001Remember, we ready? Good evening. Thank you for hosting us on ball school. Appreciate that. You always standing for the flag 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. Board members, one item to draw your attention to on the personnel. Uh you want to jump over to that page on the agenda. Uh item F 1B on the page six personnel bus operator trainee. We are going to remove that person. So I'll make a motion to approve the agenda and amended agenda. May I have a second? Second, please. Any questions or concerns? All those in favor say I. I. Thank you very much. Uh, tonight we are here for the annual school strategic plan update from First
002thing before we get started with our PowerPoint one director or bulletin board here, which we've had up since January, by the way, when you guys were supposed to be here due to the weather. But uh if you take a look at your little keychain, that's the puzzle piece because it takes all of us working together to have success for our students. So just a small reminder. Um and I'm glad that you guys got to see if it started to fade because Miss Helmet put it up in January. So thank you for not taking it down. Probably difficult. Yes, we did. Yes. An elementary bulletin board is hot commodity. Everyone wants to put up their bee stories and everything else that they have. Yeah, we appreciate that. Yes. Yeah. Erin, which one do I do you
003want me to start under view? And then full screen. Gotcha. Well, we chose uh some things to highlight on our page. Uh, one of our words that we chose this year for capturing kids hearts was resiliency. Brian Freeman, who is our CPH consultant, asked us to choose a word for the year for our school and it was resiliency. And um, we chose it in September before we knew what kind of year that we were going to have, but it proved to be the best word for our year. So, we took a picture of some things here that certainly show resiliency and perseverance. So, um, Mr. Harold here with our five varsity girls had the winning season for the first time and I can't remember when we've even had a team. Um, sometimes they hit the
004floor, finished the floor with four, but we had a winning season with five girls. So, tenacity, perseverance, resiliency, those five girls right there. Of course, Donniey's in the audience. Now, this kind of changes how I can talk about Donnie here. embarrass them all you want. Embarrass small. I think I do that all the time. But anyway, um this was early on in our season. I think this was Paving City, Donnie. This was Peyton City and um of course that school is closed, no longer going to be in existence, but we went down there this year for the first time and just had a really good small school bonding experience with them. And they sent us all of their pictures, of which this was one with their photographer to share. And of course, you know, Zonnie,
005that's typical picture that we get from him. Uh the program in the top is the Christmas program or the holiday program that we have. Um and just the tradition that we have here in our largest parent involvement event we have. So good things. Oh my goodness. So many good things. uh can't fit them all on one screen but um social studies winners here was a county winner and then the other students were place winners. Um so one thing that we do with our PBIS trips is we reward attendance behavior and also grades. Each quarter the elementary and the high school get to take a trip. This one happens to be to Blackwater Falls tubing. So, uh, an experience where kids wouldn't maybe otherwise get. We try to combine experiences. Um, but the picture in the
006middle is snow days. So, this year you all changed the first five snow days and Miss Dere had lots of parents send in photos. Um, just remind us that uh these are still children and sometimes you need to take a snow day and play in the snow. It's not all about instruction all the time. So, we thank you guys for keeping that at the heart of what you do. Um, that's obviously an extended family and those kids are not all large because they're very small. Lots of them are beautiful children, but uh chose that picture because that reminds us why we're all here. Uh, so the next picture is an elementary PBIS trip. Can't tell. I think this was secondary. This looks like the elementary trip. Um, and so the experience to shoot a bow
007and arrow indoors, the experience to climb a rock wall, which I think actually Miss Humming also did. Oh yes. Yes. And that's at the Cumberland YNCA. So they have the rock wall, swimming, activities like shooting a bow all combined into one thing. So you can take your computer and do all of those things. So again, an experience that our kids would not otherwise have. Of course, we have lots of athletic pictures going on, lots of good things going on. all the time. So the top is our cross country boys. As you know, Donnie was state runner of second uh representing Paw Schools and has represented Paw Schools every year that he has ran for high school at the state cross country meeting. Uh the picture at the bottom is super fresh. Like this should be
008in the paper tomorrow. Um if they have room on the sports page. Uh this was Thursday night PBS. We came home with eight medals, more than we've ever had. Um, I've never ever had athletes win three medals that night, but Donnie and Shayla did. Um, we also put Donnie in something that we've never done, the 16 to 8 and the 32. The 32 was supposed to be a cool down, but of course by lap five, somebody was ready to go on and win, which he did. Uh, Shayla has had a phenomenal gear uh with some help in high jump 52 Mr. Close Thursday night. Incredible. Thank you. That's wonderful. It is. Um, she fell in the 300 meter hurdles. Two girls got ahead of her. She got up and still won the race and came
009across the line. Bloody and sweaty and covered in everything from the track. And of course, she won uh long jump. Joseline, my thrower, uh, shot and disc won as well. So, athletics are here to be here. Um, and then these are awards that you guys gave. So, this is our awesome bus driver, Steven. Um, we love him. We're glad he decided to come here from Winchester. This is Charlie. She's my ECAT. She did not win, but um outstanding. Works with kids at the end of the elementary way down there. And then this is Reed Renour. Uh this is one of Miss Stephy's um teachers that she has grown. This is one of the u folks that came to us with a bachelor's degree in graphic design. Yes. graphic design. Wasn't quite sure what to do
010with graphic design in Western Maryland. Not a terribly marketable degree for Western Maryland. Uh, and Amber helped her decide she wanted to become a teacher. She works with a high school population of special needs kids and has done an outstanding job. So, um, this is one that Amber has grown, one of many that she has grown, but the Alert program does work. Those are our good things. Any question? Oh, hold on. I got one. Oh, one more. Sorry. Project Lead the Way. So, last year, you know, Megan received a large grant for us to start dabbling in Project Lead the Way. Um, this year, Amber was written hour and Megan went to San Diego. Yes. And went to a national conference. So, next year we're looking at adding two courses for Megan. She's going to
