Pocahontas County BOE Meeting 05/26/2026

001It's the afternoon schedule that I made. >> I think Becky went at 3:30, 2:30. >> Can you Does anybody remember? It's a hot mess in there. >> Do I have time to look? What time is it? >> It's 6 o'cate Grimes. I can see you. would you mind to unmute yourself and we'll see if we can hear you? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, we can hear you. Perfect. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. calendar. >> Mr. Grimes, could I count him as being present? Yes, absolutely. >> Yes, Frosty, I'm here. >> Good. >> You tell me if I do something wrong. >> We're watching. [laughter] Are you ready? >> Yeah. >> This time I'd like to call the uh May 26, 2026 meeting of the Poconus County Board of Education to order. Uh just let

002the record reflect that everybody is attendance. Mr. Grimes. President Grimes is on virtual uh at this time. Please uh stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [cough] [clears throat] Um, all right. We've got uh several here that signed up for delegations and I have several for that that uh commented staffing. Uh did you all have a spokesperson? There's several of you put staffing on here. Y'all need to pick one. Uh, Bridget Cobber, I'm not sure. Fred says athletic director, which that would be staffing. Mr. Seismore has staffing. And Chelsea Hooper has staffing. So, one of you four need to decide who's going to talk. >> Yeah. How

003many of y'all can't talk? >> You typically it's President Grimes, you want to say something about that? You hear Emmy? >> Yeah. Uh, typically they got to choose a spokesman and that spokesman gets five minutes. >> There's four. >> That's the way it's supposed to be done. >> Can I change what my topic is now? >> Yeah. >> Multiple things that was talked about. I want to go. >> What y'all want to do? >> I say listen to all of them. >> All right, Missy Price, you have Wait a minute. Uh, Miss Holly needs to read the uh thing about delegations. >> Go ahead. Go ahead, Miss Price. >> Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm exercising my right under West Virginia code 1854C to comment on the proposed um fiscal

004year 2027 operating budget during this meeting. I would like to note for the record that the legal advertisement for this hearing was published on May 13th and the budget was made available for inspection beginning May 16th meeting the 10-day minimum requirement by the narrowest margin. The budget was available only at this office, not posted online, which limits meaningful public access. This is a district operating on approximately $20 million in total revenue across all funds. The general fund shows $17.4 million in revenue against $16.6 million in expenditures and 1.9 million in transfers. The budget balances only because of a $5 million beginning balance, which means we are spending down our reserves. By year end, budgetary reserves dropped to 4.96 million. That trend line is unsustainable across the board for future reference. Against that backdrop, I want

005to raise concerns about how administrative spending is reflected in this budget. Central administration and school administration costs total approximately $1.59 million across both funds. 522,370 plus $79,110 in central administration, $931,120 plus $53,350 in school administration. In a $20 million district, administrative overhead of this magnitude deserves scrutiny. Adding a new vice principal of athletics position if it is between $50 and $80,000 or more would increase that administrative burden further. To replace an athletic director position that costs $6,000 and which no performance complaints exist. Second, this budget does not transparently reflect the cost of current administrative decisions, the ongoing expense of staff on paid leave while simultaneously paying replacements, and the cost of outside legal counsel retained for administrative proceedings. >> Stephanie hasn't started the clock. >> Mom's finished. [laughter] I'll start. Sorry. These are real expenditures

006drawn from the general fund. The public deserves a clear accounting of what those costs are and this budget does not provide it. This board is also being asked to grant the superintendent hiring authority without board approval. Every hire carries salary benefits and retirement obligations that draw from this very budget. Granting blanket hiring authority removes the board's ability to exercise fiscal oversight in real time. This board currently meets twice a month. There is no operational reason for this new agenda. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Next is Bridget Corber. >> Good evening members of the board. My name is Bridget Kerber. I've been the PCHS cheer coach for the past two years and I'm also currently a long-term sub at the high school. I'm here to address inaccurate information that was publicly

007presented regarding coaching positions within the county. During the superintendent's presentation on 51126, Dr. Williams stated, "I had two assistant cheer coaches assigned, one paid assistant coach and $1 coach. That statement was not accurate and I want to clarify the record with factual information. At no point did I have both a paid assistant coach and a $1 coach actively serving in those positions. The information presented to the county and this board created the impression that my program was fully staffed when it was not. This inaccurate representation affects transparency, staffing discussions, work overload expect I'm sorry, workload expectations and public understanding of the program. This matters because staffing information presented publicly should be accurate. Decisions regarding student programs, supervision, budgeting, workload, and accountability depend on truthful reporting. Additionally, I want to clarify that not only did I

008not have two assistant coaches as stated, but when I requested assistance for the program, I was in fact denied an assistant coach. When when inaccurate information is presented publicly, it undermines trust between employees, administration, and the community. I respectfully request that the board correct the public record regarding the staffing of the cheer program. I also request that coaching assignments and staffing reports presented publicly be verified for accuracy before being shared with the board and the community. I'm also deeply concerned by the superintendent's effort to restructure county athletic programs without first consulting coaches, athletic director, or personnel directly involved in athletics. It is unacceptable for decisions of this magnitude to be discussed or presented without input from the very people responsible for operating these programs every day. Coaches and athletic staff understand the realities of student

009supervision, staffing needs, scheduling demands, program expectations, and the challenges our athletic programs face. Yet, those voices were excluded from the conversation entirely. It raises a serious question. How can the county make informed decisions about restructuring athletics without speaking to its own athletic department? [clears throat] Meaningful leadership requires collaboration, communication, and transparency. Attending to reshape athletic programs without consulting the professionals who work directly with students and programs demonstrates a troubling lack of respect for the experience and expertise of athletics personnel and undermines confidence in the decision-making process. It has also come to the attention of several coaches that statements have been made suggesting there's lack of support among coaches for our current athletic director Fred Kerber. That representation is false. In my possession are letters of support from coaches express expressing their confidence in and support

010for Fred Kerber. I'm submitting these letters tonight for the official record so that the board has documented evidence directly from the individuals being spoken for. It is important that this board rely on facts and documented statements rather than rumors, assumptions, or narratives presented without verification. If claims are being made regarding the position or opinions of coaches, then the coaches themselves deserve to be heard accurately and directly. Head football coach Doug Burns. Head boys soccer coach Dustin Dilly. Head track coach Karen O'Neal. Head golf coach Kate Monaco, head basketball coach, girls Tim McClung. Head girls soccer coach Shannon Arbagast 25 26 head boys basketball coach Derek Hannah head softball coach Natasha Tra volleyball coach and assistant uh softball coach Crystal Keley girls assistant basketball coach John Snider middle school head football coach Kyle Gray Okay, thank

011you for your time for allowing me to clarify this matter. My goal is simply accuracy, transparency, and accountability and how information is presented to this board and to the public. Thank you. >> Next, we have Fred Cor. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> I uh real real short, I'd like to put out that on May 11th, 2026, uh some uh false information was put out to the county, to the board. Want to make you aware of it. Specifically, when this was brought up on the screen, you can see that it says in 2425 for the football coaching position, assistant football coach, that all three of them were paid $750. Inaccurate. Two of them were paid $750. Matt Buzzard and myself. The other one, Seth uh Doss, was not paid. He was a back then a

012volunteer coach. three athletic dire or assistant football coaches were paid $1,100. Matt Buzzard, Seboss, Frank Kerber, that's me. On April 28th, I was left off of the agenda. Am I not the assistant football coach this year? Exemplary evaluation. That's the only question I got. Can I go report to Coach Burns that I'll be with him on the football field? President Grimes, you sat 6 feet away from me up in the press box. Am I not the assistant football coach again this year? Can I not get an answer from anyone in this county? You trusted me with your children. You gave me keys. I hopped on the bus and took him out of state. Do I not deserve an explanation of why? I got no explanation. I filed a grievance. Still didn't get no information. Taxpayer

013money from this county was used to say that I was never an assistant football coach for two years. I was paid. Does Pocahontas County pay people just generally? Can I sign up other places? I'd like free money. Did I not do the job? Was I not at every practice? Did I not fill the water jugs? Make the Gatorade. Make sure your kids were safe. When I filed the grievance, I was removed as athletic director. Something ain't right. Am I Can anyone Can anyone answer in my entire chain of command? Can anybody answer my question? Is it because I ran for board of education? >> Thank you. >> Next, we got Nathaniel. I heard a quote from an astronaut recently from the Artemis mission today. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want

014to go far, go together. And that stuck with me. And recent events reminded me of the truth of those words. And so, first I want to start by expressing some gratitude. First, by thanking the anonymous donor that paid for the cost of my children to attend robotics. I don't know who they are, but I want you to know, whoever this person is, how much that gesture meant to my family. I also want to thank the many other people in the community that offered to pay those fees completely independently. More people than I can count offered to support them um financially, offered to do anything else they could for my family, even though I didn't ask anybody. To all those that have expressed sympathy, compassion, offered their time, the money, their prayers, I thank you. It

015was an excellent reminder to me of what's best in this county. The way people can pull together and lift each other up. I also want to thank the teachers and coaches that have gone out of their way to do everything they possibly can for my kids. Some teachers visit us visited us in the hospital in Morgantown. We were we are blessed in this county with boardcertified award-winning educators that are experts in their field and they're teaching our kids and touching their lives every day. And I am so grateful for all of those people. We have coaches and volunteers that put put in enormous time and effort, not for a paycheck, but because they know how much sports or cheering or music means to these kids. I want to be I want to be very clear

016how grateful we should all be to all those people. But as amazing as they are, these teachers, coaches, volunteers, they can't do their work without support. They need resources. They need consistency. They need leadership. And I hate to hear when I talk to these teachers how low morale is for so many of them right now. They're not getting what they need. But I was once told never to point out a problem unless you have an idea for a solution. So with that in mind, here are a couple suggestions. First, I was glad to see that the uh principal position for PCHS uh was recently posted and I hope that the uh faculty at PCHS is directly and consistently involved in that hiring process. In order to do the job effectively, in order to have an

