I okay board M 272 parent and family engagement policy this is mainly just clarifying and updating right requir yeah you have a motion this it's a first I didn't take it down any comments or discussion I Mr Godfrey had a few things that he I just wonder what's the move this got to come from somewhere why are we getting rid of parents the word parent the that's from the federal government and from the guidelines that we we get to refer more to families um and there word parent and guardian are in there but we replace that more with families that was also a request of our parent

103and family advisory Council that we meet with actual parents and I got feedback from them that said there were foster parents in the room there were grandparents in the room we had more than one request from parents that said use more inclusive language which we had already had guidance from the state from the feds on to say families because they said families so often aren't um biological parents so that was we we changed a lot of that last year um over to families but it's just using the word families more but we did Define that you at the beginning of the policy that a family can be a biological parent a step parent a grandparent a foster parent things like that so that that's the the thing that concerns me is the wording of this

104and again just looking down the road um I understand the family idea but but if you remember earlier I ask you as far as legality a lot of these things that are listed in here have to be a parent or Guardian that's the legal parent or Guardian sure and so I think we need to there's something probably needs to be in here pointing that some of these um things mentioned uh IEPs and things like that need to be a legal well I think we could definitely put in that definition of family is uh we're we're referring to their legal parent or guardian and that that's what we we were talking to and the and the government's not saying someone you're referring to a family member that's not a a legal parent or Guardian but it's

105not there's and actually almost we have almost as many that aren't that are even in this District right now that are being raised by Foster by grandparents or by um Step families and so yeah we could look at um defining the the that legal parent or Guardian but that's what it's referring to and Dr a I don't even know for sure which ones I'm talking about I just when I read this I'm thinking well I just um I Envision an IEP meeting where they can say well I'm not here even though they're a uh a maybe a step grandparent or something and then we we we' have to point out well you know these things have to be attended by the legal guardian sure um so I think that needs to be addressed somewhere I

106don't know how again I'm not good at writing these things but that I understand the family part of that I think it takes a family definitely and in this day and age I understand that but I do know getting into some hairy situations or some difficult situations be a better word where I had to point out to certain sure members of the family that they were not the legal guardian therefore they could not make a decision in some of these instan I've had that conversation in the last week myself okay um but what they're referring to is there are different types of legal parent or Guardians so I'm sure that there's a way that we can make sure that that that reflects that probably wouldn't take but a sentence right if and if we're doing

107that I noticed if you got something and again I I 3.1 C yes 3.1 f 3.4 D and 3.6 might just look at those and do with it what you want to do with it because some of that language is still in there for parent I don't know you may the reason is and I don't have it laying right in front of me but if we're quot quoting directly from uh F Federal Esa language and if it says parent/guardian or parent or Guardian then we if we were repeating words we left it but if we're using a generality we use the word family so we did try to be intentional with that but we will look at that okay that's all thank you okay moving on then schedule proposed Levy rates Mr Tom yes sir

108president hod is asking your approval to for the scheduled uh for approve the proposed level rate Levy rates excuse me and those rates were uh approved by the Mercer County Assessor and ask for your approval members of the board um we really don't have much choice on this right no they're all set by the M County Assessor so that's just actually need your approval and then Leslie will publish them and uh can you explain to me I don't third paragraph board must approve the summary forward a certified copy to the state auditor publish it forth with and then re recess until the third Tuesday this is the meeting and then we come back in April that we have to recess until um it'll be April 15th this entire this meeting will be recessed until um

109it's a Tuesday it's April 15 and we'll come back I thought I remember yes that is this meeting every year the same day yes I thought so I was just clarify thank you you can't adjourn tonight who was going to make your motion we have to Res we just go to Res is there a motion on that or just say we recess no we'll approve this yeah I know we get to that point no we'll just reset recess the meeting yest sir till that to that April date I keep keep in record okay uh we need to vote on this right we I made a motion thank you Mr moved in second all in favor I okay Personnel no problems there we got a motion thank you Dr Phil fact oh no we have nothing

110though she just she said no problem no problems there and I said thank you no Chang sir nothing Chang so thank you Dr Phil thank you I had motion any motion second we moved in second all in favor say I okay I got to go up some more was that the end of it looks like it is it won't go up anymore the last one and next uh mine won't go next piece you have is uh any we have nothing on policy updates at this time we're working on that and Dr o call has been in contact with um Mr tomman and has also asked to be in contact get um Mr PR's information so there is communication happening over the policies I don't know what you know that's it we're in the works we're

111working on them and then administrative updates if I just ask the floor of uh anything from assistant superintendent or directors uh or supervisors or anything up any updates that you'd like to give Mandy you got your hand coming up I I would like to talk about that invoice for the $20,000 we do employe well actually the courts employe that person we pay half their Sal they work in thanks thanks M thank [Music] you um yes just wanted to give an update on ouring on our staffing um we've delivered all but two letters um and those letters will be delivered tomorrow um right now we have over 20 plus transfers um we have um about 20 professional positions that we've cut and and about 15 service positions that we've cut for next school year so um

112I I was just at Princeton High School with the new network which is the old new teacher seminar and I gave a presentation on transfers and Rifts even though it's kind of after the fact this time um I think it was good because a lot of our alternative certification people may have received letters and therefore they were able to ask questions specific to their situations or you know what's going to happen when when um the job posting comes out and how that rolls out so uh I felt good about the presentation and I feel good about where our County stands at this point in time but you all will receive those Rifts and transfers on the April 14th board agenda and then on April 15th we'll roll out the new jobs for next school year

113very good thank you Dr philp um are are some of those risks are they related to maybe grants expiring or is this just simply yes sir so um you know with every action there is a reaction and so when you have people on transfer we have an individual that's impacted uh as far as a reduction in force and so um a lot of I would say more than half of our positions are Grant related that either we'll have reduced funding or possibly no funding at all or maybe fully funded we're just not sure at this point time so we're planning on the worst case scenario and hoping for the best case scenario okay good point not it's not those been there done that that's not a good fun process to go through to be Rift

114and it's very traumatic for some absolutely and and you know um Dr Atkins Miss Mitchell and I all have delivered letters and I I and I don't want to forget Miss huddle back here she went first um but I think they've all done a good job trying to explain things to the individuals although I know this is a very stressful time and I try to reassure them that there are jobs um for most positions now there are some licensers um specifically state license with some of our social workers that we may not have positions for but then again you know everything hasn't rolled out we haven't um uh completed all of our job listings yet that will be advertised so I'm hopeful that we'll have the majority but there may be a few that that

115there are not jobs but I did have the conversation with the group today and and there's probably 35 to 40 individuals in this group that um a lot of them have received either transfer notices or termination notices and I talked to them about you know specifically making themselves marketable you know take other practice tests that maybe will be in an area of need and so um they were very receptive of that so now their question is okay where are our needs and that's an individual question with or conversation that I'll have with them that and that's exactly I mean it's ancient history but that's exactly what I had to do at one point in my career yes sir and it cost me two years at Virginia Tech as a West Virginia University fan but but

116it saved my job long term so those individuals I hope they will look at that and further in their education to get the right certifications wherever they are and it'd be surprised I don't know if it's still that way but sometimes there's even monies available for things that are in need programs you can attend for free which basically if you can get a certification for free possibly that's like getting piding exactly right so I hope that happens for a lot of them is so thank you anyone else anything else before we recess recess until April what 15 okay there you go we Jour no recess recess oh we recess I listen right to that and still did it wrong thank you Paul I think this is yours