MCS - Board Meeting 6/2/2026

001Hello. >> Good evening. Good evening and welcome to the June 2nd Board of Education. If you would give me some latitude and I'd like to invite the seniors that are here tonight and to lead us in the pledge for one last time. So, to ask could have the seniors, I know at least two or three of you come down front, right out here, and you're going to start the pledge for us. Will you please rise with me? Come on, Brian. AB, where you at? Come down front. Four of you. Great. >> All right. >> This is your last day at Berkeley Springs High School and you come back and you run the work education. Go ahead. >> Yes. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

002for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you for everyone in attendance tonight. A couple of things to get through and then we will be on to the main event of our board session. Board members, you do have an agenda and addenda in front of you. There are no corrections or amendments that are needed, so I'll entertain a motion for the agenda and addenda as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Comments or concerns? All those in favor, say public saying I. >> I. >> Those nay? The eyes carry. Mr. Banks, good things. >> Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Close. Uh we have three good things uh to bring forward forward to you tonight. Uh the first one is uh

003the West Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education uh gives out an award every year to the administrator of the year in the state of West Virginia. And I would like to ask Mr. Harris, if he could stand, please stand and be recognized for he is the West Virginia ACTE Administrator OF THE YEAR. >> THE AWARD IS GIVEN TO AGAIN one one school one person who provides distinguished leadership and supporting teacher and student success and who have significantly contributed to creative innovative unique and effective career and technical education programs and we know that Warm Springs Middle School has done an excellent job with CTE. So we appreciate Mr. Harris's leadership. Uh next one on the list is West Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education. The same organization and this is the Achieve 100 Award.

004Let me tell you a little bit about that. It's presented to schools and institutions that have 100% membership among their staff. All CTE staff must be ACTE members by December 31st. So this is in recognition of two schools, uh Berkeley Springs High School and Warm Springs Middle School. So I'd like to ask Mr. Knight and Mr. Harris to stand TO BE RECOGNIZED. AND THE LAST ONE IS UH A LITTLE bit outside of the state of West Virginia. This is a pretty big deal. Um a same the same association in conjunction with 16 other states across the country. So this is an award that encompasses 16 states throughout the country. It recognizes secondary and post secondary innovative CTE programs within region one. That region one is again 16 states all the way up through Michigan and

005into Connecticut. And uh Warm Springs Middle School was the only school selected among those 16 states. So uh that award is given to Warm Springs Middle School Principal Jamie Harris for innovation in career and technical education. So please Mr. HARRIS STAND TO BE >> EACH MEETING WE HAVE STARTED TO KICK off good things. And so, we like to celebrate the accomplishments of not only administrators, but students as well. And so, we're here tonight to not only see our administrators succeed, but to celebrate our students' success, too. So, thank you again. Thank you and congratulations, Mr. Harris and Mr. I do not know if he will still be serving next year. So, ladies, if you see him, congratulate him on the way out. Mr. Banks. >> Would you like me to handle the next item? >>

006Say anything. >> All right. So, for those of you who are unaware, this is Mr. Close's last meeting as president of the Board of Education. And I'm just going to say a few nice things about him and then give him a couple things, one of which he might think he's going to get and the other one which may not. He may not know about. So, Adam, if you look back here, can you see the picture back there? So, um one thing I would say about Mr. Close that immediately comes to mind as a board president is that he makes the job look very easy. It's a very difficult job. Um there are people with concerns and uh coming at him from every angle. Goes to the grocery store, goes to church, anywhere he goes, somebody

007has an maybe an opinion or better way to do things and shares that with him. And uh I know for a fact that he probably wouldn't admit this, but he's not going to miss phone calls from me because I'm sure there were many times he looked at it and said, uh I'll call him back later. Cuz, you know, I don't always call with business. Sometimes I have other things that I have to share. So, um I think uh one of the most challenging times that Mr. Close would probably agree with is he led the Board of Education through the COVID years. And there is no rule book for that. Uh there's no uh policy that governs that. It's just figured out and keep moving on. And uh I know that was a challenging time for

008him. It was a challenging time for every school district across the country. So, it takes a very strong leader to work through a situation like that. Um Mr. Close has always been very professional, no matter what. No matter who might be yelling at him, no matter uh what the situation might be, he's always remained professional. Uh always a positive attitude. I think that's also something we can all learn from. And uh he runs a very efficient meeting. Very efficient meeting. And uh probably the thing I appreciate about him most, Mr. Close, is your decisions are always student-centered decisions. So, with that said, I'll ask if any of the board members would like to say anything before I give the floor. >> It's been a definite pleasure to serve with Aaron. We will definitely miss him

009and appreciate all that he's done for >> the students. >> That's all. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the the support that the board has given me over the years. >> Would you like to do a presentation? >> I can. >> So, I want you to take a look at the picture, if you would, for a second. I had some help from your wife. So, you can see we've got the family. >> That's a young man. I'm not too bad. >> We know Aaron's about the best dad you can get. So, that's why we put the family there. Uh his wife filled me in on the Kettle Brand potato chips and Reese's Cups. So, I got from her. He's He also like loves to read history, so that's why the books are there. Played

010basketball at Penn State Altoona. And one of the things he wants to do with his free time is play some golf and coach. So, that's why that's there. And at the bottom we say we appreciate your leadership. We appreciate appreciate your commitment to our students and we appreciate you. So, speaking of student center, this was made by Berkeley Springs High School class agricultural education class. It's a plaque that says, "Mr. Aaron Close, in appreciation of your unwavering support for Morgan County students and staff every child every day." >> Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Um give me 30 seconds. Um I'm going to kick off our most important part of the night is our student awards. Uh as Mr. Banks said that that's always been my focus. Um I believe that is the sole

011reason the Morgan County Board of Education exists is for you students. Um tonight on the agenda there's a lot of fair winners. And um I'm sure every student in here has participated in doing a fair project. Is that accurate? I see some head nodding. Well, um I In that there is a speech that you have to give if you don't know about it. And a little secret to tell all of the students is that you're always going to be a little bit nervous. Um even after 16 years of being on the board, um every meeting has a little bit of nerves to it. Has a little bit of anxiety. Has a little bit of your heart gets beating, your breath gets a little short, you're unsure what you're going going So, a little bit of

012a secret is that it doesn't go away. But, know that that uncomfortable feeling that you get, um, that's where you push yourself. And that's where you get to be tonight to celebrate the accomplishments that we're going to do here for all of these awards. It doesn't happen when you're in your comfort zone. Okay, students? Push yourself above what you think you can do because there's more. There's always more in you that I know you can accomplish. Um, my parting words are basically, don't let somebody else set that ceiling for you. Don't let somebody else set that bar to tell you what you can and can't do. Use this drive and passion that you used tonight and used this year to get to this accomplishment, to celebrate these awards, keep that passion going in your life,

013and you will see amazing successes. Okay? Blaze a path. Blaze a path of where nobody's walked before. All right? Um, at the end of that, there are going to be some amazing accomplishments accomplishments for you. Uh, I believe in my heart, I leave the board, and I leave you students, um, in a good place. And I believe there is a bright future for all of you. Um, and I'm very confident and happy with the place that you are at to see you succeed at Cody. So, I want to say Thank you, guys. Thank you, students, for coming tonight. Thank you, parents, for being here. And really appreciate your time. I know it's you have many other things to do in the coming year. But, thank you again, and let's start off our wonderful presentation to

014celebrate these students. Mr. Rowland, you go first. >> Oh, first of all, thank you all for being here tonight. It's pretty evening and of course it's not too hot in here, so that's always a good thing. I was thinking about our students, especially our seniors coming up and everything. They have literally had hundreds of people help them to get to the point where they are. So, I would challenge your students tonight to find somebody besides family member and thank them as well. And I think of our school system, too, our teachers and administrators, but also our bus drivers, our cooks, and and all of our service personnel. They all have a tiny piece in your success. In 1984, I might add, I was teaching principal at that point at Greenwood, every student in West Virginia

015had the opportunity to participate in the West Virginia Young Young Writers Contest, which celebrates creative skills. First place county winners were submitted to the state level. The essays were compared, scored, and judged against essays submitted from students in all counties of West Virginia. Only one essay is in each category is named the state winner. And I can tell you right now, just judging on the county level is sometimes really hard to decide who we're going to have go on. In grades one and two, um we have Ryker Layman, Layman? YEAH, LAYMAN. WHITMIRE. CHRISTIAN THOMPSON. AND FROM PAW PAW, Vincent Vincent Phillips. HE'S RED AND BLACK, ALL RIGHT. GOOD GOOD FOR YOU. >> Thank you. >> It gives practice to her hands. >> Please don't be shy. Come up front and take pictures at your leisure