017effective high school, we need to make sure we get the right person that's going to be there for the long term and it's up to the challenge. And I don't think there's any way we can do that without direct faculty involvement in that hiring process. My kids have gone through three principles now in two years of high school. Let's fix this. The second thing we need to do, and as others have alluded to, is to communicate better honestly, respectfully, and productively. The board should be using every means you can to talk to the community. talk openly about what we need to do about and why we need to do it and what your plans are. We need to actually listen to staff and faculty and the members of the community. Uh we should also bring

018back one of the most important voices that isn't here in the room tonight, the student representative for the board of ed. And if the board or central office doesn't feel like they're getting enough credit for all the good things and that have been happening and the progress that's been made, that's a communication problem, too. If you if you the community can't see your successes, then that's a communication problem. You need to get out there and tell them what's going on and why. Show them what the good things are. And if people aren't feeling like their concerns are being heard, they're not getting the answers they need, they feel like their questions are being met, not with understanding, but with deflection, excuses, silence, or retribution, that's a communication problem, too. Now, pointing this out may sound

019like I'm being antagonistic. It may sound like I'm trying to hurt people's feelings. That's not the case. Like a coach of mine once told me, said, "I don't tell you the good things you're doing well because those aren't the things you need to work on." That stuck with me, too. If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. Let's go far. Let's go together. Let's work as a community to fix the problems and the challenges that we have. Now, I get my five minutes. You get whatever time you want at the end of the meeting, as you do at every meeting. So, I look forward to hearing not only your thoughts at the end of this meeting, but also the thoughts of the incoming board members. Thank

020you very much for your time. >> Next, we have Chelsea Hooper. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Chelsea Hooper. I'm a parent of four and I currently have one child in the middle school and one at the high school. My family is deeply invested in the community and the future of our schools, which is why I felt it was important to speak tonight. I am deeply concerned about the direction of our school system and the way it's heading and the growing disconnect between leadership and the people most affected by these decisions. Many parents, students, and staff members feel that major changes involving academics, athletics, staffing, student support, and hiring authority are being pushed through without true transparency, collaboration, or meaningful community involvement. Parents and students also were blindsided by a major

021change, including changes in honors classes, which without any real opportunity to ask questions or give input beforehand. Decisions that directly affected students, education and opportunity should have gainful involvement from the families. One major concern of the families, many families, is the elimination of the high school athletic director position while simultaneously creating or hiring um additional administrative positions. Many people are struggling to understand the reasons behind eliminating student-f facing positions while increasing administration administrative spending. During a time when the the district itself is acknowledging budget concerns and reliance on reserves, the coaches, staff, and staff members being impacted are not just employees on paper. These are people who have poured countless hours into mentoring students, supporting families, volunteering their time, and helping create positive environments for kids academically and emotionally. I can personally say that my

022own children have been de deeply positively impacted by these coaches and staff members. Relationships matter. Mentorships matter. The adults who consistently show up for the students matter. There's also a growing concern about culture being created within the system. Many teachers and faculty members care deeply about our students. But there is a real fear among staff about speaking openly because they fear retaliation for being or being treated unfairly for expressing concerns. When community members begin recognizing same patterns of leadership that has reportedly caused concerns in previous districts, that should be a moment of reflection, not dismissal. Pocahontas County is strong and deeply connected community. We are here not to top not to have a top- down system where decisions are pushed through while parents and teachers and students and community members are left feeling unheard and

023powerless. I'm also hearing a growing number of parents who are seriously considered pulling out their children from the school system altogether and exploring homeschooling or other educational options because of the instability and lack of trust they are feeling under this board of of education administration. That should concern every person in this room and be taken very seriously. I also wanted to address that the continued failure to bring on a student representative despite this being agreed upon multiple times in other meetings. Um students are the ones living these decisions in every single day yet their voices are missing from the table. I also recently attended the um high school LSIC meeting where many of these same concerns were echoed by parents, staff, and community members. The LSIC is scheduled to formally present its feedback and concern

024concerns to the board on June 3rd, which makes the timing of these votes especially concerning to many people. I respectfully asked the board to consider tableabling that could significantly affect the future of our our academics until teachers, parents, and students and community members have a genuine opportunity to share concerns, ideas, and possible solutions. This is not about individuals. It's about acknowledging the very real concerns felt throughout this community so we can move forward in a healthier, more collaborative way for our children. I also want to give a big thank you to all the teachers, coaches, and staff members and parents of the community members who have continually to wholeheartedly show up for these kids every single day, often without recognition who and you all are changing lives. And also, I want to express gratitude to

025the students who continue to use their voices to speak up for your schools, your experiences, your needs because your voice matters. The only way forward is together. Thank you for your time. >> Kristen Thomas. >> Good evening. I'm Kristen Thomas and I'm here as a delegate to address um fiscal responsibility and oversight. I will provide a copy to be added to the record. My remarks tonight are about the district spending taxpayer money and whether the board is maintaining a level of oversight of those public of that the public expects. I ask that you weigh these concerns as you evaluate the superintendent's performance. This board is being asked to eliminate an athletic director position costing $6,000 per year and replace it with a newly created wide a countywide vice principal of athletics at the minimum of

026$50,000 a year. Realistically, probably uh up to 80,000 with more benefits. that is 8 to 13 times more expensive there with no documentation of defense of deficiency in person currently doing that role. Where is the costbenefit analysis in this in in a district that is limited has with limited resources? How does this serve our students? Also on tonight's agenda is a request for the superintendent to hire without board approval. Historically, that authority was extended only during summer months when the board met only once a month. I'm sorry. And time-sensitive staffing decisions could not wait. This board meets now twice a month. There is no operational um reason to bypass board approval for hiring decisions. Every hire carries salary, benefits, and long-term um retirement obligations, granting blanket hiring authority removes the board's ability to exercise financial

027oversight over these um commitments in real time. Giving spending concerns that I'm rising tonight, the board should exercise more oversight in hiring decisions, not less. Without speaking to merits of an individual personal matter, I want the board to account for the financial impact of the administration's deci uh decisions being made in this district. We are paying salaries and benefits for staff that are not working while paying other staff to fill in for those positions um to cover their responsibilities. We are spending taxpayer money on outside attorneys separate from the board council administrative proceedings that have um produced no substantial findings or charges. These costs add up and the public has a right to know the total. Um the board um has a duty to the um taxpayers vetting individuals it entrusts with leadership. leadership prior

028to tender at another West Virginia school district ended with a contract buyout costing those taxpayers $143,000 after that removal of a partition uh petition with over a thousand signatures. That information was publicly available in the news reports before this board made its hiring decision. A basic internet search would have revealed all that information. I feel like the board owes the public an explanation. We now have over 500 signatures on a removal petition in this county. The question is whether the board will exercise its oversight responsibilities or whether taxpayers will eventually be forced to write another six-f figureure check. One final point, there is no public schedule for 2026 2027 school year. Teachers and families cannot plan. This is a basic op operational failure that reflects on the superintendent's management of this district. Members of the

029board are about to evaluate the superintendent. Consider the full picture. $6,000 position replaced with one costing up to 10 times as much. A request for hiring authority. This board has no reason to surrender at all. taxpayer money spent on staff working and outside attorneys and with nothing to show for it. No calendar for next year and a documented history of her previous district that cost those taxpayers $143,000. A history this uh a history this board did not uncover before her hiring. I am placing these facts on public record. Three new board members take office July 1st. The evaluation you render tonight will shape the options um available going forward. I urge you to act with financial respon or with fiscal responsibility. Our taxpayers expect it and they deserve it. Thank you. Want to respond to

030any other? >> Yes, I'm mute. [clears throat] So often I um receive some criticism for preparing my words in advance. And I prepare them in advance because I want to be thoughtful in the way I express myself. I want to make sure that I'm accurate in the words that I'm using and that I'm speaking. So let me begin by saying I hear your concerns. I understand them and I recognize that the district has experienced years of upheaval, especially around the high school. When I arrived last year, we were facing unresolved issues in July and August. The schedule was incomplete and did not re required instructional minutes. Students had no schedule, no report cards, no diplomas, transcripts were inaccurate, required courses were not offered, and some teachers taught as few as two to six students per

031period. The high school was already under state of emergency. The principal had resigned the previous year and there were issues unresolved in June. The counselor had left that was there during the review had resigned and there was no counselor and no one had applied after years of posting the job. Instability was the norm in our county and in our high school. I share this because the inconsistency and chaos did not start this year. That culture does not disappear overnight and long-standing habits do not change instantly. This year marks several first for our school system. The first time in years that state policy has been reviewed publicly and in depth at a board meeting with and with all leadership responsible for our school schedule. Honoring the staff request to return back to a block schedule after

032eight years of requesting to do so. That has been allowed this year. the first expansion of course offerings to increase access to dual credits for all students in our community. And the first time we are hiring a graduation coach, preferably with a counseling background to solely focus on career affairs, college entrance process, graduation requirements, and shifting the focus to every students graduating college andor career ready. Students were provided an overview of these new opportunities in a in a career fair where each dual credit program was presented by local experts. These programs are aligned with community needs. That day, most seniors were absent. Two parent meetings were offered for parents regarding the programs. A board presentation has been provided. The counselor and the principal have had unlimited access to our registration expert at New River. I

033have met with new with staff along with President Grounds. Staff have met with New River. All the supports are in place. What we need, what the school needs now is patience and grace. The staff is working extremely hard. They are struggling, but struggling is part of growth. When implementing something new, this is their first time working through this process. We should expect some struggle. They are not without support. We have weekly progress meetings. Once the schedule is finalized in Weaveless and classes are leveled, if staffing needs emerge, I will address them with the board and provide for their needs. We are not at that point. The first student has not been added to the first course in Weeus. This must be done at the school level. It is the responsibility of the school principal and

034the school counselor. We have a master principal at the high school in Ruth Bland. She is a foundational element of education in this community and my trust in her is unwavering. We also have complete trust and respect for Miss Missy Doss Hill. She has an excellent mind for these things. They are working with the assistant principal and the teachers to provide them guidance and leadership oversight on the schedule. Before moving forward, I want to revisit the state of emergency findings. I'm going to ask Miss Hammonds to pull that up for those that have not seen that. This is I moved it from the state website to my website today. The double the West Virginia Department of Education reviewed the high school review of the high school was conducted on October 22nd, 2024 and released on

