001everyone welcome to the Nicholas County Board of Education regular meeting Monday February 24th 2025 please stand this time for a moment of Silent reflection thank you please join the board with the pledge I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all at this time we're going to recess this meeting to conduct a public hearing on the 20 uh 25 26 school calendar this is public hearing number two for the 25 26 Calendar here okay this is ome back to calendar hearings this is our second calendar hearing tonight it is actually on the board agenda to approve this calendar M go through the whole process like I did the first time but I am going to to
002go through the calendar each month and show you exactly how these days will work um school you know one of the things really the only uh two things that we was requesting to change when we sent this out on our survey was not to start school on a Monday and also to uh to have an extra day after Good Friday which we did accommodate both those suggestions so the way the CER will look is the teacher group will report to work on August 13th which is the Wednesday they was part that day off with their schools with a planning day and their faculty Cent which is required by law then will follow that up with three executive days of Staff Development some of those may be County based some may be school based but those
003will take place then on Thursday and Friday and the following Monday then on Tuesday is the P the first PL day that the legislature gives us five professional learning days that we're allowed to count as instructional days for students so that's actually the first day that we start counting days being in school know the students AR not present first day the students will be present will be on Wednesday August the 20th but which is probably right in the middle of State Fair week but that's that's where that's where it starts which it is a little bit later than we started in the past but we did move that three days the rest of that first school month the only thing we have there is Labor Day uh in September the second month is a great
004month because there's just 20 straight days of school doesn't happen very often and U but that's the way that the calendar always works it's the second month the third month the only day we have there is a faculty Center professional learning day as I explained to our last board meeting faculty Center means are required certain months and October is one of those months and so we scheduled that one for a Wednesday um October the 15th following month we don't have an election day in the fall but we do have Veterans Day on the 11th 11-11 that's a Tuesday um I wish that they would just give us the option to use a Friday or Monday and make a long weekend for people they do not give us that option or we or else we would
0051111 is vor's day and that that day of course there's no school then we go into Thanksgiving break which starts on the 24th of uh of November Thanksgiving is late again this year as it was this past year and we do not try to have school that week it's ludicrous even to try but that's where that week is then our first semester will end on December 22nd with a faculty Senate day professional learning day the employees get a chance to work that day off and have their faculty sent meeting prior to that day after school or before school if they choose I think all of them do do that so the kids last day is the 19th employees last day is the 19th of December and then they're off until the students come back on
006January the 5th and uh the teachers come back on the Friday before now we did catch a little bit of grief about Friday but that gives the teachers and they do like coming back a day before the students do and it getes the kids two full weeks off which is which is always good for them and teachers get one day to get prepared for the kids to come back that take us to first semester first semester will end on the 2 on the 22nd of December uh then the second semester starts on uh January the 5th we have Martin Luther King off from the 19 again as I explained that's not an optional holiday we have to that holiday and a bad thing it's just lot people say why don't you do prais day it's
007not getting we don't have the option to use pres day so we try to do U do the next best thing and and and and try to schedule a professional learning day or something along those lines that if you see in February 16th that's kind of where we celebrate pres day uh it's a professional learning day the teachers do work that day they don't work that day off but they also have their faculty Center that day the students are not in school that day so you see this first first two months of the year January and February pretty much straight shots of course if you had bad weather which rumor is we had a little bit of bad weather this year I missed a lot of school but uh that's where our calendar looks the
008the next school month the E School month starts the professional learning day in March on March the 11th a day students do not attend we give we do get credit for kids being in school that day and then we have on on April the 3 we have our mini break we have we take off for Good Friday and that is professional learning day and a faculty C day again like the win in December the employees get the opportunity working that off and that's not just teachers that's all employees get a chance to work that day off in advance but documenting six hours of work that they've done outside their regular uh job responsibilities but that's where we added that next OS day we put an OS day on the sixth I think that's sixth m