011have a middle school project lead away classes. We're going to have design a model and we're also going to do medical detectives. And then Miss Helmick is going to do a space and flight um unit. So, our middle school in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade will have project lead the way classes in them which also count for CTE and middle school. We are um we struggle here to have CTE in the middle school because of staffing. So uh project lead the way kind of takes care of that. It helps us to have those courses and also take part in this national program. So we are set to go with that. Uh Beth and I have been working on class codes of what those will be. But as of right now, sixth and eighth grade, we'll
012have a project lead the way model next year. Um, and we're super proud of everyone involved with that. Uh, school leadership team. So, uh, excuse me. I don't know why. Did you make it outside? We were outside by the tree. It was fall. The tree was beautiful, but what we didn't realize is, you know, it would make our eyes too sweaty. So anyway, um and then we have Miss Helm who is here, uh who is my elementary team leader, my faculty senate president, my academic coach, uh my assistant track coach, my track secretary, everything across the board all the time, uh my counselor, Dr. Stickley here, um involved right now, heavily getting ready for graduation. We'll see you all in less than three weeks again. uh deep into scholarships and awards and slideshows and trying
013to do everything that it takes for graduation. Um it's a lot. Even if you only have 11 kids, it's still a lot to get ready. And then we have Mr. Arthur. He's my school team leader and he is a math English teacher with our demographics. Um, not much to say really uh about that. That kind of speaks for itself with our high school data. Um, again, just the the breakdown of definition poverty rate. I know normally when I present this to you, it's over 100%. Um, this is without the 1.6 multiplier. So that there was consistency across the schools because not all schools have federal programs. Title one specifically. Uh Tina Canon asked that we just present the world data. So that 61% if you times it by 1.6 the federal multiplier you will get
014a closer rate. I wish that our poverty had dropped to 61%. 61% is our direct certified number of students. So that's minus the 1.6 multiplier. And same thing for the high school as well. 65% is not the accurate number. That should be times 1.6 GSA data. Well, we're getting ready for GFA next week. So, this data is really really dated started. I want my question to be good. Sorry, that's we have not. We start on Monday. Yes. Like this data is so old, but it's okay because we were supposed to present this in January. So, um, areas that we worked on to improve, and we'll take a look at my strategic plan goals here in a moment, but grades three, four, and five, definitely the writing is a part that hurt the reading scores. Um,
015and we have some goals and some things that Miss Hingley was involved in over the summer to help us work on that. Um, and then grades six and eight had above the county and the state a little bit higher percentage with the reading. Um, and I think that's because the writing processes as you get a little bit older, you're a little more familiar with it. We did have a dip there in seventh grade, but certainly in grades three, four, and five, the writing component of the GSA uh is very difficult for students to master. It's hard for third graders to get five paragraphs typed onto a computer. That's a huge a huge lift for those young grades, as is the writing process in general, let alone them typing it. So, math proficiency uh grades five,
016six, and seven uh were above, which is good. Um this year we added spring math. I'm sure you've heard about spring math many times. Um there is an advantage to being last because you've already heard all of that from everyone. But we added spring math into K6, but predominantly we're trying to work with these testing grades to get the fluency up. So, something that Spring Math works on are time drills, like things that probably we all did. Um, someone recanned it, put it back out there and make an event on it, but it is basically fluency to help build uh speed when doing computation and we hope that that will help address the elementary deficiencies here and third and fourth graders. Miss Elme has always done fluency drills for multiplication and division. If you've ever
017been to one of our sixth grade graduations, you know she has multiplication magicians. Magicians and what do you call the division and the division dynamos? So every year I hand out those awards at sixth grade graduation and I really think there's a correlation between the summit scores and just practicing those basic drills and I know for a while it wasn't in vogue to be working with that but we seem to be cycling back around with math the same way that we have with reading with the fundamentals the pillars of reading math facts and drills. we seem to be coming back to that and someone has, you know, put a title on that called that spring math and he's making a fortune now after but that's the reality of it. So that's um that's where we're
018at with that science proficiency. Um so the first time that we test science is in fifth grade and that's hard for those kids the first time. I really wish even at third and fourth grade we had something that was even 10 15 questions on science waiting to start testing science in the fifth grade year and then just the eighth grade year um I don't like that to me science I think should be tested but again um the fifth grade year is a hard look with that by eighth grade we had a little higher proficiency certainly but when you only test a subject at those two grades I'm not sure that we can ever figure out exactly where the breakdown and science instructions. So our trend lines um basically going upward if we take a look
019first at the ELA it went down in elementary and we talked about that that's predominantly we think a writing issue as summer and I took a look at that data and went down uh the reading comprehension and the narratives and things that kids are doing questions on was not the issue that she was grading then the gray line is our math line which went up from 32 to 39% % and our science in 2223 was zero and it went up to 19. So math and science both went up slight dip in reading which is correlated to the right seventh eighth and 11th. So um this is an odd slide for us because seventh and eighth grade are GSA and 11th grade is SAT. So to stir all those into one pot, it's kind of hard.
