001February 3rd. >> Good evening and welcome to the February 3rd regular session of Morgan County Board of Education. If you please stand me for the pledge. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. [clears throat] One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much for musical for hosting us this evening and thank you very much for the wonderful refreshments. Really appreciate that. I don't know about the green things back there, but the cookie is pretty [laughter] good. Uh board members, you did receive some personnel items on the agenda along with some checks and some volunteers. Entertain a motion to approve the agenda and agenda as presented. >> So second. >> Any comments or concerns? >>
002All those in favor saying >> I post none. I carry it. Kicking off tonight is a wonderful news about football high school. Um, superintendent, I will turn it over to you. >> Okay, so Fball High School is not one of but the only uh one school was selected in the state of West Virginia for this award 2025 American College Application Campaign School of Excellence Award. So I am going to read to you the nomination letter um so that you can kind of understand uh you know what's happening at Paul but I think this is a very well-ritten letter that kind of encapsulates everything. Paul is a small rural town nestled along the Ptoic River in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. While small in size, the community is home to Palpaw High School, one of
003the few remaining schools in the state that serves students from preschool through senior high. Guided by a steadfast commitment to commitment to every child every day, the dedicated staff of PAPAL provides rigorous and relevant educational opportunities that prepare students for college and careers in the 21st century, empowering a student body ready to meet any challenge. At times, Paul has graduated classes of fewer than 20. Despite its size, the school has made consistent and meaningful progress in strengthening its college and career readiness culture among students, families, staff, and the broader community. Each graduating class reflects steady improvement, and this commitment has contributed to a 100% graduation rate along with numerous other significant achievements and recognitions. Pawpa High School actively participates in national, statewide, and local initiatives and evidence-based programs designed to support student success. The school
004consistently uses tools aligned with those goals and objectives. Students across all grade levels have participated in college campus visits, college application and exploration week, college decision day, FAFSA information, and by the way, I just received an email. They listed all the high schools in the state that have at least a 60% FAFSA completion rate and PAP's already made 60% just in February. So really good accomplishment. Um and then also completion events, visits to local technical institutions being James Ramsey and engagement with the Morton County Partnership Youth Leadership Academy. Additionally, Paul High School, one of West Virginia's first champion schools, is worked towards the earning the CFW, Champion of College Access and Success Designation, or it says for the eighth time, that's not accurate, unless you've received it seven other times, and I don't know about
005it. Okay. Uh, the school has already completed two of the three required milestones this year. Uh, one of Pawpa High School's unique strengths is its ability to support students from preschool through graduation, allowing feeder programs to build a strong collegegoing culture over time. At the elementary level, students are encouraged to envision life beyond high school through hands-on experiences [clears throat] in college application and explor exploration week, my first college application and picture yourself in college, as well as interactive learning opportunities like the mobile egg science lab. This early exposure continues in middle school through a structured program of career focused coursework including career exploration, future careers and discover your future in 8th grade. Opportunities further expand through CTE opportunities, project lead the way programs in flight and space design and modeling as well as enrichment
006activities like explore manufacturing contest. Collectively, these experiences normalize conversations about colleges and careers, helping students see post-secary education and workforce pathways as attainable, expected, and within reach. Paula High School success is an example of what can happen when a school's collegegoing culture and dedication to future success radiates through every aspect of their environment. That's from Dr. Sarah Armstrong from the West who's West Virginia's chancellor for higher education. Their accomplishments do not come by accident, but by incredible and intentional efforts from school, staff, families, community members, and the students themselves. The culture that they have established will benefit these students for a lifetime. Paul Schools shows what's possible when a small town makes a big commitment to students futures and the advancement of its community, said Jason, senior director of senior of student affairs at the
007West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. From early college and career exposure to FAFSA completion and 100% graduation rate, their work is intentional and impactful. The culture they built ensures students graduate with clear pathways and the confidence to pursue their goals beyond high school. Together, the student, staff, and faculty Paul are truly deserving of this recognition. the West Virginia 2025 ACAC School of Excellence for their unwavering dedication to providing highquality educational opportunities that prepare students for success in college careers and beyond. And this is written by Heather Mcchesny who's the director of access initiatives for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. So, whole lot in that letter and every uh part of it is welld deserved. Um uh we're just honored to have principal Melinda Casey Camp and counselor Tina Stickley who both have a
