001Good evening everyone and welcome to the November 4th first feels like nighttime meeting of the year. Sadly disappointing late enough but you know life continues with our daylight savings times. If you would stand with me for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you to everyone for coming out tonight. Looking forward to a nice few minutes at the beginning of the meeting here. Board members, you did receive an agenda with some personnel, some volunteers, and some payment of bills. Um I think it's the time to review the agenda [clears throat] and agenda. May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Thank you. >> Second.
002Thank you. Any comments or concerns? All those in favor of saying I. >> I. >> Thank. Thank you very much. Uh I'm going to invite Mrs. Taylor up. [applause] Mr. N. Would you join us as well? >> Sure will. Before we start, I just wanted to say it's how nice it is to have so many students and staff here from Berkeley Springs High School representing us tonight, including all of our theater department here. Um, so we're going to let Miss Taylor share a little bit little bit about what they've been doing, but if you didn't get to see it, we just put on Too Many Ghosts. It was awesome. They did a fantastic job, and I look forward to a Christmas special. So, if you want to share with them what we've got in store.
003>> Um, well, if my cat would stand up for a second, >> and this is only part of them. Um, what was remarkable about this show is that we were almost starting over this year because I had a lot of vibrant seniors who graduated last year and had to start all over from the ground up and start building again. So, this was the first time ever that I've taught theater class that I've had like 22 [clears throat] kids out of 30 actually even want to audition for the play. Um, and also the play had about 29 kids in it regardless if they were actors or backstage or helping with tickets. And about half of them had never been on stage or done anything before. So, out of that cast, half had never done theater um
004and have had before. I mean that was that was great. Um so yeah it was just it was a fun show. This is a great group. Um it was a lot of fun and right off the bat as soon as we finished I was like all right we got to keep going because this was great. We got to keep their excitement up. Um so I found another Christmas show that has another large amount of roles in it. um that I also extend to other children at kids in elementary and middle school and um whatnot who can also audition for this. And and the Christmas show is meant to be just a fun little way to get anyone who is interested in acting to have a quick chance to do it, not memorize a lot of
005lines, but get to have a place on the stage. So, we have auditions tomorrow and Thursday, and we'll see what happens. Um, yeah. And, uh, I loved our shirts this year. And Elena, raise your hand. She designed it for me. >> Yeah. Um, Delilah did a lot of our painting on set. >> Raise your hand. [laughter] >> Got some in her hand. >> Yeah. I mean, it was just I think those are fun facts. There's probably, but yeah, it was it was great. like they were all great and I would take them all over again. So >> well the hours that you all put in I cannot imagine to put on a performance like that. It is there are countless I can be sure of. Question I had for somebody you can pop out whoever
006wants to answer it was what is something that you guys kind of learned going through the acting class that makes you look at movies or TV a little bit different? Give me one or two items. I know there's got to be some things. >> Go ahead. maybe like all the work they put into setting up the sets and also all the practical effects they have. >> Um the emotions that they convey throughout a film or a body of work. Um you really get to see that. I think it's more how they do it on stage and on set >> the cards that they have to go to that like maybe like millions of people are going to see this but they have to like be there >> like the outfits that they put together for
007a specific movie whether it's like ordering or making an outfit for a set to be on TV for everybody to see. How about any stress for people in the audience that's going to be there? No, nobody had any that wasn't a problem, huh? [laughter] >> I will say with a younger cast, we definitely had a little more nerves this time around and had to help hopefully guide through that. That is a natural process to it. And if you're not feeling butterflies in your stomach, then something's wrong. So, >> makes life worth living to do that. Makes life worth living. Who's going to come out next tomorrow? tomorrow, right? >> Yep. >> Tomorrow. >> Who's coming out tomorrow to do to go for a part? >> There we go. >> Do you need any old people
008for your Christmas? >> I will take [laughter] you [laughter] for everyone. >> That's right. Yeah. >> So, so let me show you how old I am. [laughter] Um, when I was in high school, I was in the drama club and I just loved it. Um, our senior production was u laughing >> and I play >> so look that up. [laughter] Um, Amy, I've been I think almost all your performances and really enjoy them. The Renaissance Fair, everything a lot of work and we just wanted to recognize you and the club for all the hard work you guys have done. Thank you so much. [applause] >> You want me over there? >> Everybody come up. Everybody come up with >> the Renaissance Fair is this spring again. >> We one thing I was going to leave
009you with. That's [laughter] an amazing performance. I want to mention too is quite often when I go to these plays I recognize some of the students as being at the ice house in some of their productions. We can do them at the same time. Two. >> I'll email it to you. >> [laughter] >> Thank you guys. [applause] This is a this kind of new for us. We'd like to like to take the opportunity to kick off our meetings with good things. And so, thank you again for coming in this evening and spending a couple minutes with us just to uh for us to recognize you and your accomplishments and the time and effort you put into it. It does not go unnoticed. Trust me. uh when I'm out and about community, you the shows and
010the the the acting and the emotions that that you were talking about are definitely identified and talked about. So, thank you very much. You're welcome to stick around if you want to. >> I wanted to say one little thing. That's okay. Um Miss I want to thank Miss Taylor uh for all her work. I know Mr. uh Close uh meant when he said everybody, he meant you too. Um and a small high school. Um, you're an English teacher and a theater teacher and that's a lot to take on. And the day of the show, if you remember this, um, I was at Berkeley Springs High School walking into classrooms and I happened to walk into her room and she had that look like, "Are you going to be checking my lesson plans?" [laughter] You know,
011that look of, "Oh, no." Oh, not that I check people's lesson plans, but she was just like she had that look on her face and ready to go. And we just we know how much of a commitment it is on your part and you have a family and we appreciate all of your leadership with these uh young people and helping make great shows. So, thank you. >> So, again, you are welcome to stay. You're welcome to hear about our esports program. Up next, Mr. Naida. Um, and then we have a couple words to give away. If not, you're you're free to go for this evening. >> I want to stay for the rivet. >> Yeah, they don't really cross it. Is that I've got a couple other ideas from principles today came out. I'm really
012pleased to get people out here. Wonderful >> stuff act Mr. to follow Mr. >> We won't beat that but we're moving from in person and acting [laughter] and now we're moving to esports. Huh. >> Absolutely. >> And I'm here really to introduce Mr. Hilderbrand um are with me coach for this. Uh esports if you have if you don't know it's gotten really popular. It's gotten really big across the country. Um so much that uh there's college and universities that are offering scholarships for kids now. Um so we've put some feelers out there and we have a lot of interest. So we've already got the grant that can update the lab to do this. So we're really excited about it. Um Mr. Hillbrand here. Like I said, our WBY coach, he's going to share just a
