001able to 24th to order. All members are present. This is a reconvenience to the levy meeting from March 17th, 2026. We'll open with the pledge allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we get started, I'd like to offer a moment of silence for Dr. Sue Hollingsworth that was on the board with us and dedicated her life to education. The third item on the agenda is delegations. We have one, Nathaniel Sizemore. You have 5 minutes. I think much of the audience I like Dr. Leary to be here. Dr. Leary taught me to speak to the the whole public audience I got it before I even knew that
002I was going You should have told me. Yeah. She's got your time. You're on the clock. Great. I'm seated on the board. So, I'm going to start to talk talk to you today about someone in my family. And all it's hard getting much of anything in this 21st century. This person probably isn't here tonight. It's someone who's spent years making bad decisions. Making bad lifestyle doing things that you know, you can see you're kind of going down the wrong path. And you start waiting for that phone call. You have to see what's going to happen. And eventually you get that phone call where their their lifestyle choices catch up with them. They've they've got a hospital admission. They've gotten fired at work. They've wrapped a car around a tree after they've been drinking. Or they've
003better rested or they've ended up in jail for drugs and battery or something stupid. And you hope that they'll learn from that moment of clarity. That they'll they'll get out of the hospital or get out of jail and they'll have that that come to Jesus moment. And they'll they'll make changes and turn their life around. And literally start to want to go to church, start to figure out their problems. But figure out what changes they need to make. The big thing they need to do is stop this from happening. And but other times they don't make those same decisions. They don't make those good choices you'd like them to see. And so you would see them in the store buying cigarettes again after they ate the Big Macs again after their heart attack. Or you
004know, you're seeing them at a party. You know they're they're doing drugs again. And and you're waiting for that phone call. If you're you're sure they haven't learned it. And the reason I'm thinking of this and thinking of these people is because in the last few months that feel like the school system is similar. The the high school state of emergency should have been a wake-up call for all of us. But I don't see the fundamental changes that we we need to make. I don't see that come to Jesus moment. Mr. Grimes said at the time that we were what Peter said was quote, "It's a great day to be a Warrior." And I'd like to believe that. I want to congratulate this high school. I I went through the entire Buckeye High School system.
005But I just respectfully have to disagree. It'll be a great day when we have the same principal at Buckeye High School for more 2 years in a row. It'll be a great day when there's a full-time guidance counselor that can actually do the job effectively and consistently [clears throat] and don't leave anybody behind. It'll be a great day when the staff at WVU Medicine has a point of contact for the school when trying to solve issues with kids that are in the hospital with chemotherapy. And they don't tell people they don't tell me and my wife, "Oh, you're one of those kids." What they said to us. It'll be a great day to be a Warrior when you have a consistent director of special education who has time to do more than just clean up
006paperwork from the decades of neglect. Yeah. That system is still suffering from. And I've seen it from my entire kids' career at schools. It'll be a great day when there's a big policy change that gets communicated clearly and promptly instead of months after the fact. When it doesn't take 6 months to have hired a homebound instructor. And and as a result of we're seeing kids drop out of the school system when they don't want to. When their parents don't want to. When there's a plan. What are your plans to address the budget shortfalls that's more than just hope. Hope isn't a strategy. And we can see the numbers over and over again as they've they've enrolled and declined. As the funding situations are more and more precarious. I don't see any of the big actions
007that we need to take to address this. And maybe most importantly, it'll be a great day when morale of the teachers and I and the staff have confidence in their leadership and can come to work every day feeling good, feeling confident, feeling that they're supported and that they know their future is solid. So this is my challenge to you. You ran for Board of Education because you wanted to do something good and different. And you wanted to make things better. And I genuinely believe that because I know how hard this job is and I know you wouldn't put up with it if it wasn't good. So, I did my 5 minutes. I get 31 more seconds. At the end of this meeting you have all the time you want. So my challenge to you is
008to tell us one idea. Doesn't even have to be the whole idea that will work. But show us show me that there's an idea you're willing to fight for, that you're willing to work for to make these things better. It's just like I've gotten those phone calls from my family where the decisions bad the bad decisions they made caught up with them. I'm afraid I'm going to get a similar call sooner or later from my school system. I don't want that to happen. Thanks for listening. You will be receiving No, um I have a meeting with Mr. Sizemore on April 24th. He has some concerns regarding um non-public school participation that we will discuss at that point he's on. And um thank you for coming today and for your remarks. Thank you. And thank you
009both for listening to me now and for setting the meeting for me. Generally people chair the meeting. And hopefully that's a start to a a longer conversation and working together to solve problems. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Recognitions. We have something to announce and then And then Um no. I have a couple of things. There will be a lot of recognition this month. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Uh school improvement updates. Attendance updates. Mrs. Dunlap, would you give us an attendance report? And before we start our attendance report, I just want to read our goal for attendance for the 2025-2026 school year, the number of chronically absent students will decrease by 50 with no school showing less than a 10% reduction in the number of chronically absent students at their individual school. Thank you, Mrs.
