001Good evening and welcome to tonight's M County Board of Education meeting. If you would please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Welcome to everyone. Did all the staff make it through the first day of kids being back? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. That's great to hear. >> I don't know. I saw three of them down here on the street. Yeah, I'm not sure what they were. >> I do. >> Board members, you should have received an agenda as well as the agenda. Uh after you have had time to review the agenda and agenda as presented, I'll entertain a motion for
002approval. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any corrections or comments? >> All those in favor of saying I >> I oppos. Eyes carried it. Julie, are you up for attendance procedures? >> All right. So, this will be short and sweet. You should have a attendance plan with procedures in your attached or paper copies you have. But I wanted you to see on these I wanted you to see this. So, this is basically a little chart that we added to all of our agendas. Uh, safety committee agendas. uh facilities, anything that I have my hand in on an agenda, I throw this little chart at the top of each agenda. And as you look at it there, that's beautiful. That is day zero. So, of course, you're just going to see a lot of
003day z a lot of zeros. And I know today is day one, but we track these we track these rates on every day on every 10 days. So, we will be giving this data out to all principles on every 10 days. We've encouraged them to put this at the top of their agendas as well, team leaders, faculty, senate, what have you, so that we get people talking about this. We had a little bit of an increase last year in chronic absenteeism. As I've said to this group multiple times, it's chronic absenteeism does not matter about notes or not notes. It's just bus and se. And we're trying to get that more on the forefront of, you know, where that is for our staff to be talking about this um and and so on so forth.
004So, the first thing that I would just quickly touch base on is the attendance procedures that's in that's attached to your agenda. Um, nothing's really changed with that except for number five. Um, that is something that we've implemented to try to help with um our students that are missing 10 days. And you'll notice that it says before May 1st, 2026. Um, if you have a student that misses 10 days between now and October, that's a problem. Um, if you have person that's missed 10 days between now and May 1st probably not as big a deal as it was in October, November, December, January and so on so forth. Um so trying to keep bench like benchmarks for our administrators and communities and schools workers that are that are looking at attendance trying to give them
005you benchmarks to look at. So that's the only update to the procedures of that and whenever we do that that's just a a sack meeting and what that is is just simply you we have it we have that we have that process in place for a multitude of reasons. So attendance is a part of that. Uh so if we have a student that is doing well in school and they miss 10 days we would staff me not to just trying to figure out what the barriers are what we can do if there's health care concerns or what have you. So that's that's why that's been put in place and again it's to combat that content as a number. Uh the other thing that you have the other document that you have is the districtwide attendance
006plan. Mr. Banks is a fan of one page. I'm sorry I cannot get all this on the one page. I try is a beast uh when it comes to this. Um so um the one the first thing we'll look at here is the district goals. uh we want to maintain our chronic absetism rate of less than 15% across all schools. Um and then we added one to that and the reason why we did this the daily attendance rate is also something that's data that's attendance as that we use but there's a there's a real high correlation between having that attendance rate and being 15% or less. So that's why we've added it in there. um you can have a 92 or 93 and still be at 15% or around that ballpark, but if you have
00795% daily administrator, you're you're pretty you're pretty sure to have less than 15%. So that's why we added that. Um the components of this plan, uh we want to make sure that our our folks know our attendance policy. We want this to be communicated early with families in the school year, not down the line, not waiting, not to be reactive, but be proactive when it comes to attendance. Uh and then we also, you know, Mr. Pal did a presentation back in June on the multi-tered systems support. We have that same thing outlined for our for our attendance. So tier one is just our daily uh you know daily routines when it comes to recognizing attendance and this encompasses the entire student body. So not just a certain few or what have you. So looking at
008that, you're looking at uh schoolwide attendance celebrations, quarterly attendance recognition awards. Um and then also to actually teachers tracking some attendance in our own rooms. Um so tier two again trying to give benchmark we get to five to seven total or unexcused absences. Here's some things that we want to do. We know we're giving a parent phone call. We know we're sending a letter home. If it's five unexcused, there could be a possible SAT meeting with this. Um, you know, if we have a student that missed 30 days last year and they've already missed five days in September, we probably should have a SAP meeting to get that ball rolling quicker than than sooner than later. Um, and then also to get our teachers involved with that by giving them feedback from what we're finding