035January 25th, 2025 under West Virginia code 18-2E-5 and under West Virginia Board of Education policy 2322. It included interviews, documented reviews, classroom observation, and transcript audits. These findings conti contributed to the West Virginia Board of Education declaring a state of emergency at Pocahontas County High School February 2025. And later, after a deep dive, the entire county was placed on intervention status, August 13, 2025. The review identified several key areas requiring improvement. These included compliance with the comprehensive school counseling standards and student support services despite the presence of a full-time fully service fully certified counselor at that time. Significant concerns were also noted in grading, transcription, scheduling practices, particularly regarding accuracy of transcripts, course coding, and the management of student schedules. At that time, the scheduling systems were not fully implemented within Weevas, which created considerable

036challenges and resulted in students remaining in classes for extended periods of time without a finalized schedule. Additional findings highlighted the need to strengthen leadership practice include greater consistency in administrative effect and adherence to policies. Concerns were also raised regarding the overall school climate including discipline, supervision, safety, and maintaining a positive environment in the school. In special education, issues were identified related to IDA compliance, IEP implementation, and the delivery of services. We have not cleared all of those yet. We are still working on those. Since that time, staff have been actively working to address these areas. However, not everything is resolved. Scheduling improvements in particular particular could not be completed until the appropriate time frame in the academic planning cycle that is now. Until last spring, there was no process to build a student-driven schedule in

037place. We are continuing to work on the process that was started last year. This is still new to this school. It is new to the staff. It is new to the county. We are growing and working to ensure that we have a student-driven schedule in place. Over the past few weeks, maintaining silence and displaying professionalis professionalism has been difficult. I am a human. Humans are emotional. When attacked, the instinct is to defend ourselves. Being the target of a social media bullying and intimidation campaign is emotional and painful. But this district has been entrrenched in a culture where emotion has ruled over logic. Law, policy, procedures were afterthoughts. This is how Pocahontas County schools arrived at a state of emergency. Athletics have also been brought up. But the truth is athletics were part of the opening

038instability. When I arrived, there was an assistant principal athletic director position posted. It remained unfilled after multiple postings. Several coaching positions from the previous year were vacant. We had no athletic trainer. We were at risk of not starting football season. Both middle school athletic directors have since resigned and will not be available to supervise athletic events next year. So reaching out to trusted individuals and encouraged them to apply just to ensure that our students could participate safely and that programs could move forward at the beginning of the year was my focus. I also want the community to know that I fully fully support strong successful athletic programs across our county. Our student athletes, our coaches, our schools deserve every opportunity to thrive. With that stated, there is a clear chain of command for athletic positions.

039Coaches submit their request to their principles who then either approve or disapprove their request. If approved, the principal moves forward to send them to the personnel director and the superintendent. After review, any recommendation is presented to the board. No new positions can be created without board approval, and the board cannot require the superintendent to make a recommendation. These checks and balances ensure proper oversight and responsible operations, not just here, but throughout the entire state. I raise all of this because when the West Virginia Board of Education returned control of the district to me and the current board, it was with the expectation that we would correct years of poor communication, improper procedures, lack of policy implementation, and overreaching school operations. The board had not been following proper procedures in the meeting. Interactions with the public,

040communications within the chain of command. LSC's were not conducted correctly. Board members were overstepping into the school and central office operations. The central office itself was not meeting expectations nor functioning correctly. In short, our system was broken when I got here. We were not following processes and procedures that we are bound to by law and policy that got us on state intervention. Those deficiency led to the West Virginia Board of Education coming in and saying, "Fix it. Do it right or you will be completely taken over." That is a direct quote to Mr. grounds and I in our meeting in general. We addressed and fixed a vast majority of those named issues, but there is still work that must be done. And now I fear we are slipping backwards into old habits. When some do

041not receive the answer they want, they activate the students, spread confusion, and create chaos. They target the superintendent and engage in social media bullying. Athletics have been pulled into the same pattern pattern used as a pressing pressure point, a rallying cry, and a tool to stir division. Let me be clear, disagreement is a healthy part of a school system relationship. That is why we have a grievance process. I respect it. I support it. I encourage people to take advantage of it. It is the legal way to resolve issues. Bullying is not. Intimidation is not. Weaponizing students is not. Social media chaos is not. We are changing the reality of this district by changing require consistency, by having patience, by adhering to law and policy. It does not happen through online attacks and misinformation. It does

042not happen by returning to emotional reactive culture that contribute to our state of emergency. The county cannot regress into old ways of doing things. We can disagree. We can debate, but we cannot be dysfunctional. We cannot return to chaos. And we absolutely cannot allow bullying online or otherwise to dictate the operations of the school district. I will not respond to bullying with bullying. That's not me. I will respond with facts, with policy, and with responsibility entrusted to me by the West Virginia Board of Education, the West Virginia Department of Education, our board, and our community. I will not be intimidated into abandoning the work of stabilizing the district. And I will not allow old habits, chaos, rumors, personal attacks to derail progress we are making. We must continue to move forward. Backwards progress is state

043takeover. With that stated, I want to say something to Pocahontas County citizens, and I will be emotional with this. Pocahontas is truly beautiful in every sense of the word. The land we are blessed to live on. What we see and experience each day is remarkable. The independent spirit and the strong-minded character of our people is inspiring. It's inspiring to see you here and I'm grateful that you came tonight. The traditions, the culture, the way of life that defines our community are something to be deeply proud of. And the opportunities our school provides our students reflect the same sense of beauty and possibility. When we come together and truly harness all of this, working collaboratively, guided by law, policy, and procedure, always with the best interest of our children at heart, we can create something extraordinary

044here. With shared vision and a willingness to compromise for greater good, there is no doubt that we can build not just a strong school system, but one of the very best in the state. if not in the nation. I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for you hearing me. >> Thank you, Dr. Williams. Uh [clears throat] number four, recognition we have no number five, school improvement updates. A, special education report and updates. B, attendance report and updates. C block scheduling and course catalog D student report PCHS and E preschool monitoring report. Who's wanting to go first? >> Do I have a motion? >> I get a motion. >> Second it. >> Mr. Mcomes made a motion and Mr. Gibson second it. All right. >> Do all in favor of you? Do all

045in favor of >> Okay, we're not Okay. Anybody got any questions or anything on any of >> you go? Uh >> Mr. Anderson. Um, can you give us an update on our special education report where we are just generally um we submitted all of our stuff in no December? November. >> Yes. >> And we've gotten some feedback. Would you like to share the feedback with us, please? >> Sure. So, it took them a while to get back to us about from the November about two weeks ago. I did receive some information that uh you still have a little bit of work to do about 25 findings compared to the probably 100 findings. So um meaning that uh um we're just now focusing on targeting a few things that we need to clean up and working

046with with the the people there. But it's a good, you know, it's a good learning experience for me being so new to this position and I'm grateful to be in it to be able to work to fix these issues and problems. But I feel confident with the people that we have here and with the support of the state that that will happen and it'll you know we they gave us until July the 11th to uh to get everything in and turned in but you know it's just uh you know working on to that until now. Um uh other things in in the system that you know we did uh um I just like to say about this that we received a $40,000 grant. >> Um found that out Friday that Dr. Williams put on my

047plate and we worked on it. Ruth Bland helped me target it and we submitted it and found out Friday that we received that for secondary education, special education. So, I was real pleased and happy with that and thinking that, you know, just u so good things to come. >> Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Thank you, >> Mrs. Dunlap. Would you like to do our attendance report and update, please? [clears throat] have a few um stats to share with you. Um Miss Hammonds is pulling it up, but I wanted to share with you um our chronically absenteeism and these are percentages. Um flip it over to the schooling. Let me um these these numbers are not the number of students per se that are chronically absent or in good standing or at risk. These are um percentages

048for each school that we've got. Um and based on traditions from [clears throat] last year, we're this is about where we were last year. Greenbank actually was a little bit higher. I think they're at the um greatest amount of improvement so far this year, but it's showing, you know, that we've got 22% that we're concerned with. We've got 48% that are could go either way, but 30% of their students in the school are doing well and they're on track. They're not missing more than 10%. So when this data comes from 10% of the school year to point which we've been in school attendance for 165 days so far and our goal at the end is 180 days. Okay, if you hit next week the next one is by grade level and it's a little bit

049harder to read. it's a little smaller, but um we do have a trend uh from after seventh grade. There seems to be a trend of increased chronic absenteeism. And again, those are not the numbers of students that are chronically absent or at risk. That's the percentage for that grade level. So, for example, we have 48 seniors this year. We've got 58 juniors. We've got 56 sophomores, 66 freshman, and 52 eighth graders. So, that's your percentages for that. Um we um I did see um some improvement uh when our schools had the took the time to have the uh data talks, the test talks with the students before they took the assessment to share that information. And I want to incorporate their attendance with them when they have those chats next year because I think with

050that information, I think we're going to see even greater improvement with their attendance. And we do have some some good improvements. Um, for example, I mean, we're sitting at right now. Hillsboro is down 13% from what they were last year. Greenbank's down like over 8%, almost 8.5%. Um, Marlington Middle, Marlington Elementary's up just a smidgen, but we've still got some days to put in there and they did have some illness that came in late. Um, Marlington Middle is down three over 3%. And the high school's up just a little bit from where they were last year. I know all the schools have a lot of things planned uh for now. Um they've still got education going on in the classroom. It's not just all fun and games now that assessments are over. We are working

051on finishing up those last standards that we missed with all of our snow days. And then the last thing I wanted to share is um Dr. I don't want to interrupt you, but would you explain like how many students 63% is? That's >> Oh, for the Okay, >> you wrote those numbers down. >> I only broke down the the seniors for example. I didn't do the rest of them, but for example, um 30 30 students, >> yeah, 30 students are um chronically absent in the seniors. We've got 11 at risk and six are on target for the senior class. So, it's just a matter of sitting down and doing the math to get the the exact number of students. So, it's we can um we definitely have room to improve, but we are slowly making