010Dunlap. We're setting the stage. >> [laughter] >> We're all looking forward to Um Well, I thought I'd been looking at some data and um and I was talking to I was talking to her this morning and and both she has been really trying to do some innovative things at Marlin Elementary. They're they're having an attendance competition between Marlin and Elkview. Um they've got some that's plus incentives at Marlin Elementary that I think they're really excited with. They've got different sizes of hats that we've got to explain to you. That they've got the principal gets a pie in the face when they do a certain amount of slices. Uh the teachers first, they work their way up to the principal. But they're really trying hard to uh do some incentives. It's pretty exciting. Y'all just got
011us. Um so what I did is I went back uh last So I pulled just from like I can't I just pulled like two sets of days. So I pulled 61 days from like January. And so I pulled and just for from last year to this year. Surprisingly it's very consistent. And I think that's kind of what the flu did to us last year. So we can pull lots of different numbers. Um I was really surprised her numbers this year uh last year she was like at uh for those days those 61 days this year he was at 41% because that flu bug just take them apart at that point. Remember in the beginning of the year when Green Bank school was through the roof because they had so many chronic absences. They're actually two
012different ways of saying that because they got hit early and then they kind of as we explained it we go on through the year we get more days kind of spreads out so it doesn't make the chronic absences hitting so bad. But um we are we are doing better. We're doing much better. But um we still have room for improvement. And um we've got like for example last year Hillsborough was at this point they were at 26% now they're at 20%. So they are right on target. They've had four of seven months where they were over 95% of their attendance rate which is great. And March shot them in the foot. It's shot them down to 85 because that's when the flu hit them. So we have to take all that into account and be
013um figure out how in the world are we going to address all this to make sure that when they do have these absences we don't want them to second share with everybody. How can we make sure they're still getting their instructions so that they can perform? It's it's a complicated thought process for that. But um even at uh even with this Green Bank uh even after they had their rough start they're still they're down they're not down 10% but they're down 1% but we still have some more weeks of school so we've got some time to make this all get better. Uh Long Middle Elementary is up again because they had such a high rate during the that uh Hope Dale. Long Middle is down they're down about almost 3%. Um the high school's up
014just a little bit like they have been trending all year and overall we're sitting at about the same percent last year even though our numbers are fluctuating a little bit at the schools our total is still holding steady. We don't want to be more than we don't want to increase it at all. So everybody's current standing we've got um we've got some people coming to speak at our principal's meeting to offer some suggestions to help us with some uh things to tackle and address. We are addressing it in newsletters. We are addressing it on social media. Yeah. I'm just not we we just kind of stumbled a little bit cuz we're just like how do you how do you say bring your kid to school when they're sick? We don't want that to happen. And
015how do we get them to keep on coming? Just because it's pretty damn Friday doesn't mean you need to stay home. So what can what can we do? We couldn't say they're being forced. Wash your hands more. Wash your hands blow your nose don't touch your eyes. >> And then um do you have the exact numbers you could read us what we were what we are? Do you have those? So last year >> I'm going to look at the statistics statistics and I'll find it. I'll probably get longer arms my doctor was with our students. Or you want the total for the county or each school? Each school and then the whole county. Hillsborough was 26.38 last year now we're at 14.51. Yeah. That's good. Green Bank was at 24.22 last year they are at
01623 straight across board. Okay. Uh Long Middle Elementary was at 23.03 right now they're at 27.63. Long Middle is 34.05 last year now they're at 32.77. But East Columbus High School's at 39.02 the high school meals at 42.02. And the county overall is at 30.39 and right now we're at 30.7. Okay. And but we do have some of the data like well we have students that have transferred out like they were absent for a while before the other school requested records or they uh transferred to high school. Some of that data will be cleaned up at the end of the year so these numbers are just going to fluctuate a little bit not a whole lot but they're going to like the difference one at the end of the year when they clean the data.
017Perfect. Thank you. Any questions for Mrs. Dunlap? I saw that on Facebook Green Bank posted their attendance one day and it was really good it was 90 something. >> 95. >> And the next day Long Middle Long Middle Elementary School had a better one and they posted and said now beat that Green Bank. That was cute. So that is as that's a great I think that's a healthy competition I hope we continue that. I thought it was great. I seen it too I thought it was great. This is think think we see things in consideration. I know this year and it's been rough on my grandkids I got one home right now and my oldest one said take it to the doctor yesterday and she said keep mouth closed which means she has to miss
018work. And and Green Bank County they're dealing with the same basically the younger ones. They are and in in our region when I have our regional meetings it's it's kind of the work we're doing it's not like we are saying you know this is what we've got but it it is a frustration because it basically with that the policy that they put out you know not being in the seat is absent whether you're excused for an appointment or parent note or unexcused you're not in the seat and when you're not in the seat you're missing instruction. So we've got to and and it's not that they're we're not trying to make that work out but obviously you can't be trained to have no instruction it's not the same effect when they're trying to do it
019at home. I just thought maybe if it was consistent across the state the state may not catch it as well. It's not just one school we can maybe adjust what we're looking at as a whole. Yeah and it's I don't think it's this isn't a policy it's a what can we do to make this better? It's that that's more of the approach and I I appreciate that approach because I would like to know what can we do to make it better but sometimes it is because it's pretty day you don't want to go. I don't know how to change that thought process. Yeah. Parents have to do it. Yeah that starts with the The order is parents and then This is going to change the process. Anything else for Mrs. Dunlap? Nothing for me sir.
020Okay consent agenda item approval of agenda payment of bills subject to additions deletions or other changes prior to the board meeting payment of vendor listing $197,190.55 being April 3rd 2026 employee payroll $297,628.71 budget transfers and supplements subject to additions deletions or other changes prior to the board meeting. Do I have a motion? So moved. Mr. Colvin made a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mr. McNab seconded any questions? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Number seven is personnel matters. Do I have a motion? So moved. Mr. Colvin made a motion have a second? I'll second. Mr. McNab seconded all in your up. You want Personnel agenda for April the 21st 2026 professional recommendations of the following a substitute teacher for Pocomoke County Schools at state basic professional salary
021for the 25-26 school year as needed William N. Shafer. Service recommendations of the following a substitute custodian for Pocomoke County Schools at state basic service salary for the 25-26 school year as needed William N. Shafer. Extracurricular recommendations the resignation of Bridget Cobourn as cheer coach at Pocomoke County High School effective March the 23rd 2026 and other recommendations Julie Brown request for intermittent FMLA leave effective April the 7th 2026 through the end of the school. This time I'm requesting an executive uh executive session executive session thank you Mr. Gibson uh to discuss personnel matters. Mr. McNab has executive has asked for an executive session for personnel matters. Do I have a second? I'll second. Mrs. McCoy seconded all those in favor signify by saying I. I. We will go in executive session at 1:19. >> Mhm.
