001Adam, are we good? Adam, are we good? Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Nicholas County Board of Education. We're going to call the regular meeting, Tuesday, May 22nd, to order. Um, at this time, please stand for silent moment of silent reflection. >> Thank you. Please join the board with 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. >> Mr. Cochran, >> good evening. Thanks uh thanks to everyone for coming out this evening. We have uh we have some special individuals that we would like to celebrate um both students and and staffs this evening. So, this is an exciting time for us and uh we want to honor some students for their hard
002work and we want to honor some employees for their hard work over the years. Um as we get into the agenda, just for everyone's um information, everything everything has been pre-approved by the authority of the state superintendent of schools. Um, item four on the agenda is the minutes from the May 4th, 2026 meeting. Item five on the agenda is the required public hearing for the proposed FY27 budget. And I will ask at this time Kristen if you want to provide a brief brief overview. So we should Okay. Um, budget's pretty similar to what it was in the last year. are the same thing. Um, as you can see here, our revenues, our anticipated revenue, $47 million number, and our signatures are a little higher with the $62 million number. Now you guys seen this before,
003you know that usually their carryover runs like $2.5 million. And the reason it's about double this time is because this year we're required to put in um an amount for contingency. So the state wants us to show at least 5% contingency in our budget. Not double what we usually do for our doesn't mean that we're doing that much worse. It just means that this year in our expenses we have an amount for contingency that we didn't have before. So the reason that our levy revenue is going to increase is because of our assessed values increase. You can see for a lot of years it's pretty stable and then down here um we had a big jump for this year and that is because of um public utilities. So the increase in those values leads to
004an increase in the amount of levy regular and excess levy funds that we receive. And the reason that we have less day eight this year is because of a continued decrease in enrollment. So this is all the way back from 95 96. we had like 5,000 students and then we get down here and we come up with a little bit over 3,000 in the 26 year. So every time we lose enrollment um we lose funding and we lose funding for um for staff as well. So for example, with that decrease in invent funding that we lost from that, that equates to about 13 professionals and about 10 service. So that's why you hear about enrollment affecting um our staffing and why sometimes cuts have to be made. My name is Amy here on our revenue.
005Um this is a comparison. This is our learnative project for this year. And here's the current year that's on this ending. Um you can see a comparison comparison there. So you can see the um current and excess levy amounts they've increased and then our state school support they've decreased. And um everything else really I mean you know there's some some positives and negatives there but everything else is pretty consistent. year. Um there's our revenues and then here's our expenditures and in the next piece are just broken down our total expenditures like we saw in the first continues. Um so looking at comparing the two years um instruction regular instruction not the biggest part the biggest part of that pretty similar to prior years pretty much all the way the highest expenditure that we have in
006our budget transportation and the very big chart of our budget as well. You can see just comparing there that there's not a whole lot of difference. A couple of little changes. Our new levy starts this year. I mean, our levy is five years. Ours are investing this year. food cost will go up what was displayed in front office and on our website for guest to review for anyone to review the last 10 days. So all this information is the same information that was on those other slides just put together in a different way. So then this will be what is in the chronicle showing as our group questions as it relates to the proposed budget for Kristen. Good work. This is a very busy time of the year for her. she worked many manyers I
007know outside of the workday um to get this ready and to meet the timelines that's set forth by code and the West Virginia department. So I appreciate all of the public and her staff. Thank you. Item six on the agenda. We do have some recognitions tonight. As I mentioned earlier, we're going to start with uh recognizing those individuals who are winners of our Golden Horseshoe Awards. This time I'll ask Miss Lord Jared come up is honor system students have been honored at night of the golden horseshoe having demonstrated exceptional knowledge of West Virginia history on the state administered exam. Congratulations to our three county winners who are Barrett Ellswick, Somersville Middle School, Adley Atkins, Summersville Middle School, and Talon Balmer, Summersville Middle School. And I have a certificate for each of you if anyone's here.