020Like they're not similar tests in any way, shape, or form. We have a state created test and then a national standardized test with SAT. At any rate, here's the data and that's morphed it all together for us. Uh in ELA, we went from 37 to 35, which if you take a look at the error of error margin, that's pretty much that we stayed equal with that one. In math, we went from 16 to 29. So, we had a big jump with that one. And then our science went from 19 to 21. So, that one stayed very slow. 18 school day. Uh, math for us was at 19%, the state was at 18. So, we were certainly pretty equitable with the state. Um again terrible percentages overall but we are giving a test for to all
021students that are not all collegebound. So that's my feelings on that. Uh reading we were at 48% for the school and the county was at 45. So we were slightly ahead uh of the county and then slightly below the state. And obviously the difference between reading and math this is a hard tool to measure high school success. I think if all students were collegebound, this might be an acceptable tool, but they're not. And so you kind of see this disparity. When do we get rid of SAT? After I retire. There's at least 10 more years. Is that Yeah, that's unfortunate. Uh elementary discipline services last year. Um elementary discipline is negligible really by offense level. we just don't have much of an elementary discipline problem. We have in every classroom um the sore program which
022goes over expectations and then we have the PBIS strips uh for grades three through six here that the kids work hard. I think the elementary kids um really look forward to those experiences because they're things that we don't usually get to do. Where are they going this last time? Uh we're going to sky zone. Sky Zone. Okay. So something that our kids can look forward to. High school um build negligible very low levels and we use the PBI as trip as part of that but we do not have a huge problem here. We just know our kids very well and there's not a lot of kids so there's more of us to keep an eye on them but not much in the way of right and we we also have our counselors here and our
023Spanish school mental health counselor and our social worker and then we have a QVC therapist uh also who works here so we do have some options when students we think are headed towards a path we don't want them to be in that we can help them with before it gets to a discipline problem that is too much for them to handle. chronically absent for the elementary. Um, right now it looks like we're running a little bit below the county. We've kind of cycled through everything. I think sickness-wise, I think we've come back out. Hopefully, we've come back out from a stomach flu. We got hit really hard in the winter here with elementary. And then the daily attendance is is pretty similar to the county and the elementary and the high school high school were
024slightly above the county average but our daily attendance is also pretty much in line with the counties. So these are our goals all nine of them. Uh basically for both buildings we have a goal for math and ELA related to the GSA and then we also have a science proficiency level for each building. We also have chronic absenteeism goal for each building and then the elementary because we're driven by title one initiatives. We have a parent engagement goal and then also uh staff PD goal for the secondary. So those are our nine goals. So this is our benchmark data from all the way back in January and summer has probably presented something similar um to you all but we will go through it. So the first bar is beginning of the year reading. The second
025bar is middle of the year reading. So um it's easy to see where there's more green that's great. And where there's less yellow that's also great. And then you also want to see the numbers in red going down. So if you look at beginning of the year reading definitely a larger section of the green stripe the solid green um a lower section of kids in that yellow area which is approaching grade level and then in the very lowest rungs which are three years behind or two years behind a much lower percentage. So from beginning of the year reading to middle of the year we can see it's pushing kids up into the higher levels of performance. So that was reading. Then if you take a look at the second one, that's math. Um, again, similar
026situation. Started out with 7% beginning the year math. We ended up with 10 above grade level, 15% on grade level. Went from 56. We went, looks like there's 57 more. But if you take a look at the bottom rungs, we did have 25 and 13. We took those down to 12 and seven. So what you want to see is those red percentages if they are that those levels push up into that yellow margin which is so are you waiting for your after GSA to end here? No, the EOI window is actually right now. So that's part of why the directors couldn't update us. We are in our benchmark window right now. So no we do not. Yeah. So yes, we have GSA next week, EOI all happening simultaneously. lots of testing right now. So, this
027is the breakdown of that information um by the grade and just in general, the more green that you see, the better. Um and it's like any other elementary school, the younger grades look predominantly green and yellow. And then as you move up, as the kids maybe start to get farther behind, we see a lot more red. So, that's a typical pattern that you see in elementary school uh with reading. Math again, an area that we're working on. Uh lots and lots of yellow, less red though, ironically enough. So, kids making progress approaching grade level. Those are the kids that are the easiest to move. These kids that are in yellow, um we're hoping by EOY that we will push some of them up into these grade levels. But this was middle of the year and
028we are in process right now to see EOI. This is ISL at grades six through 10, which is way too much red. And um it's really hard to do benchmarking on secondary students. Um the uh wanting to do well on benchmarks when they don't see a strong correlation. It's very hard to motivate them to take it seriously. And so um we certainly don't think that these are accurate reflections of these numbers in red, but that is the performance where they are at right now. getting them to have buy in and wanting to do well on this benchmark, which seems to them just like an additional test when you're worried about credits and different things um is a challenge for us. The LLY reading by the grade by the different grade levels. And as you can
029see, once we get to like 8th grade, the red just starts to go up exponentially. Um, as kids start to like care less about the testing or not really have a vested interest and what that test means, um, it becomes harder to get an accurate assessment of what they actually do know what to do. This math similar pattern. Um, we know that 92% of our 10th graders are not far below grade level in math. And yet it's uh the reflection that we have here that would tend to make you think that no one is doing what they're supposed to be doing. But it has more to do with attitude and buying and relevancy of the testing instrument which is something that we're trying to work on. We're trying to make some changes with that. So
030we are hopeful with the new tool at 9 through 11 maybe we will have some better results next year. Um, I'm sure you guys already know this, but um, we were announced as a capturing kids cards um, showcase school a few weeks ago. So, we are one of three in Morgan County. Um, we will add our I guess our heart out there to our banner on the side of the building. Um, this is something that we do that is just awesome. We have taken the sixth graders in Miss Helm's class and we use them as student greeters outside of the other elementary rooms. So they sit at the doors here in the morning and as the kids come in with their breakfast they can see the smiling face of the mic student. So the leaders
031in the building and then that is a picture of a third grade uh sharing good things in the morning. The elementary starts out with you know what's going on positive in your life. So that's sharing and this is our parent and community involvement. It's kind of a collage of things. um back to school night, fall festival, uh PTO, Day of Caring did a cleanup project for us. We had alumni visit which was really a nice experience. Like I did not realize how many people still in the community had worked in this building at one time until they came here on that day and um we had a delightful day. Gave them a tour. They uh were really interested in how things are now as compared to how they used to be when they were here.