052improvement. Rome wasn't built in the day and and to see a 10% drop would be astronomical and that would be a red flag too from the state. The state chronically not chronically but continually has dropped since 22 they probably dropped about 10% but that's a few percent 2 to 3% each year to go down. So if we continue on our trend of going down two 2 to 3% we will see some improvements because I do believe it made a difference in our test scores this year. I think we're going to see that when our testing results come out. Is that it? Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Thank you so much. Um I believe each of our schools are doing some significant things to improve attendance and targeting that middle group. Um I've been seeing it posted competitions

053between schools. So the next thing we're going to look at is block scheduling and the course catalog. The course catalog is out. We have about Miss Hammonds probably 65% of our courses in Weeas. >> I say closer to >> closer to 85% of our courses in Weeas and ready to schedule. And then I just wanted to um pull up some excellent graphics and Miss Hammonds. Were all these made by Miss Glo? >> Yeah, if you'll just pull those up. These are infographics that we're flooding for press release right now. Do you want to say anything about them, Miss Hammonds? >> So, there's a difference in the new nursing program and the criminal justice program. It lists the key features. Um, it lists what they include. So, this is the new programs that are um that

054we've added for all of our students. And then let's go to Wellington. Okay, >> should have deleted packets. So, >> everybody didn't get a packet. Um, and we also have uh Roger Griffith online from New River. Uh, Roger, would you like to say anything to the to the audience both in person and abroad? Yeah, he was on there. He's not on there now. Okay. Anyway, we have these infographs. They're out. They're flooding um our Facebook. They're on our They're on our site. We're going to share them as much as often, as often as possible. If there's questions, please see Miss Bland. Please see Missy Hill Doss. Please see Miss Wagner. And then if you need an appointment with our scheduling expert, they are available. And then the final thing that I had um and I

055want to give a huge shout out to these people, um our former director of prek, um Miss Burns, um Mr. Anderson, and Dr. KS because we had uh we were monitored in everything when we first got here. When I first got here. So, I received a letter from the West Virginia Department of Education and it says, "Dear Superintendent Williams, as you are aware, the West Virginia Universal PreK Steering Team conducted a West Virginia PreK program review with Pocahontas County Collaborative Early Childhood Team March 25th. The West Virginia Universal PreK program review process is conducted every three years in accordance with board policy. The West Virginia Universal um access and quality early education system according to policy 2525. So, long story short, to assist you, attached you will find the 2526 Pocahontas County prek program review

056report. And we are pleased to inform you that no followup documentation is required. The 2526 Pocahontas County family survey report is attached and the 2526 Pocahontas County per parent survey excels are also attached. Um, the West Virginia Universal PreK Steering Team would like to express our sincere gratitude to you and the Pocah County Collaborative Early Childhood Team for your hard work with implementing West Virginia Board Policy 2525 and your continued commitment to offering high universal prek programs. So, long story short, we have an excellent report and we owe it to an excellent team for all of their hard work. So, we have three of those in the room with us today. I would like to thank you for all you did and all the teachers and school staff members. It was made possible by them

057and that's we haven't gotten a lot of reports that had no findings. Miss Burn, would you like to say anything or Rhonda or Phillip about this report because I know you work tirelessly on it. >> It is 12 years in another county and um really have to lean on your community partners. excellent teaching and support staff and principles and most smaller but um there the audit is still huge and um I'm pleased with the result speaks well the program here so I think our kids are well taking care of everything can I add one thing >> somebody brought up about the calendar for next year I think and we're hoping to get that out tomorrow and user funding format. >> Okay. Thank you, Stephanie. You have anything? >> I was just really excited for Pettis

058County Schools because three years ago, we did not pass the audit and we worked really hard the last two years to make sure we um corrected any errors, made sure we kept our documentation, and I do that to attribute to our preschool teachers. didn't ask much. >> Absolutely. Mr. Anderson, >> I would just second to that that the preschool teachers an amazing job. They're really good at what they're doing. >> Any questions on anything? >> This is just report. There's no voting there. >> Yes, sir. >> You good? I'm good. Excuse me. [clears throat] Uh, number six, consent agenda items. A, approval of the agenda. B, payment of bills subject to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the board meeting. Uh, then we got the subsection payment of vendor list 131,661.88. Payment of PE

059cards 231,49370. Uh May 5th to 2026, employee payroll 301,687. May 20th 26 employee payroll 298,49824. Uh D payment number five for energy savings lease plan. E grant awards. F budget adjustments. And then D budget transfer and supplements subject to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the board meeting. I get a motion. >> Move. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> Holmes made the motion and Miss McCoy second it. We need to vote on these. >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. I didn't see the u I mean you handed out a uh post budget summary. Is that included in this motion to pass or >> No, it's later on. >> It's later coming up. Okay. This >> Thank you. All right. Those all in favor. Those opposed carries 550 5. Uh number seven, personnel matters. Miss Ali

060or can I get a motion? Mr. McCullen made a motion. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Grimes. Second it. We go ahead and vote on it now or we want to read it. You want to read it? >> The amended personnel agenda for May 26, 2026. The resignation of K. Blackshshire, substitute teacher from Poconus County Schools for the 2627 school year. Resignation of Fred H. Barlo as school security officer Okcon County Schools effective May the 1st, 2026. Request a transfer of Sarah Brown as teacher of second grade at Monton Elementary School effective for the 2627 school year. Tammy Kerson is site coordinator for the summer program at Greenbank Elementary Middle School. Tina Tracy is the site coordinator for the summer program at Marlington Elementary School. Vader Bobac is teacher of K through

061five for summer program at Marlington Elementary School. the resignation of Susan Armstrong due to retirement as the ECAT special education classroom bus a preK at Marlington Elementary School. And then other recommendations, Owen Vogelong requested personal leave effective for May the 26 through June the 5th, 2026. >> At the end, all those in favor. I those opposed carries 5. Uh number eight, discussion and action of LSIC presentations. Well, um I forgot the exact schedule, but when we had our principal meeting on the last Thursday, we discussed as a collective group about having all of those. There's um a request on the agenda to change the calendar a little bit to have those on June the 15th starting on the northern end of the county. One at 9:30, one at 10:30. take a break. And then one

062at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30. And I believe the one at 9:30 on the northern end of the county is Greenbank Elementary Middle School. At 10:30, it's Pocahontas County High School. We're going to take a break. I believe Marlington Middle was at 1:30. Hillsboro was at 2:30, and then it's either 3 or 3:15. I'll have it on the next agenda. it was going to be Marlington Elementary. Um rather than having it over for a long period of day, that way all the staff could attend because that's a or or they could participate while they're in their room and more people could attend the board meeting. So that would mean a split board meeting for LSIC's and doing all the LSIC's in one day. Um, it's kind of what we talked about and felt like would work

063out best. Is that is that acceptable? >> What day is that? >> June the 15th. >> Why don't we do it like we used to do it when we visited the schools and had one the meeting nights? What what happened to that plan? >> I've talked to the principles about a plan and this is the plan that we came up with together. school principles are okay with this. >> We all work together on this and scheduling. >> I don't really matter as long as their voice, their their concerns are heard, >> sir. Are you okay with that? >> Any other questions? >> Okay, moving on. Number nine, new business. Approval of fundraisers. Approval of out of county, outofstate, and overnight field trips. Approval of volunteers, C attached. Approval of curriculum for the 2627 school year.

064Uh approval for the superintendent to post and fill positions prior to board approval effective June 16th, 2026 through October 19th of 2026. uh approval of director of finance or treasur to make budget adjustments and pay invoices prior to board approval effective June 16th, 2026 through June 30th, 2026. G. Discussion and action uh adoption of proposed 2026 2027 budget by BOE Sarah Hamilton CSBO H discussion and action permission to create and post for the iterate countywide assistant principal of athletics for Poconus County High School, Greenbank Middle School and Marlington Middle School. I discussion and action on modification of the 2526 calendar request to remove the professional learning day to June 15th and the opening and closing of school day to June 16th making last day of staff June 16, 2026 and Jay discussion and action of

065superintendent annual evaluation. >> I get a motion. I have I need to discuss some of it. >> We'll get a motion. >> Second move. >> Mr. Mcomes, >> can I get a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. Gibson. >> All right. Do have we want to vote on what we want? >> I need to pull a couple. >> Yeah, we'll talk about some too. I would like to pull E for discussion and H for discussion. >> I want to pull D for discussion [clears throat] and H and H as well and G and Okay, that's what I got. And we're marking Jay off. >> We're marking Jay off. Okay. >> President Grimes us on here. >> Okay. We're gonna make let the record reflect. We're gonna mark Jay off. >> Motion to table that.