008Keep going up. Remember question almost jar. Thank you. Next, we have uh some recognitions for our 2026 retirees. I'm gonna ask Mrs. Fletcher if you want to come up and assist with this. Um you know, we have I think a total of 2 4 6 8 I think a total of 11 um of our employees that has submitted for retirement this year. And if you want to total that up, it's like 261 years of service. So that is amazing. Um, not only amazing, but you can't replace that. You can't replace 261 years of service. Miss Fletcher, go ahead. >> This evening, we get the opportunity to recognize individuals who have dedicated years of service, care, and commitment to our students, families, and communities of county schools. Their hard work has shaped the future of our
009county and made a lasting difference in the lives of countless students. We are grateful for their dedication and proud to recognize the impact they have made throughout their careers. Please join me in thanking and honoring these outstanding Nicholas County Schools retirees. And as I call your name, please come forward to get your plaque. Barbara Boyce, cafeteria manager, 13 years of service. of 13 years of service. Linda Huffman, custodian, 21 years of service. Robin Short Aid, 21 years of service. Danny Huffman, cafeteria manager, 25 years of service. Kindra Rap, principal, 25 years. Anna, clerk, accountant, 26 years of service. James Marsh principal 27 years bus operators 28 years future 31 years of service. >> Carl Johnson, bus operator, 31 years of service. >> Squeeze in here. We'll give you a picture. Everyone, would you like to
010be in the picture? >> No. No. That's Edgar. Let's give him one more round of applause. >> Patience is a pleasure. You were going to make a stop. Give me a second. Um, next on the agenda, I do have a a brief construction update as it relates to the few of the projects we have going on within Nicholas County. Um, the roofing project at the Nicholas County Career and Technical Center. The the rain has has interfered here the last couple weeks, but they are about 35% complete with that project. They are moving along nicely when the weather cooperates. They're at the point now um they have all materials on site. Um so on rainy days or days it's not cooperating to to continue with the replacement of the roof. They can go back and cap
011the edges with the metal capping. So that that that project's going nicely. Um an update at the at the Summersville Academic Complex. The HVAC contractors are continuing the installation of duct work and hydronic piping in the lobby areas. Um they were continuing the uh fire caulking on all wall penetrations. Plumbers continue with domestic copper line installations in area A and B. Carpenters continue with bulkheads and framing for hard ceilings. Continue with taping and mudding of hung sheetrock and continue installing uh ceiling grid in area C. The masons continue with interior CMU placement in all areas and brick placement in areas A and E. Preparation of the rear access road is continuing. Installation of pedestal bases and pouring concrete pads for the perimeter lighting is ongoing. Electricians continue to run conduit and pull wire in areas
012A's and B. and they continue to install motion and time sensors detectors. The concrete uh crew continues to prep and pour sidewalks on the exterior as well as the curbing around the rear access road. The sprinkler the sprinkler crew continues to install the sprinkler system in the media center and the STEM lab is their focus at this time. Um, a quick update on the Nicholas County High School um, school building authority award that we received this year for the safe schools entrance at Nicholas County High School. I met with ZMM today. We reviewed the blueprints and the plans of the demo work and the renovations. Um, they will now submit those to their engineers, their mechanical and their electrical for approval. And then we'll submit to the school building authority and the Western Union Department
013of Ed for their approval. Once all those appro approvals um have taken place, we will start the advertisement of that project and the bidding process of that project. Hopefully, the project will go to bid sometime in the late part of July is what they're is what they're looking at. So, that was a quick update on where we're at as of today. Next, um, under my information and updates, we do have a required LSIC report. Um, that will be from Golly River Elementary School. Due to the fact that they have been identified as a comprehensive support and improvement school, um, we're going to hear a brief um, summary of their work. And I tell you again, I told I said this at the last meeting, but um, Mrs. Lot Buck has done an amazing job leading
014Golly River and the plans and the processes they have in place is going to be implemented not only countywide by other schools but statewide. Um, so please at this Hey, Thank Like Mr. Cochran said, "I'm Christy Lbuck from Gully River Elementary and um we were identified as a CSI school and there are different ways to be identified, but in particular for us it was subgroup special ed and um that uh tracking started in 2022 and uh specifically it was math for us that we didn't show level progress uh for our special education students in the WBTSA. So, um, I am going to do my very best to keep this brief. I'm always excited to talk about Golly River Elementary because I do love it and there's an an exceptional staff there and I can't even