032That was an interesting experience. Fall festival. Oh yes, we have a CPI picture here where Mr. Banks was getting restrained. I guess he was getting out of lawn and um he got restrained by Chris Bri's there and I'm not sure who else was. I guess they're putting him in childhood. I'm not sure which one that I just had him wander in while we were practicing that fold and I was like we need a volley. Yeah. Got over. Yeah. And then we have the um get a life. You want to tell them what that is? They might not know that one name. That's kind of your baby. One of your babies. Well, and I think it used to be called school hard knocks if you remember that from Berkeley Springs High School. Um where we have
033business and community come in and they set up table and then uh kids work to beforehand pick what their uh goal career is and then look at the salary and then break it down by months. And then they can go into their checkbook and visit each table like um to buy a car, what the car payments would be and then different cars and how much cost, you know, houses. Um you have um the wheels misfortune. So you could maybe have to twins or a roof leak or you know so they can work around all the different uh tables and see how much their salary can actually get them like buying a TV and paying rent and you know all the things that you have to do with a good life lesson. So that's crazy soft
034day the edge of this and um Amber stood up. What did you stand on and told me to do this photo? I was not standing on a chair. You get a picture of everybody's feet. So, um, our long-term improvement goals based on the data that you've seen is we're going through the science of reading and talking about the writing process. Miss Miller has been helping to educate our elementary staff. Also, third grade writing prompts have been being graded by the team uh to take a look at to help Miss Panera uh third grade. It's hard that initial writing. So the elementary team and team meeting has been working on the third grade writing prompts. Also, Miss Helmet uh is part of the state writing instructional support and um team meetings. We have tried to focus
035on writing because we know with those grades three, four, and five, it's writing that's making our reading score look worse than it actually is. And then we've already talked about spring math, trying to build fluency. Uh, also Ann is on the writing committee for math with the state department. She's reviewed math standards at the invest conference uh as an elementary coach and all of our staff have completed the just calculate training that the state department required this year trying to um help staff to understand it's not just dyslexia with reading but there's also miscalcul um I think that's our last. Yeah. see if I have everything that I wanted to share. I think so. The main question much shorter than usual in this format, but right I want to jump back to the project lead
036just um give me a little more detail about that. I'm curious is it going to be a class for the four years of or is it going to be kind of close to complete or like jump in? So So yes, so middle school are modules. So um we are taking seventh and eighth grade non- Spanish students. So our Spanish students have to do their Spanish online. So the students that aren't going into Spanish will be in these modules with mega. So we're starting out with um two modules. Basically each module should be a semester. We're starting with design a model which is like an engineering and then we're going into the medical detectives with middle school. So at that level there will not be credits. It will just be a class that they take. Now,
037what project lead the way wants us to do is work once we are successful with the middle school module, they want us to take it into the high school level where students can earn credit for things. Right now, we're starting in the middle school because we have the ability to do so with our schedule. We picked the rocket um rocketry one for Miss Helmet because in the fourth nine weeks um she has a brother-in-law that is a rocket scientist literally and so they come here and they shoot off rockets. So, she already was kind of doing that. We chose modules that um we're just getting our feet wet. There's an entire catalog of things that we can purchase. And as you move into the upper grades, then you can start to get credits. You have
038to look at things like block scheduling because of how the classes are run. This is us starting with middle school and getting our feet wet. It can also go the other way into the elementary where the teachers would do that for their science. You can use Project Lead the Way modules for your elementary science. So, we're starting in the middle, no credits by the semester. Um, some kids that we really don't have a good place to put when other kids are in Spanish. So, it kind of worked for our situation as well as Miss Helmick who already had the rocket tree built into her fourth grade. Are you thinking about not offering Spanish one into eighth grade and just moved into this freshman year? No, we have so our Spanish is completely online for seventh
039and eighth grade. We have to do um half of it in seventh grade, half in eighth grade. That becomes Spanish one. I guess if uh Dr. Stickley and I could figure out the scheduling on that, we could um offer it to all students with what you're saying. Like could all students be in there? I I just asked because you're going to in my opinion kids are gravitated towards Project Lead the Way of course is just my my opinion of of I'm not sure. Maybe I guess we will find out. we are new into this whole world and trying to get the module started. I don't like personally I think the medical detectives will be the one that will get a lot more of our kids because we have lots of kids that say they want
040to be a nurse or they want to be some something in the medical field. I think the medical detectives might be the one that the kids would be like, "Yeah, I'd rather do that than Spanish." And you might be right. We might have to figure out a way to take uh Spanish 1A and 1B and move those to 9th grade. We would have to change our format though because Spanish one and two for us happens over three years. So yeah, but we are going to try and see. And then um of course project lead the way and the state department has big plans for Megan Bennett and how they would like to see her roll it up but we have one Megan and you know we're moving to an 8 period day because of uh
041some personnel issues which has allowed us also to do this. We're also going to add psychology next year and some other electives that we previously haven't been able to do. So, I think um if Dr. Stickley and I can manipulate the day um Beth had sent us something even showing there's high schools with nine periods, we can figure it out since there's not minutes required anymore. We can build in those classes, but we have to reconfigure. So, we're going to an eight period day next year to accomplish a few things. Eight period for the whole year, not semesters. Okay. Okay. Yes. and not not a modified block, not a partial block to a period. So, did you do a capturing kids heart survey? Yes, we do the surveys. Um, well, they do a beginning of
042the year, middle of the year, and then we have an end of the year one coming up now. Yes. It's the middle of the year one that determines largely if you become a showcase school. So when Mr. Freeman came here and met with um Amber and I and went through everything, those surveys are critical if you want to be a showcase school. It's those surveys that you have to get right. And so educating your staff, educating your students, um is a huge challenge. The secondary schools definitely have a heavier lift with that than the elementary schools do. And we talked about that. Um it's a little bit harder the further the students go up to have students honest answer those honestly maybe the way that they feel or to take it seriously. So yes, it's