009is are very good I think that's April the 6th should they have a Friday and a Monday off long weekend then we take we work we have school the rest of that week for four days and then we have our regular spring uh break then uh April 13th through the 17th and we did move that a week from Easter because we hope we we get a little bit warmer weather a week closer in the middle of April rather than them back there in early April then we have election day which is a primary election day on May the 12th as you can see at the end of the ninth month and then our last school month we have Memorial Day and our OS day and our OS days this for something I'm talk about a
010bit later is our makeup Days by law you have to use your OS days first when you are making sles now is it possible that we have to take the sixth day of H of April it's possible if we have a winter next winter like we had this winter we may have to take that day but hopefully we don't have to but we put five of them at the end I originally had six OS days at the end but when people were requested for me to extend value that's what I did I puta there so then we have at school year we have a teacher par parent teacher conference day that we give teachers credit for if they have two parent teacher conferences of three hours each or three parent teacher conferences of two hours
011each and the The Faculty c meeting has to be in in May or June depending on where your school year ends and then the planning day at the end of the school year graduations you can't see it on here but we had move graduation one day so those will be on Thursday and Friday in in in May I think it's like the 21st and 22nd or 20th and 21st whatever those two days are Thursday and Friday we had moved that one day when we added that OS day in April that kicked our calendar out is being accepted so we had to graduation day a closer to the end of school so that's what our calendar looks like it's very similar to what we've done in the past only changes we day because we have the
012day for Easter break and uh we moved Easter break a week later than what we usually would because we're Easter follows Falls but if anybody got any questions about the calendar I'd be glad to answer any of one thing I know is is calar school Cal too well I think okay thank you okay let's uh reconvene the February 24th 25 uh 2025 regular meeting at this time and so number seven approval of the agenda have one uh adjustment we need to make under Personnel uh the last item on Personnel is an employee discipline hearing we want to move that to the very end of the day to make it 18b after we have our student discipline review hearing we'll have our employee discipline hearing 18b that's the only thing I think I have is that
013right did we have meeting this week Wednesday Wednesday that's it's not it's not on here right it is not yeah we say that was a late edition right under the future meeting dates yeah 10:00 10 yeah I know the future meeting dates so we have one this yeah we need to add that one future meeting dates thank you session on Wednesday February 26th at 10: a.m. okay at this time we have student Representatives Caitlyn Clark and Caroline hle from Nicholas County High School excuse I thought it was' hello um we're representing from Ni high school and we're going to tell you a little bit about our events we have well since the last one we've been at so um we have some literacy events coming up our first one is going to be at Mount
014Lookout on March 13th and then we're planning on doing a second one later in March because we did um miss it in February so um if you don't know A literacy event is where we go and share some books with elementary kids um and then try to just hang out with them and do some crafts with them um and then uh coming up on April 4th we have women's and girls day and we both went last year and it's pretty good it's yeah and we get a um just go to the Capitol do a little tour and um it's just really cool we here usually um some of the women that work in office come and speak and we kind of just get to spend some time with some empowering women so it's pretty great
015and that's on April 4th um juniors are getting ready for Honor Society grades are going to be pulled pretty soon um and they and we'll get our applications together and then we got um our spring sports starting and that's that includes track and that's on March 3D and softball is also on March 3rd and um the baseball Flex practices um some of our accomplishments with the school uh the science Bowl team actually got to the quarterfinals um and made it made a little tiebreaker there um math field day um eight of our students is p uh placed in the top 10 yeah very um and then a volunteer program has been um well we started a little volunteer program at school um it's called the dosent program at Old Main where students can take a
016little class at New River and then they get to come volunteer at Old M and they can be tour guides and kind of help out when there's um events and stuff there and it's just a really great opportunity to get involved in our community um that is all we have for for you guys thank you so much thank you thank you on twit no the short one short Caroline tall one's Caroline short one's kin okay so I had a right the yeah you did the basketball players before okay Mr Green you still with us I'm still here all right uh number nine approved minutes of the meetings held on February 3rd the special meeting February 3rd the work session February 3rd the regular meeting and February 20th uh February 20th was the regular meeting excuse