016at any at any time. And for grades three and four, Riley Paul from Paul Paul. Third place is Ethan Henderson, ALSO FROM PAUL PAUL. AND BLANEY LINDER, ALSO FROM PAUL PAUL. AND APPARENTLY WE WE DON'T HAVE ANY OF THOSE. Maybe they're out there you know practicing their Shakespeare or something. Uh grades five and six. Um first place, Ava Ava Warren And then we have KIRA HOOK AND LILY MICHAEL FROM PALM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL. THANK YOU. >> GRADE 7 and 8, Devon Current from Warm SPRINGS AND FROM PAUL B. SECOND, HARLAN FRAZIER. AND FROM WARM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL, Ila Basovich. SORRY ABOUT THIS. IN GRADES 9 AND 10, FIRST place from Paul B. First, Case Chambless. Second from Burke Springs High School, Allison Northcross. AND THIRD FROM PAUL B., um Jennings Carter. >> GRADES 11 12,

017first place, Sophie Bryner from Berkeley SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL. FROM SECOND, FROM HEDGESVILLE HIGH SCHOOL, MATTHEW APRIL. AND IN THIRD, FROM BERKELEY Springs High School, CAMERON BUCK. UM AND ALSO HAD THE HONOR to announce a gentleman from our system regional math field day competition in 10th place, BRIAN AYLOR. I'LL TELL YOU MATH GIVE, IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN those math field day competitions, they are amazing what these kids have to have to learn. And now it is over to Laura Smith. >> So I have the honor of presenting the regional social studies fair awards. It's just so amazing some of the projects these students come up with. It's It's so good to see how hard they work and and some of the ideas they've had and I've judged these fairs for quite a few years and I

018always learn so much. Uh when we first started the fairs many many years ago um at Whitmyer the PTO decided we wanted to bring back the science and social studies fairs. The first science fair was the whole cafeteria smelled like vinegar cuz everything was the volcanoes. And these students have certainly come a long way. So division one in grades 3 through 5 Evangelo Pow from Warm Springs Intermediate School second place. ISAAC WATTS WARM SPRINGS INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL SECOND PLACE. DIVISION TWO GRADES 6 THROUGH 8 Isaiah Clay and T.J. GERMAIN FROM POPLAR BLUFF BRIAN MCCUSKER AND ETHAN STEWART Warm Springs Middle School FIRST PLACE. ALEX WHITE AND JOSHUA Heath from Poplar BLUFF HIGH SCHOOL AND THEN WE HAVE CLINTON FROM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL, THIRD PLACE. AND CHRISTOPHER HURST FROM SPRINGS Middle School, THIRD PLACE. DIVISION THREE, GRADES

019NINE THROUGH 12. Coralie Johnson and Kendra Risinger from Berkeley Springs High School, FIRST PLACE. JOSHUA LUCAS FROM BERKELEY SPRINGS High School, FIRST PLACE. LEANNA BOUCHER AND Alexander Sage from Berkeley Springs High School, FIRST PLACE. SCOTLAND COURTNEY, COURTNEY, SORRY, COURTNEY, Berkeley Springs High School, SECOND PLACE. EVA AMBROSE FROM BERKELEY SPRINGS High School, SECOND PLACE. MADISON HIGGINBOTHAM and Ruby Lampson from Berkeley Springs High School, SECOND PLACE. AND REESE PENNINGTON FROM BERKELEY Springs High School, THIRD PLACE. AND AT THE STATE SOCIAL STUDIES FAIR, we had several winners. Division two, middle school, we had Isaiah Clay and T.J. Drummond from Spring Mills HIGH SCHOOL. AND BRIAN MCCUSTER AND AIDEN Stewart from Warm SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL. AND DIVISION THREE, HIGH SCHOOL, Coralie Dalton and Kendra Brisinger from Berkeley SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL. JOSHUA LUCAS FROM BERKELEY SPRINGS High School, THIRD PLACE.

020AND DEONNA RODGER AND Alexander Sage, Berkeley Springs High School, SECOND PLACE. FOR THOSE THAT GOT TO GO ON TO THE STATE, got to go down to Charleston, which is our capital. And this is place for presenting our worst scientist. >> I couldn't begin to understand these science projects from AI bricks, cancer, and some plants that were grown with shade. I'm not sure. So, we're going to start with elementary though. Division 1, Caroline Andrews, first place. WAYLON SMITH, INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL, FIRST PLACE. ASHA KINNAMAN, HEDGESVILLE HARPER TAULTON, INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL, FIRST PLACE. NATHAN CLOSE, INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL, FIRST PLACE. AVA LYNN GRIZZLE, INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL, FIRST PLACE. I'M JOINING MR. BANKS UP HERE. COME ON DOWN. HONORABLE, ladies and gentlemen of the middle school, Kade McComb. FIRST PLACE. MCKENZIE PAUL, THIRD PLACE. BOWEN CHEN, THIRD PLACE. STELLA CLOSE, THIRD PLACE.

021ZANDER DAVIS, MIDDLE SCHOOL THIRD PLACE. MCKENNA SNOOT, THIRD PLACE. AND CHLOE WILLS. DIVISION THREE, high score to both these ladies are here. I have to give it a close first place. AND JOCELYN SMITH. WELL, THERE YOU GO. THERE YOU GO. WHAT DO you think of Jocelyn? There you go, Joe. Jocelyn also placed fourth at the state science fair. GREAT JOB, JOCELYN. ALL RIGHT, WE'RE ON TO STATE SCIENCE FAIR. SO, we're in division one elementary. These that moved on. Nathan Close, Orange Grove Junior High School, FIRST PLACE. CAROLINE ANDREWS, THIRD PLACE. AND JOCELYN SMITH, SECOND PLACE. CAROLINE, I FORGOT YOUR TITLE WAS DEER, THOUGH. What was it? White-tailed deer choice of food. And you hired one to know how to bag a buck. That's your lady. Uh welcome to turn over to the podium for our

022next uh All right, so our first uh my first award to give out is the for the Golden Horseshoe winners. I'm going to invite the Morgan County uh historic historical society and genealogical historical and genealogical society on stage. Uh and this gentleman's name This gentleman's name is Terry Golden. So, golden horseshoe is very you know, very appropriate. Um so, so this is an award given to the eighth grade uh students. Uh it is an opportunity for the student to become a knight or the lady of the Golden Horseshoe. This prestigious program takes its name from the golden horseshoes given to the early explorers of West Virginia. The golden horseshoe became known as a symbol of scholastic achievement to honor students who excel in the study of West Virginia. So, you got you kids are the

023smartest West Virginians in the room. All right. Uh so, I'm going to welcome up Ariana Statler from Paw Paw High School. Hi. Youngblood from middle school. Bryce Youngblood from War SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL. YES. >> WELL, THANK YOU. UH AS YOU SAID, MY NAME IS FRED GOLDEN from Morgan County Historical and Genealogical Society. Uh We're very proud to provide these awards. Uh cash is good. Certificate and we've also given them the book Morgan County and its people. This was done back in the 19 uh '80s. Talks a lot about what was happening at that time and the people that were living there. Uh Next year we'll turn 50 years old. This society was born out of bicentennial. A lot of work we do is genealogical. And I just want to touch on a couple families and

024I don't know if there's any families here One is the Butts family. Anybody related to the Butts family? You got Butts? I know people that The Butts family goes back about the time that Morgan County existed. First time we saw him was 1830s and they go back to two brothers, Joseph and Benjamin. We go back to Barrick Butt. And you'll notice that I said Butt cuz there was no N S at the end of the word. It was just a single Butt. And he was a Revolutionary War soldier. The other one, I'm Is there a guy Yost in here? Oh, man. I see one hand. Almost everybody who's a Yost is probably related to me. We all go back to William Yost who bought property in Sweetwater in in uh >> To me. And he

