001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Economy of scale right here. Sorry. That's all good. Good morning and welcome to the March 26th special meeting of the Morgan County Board of Education. If you would please stand with me for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Roll call has been passed around. All members are present. Mr. Wetton has joined us via what should I call it? Zoom, but it's not Zoom anymore. Uh board members, uh you have an agenda uh no agenda. I entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So moved. Thank you. Second. >> Thank you. Any comments or concerns? All those in favor signify
002saying aye. Aye. Motion carries by the majority as present. Uh I assume no public comment. Um Program planning, item A, approve the travel request for Berkeley Springs High School Chess Club to attend the National High School Chess Tournament held in Chicago, Illinois on March 26th-29th, 2026, including approval of volunteer chaperones and drivers. Tonight I'd like the floor. All right. >> Please, welcome. Thank you for joining us. I wanted to say thank you to everyone. This is a really big deal for us. This was a very quick turnaround, so we appreciate you coming in and doing this uh for us today. Um I want to give you just a little bit of uh information about this. So, we went to the state tournament last weekend. Um and just to just to give you an idea, you
003know, we went up against George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert C. Byrd, Bridgeport. And these are consistently some of the you know, highest performing schools in West Virginia from year to year. Uh so, to see us represented on that list was pretty amazing to begin with, but then to see us beat all of those teams was even better. Um and I think we almost doubled the second place the second place server in that tournament. Um so that gives us the opportunity to go to the Nationals that are one week away, one weekend to the next weekend. Um so that's why we really needed to to get this meeting together today. So again, thank you uh for doing this for us. Um these two handouts here that I gave you, this is just the the events.
004It's broken down three different ways. Um one by day and then the other just by name of the Um so that can show you a layout of what it's going to look like for these kids. Um the other important thing that I gave you here is this one here from where the girls are and where the kids are. Um but they are going to be competing in Chicago at the National Tournament. Um there are 1,553 players going to be here at this event. And what I did is I sorted it out by West Virginia. So you can sort it by state. So you can see we have eight players from West Virginia. They are all eight from Berkeley Springs High School. Um so we're really excited about that. Um and that is Riley Salter, Malcolm
005Johns, Adam O'Brien, uh Joseph Guzman Robles, Brody Lloyd, Dylan Stewart, Moises Guzman Robles, and Brian Angler. That's who's going to be representing us uh in this tournament. Mr. Miguel could not be here because he had to get on the road. Um he wrote up a statement, a short statement here, and I'd like to go ahead and share that and that might actually it's going to give a little more information for you. So if you have any questions, it might actually be answered in here. But he said, "Good morning. Um he'd like to begin by expressing his sincere gratitude to the Board of Education for the support and effort um that you're making uh to make this trip possible for our students to go to Chicago and compete in the high school national championship. Um we
006understand this is not an easy decision and that they really appreciate it. Him and the chess team. It's a very unique opportunity. The championship is not held at the same location and it's often times not even accessible um for West Virginia. And the right circumstances have come together for us to win and be able to attend. Um and this isn't an opportunity that would be easily repeated. Additionally, the tournament has an open character designed to encourage participation. Um it is um rather than relying solely on uh the qualification requirement. Um what he's what he's saying is for that reason we believe our participation is not only um appropriate but is fully justified. And they have been crowned as state champion. Um while it is not a formal requirement to attend as state champions, our students
007have earned this opportunity through their efforts and participating in the championship will allow them to continue to grow personally and academically. Competing at a national championship means facing challenges, interacting with students from across the country, and learning in a demanding and enriching environment. Um in this context, chess serves as a powerful tool to develop skills such as concentration, decision-making, resilience, and critical thinking. Qualities that will benefit our students far beyond this experience. Um so he thanks everybody very much um for this. Just a little bit of additional information that he gave us here is that, you know, they're going to be it is the pace he says is relentless. It's game after game after game. Um they expect over 20 hours of game play for each student. Um and that's day after day after day
008of this maximum concentration and decision-making under constant pressure. Um so for them to get there and be able to do that is uh quite amazing. Nice. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Great. A few things I'd like to add. Um this is a very unique in terms of how we handle a situation like this because it's different. It's not a state science fair or state social studies fair. It's not a team going to a state uh competition. It's a team of chess players going to Chicago for a national tournament. So, we tried to model everything after how we treat those scenarios with actually being somewhat of a hybrid. Um it this I this included from Monday to yesterday. Getting drivers approved, which is no easy task. Chaperone approval, hotel arrangements, travel arrangements, and meals.
009And it doesn't happen without people who just roll up their sleeves and say, "What can I do?" And that means they put everything else they were working on off to the side so they can focus on this. And I asked Michelle Serban to come in here because on her day off, she came in and arranged for all the students to have a hotel. She She She filled out registration for the the tournament. She filled out every student's name individually to be in the hotel room and to register for the tournament. And she did that on her day off, and I just brought her in here to say, "Thank you." Because without her, our kids don't get to go. It's a big deal. Uh Tammy Painter, also. I mean, if you you know Tammy, to turn
010around driver approval in 2 days is really difficult, and she did that. So, we really appreciate Tammy. And then, of course, Pedro and everything he did along with Mr. Knight's leadership at the school. Um I did want to mention that we had a $2,000 donation from the Warren County Partnership to help offset some of the costs of the trip. And we are very appreciative of that, too. So, uh just really proud of our our kids. Um the first day this happened, I think it was it What day was it we were standing in Mr. Miguel's room? That was Monday. Monday. We had a few parents, we had a few kids. It dawned on the fact the kids that that it was coming up this weekend, and they had a dozen things that they already had
011planned, and a decision about whether they were going to go, or whether they were going to cancel whatever they had scheduled, or or continue with the practice, or whatever they had planned for the weekend. So, we were thinking it was about five or six, and then they stepped out and made phone calls, and then five or six became six, and then six became seven, and then there was one student who wasn't able to go, and uh Mr. Miguel said, "This is a opportunity of a lifetime, you know?" And so, he talked him into it, and so, we have all eight students who represented us at the state who are going to uh be able to go to Chicago. So, um just again, just very proud of the kids, glad they have this opportunity, and one
012that they will never forget. So. Well, as a person who's going to national championships, I'll tell you the kids will remember it forever. So, Michelle certainly I remember having to do all that stuff by myself, you know, and then I remember even high school um I had Tom and uh Tom Leslie and and Tony and Tom said to me, he says, "Let us take care of the accommodations. You just coach." And it was so much better. We We won our first state championship that day because somebody else let me do my coaching, you know, so it it's you know, thank you for coming in and doing that. And I've been to several of them that you mentioned and I'm telling you if I could go to a national champion game, I'd go tomorrow because it's
013it's just wonderful. So, I'm delighted to see the kids go and enthusiastically endorse it. You make a motion then? I will be happy to to move it over. >> Have a second? Second. Second. Got it. Um I just want to co-ed ditto what Michelle said. Thank you very much to everybody that put the work in get the kids there. That's a tall task. So. Um any other comments? Are they leaving today or did they They already left. They already left. Okay. Well, I hope they come in and tell us Yeah. Yeah, about We talked about them coming in and doing a little presentation like FFA has done that kind of thing. We'd be interested in seeing them. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I I actually read on this morning that there's a an app called Twitch I
014think where they're going to be announcing everything. I don't know if it's going to show it or not, but it's definitely going to be announced. Technology is wonderful. Have a in a second on the floor. Any other discussion? All those in favor signify saying I. I. Thank you very much. Entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you, Justin. Thank you all very much. Justin got his shorts on. Mitch.