022>> actual Okay, it'll be fun. Okay, we ready go? We come out of executive session at 1:43. Uh we we had emotional personnel items and we're ready to vote on it. All those in favor signify saying I. I. Motion carried. Old business, discussion or action proposed policy revise revision 3433 vacation final reading. Do I have a motion? I make. Mr. Collins made [clears throat] the motion. Do I have a second? I second. Mr. McNab seconded. Any discussion on it? All those in favor signify saying I. I. New business. A is approval of fundraiser. B approval of out of county out of state overnight trips. C is approval of a levy order rates which was presented to the Board of Education on March 17th, 2026 and approved by the State Board of Education and Tax Commissioner
023as submitted effective for the fiscal year beginning in July the 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027. Rates as follows. Class 1 1940. Class 2 3840. Class 3 7760. And class 4 7760. D is discussion or action nomination election of vice president for the Pocahontas County Board of Education. Discussion and action application for distance non-public school students and Hope Scholarship proceedings. Deacon Deacon Duncan, sorry. Duncan and Sizemore and Tristan Duncan Sizemore. F is presentation and discussion strategy planning needs assessment staff and community surveys. G is presentation and discussion 2026 summary of public education bill enacted during the 2026 regular session to process summarized. Okay, let's take A first of all. A um we'll talk about it first. So Okay, A on the fundraiser. There's two fundraisers in here signed by a lady that is has
024resigned. So do we need to do something different? What are the two fundraisers? Uh softball. Does somebody else need to request that besides the person that has resigned? Bake sale. I mean you can pull those out. When are those scheduled? So I think for the first one the softball, let me go back and get it. Um the best softball we can ask that they resubmit those. When are those fundraiser dates from May 8th and May 9th? May 8th and May 9th. Do we have another board meeting before that time? I think we do, don't we? 28th. We have one on the 28th. So we can pull those out and have them resubmit it by the um the principal look at that or the softball coach resubmit those. Good catch, sir, Mr. Collins. Thank you. Any
025other questions under a fundraiser? Okay. B is approval of out of county the uh well, first of all, we need a motion to continue, sir. We need a motion. Same here. Mr. Collins made the motion. Do I have a second? I second. Mr. McNab [clears throat] seconded. B is approval of out of county out of state and overnight field trips. Any questions on that one? I do have a question. We found it out of county. Um the lady that you know There's an out of county field trip that has 56 students by bus. That is um Which one is it? And what school? Pocahontas County High School. And the people that will be chaperoning Why is that one chaperone on there? Because it has enough I mean the First of all, does that chaperone have
026children in school now or are they home school? I'm trying to see which one. 56 students. Are you talking about Um Let me find the 20 days. 25 students, sorry. Okay, so let me find it. Is this which one is this? Yes. for ACE Adventure? Yes, the 25 students. >> The other sponsor used to home school their children. Do they still? I do not know. Interesting. This is for Mr. Gibson. This is They home school? What's that? Are her children home school? Do you know? Even if they are home school, as long as did somebody do a background check? I'm sure. Yes, is she If they're approved, they do a background check. If they're approved, yeah. I think they part of the nature's uh mountain Yes. Play ball. I thought that it's it seems like
027that might be part of that ACE Adventure. Yes. It is. It is. Okay. Okay. Move on. C is approval of the levy. We know what that is. We don't have a voice vote on it. We need to vote on it separately, I think, to approve that one. So let's go ahead and vote on on C. All those in favor signify saying I. I. Motion carries. Never you hear it thrown in place. Uh D is discussion or action nomination or election of a vice president for the Pocahontas County Board of Education. At this time, do we have any nominations? I have. I nominate Frosty McNab to be the vice president. And I'll second that. Any other nominations? I nominate Morgan McCollum. >> [laughter] >> Do I have a second on Frosty's nomination? I second Frosty. You
028can't second your own. Oh, I mean I'll second Frosty as vice president. I'm not letting him know. Okay, do I have a second on Morgan's for vice president? I second him. Okay. We're going to have to do a vote. Okay, so how do we do that? You got to get cards. Just little things and write your name on them. Who Okay. >> [laughter] >> I thought we had that vote. We did this with Sue and you and it came back to us we had to vote on the first and the second. I don't remember. No, we didn't have to. I don't care if it's Morgan. It don't make any difference. Do you all care? I don't care. Okay. No, I Don't forget what Ollie will do. All those in favor of Frosty being Andrew McNab
029>> Can we have them both? No. being vice president signify by saying ah. All those in favor of Morgan being vice president signify by saying ah. Ah. >> [laughter] >> Motion carries. Morgan is vice president. It was close. >> [laughter] >> Well, thank you all. I hope I don't let you down. Don't have. >> [laughter] >> Thanks for that vote of confidence. You'll you'll you'll do fine. Mr. Chairman. You'll do fine. I got I got to write this up so I'll know who's my vice president. Okay, discussion or action. Application for participation non-public school students and Hope Scholarship receipts. Duncan M. Sizemore and Tristan W. Sizemore. Do you have a little information on that, Dr. Williams, or Yes. Um, these two school students are non-public school students and they have petitioned to participate in the
030robotics course at Google Arts County High School. There is a fee associated with that. Um, it's 1/7 of whatever the Hope Scholarship allotment was. We charge that to all non-public school students. And what is that fee? Almost 750. It's almost 750. So, should they participate, we would ask the parents to bring them before the class and pick them up after class and pay that tuition. These are not enrolled in the school. >> $750. About $750. A piece each? Each, yes. So, it's a piece of >> of what the Hope Scholarship is. Yes. So, it would be $1,400. What? For for the for the student. Correct. We're going to Technically, the public doesn't participate. >> stand the board. Um, for me, but we can stay afterwards. You had 5 minutes under delegations. You had 5 minutes.
031If you would, you knew this was on the agenda. You you That's what you all spent your 5 minutes in doing. Because this is not a meeting of the board of education of the public. This is a meeting of the board of education. Now, uh What discussions do we have? If he's willing to pay, I mean, I don't I think I mean, we have to set precedent, which we already have. And as far as I'm concerned, um, if you want to pay the fee because your your kids aren't enrolled, then then fine. But, uh other than that, I I Uh, it comes back to what we did. So, the Green Bank student, was they offered the ability to pay? Every That's a different scenario. >> Please explain. >> different scenario. But, participation in public school
032for non-public school students, we have a tuition that we when it's within our policy, there's no tuition waiver within the policy. And we just have one chief school business officer. We don't prorate. We're not giving waivers. The whole goal is that of this is to ask our non-public school students to re-enroll in our school system. Um, we want as many kids in our school system as possible. And this is a regulate I'm coming and going and coming and going and coming and going. We love all of our kids in our community. We want all of our kids in our community in our school and we welcome them all back. All of them. So, the question on hand is, do you approve these students attending and paying the tuition if they should choose to pay the
033tuition. If they don't choose to pay the tuition, they would not be allowed to participate under our policy. If If they I don't understand. If they paid the tuition is our teacher Does that make our teachers responsible for those students? Correct. Right now, our we do not our teachers and principals do not have any regulation over students that are non-public school students. That's what I was saying. Yeah. Um, and we've had that. We've had that a non-public school students that come, they're in class. And really, we don't have any disciplinary measures. If they walk out and leave, which we've had happen, then we have to track them down, we have to look for them, we have to call parents, and they're not technically our students. So, as we can't ask our teachers to supervise non-public
034school students. This makes them public school students for that course. So, if they paid the tuition, that makes them a public school participant for this certain length of time. >> That is correct. Now, those the uh There's one There's a It says here, um who wish to participate in individual instructional courses and or extracurricular programs offered about Poca schools must be submitted in writing to the director of attendance for review and approval by the superintendent. Have Has these Has the proper paperwork been submitted and It's in your packet. So, it's the has been submitted. >> It's in your board packet. >> In my packet. Yes. >> All right, reception. Okay. So, all right, so that's really The only question is the fee, right? That's really what we're looking at. Any questions? Do you want them