009for that that individual student. Um, tier three, that's where we get to that 10 total or unexcused absences. That again is a SAT meeting. um and then a possible NDT if it's truency related if it's if it's unexcused absences. So that's the difference between those. We also outline what our responsibilities are with our district office uh here um where our principles are in charge of what our counselors can help us with um our communities and schools. Um all those folks play a vital role in this and something that uh we had our first safety meeting back in on July 31st and uh at the end of that meeting we always cut news or 10 to 11 hard stop at 11. We've got a lot of people from the community involved in those safety meetings and
010we try to respect our time and we're done at 11. So at 11:00 that day, uh, we dismissed all law enforcement, all the other folks that are in here with us and kept the principles in and I said, "Welcome to the Morgan County Schools attendance team." You are now a part of that as well. So every month uh after we do our safety meeting, we're going to look at that chart that I provided you guys with. Look at that data. Get them talking back and forth because I I'm guilty of this. When I look at that chart, I always think of Whitmire in kindergarten. And I think I remember what my son went through as a kindergarten student. He was sick all the time, all the time. So I'm always like, "Ah, they're just in
011kindergarten. It just is what it is." But you look at Whitmer and they might be at 30%. Look at Pleasant Paul, their kindergartens at 16, 18. So like what is the difference? In those schools, it's even harder to keep that rate lower because the class sizes are so small and one or two students can cause a huge difference in that. So, it's something that we've been talking about, you know, in in those meetings is trying to just get more dialogue about that and what is working in this room, what's working that classroom. I think that's why that chart's valuable to look across the district and look across grade levels. So, that is what our plan is, our procedures, and then just some other odds and ends that we'll be doing. And then I'll be updating
012you guys throughout the school year, every quarter, as to where we stand um just like we have for the past few years on that. Any questions on tenants? >> Got a few of them. Not too bad though. Um, first one should be kind of easy. How many cysts do we have now total across the district? Four. Four. >> Okay. Sharing at Pleasant View and No, >> that's just that's on the school. >> That's on the school take care of. Okay. Okay. um what is our responsibility for our virtual school enrollment and and where we stand right now virtual school enrollment of attendance conversation. >> So it's based off of the progress on virtual school >> not charter not just correct already. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> And that's just based on their progress. We're
013not tracking their button seats and we're not responsible for it either. >> Correct. Okay. >> Okay. >> It's all about progress with them. I bet all laid out this x y >> most students are secondary. I noticed we did have one with student >> one. Okay. Um, last one, and I should probably know this answer honestly, is how do we treat vacations, planned vacations for families in regards to chronic absenteeism, five day vacation, three-day vacation that they let the school know ahead of time how that hit the chart. >> We used to do those as a different code and that code was taken away. So those so there's 10 parent notes every year and those 10 parent notes are no questions asked. If they send a note in, it's just a parent. >> Okay. Um
014so they are absences. Uh they do they do count against chronic absenteeism. Okay. >> Um so that's the one that's beginning that code was used to be A1 that we can use for vacations and such and now the state has took a hard stance that those are just absences. >> Oh yes. Are children on vacation? We all >> but the high school I'll say this the high school puts a nice incentive and the high schoolers take advantage of it in that um they incentivize and that if you don't miss so many days if you were there uh finals finals are removed from some classes >> um which is >> I'm I'm fine I'm fine with that problem with it but >> but then what happens with that is and I know because I have a
015kid there they don't want to go because they sit in in an auditorium all day. >> Okay. So then they don't show up >> at the end of the year, which then affects this chart. Then >> we're not going to fix that, though. >> And my question, and I brought this up to you before, like my son has been marked absent multiple times over the last three years for being at a school event. >> Does that come on to this then? >> It does not. So school sponsored events do not count. >> Okay. Well, I get that. then why do I like he should have perfect attendance right and he doesn't >> so that's back on so the big thing that we the big thing that we pushed this year with principles and in that
016in that plan right there on uh under teachers the first thing that is highlighted there is accurately record attendance daily that's why >> is that every class >> that is every class especially secondary that is seventh period today that's at Paul that's at middle school and Paul high They have to be doing that daily attendance because >> not only use that for that chart, but we're also using this for safety concerns. You know, anytime about where is so and so, the first thing I do is pull weave us and look to see if they're at school >> and you know, there's been times that I pulled that up and it shows them being in the building and they haven't been there for a couple days, per se. So that's that's a big push this year