025goes back to a man named Casper Gibbs. His name is spelled j o u s t. They pronounce it Yust. And his parents were Palatines. His father got killed in the wars over in Germany. His mother died in prison. He was sent over here from the English as an indentured servant. Served his time, bought his way out, and married his boss's daughter. And so So, all these are families that have been here for quite a while. So, that's basically what we do as far as genealogy. So, if anybody's in here starting to look at their family history, get in touch with us. We'll try to help you out, get you started. Whether it's a prince or general or a horse thief, we'll figure out who they are. So, enough about me and the Historical Society

026with presentations. >> Thank you, THANK YOU, SIR. >> NEXT AWARD IS FOR POETRY Out Loud. Poetry Out Loud is a national contest, a joint project of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, in which high school students memorize and recite poetry for an audience. The competition begins on a school-wide level with the winners at each school advancing to the state-wide competition. Uh we have two students to honor. They are Reina Botaka and Chase Chambless. And now I'm going to welcome Mr. Little to the podium. >> All right, I know that I say this every time we have this meeting. Um at least for me, this is one of my favorite meetings. Giving out student awards is I mean, that's the best thing we could be doing. The ice cream also helps for

027me anyway. So, uh ice cream and cookies at in the winter. So, congratulations to all of our students for getting some sort of recognition or award this evening. Um we're starting off with the Patriots of the American Revolution Daughters of the American Revolution DAR High School Essay Contest. The Patriots of the American Revolution is a high school essay contest that focuses on the men and women who figured who figured in the events of the American Revolution. The patriot may be one of our famous founders or an everyday man, woman, or child who supported the American Revolution in ways both large and small. Students were asked to discuss how their chosen patriot contributed to the founding of the nation. At the state level, essays by one male and one female are selected as state winners. State

028winner for the state of West Virginia some guy that I know, LANDON LITTON. ALL RIGHT, NEXT WE HAVE THE MIDDLE SCHOOL REGIONAL honor band. From Warm Springs Middle School, eighth grade flute, ELLIE ROSENSTEEL. WARM SPRINGS WARM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL, eighth grade clarinet, ALYSSA PARR. WARM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL, SEVENTH GRADE alto saxophone, Elias Lida. AND WARM SPRINGS MIDDLE SCHOOL, EIGHTH grade trumpet, ZADAKAI DELLINGER. >> SO WE'RE ON TO THE WEST Virginia Governor's Honors Academy. The GHA is a three-week summer residential program whose mission is to stimulate and support excellence in education for rising high school seniors in West Virginia. Approximately 175 academically driven students are selected through a rigorous application process and we have one. Her name is Skylar Huffman. GETTING A LOT OF WEST VIRGINIA THINGS HERE. THE WEST Virginia Governor's School of Entrepreneurship, the

029GSE was established in 2016 to empower students to turn their ideas into reality and create lasting change. Redesigned as an intense 10-day experience for 2026, the program focuses on real-world problem-solving and and challenges of launching a startup. Students will collaborate with peers, learn from industry experts, and use cutting-edge tools to design and pitch creative solutions. Evan Kessel. I actually get the longest paragraph to read and the least amount of names. Explore the New Manufacturing. The Explore team is committed to increasing the number of West Virginia students completing career paths that support the state's manufacturing industry. The program offers interactive hands-on programming for West Virginia middle school and high school students, builds student awareness and excitement through activities that illustrate manufacturing career pathways, and provides a critical link between the classroom and industry to strengthen students'

030pursuit of careers in manufacturing. Explore offers a student video contest for 7th and 8th grade students who are partnered with a local manufacturer to create a 3-minute video designed to provide a cool snapshot of the manufacturing process and the employees who make it happen. The following Warm Springs Middle School students won the Eastern Regional Explore Manufacturing Award for 2016. So, when I read your name, come up. RILEY LEMON. THOMAS ROSS. MELISSA PAUL. LIVY COLE. GRAYSON BECKHAM. DJ ZALUCKY. MADDIE MCKINNEY. AND THEIR ADVISOR WAS MRS. MEGAN POWELL. AND THE BUSINESS PARTNER THAT THEY DID A VIDEO at was Gat Creek. >> THEY ALSO FINISHED THIRD IN STATE. >> And they finished THIRD IN STATE. MR. ROWLAND, COME ON UP. >> I JUST HAVE UM one group to to um recognize, but before I do that, um

031we had Miss Tonya Weaver is new to our system this year and didn't uh get a fair start. She had to start a little later, replacing someone, and she's been the person in charge. She's had some help, I know that, but she's the one who's taken the bull by the horns and and organized this night. We thank you very much for all YOUR HARD WORK. WELL, WHAT WHAT MR. BERGEN doesn't know is he is our most junior board member right now. And that happens. Come on, guys, if you ever played sports, you know what happened to the freshman back in the day. We're not even going to discuss that. But on the other hand, I don't have to read anything, so the gray hair did work out well for me. I want to point that

032out. I might add I coached Mr. Bergen once upon a time. He was a very good freshman runner at the time. Um I want to recognize our our Berkeley Springs uh state championship chess team. I don't know if you know much about chess. I've tried to play it. I like the game, but I'm not very good at it cuz you have to watch 32 pieces, and that's just about my pay grade, I think. But it's a wonderful game. And not only did this team um win the state, but also went to nationals, and they finished in mid-pack. I think they ended up playing about 21 hours of chess in about 3 days in Chicago. What a remarkable accomplishment. It's not mentioned here, either, but they went to DC recently, won an entire tournament down there

033out of I don't know 40 or 50 teams. I've read it. I'm I'm I'm wrong on numbers, guys, forgive me. But anyways, it's it's a great demanding sport. It's a lot more physical than you think. Just sitting there concentrating really wears you out. So, let's recognize the Berkeley Springs first place team. BRIAN TAYLOR. BRODY GLOYD. MOISES GUZMAN ROBLES JOSEPH GUZMAN ROBLES MALCOLM JONES ADAM O'BRIEN JR. DYLAN STEWART AND RILEY SOLDIER. BASICALLY, GUYS, YOU JUST LEARNED THE GAME this year in Spanish, right? For the most part. You You got it before? >> Okay. >> Remarkable story. And back to Snowden. >> That was just the weather. All right. Next up, CMB Student of the Year Award. Ava Hill. No, inside joke. AVA MICHAEL. YOU KNOW I WAS GOING TO PICK AVA. >> NATIONAL Geographic Bee participant

034OLIVER JERRICK. THE JUNIOR NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY Scholarship winner, the National Junior Honor Society Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes middle level students for their commitment to the five pillars of NJHS, scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship. The 500 NJHS students selected for the Outstanding Achievement Award receive a $500 college savings plan to support their educational aspirations. The scholarship winner, Ashlyn Unger. Now, I would invite you with sports. All right, as we come to the close, I know everybody's excited about this. Happy to be athletes. uh Mr. Banks is going to have a few parting words and then we will stand at ease for a couple minutes and you all are more than welcome to stick around to hear about our Hang on. End of year benchmark data. And our end of year attendance data. So, you are

035welcome to stay. But, if you don't want to, I can appreciate you a beautiful evening tonight. Go enjoy celebrate these acknowledgements. Uh those are certificates. They may not have any monetary value, but please know that from the board of education, they are truly a great accomplishment for you to take and to hold and to set as a next step for something you're going to achieve, okay? Please take them. Please Please appreciate them. Uh we don't hand them out to everybody. Even though I will miss I will not miss your calls. I will miss signing all these certificates, though. They are really good times. Okay, over to our athletics. Our MAC 3200 m champion and PBL 1600 m champion, BROOKE MILLER. THE TIME OF FOR THE 1600 IS PRETTY GOOD. Uh our class A region two

036So, the SSAC has done away with sectionals and now there are only regions. So, we're going to celebrate our regional winners tonight. Uh first up, Shayla Pedlowe. YOU WON 4 EVENTS AND GOT TO participate down Charleston on all fours. She did the 100 meter, 300 meter hurdles, long jump, and high jump. Congratulations, CHEYENNE. SHE'S HEADED TO WEST VIRGINIA STATE on a full track scholarship. Avion Ambrose for our class double A region two Abigail Close, 300 meter hurdle, AND HIGH JUMP. AND FROM BERKELEY SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL, JACOB MORGAN, 150 pound weight class WRESTLING CHAMPION REGION. >> ALL RIGHT, I WILL BE VERY BRIEF. UH WE'VE BEEN saying a lot in the district this year, why not Morgan County? There's no reason we can't win at regionals or at the state or what you even heard tonight

037at the national level. We have the best kids anywhere. We have the nicest kids. You go down to James Rumsey and talk to the staff there and they would say, "We can always tell the students from Paw Paw High School and Berkeley Springs High School apart." Why is that? They're the nicest kids. They hold the doors for the adults. They say hello to the adults. And now now tonight you see how academically gifted our kids are, how hard they work. We've never had as much success as we have this year at our regional social studies and science fair. There's no reason we can't be the best. Why not? Our kids can be whatever they want to be with a little encouragement, some high expectations, and the right amount of support like you offer as parents.

