001meeting of the Poconos County Board of Education for Tuesday, March 17, 2026 to order. Uh, four members are present. Mrs. Hollinssworth is absent. Let's open with the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. >> Next item on the agenda is public hearing and discussion of the 2026 27 calendar choices. 627 school calendar. I'm Dr. Rhonda Combmes. I'm facilitating the calendar development process. Um I'm going to give you a little bit of a timeline and then go over the basic code requirements and then I'm going to present three different versions. Um these are not final versions but they just are um forwarded to the schools for them to review
002in in consider options. Um as far as the required timelines as I just mentioned we are required to have two public hearings. Um this being the first. Um we did form a committee although that is not required by law. No district do it that way. The committee met um February 18th and March 4th. Um so we also communicate through email. Um they were asked to take some of the comments and recommendations back to their staff or some informal conversations on what staff might like to see in the new calendar. Um after tonight's hearing and if there's any feedback or questions the committee myself Dr. Williams will discuss the calendars further. We will narrow it down to two um calendars for a votes and we anticipate submitting um the winning calendar at the April 7th board
003meeting which will also serve as the second public hearing. Yes, we are not ready for that. Um, we still have some time if needed to push that back as far as the vote would go, but we do have to have this all submitted to the state department for approval um by May 1st. We um I put on your table there in front of you West Virginia code 18525 which governs um school calendar development. There's also, you don't have this copy, but for folks like me who facilitate the process, there's a guidance manual. It's kind of lengthy, so you would like a copy, I could make this one, but it's kind of long. The code actually summarizes it pretty well. I'm just going to go through the code um sort of line by line. That might
004skip over a few things. I want to point out on that first page um that an instructional day has to meet the following criteria. Um the first couple sentences there require um requirements have to do with the daily minutes. Um you will see they're under 1 A I I kindergarten through grade 5 are required to have 315 minutes of instructional time per day. Grades 6 through 8, 330 minutes of instructional time per day and 9 through12 345 minutes. Instructional time can count um includes instruction and co-curricular activities. Those are defined also under C2 co-curricular activities and those are um activities that are closely related to identifiable academic programs or areas of study that serve to complement academic academic curricula. Um we also have to consider instruction alternative methods when developing the county calendar. Um down
005toward the bottom under 3B3 the very last sentence there talks about it introduces the term equivalent time or the equivalent amount of instructional time. Go to the next page. Equivalent time is I want to say a little newer back then from when I started teaching. Um, but what that allows us to do is if we um have at least 30 extra minutes per day for each of the levels, so we would add 30 to the numbers I just read, then we would qualify as having, you know, equivalent time across the district. What that allows a district to do is to have five um days of closure. So whether weather whatever it may be that do not need to make be made up because we have earned equivalent time or would earn equivalent time over the
006course of a year. It also allows for five additional non-traditional instructional days. So those are your remote learning days. So there's the 10 days. Then it also allows for five professional learning days where staff would report but the students would not. Um it also would allow for all other um delays and closures, no delays and early dismissals. So over the course of the the school year, you have enough minutes to cover all these. Do you have any questions about equivalent time? Maybe >> I I get the equivalent. Um on that page two down toward the bottom um it just it kind of talks about alternative methods. Again we do have to have our um alternative non traditional instructional days plan also submitted when we do our annual calendar. So we might have to revise a
007few things there. Um, in the calendar, the student days are 180 days. The employee days are 200. So, there's that 20-day difference. And in those 20 days, those are considered non-instructional days. Those include seven paid holidays, election day, six days to be counted as outside school environment days. Four of those six days have to be scheduled after the 130th instructional day. What that generally is or those are called OS days and those are the days we start with when we make up days. >> Most districts schedule those >> as maybe possibly a spring break of some sort, but you don't have to. You can spread them out. That's what seems to be the the popular way to do it. We also have to have two prep days. One before students start and one after students
008end of the year. Um the other remaining days under E on page three there are uh classified they could be classified as curriculum development, professional development, teacher pupil, parent conferences and professional meetings. We don't have to have all PBS. Um, so some districts may elect not to have conferences or however they may, but these are your options that may can be part of that 20 non-instructional day requirement. Down there, sort of in the middle, page three under B six, we have to schedule six twohour blocks of time for faculty senate meetings. The first one has to be um at at the commencement of the employment term but before students and the last one has to be after students are done but prior to the end of the employment term and then we have to allow
009for additional time in October, December, February and April out of calendar days number four there under E. You can think of this. This took me many years to get the difference between OS and OC. Out of calendar days or out of contract days. So technically those are not paid days. What that allowed the district to do is the built-in days around holidays which we generally do around Christmas, New Year's break, possibly spring break, Thanksgiving. Um but I want to make clear um that out of calendar days superintendent the board may also elect to use those as makeup days if we did. So, it's an option, but generally when people see on a calendar, we kind of consider that as a protected day off that we're not going to estimate. Not going to, >> but it
010could. >> Um, let's see where the bottom there, Edie. Um it just gives a a little paragraph there about if not if it's not possible to complete the 180 separate days instruction with a current calendar and the additional 5 days gained by the um increasing the length of the instructional day which is the equivalent time. Um, the county board may schedule instruction on any other available non-instructional day regardless of the purpose for which the day originally was scheduled or an out of calendar day like I just said and the day will be used for instruction for students. However, these cannot take away holidays or maximum days. It cannot be a Saturday or week four. Um, >> wow. I think I as far as the equivalent time statement there. I think I've already covered that on
011G 4G um just talking about the schedule for the statewide assessment and it's already been released. So once you start to build your calendar, we are already aware of that. Um, and then down to L or the bottom of the page is just where it states about the requirement for the two public hearings to allow for um community. And as far as code goes, those are the main parts of the Are there any questions on anything? >> Yeah, I got a couple things. What? What? Remember we're talking about the waiver last meeting. What does that waiver? What's the waiver? Which is that? What's the waiver? >> Waiver. >> What? Which which of these days the waiver affect? >> Waiver for emergency declarations on the state level. superintendent superintendent can request that those days are declared
012that we do not have to make those up. >> Okay. So, >> as far as I understand that, um although I think I've seen it in other ways, if all 55 counties are closed, state superintendent, state board may issue a waiver across the board. >> All right. And so, thank you for that. And so so so in the next few weeks you guys are going to work out three different and then we're going to present it to the public. Is that interesting? >> Okay. >> All right. >> You have any other questions? Anybody about the way? This is an open form right now so anybody can talk. It's not formal. >> Okay. The three calendars that are in front of you are um are not final necessarily. What we talked about is what could the
013beginning the big the big conversation is when do you all you know when do people want to start? >> Yeah. But of course we have many different you know suggestions and um you know we we do consider the state fair was mentioned um this particular committee which included one professional representative and one service personnel representative from each school did not you know the state fair did not necessarily push what we thought should be the start date later at you know in our discussions. And then you kind of build around holidays and semesters and things like that. As far as building in some of these other non-instructional days, we have a lot of flexibility. We can put them wherever we want. >> Um, so that's, you know, after a while, you start to see that all