017me any corrections to any of those motion to approve Mr moose makes a motion to approve the minutes do I have second second second by Mr Ferguson all in favor I I opposed motion unanimous superintendent information updates okay mostly we're going to talk about weather and the effects it's had on our SK on our calendar um first of all due to the number of days we've missed at the beginning of this third nine weeks we are moving the end of the nine weeks from March the 12th to March the 21st so we have a a few more days that we can put kids grades in and get them a u appropriate grade hopefully so that's first thing second of all as uh I get all I get a lot of questions everywhere I go I
018get questions saying you know uh when's the last day of school now and how you going to make up all these days and all these kind of things so I'm just going to kind of go through that very quick it won't take me bit a second um we right now have missed a total of 17 days 16 weather related and one when we had the threat at the at the schools in September that we have to make up so we got 17 days okay we have um 10 days five acur five snow packet days gives us 10 and we had four days of os at the end of the Cal that we could use there's 14 of the 17 so that means we have we're three days short so people say well you going to
019make up you go take spring break or you go extend the year well I I really don't want to commit to either one of those things yet because we're not to the end of the road yet on how many days we have I I really hate to take spring break days because a lot of families plan things spring break but also know that if we go too far into June that it affects things like after school programs and people's vacations into June also so we're not ready to definitively decide on which days we make up I I mean the board will make that decision I'll make a recommendation to them but I am willing to say this I personally would not want to take more than two of the days a spring break away out
020out of the five Pocas County near and dear to my heart I was talking to superintendent this weekend and they've already taken all five of their days over there because they did not have OS days at the end they put them somewhere else so they have to take the spring break days they actually made their spring break OS days so they have to take them so that's why we don't make ours OS days um the other thing is that um I Mrs whiteo and I sit down and we did submit a waiver to the state to to get permission to come up with a plan to add minutes to our day if possible in order to not make up all these days at the end that was not going to be accepted and I knew
021it wasn't but what it did is a lot of the superintendents did this and now Jeff Kelly called me today he's the assistant uh State superintendent schools and he was laughing he said I got your your uh waiver and he said you know we can't do that I said I know but what they are going to do is superintendent blat is getting together a little Committee of people at the state department to try to come up with something that they would forward on to the superintendence for us to try to fill out and see if we can get a little bit of little bit of break from these days he says we're not promising anything so don't promise your people that we're not going have to make up these days we're trying to work through
022the process and see if there's a way we can get a waiver on some of these days by adding a few more snow packet days or whatever I don't know what that'll look like yet he said it'll be two or three weeks before I get it so it'll be two or three weeks before I know what it looks like and before I can do anything else with it that's another reason I don't want to just tell people right now we're adding days at the end no we're adding day we're taking spring break I don't want to say that till I find out if we have other options and when we do find out if we have other options in we can be more definitive in which days we make up so that's kind of where
023we are with our snow days you know this week looks looks like we're gonna get it this weekend next week I don't know polar Vex headed this way again with very very cold weather and they're not talking about a lot of snow but they AR talking about uh subzero temperatures which you know we we can usually have school on a delay with those but I to be honest with you I get blown up more from delays than I do canceling school because and I understand it and I get it and I feel the frustration because people have to get child care and when we don't make a decision till 4:30 in the morning we do a delay then they're scrambling I get it but you don't want to make a call too early and make
024their own call so it's one of those dang if you do and dang if you don't things and I cleaned out it for you appreciate that I'm sure but uh that's where we are with our calendar and our makeup days and I will keep you informed I don't keep things secret from you I'll let you know as soon as I know something that's all I have okay thank you do we have any delegations no sir thank you action items a discussion with possible action on the approval of the calendar for the 2025 26 school year um is there anything on this list that you all want to vote on separately we okay voting everything together a lot of its policies it is or all follows again okay any any discussion on the approved approval of