013couple things about it with you real quick and just give you a little bit more information. >> Yep. So, if you don't know, uh, esports is competitive online video games. And I think this would be a really good opportunity for our students, especially some of those that aren't normally participating in extracurriculars to have that opportunity. Okay. And so, the league is called West Virginia Scholastic Esports League. Uh it's been running now for three years. Um and this is just a West Virginia based league. There are currently 26 high schools in the state that participate in this in this league. Um and I just thought it was worth noting that every high school in Berkeley County does participate in it just because they're quite biased. Um, I've heard stories of students earning scholarships to play in
014esports and I've talked to the other coaches and that is something that is a legitimate and realistic possibility for these kids. Um, one good thing about it is it's a very uh lowcost thing because the games are played online. There's no travel involved. Um, you would play online through a website called Battlefy against other high schools in West Virginia. However, there is a in-person playoffs which is like a one-day event type thing. So, I have put together some benefits um of this of the league that I think would be good for our students. First off, I've had 28 students who brought back written interest in signing up. So, they've gotten a permission slip that they've gotten signed because I wasn't sure about when was going to be able to get kick kicked off. I thought
015maybe we were going to be able to do the fall. That didn't happen, but that still shows you that there's some interest in it. I've also had other students verbally tell me um that they've been interested and we have club days and my club is esports and I have kids in there who hadn't signed up for it but they've told me that they will sign up for it when if it happens which I hope does. Um, like I was saying at the beginning, this gives students who normally do not have um a place to go, right, that aren't into theater or are not athletic and can't play sports a place to go and to be part of the school, right? Um, you know, your typical kids, your nerdier kids, I guess you could say, they
016have somewhere to go and to participate in Berkeley Springs High School. I think it can build team building and appropriate online communication skills. Um, I think teenagers don't know how to communicate online respectfully and properly and say things they shouldn't. And I hope through this league and through esports that they might learn some skills and actually how they should act. And then also it is a chance for some skilled students to earn scholarships. And then lastly here I have some respons coach responsibilities. Um, so if the league were to happen, I'd be monitoring monitoring students Monday through Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30 for eight week season. Um, you'd also making sure that they're behaving online properly, make sure that they're ready to play the games. There's offseason meetings for the other coaches. In the league,
017there is a fall and spring season. We obviously didn't participate in the fall, but our hope is we can participate in the spring. You have the trip to the or the centralized playoffs and then also attending coaches meetings. That's all I really have if you guys have any questions about >> I had some but he just answered them pretty much all right there on that. [laughter] I mean so those monitor that 3:30 to 5:30 that's like practice right? >> Right. So that would be in the new computer lab right? >> They'd be there I'd be there or practicing or playing depending on the day. >> Interesting. Um, the association that is governing the West Virginia >> Scholastic is that and I'm looking for an analogy maybe like SSAC analogies athletics. Is that the same type
018of group that's doing this or is this through the department of ed like what is that organization? You have any details on that any knowledge? I just know that it's the collaboration of like-minded teachers. They're all teachers that are the coaches, right? And they say, you know, this is something that's important to them. And so they've organized all this. And there are head like teachers that say, I'm the, you know, the commissioner of the league and I'm helping set this. So it's all based on teachers, right? It's not, I don't think, ran through the department, state department of education or anything like that. It's just a teacher ran meet in hopes that one day it will be recognized. That's an official sport. That's what they're pushing for. >> Okay. >> And so they're they they're
019trying to get every school on board with it. >> So So what are they playing? I mean, what what is the sport? >> So they're there's about eight to 10 games that they play. All are rated T for teen or under except for one game which is M for mature. It's called a game called Rainbow Six Siege. But for that game, they need, you know, to be 16 plus and also have parents sign off that they're okay with them playing that. So there's no like super violent games, not playing Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto or anything like that. It's all pretty tame stuff. >> So is it I don't know. I'm sorry to be I don't know a whole lot about this, but is it like Grand Theft Auto? I mean, is that
020what they're sort of doing? Is >> it's all it's all tame stuff. They're not, you know, there's not blood and guts everywhere and everything like that. It's just competitive online games. >> So your college football, >> right? College football. >> Thank you. That's what I'm sorry. That's what I'm trying to figure out. [laughter] We're looking for a description of the game. That's what she was asking about. Are we playing sports games? Baseball. >> Super Smash Bros. which is like Mario Kart. Um a game called Overwatch, which you know you do shoot, but it's T14. There's not like crazy go or anything like that. >> So >> you have all those different games. How does that work? Do you pick the one you're going to play in or >> so you would bas How does that
021>> each day is a different game >> or a different couple? >> Okay. So, you would get, you know, there's no guarantee that we're going to play every single one of those is based on interest and who signs up for what. >> Um, but I think based off the signups I got originally, we would have would have played like six out of the 10, something like that. We would have had enough players. >> So, the the Monday through Thursday thing, you're actually having matches with other schools, right? at that time. It's not just like a practice, >> right? >> Okay. >> All right. >> Now, you would have some because of when the game would begin, you would have some setup time there and some time to practice, >> but the games start around 4:00
0224:30. >> Okay. >> You have weeks that you Go ahead, Mr. >> This is pretty specialized because when we were talking about, you know, kids getting scholarships, they recruit specifically for a game. >> Oh, yeah. Not just a player, you know, they recruit a player for that game. I actually know um a [clears throat] coworker and his son, it's hard to say, is a professional gamer and has paid well >> and it's just growing more and more every year. So, >> yeah. So, of these, we'll say 40 kids that have shown some level of interest, what percent are playing these games or even uh I guess more mature games at home with with or without parental supervision. >> So, the kids that are signing up for the game because they realize they have to be