014the counties still kind of fall. You know, you want to be able to maybe provide the students with possibly a three-day weekend here and there and where the teachers might show up and the kids do this me. The first one has um employee returning on August 12th and so you have the calendar, the spreadsheet, so it's the Excel part of it and down below in those different columns um explains the calendar. So the very first column underneath the Excel um spreadsheet part says important dates. We have to populate that to build start to build our calendar. The second column just will fill in your faculty senate dates for you. The third the professional learning again that's equivalent time earned. So account doesn't even have to do that but they could. The fourth column there of
015course tells you your holidays then your non-instructional days. the non-instructional day column and the autocal day column will build as I populate the calendar you'll get that please. So, what happens is at the very, you can't see this here, but when I'm building that in the dashboard, it will it will give me all these rules and as you build your calendar, it will check that you met all the rules, which is kind of cool because I know in the old days it wasn't that. So, once you have sort of the idea of what your looked like, it really doesn't take too long. to the far right those columns in the paratic cell spreadsheet you have to make sure you have 180 instructional days 20 non-instructional days and 200 days 200 day so that first calendar
016has the employees starting on the 12th and have that being a prep day and a professional meeting day curriculum develop public/faculty senate day and on Monday August 17th a professional learning day meaning that professional learning day is part of the expment time and that counts as your first day of in your instructional term even though students will not be in the buildings on down um you'll see that um if you start on the 12th neighbor day now starts on the second week of September mber because I'm on the 7th. So, it's a little bit it's bumped to back a week because of how just how the the days fall. So, that if you would were to start the students on the 18th, they would have almost three weeks of instruction prior to Labor Day and
017then a full you can see there through um September October you see on October 12th which the kids the students would not um come to school. You could put a a teacher conference for four hours and a faculty senate for two hours. You see that we have an election day on November 3rd. You have the option then to make the second professional learning day or we can make it really whatever you want or we can have it as school day on down in November. Um, I think we just have lost the battle with whether or not to have Thanksgiving just due to the fact that we're under the impression people won't show up, that people like to hunt, so we might not have, you know, >> there won't be nobody there. >> This we still
018discuss it for a good 15 minutes, but it always ends up >> No, there's not. We tried it. They tried it one time. >> They've tried more than one >> and then >> didn't work. That didn't work. As you all know, very quickly you turn around and we have too much for students, a two week um break for students, but not necessarily for employees. So, you will see on Monday, December 21st, we could possibly have a half day of professional learning. Again, that's equivalent time and the other half couple hours there will be sent. We have an OS day. You can have two OS days prior to the 130th day. So, let's say something happened in December. We had a you know, like today a snow event that we maybe didn't anticipate. We could go
019ahead and make up a day there, but we all know once the kids go home for Christmas break, you might not want them to come back right then, but it you could. And that superintendent has the option to switch these days around as well. There there's a lot of of room here for, you know, tailoring that to your needs. Then you get into January, which we all know, um, they may be in school during those days and they may not, um, depending on the weather. You skip down to that eighth month to what would be, you know, around Easter break. Um, the committee has asked that those days be protected. So, we made those out of calendar days, meaning we hope that those are not taken away. They can plan spring break if that's what
020they want to do. And then toward the end, the end of the year just sort of populates itself because you only have so many choices now, but we would put those OS days at the end of the year. And those would be your makeup days if needed. If if you don't need them, we could move the prep day to the day after Memorial Day and then that would be done. >> I will tell you this. >> What date would that be? >> This is that first calendar. >> Yes. >> On there. And so if they do make up the five, one, two, three, four, five days, they could be done on the days >> June 8th. >> If no makeup days are needed, they could be done on the first. But here's where this becomes
021tricky. You have to have your graduation date submitted as well when you submit your calendar. So whether or not that can be changed probably if you really needed to, but it's not. It's frowned upon. It'll be a guess. Um the graduation date will be the last thing we do once we figure out what calendars are up for vote and then we will talk with the high school staff to fill in how the graduation. The second calendar is similar to the first. The only big difference, some of the other on instructional dates are moved around a little bit, but if you look at that Easter break, what I was demonstrating here was you could have maybe Good Friday off the weekend, Monday to Tuesday, and then put some OS toward the end of the week possibly,
022but I don't think that's a popular um idea, so it may not even be a perfect And then you can see on down um how the end of the year would look that they can still be out on that June 3rd or June 12th for staff. The third option has a different start date later start date. This is starting staff on August 17th. Now the fair starts on Thursday the 13th. So I guess the thinking was if students were going to be participating in the fair, they wouldn't come to school until August 20th. So that gives them almost a week. I have no idea what the fair schedule is, but so this is still starting a little later, but not two days. They're sort of in between. Again, we can make those first three days
023or if we want to fill in the whole week with staff trainings and use those professional learning days which Le and I were talking about earlier. Um we could make that whole week prep and if kids could start on uh that's why I'm really feeling a little down. August 24th Monday. >> It started on the 24th. >> Starting kids on Monday though is another one. It's a challenge when they come home for that first full week. So that's not always a popular date. Most districts start kids on a Wednesday or Thursday. That's something we have to, but it's a popular move. So, on down, same thing. Thanksgiving would be off uh two weeks at Christmas, possibly two weeks in a day. Uh the week of Easter break off with an OS day on that Good
024Friday on that March 26th, meaning it could be makeup day or they could have a week plus a day off. And then toward the end there, you'll see um you have to go in your other OS days and in your your final prep day. So this one bumps them up back or back a week to being off that next week that June 11th. It's difficult um to have everyone in agreement. Um, but you know, we want to I'm trying to get as much feedback as I can, but it's a lot of different opinions. So, it could be that we we provide three options for a vote. You can admit it, >> but obviously the more you have, then it just becomes convoluted. So, um, I will be after tonight's hearing um going back and forth
025with the committee. I'll try and finalize this down to two, try to get that out for vote. Um, like I said, have it for your final approval of 74. >> So, how are you going to your your voting part? >> We are not anticipating opening that up for public vote. >> This would be done through Microsoft forms. They would submit their email. So, it's controlled as far as how many times people could vote. >> I don't want to bring this up, but I'm going to. your lives here. >> I know. Last year we had some vote over a hundred times and we as a board went by the ones that had the most votes. Well, they were padding the the system. >> I did have >> That's the thing that scares me about that. >>
026One of the committee members brought up a good point about their LSIC being able to vote. Normally, we're not planning to do that, but you could present these things to your LSIC to get their feedback. I I've never worked in a district where the community voted on calendar. >> Yeah, we we didn't do that last year. Like I say, we opened it up for the staff and >> Well, been able to found a way. Where there's a wheel, there's a way. >> If I may interject. >> Yes, ma'am. >> If we use Microsoft Forms, when you're putting your form out to vote, there is allow each email to vote once on there. There is a way to limit that vote to one email, one vote and it only accept votes from your K12 email account.