043mostly about the surveys and the evidence that you present. I don't have any questions, but I like to make all right. Um, my buddy back here, Donnie Tanway, and I got really serious about running last summer, and I can't tell you how many miles to put in, but they sure did pay off. And Miss Case Camp was generous enough to allow me to continue to work with him last fall and the other guys. And I tell you, it it it's been a really special uh opportunity for me. I remember I came the first day at school and they were letting out. I'm standing over there just trying not to be too self-conscious. an old man with shorts on, you know, did one end up in the county jail or something. And two two young ladies
044show up and they're, you know, they're they're just getting the look a little bit here and they got their courage up and came over and said, "Uh, are you uh going to be our new art teacher?" And I I just wanted to say so many things. I said, "No, I'm going to try to help the cross country kids out." and she looks at me and she says,"Oh, cool." And they said, 'Well, have a good day. And they walked up and I said, 'Well, we've got some acceptance right off the bat. We've laid uh ground work. Just the opportunity to watch this school in in operation day after day. Um knew a lot of the staff before in one way or another. Um leadership, outstanding leadership, counseling. Um, a school is always about people and there's
045a specialness about the kids at a small school. There's more of an innocence, I guess, at times. Not to say you don't have some kids act out. I know you do. But the atmosphere here when you see it day after day is a reflection on great adults around this place. an very supportive uh parent group. Um I made a goal for myself this time. I've gone to each of the teams uh sports this year. Finished finished up with track and g that was a hard one for me to do the other day and just watched some of the growth the kids had. Sat on the stage and watched basketball games and volleyball games and looked at the people who come in. um many alumni senior recognition nights. The pride this community takes in their school
046um is epic and it's it's representative of what we have in this community. The uh boosters group, Jamie Smith, Mrs. Ryan, some of the others, what they provided for for kids, not only good athletes, but kids that just need help. And um as my fellow board members probably know, at one point I was fortunate enough to just take the program for a couple weeks while the ladies were on vacation. And I I have to say probably that group of five boys, one of the most enjoyable groups of boys I ever coached because they wanted to learn. They wanted to do it right. And uh for the first time, couple had a second boy go to states, Taylor Carver. And and Chuck, he reminds me of you because he had he when Chuck was a freshman,
047he had an epic race. Um I coached him and he he really wanted to go to states and he made it and it's one of my favorite races ever. That's what Taylor pulled out. he the last position to to qualify. The kids bought into what we were trying to teach him. Um you look back on a long career like mine, it's not about the athletics anymore. It's about the character, the work ethic, the discipline that the kids get in time. It's remarkable. and the community. We we started going out on the roads and Merlin knows I teach hill form and everything else and we're doing that and people are going by and they're blowing their horns and say way to go and everything else. Um to see all this instead of halfhazardly but to see
048it on a semi daily basis. Um I think we can all take great pride in this community in this sport. So, I don't have any questions because I figured the most of them out, but I I wanted you all to get the recognition you all deserve back. Very concerning. The question I have is you have a motivation you talk about and it's kind of trickling down from 10th grade to 9th grade and no nth graders coming up are going to have the same idea as what the 10th graders did. And you alluded to the fact of and I don't disagree with it that for 11th graders taking the SAT you have let's say four out of 11 that are taking it seriously and the other eight are not. So, sorry there. Um, what's your plan
049of attack? What's the thought process? What are we going to be able to do to be able to see a growth or a progress rather than just daily grades for the kids? We have 10 or 11 we're trying we're trying to get to. Yep. Well, that's worked all year on trying to find a better tool. We are hoping that with a different benchmark tool, Aaron, that we will have a different result. Il um I started with long long ago. I think we were actually the first tool in the county because I bought it with title one long long ago um with no desire to use it as a benchmark tool. But as the state has put more requirements on us eventually because we were already using it. We started using um it is hard to
050motivate high school kids. Uh we are hoping with a change that we will get a different result. high school kids, it's about credits and graduation and and their performance in athletics. Trying to motivate kids to do well on a benchmark without having some type of incentive. I I'm not sure even benchmarking at secondary in my mind's eye, it's not terribly reliable. the state is asking us to do it. But even with benchmarking, if you look at the level of differentiation, so we benchmark kids in the elementary and we put in intervention services, tier 2, tier three, you have people like Miss Miller that have the ability to work with them through the science of reading with the trainings that we have. At the secondary, we're benchmarking, but the result of that is for a classroom
051teacher who's trying to master content and standards, what do you do with that data? Um, I'm not saying that we don't need to benchmark secondary. It's just hard to make it relevant. It's hard for a secondary teacher to figure out what to do with it once they have it because the supports that you have in place in an elementary school with reading specialists with ECADs. Like the state is finally realizing, you know, we are the top of the poverty heap, so to speak, with federal programs. Title One dollars are dispensed by the top poverty school. That's us in the elementary. So we have Rebecca and we are thankful for Rebecca but she is one person working with K through five. So then the state has tried to add this other level of ECAT support uh
052and has training now for the ECATs trying to have those folks pull the elementary students into different tiers and to work with them at the secondary. I feel like the state needs to get to that point. So we benchmark secondary students, we benchmark middle school students. What do we do with on them to fix those deficits? That's where there's a gap in the state. Eron, like the model is coming down, I think, but it has to be, you know, we can have two classes for English and two classes for math in the most one. I've done that before. And we have support periods for SAT at the secondary, but that benchmark tool, which is necessary, you need the other piece of it. and the elementary what that looks like is interventionist and ecats. We don't
053have that at the secondary level. So it's a problem a little bit bigger than just our school and our situation. It's a problem with how the state is looking at the model in my opinion and and I don't disagree with you. I guess more of my focusing question was twofold is um with what we have now motivating the kids um just your off the cuff where are we at in regards to um for efficiency for 10th graders I know we're not 90% isn't accurate are we at 50 or we at 30 what would you say with you being your daily and in this small school we're talking about you have a personal knowledge of the kids yes I I think again I I don't like that we just test in 11th grade at high school.