023decent at that game. >> Yeah. >> So, if they're signing up for it, they're playing it at home in some capacity. >> Mhm. And so this is giving them community to >> playing with random strangers >> play with friends as well as against peers at other schools, >> right? >> I mean I when I was in school we didn't have internet online gaming because that hadn't really been a thing yet. Uh but every pretty much every single day we I didn't have a group of us did not have the last like block of classes. So we would go home, play Halo for that hour and a half. I would drive [snorts] somewhat fast back into town for track or cross country practice and then go back home and you know and that was that was
024my sense of community in high school pretty much every single day. So if these kids are doing it at home by themselves, maybe maybe they're able to connect their friends. >> Yeah. But if we're giving them a a community to do it, there's some regulation in terms of, you know, yeah, they're not playing uh big shooter games with lots of violence and visual um just mature things, >> right? >> Um I think it's great. I think it's what our kids, especially that group of kids, need a >> beyond the school day. Like other sports, is there a a couple weeks that you practice first before you start competing? >> That would be up to me how I set that up and I haven't gotten specifically how I want to do that yet. >> I guess
025they don't need to have so many practices before they >> Right. They can practice at home. >> Yeah. Okay. >> What What would be your goal time frame if approved to start for the first season? Spring. Are we talking fall next year? >> It would be spring. Spring of this year. And will would there will there be a grade requirement to be able to participate? >> Um yeah, I mean I would hope that we would do the same as >> we talked about those you know we do want to involve more kids but we also you know want to make sure that it's ran with integrity and that um you know kids are held to some standards. So we'd have to talk about that. I don't know what the other schools in Berkeley do or
026whatever, but um between now and then, you know, that's part of the process that we put together. >> And as you shared with committee, you you had gone to Spring Mills to visit and got some ideas there that what did you learn from your visit to Spring Mills that you could use for our program? >> I think it was mostly technical >> on how he has everything set up to keep it safe and monitored so kids aren't using those computers to do things they shouldn't. Um, I know Tom Shade was there. He learned a lot as well. Um, I would say that was the main takeaway from it was the technical and safety aspect. >> A little bit about the computer requirements needed to run that private system. A little bit of that as well.
027>> Those are my last two questions. Number one, tech typically your gaming computer is going to be a higher process, higher um RAM speed and but our computers be able to handle that. And then the followup is that I'd be curious if the association itself hasn't created some type of oversight document regarding grades, regarding uh participation. So I'd be interested if you guys could find out something regarding >> if they had that. >> But that's all I've got members. >> I think one good piece of news is we had a a need to upgrade the business lab at Berkeley Springs High School already and then the idea of esports came along. So we upgraded the lab so that it would be able to handle uh this program as well. So we'll have be able to
028use that lab during the day and then after school for this as well. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. >> Sounds like a sport I might be able to do. [laughter] >> Any board members reservations about no >> only thing I have about policies. how much we put to add a policy what investigation we need to do to how we need to edit our policies to allow esports into extracurriculars basically >> the only other thing I would say is I do believe this should be treated just as any other sport and the coach should have a a stipen too >> come up with a West Virginia Champion of college access award board and I was going to leave leave you all know he's like I'm done for the night but >> would you like
029to >> miss anything would you like to come on up please >> while they're coming up I'm going to read a little bit about the award and then ask them to follow up with any comments [snorts] so this happened a few weeks ago and they've already been to Charleston and back I believe it was Charleston so I'm going to read a little bit about this Berkeley Springs High School and Paul High and their counselors recently received the Champions for College Access and Success Award for their efforts to help students determine their college or career paths after graduation. The schools garnered the award by participating in three initiatives last school year. First, college application and exploration week, second, meeting specific FAFSA completion goals, and finally, college decision day events. The award recognizes that the Champion Schools
030are providing students with the essential tools and information to navigate the transition after graduation by going above and beyond to help students plan for post high school education, training, or military service. Berkeley Springs and Pawpaw were one of 72 of 71 schools across the state to receive the honor. >> Nice. >> Anything you would like to share? Go ahead. Okay. All right. I don't have a speaker. Um, [clears throat] so I was extremely excited about this because uh we we're trying to determine how many years BFWB has put this together. Um, >> since 2014. >> Yeah. Since 2014, it's only been open to all high schools since 2018. The first four years it was limited to gear up. >> Part of it that >> Yeah. [laughter] So, it's something that um Tina and I have
031worked diligently on for several years. Um the FAFSA completion piece of this is the most challenging um for us because that's the one we have the least amount of control over. Um so, we were um Tina has actually earned this award every year at Pawpaw since it's been in existence. Um this is the first year Berkeley Springs High School got a guy. Yes. >> [laughter] >> So, um, we actually Tina approached me after, um, we, uh, received the information that we both, um, were that both schools were going to be represented, um, that she, um, she kind of championed the idea of maybe exploring, um, a countywide initiative. Um, because starting next school year, uh, CFWV actually opened this up, uh, this award up for K12. Um and so they put in different parameters for
032elementary um for middle and then the high school parameters are staying the same. Um so we are working actively with all the school counselors in the county right now um in the hopes that moving forward at some point the whole county would be recognized um in the same way and hopefully we will get FAFSA completed moving forward. Um but that won't con regardless of that FAFSA completion rate. I mean everything that we do for college decision day, college application and exploration we will continue to do and still provide. >> My my question was is this fact any parameters or requirements had to do with our CTE or any type of um college visits or give me like two or three things that you're talking about that are graded measured. So at the high school level,
033it's providing um there are different activities and different things that you can tailor towards your school for college exploration and applica application exploration week, which was just this last week. Um so we both had different things meeting the needs of our students. Um for us, we opened our career center um uh for application workshops. students could either sign up ahead of time or walk in if they were allowed out of class and we sat there and were able to work with them on completing those applications individually, worked with them on getting fee wavers, um how to send their transcripts, all of those things. Uh we also played some fun games. So, we I actually worked with a couple of local businesses. Um this is the first year we did this, so it wasn't as successful.