027>> That that would be that would be wonderful. That would be fine. >> Dr. Colmes can sort it out and look at >> the committee was an agreement on the voting. >> Um now again by law you see there there's no law that we have to get each vote. um it's really verboat but they would be if the fall but another thing to think about is because you're meeting out a little bit later this year if you started later so it might shorten your summer a little bit once you get into the groove and people are like we like this if you continue the same type of week start dates and end dates you you eventually get into that um schedule where your your summer is maximized so to speak right >> hey what is
028your thoughts I always thought that we should finish midterms before Christmas break. Dr. Colmes, >> we talk about that. So, >> what's your what's your thoughts on that? I mean, you know, where where are you at on that? >> I thought it was there were so many concerts and plays and programs that it was the high school really. They just said, you know, it wasn't worth it wasn't worth the hassle. But you don't have to have the full 90 days to call that a semester. You can have the 85 days. So you could do it and and wrap that up before a twoe Christmas break. >> Yeah. >> Kids could come back and that would be the second semester or the third quarter or whatever. >> I would I would think it'd be >> I
029think it more I think it's smart to have the midterms wrapped up and done before you take Christmas break off and then come back and start the new semester. And we >> and that's what that's why you got do you care does it matter you know so >> another thing too is and the sports world as we all know the sports the fall sports schedule starts on August the 1st and for the kids that are playing sports that's basically when school starts I mean they're already in school I mean without being in school And >> I I have what we did a year. We started I'm pretty sure kids came back like that second week in August. >> I wouldn't know, >> right? Things do start happening August 1st. So, you know, colleges generally go
030back that third week generally speaking. Um and then of course they wrap up their semester prior to break, but they're under different calendar rules than we are, >> right? But um so it could be done. To answer your question, >> I think that I'm in favor of moving it towards >> August earlier in August. >> Early in August. Yeah, that's my opinion. Just so you know. >> Any more questions? >> No, ma'am. No, sir. >> Anybody else? One thing I know we live in a technology world, but way back when I was working, we got three copies. We picked the one we like. We signed our name to it and gave it to the principal and then there was no questions. >> I love this idea. >> I love that idea. We voted by by
031turn your vote >> there. There's no again law that says we have to do it electronically. We can do it however we're comfortable doing that. >> Well, only except for it's 2026 and we all have computers here and we can do it. >> I mean you know we got manipulated last year. There's nothing. >> Come on now. We don't need to go backwards here, guys. Mrs. All right. One at a time. One at a time. >> Jesus. >> The boat was open last year. >> So, people couldn't log in to vote. You can't make it. So, you can log in to vote if it's open to your community, >> right? >> So, if it's narrowed down to staff, staff have to have a K12 count to vote, >> right? >> The calendar committee last year
032decided they wanted the community to vote. If the community can vote, then it's very hard to say who's voted once, twice, or a hundred times. >> I understand that. >> Yeah. Right. I still make the ballot out of you. >> That's just the way we always did it. But like say that's been a few years. >> So you're volunteering to help me count this. >> Well, the principal would count them, but just part of me. >> That's true. Yep. That's that's how we do that. >> A or B. Do we need to >> nothing? We just >> We don't need to do nothing. >> Just hearing right now. >> We're just expressing our thoughts. >> Yes, >> that's right. >> I would say I think the community. That's what I do. And um like I
033said, I think we have some some good folks who've been around a while and and kind of know the community and what people like don't like. Um we have to consider like um Sam was saying, you know, how this helps students as far as the semester and priority. break. So all these things been discussed. It might not always end up in the way we were thinking, but it is discussed. >> So your biggest things around here are going to be for the fair and then for 4 camp. >> Well, that's early in June. >> What dates in June? Because this could this >> a conflict this year with the start of that in a makeup date actually. So, we have to be very conscientious. >> That's the stuff I'm getting complaints on. >> That's the
034stuff I'm getting complaints on now is because you know, I'm running into you're running into 4. Well, y'all wanted to back it up. So, you either do it on the front or the back. >> Well, you know, it used to be when I was older, so I got credit. You could if you went to the fair and you took something you had that was educational days, but they don't weighed that now. >> That's the worst one. How about the put something back in this year could do educational things. >> They took it away. So if you're, you know, if you're showing a market steer or lambs or anything, it still don't count. >> And you got a county fair here, too. Yeah. But it's it's almost Saturday. It's snow. >> I think it's important to
035be respectful of our community because uh livestock showing livestock is a huge deal here. >> It is. >> I mean, we have three pe two people here, right? >> That are >> I don't show nothing. >> You don't show anything. But it is it is a big deal. It's a big deal for our kids to participate in that. And we have to be respectful of something that is in our geographical region. and we want to support our state there because we want to that to continue to be a part of our economy and things that our kids can enjoy. Um and our bus drivers, I know that um Dr. Holmes rents from Mr. Evans and um >> Evan Rose, >> Mr. Rose. So, it's it's I'm just saying we have to be really considerate of
036our culture here. >> And here's where again, you cannot, you know, have it all. You can't start later, travel Thanksgiving and end the semester if the mask won't be masking as they say. So these are these are the things you go back and forth on. You have to just kind of prioritize what work the best. >> Well, thank you. Yeah, >> an amazing job. Thank you, Dr. >> You did a great job. >> Yes, great job. >> It's a big deal. >> Delegations, Mr. Lloyd Argast. You can stand wherever you want. You can go over to the podium so people can hear you that's online. >> Probably knows me. I'm Lord Arbor guest. When I came was for recommending that uh the school put up the ten commandments in each of the schools and and
037here and uh there's been some false I don't follow the social media. I don't get all that. But but just what I'm learning, people tell things that aren't true. It's not against the law to put the Ten Commandments up. It doesn't say for or against. Uh I seen in Facebook where somebody said last year that the state had ruled that you could not put it up. The truth is there was never a vote on it. It was brought up, discussed it, never voted on it. So it wasn't for or against. The same thing happened this year, the first of this year in their station. It was brought up, they talked about it. It was never brought before a vote. So they didn't say for or against. They just left they just left it open. So
038and the board of education in Charleston, as you'll already know, said there wasn't any rule against it. There wasn't any law against it. So, I'm suggesting that we consider putting the Ten Commandments up if we look good under the God we trust. I like that sign up there. That's a good deal. And as you all know, not everybody's going to agree. It don't matter what she did. But I believe that the God that we trust, we're the one that we pledge to one nation under God. I believe God would give us a certain blessing if we put up the Ten Commandments, honoring him as God, the true God. And they don't have to follow it. I'd heard one argument I'd heard is they don't want to look at it. Well, now they got to look
