001e yes I know like to call to order this meeting of the monade County Board of Education it's March 11th at 5:00 P p.m. and please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and Cara Brown will start Us in there I alance 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 nice job Caren I was listening you did remember she's not one to be shy that's for sure all righty first thing on the agenda public hearing of the 2025 26 Calendar superintendent uh yeah uh by code we're required to have two public hearings um prior to the presentation and passing um of the uh 2025 2026 school calendar and so this will serve as the first of
002those hearings and if there are any members um of the audience that would like to uh address uh the 2025 2026 school calendar if you would just move to the to the microphone and express your your thoughts okay not seeing any we'll move on I guess uh yep and we will have uh the next public hearing will be at our next uh regular board meeting um and uh and then we'll have a calendar uh prior to May 1st uh for the board uh we make a recommendation for the board to vote on on that calendar so if anybody they'll still have one more chance to talk about it okay next thing up is delegations I'm going to read the uh Preamble to the Constitution here speakers will requested to express themselves in a civil manner
003with due respect of the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comments while it is not not our intent to stifle public comments speakers should be aware that if your statements violate rights of others under the law of defamation or invasion of privacy you may be held legally responsible if you are unsure of the legal ramifications of what you're about to say we urge you to consult with your legal advisor monay County School Board policy 0169 public participation in board meetings states that you may speak no more than 5 minutes if there are 12 or fewer delegations after 12 delegations the amount of time you may speak will be determined by taking the number of delegations and dividing it by 60 Minutes public comment is not a time for open dialogue
004among board members and the speaker the board members will not answer questions posed to them from a speaker or comment on a speaker's concerns in short there will be no verbal interaction from the board members during or after the speaker's comments and there's a reason for that as far as you can wind up getting into a debate on something that shouldn't be discussed yet so with that said Christian nobilo is first Speaker she'll do a timer for you there countown music got the countdown for you Chris thanks Teresa uh good evening members of the board uh thank you for serving on the board first of all but and and giving me the opportunity to speak my name is Christian abilo uh my children are uh at MHS sophmore and a freshman on the cross country
005and track and field teams among many other activities uh I'm here to speak on behalf of some concerned parents and supporters of the student athletes in our track and cross country programs uh our primary focus uh in coming here tonight is ensuring that the hiring process for coaching positions prior prioritizes the health development and success of the athletes in the programs so the issue that we want to bring up we're concerned uh that Pro the process being used to hire um an assistant coach at um Morgantown High School in the track and field program to oversee the distance Runners uh may not uh be following appropriate procedures resulting in the potential hiring of a candidate or candidates that uh may not be the most qualified um so what we are aware of is that there
006was a single uh position posted back in the fall right after the cross country position uh that position was subsequently removed um and now and then there were two uh split positions posted uh created to I guess in place of that single position and that there's still no coach candidate approved by the board to coach the distance Runners I believe they're on the agenda this evening you know while we understand these are complex decisions hiring decisions involve multiple factors uh we believe that the process should be conducted in a way that ensures ures that the most qualified candidates are given full and fair consideration uh especially in the roles uh as you know that directly impact the well-being of our student athletes um distance running of course I don't have to preach about this but
007like many other sports is uh physically demanding requires careful attention to training and recovery and race planning to prevent injury uh and optimize performance uh as in many all the other sports a well qualified coach is a essential for managing that training the training load uh preventing injury uh race and Recovery planning um and the emotional support and mental preparation of the athletes so um you know this is not just about hiring decisions it's about making sure our student athletes have the best possible guidance and support and have a wonderful experience like many others have um that have played uh high school and college athletics proper coaching is critical to their health and long-term development uh and the ability to complete compete at the High has potential here and Beyond so our request we respectfully