035to approve them? Will they pay the fee? You approve them and then we'll make sure they pay the fee if they attend. That's all there is to it. You want to go ahead and vote on these separate? Sep- sep- Well, it's, you know, we got all this at one time. This is E of this. You want to No, no. Or just we carry on. Okay. Number F is presentation discussion stretch. Statistics. >> Statistics. I've lost my place now. Planning needs assessment staff and community surveys. G is presentation discussion of 2026 summer area public education bills enacted during the 2026 regular session. The process summarized. Has anybody got any questions before we vote on any of these items that we would just went over them again? I just want to verify on the Sizemore. If we
036vote yes, you will make sure they pay the fee. Yes. It's in our policy. They'll pay the fee before they participate or choose not to participate. And you do understand this now, what we're doing here. I understand that. I think you also understand it. One, my family has not been I have not been intending to take this to Charleston. Two, my son is only at home school because there was no other option at the time including a full-time instructor when we needed it. Three, my son started chemotherapy the day after his 16th birthday. Four, the uh this entire fee since there's no prorating or no no waving or no considerations, you're asking me to pay the entire fee for effectively a month and a half that he's starting possibly 2 days a week. We've done
037We've done it for everybody. We've done the same We've done the same thing for everybody. All right. be there and believe that my son's participation is a benefit to the class. That may be true. Can I say something, too? When you're sitting here and you're asking us to do something to go above and beyond, whenever Dr. Williams said said, "Why don't you put your kids back in school?" you laid back and rolled your eyes. What do you think that does for us? Huh? What's that got to do with Yeah. I don't think you do, Mr. Sizemore. I don't think you do. My kids are not in the public school system. It's not safe for them to Because of the previous administration, we've changed. People You sit up here at the podium and talk about there's
038no changes. Do you ever tune in to every meeting? How many changes? We've got a new superintendent, we've got three new directors, we've got new principals. We're going to try to find another principal. You holler about the And I get tired of hearing this every meeting I go to. I get tired of it. No transparency. We put everything out everywhere we can, newsletters, the radio station, all this stuff. But, you The question got asked and he was worried about this. And somebody said that The question was, "Have you ever Do you tune in to watch every board meeting?" Then you're at fault, not us. Cuz the information's out there. Well, you You don't have any more you can read. >> Everywhere. I get so tired of hearing that. And the budget's available to anybody who
039wants People want to sit back and complain, but they don't want to step forward and be at be present. Everyone and know everything that's going on. That's why you vote. You vote. The The only reason I can figure out why people vote, you vote for somebody that's going to sit on this board and be at every meeting and listen and do what's right for every child. Every child. I'm sorry I went off. I don't mean it I don't mean it personal. I just get tired of hearing All right. And I believe we all We got to move. We got to move on. All right. Let's Let's go to it. All those in favor of signify by saying ah. Ah. In favor. >> Motion carries. On on what all the list you just voted on. All
040right. Superintendent updates. General remarks, remarks general updates, legislative updates. Um, Hammons, do you want to pull up the staff survey I Did I Did you just get that staff survey I sent? No, I just sent you one in an email just now. Okay, let's see See that comes up. There it is. Okay. And this is in the board's packets. So, what I really want to give you an update on is Let me move over to the podium where people can hear me. Every year you hear about this time Every year about this time next year when we start planning this. So, I know I think there are questions about how do we do our planning, who brings the notification of planning. Um so, earlier we start to engage in the strategic planning. I sent out
041a survey to our staff to participate in um questions related to professional development, how they feel about professional development, and what they want. Now, you never get 100%. People don't fill out the survey. So, we had 90 participants. So, I'm just going to read you the questions. So, please select the category that identified you. We had 25 elementary teachers who participated. And you had 18 special ed or other. We had 22 four um teachers who participated. 16 CTE. Um and executive level staff we had five. So, of those staff, we put in the school that they are and how they break down per school. You can see that in the colors of the columns there that participated. And then um we asked for their overall satisfaction with the professional development opportunities they have been provided
042this year. So, generally a 38% were satisfied. 43 or 48% were neutral or again, I don't know. And then eight were dis- uh were dissatisfied, which was 9%, and six were very satisfied. Um question four, how would you rate the relevance of the professional development? So, I feel like these two questions that the second question and the the third question and your fourth question, they don't they're not correlated in their responses. So, you can see that the majority of staff said that the professional development was average above average or exceptional. We didn't have as many that were dissatisfied in this survey. We go on to the next portion. Has the professional development provided helped you understand how to meet standards for your job? Um again, we have 30 49 uh 34 said yes, it helped
043them with the performance of their job. 36 were somewhat neutral or maybe, and 15 were not. Six does the professional development provided to you align with the county school strategic planning? 54% said yes. 54 people said yes, which was 60%. So, yes, it does align with our strategic goals and align with our strategic plan. Seven, did the professional development provided to you this year and during you knew and understood the standards for meeting excellence or exceeding excellence in your job performance? 47% said yes. Yes, it did. It helped me understand what excellence in my job performance look like. Um eight, in your opinion, and these this question is the most important question. And here's why it's so important. Because this question sets the stage for strategic planning and professional development planning for next year. So,
044I asked, in your opinion, what are the two greatest challenges to improving student pass and performance? So, of the people that took this survey, 90 people, what do you think is preventing your students from achieving at higher levels? So, managing behaviors, 26 people said student behavior is an issue. Um improving student attendance, 28 people said, you know, this school has student attendance. If you're not your butt's not in the seat, you can't learn, you can't have higher performance. Learning diversity, time management, training on new materials. Then the next one was collaboration time with colleagues to plan. 25 people selected that one. And then the greatest the greatest area that people had the concern about staff in our school system was family engagement and you know, student motivation. 39 of the people surveyed said student motivation
045is a barrier. Now, what are they talking about? They could be talking about student engagement in the assignments, student engagement in the school. We see we have an engagement problem. How do we address that? Um and then we get out of here, what types of professional development formats do you like? Of the 90 people, 70 said I like an in-person. Um which is what our opening professional development was. Our safety professional development, you know, we had a little bit of a lag there in that professional development. But um they want in-person. They don't want online. They and they don't want train the trainer and want in front having having that interaction is important to them. And then they like to have a presenter. The next one is Please select two that you would like to
046have professional development for the year. And so, these are the things that our teachers want professional development on. People who took the professional development. So, 23, they get to choose two. 23 selected science of reading was one of our top. Writing in the content area was one of our top out selected. Addressing student behavior needs in core instruction, one of our top areas. Multi-tiered system of support for academics, 23 talk and specially designed instruction, uh folks selected that. And I'm happy to report that those areas of professional development is what we have spent money on this year. Yay. And it says we need to continue to spend money on that next year, and here's why. Just like with students, when you first introduce the continents, the first time you hear it, it's new. And it's
047hard to grab a hold of. It's hard to have the the the brain matter that connects to and then hangs onto when you're learning something brand new. It's like the first time you ride a bike, the first time you drive a car, the first time you cast a fishing pole, the first time you learn a new dance, you don't have the muscle memory. So, while we know these things and we learn these things, it's not automaticity. It's not muscle memory. So, think about that. The next time you drive a car, like Jolie's probably driving a car with one finger and one eye shut now, right, Jolie? As fast as she travels in time. Um so, the first time you ride a bike, you know, you get better as time goes on. So, Jolie's muscle memory.