039at this one, don't they? You got to look at a sign that says in God we trust. And I was just thinking too, I lay a $100 bill out and I guarantee you whatever they believe somebody's going to pick it up even though it says in God we trust on it, aren't they? They still spend the money. They can still believe how they want, but they still spend it. So, I'm making a suggestion that we do that. It's a document that's over 3,000 years old, as you all know. Uh and like I said, I think it's the right thing to do. I think not to do it would be something that wouldn't be good. Uh so I'm asking that you all take the courage and you consider doing it. And I also want to mention
040um I follow things on the paper in the paper and the articles you read. Some of them I don't understand all of some of them a little complicated. U but I want to commend I've never talked to her privately our superintendent Miss Williams. I think she had a lot to do with us getting off probation. >> So I want to commend you for that. >> You've been busy, haven't you? >> I have been a busy girl. and all of y'all you had and and like I said, I think it's great that we got off this soon. I understand that's kind of unusual. And I talked to a couple of you about this before and you said, "Well, before you consider putting the Ten Commandments up or voting, you'd like to get get us off of
041probation." Well, it's happened. And I give God part of the credit for that. So, I I thank him for that. So, I know this is not a time of question and answer. If you all have any questions though or anything, I'm just bringing up that we do it that you vote on it and that you pass it and you put it up in each of the schools. There's numerous people that will donate the signs, so that's not a problem. uh size. Again, there's no law that says on it, but 16 by 20 is what was in the bills that's been brought up suggesting it be a minimum of 16 to 20, which is not much. Not a lot bigger than that one. Uh 16th, that one's probably that much, a little bit longer. So, there's
042people that will donate to put it up to give it to you. You all throw it up, I'm sure. Whatever needs to glasses. So that's I won't strain it out any further. You're all on it. You got your think. I'm just suggesting vote on it and you pass it. >> Uh under under law, under delegations, we can't say anything back. We just got to listen. But >> Dr. Williams can. >> Hello. Um I just want to say that um thank you for coming tonight. I appreciate you coming and presenting to the board on this topic. I truly respect your passion for the issue and I understand your reasons for being here. While I may share some of those reasons, I cannot publicly just talk about those reasons. After your previous appearance to the board as
043a delegation, I think you've been here twice since I've been on the superintendent. I took some time to really put some thought into your request and res research it in anticipation that you may return after legislative session. Um so the question is at hand um can the school display the ten commandments in can we display the ten commandments in a public school? So I want to answer your question with a series of events. So displaying the Ten Commandments in a public school is a very contentious issue. Recent legislative action in several states has prompted ongoing legal challenges questioning the law's constitutional ality. Maybe not in West Virginia, but in other states. During the not this recent legislative session, but during the 2025 West Virginia regular legislative session, three bills were introduced requiring public schools to
044display the Ten Commandments in classroom classrooms. The Senate Bill 667, House Bill 2025, House Bill 3041. None of these bills as you have said introduced even made commit made the committee agenda and much less were considered for passage they were not voted on. Absence successful West Virginia legislative action we cannot recommend to our school system to display the Ten Commandments. Even with leg legislative action, we predict legal challenges for displaying them um in the schools. This is not new. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled against such displays in 1980 in the case Stone versus Graham, stating that Kentucky law requiring the display of public school classrooms violated the establishment clause due to the lack of secular legislative purpose. In states where legislative action has occurred, these laws have faced immediate challenges. Again, while
045I hear, I understand, and I respect your passion for this topic, this is ultimately an issue that must be addressed with the legislative process. I recommend when somebody feels this passionate about something that you contact your elected representative who represents us, who has the voice and has the authority to sponsor this issue during legislative session and pass it. With that stated, I appreciate you coming. Thank you for coming tonight. I encourage you to continue on this path and make it a legislative priority for our elected officials. >> Can I comment? >> Yes, sir. One. >> Uh, I know it gets stinky, but did you all know that there is a statue of the Supreme Court building up in the arch of it? And I may some of you all do. It's a statue of Moses
046holding the Ten Commandments. Isn't it a paradox that the people under that building can say you can't do that? >> I know. >> Uh and also for almost 200 years in America, we did it without question. >> Um but this started a long time ago. Started back in the 60s. We started ruling God out of school. And if we rule God out of school, it does not stay void. There's no such thing as saying you can't do this. Somebody else moves in and they have with their ideas. So respect what you're saying and and I honor you for that. But I believe that you still it's not recommended. I renew that by the state because it may bring trouble. I'm thinking of the time to stand up. Even if it could bring trouble, it's worth
047standing for. I would ask you to consider it on that. U >> Thank you. >> This one God that we have right here, if we trust in him, do we trust in him or do we trust in the legislature? Do we believe God would honor us if we put the ten commandments up? People wouldn't follow him. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Recognitions, >> we do not have any tonight. >> School improvement updates. A is high school schedule progress and B is attendance report. So, I have been working with the high school teachers, uh, myself, um, Miss Dunlap and Mrs. Burns, along with Principal Bland and Principal Wagner. Um, I took a proposed bell schedule up to the high school that was for block, a 90-minute block period with some modified um, schedules for
04845minute classes. I left it with the the staff, the scheduling committee staff. I went back with and met with them on Monday. These are early morning drafts for me, just so you know. I'm there by 7:15 to meet with the staff. Um, and they have selected the modified block schedule. They're exceptionally happy about it. Third period will be our our our consistently modified period. We are looking at some ways to schedule in some common planning to get our 10 minutes for breakfast in there. And I just want to say that I feel like this has been a catalyst issue for the staff, Miss Dunl shaking her head. Um the smiles on their faces, the happinesses in their voice. um they are so excited about this opportunity to move to this new schedule and u we
049are working diligently on it to make sure that we have the room for our college courses and our college programs and our CTE programs as well. So great things are going on at the high school with their schedule. I think we're seeing a turnaround in the culture there and I think the schedule is the very base of that culture turnaround. um >> something that'll like if you if this is implemented be started next year. >> We are working on it to start this fall. Yes, that >> it'll start right away. And what we're looking at just to give for the public that doesn't understand block scheduling, we're we're looking at doing the 4x4 block with a modified block for uh 11th graders that take the SAT because they test at a certain time in the
050year. So with a modified block schedule, when you have some schedules, some classes that's first in the semester and some classes that are second semester, when a student is struggling in that first semester block, instead of paying for all the credit recovery, you can drop them either into that one-year class, which gives them a second helping of that course right away, which they're more likely to pass, or you have a duplicate class in the second semester. So, let's say they failed their um math one and they we have a math one second semester. They can go straight from here and recover that credit automatically the second semester. And we presently pay for credit recovery and it is a very expensive endeavor um throughout the school year and in the summer. Um, Miss Dunlap, you want
