001Good evening and welcome to the March 3rd, 2026 regular session county board of education at Woodmire Uh if you would please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for Board members, we do have some items on any personel items uh attention to also the budget finance item as well. Uh entertain a motion to approve the agenda and agenda as presented. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any comment, concerns or questions? All those in favor say I period kick off good things and Mr. Max. >> Yes sir. It is my honor to I would say this is more of a great thing than a good. So we have with us tonight Wan Smith. He is a fifth
002grade student at Warm Springs Intermediate School. And I've been bragging about our kids doing so well at the regional science fair. We've invited one of those first place regional science fair winners to come tonight and present his science fair project. He is on his way to Charleston this weekend to present next week. Is it Monday? Yes. So, um I just appreciate you being willing to come and share your project and don't be nervous. Just pretend like you're talking to your grandma. Okay. So, we'll turn it over to you. Okay. I have with me tonight a a word about what acidity does to different items, different liquids and um as I may take tell you the materials I used. I used five garage nuts, five pieces of copper, five bullet shells, five borders, 25 paper cups,
003a 1/4 measuring cup, and 1/4 cup sea salt. Um, my hypothesis was if I put these in uh items in different liquids, they would do they would make a lot of changes. And my hypothesis was wrong. my conclusion didn't really work how it should have and it worked really well during the 24 and 48 hour mark and I checked it three times in between 1 hour and 12 hours throughout my entire experiment and uh I have some pictures up here of what it looks like during and what they look like after. And I'd like to acknowledge my mom cuz she helped like print out all the stuff and cut the stuff out with me and all that good stuff. Yes. >> Did you have any important questions at the regional fair? I thought >> Bill
004really had to answer all his questions with my speech. Nice. So, what item um corroded the most? >> I'd have to say the paper clips because most of them were really really shiny going into it and coming out. Most didn't really have any color to them. They were mostly like rusty and stuff. >> And so, I feel like my paper clips were the worst that I had. What part did you like about this whole project? >> I liked um I guess I liked all of it because I really like seeing what happens with different things and how they work and stuff and that's kind of what made me do this project. >> Good way to learn. I like wanted to do whatever I >> know you might have to educate educate you though. Uh I
005know that is going on Monday as well. I have two of my kids going. Who else is going? Is that it? Um, no. We have a total of eight this year, which >> we both got to deal for a while being the secretary that sends them. This is pretty, you know, to ask Michelle, hey, I mean, eight rooms. Um, we have two students, a high school and an elementary school. Um there are your daughter DSHS and then the other four are from intermediate school Andrews Nathan and um Thson and then one from Middle School. >> Good luck. Enjoy the day. >> He say he's most nervous about the drive to Charleston because it's a long drive. >> Can I add another good thing? >> So, um I know it's tough for the board members that
006that are working to carry it away. But uh we were invited to the intermediate school for their rainforest and I got to go and they did a fabulous job. I mean that whole room is just so magical and it was the special um I don't know the correct term but uh the uh students were so excited to have people to talk to and explain all their different stations and they did the effects of each was it was really it was fun. And just walking around the school again, that's why I like to come here when we do our presentations to the schools. Just the bulletin board. I mean, we have such creative staff and I mean, it's just it's just great to see the schools. And I got a chance to go to the classroom,
007too. took us to a tour of the rainforest and the students explained everything about the animals that lived there and the the trees and and this the students were phenomenal uh their knowledge and what they shared with us and the staff that helped put everything together. uh they received a grant from the ceiling uh foundation and put it to good use and thanks to Miss Miss Farley teacher there and her staff did a wonderful job. Here's some wonderful things from Woodmire Elementary School. Thank you. Although that's going to be a hard presentation to beat, let alone I'll do my best. I believe he's admired. >> Yeah, very proud of him. >> All right, so I want to start um off this evening with some good Actually, let me back up for a second. So, I'm
008Rhett Beckman. I'm the principal here at Whitmire. So, um, excited to have a few minutes here this evening to just talk about some of the things happening here at the school and to share some of the data with you all this evening. Um, so I want to start with some of the good things that are happening here. Again, these are just kind of a a snapshot of of lots of things that are going on. Um, so starting last year, um, Morgan County has really been pushing um, elementary teachers to um, do a letters training. So, it's, you know, a training based on the science of reading and just helping um educators fine-tune their craft when they're helping students learn how to read. Um, so we currently have 15 of our 19 eligible teachers that have