034I'm hoping to grow that moving forward. But um one of the templates that they give us um and provide for us free of charge, it says hello, my name is and then individuals fill in their name and then they say I graduated from they fill in their school and then it says ask me about my college experience. Uh for years our school has been hanging those all the teachers if you walk through the high school you'll see them hanging outside their doors. Um and we keep them up year round. This year we hid some throughout the community encouraging um the students to go out into the community and see where those were hung. Um so I'm hoping to continue to grow that. Uh we also had a college swag uh day where the teachers were
035encouraged to wear their alumni um college gear. Uh we took a picture. Again, it's to start the dialogue and to start the questions and the conversation about postsecary. Um and so that's one one piece of it. Uh, college decision day is another event that again they provide you resources and um things that you can use and you can tailor towards your specific school. The FASA completion rate has to do with a percentage. So you have to increase it by 5% of the prior years um whatever you ended the prior year or a minimum of 60%. Uh which is very challenging to get in this at this point in time. Um, elementary they're doing other kinds of things. Uh, middle school does have a college visit, so they want to see like one college visit. Elementary,
036I think it's career, there's a career fair. Career fair. Yes. The I want to get back to the middle school. The middle school is challenging. That that college trip is very challenging to get in because colleges really only want to talk to >> high schools. So, I've had an interesting time calling and saying, "Can we bring all of our kids?" like, you know, we're talking 50 70 kids. Can we bring them? And so that's that's been a that's been kind of a an interesting challenge that the middle school may run into is getting our students, middle school students onto college campuses. Um college colleges aren't ready to talk to middle schoolers yet. So >> well, educate me. Are colleges still sending recruiters out to the high school or Okay. Okay. I thought they were >>
037Yeah, we will have I'd have to count again. 13 to 15 representatives on Thursday evening. >> On Thursday evening. Okay. >> I posted out the people that will be there today or hopefully will be there once they stand up. >> And it works a little differently in Pawpaw because when people make that large trip to get to us, they want a captive [clears throat] audience. They don't want to share that time with with other college representatives. So, what works for our community is um Thursday mornings. Well, this year it's Tuesday mornings. historically been Thursday mornings. During team meetings, I have all 7 through 12th graders in the cafeteria for about 40 45 minutes and I schedule throughout the school year college representatives to come into that time so that they can sit down, they can
038talk to our students, they can sit down with them, get real close and personal and talk about different options for them. So, it's kind of a career fair that is spread spread out. >> Yeah, you have to diversify what you're doing anyway. I mean, we the Berkeley Springs High School always takes our students to the Shepard College Fair um so that they are off campus and then they have access probably quadruple what we're going to be providing for them Thursday night. And that also is a challenge like Thursday night I sent out to 67 different um schools and organizations when I tell you 13 to 15 are coming um but they also have you know their so-called quotas to meet as well like they want to maximize the use of their time. So coming to
039our you know family bonanza for two hours depending on the travel sometimes it's more challenging to get them there. So that's why we we look at different ways take them to Shepard to a bigger college fair bring people that are willing to come to us. Um we also have people like Tina saying that want that captive audience. So I know so far this year we've had three or four individual schools come and do presentations in the CEC during the school day to students that can sign up and are interested. um WVU will be coming actually on Thursday and they're doing a live um free application workshop. Um uh and she's coinciding that with staying Thursday night. Um so we've got students that we're encouraging them if they're applying applying to WVU come on this night
040because then you're not going to have an application fee. You can sit there with her complete it and she's going to wave that fee >> um and she's going to stay. And I think Shepard has also offered that to us as well. That's and that's a pretty standard practice for the for the college representatives when they come they if anybody who applies for that college or university at that time they wave the fee >> and we can hand them their high school transcripts to date and their all their records that they need right then and there and they can usually a lot of them not all will give um on the spot acceptances. M >> um I need you to get a school from Florida there Thursday then. [laughter] That's where mine's talking about going.