025the calendar if not action item B discussion with possible action on placing the updated policy programs of study Learners out for public comment for 30 days and that's just an updated policy that one goes out on comment right I think these other are actually approved if there's no discussion dis uh action item C discussion with possible action on the approval of the following policies uh and these are all updated policies uh substitutes and areas of critical need and shortage areas of critical need and shortage for substitute bus drivers attendance student code of conduct Substance Abuse Prevention student discipline exclusion from classroom or School Bus suspension and expulsion of students non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities non-discrimination on the basis of sex and educational programs or activities um headli evaluation of
026school leaders weapons required courses of instruction uh re resend uh cardio pulmonary resit resusitation instruction required courses of instruction drug prevention and violence reduction education program employment of personnel for extracurricular activities and use of an anabolic steroids pediculosis yeah we all had these for review previously yes they were all these right on comment now I don't guess we got any comments any comments okay any discussion if there's no discussion do I have a motion to approve these action items a b c 1 through 18 I so move Mr moose makes a motion second second by Mr Barry consent items Finance all those in favor oh I'm sorry I'm I'm helping you I know you are all those in favor I opposed motion unanimous Mr Green you still there yeah I'm still here okay finance payment
027of current invoices everything that I have should be in your packet do we have any questions about invoices anybody have a question clarification anything Mr moose you need more time no I've already looked at these okay all right I was just making sure yeah thank okay next is January supplements transfers also in your packet I'm sorry which one what um supplements and transfers oh okay Dam a short one that's there report milon next item I have is contracts um the first is Scholastic Book Fairs the sommersville elementary and the second is the Veterans Memorial Park fiscal year 26 user agreement um which that has increased a little bit from last year they um said that they the 5% increase yeah they did but further down they say that uh on item eight in the next
028board agrees to pay a flat users fee as per the 2023 fee schedule right yeah and you'll see there on the first page of that I had to change some dates also um so yeah we'll go Mar through so are we paying the 5% or are we getting to 2023 I'd say that they're going to want the um the 5% the 2023 is a typo there so should is the 6339 38 with 5% it is with the 5% okay and also then we paid it in 2023 we paid 5% 2023 is an error but the the amount is right with a 5% increase so they'll have to change 23 to 25 okay so is that uh when do that take effect um well we don't have to pay this until the beginning of the next
029fiscal year want to ask you about it um you remember last year we talked about the gravel situation there and last year they didn't want to commit to Ping gravel they just said that they didn't know if they were going to be able to afford it um so I asked her you know this year if she had any word about whether they were planning on putting on gravel and she hasn't as of right now she hasn't responded to me um but I know I've already had some people questioning if we're going to get gravel because we need gravel there right now um so I don't know if that's something if you guys want to get a commitment from them that they are going to Grabel that this year I me we don't have to approve
030this today um if you if you want to get some more clarification about that before we approve it um I know one year we did end up having to do gravel because they couldn't afford gravel and it really really needed it but I mean we are paying paying for the us paying the user agreement that they should take care of the gravel well you or we could suggest gravel in lie of the payment yes but yeah I don't know I don't I would like for them to say yes we're going to gravel it i' kind of like for them to commit to that because I don't want to get a position where they can't afford it and we have to do that again I don't really think that's fair since we're paying but in the
031users agreement itself I haven't really read it clear through it doesn't say who is responsible for that no but at the beginning it does say I think like the very first um the commission is charged with the operation and maintenance of the Nicholas County Veterans Memorial Park okay so I feel like that is their yep their responsibility to do the gravel but like I said I don't have you know a firm commitment about that so if you want to hold off until we talk to them maybe more about it or go ahead I mean whatever your preference I mean it's it's not that I don't I mean maybe we can split it or something but you know we're getting ready to look at budget cuts I just yeah I feel like it's clearly their responsibility
032but they just she well the girl that I have spoken to you know she's not a member of the commission so you know maybe she just couldn't say for sure that she can Pi up that but if we want to talk to them and make sure that that's in their plan to gravel that that uh two bullet points uh bullet number one two bullet number three commission has established the fee structure to rent the park bullet number four the B the commission is desirous to provide Nicholas County High School and Summersville middle school with access bullet next bullet uh says that uh the only exempt dates for nonuse by the County Board of Education and or any of its 16 individual schools who who has access to 16 schools or County High School and Well