015tell you how hard they have worked this year. Um, I could talk for hours about that, but I just want to give you a little bit of background about progress. I did talk to some people at the state department about this, but research says for schoolwide proficiency growth, one to 3% or percentage points growth is your typical yearly fluctuation. And for lack of time, I'm only focusing on GSA, but I have lots of things we could talk about. Um, four to six is meaningful improvement, 7 to 10 is strong growth, and 10 plus points is exceptional growth. for CSI schools, they typically improve two to five points annually. So, I want you to remember that when we break down some of our GSA um scores because we have looked and taken an honest look at
016data and we know we need to improve and we know areas that we need to improve and we've uh dove in hard with lots of different things and everybody received one of these I think and if you don't have one we have plenty. So, The first page just introduces our LSIC team. And this is Mrs. Lorraine Stacy that handed that to you and she's part of our LSIC team. You can see our other members on there as well. Then the next page talks about the PSA. Before we look at that though, these are just the list of some of the things that we've implemented to create um school improvement. So, our teachers have done some professional development in you. We uh study Havy's principles consistently every time we have um meetings. So, we're looking at
017things like direct instruction, informative assessment, uh working on writing. That's one of our weaknesses and we know it. So we're diving in to make that better data progress. We have lots of data. So we can talk about that for a long time, but we have lots of data and we we have adapted or adopted a leadership a shared leadership style. So we have leadership team with subcommittees and you'll see that in this packet as well. Targeted intervention uh win, we looked at our data on that today and had significant growth in phonics this year. This is our first year for win. So I expect that to get better and better as we layer in and become more proficient with it. And then um we've worked on our culture and we we use uh the four
018disciplines of execution from the CVY group and our students all have a wig which is a wildly important goal. I'll give you some data on that today but it's already it's already better than what we have listed in here. our um third grade ELA did have some improvement. That is uh one of one of the areas that we're really working on and that's one of the areas that we think because we implemented win this year that we'll see um growth there next year, but our students still may we still saw 5% uh move there. Now, as we go on, you're going to see um some significant numbers in and let me also um say that when I look at when you look at this second page, third grade ELA and math, they they don't take
019the test in second grade. So, the only thing we have to compare to is the benchmark. But fourth and fifth grade, those comparisons are the cohort group, the same students as long as they're still in the building um from their third grade scores to their fourth grade scores. And then of course our fifth grade is those those students from their fourth grade scores to their fifth grade scores if that makes sense. And there are a lot of things to look at. Uh but third grade math at benchmark um only had 17% of the students at mastery and by the end of the year um they had 41 wait yeah 17 to 41 um so they had a 24 point proficiency increase and so like I said 3 to five points is your normal so we
020have um we had students um really moving up there not And you know you have the four categories. So you have below mastery, partial mastery, mastery and exceeds. And our student um increase 23 points to the mastery and exceeds in third grade math. Our fourth grade has its own story. ELA um has its own story. we had a significant number of students in the blow mastery and 29 um% of those students migrated out of that category. So that's typically your phase one in a CSI is you want to u migrate those students from there and then phase two move them to mastery and then exceeds also um what I think is significant as well is if you look at the number three on there we had a sharp increase in exceeds so plus 14% of
021the students went from wherever they were partial mastery or mastery into the exceeds category. Math is our shining star. Our students um move from 34% to 58% so a plus 24% mastery. And if you look and I look at these things, I look at the district and the state average those uh when we last year those students were below well below both of those. And you can see our fourth grade math compared to district and state average um from this last year. And then our fifth grade ELA um they uh increased in overall proficiency by 10%. So from 37 to 47. And you can see they closed the gap there between uh district and state. Last year we were 10 points below and 13 points below. Now only one and four. And so we're going
022to continue to look at that and we are going to increase that. So that cohort's rapidly catching up. And then our fifth grade math we had. That's what you want to see. you want to see that below mastery um and partial mastery go down because they're moving into mastery and above. So we had an 16 to 26% increase in mastery and then from 12 to 15. So total 13% went either to mastery or exceeds mastery. So you can see some positive trends in all of those grades. Uh this and this just kind of sums it up. Fourth grade had a 29 point reduction in that below mastery and fourth grade math had the 24 point increase in proficiency. Fifth grade ELA closing that gap and also that 10% jump and then fifth grade math 13%