008Melinda might say it's more Tina and Tina might say it's more Melinda, but they both work very uh well together to make sure that uh students in PPA have access to uh opportunities beyond high school. So, is there anything that you would like to say? You don't have to say anything, but >> um it's not just Dr. Stickley and I. It's an entire campus that does that and it's lots of people working together. It's not just the two of us. It might be the vision that Tina and I have, but it takes everyone to accomplish this. >> Dr. Stickley, anything you'd like to say? >> I just think it's important two things. First one is it we we've got to not let kids fail. I mean, that's the bottom line is we don't let kids
009fail. Um, meeting them where they're at. The other the other piece of it is, and I don't hear this at our school hardly at all. The words that don't come out of our mouths are, um, it's not my job, you know. Um, so I think those are the two key points that is that have led to this. It's everybody working together. Nobody's saying it's not my job and everybody working together to make sure we don't let kids go. >> We are honored to celebrate your success tonight. >> Got to grab a picture. >> Yes. >> Just a couple comments for our while you can get your picture face ready. >> Is it is it ready? >> I'm not sure. [laughter] >> Makes a paper. Um, what's amazing is that you all don't only take the
010step of the application process, but as we attend fall graduation every year, the amazing amount of money that I know that you all are instrumental in helping orchestrate for the kids to be able to continue through the whole process. College, it's not getting any cheaper, but you all are finding ways for some of these firstgen college students to have access, and that's no small feat today. So, thank you for your continued work and thank you for the teamwork you put together with everybody over there at the school. So, >> can I add something? >> Sure. >> Um, [clears throat] whenever Mczny was communicating with me about this, one thing she did tell me was that ever since this award was initiated, the college, you're gonna have to say it for me because I get my
011tongue tied, but champion of college access and success. Um, which the Tina has managed to I don't know meet this milestone every year since it started. I think she's only 14 years. That's what the I think the eight was referencing. But probably the only high school in the entire state that has managed to achieve this every single year since >> could I add something? >> It all sort of falls in place. Youngstown State University in uh Ohio had a track meet this uh last weekend and we had four Morgan County athletes there. We had uh Dalton Case Camp and um Tyler McGraw who I believe were junior starting to in their junior year as throwers. And if you want to see a couple strong guys, I remember the first time I saw Daltton in the
012weight room and he was lifting something. His mom was with me and he was getting ready to add a little more to it and mom says, "Do I want to know how much is on there?" And he says, "No, mom, you don't want to know." Walked out. Um and then we had uh Donnie Tanowway from Fairmont who ran very well to me and uh then we had Audrey Helmick um from Marietta and I just thought you know what are the odds in a meet in Ohio you have the convergence of four of these kids okay they're athletes big deal all four of them are honor students two of them uh were um deans list and two of for president's list this last semester. So the the discipline of the sport and the discipline of the
013academics go real well and you mention other opportunities all those kids got some help to go to college in some cases all of it and this was provided by the leadership of the people over there and Audrey Helmick we think of Berkeley but Audrey's first what six years or so were at Paul as well >> so fantastic ladies Oops. All right, it's picture time. You told me we we let them get out of here. I don't know if it's going to snow or sleep or maybe nothing at all. >> No, thank you ladies for coming tonight. We know we're going to fall soon, but thank you for coming tonight to see the [laughter] snow. We're trying to figure out, >> right? music or something. I'm not not with any slow jazz. [laughter] >> From what
014I can gather, there's still plenty of green back there. If anybody like that, [laughter] [laughter] [clears throat] you would stop talking. What can I do? >> We are here at the intermediate school tonight for the annual strategic plan update from Mor Springs intermediate school. Mr. Le, the floor is yours. Thank you for hosting us. Thank you. I'd like to thank everybody for coming out and braving this absolutely balmy heat wave that we've had the last couple days. I think I think it went up to 38. So, I appreciate that. All right. Like to celebrate some some good things here that's happening at the school. Um when when tasked to think about this, it was really really difficult for me to come up with just a handful of things. Um each and every day I walk
015into this building and I see um the effort that our scholars and staff put in to support one another and I leave inspired. Um but these are the three things that I kind of landed on in terms of celebration. But before I get into that, I'd like to focus on this for a second. Earlier this year, um Mr. Banks encouraged uh school leaders to go back to their school and present the question, what are you all about? And so when we sat down as a faculty and um started that that work of determining what we are all about, where we landed at is we would rather focus on the characteristics that we would like our scholars to have as they leave us. Um so what we did is we kind of compiled a list of