054I don't like the state model. Like, you know, I I went through a system in Maryland where we tested every year. From the time that you started, you tested every year. Maybe that was the California Achievement Test that we took back then. But there was an advantage to that. I liked when we tested every year. I don't like testing at 11th grade and GSA at 8th grade. And you have this gap there in 9th and 10th grade. and there's nothing till 11 and you're hoping that they're passing their classes and they're earning credit. So, the states tried to add the benchmark. We just need standardized testing in there in some sort of um some sort of way to hold them accountable. In Virginia, if you don't pass your standardized test, you don't go on to
055the next grade level. Um and that seems harsh. And yet, we have staff here that have kids in that system. If you don't pass, then there's remediation all the way through. But they test every year consistently and if they start the test in like March and then you have till May to pass it, they have things in place. I know because we have staff memorial students in that system now. And so you ever thought about doing a PSAT in ninth grade or 10th grade here? We do. We do. We have those and we have again use them this year. We have we did have we do the PSAT 9, PSAT 10, uh PSAT 11, and then the 11th uh school day. So we do four and we've done those for I would say at least
056five six years or longer. Yeah. And you can see if you looked at the PSAT 9 and then looked at the SAT 11, you can see the improvements. And that's what I was saying on your on your strategic plan, you had to go up there, go up go there, get 450 for each reading math. So that's where I was thinking about we had a ninth to 10th grade if we could see those and have those numbers. It's a public perception that we need to be able to explain to the our so we look at that. So then it's do we look at the benchmarking for or do we look at benchmarking for the SAT? Do we have both benchmarks or do we have just which benchmark them? And when we PSAT too that's again back
057to the FAT argument piece. It looks like we're just preparing students for college but we know all our kids aren't collegebound. So even when we give a PSAT, if you have a student that's not collegebound, how seriously are they really going to take it? Because they know they're going into the workforce, they're going into trade school. So right now, the tool that the state's giving us isn't really capturing West Virginia shooting itself in the foot. Like they're making us look bad in the secondary world because the test that we're giving is for collegebound students. But I could debate you and I don't want to hear but I debate that even if you're going to a trade school, even if you're going to a job, you're going to have some type of standardized test that you're
058going to have to be going through. If you can't take a standardized test, then that's going to be a challenge in itself. So the SAT, it may not be the best benchmark out there, but it's going to be something to help us at least let us prepare the kids for the testings they're going to have and a number that we can put into where the finish is. I can believe it's not going to be 3 350. is going to be a decent number I think. So I I think it'd be nice to see next year that if you would pull in the PSAT data for us to see where they are landing at on 9th grade, 10th grade, it shows us a cohort even coming through. Great. I think that's definitely something we could have
059done or can do for next year. Great. Thank you, Mr. Max. Yeah. First of all, thank you for hosting us tonight. Sorry it took us a while to get over here. Uh snow will snow out in the way. Yeah. Um also looking forward to graduation in a couple weeks for Friday night. Hopefully it's Are we We're outside, right? We're still out. No, we're inside. We're back outside. I don't have to worry about rain. It's good. No. Um, I just wanted to talk a little bit about I'm glad Donniey's here tonight because I'd like to use him a little bit as an example because um, sometimes small schools are given that you know that movie Hoosiers if you ever seen that and no small school can ever accomplish great things and uh, in that movie you
060know obviously you see that that's happened and you get somebody like Donnie who comes along and defies all that that uh, small schools can't. We don't have a track here. We don't have this year. And yet look at the success and I think academ I mean athletic success at a school can sometimes trigger greater success for other students not just in acade not just athletics but academics because when you have a student at a small school who achieves at a high level regardless of what it is and other students can see I can do that too. And I think that's a a great model. It's a lesson to be learned and Donniey's a great example. Um, I really feel like there's pockets of excellence throughout the school. We've had the opportunity to come over and
061do observation, not observations, but walkthroughs and and and look at instruction and do our uh walkthrough documents and share what we have observed. And of course, as Miss Case would agree, there's pockets of concern. Um I think that uh you know getting staff to come to Paul uh we hope that we have a good um retention this year but that's going to be a challenge if we don't any people that are qualified to come over here and are willing to come to a school like this and teach eight periods or seven periods. Um so a challenge but nonetheless getting back to Donnie I do believe that there is nothing that this school can't do. Um, and there's nothing that these kids can't do. And I've seen the some of the staff here. Um, you have
062some of the best staff in the entire state right here in your building. So, I think that this school is a place that can really take off. And your concern about motivating kids to do do well in the assessment, I think, is multi- it's a multi-pronged uh concern. You know, I I understand where you're coming from. I I wanted to ask a question. Um, what percent of your graduating seniors are going to collattosis periods? Well, this year, it's funny that you should ask that. This class, and I just told John this today, 63% right now of this class, seven of the 11 are collegeb found. Um, so this class has a very high rate. We have years where there's one or two. Um, it it just depends. It varies by our number. This particular group,
063we have a very high rate. as you go down through the grade, do you see the same number or is it lower? Um, it just varies by year. Like I think back like so Dalton graduated two years ago, that class was eight and three of them went. So again, by percent that group was very high as well, but we had three of eight. So it it varies by the year and by the kids. Yeah. And at this point, you know, SAT for lots of our kids isn't even considered in college admissions. It's not even a a tool that lots of places use. West Virginia is a little behind with that. I mean, that's just the reality of it. Yeah. I have a child at a Maryland, you know, institution. It wasn't even looked at or
064considered. It's just not relevant anymore. They give placement tests. They give something called Alex a L E KS which is a better indicator and they decide if you have to go what level of math can you take or what level of English can you take that's what colleges are using now like SAT at least in Maryland's kind of irrelevant thank you again for thank you very much for hosting us appreciate that very sorry we took us a little time to get over here every time you're first we always we always are snowed out that's a problem with presentations. We're not going to do that next year. Next year, you're not going first. We'll see if we can put us in April or something. Thank you very much. Okay. Board members reports communications. I don't have
065anything. Anyone else? When I was talking about Paul, I failed to mention an outstanding young lady I sell Corbin who I met um watched her play volleyball, basketball and run track. My wife is a purist and she had Morgan message one day and she says look at this girl this picture. Now I I I am a form fanatic. Everybody knows that. I looked at Priscilla and I said I wouldn't change one thing with her. So, I just made myself known tonight. Very impressive. I'm sure her grades are outstanding as well. And uh she's going to be playing basketball game. Sorry I forgot her, but I made up for very impressive young lady. Thanks. Yeah, just have a few things. Um, first of all, um, good thing. Congratulations to the Perkins Springs High School academic team.