051to, you know, Miss Dunlap's going to talk about it. Um, the attendance report, then I'll allow her to address that. But you guys have any more questions about the block schedule, any comments, concerns, or >> I just I like it. >> It's by far the best. >> It is. >> I worked there with both. I had four kids go through. Two went through in block scheduling. Two went through on the seventh day. And I tell you, as a parent, as an employee, block schedule at the high school works. >> It does better job. It's a gamecher and I, you know, I did double check. I checked with uh Miss Khan who was our inner uh representative from the state and I checked with another superintendent. I said, "Do you know any reason, any law, anything
052that's preventing us from doing the block schedule?" And there is nothing. There is absolutely no reason that we cannot do this for our students, for our community, and for our teachers. >> And it helps on discipline. >> Yes. Because sometimes you have classes and teachers that just don't mix personalities. It's only half a year. It's not like the whole year or so. >> Now, we will need extensive professional development because we haven't taught on the block for a little bit. So, we have to work on student engagement, but we will do that. And that's part of the looking at what's on the calendar, looking at those CD days because we are going to have to have a full day of looking at pacing your curriculum differently, implementing your curriculum differently because we have to cover
053the entire scope of a course in a short period of time. >> But most teachers, I mean, give them two weeks and they will adjust, know where they're at. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? just, you know, start dates important. We started on the new year. Okay. >> Um, and Miss Dun, if you want to say anything about this and then give us our attendance report because it does tie into our strategic plan go with the credit recovery so that they have the option to have a face to face instructor as opposed to online self-paced. And I think that our students typically if they're having trouble in the class that having a person to be there to help them is much greater than them trying to figure it out on themselves with self-paced and just
054reading guidance. I mean I'm I'm a huge promoter of face to face instruction and and it less costly when they have face to face instructor as opposed to us paying for them and and then struggling and feeling defeated. We don't want them to feel defeated. There's a reason why we're repeated. So, we want to help them provide sports as best as possible. So, um but we we um we didn't have that the best a few years ago and I think we have a much better handle, much better structure for our students for credit regarding. We don't have near the students there that we have previously. So, they are they're getting what they need much much better than they had in the past. And I think we can still make it better in the future. Um
055attendance wise, I know Dr. W shared with you all a couple weeks ago, we haven't changed a whole lot. Um what as we get into the spring and as we we know typically what happens when warm weather happens and our attendance tends to fall off. We have I've been in communication with our principles. We've got a lot of meetings scheduled for attendance. Um I'll be attending some of those. We're trying to figure out um what what's causing the absences and what kind of meaningful support provides. That's that's what we're trying to do instead of being punitive as just the I call the black call to come in. Oh, I'm just going to take court. There must be a reason they're not coming. Why are they not coming? What are we supposed to wait to have
056students be there? So, we've got a lot of just being scheduled. >> Um the high school's still our highest number of uh chronic absenteeism. Um some of those numbers will will water out as we get through as we add more days to the calendar. So, it won't be as great. I know Miss Bland told me she said she she likes the old school method. She has sent out 93 letters with students in concern and then on top of that they're also scheduling sheets in person that I'll be attending. So they are addressing it full speed ahead to try to get these students in to um have an engaging class. Um Hillsboro is still rocking it out. Last year um I I went back always go back and do the same number of days. So I
057ran it for 116 days. That's how many days we've had instruction so far. Um last year they were 25% this year they're right now they're sitting at 8% chronic absenteeism. So it's amazing they they have really made a huge improvement. Um Greenbank last year was at 23.7% right now they're sitting at 19.3. They remember at the beginning of the year they had all that illness and they were really high. So as the school's gone on the kids stayed in school so it has brought that number down. Um then Marlington Elementary is at 20. was at 26 last year. We're at 29 right now, but they have had a bad rash of the flu. So, I think as the kids start to come back, I think they're number um relatively last year was at 34.55%. This
058year, they're at 27.9. >> Yay. >> So, but they've also had the flu, so their number was a good bit lower. Um the high school last year was at 35.8. Right now, they're at 41, but Miss Bland's hit hitting that full speed ahead. So countywide, last year we were at 30. Right now we're at the 28.7. Again, those numbers aren't great. We're in the red, but we are better. And we are making great strides to make improvements. And our communities of schools representatives, our principles, our counselors are all reaching out and working with these families. We're getting more notes in, but again, before we kind of focused on that unexcused product absentee visit is all absences together, whether it's a medical excuse or a parent note, those still factor into the number of days that
059those bottoms are in the seed. So, it's a different perspective than what we had focused on just a couple years ago. So, we we're working on it. It's not perfect, but we're getting better. >> Any questions from Mrs. Dunlop? >> Yeah. What do you think that the Glock schedule works with the school calendar better >> with the calendar? >> Yeah. >> Um, >> which you think it works better with the calendar? >> I think that the the block schedule is really important that we have that the curriculum development to make sure that it's engaged, but I think it will definitely work for the students. Um, and and some of them just need that one semester class and then they can kind of change it up and take different classes in the spring semester. Um, I
060liked it when I was in college. I didn't do it when I was in high school. I just had your traditional day. So, um, but I did appreciate it in college being able to change things up and I think our field will be able to and on CT my end, it's going to increase our numbers. I'm all for it. >> Okay. It's good. It's good. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Item number seven's consent agenda items. Approval of agenda. B is approval of the agenda minutes for February 17th, 2026. C payment of bills subject to addition, deletions, or other changes prior to the board meeting. A payment of vendor listing 40,6702. B is payment of PC card 167-28148. C March 3rd 2024 employee payroll 286,28945. D is bank reconciliations for January 2026. E grant awards.
061F budget adjustments. D is budget transfers and supplements subject to additions, deletions, or other charges prior to the board meeting. Do I have a >> motion made? I'll second. MC made the motion and Mr. B second. Any questions on the ones I just read there? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. Uh motion carries. >> May I um give a little tutorial on how to read the budget items just quickly? >> Sure. Sure. >> So I know there's been some questions about, you know, what do we pay here? What do we pay there? How do we know? So I thought I would just walk through the tabs quickly, the lowercase tabs. So if we could all go in our agenda pocket, and this actually goes out to the community as well.