041So >> one of the things that's also been um when we can make it happen, we do have an inline board in the CC at Berkeley Springs High School. I don't know what Tina has um where she is, but we will do sometimes I'll have virtual so the kids can come in and they'll do virtual um presentations that way. that's gotten a little less since we've gotten out of the virtual co nightmare. Um, but >> I was just curious about coming because I thought maybe college be doing more of that but trying to reach more people. I'm sure they're having trouble getting recruiters as well to get people to come out especially we're coming so far two hours two and a half hours for them to dial in virtually. I was a dare jump at
042it, but >> well then it's also coordinating that though for the kids during that time and then you also can't have usually multiple going on at the same time then. So if I can get them on campus it's a lot we can access a lot more with a lot more people which that's >> we'll do so much with your time. Thank you so much. It's quite an endeavor and getting high schoolers to move is sometimes I'm sure not the easiest thing to do getting them motivated but uh thank you definitely for your efforts and congratulations on the achievement. >> I was just going to say I was contacted by a university the other day. had never heard this before, but they were asking [clears throat] um if we were interested in a process by which
043our students if they meet meet the minimum requirements that they don't have to apply that they're automatically accepted that they would forego the application process. >> And I it's been a while since I've applied for college, but I'm assuming that you still have this applications for different universities. There's no universal application for one that you have common. So that um I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I like to see the students put a little bit of work into that kind of thing. I think it's helpful for them to do that and find out a little bit more about themselves and see their you know history and how they've done. But um that that [clears throat] was something that uh I had received an email about. >> And what did
044you just say? Common what? >> Common. >> The common app >> app. >> Is it just through the state or is it nationwide? >> Common app's nationwide. >> Oh okay. >> Yeah. And more schools have joined common app in the past few years. So it years ago when I started my career I did the schools like WVU weren't on common app but now they are. >> So you common app the students will actually create a profile they fill out one set of you know their basic information like you would find on any application. Um if a specific college has a supplement then that can be added to common app but then they indicate all the schools they want that application to be accessible to. Oh wow. Um, and then the counselor has a piece of
045that and then your recommenders have pieces of that. But it streamlines the process especially for students. I've got one young lady, she's applying, I think, to 12 different schools. So, it's streamlining that process for her rather than her having to keep track of 12 different it puts it in one place for her. >> My question to the organization that contacted you would be, okay, so many colleges have combined their >> college application with their financial aid application. So my question would be, okay, then how would a student who didn't have to apply for admission, how would they throw their name in the ring for the uh for financial aid? >> It's similar to the schools that are waving um test scores. So some schools are waving test scores. However, what our students don't always recognize
046is that when they're not submitting their test scores, it actually can negatively impact their ability to to get financial like to get scholarships that are related to their test scores and grades. >> Uh we're going to get a picture board members. Yeah. >> Well, get pictures [laughter] done. [clears throat] >> I was going to say I asked her about it cuz I said, "What's that in the window?" [laughter] >> The countywide stand up here. >> It's the countywide uh success. They're both slightly >> [laughter] >> We will >> be there Thursday. >> Be there here >> with a bow on some money. >> Yep. [clears throat] >> Feed me. >> I don't have to worry about that for a while. >> Got a little bit, but [laughter] it goes by fast. Put a few dollars
047in that. >> All right. on to the meat potatoes. [laughter] >> Yeah, sorry. I'm boring. I know. Um, so first thing, sorry I did not update this from EO. This is BOI tennis update. Um, but I also before we get into this, I wanted to uh just take a moment here to introduce um Miss Quinn. She's our tennis coordinator. Uh, and Quinton is here for a little bit of accuracy. Sorry, and curriculum. I'm sorry. Sorry. [laughter] Um, but they're they're both here. And again, this is just kind of showing that we have really taken a team approach across the across the county when it comes to attendance. So, this is not just a me thing. This is them, Mr. K here tonight. Uh, Miss Penn plays a role in this. Dr. Sick plays a role
048in this. Um, so across the board, this is this is a celebration for everybody that's in our district here in our county. Um, so our first slide right here is always is a comparison from where we kind of started at at baseline. And every year we say this is 2223 is kind of our baseline data because that's whenever quarantines and all that stuff stopped. Um and you can see as we've kind of this is at the first quarter of each of those school years. So as you see we've kind of done like a dip and then up and then and then we're back down again for this year which is a plus. Um this next slide here um shows the um where we ranked or where we finished the nine weeks at each school. Um,
049again, much much much better compared to last year. Uh, at this time, uh, AC across the board, um, our district goal is to be below 15%. Uh, you see right here, we're set at 17.1. That's really, really good for this point of the year. Um, and basically what that says is that 17% of our students are well, 83% of our students only miss four and a half days up to four and a half days of school the first 45 days. So, that's that's pretty that's pretty good numbers to have at this point. Um we we did a post too with this at the end of the nine weeks um and sent it out to the community. Again, trying to get that team approach to get everybody involved in that. Um actually had to do a
050radio interview over attendance, which I I never thought I would have to do that. The uh next slide here is just to kind of give you guys an update. We do this chart on every agenda that I can get my hands on uh throughout the throughout whatever meeting that I'm involved with. And this just kind of shows where we're at at each building, at each grade level. Um, as you see here, there is a lot of green and there's a lot of yellow on this on this chart, and that is really good at this point in the school year. Um, you know, we're we're getting kind of down into the where we we're almost halfway. I can't believe we're almost in end of where we are in November. Um but to be at these numbers
051right here and especially uh you know Berkeley Springs High School uh at 16.7, Warren Springs Middle School at 13.3, Paul High School at 15.1. That's our secondary schools. Like they they are they are blowing this out of the water which is really really impressive because generally like [clears throat] I I would expect to see intermediate school at that number. Uh I would expect to see our elementary schools lower because that that follows kind of like what the national norms are when it comes to chronic attendance. But for our secondary schools to be where they're at, that's that's super super impressive. Um the next slide that we have here on this is kind of just again we we're still following truency uh truency as well. Um when it comes to this uh this just kind of
052shows that we've had a tremendous drop in this as well uh and getting in and getting our parents to uh send the notes in. And I think a a big part of that is we've really pushed our online absence form that has really taken off, I would say, uh just because it's it's it takes the middleman out. I have a seven-year-old. There's no way I would expect him to get from point A to point B with a note for me. Um but ultimately, this takes the middleman out and it's just straight from the parent, straight to the secretary or assistant principal, principal, whoever is in charge of that. So, uh, the one thing I would say there is the two NBT meetings that we've had this year, that's the lowest that it's been at this
053point since I've been doing this. So, that's that's really really good. Um, the next slide that we have is something that is really really uh impressive as well. Um, this just shows the total number of kids that have been recognized for their attendance. Uh, not just perfect. Um, and that's been something that we really pushed. uh as as everybody in this room knows that our kids are more busy than they've ever been. Uh they're they're involved in so many extracurriculars, uh travel, sports, whatever it may be. And you know, for just for example, we had out of out of all these, we had 1,688 students that fell in this out of our about almost 2,000 students total. >> Um that's really really good for us. We've, you know, we've kind of went up and down
054with attendance and so we're we're really really pleased with where we stand. um as of at the end of nine weeks and and our numbers continue to drop which is good um as the year progresses and we hope that only trends down. Uh we I've in my office I've got a a marker board in there that has where we finished in our region last year and kind of just to keep that in in point because we didn't do so hot last year and we all knew that and we knew this was going to be a job to tackle this and I think we're we're well on the way to do that. Um the next slide here is just to kind of give you guys an update. We we started doing this last year when we
055started doing these and it's just kind of give us a kind of uh overall view of where we stand with these two uh options that that the community members have. So in our home school we went up 15 uh from last year at the end of the year. Uh and hope scholarship we went up almost 41 or up 41 students to 116 and we've expected that. As you guys know hope carries some cash with it. Home does not. However, hope also brings more uh there's more requirements to continue that than home school. So, I think a lot of that is is that some of our hope scholarship recipients did not fulfill their ends and they just went back to home school at the beginning of the school year. >> Not split those two out, right?