017with our staff is to make sure that they're recording that attendance um correctly. Now the coaches, the band directors, they should be providing that list to the to the office, >> right? >> Well in advance before that trip happens instead of the morning of because what happens is is if that's provided the morning of, they're marked absent first period and then the secretary doesn't get to it until later and that call's already went out. They've already been marked as period one. >> I mean, I I know where my kid is and that he's supposed to be there, but >> I just wanted to to say like is that coming to if because he he's not the only one there, right? >> And I will say that Zoom is the closest data you can get to
018what is on the balance scorecard. It's not exactly accurate. It's going to be within a few percentage points. Generally, you can expect about a decrease of whatever it says on Zoom. Maybe we're 25. I expect us to be probably 23 uh somewhere around that area on the balance. Don't quote me on that. >> Whatever else, >> you're not saying Zoom's updated every >> Zoom is updated every uh so like today there's no data in Zoom because today is day one. Tonight it updates and tomorrow you'll have data from today. >> Wow. >> So that's Zoom WBE. That's not the public. That's >> Oh, that's okay. Okay. >> And that's the one we >> Thank you for that clarification. Okay. Weird. The public does not see that on a daily update. That's an internal. >> We
019see it on daily >> which is really good data to have we miss >> board members. >> No, I just know part of the issue too is with the smaller children is they have to be out 24 hours with a fever. So that, you know, even though they get up in the morning, they feel fine, but because they had that fever the day before, they're not allowed to go. So that that hurts, too. >> Yeah, that's a lot of fun trying to navigate through all those different avenues that's out there that can just again like I go back to this too is our students get 18 days to miss a year before they have that. That's a lot of days. It's a lot of days. It's It's a lot of days. It's a It's a
020big cushion, big window for us us too. We're focused on those that are in the higher numbers, too. And that's >> that's what we want to strive to be with the idea to get get here, >> right? >> Superintendent. >> Sir, comments on >> U no comments. I think uh I would just probably say that's something we need to get better at. Um we we can't do anything about how the attendance is calculated is the way they've determined we'll get better. Um we had a year last year where our data wasn't as good as a year before and um as Mr. Douly said, it's going to be a focus all the time. So it will get better. >> Thank you very much. >> Reports and communications. Um, I'm not going to take any thunder from
021the superintendent, so I'll leave everything to up to what you have to say. Board members, games, high school games will be starting this week, so come on out. [Music] Great to meet the team. still mostly just parents of the of the athletes there. But uh >> Abe scored a goal on landing. So >> that is true. That's >> it's not good for Landon. Good for Abe. I mean >> I think he let him. >> That's what I'm going to go with. >> Superintendent Banks floor is yours. >> Okay. Today was a very exciting day in M Countyy's first day for kids. Lots of smiles from the adults and kids across the county. Made a lot of visits out there. Uh everything went very smoothly. Um just very exciting day. I I want to mention um
022that as you probably are aware, the immunizations have been a challenge for us this year. And I want to publicly thank our nurses. I don't know that everybody fully understands what our nurses go through, but they are in charge of medical plans, dietary plans, and immunizations, and all that comes at them at one time at the beginning of the year. And so, um, uh, they are very hardworking people, and they are more behind the scenes than anything, but without them, we uh, we don't have school is saying, it's very simple. So, just want to give a shout out to our nurses. A very good, very good first day. A little bit of an update on the Berkeley Springs High School football soccer field. Uh, so we've made some upgrades. Uh, the goalposts are in um
023the water has been uh we now have water uh that's to the field uh that we had to dig up and put back a lot of dirt. Uh the play clock has been fixed and ready to go. We do need a play clock operator if anybody's interested. Mr. Bringer's looking for somebody, but it's hard to find volunteers to do those kind of things. And we are looking for somebody. And then we just ordered a speaker system this morning for the football field that we think will be much much better than we've had there before. Uh should have it in place in time for the second uh home football game, which means we'll have a temporary system for the first few soccer and football games. But, uh, looking forward to that. In addition, um, the field
024maintenance position is up and running and we look forward to the work that Mr. Nick, >> yeah, Mr. Nick Moore is going to be doing for us. Um, so also wanted to let the board know that Mr. Bingaman, who has been our u grass mowing person, we uh renewed that contract with Mr. Bingman as we are permitted to do in his contract. he has done a great job for us and very very pleased with his work. >> Um, some good news that I'll I'll share a little bit about today and we're going to do a presentation either September 2nd or the 16th, but our WVGSA student achievement data is in. It's it's not embargoed any longer. It is in West Virginia Zoom. It is very good. We are very pleased with our student achievement data.