066Just mark that off. >> You want to table it to put it on the next agenda? >> Next. If we table, he'll put on next agenda. >> We can just Yes. >> If we table, we got to make a motion, vote, second, and vote and all that. Want just put it on next agenda? >> Yeah. >> That good with you, Mr. Gra? >> Legal. Yeah, you if we table it, it has to be uh Dr. Williams on the next agenda. >> I'll put it on the next agenda. >> Yes, because we going to do that, I think, before the 1st of June. >> No, it has to be done before June 30th. >> June 30th. 1st of July. It has to be done. >> Let's just move it. That'll save us going through the >>

067Yes. >> Okay. So, you're going that's going to be moved to the next agenda. >> Yes, sir. Jay >> thought it was a year from not a year done a year yet. >> No, all state even the state superintendent schools has to have their evaluations done by June 30th. The whole state does. >> That's because the school year ends June the 30th. Correct. Has to be done during the school year. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. Questions on D. Would we like to see those questions and let Miss Burns present? >> That's fine. Yeah, >> because she has information. >> She can probably answer. >> You might be able to address this. >> Every year there are certain content that the state opens up for adoption. So this year it is music, wellness, art, financial

068math, and driver's education. Um I'm not sure if you received this Sam in the back of your packet. We did. It should be later right. >> Oh, I did. So >> So um in that process, what happens is that a textbook or curriculum company, they have the option to upload and share their information with the state. And then the state has a committee, a group of teachers that evaluate the curriculum. And if a curriculum is approved by WVDE, then it's usually high quality. It has to meet there's like three different areas that the content has to meet, the curriculum has to meet and that is non-negotiables 100%. Specific criteria 80% or above and general criteria 80% or above. So all of the curriculum on your sheet has met WVDE requirements. Um and it is several

069different companies because not all companies for example MCR McGra Hill is a company we tend to purchase curriculum from but they did not have a curriculum in that they shared with WVDE that met all the negotiables uh for middle school but they did for high school. Um, so what you have are the company's names. Some of them are digital programs, um, such as Quaver Ed, and some are textbooks. Our teachers that teach wellness for middle school and high school requested text. What are your questions? You know, I didn't realize what the question was. This is this is this is these are things that we have to adhere to, right? >> We have to Yes, we have to adopt these this curriculum by June 1st. Um, next year will be English language arts. >> Okay. >>

070They change it each year. >> Same. Now, >> any other questions? One D. Okay, let's go to E. >> Okay, my concern is why should the superintendent be allowed to fill positions up till October 19th? I feel the first week of September or the second week would be sufficient because school is already in pro in session and teachers should mostly be in place. If not, those should be brought before the board. That's my thoughts. So, I can address that and I'm going to ask Ollie to chime in here because I believe she put that on there the same as it was last. Ollie, you want to say something about that? >> Each year the uh board gives the superintendent the right to do that and we normally go through the certified list the time frame

071for that and that's after October. This is the exact same time frame that is always been put in. >> But why do we have to do what we always did? But it's just customary because of the certified list making sure that we have the option to go ahead and hire those people that are certified to get them in the classrooms. >> Yes, bud. >> I want to second Miss Voice. I don't know what we should ever give any superintendent permission to hire without authority from the board. I mean, it's not like we're going to hire somebody in the middle of the night and we meet every two weeks to talk about these things. I think this should be I think we should pull this number E from the vote. Table number E is what I

072think. >> If you're wanting to table something, I have to have a motion and I have to have a second and we have to >> Let's talk about this just a minute. Mr. McNab, the reason that we give the superintendent I didn't go I didn't think it went this far. I think we uh done it at an earlier date like in September, but if a certified teacher comes in and applies for a job in Pocahontas County, they may also apply for a job in three or four other counties. If the superintendent can't hire them, then we lose that teacher to a different county. That's the reason this was originally done this way. >> Well, that's what you that's what was explained to me last year because I brought it up last year and that's what

073was explained to me. >> The school is now into session up in October. >> Yeah. We already been established. >> Yes. So, you know, uh moving that date to September or something after school starts is fine with me, but that's the reason it was set up that way. And most counties do do it that way because you don't want to lose a certified teacher because they have to wait till the board meeting. >> No, I I disagree. There's no certified teacher going to place interest in Poc County schools that can't wait two weeks before she he or she makes a professional decision. I mean, I just, you know, we have a a judicial responsibility like to to to to monitor these things, you know, and to approve to to to disapprove hirings if we want

074to. Um, you know, I I don't know how we can justify this any any longer. >> Can we change the date on it or does that have to be put on the next agenda? >> So, you'll have to table it and then you'll have to somebody >> No, you can. I think we're allowed to change a date, aren't we, Dr. Williams? >> You are. >> If we need to, we're allowed to change a date >> because it's under discussion right now. You can change it to a different date. That's why it's got Well, actually, it doesn't, but it can go on the next agenda if you want to change the date. I mean, it was placed on there because that's when it's always been placed on there and that's always the date that's been on

075there. But again, we can change it. It doesn't matter to me either way. I want to be really clear. It does not matter to me. It may matter to payroll. We may not get the certified list done. We may not get reimbursed something. But if this is a power struggle over authority, I don't care. It does not matter. >> Okay. If rather than change the date, if it comes up, could you just call a special board meeting to hire somebody? >> No. That's we There's a certain amount of time that that has to be done within posting the agenda and getting it ready. >> Yes. and a special board meeting, it's a few thousand at least a thousand dollar >> may. >> We've passed this and I've asked for the amendment every year since I've

076been here to say no administration. >> Yeah, you I think that was on there last year. >> That's why I always said if it's administration, it should go before the board, but just getting teachers in place, I don't see where it's a problem. Okay, >> Mr. Mcomes. The reason this was originally put on there because we was losing young teachers coming out of college because they was applying before they graduated and then whichever county accepted them first, that's where they was going. >> I know cuz I was on the interview committee at the high school and we missed a few. >> How many years ago was that, Mr. How many years ago? >> At least 25. >> So, it's been done for 25 years. But >> well, Jan's sitting there. She was on the board

077how many years ago that we were doing it. >> So it's not something new, but >> No, it's not new. >> Okay, then let's just proceed as is. >> But I would like to think on there for administration. I mean, I think administration should go before board, but for teachers and service personnel, get them in place and maybe we can get a replacement. >> We've discussed it and made our concerns. I say that I I agree though. any administration should come before the board administration. >> How do we want to do that then, Mr. Grime? President Grimes, >> we want to have a new agenda wrote up for the next meeting. >> Uh, no, we can uh we will meet before June 16th anyway. >> You're actually June the 2nd. >> Yeah, we'll meet June.

078>> We did this. We did this last year, Mr. Mcomes, if you remember. Amen. >> Uh do you remember we said the administration would be hard separate? >> So we could uh Dr. Williams would just give you plenty of time if we just table this to next meeting. >> That's fine with me. It's however you want to do it. >> I think I think everything's right on it. I don't see anything wrong with it. just a point that if it's an administrative hard like you know somebody's gonna be in the board office or somebody that's going to be a principal at one of our schools then I believe the board would have to we'd want to look at that. >> I agree. >> All right then. Can I get a motion to table item E?

079I >> second. Mr. McCall made the motion and Mr. Gibson second it. All those in favor >> I so that's going to be tabled to the next meeting with that to vote 50. Okay moving on. Uh G discussion and action adoption of proposed 2026 2027 budget by VOE Sarah Hamilton CSBO. Welcome board members. If you take a look at your fund 11, your fund 61, >> we're going to be going over them. First thing that's I'm sure is on everybody's mind is where's the money coming from? It'll come up here in just a minute. Yeah, [clears throat] >> if you'll look at your pie chart there. I'm sorry, Christy. Can we just go through it as she goes through it instead of pulling it up? Maybe. Will that work? >> Just click. Okay, there you

080go. Maybe you can make that bigger. >> Pocahontas relies heavily on our local and state funding. If you go over to your 11 fund, you'll see the first seven items there is all from your local funding. And that's what we was that's what we approved when we had our April 21st agenda. Local taxes, that's where she's from. And you've got your state funding sources. they well 30.9 or 49.5% both those together main your orange and your blue they both come up to 80.4% 4%. That's how this county is supported. When you're looking at your federal and your state grants, they're going to be in your 61 fund. So, we'll catch that in a second. Now, you're going to find that there's something not included in this revenue right now. And that's our national force funds.

081We have not received those funds for next year. Therefore, they cannot be included in the budget until we receive them. this year. I believe it was in the 3 months ago. >> We had 300,000. We got good >> 300,000, but we didn't get it until after January. It was like just a couple months ago that we actually received those plus. We don't know if we're still going to continue to get them. >> So, they're [clears throat] not included. Then they may never be included as the bottom line. >> Or we may be going back to Washington. >> That's correct. to see how we get get because it helped this time to be able to keep it. The first fund I'd like you to look at is your 11 fund. That's your major fund of the

082of the county. You're going to see it's a primary operating fund that supports the districts with instruction and operations. Your total budget that we're working on just your 11th fund is 23.5. The largest cost there will be for your instruction, your transportation, and maintaining your facilities. And just as we discussed before when we looked at the revenue, it's coming from your local taxes and from your state. Now, on your 11 fund here, if you look at it, your paper, you're going to find you'll [clears throat] find your revenues up top and your expenses down below. And if you look at what's in green, that's your salaries and you're going to find that you might as well take 70% out because that's what's going to go. That comes right off the top. The state is going

083to check once this is approved and it goes to them. They're going to make sure that everything aligns and then we've got everything allocated. So, we cannot dip into salaries at all. Flip on the next one. Let's go on to Your 61 fund are your special projects and they're restricted where your 11 fund is unrestricted. You can float and you can use here you absolutely cannot. You have a total budget there of 2.82 million. What includes in this? That'll be your title one, title two, title 4, your IDA, special education from the state, your food service, and your CTE grants. Your supports are targeted students, and it helps the services and instructional improvements. That's why we're getting the money from the state from from the federal government for these. But food service represents a significant

084portion of this budget. Are you still with me on your special education? I believe Dr. Williams has something to say about that. >> Let me find my post. >> Hold on. I did want to cover special up a little bit because my step's a little discombobulated. Special education takes a whole lot out of that we have to prepare for and be ready. Basically, I wanted to say that special ed we get about $450,000. Special ed cost us about $2.5 million. We are $2.1 million in looking at our special ed across the board at a deficit with special ed. So we always have to think of reserve staffing for when a student moves into the county. We have to provide a new teacher and a new aid, which actually happened this year. We actually had a

085student that come to one of our schools and we had to hire a teacher and an aid for one student. That really adds up. So, I want us to be conscientious of that in this budget when we're looking at special ed 61, this fund 61, which is federal restricted funds, when we're looking at our fund 11, which is our county funds, that those are contingencies that we have to plan for. We can't always plan for them, but it's necessary to think about that. [clears throat] that was on the legislative session is the reason I'm bringing it up about how special ed is funded in the state of West Virginia. That was one of the things when they were talking about the 1400 floor and they were talking about looking at how we fund kids differently

086based on their needs. So that will be in the next legislative session. Please pay attention to that. Please support school funding for our schools, especially when it comes to our special education students. And on below on your on your page for your 61 fund below will be your 51 fund. We have that that's for our capital projects and for your SBA projects. We take that money from the 11 fund that are matching funds because usually it's a grant or an MIP or a needs project. We have one going on now and we look to about 300,000 is what's going to be for to complete it and that is for your phase one, two and three and that would be for your gym and be your gym floor replacement and your electrical renovations. It's focused on

087infrastructure and facility improvements and that's why we have to we have to be very cautious with our contingencies because that's where we're using our matching funds. We have something with the MMS. Yes. Um Mr. Gibson and I and uh Miss Hamilton have prepared a major improvement pro project for Marlington Middle School. It's a roof project because we need that replaced. The cost of that roof project is about 1.2 million. >> Yeah, about roughly 1.2 million. The thing with getting uh money from the SBA is you have to put a dollar in. So when we put that project in, they like to see about 15%. So we have said to strengthen our ability to get that. We have said we will contribute $350,000 to the replacement of the roof. Um which we absolutely have to have.

