001Good evening. Let's uh call the order to the Nicholas County Board of Education regular meeting Monday, June 2nd, 2025. At this time, please stand for a 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. >> Thank you, Mr. present. You're welcome. >> Uh the minutes from the previous meeting uh on May 19th were sent to Charleston and were approved. And now I'm going to talk a little bit about some things are going on in the county. Okay. So we can uh give people here an update. And I know we're being recorded by at least two sites. And uh so
002want to start off tonight. The first thing I want to do is introduce your new superintendent who will take office on July the 1st, Mr. Scott Cochran. I'd ask you to stand, but there's nobody in the way. So, they might want to get a picture of you there on the television, so smile away. Mr. Cochen will report here on uh on July the 1st, at which time uh Mr. Fitro and I will be back doing what we normally do. And uh so we're uh we've enjoyed the the past couple of weeks here. It's been uh the people here in the office. I can't say enough about the people here in the central office and the staff that stopped by. Just wonderful people to work with. So things are going pretty smooth. I do want to
003give a report tonight. Uh several of our members were at a meeting today in Richwood. Richwood High School and Richwood Middle School are scheduled to open classes in the fall with the with the new school year. Uh Cherry River Elementary School will more than likely it's on target to open for the second semester. Beautiful facilities. Going down take another look at it. It's been a while since I've been down that way. Uh, Summersville PK through 8 is scheduled to open with the 2627 school year. I understand it's going to be a really exciting uh facility as well. So, uh, there's some good things happening in Nicholas County and I'd like to encourage everybody who watches the the board meetings uh, to thank the board members, thank the people here in the county, thank the staff
004for all they're doing to get the schools ready to open up in the fall. They're going to be really something to see. And then and when the time is right, I'm certain that they'll open up the facility down there for some local tours. But right now, it's an active construction zone, and that's it's it's just not safe to have people walking around there right now. Uh the other thing we want to bring up is that we uh took some steps to uh put in a a procedure here this year that is going to make it easier for our buildings to be used. We have a building use uh program now. It's a new policy. Uh the only change in in the past is that there will be some charges for custodial features if you need
005a custodian for the event and there will be a building use form that requires a million-doll liability policy for the use of the facility if it is not for an educational activity that is uh that's that must be in place. So those things are taking place as we speak. Uh there are some action items here. Some things are taking place. Uh you know, ZMM and everyone's working on the the the the buildings down there and getting all the finances approved on that. So, things are going rather well under the consent items for finance. Uh all the invoices right now have been approved by the Western Union Department of Education are being taken care of by our treasurer who's doing an outstanding job. I like to tell everybody that, but you know, people don't get recognized
006near enough, but she's doing an admirable job of keeping up with everything that we've been working on here in the last few weeks. Contract extensions are already in place next year to make certain that the child nutrition program has everything in place when the school year begins. All those contracts have been signed and are ready for approval. and the out ofstate trip request. Guys, I don't know if you pay or you know a great deal about your CTE programs, but you've got a tremendous group of students and staff are going to Atlanta, Georgia for national competition. This is one of the greatest competitions that a student can ever participate in. There are some kids and we I've been told that we have at least one student who may came back may come back as a
007national champion. That's outstanding. That is just absolutely wonderful. So, if you get a chance, you know, if you see the kids that are going on that trip and the staff that are going to go with them, thank them for everything they do and wish the kids uh tremendous success and good luck down there. Uh it's it's an honor to get to go to that. So now tonight I'm going to ask Mr. Fitro to give us uh a little report back on things that we've been working on here with uh personnel. You know, there's there were some things that had to be uh had to be looked into and and with some corrections made. And I'm going to let him explain what those are. It's probably going to take him a few minutes because there are