009either already been trained or they are currently going through the training. So, I'm I'm very happy that we have um all but four basically that have been trained and then we'll be working um with those four to get started next year when we start the next cohort. So, um, and and as I talk to them and get their feedback, um, you know, the thing I hear over and over is like, I knew that, but I didn't know that's how it felt fit into the the grand scheme of students learning how to read or just, you know, putting all those pieces together in a different way. So, it's they're really finding a lot of value in that. Um, so this year we've had a significant decrease in our chronic absenteeism rate. Um and we'll get into
010that in a little bit more detail here on one of the slides coming up. But um this is the lowest that I have seen it since we've started monitoring um the chronic absenteeism rate. So u I'm just and that's you know I'm I'm super excited about that and that goes to the hard work of all the staff here at the school of engaging the kids and making them want to come to school and feel welcomed here. Um, and then the third thing I put on here is we are a nominee for to be a national showcase school through the capturing kids hearts program. Um, so that is something that we started in Morgan County a few years ago. Um, and it's just again on building those positive relationships with students. Um, making them feel valued,
011greeting them at the doors. That's where the good things comes from. Celebrating all those successes and wins. Um so it's so the every year capturing kids hearts organization nominates schools that are um demonstrating their um beliefs and um you know all the different pieces of their um their pro um I use program loosely um but it's more of just kind of a belief system um and a change in how you treat each other and treat kids. Um and so they they nominate some schools and then a little bit later in the school year they'll go through our applications and um pick the showcase winners. So excited and I am very excited to hear the outcomes of that when it comes up. Um so next I just kind of want to take a moment a moment
012and introduce some of the um leadership team here at Whidmire. Of course I'm again I'm Rhett Beckman. I'm the principal. Um I'm excited to welcome um Lisa Wel on as the assistant principal this year. Um so she is with us this evening. Um I'm also excited um we have Kathleen Fisher here. She is um the first grade team leader. Um but she will be the assistant principal starting next year. So again excited to have her join as well. Um so my other team leaders I have Betsy Smiles and she is joining us this evening as well. she is the um specials and special ed team leader. Jamie Wall is the kindergarten team leader and Laura Brute is the second grade team leader. And then this year we have our school counselor, Abby Strips. So um
013that kind of makes up the general overall school leadership team. Um so the next slide just infractions is where we would infractions is where we would start getting um police officers involved. um and um students being expelled from school, those kinds of things. So, we don't have any level fours here. Um we do have a few level threes and that's in first and second grade, but even those are um a little bit more of just like aggressive towards staff members. Um so, that's kind of where those level threes are coming in. So, it's not um drugs or weapons or anything along that line. just a little bit more um aggressive towards uh staff members is where those level threes come in. Um one thing that I noted when I looked at this and just kind
014of really pinpointed in kindergarten we see a huge um number of referrals um and a lot of that has to do with students coming to school and adjusting to expectations in a structured environment like this. um you know as parents we all have our own set of expectations at home but we come to school and then now we're expecting um students to sit and work and participate and be involved all day long. And so they are especially kindergarten is really at that stage where they're developing their social emotional awareness and learning how to deal with um their emotions and their behaviors. And so we do see kindergarten students acting out a little bit more and it does decrease as they develop that social um maturity through first and second grade. And that's a trend that
015we have seen for several years is you know kindergarten kind of hits high and then it decreases as it goes. And if yall have any questions along the way feel free to jump in and ask. Um so let's take just take a look at our strategic plan goals. So we have two goals this year. Um the first is that we will increase our end of year end of year benchmark scores on I Ready. Um and so in ELA our goal is that we'll have 69% of our students proficient and we'll have 62% proficient in math. And again that's measured by I Ready. We don't do the GSA at this level. So we use I ready as our benchmarking tool. And then our second goal is to decrease chronic absenteeism by 5%. So we ended the