038So, we appreciate you and we all all obviously know that this is a team effort. I just want to thank you all for coming tonight. Um, I hope you enjoyed the ice cream. And again, Mr. Mr. Close said if you'd like to stay, you're welcome to, but please feel free to enjoy your evening. Thank you. >> THANK YOU VERY MUCH. UH BACK TO OUR REGULAR scheduled events. I lost my agenda. Um I'm back. Thank you very much. >> All those supplemental items >> They took the I think I think they So they took the podium and Mr. Baron. >> I don't know. No good deed goes unpunished. >> You know, I think I could probably do this in my sleep. I probably don't even need this. All right, we are on to still presentations item

039B end of year benchmark data. Always tag teaming this or okay. >> Yes, I'll be >> Tag teaming Elementary is up first. Thank you. >> Okay, so one thing to keep in mind as you look at the data is at this point in the year we want our students to be at grade level or above grade level that is the goal. If they are early on, they're still on grade level but they might be missing some skills on that grade level. So as you look through just keep that in mind. Um to start off in reading, we have about 60% of our students that are on grade level. One thing to point out is students approaching grade level which means they might have some of the grade level skills but not enough to be considered

040early on. At the beginning of the year we were at 48% and that has decreased to 27%. Below grade level at the beginning of the year we were at 29% and at this point in the year we are we have decreased that to 12%. So some good movement where we should see movement. Over half of the K through five students made 120% towards their growth. So in other words, that would break down as about 60% of our students met their typical growth and 31% met their stretch growth. So the national norm average for means stretch growth is anywhere from 25 to 30% we were at 31 so that's a good indicator as well. Last year at this time the results were similar, 60% on grade level, 27% approaching and 13% below. So very consistent to

041what we looked like last year. Sometimes students will experience growth but not enough for a placement change. So that's important to look to. And then this is what our math looks like. I'm not sure why this line is coming up on me, but because of the screen. >> Yeah, it's missing some of the data points. >> So, mid-year above grade level 32% early on 23 for combination of 55% of our students on grade level. For approaching at beginning of the year, we had 59% of our students approaching grade level and decreased that to 35% and then below grade level went from 28% to 9%. Math was also similar to last year, 54% on grade level, 36 approaching, and 10% below. For math, 57% of our students met their typical growth and 26% met their stretch

042growth. A little bit lower number there. This next graph shows the proficiency in ELA and math from BOY to MOY to EOY. So, overall, ELA had a 37% increase. Math had a 43% increase. And one thing that is good to see here is that we are kind of balanced. ELA is 5% higher, but they're still relatively close. So, we don't have one subject several percent higher than the other. We did have, of course, a higher growth in math than we did ELA this year. And then this shows the ELA proficiency growth from beginning of year, middle of year to end of the year K through 5. So, some things to highlight there is that in ELA, all grades at least 50% of the students met their expected typical growth. Kindergarten is rocking it at 88%

043proficient. Their strengths were vocabulary and comprehension, which is usually more difficult to score at that age level, so that was good to see. Kindergarten, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade are all consistent with state and national norms. First grade was a little bit lower, but the highlights for first grade is um it is evident that students are using their phonological awareness skills. Phonics was their strength. So, next year the emphasis would be then to focus on supporting that comprehension development as well as the phonics. They'll look at how to explicitly teach the vocabulary. So, that's going to be the focus for first grade. One good thing is that in volume two letters, which those teachers are getting ready to enter, that is the focus, language comprehension and vocabulary. They did also have good growth from

0447% to 50%. Another thing to highlight here is second and third grade when we dug into the data, we could see that the interventions are working really well in these two particular grades. They had the highest percent meeting their typical and stretch growth. So, in second grade, 62% of the students met typical, 34% met stretch. And then third grade, 72% of the students met their typical growth and 38% met their stretch growth. Um going back to first grade, one thing I did forget to mention is that they only had 3% below grade level. They had a large percentage, 48%, that are approaching. So, that's something to point out in the yellow box. And then >> So, I'm going to put you on the spot for question one. You give a proposal on third grade since

045I sat. 68% of third grade is a great number. I'm going to cut How does that look last year or the year before? That seems really good this year. >> For the third grade? >> Yes. >> Well, I know overall we were consistent, but third grade, I don't remember what they were at the beginning of last year. >> Okay. >> But one One I already I started to do, I didn't it for this year, but next year I will. Um at our EOY data check-in with them, they started to include third grade success act data. So, they're giving us the number of students down below the cut score at EOY, the percent that's um increasing in their scaled score, and then the number that we still have below the cut score at EOY. So, that's

046going to be something they're adding in moving forward as we transition to that school organization. Um looking at math, once again, kindergarten is rocking it, 80% proficient in math. They've had great growth. 72% of their students met their typical growth, and 41% met their stretch growth. Over half of the K-5 students are making 107% progress towards their growth goals. Um when we dug into the data here, an area that we're going to focus on next year is in grades 1, 2, and 3. We've seen a little dip in the number and operations. So, we're going to work on strengthening that because we know that that's foundational for all the other math skills. And then, looking at our elementary next steps, we're going to continue the school-based elementary instructional coaches that we have in place. Um

047we're going to continue screening math K-5, our science and reading and numeracy teams that meet bi-monthly. Our letters cohort 2 is continuing with volume 2. This will be their last year. We're going to continue to use of i-Ready for our benchmark and our personalized learning. What we're going to start is a new letters cohort, and we have currently 18 enrolled in that, but it keeps increasing cuz Mr. Wyman is doing a good job recruiting his new teachers as he hires them, they sign up for letters. So, that's a good thing. Um we're also going to have Ashley Reed, our numeracy specialist, come and do a professional learning in August. She'll do half a day K-2 and half a day 3-5 focusing on number and operations, which is an area we have identified. And then, we

048are also going to have a training for our e-cad. We're going to participate in the ELA curriculum pilot next year, so that way we can get to know the materials and be more informed when we make a decision. We are going to utilize our ready literacy task. We started diving into those this year and putting uh processes in place for that. And that is going to be a good addition because it's basically assessments that drill down on the specific literacy skill that students are missing. So, we'll be able to adjust and target instruction better. So, that should be in full implementation next year. And then we're going to talk a little bit about this later on tonight, but we will have a West Virginia impact plus literacy coach assigned to a school in our county.

049>> Is reading adoption up next year? >> So, they deferred it a year until they'll have a standard review and then the following year will be the instructional review. So, then this gives us a year to kind of look at the materials. Um our ELA curriculum is really important to teachers, so we wanted to be able to use it. I think you get a better idea of using the materials than just what you get from the reviews in the company and looking at the samples. Any questions for me before we go into secondary? >> No, ma'am. >> I'm just waiting a minute for them to switch over. I think it's coming. You can keep going. >> That one, right? We're good. >> Is the program order? Thank you. >> Mhm. There we go. Pretty picture.