008ask the board to first of all Place uh hold on hiring any candidates for the MHS assistant track coaching positions until a review of the hiring process is conducted to ensure that all qualified candidates uh are being fairly considered um obviously uh secondly prioritize athlete Health development and success uh as a fundamental requirement when evaluating coaching qualifications for positions uh and third establish clear hiring criteria that ensure the best possible uh coaching staff is in place to support our student athletes which is what I think we all want so in closing we appreciate your time and your prompt uh impartial attention to this matter as track has already begun uh our goal uh in this is not to challenge any individual defame any specific individuals anything like that uh but to ensure that decision regarding
009coaching hires are made with a clear fair and athlete centered process uh we encourage the board to take the necessary steps to review this issue and strengthen few future hiring practices uh in the best in uh in the best interest of our student athletes so thank you for your prompt attention to this and that's all I have thank you thank you next up we have Cara Brown hello thank you for letting me speak um my name is Cara Brown I have a child who is a junior at Morgantown High 11th grade Maddie Brown she um has run cross country and track since sixth grade at South so she's in her sixth year of track she's already completed her sixth year of cross country and um I just wanted to say that um everything that Christian
010said I wanted to agree with and let you know that um I think that it's important to review the process I also wanted to say that um all of you except for Mr Smith and Miss Morgan um will remember that I have been here once before regarding um the track in Cross Country issue of Morgantown high so I just wanted to jog your memory in case you don't remember me being here but um thank you very much appreciate it and um that's it thank you cara uh Kathy the rener is that correct good evening my name is Kathy rener and I have a daughter that attends MHS she is a senior um this is her last season you'd think I wouldn't be here but I'm thinking of the students coming up I'm here to support
011Christian in his statement and I hope that you guys will take everything he said into consideration thank you thank you next is Lan law Lori Lori apologizing this is Christian good evening um thank you for the opportunity to speak with you um my name is Lauria buildo I have a freshman um Tessa and a sof more Max at Morgantown High they've been running track and cross country um since middle school um and I am also here in support of Christian statements uh we just really believe that um the hiring practice um needs to be looked into so that the best possible candidates are hired and thank you for your time thank you next up is Mike Ryan m is a direct personel isue so you need to go in executive section did you want to
012finish with yeah we could do that that way uh next is uh Clayton Amsler hi my name is clayt Amsler I have a daughter who is a sophomore and she's been similar to the other families active in cross country and track since Middle School uh and I'm here also to support Christian and the other parents and our concerns for the hiring process and uh just appreciate uh you all um taking this matter up and considering it and uh and hearing it out for what it is we we would appreciate a um we appreciate action on this review and uh that you would all um take what you have available to you your authorities seriously and and U give it a consideration so thank you thank you next we have Rob Riley so does I go
013last does that mean that I can use up everybody else's time un unfortunately no okay just kidding yeah so as was just said I'm Rob I have a daughter that's a junior at Morgantown High and a son that's uh in eighth grade at South my daughter's ran track and cross country since her sixth grade year at South so um I guess having to go last uh it's easy for me because I fully support everything that was just said and really I don't think I could add anything that would be of um I can't add anything that hasn't already been said so want to say that I report um all of my colleagues that have came up and thank you for your time thank you m I do appreciate everybody combining and instead of repeating the
014same message but appreciate it okay we'll need to go into executive session for uh Personnel I guess it would be so I need a second so moved all right so we'll I guess we'll want to go to the other room better okay we're back we're still in the delegation section and the previous delegation that we went into an executive session was afforded the same 5 minutes everybody else and so finished CU we he was the last delegation so we'll move on to reports discussion followup action first item of business this evening are the proposed Levy rates and uh our Treasurer Nicole keer uh will now address the board and you do have materials in your exec treas thank you all right spring is in the air when we're talking about proposed Levy rates all right
015County Assessors are required to issue to all living bodies certificates of valuations by March 3rd of every year between March 7th and March 28th each County Board is to approve proposed Levy rates once those are approved tonight they will then be sent to the state auditor's office and the Department of Education at the end of tonight's meeting it will be recessed and then we will adjourn it we will reconvene it I'm sorry to the April 15th meeting to officially enter all levies our tital assessed valuation for fiscal year 26 is 7.3 billion this is comprised of class two properties of 3.2 billion class three properties which are a commercial properties outside of C city limits of 2.7 million and then our class four properties which are our commercial properties inside city limits of 1.3 million