016year last year at 27.3%. Um so our goal would be 22%. Um when I was putting this together, our day 120, which was uh last week, we were at 17.9%. So we're almost actually 10% below uh where we ended the year last year. Um so you know when we talked about good things that one things I was putting that I said um that I was really excited about. Um as long as we keep this trend flu is not helping right now. Um but as long as we keep this trend we'll be well below our goal for this year. All right. So let's look a little more detail. Um so this is attendant. So this is as of January. Um so again our goal is 22.3%. Um in January we were 18.4% of students were chronically
017absent. So that means they have met uh or missed um 10% of their school days. Um so kind of put that in perspective. January 27th was our 100th day of school. So any student that had met missed 10 or a 10 and a half days or more were considered chronically absent at that point. Um now the nice thing is if they don't miss any more days when we get to day 110 those students are no longer considered chronically absent. Um so that is kind of a floating metric. Um so again we we're kind of taking continuing to take steps down as we move through the year. uh county at that same point was 18.19%. Um on the other side over there we have our daily attendance rate. So again kind of as of the end
018of January 90 we had a 92% attendance rate. So basically on any given day 92% of our students were here. Um I didn't go ahead and pull it for last week and this week. If I had to guess, we'd be down in the 80s probably cuz again, flu, COVID, strep, all those are just are hitting us hard right now. But I am very happy with this number. Um when the when we first started tracking this back um with COVID, we were um in the 40s. So just that, you know, we put a lot of hard work and effort into getting that number down um to, you know, down below 20. State goal was below 10. All right. So taking a look at our benchmark data. So um this is kind of comparing reading and math,
019beginning year, middle of the year. Here in a moment, we'll take a look by grade level for each subject. Um but on the left side is our reading. Uh first column is our beginning of the year. Second column is our middle of the year for reading. Um if you've noticed, we've gone from 15 to 43% of students that are at or above grade level. Um we've also decreased our students that are um two or more grade levels below by 10%. So we've increased the students that are meeting the benchmark, but we've also shrunk the number of students that are below grade level. Um so both our um approaching grade level and our two or more below um bands have shrunk in reading. >> Mr. Beckman. >> Yes, sir. >> For your prior goal proficiency, you
020are counting your green as proficient, not your yellow. >> Correct. Both greens. Yes, sir. Um so then on the the right side over there we have our um beginning year math and our middle year math. So very similar. Um we started the year 8% um proficient and we are now at middle year we were at 29%. And again we have shrunk both of the the red and the yellow bands. And so we're we're moving students up to benchmark and grade level. So this slide just takes a look at our um middle of the year by grade level and this is specifically for reading. Um so kindergarten we notice for middle of the year we were at 54% in the green both bands are green. Uh first grade is at 15 and second grade is at
02118. Um, one thing I did I didn't include in the slides tonight, but um, I went through and looked at both reading and math. Um, just because I wanted to see how this compared to previous years. And when I looked, it's um, because when you first look at it, you know, you see that significant difference. But when I looked at the last several years we've been using I Ready, this trend kind of falls um, from for middle of the year. And then what we notice is that the second half of the year um especially in first and second grade is where all of it everything starts clipping and they make those huge jumps and gains in the second half of the year. Um so like when I looked at last year's data the green for
022first grade um was I believe 18 and then we jumped significant significantly when we did our end of the year. So um so while yes we're watching this and monitoring this um we do see especially like I said in first and second grade a huge jump for the second half of the year what's your percentage of kids that went through county prek versus did in your class >> um let's see we it's about 80% that went through head start prek >> kindergart be improved versus here. >> Yes, we have a large kindergarten class this year. We actually have six classrooms. Um and then um I but the head start numbers from the last time I looked at them are down a little bit currently. Um looking at next year. Um so then if we um
023slide over to the next slide. Um so this is for math again very similar um results by grade level. Um but again we see that end of the year jump in first and second grade. They they really spend the first half of the year you know getting the foundation skills and all of those all of that knowledge in place. Second half of the year is when they really start applying it and it like I said it just kind of clicks and starts making sense. And so um we we'll see a jump in that um when we do our end of the year benchmark. Um okay so next up is our captioning benchmarks. Um I just want to talk about that for a little bit. So again I um mentioned earlier that we were a nominee.