025So, we will be sharing that either at the second. I'm kind of I'm trying to wait for the balance scorecard data to be fully >> one second you're released. >> Um, I don't know about the balance scorecard. I haven't heard yet. So, we may just do a West Virginia GSA presentation and then do a balance scorecard later because >> that's a great idea. That's I'd rather focus on student data than >> Okay. >> overall score. And then um finally u I would like to recognize some folks who are with us tonight. Um very generous people from our community. I'm going to read to you before I recognize them Senate Bill 280 which is a bill that was passed in it's called display of the national motto in public schools. So this bill basically says that
026a public or second elementary or secondary school shall display in a conspicuous location within a common area of the main building that is accessible to the public and may also display in a similar location in common areas of other buildings. a framed durable poster of the United States National Motto in God we trust. That the poster or framed copy of the national motto described in this section is a minimum of 8 1/2 by 11 in and shall contain a representation of the United States flag centered under the national motto and may not depict any other words, images or other information. Next part of this is a public elementary or secondary school may accept and use private donations for the purposes of meeting the provisions of this section. So no public funds can be used for
027this purpose. And then finally not withstanding any other provisions of code to contrary this section applies to public charter schools and authorized pursuant to code section 185G-1. So with us tonight, we are very thankful for the um Mount Zion Orleans Community Church, Pastor Tony Peron, and member of the church, Michelle Serbal. And Dick is with us, too. What's your last name, Dick? >> And he's with us tonight, too. And we would like to show you uh what they're we're going to display in each of our buildings in Morton County Schools. >> Thought you were leaving, Michelle. She got up and walked back. She going to the door. >> Um, >> those are beautiful. >> We're very pleased to be able to provide these. We bought 10 of them. So, it'll be in all the school
028main offices and the bus garage and the board office. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> And we have a certificate that we would like to present to you for for all your work and your cooperation and coordination with our school system. This is great. That's a great endeavor. So I don't know who to thank. Do I thank you? I shake your hand. >> And if we could get a picture [Music] >> all of us. >> Sure. [Music] >> Yeah. up. All right. Ready? >> One, two, three. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. >> Thank you, sir. I didn't This is a long >> I'm actually surprised that even pass believe it or not [Music] the current legislation. >> All right. >> Anything else? Uh, I have one question. Our kindergarten,
029did we add the classroom? I knew we were hiring. We >> Yep. We were going to add a kindergarten teacher and >> the one tonight. >> Right on the edge. >> Did they start today, too, or we? >> No. >> Okay. >> Oh, the teacher did. Oh, so we have a >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. They did. >> We had employed by teacher employed by Friday. Got the cat worked out yesterday and all that stuff that got her roll today. So, >> did she have kids today? [Laughter] >> I didn't know it was one of those. >> Split start. >> Yeah, I'm not kidding. Our prek was >> prek. Okay. >> Now, prek is doing a staggered start. So, there's half of their students start tomorrow and half of their students start the
030next day, which is a lesson learned from last year. as you have new students come in that you know sometimes very little about um it's good to have some time to get to know them and the families and then start with the full class after a couple days of working with smaller groups. So lesson learned from last year. >> Great to hear. Wonderful news. >> Any other questions? Superintendent. We're move on public comment time. Tonight we have with us Mr. John Mason and he wishes to speak about Bath Christmas for a couple minutes. So, John, I'm not going to go through my spiel because I don't think you're going to complain about anybody individual about this. So, so I'll give you a couple minutes and the floor is yours, sir. Welcome. >> All right. Well,
031thank you very much, >> Santa. >> Yeah, >> I'm gonna hold you to that. Um, so you guys know my name. You know why I'm here, the Bath Christmas Project. So, I want to thank the Morgan County Schools for their past support with school children being able to decorate ornaments that are placed on the trees around the courthouse. So, the Christmas project partnered with the town council, the Morgan County Commissioners, Chamber of Commerce, Travel Berkeley Springs, the Castle Foundation, and many others to decorate our little town for the holidays from the north end of Washington Street all the way up to the south end of Washington Street. We've all heard people say that our town looks like a scene from a Hallmark movie, right? So, we also organized the Winterfest parade which is the first