016what those characteristics are and using our friend chat GPT we entered all those characteristics and broke it down into some common themes. So when our cougars are leaving us to become wolves we want them to be able to recognize and celebrate their growth and we're talking about not just academic growth but social and emotional growth as well too. We want them to gain a greater sense of independence. We want them to be motivated and that means that we ourselves have to be mindful of the tenants of motivational theory and create opportunities by which our kids gain in competence and we also give them autonomy to grow. We have we want to make sure that our kids are good humans recognizing core characteristics and core traits. That's capturing kids part every month we focus on a
017core character trait and that they're resilient as well too. So using all these three things all these things in mind is how we developed the three things that we would like to celebrate. and I know they're a little bit wordy, but I'll shorten them for you. The first thing is how we welcome our scholars before they ever start their academic journey every day. Um, we are mindful of how important it is that when students enter our space that their first interactions are very positive. That kind of sets the tone for the whole entire day. And I've never been in a building where teachers do as amazing a job every single day making each kid feel welcome and safe as they enter our building. The second thing is our attendance initiatives. Um, right now we are
018rocking it, pardon my professional language there, with our with our chronic absent pay rate. Uh, we'll get into that in a little bit here. Um, but it's it's not just, you know, we we give incentives, we give daily incentives, we give quarterly incentives, um, we have competitions and things like that. And all those things are well and good, but it goes back to the conditions that our staff, and when I say staff, I'm talking about our custodians. I'm talking about cafeteria. I'm talking about teachers. Every single person that comes in and and interacts with our students, create conditions by which kids feel welcome and want to be here. They form attachments. Those attachments allow students to be able to manage their stress a little bit better and allows them to self-regulate. And we know that
019those are all critical for healthy development. And if you don't have that, kids don't come to school. And then our commitment to the whole child. And this is really what kind of frame this work. You know, ultimately if we take care of this these things, if we create the conditions by which kids feel safe, they start to develop appropriate relations with one another, appropriate relationships with adults, the academics and things will take care of themselves, too. Here's our school leadership team. Boy, I have a big head. [laughter] We'll we'll quickly move off of this slide. [laughter] >> We serve we have the privilege of serving 352 scholars. Um and that's our demographic breakdown from grades 3 through 5. And if I go too fast with any of this, please. Last year, our scholars in reading
020proficiency as measured by the um GSA um across all three grade levels scored higher than the state average. Once again, that shows the work that our scholars and staff have put in in academically, but we also know that if we're not taking care of the human elements of things, that doesn't happen as well. for math at or above state average in all three grades and for science at or above state average in all three excuse me in fifth grade where it's tested. So in all tested areas, math, reading and science, um we are at or above state average really really something to be celebrated. Coming out of COVID, we've had consistent um upwards progress and trends in our academic data. And you can see that here showing good incremental growth each year in all three
021tested areas. Shifting gears a little bit. This goes back to some of the whole child work that happens here every day. This is our discipline data for the first semester. Now, level one data is level one um incidents are going to be minimally disrupted. Level two are considered to be um disruptive behavior. Level three is going to be our severely disruptive behavior and level four would be behaviors um that are defined within the safe schools act. As we kind of digest this for a second, the one thing I want to point out with our level one behaviors, not like these things don't happen every day. Um, what I want to celebrate is our staff's use of CKH, the use of their social contracts to retach behaviors, but not just retach behaviors, but also recognize and
022reinforce behaviors that they're seeing. Um, and if you would like an example of a social contract, we have one um, right up here in our library. And then also the use of the four questions too when behaviors [clears throat] happen to give scholars an opportunity to engage in that metacognitive process which allows them to ultimately then start making the right decisions too. Goes back to what we're focusing on in terms of making um our students grow in terms of being good humans. like real quick on that graph there. Are the first three levels all in classroom address or do >> mostly these ones are going to be the in class address? Yeah. >> Which kind which kind of goes back like I'm not naive. I know that these things are happening in class >> but
023but our teachers are are using the strategies that they have to um grow them grow our scholars and making better decisions. Are a lot of the like level threes like fifth grade there 11 are are many of them the same repeat offenders. >> Yeah. So we had um one particular staller who's no longer with us um that [clears throat] had nine of those. >> Okay. And that's kind of what I figured. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good questions. >> And this goes back to celebrating our attendance initiatives and the work of our staff and uh um Amanda Cely our community and schools less on. She's she's a godsend. Um right now we are below our school goal of 17% chronically absent for the year and [snorts] that is absolutely something to be celebrated. Kids want