048So, as we start to work on strategic planning, you're going to see budgets for these things. Last board meeting, I trained you on all the steps and what those steps was for. So, we have a step in our state allotment for professional development. I will be putting professional development providers before you based on the needs assessment of the people that took the survey. I want to make sure I'm connecting all the parts for everyone because it is it is a complicated thing to understand. So, are there any questions about the needs assessment, the professional development, and strategic planning? Well, I don't have any questions, but uh you know, I I would pass that question along to our staff. Well, we just did. Then question development for the staff. Okay. So, that's that this is staff
049development. These are people that work for the Cumberland County Schools that took the survey, and this is what they said they needed. Okay. All right, that's So, um I have So, we have that one. Um if there's no questions, then I guess I'll move on to the next section. And that was uh the 2026 summary of the public education bill. I will pull this up. This was in your packets, but I want to talk about this with you because over the next 60 days, 60 to 90 days, we are going to have uh plethora of policies to discuss. And every time the legislative session ends, we have new policies. We don't do new policies for the sake of doing it. We do them to align with the legislative session and what they have done. So,
050I'm just going to quickly go through these three things. And if you have any um in-depth questions, I'll do my best to answer them today, but um I will look into any of the concerns, and you know how that looks in the bill and by the little bill that we get. So, House Bill 4005 is still CTE still stores. So, basically, a summary of this is a law that clarifies child labor laws and age requirements for apprenticeships in the CTE program. So, they kind of flushed that out a little bit for us. House Bill 4395 relates to investigating investigations of allegations of child safety violations for school personnel. So, typically, what districts have done in the past when there's been, um, uh, a child safety, um, allegations, at times, some districts have let people resign
051and not pursue the investigation. Now, there's a law that says, regardless if that person resigns from your district or not, you still have to investigate it. You That That's not a way out of you doing that. Um, House Bill 4425, the purpose of this bill is to repeal the section of code allowing for the athletic eligibility of transfer students. And if I understand this correctly, you can transfer once >> One time. in your high school career. And that section of code that used to be there, they just deleted that and all the rights and responsibilities of that now goes to the WVSSAC. You want to explain what that is to you? No. Um, House Bill 4765, 3% pay raise for our teachers. So, I'm very excited about that one. That's what that one does. House
052Bill 4798 permits districts to require the wearing of a panic alert device. Creates funds through the Homeland Security for purchasing the devices. So, this is significant because some of the districts have already gotten this. It costs uh, between 150 and 250,000 dollars. These badges, we have one right now. They work with our door system. The security alert that you get that have the cards that have the button on them, they set up their own parameters and you get a safety card that staff wears. So, if there's a safety issue, there's a button on there. So, one district has, you push three times if it's a student emergency, push like six times if there's an outside intruder and what it does is it sends an emergency alert to Homeland Security. We actually have Ben around in
053here. He worked with us on this and and looking at our mapping system. So, we are going to have to do that and that is going to cost money. We will apply for the grant. I don't know if the grant will take care of all of it, but, um, Mr. Gibson and, um, Mr. Anderson and the technology department will all be working on this, um, because we will have to be compliant by a certain date. That's something we have to We have to and we We have to implement that new Yes. Okay. It's a requirement now. All right. House Bill 4982 makes West Virginia Healthy Act, uh, 2026. So, it creates an office of healthy lifestyles, it creates a healthy lifestyles fund, it creates coordination with the WVB, coordinates with Medicaid, the office of healthy
054lifestyles county grant program. Um, requires physical education program for physical fitness and it brings back, if anybody remembers this, cuz I remember it, cuz I hated it, but it brings back the Presidential Physical Fitness. And our students need it, there's a lot of obesity in our in our country. So, you run a mile, you do sit-ups, you do push-ups, you do pull-ups. I can't remember what else we did in there. Anybody else remember Presidential Fitness? You have to do all of them. You have to do a mile and do the rope climb. No, we didn't do a rope climb. But, you had to do the shuttle run and the shuttle run and the shuttle run and the shuttle Yeah. I think they added a mile to it. This hasn't been going that long cuz I
055think I remember having to do that. So, it will be It is required. It is required and we will be required to submit that data to the state so that they are watching us and that that is it. Is it Is it a graduation requirement? Is it a >> [laughter] >> Is it No, it isn't. I don't think it is. You got to [clears throat] do that to pass physical education. You got to make it past physical education. Is it past physical education a graduation requirement Yes, it is. Yeah, it is. You better You have to do it in your class. You do what? House Bill 4995 requires the use of video cameras in certain special education classrooms. This is a little to a change on special education classrooms monitoring. The school principal, other school
056administration designee, and local education agency, which has would be Mr. English and designee, shall review no less than 15 minutes of video and no less than 15 minutes of audio for each self-contained classroom and restroom at the school no less than every 30 calendar days. I think it before it was every It was quarterly, but now all of those people have to do the review every 30 calendar days. Why? And we have to keep documentation of that. That has to be in the restroom as well. I thought that did not pass. That's the audio in the restroom. There's no video, but there is audio and we are 100% compliant with school law. That was part of our state of emergency and we are compliant. We have been. Um, House Bill 4995, what is the bill
057past that one? House Bill 4996 relating to bail in cases involving terrorists who direct to schools or children. This may be prohibited by a court from establishing a residence or accepting employment within 100 feet of the location of the place where the violence was threatened to occur throughout. So, you may not have Essentially, this is exactly what it says. It's It's looking at keeping people that are unsafe away from your school system. House Bill 4999 relating to crimes against the athletic officials. This had been a problem in some counties in the state. It's especially a problem in my opinion at some basketball games, middle school basketball games where I'm from. It's a little got a little bit rough and police had to be called, but anyway, the purpose of this bill is to modify the
058criminal and administrative penalties for assault or battery on athletic officials or participants. So, they're now saying it's not going to be tolerated and it's part of the law. It's a protected state. Yeah. House Bill 5012 providing for in-year school personnel movement to meet the school needs. This is a bill that I am very happy to see because, you know, some of our enrollments, um, occur as I'm making personnel decisions. So, I can't make an effective enrollment decision at that time because I don't know how many students like pre-K. That's one of the things. How many pre-K are enrolled? You want to have pre-K, you have to have 14 pre-K aides. So, if you don't have the appropriate number of students, then what do you do? So, they have given us some, um, legal room here.
059Unless student population shifts happen resulting in a teacher or service personnel being without an instructional responsibility or work assignment. So, we can transfer that A reassignment may not occur after the last day of the second month unless Now, I have legal room there. Unless the population has shifted and they don't have, um, for instance, if we have a special education aide that has a student that moves away at the last second and I need a special education aide at another school, I can now move them to that other school instead of trying to find a way to keep them at that school. So, it allows me some wiggle room with that. House Bill 5048 to ensure virtual instruction for foster students while in temporary placement facilities. Exactly what it says. When they're out of state
060or they're in state and you're at a facility, we now have to provide them with instructional opportunities, which is our proximity learning. House Bill 5089 relating to public school acceptance of student transfers or other credentials provided that each public school shall report the class, the grade, and source on the student's public school transcript. Sometimes we have students return to public school from non-public school, the robustness of those transcripts and the rigor of the transcripts are not the same quality of what our students Uh, for instance, they've gotten one, um, a student that will pay for or take bags, whatever. And the law previously said you receive it, but now at least we have some guidelines of what information has to be on it. House Bill 5048 to modify the foundational allowance to improve instructional programs.