066They placed third in the entire state in the academic showdown. We'll be honoring them with our uh, June meeting for uh, their accomplishments. So, congratulations to them. Um, reminder, we have committee meetings tomorrow. Three of our committees meet tomorrow. Um, lots of good things to talk about, get feedback on. Uh, as Miss Casey Camp mentioned, testing is well on its way. Some of our schools have started this week, some started a little bit last week, but this coming week is the really big most all of our schools, three through eight grains are going to be testing. And yes, we had an internet outage one day when we were testing. So, those are always fun to navigate through. Um, we'll we'll also see how this all this thing from the state works out where parents can
067get immediate access to the uh assessment results because when you have an internet outage or you have a testing irregularity that makes things more complicated. So, we'll see how that works. Um, summer professional development. Uh, because we were talking about math here, we are offering a a session on math fluency for any teachers who would like to attend in June. Uh we have a gentleman called John John San Giovani who who's been in the county before. So uh again we're always looking to try to improve our math scores. Not just football but all of our uh elementary, middle schools, high schools need to improve in math. Um so one of the the last thing I wanted to mention was that uh this is teacher appreciation week and I wanted to read um letter that's going
068out to the teachers uh tonight. So just says dear Morton County teachers uh teaching and mentoring our young people requires an enormous amount of energy and patience. Know for a fact that by the end of the school day you're exhausted. You've given your best to our kids. In addition, I'm well aware that every day is different. That students can have their own challenges to bring into your classrooms. The best teachers don't choose the profession because it's easy. They choose it because they understand the impact they can have on a young person's life now and beyond high school. They do it because it's a higher calling to do something with their life that has purpose. In Morgan County, we have both new and veteran teachers just like that. We have teachers who continuously write grants to
069support their instructional goals. Teachers who have worked hard to improve student engagement efforts. Staff who take professional development not just for the $30 an hour, but to improve their knowledge. Staff who do just routinely do whatever it takes to help a child. Staff who stepped up in leadership roles when a need arises. Staff who purchase mattresses to take to children's homes when they don't have one. And staff who volunteer to go to a home to be a translator for a family who doesn't speak English. These are all things that I have observed. And there's several people in this room that fit that. Um, one of the teachers that's in the room here, I found this statistic very interesting that we are measured by u chronically ab chronic absenteeism. And one of the teachers at Paul,
070none of her students are chronically absent. I don't know that I've ever seen that before. And that's Miss Helmick. And I'd like to just recognize her tonight. Um, sometimes Yes. Sometimes, I'll be honest, we feel like we don't have control over chronic absenteeism, but something Miss Helm is doing gets her kids to come to school and are not chronically absent. So, I think there's a lot we can learn from our teachers. Um, and then finally, um, last paragraph in my letter, I've asked you to work hard, to work together, and to be willing to accept feedback. And I see all that across our system. I've given you a difficult challenge of being curious and not judgmental. And although I have observed this, we can all strive to be better. This is who we are. I'm
071so proud to be your leader. Happy teacher appreciation week. So I just want to leave that. That's all that I have. Thank you very much. Any questions or board? We're going to stand at ease for about five minutes. You all are welcome to go home, but you're also welcome to stick around for the last little bit of our meeting if you wish to. Got some wonderful personnel and some policies, textbooks, a textbook, all kind of things. You're welcome. Stick around, but if not, thank you for joining us tonight. Okay, thank you. All right, board members. We are on to item eight, the consent agenda. The supernate recommends approval of consent action as presented. Minutes of the April 15th regular meeting, April 15th reconvene meeting, payment of bills, budget adjustments, and volunteers. Entertain a motion to
072approve. So move. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Any comments or concerns? All those in favor of saying I I program planning. Second reading and adoption 5530 career technical education and workplace simulation drug free policy can request if somebody wants me to make entertain a motion to approve the career technical education workplace simulation free policy so move I'll second it soon we have no public comment thank you any discussion All those in favor saying I none. I carried. Item B, approve agriculture program and wood shop pilot for WSMS. Who wants to make that motion? Second down there. They're both excited about that one. Banks, any comments on Yeah, we're we're just really excited. I I love the enthusiasm at the school, the principal and the staff. Excited about bringing this on. It's a
073great opportunity for kids. It's a great opportunity to flow from one school, Orb Springs, into Berkeley Springs and keep that momentum going for kids. And after going to the FFA banquet the other night for Berkeley Springs High School, I was I left that room thinking, "Wow, such a positive experience and just looking forward to building this program from sixth grade now." So just nth grade. Obviously, I had to please come back to B convey to Mr. egg to beat his tree and get those people in here that he knows that are going to do this program justice. And well, I do have a the teaching position later on in personel Mr. Any more discussion? All those in favor saying I post nay. Carries instruction materials adoption. I move that we dispense the reading of the