024to be here. >> One of the few grass where lower is better. [laughter] >> This one's a little bigger, too. Like we just talked about, we are below right now our 17% um chronic absentee goal. Um I anticipate us staying below that goal. Um I just because every single day I walk in and you know kids are excited and happy to be here. I know I sound like a broken record, but that's that really is half of the battle battle in school. And then our reading and math goal, our goal is to increase by 16% in both reading and math as measured by the GSA at the end of this year. And we'll get into some data on how we're doing. So what we have here in front of us are going to be our
025reading data and our math data. Um our diagnostic that we gave in the fall to see where scholars were coming into the year and then our middle of the year diagnostic that we just finished to see how they're doing. One thing I want to point out, and this is absolutely what I look for whenever I look at these breakdowns from beginning to middle of the year. I look to see that our green is growing and our red is shrinking. Our green is the scholars that are on grade level or um demonstrating proficiency and our red are going to be the scholars that are multiple grade levels behind. So we see that we are growing upwards. Our green is increasing in both reading and math and our red is decreasing. Here's a little bit more in
026depth of a breakdown of how we're doing in reading by grade level as measured by the end the middle of the year. So, we got grade three, grade four, and grade five. And then we're going into our math comparison. And one thing I I do want to say when we look at this, we might look at that and be like, well, that's that's not very large. Um but if we think about it in terms of where the scholars scored in third grade at the beginning of the year to now in third grade they scored at a seven. Seven scholars are operating in the proficiency realm 7%. So there is pretty tremendous growth happening there too. And if you break it down even further in both math and reading there's about a 13% growth in the
027beginning of the year to the middle of the year. And when I say growth, I'm talking about scholars rising up into the proficient. >> For clarification and just comment on the approaching grade level, are you looking at middle of year up a 3.5 grade level and that's how they're assessing it being proficient or being on grade level or are we at a 3.0 grade level? Follow me on that? >> Yeah, I do follow. Um, so I believe what they're testing on is all the standards and some of you may correct me if I'm I'm wrong here, but all the standards that they would be getting cross grade >> three cross looking into grade four the next step. >> So even though we're in the middle of the year, you're testing on entire spectrum. >> Yeah.
028Going to be the whole out there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. You get that right? >> [laughter] >> Another area I'd like to kind of celebrate is our capturing kids heart survey. Now, we did not have the opportunity to take our student survey yet, but here is our data and I know it's small from years past. And I I still would like to give that before the end of the year because I am convinced that these numbers are going to continue to climb. Um, Mrs. Huber started some great work before before I came along and our teachers are continuing to run with just building those relationships for kids. This is going to be more current data for this year and this is our our family survey data and if you take a close look you'll see
029that we are continuing to grow in that regards as well too. Um we're doing a nice job of making our community aware of some of the capturing kids hearts practices that are going on here and some of the intentionality that's at play to grow those relationships here at the school. speaking of growing relationships, we absolutely cannot do this work alone or in isolation. Um, we absolutely need partnerships with with the community. Kids for learning for kids, learning doesn't just happen when they enter and leave leave our our school here. it happens outside as well too and we need we need support and we need help and we need to partner. Um, one of the things that we are being very cognizant of is trying to uh enhance our community relations and enhance opportunities for community
030to come in and and celebrate and learn what we're doing here at the school. Um, we're trying to grow our PTO actively. We meet each month. Um, right now we have I would say about 12 members that are pretty consistent in coming. Um, and usually how we operate those meetings is there's a principal report and during that report I talk about our school improvement plan. I share data on where we're at in terms of um, capturing kids heart and then I also usually will give a strategy or two. Usually there's some sort of connectiveness strategy through capturing kids heart and usually I'll give an academic strategy that we'll go over as well too and then we move into um, some of the more traditional PTO agenda type of items. But we are very proud of
031our our cougar boosters and our work that's happening there. And we've also had some really major um community events. Um our holiday lunchon where we had almost 200 families come in. Um it was really really good energy. Tiring day but but good energy. And then in terms of improvement needs, two of these needs were on last year's presentation. I think it's fitting to keep them. Um those are those are just going to be ongoing needs. Um, we need to continue to be cognizant of our professional learning um to keep us uh relevant and current. Um, parent engagement and education. Like I said, this is a partnership. So, how do we continue to engage the community in a way that we can support what's going on at home and they can support what we're trying to
032do here? And then the last thing is behavioral programming support. Um, our staff does an amazing job of taking students that maybe come to us disregulated and working with them to get them in a place where they feel safe, secure, and their behaviors start to diminish. Now, that happens even when we have kids so far that come to us from behavioral programs. Um, but what what I am concerned about is the day that comes where maybe we don't we can't reach that one scholar. You know, what what is the next step? Right now, we haven't really really had to face that. um knock on knock on some wood but you know that that would be a need here some uh behavior programming supports that thank you any questions um I've got two questions board uh