056>> Yes, those are out. >> Home school and hope scholarship. So, you're I hope your hope scholarships are not including your home school enrollment. >> Correct. They're not those are separated out. So, what's 59 39? >> Yep. Wow. So second biggest school in our district. >> Um and then what so something that we've done too is after our safety meetings uh we have um started uh what we have in another attendance team basically. Uh but uh something that we've been doing there is we've been having our school share out what they're doing that's working and clearly our data shows that what they're doing is working. And so that's why Quinton is here. Uh, and I just wanted him to share a little bit uh of what is what's making Ber Springs High School so so
057successful this school year. So, the floor is yours. Come up. >> You can sit right there or you can come up here. It's up to you. [clears throat] >> So, we uh switched last year. We were giving away like big prizes and raffles and TVs and iPads and things that costed a lot of money and we weren't really seeing any results. So, we switched this year um to we offer when we see our 10day charts comes out come out um we'll offer like a advisory schedule. We'll have a 30 minute uh time for our classes that are under 15%. uh and it's just a a free time. They get to hang out, talk, uh be on their phones, which is a big thing now since they are not allowed to be on their phones during
058you know during the day, we can use that as a reward and it's very helpful. Uh and our teachers also get that time off if they have that advisory. So if you have a you know if our teachers teach a freshman or junior advisory like today, they got a 30 minute time slot at the beginning of the day to start their day. I've heard we've heard a lot of good things from that from teachers. So, we kind of switched from like the the raffles and the big items to just consistent. Every couple weeks we're doing some different uh some type of reward. Um we have our ice cream uh freezer that we just random free ice cream sometimes if they're there that day. Uh we offer like gym time, the cafeteria time, we have festivals
059we call them. So last year we had we started like with a winter festival. The day before winter break is a big absence day. So, if you have attendance, uh it was the prior two weeks, you didn't miss any days in that Friday. We offered um popcorn and hot chocolate, some time to just hang out for the kids. And we intend to do that this year. We have staff for student competitions that are you can play and watch if you meet the grade requirements, the attendance requirements. uh no discipline referrals, things like that. The staff for student competitions are very popular with the kids. And then the biggest thing that I have is build relationships the kids. I want to know every kid's name in school. Uh, and then we got to make make school
060worth it because sometimes they wake up in the morning and if it's not worth it for them to get out of bed and go, um, then they're not going to because they don't have anybody telling them that and they can't tell theirelves that yet. So that's the success that we've seen, I think Mr. N would agree, um, is we kind of got rid of those big ticket raffle items and we're just consistently offering things. We do have some big ticket like at the end of the year um put Miss McCy on the spot because she has like perfect attendance all year and she's a class advisor. So any kid that has better attendance than her um we're we're sponsoring lunch the last week of of school. So we have a couple things like that going
061uh for the year, but most of the things we're doing are weekly every two weeks, things like that. So, we had we had Quinton at our principal meeting this morning sharing uh successes of Berkeley Springs High School with the other principles. And um two things stood out to me. Uh one thing he said was he tries to get to know every kid, every student's name. And the second thing he said this morning, which he didn't say tonight, was a simple phrase, hey, we missed you. >> And that goes a long way. So I told him, I said, "It's funny how you go from the big things and it's just the little things that really matter in the end. It's that that relationship that, hey, we missed you and I know your name and all those
062things that really matter." So we appreciate all the work that you're doing at Purple Springs. >> Remember questions? >> No, looks great. Only comment I have is that my quick math was about 86% of our kids are meeting one of those three outstanding faithful. I mean that's that's commendable. >> That's a great sign. It's nice to see. So I feel like that they are being welcomed at the school. >> Really good. >> Good thing to keep after. >> Now I know why when I came in for lunch one day, the ice cream was all gone. [laughter] >> I cooking an ice cream. We've we've been out a week and a half. I'm getting my death threats. [laughter] >> I want to add something. I don't know if Laura or John, you remember this, but this
063has [clears throat] been two years ago. There was a student that went through our school system that never missed a day. Yes. >> The entire time he was in school. >> And I the name escapes me, but um do you remember that? I was like, "No, remember that's not that that can't be possible. >> K through 12 never missed a day." Wow. >> We many years ago in in our community uh we had a child who did that and then she of course grew up and got married and everything. Her child in Winchester went through 12 years and never missed a day either. >> You talk about incredible >> what helps her family. >> Yeah. [laughter] And the thing and the thing about it was especially with the parent was some of the snow days
064the bus didn't run some of those routes but the parents got made sure that the the child was able to get get out. So that's a commitment all the way around. >> Thank you gentlemen. Thank you very much. Next up, ohing [laughter] certainly appreciate the trend that we're going [laughter] >> and the room keeps getting small. >> Consider next time maybe putting you. Consider that. Good things. [laughter] >> My name is Michael City. I'm with the five group out of Cole Star. my colleague who's with me as well. We're your auditors. We've been here for the first few days this week. Um you may be wondering why we're from Huntington. You may be wondering why a firm is coming all the way up here to do your audit. Surely there's someone around here local that