024So, um, one of the things that CKH looks at for their nominees is, um, survey data. So, they do a survey for students, they do a survey for parents, and they do a survey for staff. And, um, pretty much across the board, we had increases um, in almost all areas. One thing that really stuck out to me is on the student survey. Um, so this column, the right number of column, the right column of numbers, sorry, got tongue tied there, is the baseline. So that's kind of where CKH wants us to be. Um, anything that's above that baseline, they highlight in green. So the students rated Windmire and the staff here very high. So in every category, they rated them above the CKH baseline. And so those are things about I feel comfortable talking to
025my teacher. My teacher greets me at the door. Um I like going to school. I like teachers. So it's all of those kinds of kid perspectives on school. Um which for me as an administrator, I love saying this because the kids want to be here. Um so the next slide is our parent survey. Um and what I did on this one, so again over here we have our baseline um the third column numbers we have our baseline data from CKH. The very first column is last school year's results and then the middle column is this school year's results. Um so we had 133 responses last year, 98 this year. So a slight decrease in the number of responses. However, um almost all of the categories um actually let's look at all the categories went up
026and most of them are now in green and above the CKH um baseline. So it's you know so again it's a snapshot of picture per parent perception of Whitmer. So they are feeling that they are greeted when they come to school um with a smile that their um students are taken care of and their students want to be here um and that their students get help when they're here. So again from the looking at a parent perspective I love seeing the increase in all the numbers and the amount of three. Um so next I just want to highlight a few of the things that we're doing. um that help students want to be here. Um parents here at school um the you know the exciting things that are happening in the community and these are
027just a snapshot of the activities that are happening. Um so this picture here in the top left um is one of the things that we're doing to help with student attendance. So we started last year doing pizza cards and we continued it this year. Um so students every day a student is at school they earn a sticker. So they have but they have to be here on time and stay all day. Um when they do that they get a sticker and then if they earn um each nine weeks we have a set number of stickers. So if they fill their pizza card for that nine weeks then we've partnered with Mythical Pizza and they get a free 7in pizza from Mythical. So, it's a partnership we've um we that we have with the community business
028to help support students coming to school. Um so, this year we and that's what's in the lower left corner here is we started a student parent yoga. So once a month uh we have one of our parents comes in and does yoga in the evenings with um students with parents um that come in and just want a little bit of time together, a little time to relax, to stretch. Um so we've started that this year. Um we usually have you know 15 20 people that come in and join us for yoga. Uh here kind of in the center um two pictures those are pictures from Stafab Bus. So this is the second year that we've done stuff a bus. So again, we partner with Food Lion. Um and transportation. Transportation parks a bus down at
029Food Lion. Um parents, community members can purchase food items, shelf stable food items, things like granola bars, um cans of soup, um toiletries, um gra or um crack snack crackers, things like that. and um donate it to the school system and then that is um it's delivered here and then it's shipped out to all we invite parents to come in and they cook a meal together and during that time and Miss Lisa has been going to most of those they talk about ways to incorporate reading so whether it's reading the recipe reading the labels on the boxes they talk about how to incorporate math into cooking so you know measuring or um you know if if I have two cans of chicken stock, but I need four. How many more do I need? So, you
030know, all those ways to kind of incorporate um what we do here at school into family time. And then there's usually some sort of game that she creates that then the parents can take home and play with their children. And it's a lot of getting to know you kinds of questions or, you know, just kind of tell me a little bit more about your day um items. So, did you want to add? I just want to add, excuse me, to also make sure that all of the meals are healthy and easy to prepare so they can be replicated in the homes with the children and the families. >> Thank you. >> Um top right is um a few years ago we started inviting um different high school organizations to come down and greet the students
031in the morning. So we have some greeters that are out here in the front. We have some greeters that are out at the bus loop and it's just one of those things where you know the high schoolers love it. Um they get to kind of come and act goofy with the kids here and then the little kids love especially if they know somebody uh know one of the high schoolers. They love seeing them and being greeted by them in the mornings. And then the bottom right corner is we worked with um Tiffany Clemens earlier in the school year and we did a little schooly workshop for parents um just trying to get more parents um involved in the the world of schooly um knowing that when they get to the intermediate school it gets used