033first one is do you do a step up day with the middle school still or you plan to do >> I believe they did on that yes I would >> you plan to do it again this come year okay uh and then what do you attribute to that growth from moving the kids from the red up to the yellow. Do you have some pushins going on or educating on the operation of >> So, one of the first things we do with that beginning of the year data is we take a look at um state recommended cut scores and if students fall below those cut scores, we talk about okay, what could intervention look like? And then what we do is we we take those kids and we have them um pull out during our intervention
034time to work with our reading specialists or math specialists to try to fill up some of those gaps there. And then even within the classroom um I does a breakdown on some grouping and we actually just did some professional learning on January 12th how you can take a deeper dive into the data. And what we do is we break kids into small groups and try to fill those any gaps that they might have in the classroom too. >> Okay. um a couple years ago and again they all run together and they all go by too fast so you may still be doing it may not be there was some I call it teacher co-eing where a teacher focus in on math teacher reading they would switch possibly is that still going on >> that's not
035going on right now >> okay >> but that's not to say that things like that are you know not >> with staffing I it's hard to keep up with how how you who you have where and who is best placed to teach cert subject. That's what I just you have >> excellent staff in their [clears throat] respective subject all around making progress. So board members, >> it's good. >> I just want to say thanks for making school fun >> because we want them to be here and I think that's a big thing. I know my kids love school even though they say they hate it [laughter] and I hear it all the time. So But thank you. And I'll accept that. Thank you. But really, it doesn't have much to do with me. >> Well,
036it does. I mean, it has to do with everyone in the building. And I've been to before like last year, you get people out here in inflatable costumes. >> You may not know this because you don't drop anybody off. Mr. Leens is out here in the morning waving to school buses and waving to those >> short sleeve and he's got his encouragement. pass up hot chocolate to your bus drivers. And that's a great idea. >> I'd love to be able to jump on at the the middle school and ride a bus down or two possibly, too. Um, I'll just say, you know, on Friday nights, I have a Bitty Buddy team. And so, you know, the noise you heard out in the hallway, that's a that's a Biddy Buddy team. And uh as practice was
037winding down at you know between 7:30 and 8 uh the custodian walked in and you know for a minute I'm like okay he he's ready to go home and you know he's ready to lock the doors like let's let's get things moving on. It's a Friday night you know peace and quiet and I'm there too with six girls running around not listening. Um [laughter] and uh but he was there to interact with the kids that are on the team that are in the school and they're excited to see him. So that that culture of wanting to come to school, you know, putting a smile on every kid's face as soon as they walk in, uh it it does it changes, you know, it makes a bad day turn good real quick. Uh, and usually in
038my house in the mornings it's a bad day. [laughter] And you know for all three kids it turns it it turns around real quick when they are welcomed into school they realize [snorts] okay these people want me here I want to be here too. Uh so thank you for that. Uh as as a parent as well as a a board member. Um the other question, so there's 352 students now or scholars as you say. Um how how many can the building hold comfortably? Like what's our max? Oh man. So um that would to answer that question, I would say that we can have 25 scholars in each classroom in third grade. So some quick math there would give us 125. And then we can have 28 scholars in uh fourth and fifth grade classrooms each.
039So I mean you're talking 250. >> It's a lot of pressure doing that. [laughter] >> I said I don't have the final total. I plus 150. >> Yeah. >> So So more than 352. >> Yeah. [laughter] And you may have a spare classroom or two where you could add as well. >> Yes. >> You got some more for us coming? >> Not yet. Did he have the Did the have the joke of the day for the kids? [laughter] >> Uhuh. >> Does he usually have one? >> He does have one. Yep. That's false. >> Um I I I would just like to add, let's not overlook the fact that Mr. Lyens came into a school that's already high achieving with great leadership and that's that's a challenge in itself. It's kind of like replacing Nick
040Sabin at the University of Alabama. you know, it would be it's just a difficult situation. And I just appreciate him listening first because he could have very easily come in and wanted to change everything >> and instead he listened to his people changing some things and tweak some things that needed to be and uh has kept the ship sailing in the right direction. So, and I appreciate you acknowledging the leadership of Miss Huber um and your humility as you as you say those words. Um his strength is obviously in emotional intelligence, the whole child. Uh data, nobody knows data like Mr. Lincoln. And he's good at taking data and making it um uh easy to understand and then actionable. So um very big strengths and we picked up on that right from the interview. So