065can do it. Uh first off, we enjoy coming up here. We really do. Uh we've been here I think for 10 years now. Enjoy coming up to Berkeley Springs, spend a time in Warren County. But second, there's only a handful of firms that meet the qualifications and the requirements of the state that are allowed to perform your audits. And uh so we're proudly one of those firms and that's why we're here this week and we're been here for for years and hopefully more years to come. Uh just kind of an overview of the process of the audit. We've been uh initializing our procedures over the past two or three months. We're doing our fieldwork testing here this week. We're going to wrap up hopefully over the next few weeks and have our report issued by
066December 31st is is our goal. Uh we know we got some we're up against a few deadlines there, but we're definitely going to have that out for you by the end of the calendar year. Uh just a a little high level overview of what we do. Um there's a lot of misconceptions with the financial statement audit. A lot of people think that our our goal and our our main chief requirement is to audit the performance. Okay, how well are you doing financially? And um frank frankly, that's really not a primary goal. That's not a secondary goal. fairly a tertiary goal of the audit. Uh that's not what we're charged with. We're charged with looking at compliance aspects, whether it's state compliance or federal compliance. We're also charged with looking at financial statements to make sure
067they're presented in conformity was generally accepted in county principles. And what that means is that the Morgan County Board of Education prepares their financial statements in the same exact format that the state of Wyoming does, the New York City Department of Transportation does. you're a local government and you prepare your financials the same way that all the local governments in our country do and our goal our requirement under the auditing standard just to make sure that all of that happens in the same format fashion for all the governments in the country the same way that Morgan County premieres there. So as we're going through the process we've had uh really no issues over the past few days. We don't anticipate having anything. Uh the audit's going well. We've asked for a mountain of paperwork and
068we've got it very very quickly. and and her staff do a fantastic job getting us what we need when we need it and because everything's in very good shape the compliance aspects of what we're looking at. I mentioned that that's the financial performance isn't necessarily a primary or secondary objective of our audit, but we can say that in a time when over the last five or six years, we've seen this this funding, you know, we've seen it blown up with the co stimulus money and everything's kind of getting back to normal. Um, you know, the administration over the years, uh, of course, the board from our vantage point has done a good job of of maintaining stability and keeping the belts relatively tight. Uh we've seen a lot of districts across the state that that
069we can't say that about that that have spent over spent overcommitted and now that fiscal cliff that we've been hearing about for 24 36 months is really coming home and we're seeing that with with several other counties in the state. Of course I know you all are too with consolidations and we're not seeing that uh you know nearly as severe here in Morgan County and it's great to be able to tell you that that we're not seeing the financial dire rates that here county that we're seeing in other places. Our numbers aren't finalized yet. We've got a few more things we'll be working through over the next next few weeks, but we hope to get a report out here by the by the end of November, not early December. Huge thank you to Ann and
070her staff, not just for this process past few weeks, but also the past, like I said, 10 or 11 years. We're certainly going to miss the game work. We bounce a lot of things off each other. It's not uncommon for him to call and just say, "Hey, we've got this going on. What do you think?" Uh, and We certainly appreciate the dialogue. We don't enjoy that dialogue with everyone. We wish we did, but it's really nice to have that that working relationship throughout the process. Like I said, we don't have finalized numbers yet. We haven't run come across anything that's that's really worth reporting in a negative way. Um, but be happy to answer any questions or some comments we have. >> Can you talk Anna? [laughter] We joke that the auditor has to sign
071off one night every time. [laughter] >> It's often that the uh troubled districts get in the newspaper a good bit. So whenever we are not in the metro news, we are doing something right. [laughter] That is that is a goal for us to have not not to be recognized. So thank you for your efforts and watching over that and giving us a valid and good report. >> Absolutely. We'll report back here with you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for stopping in. [laughter] [cough] >> School consolidation has been headlines across Metro News for financial constraints and financial problems. So it is >> nice to not be in that mode. >> Communications. Um, >> don't have anything. >> Ball sports are wrapping up. >> Everybody's out now. >> Cross country's done. >> Football's still going. >>
072We still got one more week. That's what it is. One more >> home night. Home senior night. So, >> crazy. So Paul High School um last night beat Pocahontas County and is traveling to Pendleton County tomorrow. >> They have to win two there. >> But if they win two, they go to states volleyball tournament. >> Yeah. So we get all them on the December meeting >> for the recognition maybe. >> And papa hosted this on on Monday night. So, >> oh really cool. >> Wish we had known that. >> I think we found out >> Friday night. >> Yeah. Friday afternoon. >> Wow. >> Well, there wasn't very many people at the football game Friday night with Halloween. >> It was empty stands. >> Yeah, they were all in town. >> Yeah. >> Senior night.