033nich County High School and Somersville Middle have had Sports practices there so that's probably why they're mentioned separately um I don't know maybe at some point they I'll have to look at last they track and they have track fi there for elementary but we don't have 16 schools anymore I guess it's they can't probably new life we can um have that corrected that that makes like three things in here that are I've already told her about the dates of the first page okay so let's let's uh we can have table this one until right we'll have to make decision next time so then do you want me to um email her again and ask her again about the gravel or does somebody do one of you guys want to reach out to somebody on the
034commission and ask whatever you me to do we have talked about all that gravel we're going to have left at Richwood High and Richwood Middle on the once those are moved out and if we're still responsibil responsible for restoring it to its original do we own the gravel or does someone else own the gravel and if we own it then is it out out discretion to use if we own it it should be our discretion have we use it I think uh Mr Henshaw do you know who paid to put that gravel at Richwood at Beaver my understanding the pod company would own that gravel it's not ours to give away because they responsibility for cre that site and their contract it's their responsibility to remove it back to normal not ours as ucation who
035leas so they may cut us a deal on it they may say whoever can have but that has to be negotiated their gravel to negotiate whatever to do with okay so back to the gravel up there um I guess send another email and I mean we're not committed to do that you hate people parking in mud though you know and walking in mud so uh we may have to get together with County Commission and okay okay I'll send her another email and I can answer um okay next item is the election for our year Financial do that every year um that's we Ed an outside accounting firm for as long as I can remember so this is just aity we have to have approved every year okay we'll have to this past audit was our
036year three of our contract so we'll have to put that out prid again so did you see there's a bill in the house or Senate one that wants the state auditor to audit every County did you see that um I had heard that um I don't I that's a lot of work for them so I I don't know we'll see another smart move oh it does well maybe they just pay for having it done in every County well that's the problem they don't attach physical responsibility with their bills anything but anyway but the auditor very because we out for right we won't necessarily get the same monitor that we have had um but yeah there are a few different firms we'll send it out to all the firms that are on their approved list yeah
037and then they'll send in their proposal and we'll go with and we did um I heard back from our auditor and he has audit have time to get it meeting so we'll go over to next meeting chrisan you still have the option of selecting someone who puts a be in for our audit you you have to take the lowest bid or do you have to we don't have to take the lowest um normally I mean that's a big consideration but there are other options there's a matrix and you have to um look at how much experience they have in this type of audit and um how many people are on their staff and how long it will take and make sure that they can get it done by the deadline if they provide you a
038list do they not do all that do they not bet everybody's on the list yeah I'm not sure to what extent but yeah we do have to we have to put it out every every three years and have a little committee um okay next um there are a couple of student transfer requests and two out of state travel requests one for Summersville middle school and one forer see you guys have all the information on that suers middle school is the National Honor Society going to I'll do it first Washington DC and Philadelphia se sound is that trip a weekend or is through the week it's a Thursday Friday Saturday and we come back Sunday why three County buses we're going to have approximately 70 students going um with that 70 going to have luggage for
039those four days um so that's just spaced out the way that we did we had two last year we anticipate more students attending the year do you guys want the information how many students I'm sorry 70 because I in I have an Honor Society I have 665 kids and only like four or five said that they're not going so that's fine I just wondered why three buses I didn't realize the luggage and I mean you are paying for that so the only only thing is hopefully we have uh the drivers to take you all right and did you mention the other one technical trip to New Orleans and that's being paid for out of your crant funds right let me pull that up this is a conference yes yeah any questions just two people attending
040am I saying that right yeah Tom and Alex two of his staff members and Andi oh and another two teachers and two administrators three teachers one individually listed on the agenda right 14 ah okay my question's answered thank you okay do we have a motion to accept consent items Finance uh 1 through four including the contracts AB b c and then student transfer request one and two under B the out of state travel request under c one and two we have a motion for all that I'm sorry what we're tbling B under board oh yes I'm sorry you're right table be okay with your motion my bad so Mr Barry made the motion second second second Mr Ferguson all in favor I uh motion unanimous thank you personnel um I'd like to present the personnel