016billion dollar as we look at the assessments from 2019 to 23 we see slight increases throughout the years when we get to fiscal year 24 and 25 we did see an increase and this was because of the valuation of oil and gas what we are seeing for fiscal year 26 is a decrease of around 6.72% and this is a decrease a reduction of $500 million for oil and gas valuations our Levy rates are per $100 of assessed Valu value we have three pools of Levy rates we have our regular Levy rate rates that are established by the legislature excess Levy rates which are established by the levy call and our bond Levy rates are calculated based on principle and interest for the upcoming year our regular Levy rate for class two properties will be 38.8
017class three and four 77.6 C excess Levy Class 2 will be 33.5 cents class 3 and four 67 cents with um the bond Levy rate rates Class 2 2.58 cents and class 3 and four 5.16 compared to 25 to 26 our regular Levy and excess Levy rates will stay the same our ex our Debt Service rates um excess Levy I'm sorry our debt service Levy rates are going to be increasing slightly for Class 2 by 0.0024 in class 3 and 4.48 and again this goes back to the decrease in our oil and gas valuations this is the schedule of proposed Levy rates what we do here is the calculation is we take the assessed value we times it by the levy rate and we divide it by 100 our projected gross tax for our current
018excess Levy will be 44.3 million from that we we um take off of that the allowance for uncollectibles tax discounts tax increment financing and our allowance for assessors valuation which then gives us the projected net taxes to be collected of $36.4 million we do the same calculation for our excess Levy our projected gross tax will be 38.2 million and then when we um subtract off the allowance for uncollectibles and tax discounts our projected net taxes will be $ 35.6 [Music] million each year we determine if we have to roll back the rates if the levy grew more than 104% then the Board of Education May reduce the rates based on the calculation for fiscal year 26 the roll back rate is 2.63 cents and our proposed class one excess Levy rate is 16.75 we are
019well below the 21.6 3 cents we do not have to roll back the rates this is a snapshot of our Municipal Bond commission letter and this outlines our bonds outstanding as of June 30th 2025 is 20.9 million the principal and interest due for next year is $2,915 n6 we perform the same calculation as the other levies projected gross taxes are 2.9 Million we take off less allowance for uncollectibles of 33,000 and that brings us to the projected net taxes to be collected of 2,915 n6 and this matches the municipal Bond commission letter we do have tax increment financing um the allowance for tax increment financing is a little over 4 million the school aid formula actually factors in the tiffs therefore County Boards of educations are made whole and then as we compare fiscal year
02025 to fiscal year 26 projected revenues we are seeing a decrease of our regular Levy of 4.4 million but please remember that 85% of our regular Levy dollars are allocated as local share so our we will be receiving more local share which the net effect to us will be a negative $400,000 our excess Levy however will be decreasing $3.6 million for this current year over last year and then the bond Levy is um decreasing $9,200 um this will be the fiscal year 25 was the first year that we were an operation without any of the covid money because of the increase in the tax the taxes last year we were able to continue our after school programs we were able to continue our summer programming our all kids eat for free an additional staff um
021I will be bringing the budget to you probably in the middle of May which will account for the tax decreases as well as any legislative changes that may come and I believe the legislative change the legislature ends maybe the middle of April so and that's all I have any questions anyone have any questions Nicole uh thank you for your presentation tonight with the um decrease in oil and gas Revenue tax revenue um do you have any projections past the 25 26 school year do you expected the I do not at this time but I have been ve working very closely with our assessor's office and the state tax department okay um I I find this very worrying um and I know so many students that benefit from our after school programming from our summer programming
022from our free meals and I think it's so important to stress that those free meals are not coming from the federal government they are coming from your tax dollars and these are things that all students in Mong County are benefiting from so I think as we move forward over the next year and start thinking about um our our referen next next May um we really need to stress to the voters of mon County what our school district is providing I agree with that Nicole go ahead you had something I said well said oh yeah um I'm glad you mentioned the the Tiff districts because I don't a lot of people would ask me about there why are we giving that away and I said but we're made whole the other end that tax increment financing
023so anytime you see these anytime you see new buildings going up and there's a project on over on Brockway Avenue where they're redoing that whole Hillside that'll generate more tax dollars in the county coffers because that that's going to be pretty expensive uh Endeavor there so um anyway I'm glad you touched on that because that's kind of misleading in a way when you see it in the newspaper or wherever that's you know we're letting these people do things without taxes so anyway anything else thank you Nicole thank you Nicole well done thank you this is an action item it it it is an action item okay so with that said I guess we should have voted in end discuss but well well I can I'll make the recommendation and then you can move forward with