008several. But I'm going to turn the the floor over to Mr. Fitzro and he'll talk to you about personnel tonight. Thank you, Mr. George. And again, I want to echo Mr. George's um statements that how great the staff and visitors have come in to the board office have been towards us since we arrived here um two weeks ago. I I couldn't thank them enough. Uh they've made my job coming in so much easier and uh I'm sorry I'm only here for six weeks because I really enjoy working with the staff here. Um some things that have been implemented. Uh we have sent out contracts for substitute teachers in the mail. We're in the process of sending those out. Um they have not been done uh for a while and so substitute teachers uh will be
009receiving their contracts. We are doing a file review of every employee for Nicholas County Schools to ensure we have a background check on file. Uh some of them have been uh completed. We started off with the substitutes and those individuals who needed a background check completed will be receiving a notification in the mail. Um we are I'm in the process of researching certifications of all employees that are uh needing a certification and that um to determine uh next steps on that. Our background checks for volunteers. they will follow the new policy where it must go through Identico uh to have a West Virginia State Police. No more of the uh paying money and having a name search done. So, they will be going through the the proper uh policy and procedures to be background checked
010that way. Uh good news, we were able to rescend some rift positions and put people back in into classrooms. It may not have been the classroom they had, but we were able to resend um some of those due to some resignations and retention. I'd like to say I could put them all back, but right now it's just not that's not possible. Um the one thing that we have that is tempor that is suspended. We will not be renewing the waiver for uh restricted substitutes who do not have um a degree. We are keeping with the uh prior practice where you must have a bachelor's degree to be a substitute teacher and um those notices were sent out to employees. So we are u we have worked with that if uh when the new administration comes
011in if they want to renew the waiver that is up to them but for our um our purposes right now it is not needed. Um other than that that is uh that is where we're at. Um it's been a busy time but uh we are making we are making progress down here. >> Yeah. We also have a few corrections we want to make on the uh on the personnel agenda tonight due to finding out some uh details about this after it went to print. Uh there uh job number 42272 is being rescended. Uh that uh that individual had applied for a paid position not a volunteer coaching position. So, she is withdrawing from that position and will apply for the paid assistant coach position. Uh, on job 41858 and job 41864, both of those uh
012had a uh a printing error where it said they they were uh had completed and filled in for applied for a preka job. those are for kindergarten age only. So, we're making that correction here tonight. And uh we have several jobs that uh right now are are being held up due to uh a contract issue with Save the Children that we're currently working out right now. So, some of the the people on the agenda who have applied for uh summer positions with the Save the Children uh will be notified as soon as that issue is resolved. Uh legal is working on that now. And we have a couple of teachers down here. Uh job 39230 and job 39231. Uh one person is going back into the job due to the person who applied for it
013not being re not being completely certified. So, those are just some corrections that will be sent down to the state department and will be uh corrected and then will appear on the next set of amendments as approved at the state department. We want to make everything here as transparent as possible. We want anybody to know that we want everybody to know that if we find a mistake as we as we search through certification, we're correcting them. So, uh, other than that, uh, we have, uh, some leave requests that have, uh, been taken care of, and, uh, we have, uh, future meeting dates set for July the 7th of 2025, at which time, Superintendent Cochran will be taking the helm, and I'll be back in Randolph County mowing the yard somewhere. So, uh, with that, you
014know, it it it's been a pleasure to be here and have the meetings. Uh, there the meetings will probably become a bit longer as Mr. Cochner moves through the agenda of items that he's going to be dealing with. Right now, we just want everybody in the county to know that all the stuff that you've heard in the press is not through. Uh, there's Nicholas County is a wonderful place to work. It's a wonderful place for students. And right now we're making some corrections to issues that were discovered in the state and that the county will move forward and you will have school in the fall for your kids and they're going to open up to some really nice schools. So Mr. Petro, do you have anything else? >> I'm good. >> Okay. With that, Mr.
015President, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Mr. Green makes a motion to adjurnn, seconded by You're welcome. >> Mr. Move seconds. All in favor? I at 513. >> Thank you, gentlemen. July 7th.