062Um we'll start with a payment of vendor listing. So if we go to a in your packets >> we see that the first thing there is and I'm just going to go over a couple of this of these. So we have Filter Solutions and Nicole Mitchell. These are two vendors that we paid a check for. One was for maintenance and then one was for travel. If our employees get a supplemental check, they're set up as a vendor because it's outside of payroll. So Nicole Mitchell is actually a teacher that submitted some travel. And then if you turn the page, you can see that four filters. How much we paid and then how much we gave, how much we paid that employee for attending a training on November 3rd. And if we just go back through
063here, the next page is where I really want to uh break something down. So we see county funds and then we see special revenue funds. So when the filters was paid out of our maintenance budget which is a county fund and then from a special revenue fund that travel was paid out of a a fund that is designated for that purpose a 61 fund. They're restricted funds. So, if we go back to the next page, we can see that uh just just for where we're paying, we can see this page again. We're paying something to Pocahontas Memorial Hospital, the town of Marlington. Turn the page and it breaks it down. What are we paying the town of Marlington for? We're paying them for services to Marlington Elementary, Marlington Middle School. So, it breaks it down
064by what we're paying and what we're paying the hospital for. And if I had to guess, I believe that's actually our water service that we're we're paying for today. >> So that's you can see what the water bill is for each of those schools and how much it costs. >> Water bill comes from the hospital. >> We are on the hospital's water for one of our schools. So we have to pay for >> the the wells are over here. >> The tank across from the golf course >> across from the golf course and feeds across feeds the hospital in the middle school. So then I want to go ahead and skip back to B, section B, because I think this is where there's been a lot of questions about how much we pay for electricity
065here, there, and throughout the county. So in section B we can see that we have listed there on our front page we have Amazon Blade Building Supplies, Bordon Food Service, the Hampton in the Mountaineer Steer Meat Company, Star Weld, State Electric Company, and Walmart. And we can see how much we paid each of those vendors. And if you turn the page, then you can see what we paid each of those vendors in checks. For example, under Gordon food services, these are checks that are paid for our food services that we get from Gordon and how that's broken out. Hampton in, this is where people stayed at the Hampton Inn and then their cost of their room was reimbursed. Then we have state electricity. So, I want you to take from that page right here, I
066want you to count back seven pages. So, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And on the seventh page, I want to talk about we have Meling Solutions. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back. One more page. One more page. Now, one more page. should look like this. Yes. Okay. You ready? You see on the right page? No. >> So, >> that's the page. >> Okay. So, here we have Meling Solutions. We have our frontier phone bill. We have our mom power bill. And we have a supply company. The total for all of those utility bills is $42,2649. So turn the page on that and we can see for Frontier the cost of phone service for the county. So the the county BOE's phone bill is $2,28724. And that's because the PRI is on the county
067bill, the primary rate of exchange. We don't use plain old telephone lines, >> but we use something that allows us to have direct inward dial and that connects for schools. So that's why that's more. But then you can see what the bill is for each of the schools. And then if we go down to m power, you can see down for each location that the c that the county school system has. You can see how much it costs for power. For example, the power at Pocahontas County High School is the most expensive. It's $16,64. And the reason for that is each heating unit has a heat pump and an individual heat strip. Also, all of the hot water heaters at the high school are electric. So, that power bill cost the most. And as you
068go through this, the reason I'm breaking this down is that if you want to know how much is spent on anything up to this point, you can go back in these bills that's presented and I assure you I assign every bill. I look at every code and you can calculate it for a long period of time. But if we go to the very end, let's go to C. On C, here is all the people that received a payroll check. All the people that got something from Pocahontas County Schools that is an employee to the tune of $286,28945. This is what payroll costed us for this payroll. The next page is revenues, which are the deposits, wire transfers, interest on our account, total revenue that we took in for this pay period. Um expenditures, how much
069our expenditures were, how many checks we haven't paid yet, and then how much is in our general fund account here at the bottom. So that's how you know how much money county schools it has in our general fund account. That's how many bills are outstanding that we have not paid, how many bills we have paid, and how many draw downs of funds that we have received. I I've never really gone over that. So I just wanted to make sure that we know how to read this when we have questions. So on the next page E, we see our grants. We see grants that we have received. For instance, this first grant you're looking at is for oral healthc care program and this is for nurse Jenny and this is the money that she uses to
070fund oral healthcare in our county. This fund is a 61 fund and what that means when I told you it's a project fund meaning that she can only spend this money on this cost. So there's a ton of accounts when you see these grants come through that that money has to be specifically spent on that purpose within a certain period of time or you don't get to keep that money. You have to give it back to the government. And if we have to give it back to the government, we get in trouble for giving it back. But we also get in trouble for spending it wrong. So you got to be really >> careful of of the money. The next grant here, we have um we have a preschool grant. which is $22,671. This is
071a grant that helps us pay for our preschool teachers and it's a 61 account. So part of that payroll was paid all of this grant. If we turn the page, we got another grant and this is our individual with disability education act grant. And this is what we use to pay for special education teacher salaries. So, and for things that we buy for the special education students. Now, it's not all-encompassing because we spent 1,480,000 approximately on special education last year. And this grant to fund our special education program is for $320,979. So, you can see the shortfall for what we have to spend on special education services. So that's our grant for those services. >> And then we just have a general project code that we look here and we see like how much uh
072Pocahontas County is receiving for each grant. So that this number right here will tie back to some of those numbers that we saw in the beginning. So I just wanted to make sure that we understood what we were looking at, how to calculate it, how people are fund it, and what we're paying for. Which brings me to address uh some fees that we spent at the beginning of the year on consultants. We spent money on Lydia Young and we spent money on Ruth Bland. They there are two of our education special education consultants. their money that we spent on them was paid out of that idea grant which had to be spent on that and couldn't be spent on anything else. It had to be spent on special education. So, it's kind of complicated when
073you start looking at things. Um, it's difficult for the general public and for teachers to understand personnel issues and how money is spent. And that's why you really hired me as the CEO, the executive is to make that I make sure that we're spending it and we're aligning it to the grant. But complete transparency is that everything that is spent and how it's spent and where it's spent is in these agenda packets over a period of time. Thank you, Mr. President. >> I like the ones I'm looking the national force money. >> Oh, yes. And the national force money. Let me get back there. So, I did not cover that. Let me cover that cuz that is a big grant that we did get. It finally come through and um I was excited about it
074too. So we got our national forest money and we got two grants. We got one grant that was for $229,349.30 and we got another one that was for $40,47341. That money is a fund 11 and that's unrestricted money of the board of education that you can spend on projects to improve the school system. So that money can be spent on those projects. That money is also not recommended to be spent on personnel but to be spent on keeping lights on, doors open, um facilities safe and warm. And that's what they or improved, you know. Um, for instance, when we had to replace the hot water heaters and a boiler, that's our contingency money. But yeah, I'm glad you saw that. >> Yes, I was looking at I can always tell whenever money comes in. >>
075Uh, personnel matters. Do I have a motion? >> Hold on just one minute. So, >> right, >> just one last thing, Dr. Williams. So, you're basically telling us that the only way we can get a synopsis on these expenses is by going through each packet and adding up the expenses every week, right? >> Absolutely not. I'm going to give you a budget report here in about a month and a personnel report summarize all that, but it takes a long time to get all that together. >> I get that. >> So, I will get that for you in in the near future, but I don't have it all compiled yet. Thank you. >> But I'm saying it's all there. It just takes time to compile it and you will get a complete report out. >> Okay.