061Requires I need third grade success act funds to be reallocated. So, that's something that's really important to us is that we're spending our money. So, when people ask, "You're spending your money, you spend this money on that, you spend your money here, there, and everywhere." Well, we have funding sources and those funding sources have to be spent on certain things. So, we may spend a lot of money on this because we got a lot of money to spend. And we can't spend it on anything else. And not spending it because of being questioned causes to to give it back and then Mrs. Hamilton here and Dr. Williams, we get dinged on our evaluation from the state department because they're making sure we're spending That's our job to do that. So, we have to spend money
062appropriately. Agree Mrs. Hamilton? Amen. >> [laughter] >> Expand the science of reading to support the fifth grade. It just went up to the third grade. Now, we have to go up to the fifth grade. Provide the condition to allow state PE funds to be withheld for WVEIS financial system. What we have right now is we have an antiquated system and all the finances, and you heard about this in Hancock County. They weren't putting their information in WVEIS. So, the state is going to hold back some of our technology money over a period of time to purchase a new system. And then, they'll hold some of that back annually to pay to keep the licensing in that system up. And I can't remember the initial cost is 14 million. You want to say if you're not
063sure? Correct. It's It's a chunk. >> and then, it'll be 3 to 5 million dollars a year. And we have to pay our share and it's required for us to use the system. It hasn't been set. Now, we all have to follow the law. Yeah. As anyone. Uh Oh, wait. Go back. Up Down here it is. The general appropriation computer computer under the procedure on page 12, it says shall be reduced annually by the amount not to exceed 15 million dollars. So, that means 15 million dollars of the money allotted to the 55 counties will help that be held back at the state to be utilized for this new information system. Hopefully, we can be a pilot program. Huh? Hopefully, we can be a pilot program. >> Hopefully, we will get a pilot program and
064Sarah will be an excellent pilot. Pilot. >> [laughter] >> Um Five burners you can drive. Uh I think 5480 relates to the establishment of the West Virginia Youth Summer Employment and Career Readiness Program. This bill establishes a West Virginia Youth Summer Employment and Career Readiness Program to provide paid summer employment, apprenticeships, and internships, and entrepreneurial exposure for youth statewide. Participation is open to all eligible youth with targeted outreach to youth facing barriers to employment. The program emphasizes the emerging job growth sectors, uh workforce development in coordination with employers to strengthen the West Virginia long-term labor force, which is what we're doing here in our county. We have CTE programs and associate's degree programs. We are focusing on the labor market and what what our community needs to keep our students home and uh make sure
065we have a workforce ready. And you you do have something nursing, right? Yes. >> Coming up? Who is that with? Uh Who is that with? Yeah, New River. New River. Both of our programs will go through New River. Okay. Um and we've already gotten our first career fair. Um Mr. Long and I are going to meet with them, talk about the logistics of what next step is informing parents cuz there are some When you go to college, there's requirements. Yeah. So, we have to set the stage for what the 11th and 12th grade requirements are. There is a required SAT score. There is a required GPA average. There are some things that students have to do to get into those programs. We want them to take their core classes in ninth and 10th grade and
066pass those core classes. So, that means you have to get the appropriate C average in those core classes to keep your GPA up. Right now, we have a lot of credit recovery. We're going to talk about that. So, we need to set the stage so you understand you work for a hard in ninth and 10th grade, you enroll in your program of choice, we use level up. Everything's free. Everything is free for the students. The tuition and the books. If you don't finish in school your 12th grade year, you streamline into the advanced training and you can finish your 13th semester, what they call it in some states, and that pays for that final tuition. Zero cost to our parents or our students. It's just work hard. That's what you got to do. Good deal.
067That's huge. House Bill 263 states relates to the timing of payments and annual requirements for depositing into eligible recipients hope scholarship. So, this is just about the hope scholarship and funding that. Senate Bill 63 creating and sustaining opportunities for academics in rural schools at public charter school students may participate in extracurricular events in the public schools in which they reside if the charter school does not offer the extracurricular events. So, here's the thing. We are not just 55 school districts. We now have virtual schools. >> Yeah. And those virtual schools are considered a school district. Students that are enrolled in a virtual public school may participate in athletics in the county they are enrolled. But they have to abide by all the rules of every other student. That's where That's where the the new term
068the new acronym LEA or learning um Local education. >> Local education. Yes. Yeah. Senate Bill 155 relating to adjunct teaching permits. I'm really excited about this one. Even though it's for 1 year, in case I don't find what I need and somebody doesn't apply for the job, um I Adjunct teachers can be used if a vacancy exists and no certified individual has applied or is available. Term shall be 1 year. There's mentoring requirements and experience is related in the field. So, let's hypothetically say I don't get somebody to apply for my nursing job. I can get an adjunct professor for 1 year. In the past, you had to have your teaching certification and now, this opens that door to the last flexibility for the positions that we need, which is really exciting. Does that Does
069this go in with the counseling thing that everybody hollers about? Or is that that totally dif- totally different? >> Yeah, this is that. Well, this uh okay. Thank you. Mr. Justice. No, I'm Um and I'll talk a little bit about that question. Senate Bill 558 relating to school bus safety violation by motor vehicle operator. The bill The purpose of this bill is to create and protect our students at the bus stop act. Um it was vetoed by the governor. Senate Bill 694 removing county residency requirements for county superintendents of schools. Basically, this says I can live anywhere in the state and still be your superintendent. So, I don't know why you would want to do that, but nonetheless, it's now allowable. Used to have to be in adjacent county. >> Yeah. But now, you're not.