050Okay, so we're looking at on this slide our proficiency for only grades 6 through 8. And if you remember, we have added a benchmark that's different for grades 9 through 11, which we'll get to in a few minutes. So, we're looking at 6 through 8 IXL data here for ELA. And what you're looking at on this slide is a 61% proficiency for ELA in grades 6 through 8, which I feel is just phenomenal. And we'll look at that in comparison with the end of the year results, but that just gives you an overview for the end of the year. And our end of year full year we ended up with a 46% proficiency according to IXL for math. But almost all of our students tested. I think on those slides there was a 2% not

051counted if you remember that there are just students who did not answer enough questions to get an accurate score. That number when we first started IXL was around 10-15% and now our schools have done a really great job of getting everybody tested. This slide uh will show you the improvement that we have made in grades 6 through 8 over the year. So, you can see on the left is ELA and on the right is math. Our ELA proficiency has grown 18% from 44% at the beginning of the year to 62% at the end of the year. Math, we don't have quite as balanced at elementary looks. Uh but we're working on that. So, in math we did have a great increase there as well though. It's up 16% from 30 to 36. IXL. Uh the

052next slide breaks it down by grade level. So, the district graph on the far left, uh the district seven bars on the far left is just a copy of what we saw on the previous slide. So, that's mimicking that but then it breaks it down by grade level. So, just a few things to highlight for grades 6, 7, and 8 that I think absolutely noteworthy here. In ELA, all three of our grade levels are scoring on grade level as a group. Um typically, they've been about a year and a half behind. So, IXL scores, for example, if you're going into seventh grade, your IXL score should be 700. Um our students in sixth grade ended sixth grade at a 704 average, which is grade seven. They are right on grade level. Our seventh graders ended

053the year at 797, which means they're right on grade level getting into eighth grade. And our eighth graders moving on to the high school, 901, which means they're performing at the ninth grade level. So, I think that's just really phenomenal. We've never seen that before. Math, same kind of thing. Um we're closing the gap there as well. Our sixth grade math, they're only behind a half of a year as a group at this point where traditionally it's been about a year and a half to two years behind. Seventh grade, one year behind. And then our eighth graders are half a year behind. So, um they were scoring at a 750. So, all of that is an improvement as a group. They're just They're moving up. Which is great. Any questions about IXL? I should ask

054that before we move on to the ninth grade group. All right, we should be IXL experts at this point. I feel like I've been talking about it for a long time. So, the new benchmark we have is Progress Learning for ninth, 10th, and 11th grade. And those These are three separate benchmark tests. So, we have the PSAT 8/9 benchmark, we have the PSAT 10 benchmark, and then we have the one that benchmarks toward the actual SAT test. So, on this slide, what you're looking at is the PSAT 8/9, is what it's called and it's reading and writing. Now, we gave this We're trying to play around a little bit with how we're going to structure this because we have this benchmark test, but we also actually give the real PSAT in October and then we

055give it again in April. So, we have to try to figure out what's We don't want to give it too much, right? Because then the then the students just they burn out on it. So, what you're looking at here is the progress learning benchmark that we gave in September and then we gave it again in February. So, what you're looking at on the top there, the proficiency isn't marked on there, but the proficiency in September for the reading and writing 89 grades were 51% and then it increased to 53% in February, which was up 2%. Jury's still out on how that's going to track into what the actual PSAT 9 scores were at the end of the year, but I can I'll be able to share that later in the fall. Next, we're going on

056to the PSAT 10 reading and writing. Started the year in September with a 29% proficiency and ended in February with a 57% proficiency, which was up 28%. So, that's looking good for us. Hopefully, that tracks into April when they actually took the actual test. And then the next reading one is for the actual SAT reading and writing. And this is our accountability year data. Um just keep in mind that the grade 9 and 10 we don't do not have to give them um an assessment. We just choose to do that. The only year that's accountability is 11th grade. So, this one's the really important one. Um proficiency at the beginning of the year, 36% and proficiency in February, 42. so that was up 6%. Now, these proficiencies that I'm sharing with you are college board

057proficiencies. For the SAT in particular, there's West Virginia Department of Education Education proficiency level that's like 10 points lower. So, our proficiency with the state department will actually be a little higher, like 1 or 2% points. Then we move on to math. So, back to math um in grades 8 or grade 9, it's called the PSAT 8/9. Our proficiency in September was 20% and it's up 13% to 33% in February. The 10th grade math proficiency in September was 7% and it's up 1% in February to 8%. So, we can see that um if you look carefully, 8th grade math and 10th grade math are definitely our areas where we need to focus. And then with 11th grade with the SAT, we have proficiency of 14 at the beginning of the year and 25% in February,

058which was up 11%. And that's the end of the progress learning part of what I'm sharing. So, are there any questions on that part? Yep. All right, you know, I decided to pull in the CTE stuff for you this year. Haven't done this before. But this was interesting. Um you can get these reports from CTE. Our CTE accountability is measured a little bit differently. They're considered as part of an overall report that we get in the fall. It's called a CTE efficiency indicator and Mr. Vance shared that with you earlier in the fall when we received that. But what that includes, when we're held accountable for CTE, They look at things like how many participants we had in grades 6 through 12. That means how many students have taken one CTE course. Concentrators take two

059courses in the same pathway, and completers are ones that take all of their courses in the pathway, and they take the NOCTI test, which is what this is going to show you the results from that. Um it also considers work-based learning and our certification of our teachers, which we have our certification of our CTE teachers is at 100%. So all of all of our teachers in grades 6 through 12 that deal with CTE are fully certified in the areas that they teach. Um NOCTI stands for National Occupational Competency Testing Institute, and our students take those pre-tests usually in November, and then they take it again at the end of April. So these graphs do a pretty nice job of showing you what each of our programs um how they how they stack up to the

060state and the nation and workforce entry. So on the left-hand side we're looking at um the administrative support program. On the right-hand side is business enterprise. Now essentially both of these are the same program. Um CTE likes to change things up all the time. So the administrative support was the older program and we're transitioning into business enterprise. So it's the same pathway just a few different course selections. Now you can see in an administrative support, um it's up 4.4 percentage points from pre-test to post-test. Those students um have exceeded workforce The class average at least here has exceeded workforce entry state and national average. 75% of our students who took that NOCTI exam met the workforce entry score. And then in business enterprise, which is the one on the right, um it was up 8.5

061percentage points. Exceeded The students exceeded in all three areas, state, national, and workforce. And 100% met workforce entry scores. That was awesome. Then we move on into our agri business and power structure and technical systems programs. And in these programs the agri business was up 0.6 points. It's slightly below the workforce entry, but 61.5% of our students met the workforce entry scores. The power structure and technical, which is on the right, down two points, a little bit below in all three areas, and but 50% met the workforce entry. So, I will talk a little bit in a minute about what we're going to do to look at those scores a little bit in a little bit more depth. The last one is career work skills training. These are our students who go out into the

062workforce. They have early release. They go out to jobs at the end of the day, and they also work with the teacher um to complete this pathway. So, it's like two credits are actual workforce, and two are actual like in the class courses. It's up nine points. This one had the did have the greatest increase from pretest to posttest. They're slightly below the workforce entry with 56.3% meeting that score, but they are below the state national average. Any questions on any of this? >> What are the s- How do How do they There's an actual like test they take, and then how do they add in what they do with how they do in the workforce? Are the employers questioned or >> So, that um so, as part of the CTE accountability, this same platform

063where they take their test, um the students also have to enter time cards. So, when they do simulated workplace, like each of our programs on pathways have a simulated workplace, and they log their hours, and then the teacher has to approve those hours, and then those get translated from not being into our LIVA system, and then the state gets sort of a score. So, that's how that all factors in. And then, last page here. So, for secondary next steps, we're going to continue what's working. We're going to continue using IXL for benchmarking in grades 6 through 8. We keep refining that. Every year we think of changes we want to make in our IXL usage. Are we using it too little? Are we using it too much? Um how do we use it? How many

064minutes a day? That kind of thing. So, we're going to continue using and refining that. We're not going to change something that's working. We are going to continue with Progress Learning for benchmarking in grades 9 through 11. Regardless of whether it tracks exactly with the actual test at the end of the year, the principals and teachers feel like it is a good tool because it's giving them more guided practice toward those tests than IXL did. We are obviously going to continue our partnership with Instructional Empowerment. That is also working to increase rigor and student agency. A lot of good things coming from that report, which we hope to give you a report on later in the summer, I believe. So, what's new? Um we're going to try to reduce IXL usage in grades 9 through

06511, targeting only special populations. So, this year I I let them keep IXL just as they were transitioning to a new tool, just to see I you know, it's hard it's always hard to try a new tool. So, next year they're not really going to have IXL in grades 9 through 11 unless they're requesting it for a special group of students that they feel need an official tool. We want to build capacity in Progress Learning. Um we've just sort of scratched the surface on what all it can do, so we'll do some more teacher training on that and try to use it more effectively. And I want to increase um I district level support for teachers sustainability. So I will be working with us next year to really build our capacity at the district level,

066my own capacity and that of our coach Tiffany Clements to help us to in the future be able to sustain that project without them. And I did think a couple of other things I wanted to add under new after this was sent out. One thing to address our math scores, we are doing a few things there which is a more targeted use of Read 180 and Math 180 at the middle school level and working with summer with that should look like because they have a really great model in the elementary levels. And also we're going to introduce Spring Math up through grade eight. Spring Math is currently used in grades K through five and it helps with basic skills and our middle school teachers have been screaming for basic skills practice for our kids and