024your your vote but uh superintendent recommend that the board uh accept and approve the proposed Levy rates uh as presented this evening so move second evidently there's no more questions so all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same motion carries again thank you Nicole thank you all right LS IC waiver University H okay board members youve had a chance to look at your executive file uh for for the lsic waiver at University High School Superintendent recommends that the board approve the waiver as presented I'll hear a motion so moved second second any discussion comments all in favor signify by saying I hold on I have a question I'm sorry um so I want to clarify here this waiver is to bring in more kind of allart food yes not not the
025okay and we've done this for the last two years at University High School um we're required to do it annually and to uh solicit that waiver on an annual basis and then submit that request uh to the West Virginia Department of Education okay thank you all in favor signify by saying I I I I oppose the same motion carries we got here accounts payable addendum one of these I got to leave no you're uh neither of you have to leave um the uh the accounts payable addendum A and B are uh board member reimbursement um for uh oh board member training um and you you are not required to leave but you do have to abstain from the vote when it comes to uh to your name so um accounts payable addendum a will be
026for member Smith um so he will abstain from that vote superintendent recommends that the board uh approve accounts payable addendum a as presented so moved second second any comments discussion questions all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same motion carries I'll ask uh vice president Agy to carry the next one to I you'll just abstain I just abstain from the vote yeah I guess yeah uh this is Accounts Payable addendum b um and again President Kelly will abstain from this because it's his reimbursement uh superintendent recommends that the board approve accounts payable b as presented so moved second any discussion all in favor say I any opposed all right we get paid paid thank you got to Chase my mouse here all right wording of contracts Sun Chris Middle School demolition
027project let me get to the right page here okay make sure I got that all right uh first up uh contract is for the Suncrest Middle School demolition project um superintendent recommends that we approve City construction for that project uh at a base bid of $115,000 $15,429 five by saying I I I oppose the same motion carries bus excuse me bus was uh yes uh this contract is for the bus wash replacement uh in our transportation department um the uh actual bid documents are there uh from Mohawk lifts in your executive content and superintendent recommends that the board approve the bus wash replacement I'm trying to see if I can get to the actual cost I'm struggling to pull mine up far enough bringing it up here yeah 2 28,749 and2 thank you got I
028have superintendent recommends that the board approve the bus wash replacement at what vice president Hagerty said the price was cuz I can't see mine okay U I have a motion so so moved Tony second second and Tony's here if you have any questions about that say does that come with any uh bus drivers Tony by chance what's that does it come with any bus drivers I wish that would be nice the reason it's important tell us how many buses we have we have 130 buses in our Fleet so to hand wash those is kind of is that what we've been doing here washing no right now for the past uh 3 months yes and we had something like this before but it doesn't work yes uh the system we had was over 30 years old
029um it was at the original bus garage uh beside South Middle School when we moved to the new uh location they moved it over there um obsolete um a lot of the parts that had has been replaced over the years had to be manufactured to work um cans worked yearly on it um just got to where we couldn't do no more with it it's specific to just buses in our bigger buses the bus wash we're looking at we actually will be able to wash any of the County vehicles in our Fleet school buses and uh maintenance vehicles and everything um they'll have an RFID system with the on the windshields when they start to pull in it'll read that and it'll adjust the bus walk wash to that vehicle so does it uh recycle the
030water that I'm not sure a lot of them it'll go in and then it and reused but any other questions how often do the buses get washed uh when the weather's nice we above 30° um most of my drivers will go through there at least twice a week um our our drivers are very conscious about keeping their buses uh clean thank you and and also one of the nice things about this bus wash they will have a feature for uh washing the underc carriage of the buses that's something we've never had before um we live in a salt belt um that's one of the areas we see a lot of issues with our buses uh the frames and the undercarriage uh deteriorating so that's going to help combat that for us how long does it