070I could live in Braxton and drive here every day if I wanted to. Yeah. But I don't >> No, we we That's not part of the contract. >> [laughter] >> Uh Senate Bill Senate Bill 819 changing certain school calendar requirements. There's a lot of rules that goes with this, but they removed the 180-day requirement and replaced it with 900 instructional hours. Changes require requirement for faculty senate and teacher preparation days has also changed. Allowed for food dollars to be used for delays and early dismissals to still within that uh guidance. And it will not go into effect. So, this year's calendar's in place. As we're working on the is when you have the flexibility to apply for this new type of calendar. Now, there's some caveats. Um I believe for retirement, you have to work
0715 days. So, there's some policies that have to change. Policy 2510. So, they have some policy work they have to change to align with this. So, the state department is working on that. Um permitting certain teachers to be certified to work as school principals. So, now, if the purpose of this bill is to permit teachers with 15 years of experience at the elementary, high school, or middle school level to be certified to be principals at the level they have taught in for a minimum of 15 years. So, if you've been a high school teacher for 15 years, they will now grant you a principal's permit to be a principal. Don't have to get an admin. You You can apply for this permit. Really? Um same for the each programmatic, but you have to serve for
07215 years at that programmatic level. Uh they changed states for a teacher lab a few years back only. Um if you have 10 years of certification, you get your permanent certification. So, they are doing some things to retain our teaching staff and make West Virginia the place to be. So, Senate Bill 1064 redefining long-term substitute as it relates to public school personnel. Long-term substitute means a substitute employee who fills a position for more than 30 consecutive instructional days. A position expected to exceed 30 consecutive instructional days shall be considered a long-term substitute position and shall require the individual serving in the assignment to hold the appropriate credentials issued in accordance with the state board rule where the posting is only required to occur one at the beginning of the year and once mid-year in accordance
073with West Virginia code 18A-4-7A. Summary. This year I posted every position all year long. It's a lot of work. If I get a long-term sub in there, they're good long-term subs and doing a good job. The incremental posting is I'm not required to do a continuous posting. And I think that's what's probably best for our students in the long run. We also did West Virginia law and I talked about to oppression pressure for time. So, any questions on the legislative session or the updates that I've provided today with any feedback? I give it to The one that pushed there was pertaining to the adjunct teachers, um if if they qualify that, will they will the state pay for that? Uh It does make sense to be reimbursed. Oh, yeah. So, they will be reimbursed for
074all the start-up costs is what I think you're asking. Yeah. Um and it goes about We have a lot of college professors at Potomac College and they don't qualify to be a public school teacher, so now they can be a public school teacher for one year and help us out. And I think that's uh they have experienced teachers, so I think that's a good thing for us. Especially here in Potomac Highlands County, we may have some retired adjunct professors working here in our county. Okay. Um I'm going to do my Can I do my update on the handy things we do here and I'll take questions? Yes. So, then I wanted to report out on you on uh report out to you. Um as you know, we are in the throes of going to have
075you at the high school. We're changing every element of our schedule. So, the staff has chosen a split block schedule, a a modified four by four split block schedule. And what that means is that you have four classes you complete from beginning to end first semester, four classes that you complete beginning to end second semester, and then you have some courses that may run full year. Okay? The reason we're looking at this particular schedule is to um allow for more courses to be taken that do not conflict with each other. It'll allow for more CTE completers. And also to allow time for credit recovery. So, if you fail your algebra class first semester, you still have the time to drop into an algebra class second semester without us having to go through credit recovery. Um
076so, it allows you you know, you just took it, you didn't get some things right, we can go ahead and put it over here and maybe you can pass it second semester. There's There's research that supports that that's that's good stuff. Um or if we have a year-long English class in the 11th grade in the first semester English class, you get sick, you can't be in English, you fail your English class, we can pop you right on down into the a year-long English class and do credit recovery. So, there's a whole bunch of benefits. There's less transitions in the hallway. There's more time for reinforcement in the classroom. It's it's a much more engaging schedule. And this was a uh important to the staff of Potomac Highlands this year. This was important to the community.
077I've heard non-stop about the schedule when the schedule changed and it was when the high school started to decline. So, for morale, for culture, for longevity of the change, I think it's important to give something that they asked for. So, here's the schedule. Here you can have first block, which you can see is 89 minutes. We have 3 minutes transitions between our blocks. Then we have breakfast after first, which is the breakfast that we all school systems are required to have a breakfast strategy. Then we have second block and second block is 90 minutes, but there's block 2A and 2B. So, that means that'll be a split block class there. When teachers uh student will have two 45-minute courses. So, for example, when I taught in Allegany High School, uh you could have an AP
078history class and an AP English class. They were like partner classes, so they had their top We had our top 25-30 students would take the AP and they just switched. That was kind of a chain switch with those teachers. So, that allows that type of thing. It'll probably be 11th grade cuz that's our accountability year and that's when they take the assessment. Then we have um our third block and our third block has a split lunch that is staggered. So, we have a lunch and then we have our MTSS or multi-tiered system of support where we're going to grab those systems, those students that are behind, break them up by skills group, and do remediation. That will also be a period when the graduation coach can pull out kids that are struggling, they're on the
079DF list, kids that are having behavior disorders, the counselors can work with them. So, it allows that that flexibility to serve our students in real time. It's been an elementary thing for years, but we're going to have it in our schedule for our high school students to better serve our high school students. And then we have our fourth block, which is everybody's back on the same schedule when we end the day. Um I asked Mr. Gibson last night which he was really um concerned about. Um I said, "What time does school let out?" I said, "About 3:16." And I said, "Mr. Gibson, I need 3 minutes." He did not respond. So, I shaved some time off and I said, "Okay, I just need 1 minute. Can you give me 1 minute, please?" School instead of
080letting out 3:16 will let out 3:17 and we'll be on our way. So, it's not that much of a difference and we have our bank time for our early outs and school delays in the schedule as well. And then I went ahead for the staff because I wanted to make sure that every schedule is in place because we want to set the bells and do the 3-hour delay schedule. Uh we won't serve breakfast on 3-hour delays. We already don't serve breakfast on 3-hour delays. And then I did schedule for um 3-hour early release. So, that all those scenarios are already in place when we open, there's no confusion, it's in the handbooks, it can be communicated to the parents. And um I just really feel like we're going to have great things going to happen
081at Potomac Highlands High School. Now, I want to add this caveat, there could be some changes. I'm sharing it with the board and the public. It's going to go back to the scheduling committee. We're going to look at it and talk about it and allow the teachers to tweak it. And they teachers passed this once, but I want to make sure that they get to see it again and we may make some little tweaks as well. But that is um an update on what we're doing at Potomac Highlands High School and the things that are rolling along. Everybody's really excited right now. They want to hurry up and get all the schedules done, but sometimes you have to measure twice, cut once. We want to do this right, so every student will have a schedule