073We'll bring them out though. Hopefully stay dry. Yeah. >> Board members. Anything else? I'm sorry. >> Superintendent. >> Yeah. I mean, while we're recognized in volleyball and Brooklyn Springs High School had a good season, too. They ended up going to Philip Barber, I believe, or Grafton. I'm not sure where they played, but they played Philip Barber. >> Yeah. Pretty tough team. >> They beat Warfield there and then lost to Phil Barber. >> All right. Um so we are beginning our CSBO chief school business official otherwise treasure we call treasure interviews tomorrow and um hope to have a recommendation by our next meeting. Uh we also have been have been interviewing for administrative assistant and working through that right now. Um the SBA interview uh Mr. Julie and I left at 6:30 yesterday morning, drove to
074Charleston, and uh we're there for our 110 time slot. You get 10 minutes. So, we talked about uh the Warm Springs Middle and Warm Springs intermediate roof project um and let them know a little bit about the project. And then at the end asked if there were any questions and the one guy looked at me and said, "They're roofs. What kind of questions would we have?" >> [laughter] >> We our even though our project isn't glamorous, uh it's much needed and uh we did have the time to mention that Warm Springs Intermediate School would be our higher priority because sometimes they like to split these and so more counties can benefit. So I don't know what our chances are. I know there's 40ome million available which isn't a whole lot. Um and there were the
075SBA was booked all day. Oh, >> so >> yeah, >> we'll see how that goes. But >> some million requests. >> I saw 30 30 counties 30 counties presenting is the only thing that I saw. >> I didn't see the funding. >> It was on Metro News, but it was over 100 million that they were all asking for. >> Um, Mr. Julie and I last, not this past Friday, but the Friday before went around to the schools to distribute extra mileer. The extra mileer awards, these are awards that anybody can nominate a staff member. Um, any staff member, u whether it be a parent, another staff member, did we have any students who Yeah, students also. So, we went around and handed out extra mileers last Friday and um the really cool thing about the
076the wooden plaques that were made were made by Mr. Adren's class at Berlin Springs High School. So, it was a really really cool thing to recognize our people who work so hard. And then finally, um Mr. Douly had his first phone call today for the 26 27th calendar. So, if you have any thoughts about the calendar, please share those with Mr. Douly. We'd like to do a 2728 calendar while we're at it. So, we have two years at a glance, but uh I don't know if we'll get there or not. [laughter] That's all I have. >> Any questions, superintendent? No public comment. We're on to item nine, the consent agenda board. The superintendent recommends approval of following consent actions as presented. Minutes of the October 21st 25 regular meeting, payment of bills, budget adjustments, and
077volunteers. >> I'll make that motion. I'll >> second. >> Thank Thank you. Any concerns? Questions? >> All those in favor saying I >> I nay. Eyes carry it. Personnel superintendent recommends approval of client personal actions as presented. All right. So, [clears throat] on the agenda there, we have a resignation under professional personnel for substitute teacher. Um, we're asking to bring on an interim assistant principal for the remainder of this school year. Uh, person would start tomorrow in that role. And then under transfer there, we're asking for a first grade teacher to be uh transferred to assistant principal Whitmire, which would be effective August 1st, 2026. Um under service personnel we have a resignation as substitute custodian and we are bringing on a cook two windm extracurricular we have a resignation as a head cheerleading coach
078at football and then over on uh the agenda um we're have to bring on longterm uh long-term substitute clerk at Whitmire until that employee returns to work. We're bringing on an MC after three teacher and that is it's a different grant than what we're used to for that but it still remains the same title at Springs High School. Then we're asking for compensation for prek letters. Uh and then number two is for the new teacher training that was held on last Wednesday. We have a motion to present to approve personnel present. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Got it. >> Any concerns or comments, >> questions? >> Um I I guess just a little bit on the whole assistant principal. [clears throat] So is is the interimm an employee already employed? >>
079Yes. the behavior coach now and that she'll be moving down to that role just to fill an interim AP role for the remainder of the school year. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We, as you've heard me discuss openly, we have some behavior issues at our youngest grade levels and it's just a good fit for this person to be in the school for the remainder of the year. Um okay the person that we're recommending for next year um we really don't like to disrupt a class at this point in the school year. So she's going to be starting effective next school year. So it was actually something that worked out very well. Took care of the needs that we have as a system for our kids and still gave people that opportunity to move move ahead career
080and accept that position for next year. >> Thank you. Mhm. >> Motion for approval. First and second. Any other com comments or concerns? Closed discussion. >> All those in favor saying I. >> I post nay. >> Eyes carry it. Thank you very much. >> Finance and budget approved payment of application number five for Harwell Inc. for $4,21563 for the partial HVAC replacement as BSHs. I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Questions or comments? All those in favor say I. I. >> Those nay. Carries. Program and planning replace Jamie Harris with Hannah De Jong to present to present and Rachel Hopkins to attend AML E25 conference in Indianapolis Indiana November 5th through the 8th 2025 funding source department of CTE grants. I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> So this was the thing that
081Mr. Harris was already approved to go to. All those in person saying I oppos it [cough and clears throat] B program planning first reading polic 2451 alternative school program 2605 program accountability and evaluation 4120.12 areas of critical need and shortage for substitute bus operators 4162 Drug and alcohol testing of CDL license holders 5113 open enrollment for non-resident students 5200 attendance 5460 graduation requirements they will be put out for 30 days right not 60 30 days for comment any questions on the policies right now this time vets November 15th, everybody got their hotel ready? Me? Good deal. November 18th, we're at the board office. December 2nd, we're at the auditorium. Please note >> and earlier >> 5:30. Yes. If you want to eat >> any comments on the calendar other than that motion to adjourn. >>
082So move second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> We are joured. >> [laughter]