031take to send the bus through the big ones he said uh with this one it should be about every 90 seconds we can run through pretty fast this WOW pretty efficient okay any other questions all in favor signify by saying I I I I oppos same motion carries wood lockers uh next contract is for uh custom wood lockers at University High School uh superintendent recommends that the board approve Davis at Athletics LLC uh for those lockers at a cost of $119,000 I have a motion so move second second any questions comments yes what specifically are these lockers for um they are for the locker room for wrestling what else boys B boys basketball basketball and volleyball um this is is funded by UHS Athletics correct they raised the money okay so it's not coming out
032of our coffers it is not okay and there was a significant difference in the in the quotes too yeah that was interesting is it a wood Locker typical I'm just curious uh nowadays it is yeah yeah there're a little they're a little uh little more of an upgrade um for locker rooms and aot lot of programs are moving in in that direction it's a little nicer longer set up that's what they wanted when they that's what they wanted when they were raising the money yeah it's recyclable make toothpicks out okay any other dumb comments West over all in favor signify by saying I oppose the same motion carries next is new contracts and this is with flashlight learning uh you have the agreement the contract in your executive content superintendent recommends that the board approve
033that contract with flashlight learning as presented have a motion so moved second okay Danel second any comments questions is this like a reading like something we've had in the past I can't think of the name of the like an assessment tool or a practice tool it's more of a practice okay it says speaking and writing is it does it give them practice with like writing a essay on a prompt like the we used to have something like that we did yeah drawing a blank on what it was well to that end but yeah we had a program that is obsolete now and so this is what they found that would help with that anybody else yes uh the student L licenses are 285 does that go to the teacher who who are the 285 I
034think that's to be identified based on um the need in the classroom um so um again it varies I can't and tonight I could not tell you who is designated to get those uh but it's like we do with certain other programs um we don't just buy of course it's so expensive we only buy for where the needs are um we have other programs like that um honestly you we only buy for a certain number and it it was for English Learners oh thank yes thank you only for those identified with the El excellent thank you anybody else all in favor signify by saying I I I I oppose the same motion carries consent agenda superintendent recommends that the board approve the consent agenda as presented this evening to include uh items a expenditures exceeding
035$3,000 Item B the payment of salaries and accounts payable item C is a kungle Consulting agreement for Mason Dixon item D is the navigate 360 agreement item e is a memorandum of understanding with Rebel fast pitch item f is the WVU first modification of agreement of the purchase and sale item G is the minutes of your February 25th meeting and that is [Applause] it okay I need a motion your recommendation sorry yeah you did yes I move second second any comments questions no pull outs or any of that so okay all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same motion carries board member updates anybody have any updates I have none got to read aloud at North Elementary that was a that was a blast and all the kids hugged me afterwards
036and I W out with snot and fluids all over me so that was from love a great day so God bless our teachers um also offended by your notot thank you uh spent some time at Mason Dixon Elementary love that place you guys I don't know how long ago we built that but it's it's it's a wonderful environment and spent some morning there reading um some dror Seuss books so uh it was that was fun and then going to be at clay Batel for a career day on Monday talking about careers they must have ran out of anybody else to ask you took you took you took my place this year great great so uh and I think that's it for Community update from Sean yeah that um Mason Dixon was a lot of volun
037well both schools a lot of volunteer effort and yeah input I'm sure Mr Statler was on hisat out there yeah probably still looking for the bulldo okay anybody else um two two updates out of the administration office um uh one I want to announce this evening um officially the last makeup date uh that that we have to we have to take um and that is going to be Thursday April 17th um and I want to clarify a couple things related to that that originally is on the school calendar as an outof calendar day but it now will become a school day with a 2hour early dismissal uh for students um so that faculty Senate can take place on the 17th so Thursday April 17th will be a school day for students uh with a two-hour
038early dismissal for faculty Senate um Wednesday the 16th was originally scheduled as a 2hour early dismissal for students for faculty Senate Wednesday the 16th will now be a full day for students so Wednesday the 16th is a full day for students Thursday the 17th is a school day with a two-hour early dismissal for students um and that will all be posted first thing tomorrow um but I wanted to make that official announcement uh this evening um the groundhog says we should be out of winter and we shouldn't have to worry about making up anymore these days so let's keep our fingers crossed uh because uh um we don't want to dip into anything else at this point or extend our school year so let's hope we get through the rest of the year without any