076Any other questions? Okay. Personnel matters. Do I have a motion? Mr. Mcomes made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNab second. Do we need a >> this time? I'd requesting we go to executive session for discuss personnel. >> Mr. McNav has ex asked for an executive session on personnel. Do I have a second? I'll second it. >> Mr. Gibson seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> We're going to take about a fivem minute break and then we'll go. Second, Mr. McN. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> We are coming out of executive session at 7:39. >> Hang on, Mr. Carl. >> Mike. >> Okay. Personnel matters. Uh Olly, >> personnel agenda for March 17th, 2026. Professional recommendations. Denise Burns, teacher of
077second grade at Marlington Elementary. School resignation due to retirement, effective June 30th, 2026. Dr. Rhonda Colm's resignation of director of personnel technology safety effective June the 30th, 2026. Service recommendations. Loretta A. Rexro employment of substitute cook effective immediately. Arthur Sharp reclassified from a paygrade G for sanitation plant operator to a paygrade D as custodian for effective beginning March the 6th, 2026. Extracurricular recommendations 21st century grant positions contingent upon an adequate number of students for the program site coordinator for Pocahontas County High School, Charlene Grossclo. Other recommendations is Diane Arbagast request for intermittent FMLA leave effective March the 17 through 2026 through the end of the school year pending medical certification. >> Any questions? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Motion carries. Superintendent updates. >> I'm not going to go over all
078of these, but I did want to have the board all the bills that have gone to the governor to sign. um which is important. I don't know if you've been following the legislative session. There's been quite a few things that happened. So, I want to go real quick on this. The West Virginia House Bill 4395. This is a bill that says that investigations of uh that alleges of jeopard jeopardize the health, safety, or welfare of students shall continue even if the employee leaves your county. You have to continue on investigation. West Virginia House Bill 4425 and this is important because it's an athletic bill and we all know that anything dealing with athletic eligibility is the most important eligibility. So the purpose of this bill is to repeal the section of code allowing for athletic
079eligibility of transfer students. You can read the whole thing online. Then I'm going down to House Bill 4798. The purpose of this bill is to implement a and Dr. phones. I did not see this before, but now I see it here. It's at the governor's desk. Purpose of this bill is to implement a wearable panic alert system. It's like a badge. Um, that is an expensive endeavor. If the governor signed it for our school system, maybe he won't sign it because he knows. I haven't checked this since Monday. Um, House Bill 4982. Uh this is something that uh Sheriff McCoy has talked to me about and I think it's something that's going to be great for our students. They are bringing back the presidential fitness test as part of the program to ensure that it
080is administr administered and operated for our students to make sure that they are more physically fit. I'm sure I'm older. Um all maybe all of you when you went to school had to do the presidential fitness. I think there was a flexibility push-ups setups. I can't remember all smile >> pull-ups. So, they're bringing that back. >> Um, >> glad I'm not a student right now. House Bill 49.99 is another bill. The purpose of this bill is to modify the criminal and administrative penalties for assault and battery against athletic officials or participants. I think that's pretty significant. We've been seeing a rash of that in some school systems across the state. House Bill 5012. Um the purpose of this bill spread inear school personnel movement to meet school needs. So essentially this is a big deal
081for our school system. So, let's say we have a student in our school system that has a self-contained teacher and a self-contained aid and and we've already uh the stay put rules already gone into effect and that student leaves and now we have this aid and teacher at a school. Previous to this bill, you couldn't move them. You had to keep them there. But now there is discretion to move them to another place that you need them. So, I think that's a really good thing for um us. And I'm going to skip the next page. The next one that I think is really important is um House Bill Senate Bill 155. The purpose of this bill relates to the creation of adjunct teaching permits. So uh they're going to put into place an individual with
082an adjunct teaching permit may be hired to fill a vacant teaching position, offer a new program or class, or to supplement a program currently being offered. only if no other teacher holding the certification in the subject area is available and accepts the position and assignment. This is important because we're getting ready to start offering college classes and maybe we will be able to get some adjunct teachers to help us with that. And then and there's a whole bunch of things there for that one. Then um after Dr. Palms did such a great job with the calendar. Tonight, the West Virginia Senate Bill 890 has proposed a new calendar. The purpose of this bill is to change the minimum school public school 180 instructional days into a minimum of 900 instructional hours required. And I believe
083that was 156 days. I think it's 156 days. um and to change the minimum u public school employment terms from 200 to 1,600 hours. Um so that's coming down the pike for us if the governor signs it. And those are the highlights of things I was concerned about, but you have them all. Um these are just the ones that's gone to the governor's desk. I'll try to keep you updated on which bills are signed and which bills do not get passed. The next thing I have for you, and I don't know uh I don't know exactly how this is going to work yet, but we were approved for two waiver days. Um originally, I applied for all five calendar waiver days. However, some of our days were nontraditional instructional days. Non-traditional instructional days. those days
084do not qualify for the waiver because those are work days for the employees and you can't exempt them from work days which is what Dr. Combmes was talking about when we submit our calendar and we submit our alternate plan. I'm going to recommend that we have our non-traditional instructional days upfront. >> So if we get into the heart of winter again like we did this year and we miss school and we have a waiver opportunity, we can get all the days waved. Does that make sense? That makes a lot of sense. >> Um, and that's all I have for updates. If you have any questions on that. >> Yeah. Do you think that the um the reduction in hours the days from what 180? >> You think that'll trigger a teacher pay cut, you think?