041uh we appreciate your leadership here. Um, a couple things that I would mention and one of them was already mentioned, but the cleanliness of this building is something that is uh I've noticed for years and it continues to be. U hopefully when you're using when you come in here and you use the building on the weekends or on the week nights, you notice the same thing. Uh, your custodians do a magnificent job. and the attendance rate. I want to applaud you on that too because um we were kind of moving in the wrong direction on chronic absenteeism and you found a a secret and part of that is as Mr. Linton said, you make it fun. We want to have an environment where kids want to come to school even on snow days, right? They
042want to come to school. But we just appreciate that. And I want to ask a question before I wrap up. I I I know uh I've seen it once, but in the morning you hold up a sign out out front. What was the most recent sign that you'd hold up? >> Um it's actually going to be tomorrow. >> Yeah. >> And it if not now when? >> Not now when? And that's a sign that students see as they pull on the bus and parents see as they drop off. Right. And it doesn't matter how cold it is outside here. >> I bought gloves recently. So [laughter] >> So thank you. >> Thank you. I'm actually surprised you don't wear shorts. Hey, you saw me at the road and it was freezing. [laughter] >> It's uh
043it's practice getting getting ready. >> All the high school kids do it. [laughter] >> Thank you all. Thank you for inviting me, sir. >> Communications. Um I said two things. Want to commend Superintendent Bank for getting kids back in school on Monday. >> Boy, to be a trailblazer. [laughter] Yeah. >> Um I hope you're taking any grief across other superintendent. >> Doesn't matter what the decision is. There's going to be grief. >> I'm the brother superintendent on on you actually having kids in the building versus the rest of everybody. Everybody. But no, thank you. They were ready to come back. I was ready to get out of my house. >> Um board members, uh stay tuned and stay appraised of the latest legislature bills that are going through. Um there's a number of them coming
044out. So, please keep an eye on those things. Tanya's wonderfully keeping us a breast of all the emails regarding them as well. So, keep monitoring. That's all I have. >> So, on the snow theme, um I mean this was a storm, but I have not seen from what I can remember. And I really do want to thank all of the custodians, the maintenance people, the bus drivers that got everything cleaned up for these kids to come back while, you know, the rest of us were inside most of the time. I did have to get the car out, but um I mean that was that was it was quite a mess to try to clean up. It wasn't an easy snow to push. It was very very nasty. And I just wanted to thank them for
045all their hard work out in the threes. Okay. >> Y >> um Mr. Roland touched on the discipline of athletics and how that [snorts] can benefit you in the classroom as well. Uh youth sports leagues are all, you know, on fire, going well. Wrestling, basketball, there's signups for spring now, believe it or not. And so it never stops. It's always good. >> I think a middle school band has a pizza >> spirit night tomorrow night at Mythical. Anybody wants to purchase a pizza? >> Feel like there's a quarter auction at the high school >> that is coming up February 7th. >> Yeah, I guess Saturday. I'm working that one. And that that was a big fundraiser last year for the junior class. >> Huge. >> So, um hopefully it is the same this year uh
046to help them pay for promot. >> Yeah, just a few days. We are wrapping up the process to hire a football coach at Berkeley Springs High School. We had some excellent candidates. Hope to have somebody on the February 17th agenda, followed quickly by a meet the coach night um and have some ideas about how to do something very special there where we introduce our football coach to the community. Um, also I want to thank Summer Mcccleintoch for her work on securing additional funding for our letters training. Uh, the state provides some funding for us to do letters training. However, uh, she she applied for for some additional funding and we're going to get one possibly two u more trainers. So what that means is as summer works through volume two with the teachers next year,
047the new trainer can work with the new teachers on volume one. So she doesn't have to do all that work which is pretty much impossible. So um we're very uh pleased about that and uh we will find uh some great trainers right within our system that can do that. Um, I just wanted to let you know that uh, Miss Betto, her last day is Friday. Um, she's off on leave and I've included in your folder a copy of the plan to fill in her duties. We're um, only going to hire someone to two days per week to try to cover the child nutrition piece. And then other folks generously have stepped up to say, "Hey, I'll take this and I'll take that." So, uh, Kathy Yoast, who's a retired teacher from Morgan County and a
048retired child nutrition director from Berkeley County, is going to step up and and help us one to two days a week during Angie's meeting. She'll be doing the child nutrition duties. >> That was a good fit. >> Yeah, that's good. Um, and then finally, uh, Mr. Shade informed us today that a grant that we had applied for, it's called the state and local cyber security program grant. We received $116,000 uh to upgrade and continue our cyber security efforts. And we uh spend a good bit of money in cyber security. Uh we have a company called Crowd Strike that we pay a significant amount of money just to make sure that uh everything is safe in our district. So that's going to go a long ways towards covering the costs of those kind of things in
049our district and which will allow us to use uh money in other places. And then finally, um, we are, uh, I I won't say we, Tanya is working on a calendar for board members. Uh, we will have something here for you soon that has all the schools events so that you can see those. Um, >> everybody sent them to her in a whole every different kind of format that you can think of. So, she's trying to take that and streamline it and we should have something soon. So, thank you, Tanya. in the vein of the football coach and we are having on the 17th the BSHS annual strategic plan. Um maybe right into that meeting. >> Um and I'm assuming no soccer possibly reposting and then the assistant principal we're holding to post that after