074prek and social studies textbooks. Consider them read. Any objection hearing? None. Consider them read. So like I make the motion for approve. I move that we accept the um instructional materials. Thank you. I have a second. I'll second. Thank you. Any comments or concerns? All those in favor say I. I. Nay. That's carried. Deferred mathematic adoption from 2024 transition math for seniors. Pearson developmental mathematics fourth edition. I'll make that motion. That's all. That's all one. Oh, it's all one. Excuse me. There you go, Chub. Uh personnel superintendent recommends approval of five personnel actions as presented. All right. Good evening guys. Uh under under 11 A today we have a resignation assistant principal at Berkeley Springs High School effective at the end of the day June 30th. Um so also too that has been NAD as
075well. So that was by agreement. So that's why it was not on this this was hired. So just that's why it's not there. Um the uh for number two there uh full reclassifying a restricted substitute teacher to a substitute teacher. Um we're bringing on a restricted substitute teacher. Um we also have a leave of absence to speak due to the resignation not be until the end of June. Um and then we are asking to add the agriculture education teacher 210day contract at War Springs Middle School. Under letter B, we have a resignation substitute cook. Uh we have a transfer from bus operator 1406 to bus operator 2422. We have a pre-k teacher going to interventions teacher at Woodmire. Um under letter C there we have a resignation from cross country coach at Warren Springs Middle
076School. Under letter D, uh we're asking for those individuals uh to be compensated for professional staff development. Letter B is IEP transition. Uh letter C is numeracy committee meetings. Letter D is prek and social studies textbook and letter E is for preK and social studies textbook. Under letter F uh we're bringing on a bus operator trainee. That's it for the agenda. Over on the agenda, uh we have um a resignation for special education student support services director of June. We also have a multi a multicategorical special education with autism teacher at Warren Middle School. Um, under service personnel, we have an itinerant special education aid/ autism mentor at Whidmire going to an elementary ECAT position at Whitmire. Uh, we have a CO2 of War Springs Intermediate School uh, going to an ECAP position at Whitmire.
077And then we also have a a teacher aid early childhood classroom or ECAP um at the intermediate school going to anerate special education aid/ autism mentor at Whitmer starting those are all starting next school year. Um under number two we are rescending a RIP and reassigning uh special education aid at Whitmire to an ECAT at Whidmire. Uh, and that also gets all of our folks that were on that list back into full-time jobs for next year. So, we're good to go on that. So, that's a good thing. Um, then under number three, uh, so this individual is listed up here as, uh, an ECAT. So, that's because she was on the last agenda, so she's moved a couple times since. So, currently she is an itinerary special education aid autism mentor at the intermediate school
078and uh, she finished her classes uh, for autism mentor. So we are updating her classification and her pay uh effective uh April 7th. So that's when we got that information. Under employment, we are bringing on a substitute bus operator. Fammy is thrilled. Um we're also bringing on a substitute aid. We've been waiting on fingerprints for that for that since February. Uh and also bringing on another substitute aid. Um those are those are starting next week. Um, under letter C there, we have resignation for team leader, special education at War Springs Middle School. We're bringing on a head boys middle school basketball coach at War Springs Middle School. And then, um, under letter D, um, we have a asking for, uh, compensation for textbook adoption. Um, under E, we are starting to get some of our
079summer positions. We should pretty we should be done with these pretty much by the end of this month, which is good. We should have those all filled by the end of May. Um, let's see. We're bringing on one, two, three, four, five teachers. They're going to be filling in as sub sometimes and also odds and ends. So, we'll probably put one more posting up for those. And then we're also bringing on a halftime summer program custodian. And then we're also bringing on a halftime summer program cook. And that's it for personnel. Thank you. Any questions? board members the summer program the energy express or this is something that so this yes that's the summer program it's just encompassing everything so um it's basically we left it county positions just so that we can because we
080never know where we're really going to have that program at okay so that's why it's yes it is that program we did get a little nervous about federal cuts to some of the programs but apparently the uh energy Express program has been spared. So we are good to go. I was wondering that this morning. I move accept personnel as present. Second. Thank you. Any further questions or discussion? All those in favor? Say I oppos. Nay. Final anthem budget approve summer mcquin talk to attend HMH educational leadership on May 6 through the 8th 2025 in Boston Massachusetts. Second. Second. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I n. Uh, approve pay application 12B in the amount of $10,43 for the Morgan County Schools SBA HBAC replacement project at WBES as approved by William Shrivever. Thank
081you. Any comments or concerns? All those in favor say I. I nay. Car events with members May 13th. We're back at the board office in our graduations. I will not be here for the June 3rd meeting or the June 11th retirement celebration. Unless you have a problem getting a quorum, I I won't attend via web later on YouTube, [Music] but you need to go back and watch one or two of them to see what you look like. That's what I do every night. I think I do. I've only watched one. Anything any other comments about the calendar? One. Um, I would like to ask the board to consider not having a second meeting in June. We have quite a few conflicts with that date as well. I'll be here. You're going to be here for
082that. In recent years on YouTube, yeah, we have not had that meeting in recent years pass. Um for next week um Betsy will have out the July and August dates put out on the calendar. So any of you planning vacations you can see those board members. Any other comments on the calendar on the 17th for some reason? Thank you. Seconded. Any comments, concerns? All those in favor saying signify by saying I. Your turn.