023jump also closing that gap. So, back to the wigs, the wildly important goal. Our students um set a goal to increase 100 points in their math on LL and in their ELA and we started this last year. It it was um a reward system. The students were doing it because they knew they were going to get a prize and those kind of things. This year, uh we uped our game. We have compelling scoreboards. We have cadence of accountability. So, we're checking those weekly and you can come to our school and walk to a classroom and ask their student what their wig is and they can tell you and they can tell you. I was at 210 at the beginning of the year and I am now at 350 and I I would say 95% of
024our students could tell you that uh with ease. So now our wig has become intrinsic. they uh they still do get a reward, but they're rewarded more by their progress than material things or still in the principal chair or some of the other things we have in place. When I did this, three out of four students had met or exceeded their growth targets. Um as of today, I think we're closer to 80. And I think and our our students are not stopping. So, it's the end of school. They've already tested. They still want to meet this goal. So, I can get back to you on where we end up, but I am sharing this uh at the Cubby group leadership retreat in Cana Valley. So, I'm looking forward to those higher scores and sharing those
025there. Excuse me. And this just breaks it down and this is in your packet, too. Once once you um well, actually, it's on the side here of the same scores. So, some of our students didn't just make a year's growth. Some of them made a year and a half, two years, two and a half, all the way up to they had 500 points growth, which would equate to five years growth. So, we had some students really locked in and um leading the way, and they encouraged some of the other students. The next page kind of just goes over by category some of the things that we have done to produce that improvement. I'll let you all look through those. I included in here this um page you'll see says GRE wig 2.0. So every year
026we learn, every year that we layer things in, we find out what is uh working well or what we need to fix and our leadership team and subcommittees, they they dive into the data and um because now intrinsic we want to give the students another type of goal that's a little bit more specific to them. So, we developed this and this is a draft. So, if you look at this again later, it might change a little bit, but we're talking about reading fluency and math fluency. And it's sort of like a sliding scale. So, students can start with their wig that is close to grade level as they are, but if they need to accelerate, their wig can be if they're in the third grade and they're reading on a sixth grade level, then we're
027going to accelerate their wig. And if they need to develop some skills that are below grade level, that can be their way because they're going to do grade level work at school, but they can concentrate on this until they get there. With that, we've developed parent guides. And so, we feel like we can um get some family engagement uh with these personal wigs because we can send home, you know, this is exactly how you work on this and fluency um is a little bit easier to work on at home. So you can practice reading, you can practice site words, you can practice your addition facts, your multiplication, those kind of things. So that's wig 2.0 and I included this here for you all because this is a bright spot at Golly River. We have a
028leadership team and then we have subcommittees according to um standards and our subcommittees are wonderful, fantastic. I'm so incredibly proud because they they dive into the data um for whatever their standard is. So we have a group that can tell you um to the number and percentage of students who've received referrals um how many students are doing check in checkout, how many students um receive counseling. So we have all of that that comes from one data subgroup data. So they look at students with disabilities and they look at homeless um male, female, all the subgroups. And that's that's just one example. And then I included for you um an initiative that we have for these last couple weeks of school called Bobcat Growth Academy, which just is combining behavior and attendance. um just to shed
029a positive light on that to notice students who are doing the right thing and notice teachers who are using the strategies and we have community partners that come every Friday. They've come every Friday since January uh for either attendance award winners per class or behavior and attendance. So we have businesses come in and do trivia. We've had the um WVU extension come and bring animals. We've had um health department come and do dance parties. So there there are multiple things that students are using critical thinking in some of these activities that they get to do and that they've earned. And then I included for you um about our Bobcat boosters that's also new this year. So we have a family or families, parents, guardians, and community members that are doing some things to support. I