032Saturday in December. I'm here to ask for your continued support plus one additional thing. So, last year I tried to do letters to Santa uh that I read on the local radio station. The turnout was uh not as overwhelming as I had hoped. So this year I was hoping that the school board would allow us to ask the kids if they want to write a letter to Santa that then could be read on the radio station. >> So what do you guys think? >> No, don't they already do that? And they're in the messenger usually >> the messenger. They're doing it at the school somewhere. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> They are already doing it. >> So how could I get a copy that then >> talk to her? Okay. >> Yeah. Because they already
033do it. >> Yeah. >> John, you're welcome to come to us anytime you want to. Anytime you're trying to get involved into our schools and get the kids to do something, your principal is one of the best people to reach out to start at with first. Okay? that's the first person that has a direct contact with the kids especially if you're trying to get something with the kids or trying to get um I don't say buy in but that's what you're trying to pull into it the conversation principles are a great re resource >> okay sounds great >> and have you talked to Luke Christie because Luke used to do that so I don't know what his process was >> uh that goes back you know years >> we all go back years now Yeah,
034you go back years with uh Sam Trump did it. >> Mc did it. Althan did it. >> I just thought maybe Luke remembered what process he went through to get the letters. >> He just had the letters. >> Okay. >> Y tried to get them from the Christmas project last year through the library. >> Those through the library. They had a mailbox at the library where a lot of those went. Yeah. >> And I'll say my kids didn't know about it. >> Yeah. But the the volume was not there and the quality, you know, was like two or three sentences and I'm trying to fill up, you know, a half hour at a time every night. So, but yeah, the uh the messenger that would be great >> and I I even reach out to
035Mr. Harrison in middle school for a little bit longer paragraphs and see if he can touch base and maybe get the what are they called those aged kids to write a have a writing essay at one at one of the English classes. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Thank you for your effort in that too. >> Yeah, there's anything the Christmas project for Santa can do for schools. Let me know. >> Hey, there's only 128 days till Christmas, by the way. >> I know. I saw that on Facebook today popping up >> just so you know. >> Yeah. >> But you only had any good for 128. >> Only only 128 more. >> Got long. You write your own letter and deliver it. >> There's no limit. >> There is
036no limit. >> That's right. >> Yeah. You should have plenty to read because they print a lot of them. >> I saw that at the end. >> Yeah. Yeah. You should be able to get them. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Board members, consent agenda. The super superintendent recommends approval of following consent actions as presented. Minutes of the August 5th, 25 rigger meeting uh payment of bills and budget adjustments. Entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> So move. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any concerns or comments? >> All those in favor of saying I. >> I. Personnel superintendent recommends approval of the following personnel actions as presented. Mley, uh, do not move to the agenda. Just do the agenda first. >> Sure. >> All right. So, under professional personnel
037on the agenda, we are finally bringing on a coordinator of curriculum and attendance. I got that straight away. individual will be starting on September 8th to have some things with our current position middle school. Under number two there, we bring on expanded school mental health grant social worker. That's one of those that we've had the grant funded for a few years now. And then we are asking for an additional position at kindergarten elementary school. Under service personnel, we'll bring on a cook at a cook two at Paul schools and we'll bring on halftime cook at Orange Springs Middle School. And then under personnel number two, we're looking to add an additional position at kindergarten 80 to accompany the kindergarten teacher. Under extracurricular, we're bringing on a volunteer athletic trainer at Berkeley Springs High School and