088We are excited, Mr. Gibson and I because we are getting a visit from the president of the school board authority authority tomorrow. Mr. Andy Neptune and Mr. Wac is coming to see us. We will be touring the roof. So, if you see me tomorrow, I'm going to have my tennis shoes and jeans on. And um we're hoping for great news. Correct. >> We're going to probably get you on the roof >> and good weather so you can get up there. >> Mommy, I'm crawling. Afraid to fall off, >> but we are excited about that. And I did want to go back. My postit was actually here. Can I just go back to the special ed thing? I pulled the numbers together. We um have an expense of $2,564 $564 $220. Our federal and state aid

089for special education is $397,000. Our contribution is $2,166 uh as how much we have to compensate that we don't get compensated. So I think that's an important thing to note. So that's why it was such a big deal when Mr. Anderson wrote his grant and got our $40,000. We are working really hard to get as many grants as possible. Where do these numbers come from? We've studied the 25 24 and 25 expenses. We pulled from there. We rolled our payroll over for a projected 27 and that allowed for the raise and that allowed for your percentage increase for your PEIA. So all that was covered. There was a lot of in-depth studying and when you'll roll over to the next one, you're going to find out we have an 11 fund of 23.5. We have

090a 61 fund of being 2.82 and a 51 of being 300,000. and that alto together but what we're going to present to you and present to the state should you adopt it of 26.62 million and that's what we're going to stay within. What can you take away from this? What our budget is going to do for us? We'd like the student success. We'd like to maintain strong instructional programs. We've got new programs coming on next year. We've got support of special education services. We continue to do so. We'd like to expand technology and our student support. We're going to expand technology with a grant that Miss Hammonds is is working going to be spearhead and it was a million. Operational stability. We're going to maintain our transportation fleets. Mr. Gibson's working really, really hard to

091get two buses next year to keep our transportation fleet topnotch to keep our children safe. We're supporting safe and school facilities. We're going to continue our preventive maintenance. What about our long-term investments? Because we're all concerned if we continue to spend, what's going to happen? We're going to do our capital improvement planning, continue our technology upgrades, and by doing this and by getting the grants that we've been awarded, we're saving our money and using the others for strategic reserve management. While you're looking over the budget, do you have any questions? >> One more time for everybody, how much do we have to carry over? >> Well, for beginning budget, that's what we're working on. It' be $5,440. >> Now, how many is contingency funds? This is funny. >> And the contingency funds you want to

092roll out that we're going to hold 1.5 million has to stay. We will not touch that. That is strictly in a special fund that we can prove to the state. The state asked for 5% of our of our total budget. 5% has to stay there to prove that we can s sustain ourselves. That is there. Then we also have 2,329,870. That is another contingency what we're going to use for our facilities improvement and our improvements and our matching. That's where you're going to get your SBA funds for year 350. That's where you get we have the match for the USDA grant that Christie is spearheading. That's 300. We're going to you know and then you'll have that. >> So to give money, you have to invest money. If you have no Annie up, you don't

093get a grant. And I do want to add in that we supplement the child nutrition program. Pocahontas County feeds every student in the county for free. There's no lunch bills. Um, and that's going on in 49 of the counties. There's some of them that don't cuz if you fall below a certain poverty rate, you can't do it. But we do supplement ours and I think it's about $538,000 that's invested from our general fund to support that because the county voted years ago that every student should get free lunch. >> That being said, Ms. Dunlap's done a great job because in 25 we did 614,000. So, she's done really well with that. >> So, we're we're we're doing I mean, yeah, it's a great investment. Investing in our kids and eating is is a great investment.

094Healthy >> healthy eating. >> Any other questions? >> I mean, yeah, I got some questions, but I don't know what I want to ask you. I mean, this is a lot here. >> Oh, no. Mine's 20 pages. >> Do we have to do we have to agree on this tonight? Something needs to be go on tonight. We have to look at it till the next meeting. >> Sarah, I'll let you answer that. This has to go to the board to the state board June 1st. If we do not have a budget adopted, then that has to be submitted to them that we don't and then we're in trouble. Now, we can hash it out. We can sit down. We can work things out. I don't mind that. But we have to come up with a

095plan that we have to submit. This took you entrusted us, our team, and we have directors and we have all searched and studied to come up with the best thing that was solution that we can protect ourselves and keep our school system afloat. >> And Sarah has a treasure of a mentor county and we just spent last week was it last week or the week before? >> Week before. >> The week before a whole week on building the budget. >> Our budget is tremendously it's not tremendously different than it was last year basically is what Sarah is saying. >> It's a bomb-proof budget. >> It's a bombroof and lunata. It is not a bombproof budget s. We do not have that much money. It's it's a wellestablished budget that meets all the criteria and we

096do need to turn it in. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Sarah. All right, let's go to A H. Who's got questions? >> Would you like me to talk a little bit about it first? if you want to. >> So, [clears throat] we have a severe need with all of our schools. I actually did meet with all three principles. We talked about uh supervision at athletic events. We talked about athletic oversight, spending, purchasing, and we talked about extracurricular scheduling of trips. we have to adjust um the way that we do uh schedule athletic trips due to a complication. Um we are going to put some of those responsibilities on this but we also need somebody to provide oversight. oversight in spending, oversight in managing equipment, oversight in making sure things are done um without

097this landing on the principal's desk. Last year when we to table this this position, we tabled this last year in order to address special education. So, it's I'm bringing it back up because we need it and we need it at all three schools. >> Okay. Where will this person be housed? >> Well, when I talked to the principles, they talked about that they would well, first of all, they're going to be housed at all the schools. So, there'll be 40% at the high school, 40% at Greenbank Elementary, middle school because they they lost an administrator. So, 40% of this person's time will be there and then 20% of their time will be at Marlington Middle School. That's where they will rotate. The principles will work that schedule out amongst themselves. They already talked about in

098the fall they probably spend the majority of their time at the high school because they have the most sports and then they will work out their basketball schedule, plan their basketball schedule so that there's not a tremendous amount of conflict. Um so the principles have already been talking about this and thinking about systems and routines and how it could work for them. >> Will they have other administrative duties? Yes, they will do whatever the principal assigns them to do at their school other than this. For example, um Miss Scotchy has said, "So, the day that they're at my school and they don't have um athletic things to do, can I have them do um in school detention? Can I assign that to them?" So, yes, you can. You can assign that to them and assign

099them some discipline. There are plenty of things that these principles need support for so that they can start focusing on other things. Athletics is taking up an inordinate amount of their time. Not to mention that the middle school, correct me if I'm wrong, Sarah, the middle school funding for some of their athletics or all of their athletics is housed at the high school. Correct? So there needs to be a countywide itinerate person that is communicating between all of those schools and making sure that athletic equipment, athletic gear, and athletic responsibilities are being >> not for the middle school basketball, >> just their football, which I just learned that this year that football was housed up there >> and they attend all acroatic events. >> Yes. And they may have a flexible schedule like for instance

100if uh they may come in at the principles will work out will they work uh 11 to six whatever they need they have the authority and the ability to adjust that. >> What I would like to see is we currently have a huge dumpster fire with our sports program. you know, right now. And I'd like to see that, for lack of a better word, solved before we create a something else. You know, I'd like to see I don't know what the solution is for the current issue, but I don't know how we can move forward with that with the with this new thing until we solve the old issue. Um, >> well, I'm confused to agree. Mr. Cobber was on the agenda as athletic director and came in and gave us a grievance because he

101wasn't being hired as a coach. Am I right on that? Every c every every employee in the county that had a contract got a contract on the agenda. I denied no one their contract that and Ollie Ollie went through those contracts. Correct Ollie? And place them on the agenda. Correct. So if he wants to be football coach, it's just a matter of submitting request to Ruth to be a football coach. >> Well, no, it's a matter of Mr. Burns saying, "I would like another football coach." We submits it to Ruth. Ruth tells me, I put it on the agenda. Whatever board that exists approves or denies that, and then the school hires coaches. >> Well, that's what I'm confused about. He was on the agenda for one thing, found a grievance over something else. And

102what were we supposed to do? >> Well, Mr. Mr. Mcomes, if I could address that, I went to the fieldhouse last year whenever Mr. Cobber filed for athletic director, and I explained to him at that time that he could not be an assistant football coach and athletic director, that it was against state law. He wanted to be athletic director. And I said, "Okay, we, you know, if it goes through the board, that'll do that." I don't know whether Mr. Cobra remembers that or not, but I made a trip to the fieldhouse to tell him that at that time. And at that time, we took his salary and give it to Mr. Wymer. Dr. Williams, you know, was it Logan Wymer? Which was to help Cal with the seventh and eighth grade football team. >> Is

103that correct, Ollie? >> Seventh. >> Okay. Well, I mean, >> the coaching situation was not directly supervised by me at the beginning of the school. We had a different >> Yes. >> principal. Um, I just know that everybody that had a contract, all he reviewed those contracts, they were all on there. >> I put all the contracts on there. >> And he says he got a good evaluation. That would be on the principal for not knowing that he didn't have a contract to be evaluated on. >> Well, did he get evaluated on being an athletic director or a coach? >> We can't we can't discuss evaluations. >> Do both. >> We can't discuss evaluations. That's >> No, >> I personally think that this I personally think that this position will take care of every bit