032a lot more. And so just trying to set some of those foundations and expectations that parents can go in monitor grades message their teachers. Um, and so this was our first one that we've done and we want to continue to do more of those over the next couple years or not couple years but over the the upcoming years. All right. So to kind of wrap up just some of the big things that we um want to kind of work on here at school just kind of you know listening to the staff um looking at some of our data. Um, so one of the things that we really want to work on is our writing curriculum and instruction. Um, so that's just kind of an area that we've identified that needs a little extra TLC and
033a little extra work, especially as we've kind of started in with the letters training. It has just pointed us in the direction of where there are some gaps and some things that we need to work on. So, um, we've been working with Summer Mcccleintock, our the elementary curriculum director, team leaders, and we kind of just been, um, working on building, um, a process that we will start next year to help support the writing curriculum. Um, I put playground renovation on here. Again, it been on here for a couple years. Uh, it's it's just such a huge project that, um, you know, we also have, um, Troy Preston who's working with the county to write grants. is helping us um work through some of those applications. Um so, but it's just a um it's an ongoing
034project for right now that's a major need for Whitmer. Um and then the last thing I just put on here, I just put like storage building and classroom upgrades. Um we're grow we're growing um not only with students because this year we have um six kindergartens, six first grades um and then five second grades but we um it feels like we're always adding support services for our students. So you know so with um some last year we started a rise program to help students who are struggling with their um behavior or social emotional needs. So, that's a space we need. Um, social workers, counseling, um, speech therapists, you know, all of those different entities that come in or student supports need a space and, you know, we're we're quickly running out of those. So, that's
035kind of why I put those on there. We did over this past at the beginning of school, we took a couple of the rooms that we had and divided them so that we went from two rooms to now those house four sorry three rooms and we house six now. Um so that has been a big help but I just I see a continue continual need for the next few years as we as supports continue to grow and we need to provide those supports for students. Um and then the storage building is kind of part of that as we look through you know as we take space in the building we need spaces outside to store um to store items. Okay. So that's kind of me in a nutshell. Um so at this time if you
036all have any questions Satisfying crowd, >> right? Quiet tonight. >> Very quiet tonight. Very satisfied crowd. The only question I was going back to was your conversation on um I thought 49 was a high number from seen in the past. Any idea of your capacity and how it's been growing percentage wise over the last couple years? >> Yeah. So, let me let me talk about the 449 first. So, that actually looks at all of the students that are enrolled in like prek and head start. >> Okay. >> Um and the prek classes that are here as well as our K12. Um so, so that is higher than the actual student body in the building. Um we're at about 385 in the building. Um so, yeah. So, anybody that's enrolled at the um um Head Start
037Center right over here, Oakland, Great Capin, they are officially enrolled in Weeas here at Whitmire. >> I also just thought I thought I remember 300s. I thought we were at 300 in the building on an average. >> Yes. So, yeah. So, including our two preks, we're about 385 in the building. um capacity we are um so I counted up if I were to which I don't want to but like if if we ever got to that point and I needed to eliminate or not eliminate but put like art on a cart, music on a cart, those kinds of things. Um we would have roughly 20 classrooms. Um no 17 18 19 23 classroom. going for this 23 classroom. Again, I don't want to take those spaces because, you know, I think that's valuable also, but
038if it ever came to it, so 23 classrooms and we can do roughly um in first and second grade, we can do 25 students in a classroom, 23 in kindergarten. >> The last thing I got, I just want to say thank you. I'm leaving the board here at the end of the term and you were the one administrator that had all four of my children. So they allire graduates and they were all prepared for school. >> Well, thank you. >> You're very welcome. Thank you and thank you for your years and all that you've done for Morgan County Schools. Thank you. Board members, uh we have our new treasurer up uh following a veteran, Mr. Beckman. So, um, please be kind to her that she will be fine and do fine. Um, I'm not sure
039if Mr. Beck's little gadget there. >> Okay, you need to go back. >> Yeah, hopefully be gentle. I'm here to present some review as part of our budget process. >> I'll try to answer any questions you have to the best of my knowledge, but if not, I'll answer. These financials are through January 31st of 2026. And if we look at this spreadsheet, it is uh year-to date revenue report and our uh you look at the regular levy and the excess levy. We are have increased in those two um revenues property taxes increase. So those increase as well. Um, our interest has went down some though I've looked at um just looks like it's normal eb and flow with those and our state aid did go down about $577 577,645 due to uh increase in student