038a volunteer golf coach at Burk Springs High School. Under letter D, professionals professional staff development, we're asking for those folks to be compensated for new teacher county. Number two is for new teachers academy as well. Number three is for new teachers county and number four is for suspect. And then our service staff there were asking for that individual uh for attending the week's conference in July. >> Thank you very much. Board members, you have the personnel on the agenda. Any questions before I ask your motion? >> I move that we accept the personnel agenda as presented. >> I second that. >> Thank you. All those in favor saying I. >> I nay. Eyes carries. Mr. Linton will recuse himself for the agenda. the agenda of the personnel. >> Over on the agenda, uh we are
039bringing on one of our alternative education teacher at Whitmire starting on September 2nd, the day after Labor Day. Bring on a long-term substitute prek PSSN teacher at Woodm. Uh we have a transfer from interventionist teacher Middle School. intervention teacher read. So that we already moved into the temple because now we've already got that job filled on the same date. So now we have another position now actually closed tomorrow. Uh we're asked to reclassify a fifth grade teacher pleasant view to a long-term substitute teacher pleasant view. Under B, under B, there we have temporary part-time. That's our part-time expended school expanded school meal health worker at Paul. Uh we are bringing on a kindergarten teacher aid. That's the one we asked for on the agenda. This is on the agenda. Uh and then we are bringing
040on a tenant special education aid autism mentor plus letter D. pile of pre and super division. So I'm just going to do it by building. >> That's fine. >> Letter A, we have Bley Springs there. You see those two individuals. Letter B, we have Paul. There's two individuals. Letter C, we have five individuals there. Under letter D, we have nine individuals there. Under letter E, we have five individuals there. Letter F, 10 there. Letter G, we have athletic game supervisor Fus High School. Two individuals for that. And then we're bringing on a volunteer assistant cross country and track coach for Orange Middle School. And then we'll bring on a volunteer assistant golf coach at Orange Middle School as well. And under those before I go any further with those brief post those individuals, they may
041not be there every day. It's just to have enough people to cover whatever rotations and what have you. Um, under professional staff development, we have another new teacher training there under number one, special education teacher trainer academy under number four. >> I move we accept the um agenda. >> Thank you. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you. Concerns or questions? All those in favor saying I >> I >> no eyes carried. Thank you. >> Program planning approved professional staff development handbook for the school year 2526. Any changes? Any comments? >> Yeah. The only thing that's going to be done with those is once those groups meet those handbook updated change names and all that stuff that's in there. So that's that's the only other motion to approve a professional staff bill handbook for 2526. >>
042So move >> second. >> Any comments concerns? All those in favor of saying I. I >> approve service staff development handbook for the school year 2526. I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Concerns. All those in favor of saying I. >> I. >> Motion passes. Second reading and approval. Policy 5112, policy 5460, policy 5505, and policy 8640. We have any comments? >> Perfect. entertain a motion to approve the policies as read a second time. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any concerns or comments? All those in favor of saying I. >> I. >> Thank you very much. Calendar of events. >> Just a comment about September 2nd if I may. Um, so superintendent goals are supposed to be done by the 15th. So
043I would recommend that we do the superintendent goals on September 2nd. And then um since we do have WBGSA data via West Virginia Zoom, I would recommend that we do the presentation that night as well. So >> you send us a copy of last year's goals. >> Sure. Thank you. >> But we just did that. >> Yeah. Feel like Any other comments on the calendar? >> Just something way off what we're talking about. A week from tonight, South Morgan begins their carnival and it's just growing every year. It's going to run from Tuesday through Sunday this time. all kinds of activities and food and it's growing every year. Very happy to see them be so successful out there. It's great fundraiser for our fire department. >> And hopefully they won't break the drought this year
044like they did. I've seen the same thing up here. Blessed was some good weather. >> This this year we we could use a little drought. >> Yeah, I know. But last year during the carnival >> just poured and poured a couple nights. >> Oh yeah. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. Then >> there move >> second. All those appear say I. >> I. >> We are adjourned.