104of problem that we've had. I honestly do. And I I I I helped coach for 20ome years. I know the ins and the outs of it and I'm telling you right now with the problems that we had that we can't discuss with you. I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but the problems that we had, this will take care of. That's I'm going to leave it at that. >> Mr. Vice President, you last two weeks ago, you said we needed to have a countywide council that approved his >> I said I talked about putting a proposal up. I talked about that before. I didn't get elected, so that's not going to happen. Sammy, >> he can still apply for an assistant football coach if Mr. Burns approves that. That's up to That's

105up to Coach Burns at that point and to the principal at the high school. >> Why haven't we done this already? Why haven't Why haven't we done this? How come this is still going on? >> What are you talking about? The coaching position? Yeah, Mr. Horber keeps going oneon one >> because he applied well I don't know what he applied for but he's on the agenda as athletic director and he came up to the podium and was filed a grievance because he wasn't being hired as a football coach and you can only hurry what's on the agenda. So were we supposed to hire him as athletic director when he was found a grievance to be a football coach? I think I think people don't understand what that May agenda is about. That May agenda is

106about a timeline in the state for contracts to be reapproved. That's all it's about. It's about these people have a contract. I'm putting them on the agenda to extend another contract. That's what that May agenda is. So, everybody that had a contract, correct Ollie, had a contract on the agenda. Now, are there people on that agenda that may be on improvement plans, may have bad evaluations, may have good evaluations? That's not relevant. It's about contracts that were turned in. And I will tell you this about contracts at that time. When we started doing the contracts, we had zero coaching contracts that were turned in. Those contracts had been taken to somebody's personal home and not turned in. And Miss Ali had to work with principal bland to get the contracts and we got the contracts.

107Correct. And after we got the contracts, all the contracts that we received were put on the agenda for approval. So in a nutshell, if Mr. Cobra wants to be a assistant football coach, he needs to talk to Miss Bland and Mr. Burns and get on the next agenda. >> You think it would be probably be advantageous to be a grievance too? >> That has no bearing on it. >> Has no bearing on this? >> No. >> Then we really >> if he's on the agenda as for football coach, I will vote for him. But I was just hang in limbo when he's on the agenda as athletic director and he's waving the grievance for a football coach. I mean, and I I assume he knew he was on the agenda. And in my opinion, he

108should have called Dr. Williams and said, "I don't want to be athletic director. I want to be a football coach. Take me off the agenda or switch me." We can't interact with the public, but you can see me afterwards and we'll check chat. >> All right. Anybody got anything else? >> Well, other than >> other than how are we going to pay for this decision? I mean, do we have money in our budget? You know, we just talk about that for a sec. Can we afford this to personally? >> Yes, I think that Yes, sir. >> I'd like to pull it out. I'd like to pull it out and vote on it separately, please. Okay. So, you want to pull H and vote separate. Okay. So that being said, let me make sure I got

109all this correct. D was covered. We tabled. We move to the next >> uh meeting number E, >> right? >> and J. Okay, let's vote on all of that except for H. We'll leave that H out. All those in favor? >> I I will vote against it. Okay. So, that's four to one. Four to one. That motion passes. Now, we're going to vote on just H. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Those opposed. >> It's four to one. Passes. Superintendent updates, general operation and finance uh facilities updates number 10. >> So, I'm just going to for operational updates. I do want to say that all of our directors are under deadlines for so many different things and they're all doing an excellent job. Sarah's working on the budget to make meet

110June one. We have all of our strategic plans that we're working with our schools and we spent a full day of planning with last week. Um, Miss Barnes is working on our data. Mrs. Dunlap has just finished up the state testing gauntlet. Yes, we're officially over. And Nocttai is over. >> No, Nocttai is not over. >> Are we over? Uh, already benchmarking. No. So, we're still benchmarking. I take that back. Is there anything else going on? That's >> still waiting for assessment. We're still waiting on some of our summit of assessment results. Mr. Anderson is working diligently to get while our our uh additional things we need for our special ed state of emergency review um isn't due until July, we have to have them done by the last day the staff's at school. So,

111it's it's a lot of things that our schools are working on, our principles are working on. So, and our teachers, our teachers are all working really hard. This is a very stressful time of the year. So, I would like to commend all of them. And then, uh, I wanted to give Mr. Gibson an opportunity talk about we've gone around to the schools and what we're doing there with our summer help and what we've been seeing. >> Well, we've gone to all the schools and did walk through looking for maintenance issues, things that need improved, upgrades, and how we're going to approach all that. It all comes down to having plenty of time and plenty of money for it. There's a lot of upgrades when you do it every school. Things things wear out, things get

112older, uh they need screwed up, corrected. So, we got a lot of work that >> and what we'll do is bring that maybe try to plan a work session with the the going out board and the coming in board members. Look at what money we have. look at what the list is that the schools are going to present to us. I've asked them, well, there's a big list. Um, I've asked them to prioritize their top five things that they want. Um, we'll put a price tag on it and we'll bring it before the the board of education. For example, we know that the softball field is something that and softball baseball field redoing that putting bathrooms in there. That's something that's important to the community to the board. So, we got to put a price

113tag on that. We know that we need extra We need this parking lot repaired. We know that's We know we want to buy an extra bus. We know we need a lawn a lawn mower. >> Two buses. >> I'm I'm a hold to that one. >> Hold to two buses. We know we need lawnmowers or tractors or something. >> One of the schools need the mower pretty desperately. Um, two of them really could use them. I mean, there's a lot of things. >> Yeah. >> That we need as a county. >> And then we need to keep rolling. >> CTE the back door back the back what's that complex called back there where Christiey's office is. We >> the annex. We looked at our doors back there. We think we need some new doors back

114there. So, we have a lot of projects and those projects will be approved by the two boards together and then that'll give us our worklist and our custodians work list and we will do our very best effort to get it done over the summer. >> We put a lot of emphasis last year on county hospital >> because it needed a lot of lot of upgrades. We redid bathrooms 11 with the MIP. We did we had um we're still working on the electrical upgrades with a contractor there. Uh we redid some of the offices and a lot of painting and there's still more to be done there. But we need to we're going to shift our focus on emphasis to try to do something with all the schools, not just focus on one as much as

115we did last year. >> And I'll say that one school I feel is also neglected. I mean it appears to me and I have their 10year principal here. We need to give Marlington Elementary School some love, some TLC. Um, they also are the only school that I believe doesn't have a form of AC or have AC. They need electrical upgrades in order to get AC in their school, but their electricity grid is not substantial enough to have AC in their school, which is that electrical upgrade, I think, in the CFP plan is $300 and some thousand. >> I think so. Something like that. So, >> it's one of the top priorities on the CESB right now, too. >> So, we got to bring that before the board. We got to say, what are we doing?

116We're going to keep this school open for a long time. Um, hopefully hopefully we're going to keep it open for a long time and we need to focus a little on it. Would you like to say anything, Mr. Anderson, since it was your school and you're a director? >> Just that, you know, it it needs some TLC. You know, it's a great school, great teachers, great students, and that and that uh it's nice to have facilities looked at that we're actually looking at it seriously to see what we can do to improve improvements. >> I prefer MIP or needs. >> We know what you prefer. Sarah, [laughter] >> but it was a team effort. Christy went, Mr. Anderson went, Mr. Gibson went, I went, our head of maintenance, Darren McKenna went, and we walked through

117with our principles in every single school and covered every single in each of those schools. It was a lot. It was a long long days. Long days. Last Friday was our last one, but we have done >> walks. Yeah, >> we were go back right now. So, we see different things we never saw the first time. Yeah. So I guess with that I'm just want to say thank you to everybody facilities and instructional and teachers for all the hard work that you continue to do. >> On the safety side something Dr. Cole mentioned we're also getting critical response groups come in to do the mapping that we need to take care of by September 1st this year for emergency response groups. It's something that's in the process that just a mandated bill from the house

118and we have to do that. So it's in the process as well. Good thing it's reimburseable for our expenses. >> Any other questions? >> Hearing none of matters of the board, Mr. Gibson. I got several things here. Um, first of all, where is our [clears throat and cough] our memorandum? I'm understanding with the extension service. Where's that at? That has to be filed fairly soon, I think, for Miss Measa to get her funding cycle started. >> Be on June 16th. >> I mean, we've already approved that. >> It'll be on the June 16th meeting when we reached out to Luca. >> Okay. >> So, that needs to show up pretty soon on >> June 16th. James 16th. Okay. >> Already reached out to Miss Matson. >> Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Um,

119where's our where's our student rep at tonight? I mean, did he not show up? Is he here? That's still empty seat here again tonight. >> It's on the agenda and I spoke with Miss Blaine about it. Right. >> Um, I'm disappointed in giving you permission to hire wheel and we already talked about that. Um, we have a lot of concern from the public about our counseling and our grad coach. Um, my question is how is this going to affect Mrs. Heel? Is this going to be more work for Mrs. Heel, our only counselor? Now, what the grad coach should help her some, shouldn't it? the grad coach will work directly under her. If you recall that we made um Miss Hill supervisor of counseling services, we have not been able to find a school counselor.