040enrollment. Um, our PEIA and retirement allocations did go up $194,287. Our Medicaid reimbursement also went up about $56,619. Over overall revenue collections went up $145,469. And then we still had 11,636,938 in revenue to be collected for FY26. And handout number two is a schedule of our expenditures for the year through January 31st. Our salary and increase salary and benefits have increased $191,000 to $241 and that's just salary increases and they increase the cost of PBIA. Our purchase professional and technical services have increased 335, $107,000 and that's legal fees and contracted services. some contracted services or mostly special ed services, the auditor, legal services, things like that. And then our other purchase services have also increased $154,472. That's due to the construction at Whitmer, but also our prek has decreased some this year. And our supplies
041have went up 68,776 this year. And that's due to our uh the year before we had the amount of adoption. So that just went down because of that. And then our planting equipment has decreased $59,690. And looking at that, it's mostly because uh there was a big purchase of computers in FY25 and we didn't uh and we didn't have that purchase this year. And let's see. And then our other items have decreased $344,621 on our debt uh related yearly increase in lease in the uh purchase loan. We have a transfer from the general fund to child nutrition nutrition that hasn't has not posted yet. So that's why there's such a significant increase. Our total expenditures have increased to 345,285. Our total budget is up 1.2 million over last year due to carryover and changes in
042state patients. Number three is the year-to- date expenditure report. This just detailed information derived from the very first chart. Project expenses for the remaining five months have been projected about 20,413,497. Ann told me it was better to be overbudgeted than uh less. That's why there are some negatives here too. And the total projected expenditure for FY26 is 36,182. And then the year end balance is projected to be $6,873,14. And this just is a summar summarization of all of our county funds. Got number four. And um the art money is a federal stimulus and stabiliz stabilization fund is all gone. And then handout number five, which is the comps and comparisons for the next fiscal year. Our student enrollment decreased by 49.99 students. Our charter students increased by five students. So our net change in $171,825
043decrease in state aid funding of net charter schools. per school allowance did increase from 247,000 to 469 to 295,540 and then legislative changes could potentially increase for decrease in any of this is all I have >> you were quick and everything >> um can you jump back go back to Page seven, Morgan County Board of Education year-to- date expenditure fiscal year. And I want to Yep. Right there. Um, your tuition instate charter schools and your state aid to charter schools. Can you help me to understand our difference between those two items or andor um what is the with the current budget at 583 Do we receive spending that or have we already completed those payments to those students out of that fund? >> Better to overbudget than not to budget. >> Yeah. That's why budget
044is at 583. So it's better to over budget than not budget at all. >> No, I'm in agreement with that. >> But um no, we don't expect to spend that much. >> Okay. I so because there's an ongoing debate right now in the legislature and I just want to make sure that we're on the same page that all of that currently I believe it's paid up front at the beginning of the year and they're working to actually spread that out which I do agree with um in order for it to be used correctly and basically if you're continuing doing it it's fine but I want to make sure that that's where we were still budgeting that we have yes completed those all to the end of the year. Yes. And Okay. Thank you. um overall
045opinion of utility cost and insurance cost that seems to be a big driver of expenses and I'm seeing that we're not too far off of our budget amount for those um part of CTA project apparently still doing well. >> I'm sorry. Um it are you comfortable with our current budget in those funds? >> Yes, I am. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I try I went through very uh thoroughly to try to make sure that I was the budget was pretty good with the expenditure and I over budgeted for a lot of things. But overall your current budget that you have in here and the expected encumbered expenses, we are not low in any one particular categ. >> I have preliminaries. I don't receive the final one. I don't receive them until >> And for
046next year, our net enrollment is 36. >> It's projected to be 34.9. Is that what you're asking? That is what I'm asking. I was misunderstand that was charter schools total. That's the total net loss of students for next year. Call 45.1 students not. Okay. Call that $450,000 loss. But this is probably not a question anybody can answer right now. I mean, if we're suddenly six kindergarten classes, where are we losing students? They seem to be enrolling. and we'll see the the loss in enrollment across all the other schools. Paul slight slightly Pleasant View is certainly not losing enrollment. Um Warm Springs intermediate a little bit down middle down and then schools high school. three of our say four in town schools are losing but we might not so much um couple of additional comments while