030could go on and on, but I won't. Um, thank you for allowing me to share about Valley River. >> Thank you so much. Um, and just to piggyback some of the things that the slot buck said, um, we had our CSI debrief with the WBDE school improvements um, team last week. It was last week, I believe. And um they were they did an on-site review at Golly River and the school improvement team as far as it relates to to um just the approach she's taken to developing a shared leadership style at Glly River Elementary. the staff's on board. Um getting the students on board with with student buyin and student ownership of their own um their own data, their own academic achievement data. And it is evident. I've walked in Golly River and these students
031can tell you where they're at um on their LL scores, where they started and where they're at. I mean, it's amazing. And when you walk in Golly River, it's it's evident. I mean, it's on the walls, it's in the classrooms. It's evident. So, just great job. Great job. Um we're blessed we're blessed to have her with her leadership and great job to the staff at Golly River as well. So please pass that along. Thank you so much. >> Yeah I you know it's very impressive those kids that went from below to exceeds. I know how hard that is because you know you just try to get them from one to the next level but when they jump the level in between that's that's good. Thank you. Moving on to the agenda. Um item seven is
032new business. We did have some approvals um as it relates we had threeus approved basically to continue the services that we have in place now as it relates to um our substitute calling system. Our bus operator training and examination services for next school year. Ourou with friends our fund which was approved on May 13th. Um couple policies that we finally got uh vetted and approved by the state are listed there. Um we have one expulsion of a Richwood Middle School for habitual violations of policy 4373. And then we have the instructional materials for 20 uh 2627 that were adopted and approved on 519. Elementary K5 music and wellness. Middle school 68 uh music um health and wellness and art. And 9 through 12 personal finance, health and wellness and art. Couple other items on item
033eight that were approved um was to move forward with the iPad refresh. Um bids for our local food service vendors for next school year were approved. Mountaineer Steel, Gordon Foods, and United Dairy. Um, teacher and, uh, student iPads, MacBooks, and student laptops that were declared surplus. And the, um, proposed budget that was submitted to the state on 512 for FY27. Under consent, we have the uh, payment of the current invoices, which which are listed there. the two monthly treasures reports for March and April, the budget supplements and transfers for April, and three out ofstate travel requests that were approved with the effective dates. >> Question on payment of current invoices. >> Okay, I see uh a checks for auction. Who's getting that money and why are they getting that money? And >> that's for the
034hearing examiners that that that conduct the the expulsion hearings >> where we used to hear where we used to hear. >> What we used to do as part of the job free. They're getting $1,000 at a time. >> Those are conducted by the hearing examiners. Yes. >> Okay. That doesn't make good sense. Are we still paying that modular lease? >> On the >> No, pardon. >> In Cracksville. No, we are not. >> It's listed. >> Right. We had that approved, but that check actually didn't get sent because in the meantime, things happened and we're no longer paying that piece. So, that check actually did not get paid and there won't be any more. >> When are they going to move them? >> Uh, we're not sure. We're still >> We're still in mediation with that
035with the company that um installed those. We're going through the mediation process now as it relates to the existing contract. Um, so when we get more information how that will move forward, we will let you know. And when the middle school moves, we're still going to be paying $50ome,000 a month that as well >> and and technically FEMA is paying that, >> correct? So it's not coming out of our funds. >> Correct. Okay. Yeah, >> which is still tax money, don't get me wrong, but >> it's not coming off our FEMA budget. The amount of money we were budgeted on schools that's coming out of separate separate PW they call it. So there was one of those for each segment of what had to happen when the flood happened in order to get us back
036to good. And then there's the big the big projects. So all of those other things like the modular moving to the modular, the modular payments themselves, um the payments to other places where we had to have sports practices. Those are all separate little programs that have a pot of money, but they don't come out of the big Thank you. >> Thank you. Um moving on to personnel. We did have one recession re recession of termination action. Um that individual was placed back at the current position for next school year. We have one contract renewal for the same individual. two professional leave of absence request, two professional transfer request that were approved, um, one professional resignation. We have the employment of two professionals and then multiple contract renewals for professional substitutes for next school year along
037with two leave of absence for service personnel that were approved. one retirement request for service personnel helps. Um we have multiple service personnel resignations with those effective dates. Two service transfer requests that were approved. One resention of termination action. for service employment uh service personnel employment with those effective dates and the contract renewals for service personnel for next school year along with the substitute service personnel renewals for next school year. We have four resignations for extracurricular contracts and then also multiple employment for extracurricular contracts. The professional substitute list is really long, isn't it? So, do we go to that and try to find people that fit into the places where we have to put substitutes? Do we >> like for long-term positions? >> Yeah. Yeah. If >> if they meet the criteria to hold a