067hopefully this will help to address that. And I also added in that due to this, you know, really analyzing the CTE scores, it gives a good picture of some areas that we need to focus on there. Maybe some more increased data analysis for our CTE teachers that they haven't really received before. And I think that's it for me. Unless you have questions. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. I I appreciate the the next step. >> Is there any way to see this progress learning thing like we've done before? We've done um We've done >> You want a demo? >> Yeah. Is that possible? >> I would probably get our instructional coach to give the demo. Yeah. >> Like we've seen our Excel and >> Sure. You got it. Okay. >> I think another next step

068that probably should have been on the old list, but Jeremy perhaps is trying to find certified math teachers which is the course of a certified math teacher. So >> We're doing a lot better We've got We're looking a lot better at Early Spring High School for certified math teachers. >> Thank you very much. >> Next. >> Attendance data. A lot written there. So, um first things first, I somehow had this slide that I've probably bored you. I know you're going to be seeing this thing all the time, but it's our chart. I did just send it to you in an email, but I do want to um highlight just a couple of things here. This This first slide here that's on here is our totals for the year. But, I did want to highlight a

069few things from our individual grades and schools. So, again, I just sent you this and I did just a quick screenshot so you have it in your email. So, don't worry about all this stuff down, but you'll be able to see that there. Um so, the our goal for the county is to be less than 15%. It's a lofty goal, but it's it's met by multiple counties in the state. Not many, but it's met. Um this year I I look for it to be met by more counties than it was last year uh because this is a huge emphasis uh across the across the entire state. So, uh just a couple uh grade levels that I want to highlight is uh Opp Opp schools, the Opp Opp Elementary School second grade had the best percentage

070in the county at 7.69%. Second or third? Uh sorry, first. Sorry, first grade. Um and then, Opp Opp High School's at seventh grade. Uh you remember last year they were the class that was usually 0% almost every time I ran this. They are were at 10%. Uh second grade at Whitmire personally my son. So, my son's there. Uh they were uh at 12.63% which is really good for second grade. Uh, then we had a Pleasant View Elementary uh, second grade at 13.64. Pleasant View fourth grade 14.29. Uh, Warm Springs Intermediate School's fourth grade at 14.55. And our juniors here at Burke Springs High School was at 15%. So, all these grade levels beat our county goal of 15% or lower. Um, so it's pretty impressive to have a representative from each each grade level uh,

071to be honest with you, but we did fairly well this year in those grade levels. Um, also too uh, as a as a whole the second grade class across the county beat our county goal at 14.29. So, kudos to second grade this year. Um, up here on this slide here you see just the totals for the school. Uh, again to me Warm Springs Intermediate School they have been our faithful. Uh, they have just been solid on this. Uh, they've been like this for a few years now hovering around 16 to 17% yearly. Uh, so they've been faithful on that. Uh, big kudos to Warm Springs Middle School they got down below 20% this school year. Uh, and then also too I would note that uh, Widmyer Elementary School was at 20.7. Um, that is the

072best I've ever seen Widmyer. And then Burke Springs High School was at 22.93 that is also the best I've ever seen that. Um, so we're working on some things. Uh, it is it is getting better but it's not where I thought we were going to be but again you know, it's attendance is a is a fun thing. It's like golf it's very frustrating sometimes. Um, so the next slide here that we have is the comparison over the last uh, since 2022-23. You remember we always noted that 2022-23 is going to be our baseline because of all the COVID regulations were lifted at that time. Um, so the the frustrating part for this for me is is that in 2023-2024 we got down to 22.8% which was really good. And then last year we spiked again.

073So, in my brain I I would like to see that continue to go down. So, where I think we should be at this year would be like 16-17% uh because we should have continued to decrease last year. We did not. Uh but again, really happy with where we're at. And this this will fluctuate a little bit uh because of the three quarter part of the balance board probably comes out later. They do a lot of some of the students that were not in school for 135 days, discipline, uh attendance, uh school bus they had to run, those kind of things. So, some of those folks will be removed. So, I do look for this to go down a little bit. I say that and last year it actually went up about 1.3%. So, even though

074they're taking things out, so uh it it's a we'll see what we'll see what we get whenever this balance board part comes out. Um, the next slide that I have here is this is all truancy-based uh data. Uh again, I I feel like we're doing really well with truancy. I I don't uh worry about that a whole lot. We we have that pretty much down pat. Um, as you see here, we only had 58 total uh MBT meetings this year which is uh down drastically from the previous years prior. Um, and we also sent out um I mean minimum five-day letters this year. This that's uh those numbers are great. Um, Holly probably appreciates that. I I know that. The next slide here is one that I'm really happy with as well. Um, you'll see

075on this that with perfect attendance, now again, that does include our virtual students, but we only had what, 20 some students total in the county this Okay. So, we have 22-23 students total. We had 75 kids across our across our county that had perfect attendance. it. That's pretty impressive And at this time and and you know guys, as we talked about it before, our families are busier, our kids are busier than they've ever been. Um but the next number that we have is also very very impressive. We have 877 students that missed either a half a day between a half a day and 9 through absences. So, 877 of our kids missed less than 10 days of school. And our county, that's that's pretty impressive. Um and then our last one here again is just

076paid full attendance. This is for anyone that missed from 9 and 1/2 to 18 days. So, we had we had over 1,500 students that met one of these. So, not bad for for us. Um could be better, always, but we're really happy with this. And then the last slide here that we have is again, we wouldn't We didn't We didn't expect there to be much of a change in this in the last uh last 9 weeks because ultimately all of the notices of absence that we're getting now for both home is for school year '26-'27. So, there wouldn't There shouldn't have been much of a change here on this, but um I will say that uh this is a busy time in the attendance world because we're receiving all of those end of the year

077um documentation that we have to have and that they have to provide us. So, this is a pretty It's a It's a fun time to have your name attached to the word of school choice email that you get from everyone that uh sends these in. So, busy time of the year for that, but ultimately like I said, pretty pleased with our attendance data. Um I know I don't have a slide here that says next steps, but one thing that we're doing next year is we're moving our uh we we have a we updated our attendance plan already. We we shared that with our principals today. Um and one thing that we are uh changing from from the truancy side of things is we used to have those meetings at the prosecutor's office. Next year we're

078having them at central office uh with just uh me or the attendance coordinator and one of our assistant principal or principal. And at that at that meeting it's going to be a hey look, we we've done this, we've done this. Because to be honest with you, 20 students would have been affected by that this year in terms of attendance. Um that's not that's not a huge number at all. We think we can make it smaller by implementing some more steps at the school level. And also at our at our level, too. Um so that's something that we'll be changing next year. We have already approached the central office already about that. Got that squared away with them. Uh something else too that we're going to be implementing next year is this Virginia is She already

079does this spreadsheet every uh 10 days uh for all of our students that has missed less than whatever whatever the allotment is for that So our schools are given that data every 10 days. Um but next year she's going to start another tab for them that has any students missed 10 total days. So it doesn't matter if it's excused, it doesn't matter if it's unexcused, just 10 total days. So that so that our that our schools can then focus on those students sooner. You get a kid that has it in October, that's going to be a problem down the line. You get a kid that has that in May, not so much of a problem, right? Like we still have you know some days where we have some uh some fluctuation. Another thing is our

080our community schools uh sites that we're going to be having are going to be uh have a table. We're going to have them all scripted out for what they need to do at their open house nights. And Virginia is going to go to Pleasant Views and I'm going to go to all the schools next year every night. So uh we've got some good things going. Um but again, happy with it, but it could be better. >> I got a couple things for you. >> Uh-huh. >> Um do you think the three years of knowing this has led to the decrease in the NDT meetings and educating our habitual the threat Is that that's the thing you're taking away or you're taking away that same methodology? >> Yes, absolutely. Yeah. >> Um Talk about using TAS

081in regards to communication tools as well to get in front of those students who may be visual absences as well. Putting them on that loss of day submission for a um review. And the last one I had was So, um Mr. Liggins did a nice job and he recognized the person who was faithful at attendance and didn't miss anything. He knows if our schools and they may all already do that and some may do it, but just recognizing on perfect senior awards sometime in regards to identifying those that are perfect attendance. >> Yeah, that's that's something we talked about the days and more recognition. Yeah, we do that. We It's something we It's just we we don't do I don't want to say like this. The other way I say it is that we just