047you guys are considering questions um we have let you know previously that we're struggling to find selves and so is one of the budget items you'll notice is the budget uh line item for substitutes for professionals and service are uh we're not spending much money there because we're not finding subs. So uh that cost is not there but it's obviously causing some issues at our schools with not covering not getting classes covered especially the last seven weeks with uh flu and other illness in schools. Another thing and sometimes we look at these and we're like what what does this mean? Uh some vendors sometimes will request their funds upfront and some will request funds sporadically uh throughout the year and IE is one of our biggest vendors and so they have requested money in a
048different format which affects our budget too instead of uh all of it at the end of the year. We're paying them uh on a regular basis throughout the year. Um the last thing I would draw your attention to, you mentioned preliminary comps. Um step seven is always a wild card. Uh the state says that we're going to get they anticipate $661,000 in step seven money. And that could be very much decreased. It's always something they send out. It's it looks good and then you never know. So that could be an area where we would actually receive less as part of that uh school aid funding formula than anticipated. Uh all this plays into our personnel decisions and what we think we need to reduce in terms of personnel costs uh because 80 over 80% of
049our budget is personnel costs. So, we're looking at that right now trying to determine uh how much how far to go with rifts and transfers to help balance the budget. And that's challenging because we're losing enrollment. However, we're not losing it at a rate where you need to reduce a lot of teachers. In other words, Berkeley Springs High School is losing 20 students. Well, that doesn't necessarily mean you can reduce a teacher just because you're losing 20 students because you still have to offer all the classes that you need to offer uh as part of that policy that governs classes for high school students. So, um we're watching this very closely. Um, of course, the legislature is uh considering raises uh for teachers, which is absolutely fantastic news. It also means that uh we need
050to budget for positions that are not within the formula to make sure that those positions have that additional uh raise and salary as well. So, those are just a few points that I wanted to make tonight about the budget. Appreciate I don't know uh Erin is a is a fast learner. It's um we've worked a lot together on this budget, but she uh has learned a lot and we appreciate her leadership. >> Members have a question. Um just so the first page so the regular levy increase and the excess levy and then the state aid I mean they are almost comparable is that what they give us is based on >> based on number >> good job >> thank you very much. Uh, we're reports and communication. Uh, just two items I've got. Uh, legislation
051crossover today is tomorrow. Kind of a great idea what may proceed through the legislature will die. Um followup is that regarding taxes fun raises the current budget is a discussion body has a 3 and a half% raise for educators. Do we know what the EIA is going to do? because it's it always seems like they get raises. It's it goes before uh you know what happens. Um we're keeping a close eye on our numbers of illnesses across the schools. Uh Pleasant View has risen to the top here recently. had quite a few students out of Pleasant View. Warm Springs Intermediate is on the way down. Um, Warm Springs Middle School's had quite a few challenges. And as I get back to the the uh issue of substitutes, um, that plays a role here, too, because
052our staff also are getting the flu B and all the other viruses that are in the school. Um, and that means that we're struggling to uh get our keep our classes covered. But um things are looking a little bit better um as far as the number of students who are ill, but uh our probably our two biggest concerns right now would be Pleasant View and Warm Springs Middle School. That's where the numbers are highest. Um walkthroughs, uh we're going to do our next round of walkthroughs for schools Pleasant View and Pall tomorrow and looking forward to that. Uh we do instructional walkthroughs, we do safety walkthroughs, and we do cleanliness walkthroughs all at the same time. Um and then I already mentioned this, but we'll be finalizing our personnel decisions by this Friday and have
053some uh decisions and recommendations to you by the next board meeting of March 17th. >> One more thing, I believe we have a small ball here. What? Next Friday. >> Yes, Friday. Yeah, probably want to come to that. >> Next Friday, right? Next Friday. >> It's a fun time. >> It's a good event. >> We'll put them in public comments. No public comments today. Uh item number nine, consent agenda. The superintendent recommends approval of the following consent action as presented minutes of the February 17, 26 regular meeting payment of bills budget adjustments of volunteers. Entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda. So move >> second. >> Thank you. Concerns or comments? All those favor say I. >> I no car. At this time I'm going to recuse myself. I don't have any comments
054or vote on the personnel. But seeing that I'm on the on the agenda, I will step out in the hallway. >> You can go outside. >> No way. >> Like a long exit. Short exit. All right. So, on the uh personnel agenda here, we have under under the agenda, we have a substitute teacher we're bringing on. Uh as Mr. Franks has said a couple different times, uh this is this is a big win for us. Anytime we just bring one on is a good win for us and especially this one. This was a former student of mine, so made me feel old at the same time. It's also a good thing. Uh we have an unpaid leave of absence there as a cook at Pleasant View. Uh doing this will allow us to post as