085Or is that just maybe just >> I do. >> Have they signaled anything about that? have to move to that calendar, however you want to call it, but they still would have 200 day. >> This policy says there days is eight hours. So if you divide, 1600 by eight, it's 200 days. It's an option, but teachers will not work less days. All right. Any other questions? Item number 10 is old business. Do I have a motion? May made a motion. I have a second. Second. Mr. McNed. Ollie, you want to take over on all the >> In the old business, we have the policies that are out for second reading. Proposed policy revision 2275, the Mountaineer Challenge Academy. Proposed policy revision 2340 field co-curricular and other extracurricular county sponsored trips. Proposed policy revision 3139.01 suspension.
086Proposed policy revision 4139.01 suspension. Proposed policy revision 4160.02 O2 physical examination/qualifications for school bus operators proposed policy revision 511 eligibility or resident non-resident students for enrollment proposed policy revision 5113.02 O2, school choice options. Proposed policy revision 5136, personal electronic devices. Proposed policy revision 5410, promotion, acceleration, placement, and retention. All of those are on second reading. Item J is special meetings for the LSIC end ofear presentation. Proposal is June the 3rd, 2026 at Poconus County High School. The schools to present would be Greenbank Elementary and Middle School and Poconus County High School. Times would be 4:30 and 5:15. June the 10th, 2026 at Marlington Middle Schools. Schools to present would be Hillsboro Elementary, Marlington Elementary, and Marlington Middle. Times would be 4:30, 5:15, and 6:00 p.m. >> Any questions? All those in favor signify by saying
087I. Motion carries. Number 11 is new business. Do I have a motion? >> Mr. Mcomes made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. McNab second. Okay, Ali, it's up to you. In the new business tonight, we have approval of the fundraisers, approval of outofcount, out ofstate and overnight field trips, discussion and approval of the proposal for critical response group. Discussion and action make retroactive the contract for service between Poconus County Schools and Jeff Wayne for water testing and wastewater monitoring. Discussion and action proposed policy 3433 vacation first reading. Discussion and action rural utilities service project grant for distance learning and tele medicine. Opinion of council grant amount requested $914,150. The local match would be $137,123 to be paid from step 7b. Total project budget would be $1,51,273. G is
088permission to post extra duty assignment wastewater operator for Poconos County High School. Discussion and action major improvement project grant for the schoolboard authority Marlington Middle School roof total project cost and local contribution from unrestricted funds of $350,000. Approval of the schedule levy rates as listed below for the fiscal year ending June the 30th, 2027. Class one would be $19.40. Class 2 is $38.80. Class 3 is $77.60. Class 4 is $7760. And then the list of the R of written noticed to retire 2026. >> Any questions? >> Yeah, let's talk about the critical response group, please. >> Okay. So, if you'll turn to item C in your packet. >> Okay. to >> the critical response group is on the state contract. And um we have to get floor plans for each of our schools done. And
089this is the group that's going to do that for us. And then we get reimbursed through and I don't remember what the house bill is. There's a house bill that reimburses us for this cost that it's paid for. Once we we get it done, we pay for it. We submit it and then we get reimbured for it. And this is a state contract. >> So it's >> it's required by law. We have to have it done by September. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And it's they did fund this one, which is really I I really like it. And they're going to do um they're going to do the visit. They're going to do the maintenance. They're going to walk the schools. As you can see, we're going to get drone imagery there. >> Um it's something
090that we really need. Dr. Do you want to say anything on this? >> 3166. So 30 I believe it looks like that's what it is. >> 3166. >> If anybody wants safety mapping >> um they'll use fun technology map schools. The gentleman that presented he'll actually physically come to our county to assist with that process. From that we can build whatever city policy we need to do. We could utilize that to better defeat it. Um following anything in the building that money and we own the blueprints. Yeah, they use um I thought I have on my desk system and everybody all the personel all you know be trained in how that system is how you read it to respond. There was an situation in any of our buildings. I thought the gentleman did a really
091nice presentation >> and um Bill Ben Brown from what from emergency services in the county there and he submitted the letter approving muscular question. >> Any other question? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Board members remarks. Mr. Gibson. >> Oh. Uh, I'm h I'm happy. Um, you know, we're moving through the winter. We're halfway through March. Springtime is here. Maybe we won't have any more snow days. That'd be great. Um, I was really sorry to see the girls get defeated at championship last week. That was a real bummer. I'm glad they had the experience. I think our staff and our teachers are doing a great job. Dr. Williams, you're doing a good job. Miss Combmes, you're doing a great job. Miss Hammonds, you too, Olly. I wish Dr.
092Sue would come back and visit us and get back to work. Good to see her out. That's all I have, sir. >> Mr. McNab, >> I just want to want to wish uh Dr. Son speed of recovery. U hope everything works out and just let her know if she's missing or whatever she anything she needs, we're here. >> Yeah. >> U as a boy, as a community, as a group. Uh other than that, just uh keep plugging along. Like I say, there's challenges every day and and we'll take them one at a time as they come. >> Mr. McCall, >> just happy springs here. Yeah, >> it's good. >> We found a last snow day. So, >> last windm >> like Mr. Gibson said, I hope this is our last snow day. >> Yeah, hopefully.
093Hopefully. Hopefully, it is. So, these kids can get out of school to read for time. We don't have to turn the air on too much. >> I think our school system is headed in the right direction. I feel really good about it after what we've been through and where we're at right now. And a lot of that's contributed to you and and the board, how we vote, our staff, our teachers, our custodians. And you know, if they hadn't bought in, we wouldn't be where we're at today. >> A thousand plus. >> So they have they bought in and done a terrific job. And we got it going in the right direction. And people are noticing. Look like Mr. Armagas was here earlier. He reads the paper. He saw what was happening and that's It's coming
094around >> and of course the support of this board makes a difference too. So you have to pat yourselves on each of you for all your support >> you remember what I said there when we got back to Charleston that day. It's a proud day to be a warrior. It's a great day to be a warrior. >> It is. >> Okay. This meeting will not be adjourned, but will be reconvened at the board of education meeting at the next board of education meeting on April the 7th, 2026 at Pocahontas County Board of Education conference room at 6:00 p.m. That's a change from before. Whenever we had to vote on these taxes before, we always had to come in and do it at 8:00 in the morning. >> Yeah. got our information for you right at
095the state department. We're >> trying I mean I I go to come in at six o'clock in the evening but we did we always had to come in 8:00 next morning and there had to be three of us. >> Uh yeah we have to have three but I I I was pristine for years and it's okay if they come in at time. I mean I I broadcast the board meetings for years when I was technology director. >> Yeah. I mean I I didn't know that you know that's what we had to do. I just wondered what had changed. I think we had a good meeting. >> We're going to shut us off.