082in their hand when they leave school June 12th. Right. And I'm confident about it. >> Please, that's a big deal. But every student is not going to have a schedule in their hand May 1st because this is an exceptional heavy lift. >> Yeah. And it takes a thoughtful um laser-like focus to make sure every step is over-analyzed and that is a characteristic of mine, being over-analytical. But once we get it in a place, it's going to be good and it's meant to last a lifetime or at least until I retire in 17 years. Wait a minute, I thought it was 10. I thought it was 10 in 17 years. That's what I thought. Um or maybe you never know. Thank you, Dr. Williams. That sounds great. That I'm impressed with that. I that's getting back
083to the way that it was the way I think it always should have been. I don't know how we got away from this. from that. I mean Well, I tell you how come we got away from the block scheduling because teachers would teach for 5 minutes and sit down and vote for 90. And that's what happened. And uh you could see them sitting back paying attention to extra but whatever they wanted to do. I think I don't think that's going to happen with the new schedule. >> ferry schedule because I worked at Cramer's I could go up there and there'd be more teachers at the bank than I was. That will not be the case. I'm aware of that. I'm aware of that. Mr. Gibson, board members remarks. Oh, well. What a great meeting. I
084think we've talked about a lot of things. I really like the schedule. Where are we at? We're in the We're in the fourth quarter now, right? Lots going on now. Prom will be coming up soon. Sports will be wrapping up. I really don't have anything else except for encouragement for our staff and our students to finish strong. That's That's That's what I have. Thank you, Mr. Gibson. Mr. McNab. I'd say I'm I'm very impressed with that with the the new schedule. I'm very impressed with all the work that you're doing on the CTE stuff. Uh I've got a list of stuff here, but I'm not going to go into it. Uh because of the time, there was questions that were brought up at the at the meeting down in Hillsboro. And I was going to
085have you put some some light to them, but we'll do that. We'll do that at another time. Like I say, if And a lot of that was the same a lot of that stuff down there. If I'm going to I'm just going to be frank and honest because that's the only way I know how to be. If you can't tell that there are changes in this school system, you are blind. It's I mean, I don't I don't know what else to say. Thank you for the great job that you're doing you and your staff. I know it's tiresome and it's endless. Because you send us stuff off accidently and and like I say, I I don't know how you You've been in every aspect of this of this job in your career. How you retain
086all this stuff is beyond me. I don't I can't comprehend how you how you you maintain it all. But thank you for the job you're doing. Uh And like I say, it just uh we got a meeting tonight at the uh Meet the Candidate meeting up at Greenbank. Uh I'm not for sure how that's going to go or how many There's two or three meetings I think up that way, but uh the importance of voting Like I said, if if people aren't going to tune in and pay attention to each and every time, you need to vote for somebody that's going to do that and somebody that's going to represent every student to the best that they can. So, with that said, thank you. Ms. Courtney Just want to say I'm very pleased to see
087that there is a schedule in place for the high school. Cuz that was a fiasco in the past. That is a positive step. I appreciate everybody uh all of the good work you're doing here for the betterment of the the county. And I just want to say all kids matter cuz they're worth it. Ms. Ms. McColluch I want to echo everything about the block scheduling. I was there for both. I know this works. I had children in both and I know it worked for them. And attendance I think attendance is going to work itself out as our schools continue to become more and more positive. And when I didn't think of Ms. Julie's talk before, I think our staffing attendance is improving. And that's huge. It's hard to have a parent look at you and
088say, "Well, my son has missed 15 days. Why you bothering me?" I was at the high school the other day and saw and this is huge in the climate of the school. Retired teachers are coming back subbing. And I mentioned offhandedly, like, "Oh, yeah, Ms. So-and-so is coming back now." That's huge. Your retired teachers are your subs that know what needs to be done. All right. I I just like to reiterate Dr. Sue Hornsworth was on this board for probably 7 years, but she was a principal of Hillsboro and also worked for the state and was a great influence I think on all of us. Just like to, you know, dedicate that to her. She'll be missed. >> And her family. Uh you know, whenever you go to all these meetings and even out here
089in the general public, you hear the word transparency. And you know, last time I was on the board, I heard transparency. Well, if you watch you can watch it online, you can see it on AMR. Kim does a good job. It's in the Pocahontas Times. Here's the book. I don't know how we can be more transparent than what we are. I've heard over and over again. And I think it's a word that people comes up with when they don't know what else to say. >> [laughter] >> I I don't know what else to put it. There has been great changes in the school system in the last year. You haven't been here quite a year. You will be 1st July. There've been great changes in a short period of time and things have gotten better.
090We have got out from under a state of emergency. We worked hard to do that. All of us did. We've got out of that. So, things are moving forward in the right direction. The high school's falling in place. It's becoming well. You talk about principals. We'd like to keep one more in a year, too, but that don't That's not always the case cuz it's like I told somebody the other day, we can't kidnap people. So, you know, we can't we can't help it if principals resign. But we've got a good one there now that knows what she's doing. She will be there till the end of the school year. And the question I'd like to ask you, you said the school district wouldn't provide what your son needed. What were you talking about when you
091said that? So, I mean, I took So, Tristan was diagnosed with liver cancer. And I'm so sorry about that. We truly Oh, no. At the end of that year, we were at three following We we were just And after we got the medical stuff sorted out, we came with the after about a month, honestly. Both kids were out of school. We're like, "We've got to We've got to fix that. We've got to get our get our kids in some sort of stability and some sort of education." And we went to the school to figure out what the options were because we were already told at that time that because of the the chemotherapy that he couldn't be in the public school system because of all the flu and all the Oh, yeah, I'm I'm well
092aware of what it does, too. Yeah. So, we asked what the options And at that time, the virtual school option wasn't wasn't available or it wasn't it was an option, but it wasn't going to work because we had to guarantee that he could do all of his course work by this date no matter what. And honestly, we didn't know what your son was going to be capable of doing to anything. So, we didn't think that was a good option. The other option that wasn't available to us was the homebound education because that that There was no position. That position was unfilled. And so, there wasn't anybody to to do the homebound education. And so, the only option that we were left with, which was our kids' last option, which we did not want to do,
093was to homeschool him. And I'll say honestly, I I hated it. To be to be blunt, I am not a teacher. Uh it is it is reiterated to me how good our teachers are. And I do appreciate whenever you say that. Uh Mr. Gibson in particular is is is very good about always bragging on teachers and he's absolutely correct. I I I just wanted to know what it was. We had a long long discussion, but I just >> So, that that homebound education teacher was the option that would have fixed this problem. Why does this position exist? And it wasn't filled for almost 6 months. The other thing I'll say is the education staff didn't reach out to to the high school and board and try to get you know, to to figure out something
094on their side and they were unable to get a phone call returned. And and that was literally the quote when when we talked to their education staff, they said, "Oh, you're from one of those counties." Well, well, I I'm well aware of WVU medicine and everything. Who was in charge when they made these calls? We had Allen looking at that at the I mean, They called the guidance counselor at the How long ago was this? This was in uh roughly mid-October. I can I can bring bring his medical case if you want, but >> [clears throat] >> there was a there was a communication breakdown. And again, your point is to be had. I I I agree that things have there have been changes. But I I don't like to pat ourselves on the back
095and all that that we've we've fixed everything. We're nowhere We're nowhere close fixed. All right. We're nowhere close. Okay. Too negative or too strong, I apologize. Uh but Okay. I've got to cut this thing off. Thank you. Uh gentlemen, our next board meeting Our next Board of Education meeting will be April 28th, 2026 at Pocahontas County Board Office Conference Room at 6:00 a.m. We are here and I'll join.