041as presented however I would like to um say to our reies especially we appreciate all that you have done to keep us straight and on task um we appreciate all your years of service um along with um Maloney and Pamela Cox and we will have additional retirees on the next agenda they are eligible service professional are eligible for the $500 bonus by March 3D and they all been reminded they've been reminded multiple times and we'll do that again this week and they're they're rolling in but I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have on any of the Personnel that's presented if there's no questions do we have a motion to accept the Personnel agenda as presented so move Mr Ferguson makes a motion seconded by second second by Mr Barry all in favor
042I opposed motion unanimous thank you P report SCC Mr Ferguson I have nothing to report they haven't had a meeting have time two weeks next okay thank you Mr Green nothing report right now thank you items for future agendas matters of the board does anybody have an item for future agenda I have a matter of the board um Bren Atkins the West Virginia Mountaineer will be hopefully everything AG go March the 3 he's going to visit the rest of the schools in the county uh Ray if you're wanting to cover any of that you're more than welcome but he'll be at Birch River at 8:30 in the morning no he'll be at Birch River at 7:45 in the morning that was changed and then he'll be at summer Ville Elementary at 10:00 and then at
043Nicholas County High School he'll be there for the middle school at 1 and for Nicholas County High School at two so that's on March 3rd um anything else okay future meeting dates uh then these times may change if student hearings are added we have a special meeting on Monday March the 3 let me back up a second we actually have a uh work session on Wednesday febrary 26 February 26th at 10 o'clock that's not listed on the agenda work session this Wednesday at 10 o'clock and we have a special meeting on Monday March 3rd and that's uh for review uh student disciplinary hearings that's next Monday and then next Thursday we have a special meeting um and the purpose of that meeting will be to conduct routine business and discussion with possible action on the
044bid for the Nicholas County sewage replacement project is that still on it's not okay we need to scratch that we'll have the meeting but but we're still gonna have a special meeting yeah we have to that opening will be addressed on the 17 okay yeah sorry I didn't catch that that's on B it's back on your other page the meeting still on it's just not for this we two meetings next week right Monday and Thursday rightn Monday and th Monday and Thursday this week is Wednesday yeah next week's Monday Thursday and then regular meeting on Monday March 17th uh at 4:00 and regular meeting on Monday April 7th and then there's a special meeting well Tuesday we will reconvene uh the meeting from March 17th for the levy rates and that will be at 8
045o'l in the morning that should be a very short meeting that'll be the only agenda agenda item and that will be a reconvene so it's not a actual uh anyway and then regular meeting Monday April 21st at 4:00 now the third is at 4:00 is that correct and that's a business meeting or yes yeah right yes yes sir okay is for your exposion okay yeah there's like 13 of them yeah okay and that's the day the Mountaineers is going to be here so we'll try to catch him in the morning right yeah I'll get back with you okay then U the 18th um or number 18 we have to conduct a student disciplinary hearing so um one question when's the pre-bid set for the sewage project March 5th March 5th time at is going be
046demanded meeting we had to ad is why it was a little bit delay okay so at this time we will need to have a u exective session to conduct a student disciplinary revieww hearing um and then following that we'll come back in um we will come out of executive session then we'll have to go back into to exe executive session for employee disciplinary hearing and then adjournment after that so what time was that do we have a motion to go in the executive session so moved Mr Ferguson makes a motion second to by second Mr Barry all in favor I I at 4:52 what time was that pre meeting 10: a.m. 10 a.m. he boys I'm doing pretty good Steve told you be 530 I you tell out every week whether you have two or
047not sh did y'all turn me off can't hear you yeah I'm gonna have to um call you hang up and call you back on a different meeting so that this one has a public link um so that nobody can log on to ex get on the phone for that one you want me to just call him on man phone you can do it that way if you want I'll call you I'll call you back whenever the executive session over okay okay e e e or not it do we have a motion to come out of executive oh I'm sorry sorry Kim sorry okay do we have a motion to come out of executive session I make that motion Mr Barry makes a motion seconded by second second by Mr Ferguson all in favor all I
048at 5:33 I have the board to ratify the 5-day unpaid suspension of William edley bus driver for Nicholas County Schools okay do we have a motion to I'll make that motion that we do this ratified ratify the five- day suspension of William edley without pay without pay I make the motion we ratify the suspens of William edley 5 days without need a second please you have a second Mr Mr Green seconds any other discussion all in favor I motion unanimous anything else we probably need to let uh Ray know because he he'll need after the paper okay all right do we have a motion to adjourn so move Mr Ferguson makes motion to adjourn seconded by second second by Mr Barry all in favor I unanimous at 534