055a long-term sub tomorrow to fill out for the remainder of the school year instead of a half day today. Um under extracurricular, we're bringing on uh a softball coach at Berkeley Springs High School, a volunteer baseball coach, volunteer softball coach, and another volunteer softball coach at Berkeley Springs High School. We're also bringing on a head track coach at Paul. Uh all those are beginning tomorrow and that should cover the agenda. Over on the agenda, uh we're bringing on a um so this is so she has been serving in capacity as a long-term substitute for lack of a better term for the last few weeks, but she's also in her uh residency student teaching piece. So we're able to uh classify her as a clinical teacher of record while she's doing that. She gets paid a
056little bit for that. Um, and then it will just be for the remainder of this school year. So, it's kind of a kind of a a perfect case scenario for us. And then we have a resignation of substitute secretary and substitute clerk. Um, it's effective today. Uh, we're bringing on a volunteer baseball coach at Berkeley Springs High School. A vol uh one, two, three, four, five, uh, track and field coaches at volunteer track and field coaches at Berkeley Springs High School. and then a volunteer tennis coach at Berkeley Springs High School under professional staff development. The uh number one there is for numer numeracy committee and then we have the second one is for appalach storytelling project. Third one is for letters and the fourth is for unpacking the standards. And then under letter G
057right there, we are updating our supplemental salary scale to add the uh um a siphon there for uh anyone that has an associates degree under a director role. And that should cover the personnel. >> Apparently with all these volunteer coaches, it's probably a good track team, right? by the general board. >> Thank you. >> I need a motion to approve the um personnel present presented move. >> Second. >> Any questions, concerns? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Thank you. Am I working? >> Yes, >> I am. Volunteers were expecting a big winning season. >> All right, we are on to finance and budget. Item A, approve memorandum of agreement W cooperative extension service and the county extension service committee. Motion second concern. >> Do we still have a representative on this floor? >> Yeah.
058Yes. >> We don't which is a shame. >> Yeah. you. >> She somehow does all the things that she does with a shoestring budget. In fact, I don't know how she does it. >> She's been doing it for years. >> Yeah. >> It's remarkable. >> Well, it's going to be a loss soon because she's going to retire in a few years, I think. So, >> any other comments, concerns? motion on the floor a second to approve the memorandum. All in favor say I. >> I carried four. We're on item B which is on your agenda here. Finance approve the payment of invoice number 2025111-3 to CMM LLP professional services January 1, 2026 to January 31st, 2026. BHS roof replacement the amount of $5,488. Entertain a motion to approve the payment. >> Second. >> Thank you.
059Thank you. Comments. >> This still like August time frame. Is that >> uh we're hoping to put up bids for um contractors here within the next couple weeks for this one and hopefully we get a rolling by start of June. We want to get a start for start school starts in August. It should be pretty cut and dry. >> Is that is that uh >> on the auditorium as well? >> Yes. >> Where that we have that issue is that do we think that's going to >> um so >> it looked really bad right now. >> Yes. Yes. That should correct some of that. That's the goal of that. Yes. Have >> a motion and a second on the floor for the approval of the DMM invoice. Any other comments or concerns? >> All those
060in favor of saying I >> none. Program planning. Correct. >> Second read. Second reading and approval. Make a motion to dispense with the second reading. of the policies consider consider them read. Any objection? Policies are policies are read and can have a motion for approval of the policies. >> I have a second. Any comments, concerns about those policies? Most of it is commentary. just changing district to county >> pretty close to couple little things in no further discussion. All those in favor of saying I nay. The eyes carried. Item B, first reading policy 5630, use of restraint and seclusion with students policy 2260, non-discrimination and access to equal education opportunity. It will be placed on the website for 30 days for review and comments. Any questions or comments on those policies? Thank you. Counter of
061events for we are back at the board office two weeks. Well, we need to have um any hearings we nor >> we don't know at this point. Right. >> Opportunities opportunities would be given to the employees. >> Correct. So the question is, do you want to do the hearings before the 5:30 meeting or after the field? >> I think it would be best to do them before. >> And then can we do limit those to no more than three? >> Sure. >> Yeah. So I guess the earliest would I don't remember how much time we allocated for They they have they have full rain. I mean they can he can go for an hour. Um so >> you see him go longer now. >> So that's why I say what's that? >> So we do
062them afterwards. >> That's our that's our question. >> Sure. >> So since it's indetermined, you don't know how long it's going to be. Looks to me like you almost have to do it afterwards. >> Um so let's start them at 7 o'clock. It's what? 6:30 now. So that middle school. >> Yes. >> Take a little longer. So seven. >> Sounds good. >> Yeah. >> Um I feel it was 11 though. And then we do additional day if they're needed. Any other comments on the calendar on the last page? We journey next to it. Motion. Nope. I got >> any comments, concerns? All in favor say I. I. >> You're return. Thank you all for coming. That's a good one.