050personnel season. >> Uh I think that's the plan. I think I don't know that we'll wait quite that long because we want to get some applicants now or very soon. If you wait too long then we'll take other jobs. So Mr. Julie and I haven't talked about the timing on that yet. >> Okay. Any other questions for Super Banks? Sorry about that. >> Public comment. Uh consent agenda item nine. The superintendent recommends approval of the following consent actions as presented minutes of the January 20th 26 regular meeting payment of bills budget adjustments and volunteers a motion to approve. >> So move second. >> Thank you. Any concerns or comments? All those in favor of saying I carri personnel superintendent recommends approval of all personnel actions as presented. Good evening there. Um on the agenda there
051which bank just referenced we have a paid leave of absence there uh for director nutrition. Um and we also have a resignation change of date. This is for our title one state reading specialist Paul changed from the end of the school year to March 13th to bring an individual on on the 14th just so she's not retiring she resigns. That's why we can do that with that. It's a retirement that's 68. If that's when the 168 goes into effect with that and we talked about that a good bit. So just to make sure we clarify that. Um then we have a substitute custodian resignation. Uh we have another extended leave of absence and then uh we're bringing on uh our instructional materials adoption committee from part K through five. on the agenda. And over on
052the agenda here, we have uh bring on a long-term substitute, one of our special special education positions at Berkeley Springs High School. And then we have um these are due to leaves that you guys have approved in the past. So, this is a long-term sub uh starting tomorrow uh during the leave of absence through the end of the school year. And then the second one is um leave of absence for ECAP position at War Springs Intermediate School from February 4th, tomorrow through May 15th. And then under extracurricular, we have two more of those folks coming on as uh instructional materials adoption committee members. Then we have under professional site development, we have those individuals uh for staff development. Number two is for curriculum planning casing. Um second one there is for the third one is
053for professional learning planning writing on January 2nd and then the fourth one is for uh planning for PLC. That is it for personnel. Thank you. Maintain a motion to approve the personnel presented. >> Second. Thank you. Any comments or concerns? All those favor saying I. >> I carried it. Item 11 a approved date for special levy election May 12th, 2026. Entertain a motion for that. >> Second. >> Thank you. Comments, concerns, all those in favor of saying I >> I post. No. That's carried. Thank you. Approve levy election order for the continuation of the excess levy for the fiscal years beginning July 1, 2027, July 1, 2028, July 1, 2029, and July 123rd. >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Comments, questions, superintendent backs. Yeah, this falls in the required timelines for levies and
054according to state code. I'll just read from you on this. At a regular special meeting, the governing body adopts an order set out as required by law for submitting the question to the voters at a regular uh election on chosen date. So, uh that has to be done by Monday, March 2nd. So, we're ahead of the curve on that. Uh the only comments I have are what one's question we are still in line with it running every four years and so it will not end that we need to run this on an off election cycle next time that it was to renew. Correct. >> That's correct. >> Yes. Um the second comment has to go with we have not increased the rate for this ley cycle. We have kept it consistent with what we have
055done in years past. um for the taxpayer of Bordon County. Um the third thing I have a comment on is regarding the reason for the excess levy and my humble opinion. Uh the general levy is not funded schools to the value that they need to. uh we have too many positions that are needed and they are not part of the state aid funding formula and so the excess levy is not excess in my opinion. It is basically getting us to what schools should be funded at for our taxpayers and for our students to be educated adequately. In my opinion, I think we've been very fiscally responsible with the current levy and are going to do so with these current buck with the current um what we call it buckets of funds. And uh I personally
056really like the new and reformatted levy adoption and it really spells out where each of the dollars are going to. >> Easy to read. I'm a a big proponent of this and it's fully supported. And so >> some of us have been around for a long time have always subjected to the term excess. It really isn't an excess. It's a highly needed one. And of course now maybe we'll see some growth in the school a formula which has been antiquated for decades really when you come right down to it. So, but in the meantime, it's just something that helps us keep in line, especially with our competition around here, Berkeley, Jefferson County, and other states. We'd be in real trouble about this letter. >> Any comment concerns? >> I would add a couple things. Uh
057I agree with what Mr. Roland said. We have to remain competitive. uh we owe that to our kids to put the best people in front of them every day. And in order to do that, you have to be competitive. Um, secondly, and I' I've said this before, but um, a scenario that I don't know that people understand generally is you can have a student move into your system who has such significant needs that they need additional aid. They need additional aid on the bus, they need a nurse with them, they need PT services, they need OT services. There is no mechanism in the state funding formula to account for that. So, one student can cost you multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars and you do what's best for every student. And so, when those students