082don't do a good job of it right now. We could do better at that with recognizing these students. I mean something Mr. Liggins did the other day was I I like the fact I mean the grade of 877 names is something that's just not feasible to do that. But one thing that he did the other day was he had he he told the students what they were and then he had the same attendance and just be recognized which I thought was a very very simple thing to do. Uh so that's something that we're we're trying to do better at with the recognition and similar things. And they need to be recognized. So >> That's all I wanted to know. More members? >> Somewhere along the the lines we got away from that because we used

083to not only recognize perfect attendance, but we did faithful as well. So it'd be good to have that >> Thank you very much. I'm sorry Mr. Baggett. I didn't give you time to give me any comments about any of your data or attendance like always. >> Um well, as far as attendance goes, is we were really trashing this fact before winter. We were at 16% and we were feeling like wow, this is going to be a good year. And then, um I don't know what happened. Like, Pleasant View is a great example. We had a month where half the half the kids were there and you know, I think our our nurses are doing a good job of saying You need to stay home because we want them to stay home if they have a

084fever or they're you know, they'll infect those students. Um and it it's it's not an excuse. This is we were at 16 and then all of a sudden we're at 19. And that was within a month and I don't I don't know what the answer is to that. Um I don't know. But, uh we had several schools hit hard and then we had one school that you know, we wasn't. And I I don't know how to explain that. But, uh >> And yeah, but do you think that that confuses parents, too? Cuz you can read on Facebook, they'll be like, "Well, you know, they want us to bring our kid, but my kid's sick. And so, what do we do?" >> It is. We're we're compiling right now for just the area or region from

085other districts for what they what their nurses send out so that we have a more consistent uh message because some of them are like one way and some of them are like wait for the follow up. So, we're we're kind of we've gotten four responses back so far. We're actually meeting with the our lead nurses Thursday to discuss what that would look like cuz I getting all that I'm getting to hear that in every town. So, >> As far as achievement data, uh I'm very pleased with the elementary and middle school growth across both English language arts and math. And math, uh it's excellent data. It's really good to look forward to, you know, what what comes next with our GSA data next year and beyond. Uh obviously the concern would be that 10th grade

086math score. I can't seem to let go of that one. Uh we've got a lot of work to do there. And we've seen some improvements in high school, but that pushes the There's no excuse for that. We we we have to do better. And uh I think we're we're seeing some math growth. Uh we do have a certified math teacher coming into the high school purpose precisely next year, so I do anticipate that getting better. Um the areas of focus that Mr. Knight and Mr. Golden have been working on have both seen improvement. We now need to shift our focus to that class. We see a glaring weakness there with the uh next year's juniors. So uh yeah, we we have work to do. >> So you've seen that group from elementary on having a

087lot of trouble or what is it? >> Well, I I think that this year's juniors are the group that we have got them dialed in and they've made some good growth. And we we were shocked to see the result this year with that number. And and I don't know if you know, it it can always it could be that they didn't take the test seriously. I don't know, but we we used to say we have to dig and find out why it went from started out at seven and went to eight. I think that's the number. So I'm very very concerned about that. I'm very pleased with the other data, but that's just kind of sticks out to me. >> What about the math? >> I guess what come off the top of my head

088is we talked about the qual- the qualified teachers at the kindergarten and first grade So the certified. Thank you. Um the ones that aren't, I mean, what can we do to help them? I mean I guess you can't spread your certified ones thin, but you know, but too many things that help the students, you know, the whole thing. >> Well, some of those are working toward their degree, right? So, that automatically helps Well, I was thinking if I did a little bit of subbing for last year when they got out of college. And if he gets stuck, you know, if he stuck me in a calc class, I'm in big trouble. Well, yeah, but if he didn't have any background in it, like if he had to have a warm body, yes. Not a real

089warm one at that, so it's it's tough on them, especially some of those upper division classes. >> I made reports of communication. Thank you very much. Reports of communications, uh the only thing I had a comment was the graduation. Uh I know it was a tough decision. I know Mr. Banks was thinking hard about delaying it, trying to keep it outside, but we got to stay dry, but uh at the end of the day, I think it was a good call. I think that I'm sure that it wasn't easy, but I've seen a lot of other comments going on, a lot of other worse graduations that happened in the rain. And so, I believe all in all, it was a nice ceremony. You know, thank you for your Please pass along to Mr. His staff

090there uh was able to pull it off. Board members? >> I don't I don't have any comment on that as well. I was going to say the same thing. I actually think it went out went well in the old or in the cafeteria or gym. >> But the only comment that I had was that it was um >> One of the first >> We may have been able to fit a few more people in there. And so, I'm wondering if my wife had to a at maybe I didn't get a ticket to the fair. If any more glass sizing and what we had and there was some space in the gym. I know that we had some overflow over here, but it was um there was room. I thought on the side. Something just to

091keep in mind going forward next year. >> I think as a spectator you have a better view over there relative to where you just can't get as many people in. >> Um along those lines I I just wanted to to thank um all the efforts and the people that moved all the chairs into the gym and at at the intermediate school all the chairs that were set up you know, there's just a lot of behind the scenes work that that our personnel staff did. We really need them. >> You really should give them some credit for that cuz that's a lot of chairs. So, some chairs at the intermediate school >> I really I like my chair talking to me a little bit. >> So, just the thanks. >> Uh along the same lines I

092thank the principals today. We had We have a principal meeting board meeting day. So, I'm a little uh tired. We're all a little tired all day. But, I thank them for just a lot of great activities at the end of the year. Step up days went really well. The the awards program has went really well. We put a lot of effort a lot of time into that. Um and I think uh the students appreciate it. It also helps with attendance uh because you know, you send out a little memo there. Nobody no teacher ever says, "Hey, don't worry about coming. We're not doing anything." We don't say that here. We We are engaged in the end of the year. And so I felt like there was a lot of good stuff happening at the end

093of the year. Some fun to be had as well. So principals do a nice job with that. Turning a bunch of middle school kids loose in the last couple days of school was very brave to do. So I really admire that. Um Also a little bit of information about summer school. Starts June 15th. Runs through July 23rd. It's a Monday through Thursday program. Transportation is provided. It's at Warm Springs Intermediate School. And currently the target audience is current K through 2 students and some There's a handful of 3rd grade students invited there as well. Uh Poplar also has summer school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They have a 3-day program. It's a little bit longer in duration for each day. And then finally, Marcus High School has the typical credit recovery. It starts actually Thursday. So

094we'll put that out. Um also I wanted to mention We talked about this earlier in the year. Um one of the issues that we have had uh is our behaviors at the earliest grade levels. And we have employed a um a BCBA, Nicole Piles. And uh we also have Lisa, our behavior coach. She's been working with uh teachers. So as a follow-up to that, those same opioid funds that we used to fund the salary for the BCBA, we're going to use that money to bring staff in at the pre-K level and the teachers of the intellectually disabled who are at the same level we require to bring in families and students in need of them in the summer before they walk in the door on the first day of school. So that way they can

095get to know the parents and get to know the kids. They might to a better placement. They might know some behavior strategies prior to them walking in the first day and try to figure that out with 20 students in the room. So I'm going to offer that to a handful of teachers and probably expand that to some of the service providers later. But PT and some of those folks can come in as well. And then finally, I think it's in your folder but we had a clean financial audit. We're proud of that and kudos to not just Aaron but Ann Bell for all their work making sure that we get this clean audit that we had in the past. So that's it. >> Any questions for the superintendent? Under 09 public comment, I have no

096one signed up. I am 10 consent agenda. The superintendent recommends approval of the following consent actions as presented. Minutes of the May 19, 2026 regular meeting, payment of bills, budget adjustments, and a volunteer. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any concerns or comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Those nay? The ayes carry it. Personnel, the superintendent recommends approval of the following personnel actions as presented. Board here, sir. >> All right. >> So on the agenda here under professional personnel, we're bringing on an interventionist teacher for math at W. C. Miller Middle School. Certified. Um we're also bringing on a certified science teacher for W. C. Miller Middle School. Um we have a transfer from

097Fourth Grade Intermediate Fourth Grade One Hundred and Third Intermediate School in Fifth Grade, Pleasant View. Uh we have a resignation for uh extended school year mental health grant social worker, Cole Paul. Uh we have under service personnel, that was this individual here was our last person that was on our riffle list and actually went right back into the job that she was in. So, she So, it all worked out. Uh we are bringing on a full-time bus operator. That individual is a sub bus operator for us right now. Uh for bus 2626. And we're going under letter C for extracurricular. Uh we have a student assistant to the coordinator at All Souls Burke Street High School. That individual also serves as our graduation coach. This is what I'm working out really well with the league

098on this. Um under professional staff development, number one is for our creative arts and finance textbook committee. Two is for the same. Three is for the same. Uh four is for unpacking standards with All Souls. Five is for letters, computer letters grade book. And then under letter G, that is our custodian. This is going to be there for our summer program at the intermediate, I mean summer routes. And letter H we're asking for certificate to accept resignations for those positions and hire employees at next regularly scheduled meeting effective tomorrow through the days of August. Uh is this good? Over on the addenda, we have a first grade teacher we're bringing on. Happy with that. Number two, um so we're looking at a restructure here at Burke Street. Both of these are actually the same school.