120So, we posted a graduation coach with a counseling preference to open that and broaden it up so it could help with a lot of that stuff that she's overwhelmed with. >> Yeah. Well, that's still a big concern of the public and they they want some answers on that. I'd like to see more counselors, but um there continue to be scheduling issues. Do you think that the scheduling issues will go away when the catalog gets out there? And what is what's the hold up with the scheduling issues? >> I I thought the course catalog have been have gone out. >> It's it's out now. >> The school had told me the course catalog it was approved. They have met with students. So, I'm not sure exactly what your concerns are. >> If you want to if

121you want to tell me what they are, we meet weekly and I just know the high school staff is working very hard. >> Okay. Well, then let's just make sure the public knows that they're working very hard. Um, the PR search for the principal at PCHS. I'm glad you see that's posted. Miss Wayne said that needed to be on that person need to be in place by one July. And I believe her, >> you know, I'd really like to see when did that go out? >> It came down today or tomorrow it'll come down. >> So when are the applicants due? >> It'll be on the June 16th agenda. Okay. >> All right. Um that's very good. And I really feel that the the the principal should be involved in some of especially the assistant

122principal of athletics. I really wish that would have waited until we had the new principal there but that didn't happen. Um I want to talk about lockdowns. I mean the lockdowns the lockdowns was a big deal. And what is it? What? What? And maybe you can walk me through with this. Where do where is Do we have a And first of all, I want to say I'm sorry that Mr. Barlo has resigned. I don't know what happened, but he was a nice gentleman and I appreciate his service. [clears throat] What has changed with our lockdown with with that with the lockdown issue that we've had so many this spring? I mean, what is our policy on that now? What do we have a policy on that? >> Well, Mr. Gibson, the entire county was trained

123as a collective staff on the I love you guy. >> I was there. >> Um, you were there [laughter] um process and procedures for lockdowns. We have had several situations that required lockdowns. Uh when Marlington Elementary locked down, somebody in the adjacent trailer park had fired a gun and shot themselves. So, we had a lock down. It wasn't a direct threat at the school. Um we had a calledin threat. Um and the sheriff came to the site and locked the schools down. So when emergency services arrive on scene, we follow what the emergency services tells us to do. Now our two supervisors of safety and protocols and procedures are Dr. Colmes and Mr. Gibson. Mr. Gibson happened to be on site for the last lockdown. So maybe he wants to share some the about the

124lockdown so that we understand. >> I can I mean we received well our principal at the hospital received a threat. Um, we took we take every threat very seriously because you never know. Um, so she immediately put the school in lockdown, called 911. Um, we had a law enforcement individual there within I think it was 8 minutes of the time that the phone call was made. Um, when our sheriff arrived, he had already put all the other schools on lockdown for various reasons just out of caution. and we stayed in there. They became basic incident command at that moment and we were in lockdown until we finally were able to lift it right close to the time we got to go home from school >> and we followed the sheriff even the message. >> That's

125right. >> We were Dr. Williams and I and our sheriff and our state police. We were more than one time I had my phone in my hand. We were doing the conference calls and telephone just discussing the situation. >> Was it ever resolved where that threat came from? Uh, not that I'm aware of yet. And it was, you know, I guess what they call swatting. A >> lot of districts are getting the call in kind of like the old school bomb threat kind of thing. But you still have to respond appropriately and as an athal threat even though, you know, looking out the trend and the data, the actual it happening, it's not. >> Thank you. >> We still have to respond and, >> you know, it doesn't hurt to walk people in. I know

126people get antsy with it, but you know, it's the safest response that we know at this time and that's the best way to >> it's good practice. You have to do it so many times a year. If you you go to the training, you have to do stuff so many times a year. What that would look like in different scenarios, it's there's never just one way. One size fits all for this. So you have to think of all the different >> it's a little bit different. >> Well, >> and we follow the guidance of our emergency services >> locking on a lockdown sometimes, you know, lets an active shooter or an active threat does give administration and local law enforcement time to kind of get their heads together and and figure out what's going on.

127So, you know, it might seem extreme sometimes, but that is, like I said, the best safest response that we know right now. >> I think that if there's one thing that's going to set the public on edge, that could be it right there. The lockown. I don't know. It just seems like it's become acute and and I'll tell you one thing that would set the nation on fire. If we had another threat that I'm coming to your school with an AR-15 and we didn't lock down and we lost lives. >> I take safety really seriously. So does an emergency services and I apologize if people were upset, but when the sheriff's on the scene and he's given an order, we follow law enforcement's orders. That's our responsibility. >> I would agree. I I just >>

128and and our teachers did an excellent job in locking down and maintaining and Mr. Gibson and Miss Bland, Mrs. um Jordan >> and Miss Spencer, they are doing a great job. This this generates at the school level. This isn't a county level thing. They generate it at the school level and communicate with the county and we support them in that process. So, it's not starting here. We're the support team that rushes to the schools. Listen, I recognize the threat and I recognize the concern and from all parties and I just I don't know how to we're not talking about it. I'm just bringing it up because we need to talk about people need to [clears throat] know what what we're doing. >> We probably need to do some community trainings and that's what we're going

129to meet about cuz you know um this is the first year, Mr. Gibson, correct me if I'm wrong, that we have trained the entire county, every individual in the county together in probably five, >> it's been many years since that been done. >> So, we haven't trained together and been together. We're stronger together when we train together. So, we train together and now we are more cognizant of what the process is. So, I guess I guess I'm saying this again. We're we're we're we're putting systems into place. We're going to do a better job. We're not perfect. Probably we can communicate better about the safety plans. Um, and we will, and that's what our meeting's about Thursday. We will do a better job with that. >> I don't know. It seems like we, you know,

130the communication is always a buzzword and I get that it just seems like there's a lot of noise. >> I agree. And people don't let it's like the boy that cried wolf. You know, we don't really pay much attention to those things until, you know, lock down. And which brings my back to the resource. Are we going to post the resource officer again? Where is that in our budget limbo? You know, is that >> and and how does the resource officer connect to the corrections officer pathway? Is there a correlation there between the resource officer at the high school and the the corrections officer pathway that's that's in >> No, I collaborated with Denmark and talked about what they need and they came and presented the resource officer. I collaborated with Sheriff McCoy said I'm

131five deputies short in the county. Lots of students want to be deputies and I said let us get a pathway in place so we can start producing the students that want to go in those positions and keep them here at home. >> Huttonville too. >> So that's how that came. There's not a correlation there but certainly Mr. Barlo is a loss that will resonate throughout the system and Dr. Colmes and I talked today we will repost those positions tomorrow. I mean, I would think you'd want to your new new principal to be involved in that discussion with your resource officer, I would think. But I don't know. Moving right along. That's what I got them at. Um, policy 2371, the Seismore policy and homeschool. Sammy >> are >> stop calling the size more policy. Call

132the number what it is. >> 237 getting about tired of it. >> Okay. So I mean again why can't we circle back around and work on something like that before we move on to some of these other things we're talking about tonight? This one is very important and I think it the the homeschool issue is not going to go away and and we're talking about ratifying budgets tonight. The whole 2371 revolves around money, you know, was a huge thing. Now it just seems like it's being swept under the rug. I want that brought back up and redone before we move on to anything else. I mean, >> you're not wrong or did we vote? We voted on that. >> Yes, you voted five. >> We voted five. Yeah, we did voted 5-0. >> We voted

133to deny it. >> No, we didn't. >> And stand up on policy. We did, but I want to red I want to review the policy. >> And I guess we'll have to wait till another time to do that. Um, I want to talk about our very not private and very public personnel issue that seems to be getting nowhere. Um, here's another thing that I want to back up and take care of before we move forward. You know, we have right now we have we're approving jobs and we we got this over here just hanging out in limbo and it's racking up some dollars. I mean, how this needs to get fixed. We need to fix this. This needs to be fixed. And I don't guess we'll get that tonight either. And that's all it mccoy

134>> he's taken so much time I have nothing m >> one thing I'd like to address is Dr. Williams's previous employment as a superintendent. I keep hearing from the public that we harried her without knowing. I don't know what the other board members did, but I took hiring a superintendent very seriously and everything about the school system is on the internet. The good, the bad, the ugly, and everything else. We had six serious applicants I was on there looking. I was digging into. I was watching board meetings. and she was hard to do a job. The board changed and she left. I did not see anything in all the meetings I watched and I know drama when I see it. I've been in the school system 40 years so you learn to recognize drama and

135I just like being on record. Yes, I knew she was hard and for as a superintendent. I knew her contract was bought out in my internet searches. I did not see anything that set up huge alarm bells for me. I was looking for someone who could get us back on track. Yes. Out from under state control and put us in position where we used to be, where all students learned, where all students got a chance at education. That's what we're here for. All students. That's all I've got. >> Mr. Grimes, sir. Uh I don't think I don't think people realized in the county that whenever we said we had to change the system what it meant. People does not like change. Dr. Williams, you was with me whenever I was talking to the president of

136the board at the state board and he said if you will give me your word, do you remember this conversation? >> He said, "If you will give me your word that you will go forward and not backwards, we will release you." and I had to give him my word. Now, whenever I did that, I knew change was going to come to Pocahontas County. We all did. But it was change that was needed. It opened a lot of eyes. Whenever we was doing them interviews that Mr. Mcomes talked about, we had a state representative was sitting in them interviews with us, didn't we, Morgan? >> Yes. >> And, you know, went over everything that we could go over. Did we know about the past? We absolutely knew. But we asked one question. We said, "Can you

137fix this?" And she was the only one that said, "I will fix this." Now, we knew it was going to be tough. And we knew some of the staff wasn't going to like it. But, you know, if if we had to went in a different direction, a lot of these schools that we got right now would not be in would not exist next year. And we fought hard for that. And I I'll tell you something else. You know, I I appreciate everybody coming to the board meeting tonight, but whenever we was going through this, I didn't see anybody at them board meetings standing up for the Poconos County Board of Education. I didn't see any anybody getting up saying, you know, we we're behind you. We fought this fight. Frosty U was there. Dr. Williams

138was there. Dr. Hollinssworth went with us. Uh, you know, to fight for Poconosis County schools and get us out from under that state of emergency. And I don't think the majority of Poconus County knows what a state takeover looks like. And do we realize how very lucky we are? Randolph County is rifting 57 teachers. Upure County has been under state control for three and a half years and don't know whether when they will get out of it. So we we're very fortunate in Poconus County, but we had to change because if we didn't, we wasn't going to exist. And Dr. Williams has done a heck of a good job. And instead of getting on Facebook and bullying and doing all that stuff, and I I will tell some of you sitting there tonight, she brought

139that to the agenda, the athletic problem. The board voted it down. It It's up to her to put it on the agenda, but whether we vote for it or not is up to us. It wasn't her that done that. Us five board members voted it down, but she got all the heck for it. But I appreciate the job you're doing. I think you need to continue it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Grimes. Uh I [clears throat] can't add anything other than what Mr. Grimes and Mr. Column said. We hired uh Dr. Williams for a reason, and as far as I'm concerned, she's right on track. And that's all I got. Um, at this time we'll adjourn to the next meeting will be June 2nd, 2026 at the Poconus County Board Office Conference Center at

1406:00. We're adjourned.