058move in, you take care of their needs. And then finally, another thing that is not really talked about, we just had uh a scenario happen recently. The courts place students uh in residential placements. and a residential placement um average cost is probably $3 to $350,000. And if a student moves into your system that requires a residential placement, sometimes districts have to pay that. And we've had that happen here before. And so that can come out of nowhere. And uh I just want to point that out. We've had one where we're battling right now with the courts to determine who's going to pay. Um, this one's going to be probably a day placement, which is the difference between a day placement and a residential is significant. A day placement, we provide transportation. The student goes back
059and forth to a a a close by facility. But, um, anyway, those are the two things, you know, when you plan a budget, you try to account for everything and sometimes you can't. It's just unpredictable. And so, those when those kind of things happen, then you have to cut back somewhere. And that's that's what makes uh I think our job very challenging. And luckily the state um the legislature is looking at that um the cost of severely special needs students to to districts. So hopefully we can get some help there. I have a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor of saying I >> I carried. Thank you very much. Gordon approved the purchase of a 2020 Ford F350 Superduty truck with 19,416 miles in the amount of $42,9814647. Uh funding source maintenance
060funds. First question is that plow? >> Uh yes. >> There we go. All right. We're on the right path. [laughter] If it's okay with you, I'd like to read u so Miss Payton wasn't able to be here with us, but I just want to kind of read uh why we feel it's important. So, we have uh three maintenance workers full-time. We have two trucks. So, you can imagine the challenges with that. Um and in this case, adding a truck would allow each person to have their own truck and they can work independently as needed. And then that allows Miss Pana to assign them different jobs for a oneman job. Um, they can also cover more work orders when working independently, obviously. And then she has the ability to send people to get supplies instead of
061sending two people in one truck. And then obviously when when a truck goes down, which happens way too often, then we have an additional truck. And like you said, u snow plowing, uh, it's hard to get around to all the locations. Morvin County is pretty big geographically and it's hard to get to all the locations and do the best job that we can especially snow like we just just had. So take a motion to approve the purchase of the F350. >> So move I'll second it too slow. >> Could I buy that? That's a good truck, right? Not necessarily. >> I'd like to go back in the minutes and see when I first started on the board. What? [laughter] >> A motion and a second to approve the purchase of the 2020. All those in
062favor. >> Wait, wait, wait, wait. Comments. >> Yeah, I do have comments. Go ahead. Um, having always tried to juggle at one time part-time farming on a teacher salary, two teacher salaries over the years, we've become really good at looking at used equipment. And at one point, I thought, well, if we ever got to $100,000 worth of equipment on my farm, probably have a heart attack. Well, I've got news for you. We're working on the second 100,000 now, >> unfortunately. So, I've gone through a lot of sales and I've looked at a lot of red flags and I'll tell you, it bothers me that a truck 5 years old only has 19,000 miles on it. That boils down to an average of 80 miles a week on a 50 mile 50 week. I think there's
063I I think this is too good to be true. So, and I hope I'm wrong and I'm not disputing the fact we need another truck. I am disputing the fact that I feel very uncomfortable about this this particular truck. >> We did have the mechanics come down and take it for a drive. I should have sent back to me, but um and we wouldn't have done that had they given the thumbs up. So, >> any other comments or concerns close discussion? All those in favor saying I >> oppos. >> Nay. >> Thank you. Majority of those voting in the present and majority of the votes in the affirmative. The motion carries. Uh program planning adopt school calendar for 2026 2027 school year. Ask who's up for that. >> Turn it over to Mr. Julie. We
064did have our two required hearings as part of the school calendar. I don't know if Mr. Dan has any additional comments. that it's just we did our two required hearings and this is the proposed that county will talk to you guys about both times that those hearings. This is just for you to approve that so that Holly can start working on our 2627 LSIC meetings and committee meetings and everything for next year. And I'm assuming no comments. Incorrect. Entertain a motion to adopt the proposed school calendar for 2026 2027 school year. So move. >> Thank you. >> Second that. >> Thank you. Any comments, concerns, questions? All those in favor saying I. >> I. Nay. First reading, policy 422, non-discrimination policy 2623, student assessment. Uh those will be placed out for 30 days for public
065review and public comment. Counter events, we are back at the board office in two weeks. Board for BSHs. Any concerns or comments regarding the calendar? We do have those committee meeting coming up fairly soon. [clears throat] If the board would have any particular items they'd like to see on those agendas, please let me or Tanya know. >> No comment on the calendar events. There's a motion for adjournment. Spring break. This is the new >> Yes. changes. >> Yes. Thank you. Great question. >> Thank you. >> Second. Thank you. Concern the comments. All those in favor 17. I >> We are journed. Thank you very much. Travel home safely.