038long-term permit within that certification area. Do we juice it up a little bit anyway? >> And can we >> as far as adding additional? >> Yeah. >> No, it doesn't it doesn't seem like we should have any classrooms where there were substitutes that were not certified in the field. With all this list, >> it would depend again on the vacancy and what the certification requirement was, whether that individual had enough coursework to hold a short-term or a long-term permit. >> Yeah, it's not like it used to be. term substitutes can work daytoday up to 30 days, but if they're in a long-term position that is over 30 days, they must either have lenture or a long-term permit in that endorsement area in order to stay in that classroom beyond the 30 days. So, so qualifications
039do matter. Um, unfortunately, we find often that we don't have enough math, science, those type of certified people. So oftent times we do have to write waiverss in order to put someone in there that doesn't actually have the appropriate credential. >> So if someone is in field and certified and substituting, they can only be there for 30 days. >> Yeah. No, >> they can stay longer if they're if they're qualified to be in a long-term position with that appropriate endorsement. Yes, they can. Those are the people we would use first. We can't use a day-to-day short-term substitute to to do a long term. So, we do have to go by the credentials. We even try to find someone with a professional teaching license that may be a retiree, but there are a lot of provisions
040now that prevent our retirees from working beyond a certain amount of days. Um, and then at that point, if we don't have anybody certified, we would go to someone with a long-term permit in the content area in which they're subbing. And if we don't have those people, then we would try to find someone with a long-term permit in another area that we could write a waiver for. But short-term substitutes that can just work dayto-day are not eligible to be left in a long-term position. And they can't be redone once they've gone that amount of time, right? I mean, you can't you can't say your time's up, but we will renew you for >> so like I guess your question is they couldn't stay there for 30 days and then come back at some other point
041for 30 days, >> right? >> We haven't really been doing that. Unfortunately, the service personnel is different, but with our certified teachers, we have to write waiverss and and have appropriate credentials to be in those positions. I've worked very close with the principles this year to ensure we have the appropriate people in. >> Good. Good. Thank you. >> You know, I've talked to several children in schools and they say they send people in here don't even try to teach us. All they do is give us a a uh a book that said read this. They don't even try to teach the kids. Does anybody check on these subs and make sure that they know what they're doing that they're trying to teach? Well, they they have to go through some sort of training program or
042through the professional teaching lessons in order to be qualified to be hired. And then once they're out there in the classrooms, of course, the building principles would be working and overseeing those substitutes dayto day and >> so it's the principal. >> It was a step up to the principal. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Sure. if they're checking in with substitutes. I mean, that would be part of, you know, their their daily checklist if they know they have substitutes, especially if there's a long-term substitute. If we know we're going to have a long-term substitute, we give them professional development opportunities just like we would for a regular teacher. >> And and if that happens, then the parent needs to go to the principal and say, "That's this is happening in the classroom, correct? Substitute." >> Yes. the
043principal do something about >> principal would be the the supervisor of those build of those individuals in their schools. >> Report it to me. So we have an issue with a substitute teacher and the principal reports that to me then I have a conversation and based upon what what what the issue is then we address that. Mr. Copper will address that. >> 90 some percent of the time they get on Facebook instead of going to the principal and they blow it up on Facebook and when they should have went to the principal to start with. That's the problem. the the building level principle would be the first line. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, under future dates, we do have a meeting scheduled for June 22nd, which will be our our our next meeting here
044at the board of education office at 5:00. We are going to have a brief ceremony prior to that just for the outgoing members to recognize their efforts um and uh and just to to say to say thanks. And then we have the statutory meeting on July 6th which is the organizational meeting also at 5:00 here at the board of ed. Um Mr. President, that's all I have. >> Thank you, sir. We have a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion. Mr. Green makes a motion to adjurnn. Seconded by Yeah. Second. Second by Mr. Seabolt. All in favor? >> I I at 5:49. Thank you.