099So, letter A, we have posted at All Souls the last two years for a 0.5 music, 0.5 art. Uh we have not been successful in finding someone that certified in one way or the other. We have got some interest if it was a full-time band director music teacher position. So, what we're asking for is for the half-time music teacher band director to be switched to a 1.0 uh music teacher band teacher. Um the plan We're going to get down to the letter B first. And then uh letter B is we have had some movement there from the person that's there now. Um so, we're asking for that to be restructured from a 0.75 assistant principal uh {slash} 0.25 ESL special education teacher 210 days over to assistant principal {slash} athletic director 205 days at the

100same school. And then uh down here number three is the other piece to uh the other one there is it's not that we're removing that. Uh there are just some options for online through our secondary levels and then our elementary teachers can work with the art diesel now. So, uh we we just haven't had success in finding someone to do either of those. Uh so, that's where those are all coming from. I would bring on a custodian here at Burleson High School. And the service personnel, that's a 200-day contract so they don't start until the teachers start. Um I would say too just just so this group is aware, we have one more service personnel position to post. And if they're done with all we're done with service personnel uh with hiring for next school

101year. So, um I am knock on wood, kick on wood, whatever I can do at the case. I know it's probably won't work out that way, but I'm pretty happy about it as of uh June the 2nd. Um under extracurricular, we bring on a head wrestling coach here at Burleson High School, assistant volleyball coach at Hughes Springs Middle. Assistant volleyball coach at Oak Knoll. And a blast from the past there is 60 days they're up. Uh so, uh we have Coach Simmons to agreeing to be our partner in work for H5 project at Windham High. Um, we're hoping that he enjoys this and that we have someone in our back pocket for future projects. So, we're going to force him to enjoy it, I think. >> Need any help? >> Um, so, back on the

102next page here, uh, this next piece right here is for an additional position and this is the letter she gave that Summer mentioned there a few moments ago. Uh, this is grant funded, this is not county funded. We are receiving funds through the Department of Ed for this. Uh, they also send us criteria for the same position, so we're asking for that. Professional staff development, letter D. We have another group of letters. Uh, a couple of quicks there. And then, number two is for the, again, textbook committee. And then, under letter F, um, so, we are bringing on one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight teachers for the summer program. Those individuals will be working at intermediate school in Poplar. They're Some of them are going to be working like 3 weeks, some of

103them are going to be working as subs, so that's why they're all one there. Um, we know who the folks are and where they're working at. They are They know that as well. And then, letters I and J are for the uh, summer program code coordinator. We've done that the last couple of years now, but it's the same person that. And then, letter K is for the summer school teacher that is working here at Poplar Bluff High School. Um, and that actually starts tomorrow, I believe. And then, that is it for the agenda at the end of the month. >> Thank you. >> There's coordinators also work separate weeks. One week is the first 3 weeks and the second week is the I'll 2 motion. >> Entertain a motion to approve the personnel as presented.

104>> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Concerns, comments, or questions? Hearing none, all those in favor of the same sign I. >> I. >> Those nay? The eyes have it. Thank you. And best of luck on your service personnel and soliciting. You're on the finance and budget board. Item A, authorize superintendent to approve the FY26 budget revision posted in WeBase after the June 2nd, 2026 board meeting. Copies of the budget revision will be provided to the board as per FY27. The board heard as per your interest here in a couple weeks, amazingly enough. Entertain a motion for the superintendent to make budget revisions. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Concerns or comments or questions? All those in favor of the same sign I. >> I. >>

105Those nay? The eyes have it. Item B, authorize superintendent to approve the payment of bills through July 7th, 2026. The scheduled checks will be written will be provided to the board at the subsequent meeting. Board, it looks like we will not be meeting in June. I will post discuss about that in more calendar of events and so this is due to that resolution. Entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Concerns or comments? All those in favor of the same sign I. >> I. >> Those nay? The eyes have it. Item C, approve registration for newly elected board member Pam Hessler to attend the June 12th through the 13th, 2026 West Virginia School Board Association new member orientation at Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center. >> So

106moved. >> Second. >> Thank Thank you. Concerns? All those in favor of saying aye. >> Aye. >> Those opposed, nay. Motion carried. >> Uh just one moment I'd like to just mention that as a central office we're also going to be providing an orientation for Pam and bring her in to learn a little bit more about how the central office works. So, that we're setting that up with her for hopefully the next week. >> That's a great idea. Thank you. Program planning, item A, approve the West Virginia Impact Memorandum of Understanding between Morgan County Board of Education and the WVDE for employing and supervising district school-based coaches. >> And this is in reference to the position that Mr. Joyce spoke about, the literacy coach. This is the agreement that goes along with that from the

107Department of Ed. >> Any questions regarding the memorandum before asking for a motion? And then I don't hear any motion on the approval of the MOU. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor of saying aye. >> Aye. >> Those opposed, nay. Motion carried. Item B, approve pre-K calendar for 2026-2027. >> Okay, so this is something something something we've been talking to you about. We brought this through the strategic planning committee and she's going to share with you calendar projected calendar for the next school year and it is a four-day packet. >> So, you'll notice that we are proposing to move from a five-day pre-K to a four-day pre-K, which we did bring with the strategic planning committee and they approved that. So, Mondays would be a staff only

108day for pre-K. Currently, we have two staff only days at 170 days total. >> Remind me how many days we have to have in the calendar for pre-K starting in August. >> Pre-K runs 5 minutes, so we have a minimum of 48,000. So, even with the reduction to 4 days, we're adding 15 minutes to the to the day, so it'd be 6 hours 15 minutes, so we're still 16 6,000 above the requirement of time. But with the 1,000 40 from 54,000. >> Sure. And my next question, did we go to minutes for next year's calendar for I got We did not have that in our minutes. >> Not for 2017-2018. >> Right. 2017-2018. >> We were talking about it this time last >> It did pass. It passed last year. >> You and me are

109worried about it. >> Best of luck. That's good. Ooh. It'll be an interesting conversation. Best of luck to you and your committee planning committee now. Um Thank you for that. Sorry. I digress. Any other questions about the pre-K calendar for 2016-2017? May I have a motion to approve the pre-K calendar for 2016-2017? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Concerns, comments? Close the discussion. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Those nay? Motion carried. Board of directors, attention back to your addendum. On the bottom of your addendum is item C. We have a chief mechanic to attend the Thomas Built Institute in Greensboro, North Carolina, July 6th through the 10th. May I have a motion for that? >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. Thank you. Thank you. Concerns, comments?

110All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Those nay? Motion carried. Approved. Calendar events for This is where we're discussing the June 16th meeting has been removed. and it is not needed. So, the next meeting that you will have is a reorganization of the board on the 6th. Take Thomas off the calendar. >> That is on a Monday, just for your reference. And I'm I'm sure Thomas is real good about sending out reminders, so everybody doesn't get tripped up and come on Tuesday. >> It was Thomas. >> Right after the 4th of July, so hopefully we all will have our hands >> I believe it's not on the wood down there. Thomas is on the wood with Darren May. I'm going to make a motion to adjourn now. >> Second. >> Any further comments?

111All those in favor of adjourning, say aye. >> You got to give me the gavel one last time. Let me do my gavel. >> We are adjourned. We are adjourned. >> Any further comments?