039uh need to change our schedules but U just wanted to make that announcement the second thing I wanted to do this evening and in consultation uh with President Kelly I would like recommend to the board um that we hold a work session uh to discuss the 2026 excess Levy um and uh Teresa remind me what we talked about today May May 6th uh is a Tuesday May 6th is a Tuesday and we would do that at 5:00 p.m. is that a public meeting it is a public meeting it's open to the public the only thing that we would put on our agenda would be a work session to discuss uh it the excess Levy U board members as we get closer to that date if there are certain things that you would like to see
040as far as uh materials or or questions you may have that we can prepare for in advance um get in touch with Teresa myself and we'll make sure that you have everything you need to have a productive work session um uh on the 6th awesome and we generally don't have delegations at a work session we do not yeah it's just strictly the the they're come listen but we just don't have any guess you can throw stuff at us but okay anybody else board member updates all right all good then oh do we have like an unofficial last day of school on our calendar you do okay what would it be start you well that's the last day for teachers um so I think uh 29 May 29th is our last day for student students and
041then yes for teachers it's May 30th that's required by code excellent thank you unless no no we have fles Florida I don't feel comfortable till after we get past Easter but we're not going to have any of that so okay anybody else no policies go Jennifer the we're going to take these as a consent agenda item this evening uh um the these are out for first reading you've all had a chance to uh to look at them um I'll go ahead and recommend that the board uh approve these policies for uh first reading okay entertain a motion so moved here second second second I think Jennifer's done a wonderful job of providing a synopsis uh of each of the changes um or the rationale for the the policies and the way they've been presented this
042evening certainly as they go out for first reading and public comment um board members should have uh additional questions reach out to Jennifer myself and um and we'll uh we'll discuss those with you um they have to be out for days 30 days and then we will bring them back to you for uh second reading and adoption and one thing I do want to point out um these were updates from Office of Management and budget at the federal level these were updates that were done in 2024 these are not as a result of any changes in 2025 so oh boy we will probably see them again to do it again I do want to commend Jennifer for two years ago or whatever when you suggested putting them all together and cuz we used to go
043through these one by one and it's much more efficient and quicker this way and they're all on the website if anybody wants to tomorrow right once yes once you approve approve everybody can look see what we're doing with that okay all in favor or I guess we're no discussion right all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same motion carries um probably for the addendum because that's where the recommendation comes right okay yeah I took it off the regular all right Personnel list uh first up is uh our regular Personnel list there are no changes to the Personnel list with that said superintendent recommends that the board approve the Personnel list as presented so move second second discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose the same motion carries yeah
044that's right yeah that's right just want to make sure we're on the same page yep all right for this uh Personnel addendum if you want to do new we don't have any new position we can just skip it all right so we'll go on to the personel list addendum um I'd like for us to go into executive session I have a affirmation for personnel issues disappear for a little bit here okay we are back we were in the uh Personnel list addendum you have a recommendation I do uh superintendent recommends that the board approve the Personnel list addendum as presented this evening with no changes okay do I have a motion so move second second discussion followup yeah I have discussion the um I don't know discussion or just comments but the season has started
045we found ourselves in a place where we have a lot of students and we want to do what's right any delay in this now you're pushing weeks and weeks and weeks to go the kids need to get started and to continue on the way without Division and I'm sad that there's any division within any of our schools with any of our Athletics It's upsetting anybody else in favor signify by saying I I I opposed I I that's three to two motion carries I guess we're going to go back right oh we got to do the uh yeah do you want to make make the announcement then we can officially recess after the next uh right we agenda we can't do that until after we come out of executive session again but I think it would
046be prudent to go ahead and make the announcement about the schedule and then we can go inad don't you go ahead and do your thing the next meeting yeah so what what's going to happen is that we're going to uh recess this meeting until April 15th at 5:00 pm. uh here uh the next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held at 5:00 pm on Tuesday March 25th 2025 and we will do that officially after our next because we're going back into executive session for personnel issues but after that we will recess this one until April 15 all right motion go into executive section discuss Personnel issues motion uh we're still moved yeah second and staff staff you all can go for