00126 to order. All members are present. Stand for the pledge of 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. delegations. We don't have any. Okay. Recognition. And it says none. School improvement updates. Presentation of PCHS spatial circumstances review and spatial education and benchmark data. >> Is that? >> Yes, please. Um, we will not be doing the benchmark data, but I did want to do >> [clears throat] >> So tonight, I wanted to take this opportunity to speak to the community and update the community and the board on several critical matters. the status of our special circumstance review at Pocahontas County High School, the 2025 LEA compliance specialed
002monitoring report, and the current state of emergency for Pocahontas County Schools. On July 1, 2025, I officially began my role as superintendent of Pocahontas County Schools. However, my work with the district began approximately one month prior as I participated in weekly status meetings and updates related to Pocahontas County School High School and Pocahontas County schools. These meetings were facilitated by Dear Drain, our WVDE support specialist. It quickly became clear through those discussions that the county was facing a significant crisis. >> [clears throat] >> and that the challenges at the high school were were not isolated, but rather symptomatic of broader systemic issues within the district. This evening's presentation is intended to provide the board members and the public with an overview of the key areas of focus for each of these circumstances and to outline
003how identified non-compliance indicators have been addressed over the last seven months. Before we delve into the good, the bad, and the difficult realities surrounding our state of emergency, I would like to begin with the following quote. Our greatest glory is never our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. A powerful quote attributed to Confucious highlights the true character of success as it defines the resilience in the ability to recover from setbacks as a community and as a school system. Failure is not a permanent state but an opportunity for us to grow and learn. I'm providing you this update tonight because on February 11th, I will go back before the West Virginia Board of Education and the West Virginia Department of Education to discuss our progress and how we
004are moving forward and they will again vote on our status as a school system. So, I think it's important before I go and speak to the state board of education, I provide our local board of education with an overview of the things that we've accomplished and um where we go moving forward. So, I have on our slide here today stronger together. >> It's LEAP special, >> local education agency. It's another word for board of education. Okay. um stronger together. When you enter an organization that's in a crisis, you have to figure out how you pull together as a team. And that's what we needed to do to overcome the circumstances. We had to pull together as a team. So stronger together has been our theme since day one. So the first thing I did when
005I came to the school system and I started working with the central office staff and they'll remember this and I really use this at every single professional de development I have done from the beginning of the year and I think Mr. McNab was there for a couple of those and Mr. Grimes and I talked about random acts of improvement. It wasn't that we weren't doing anything good. It's that we weren't all pulling together. So we had arrows going in different directions. Some of them up, some of them down, some of them east, some of them west. So when you're looking at organizational leadership, you have to figure out a way to get everyone moving in the right direction. So improvement acts are a coordinated approach with a playby-play plan, clearly defined roles and responsibilities. So
006I chose another quote by Henry Ford. You can tell I'm a history major, right? Um, coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. And we have experienced a lot of success working together. So, I want to give a little bit of background because I think a lot of people don't understand when the state of emergency started. So, the West Virginia Department of Education conducted a special circumstance review of Pocahontas County High School beginning October 22nd, 2024 at the request of the county superintendent. The review examined compliance with state law policies, evaluated policies, evaluated student school and county performance and verified report data through interviews, documented reviews, classroom observations, and transcript analysis. So what that means is they interviewed all the teachers, probably interviewed the board members at some point in
007time, prepared a report on all the circumstances of what they were told and what they observed. So, Pocahontas County High School was alle compliance in it five areas. The comprehensive school counseling program, grade transcribing and scheduling, leadership, positive and safe environment, and special education. And I am proud to say that we have addressed each of those very thoroughly. So I'm just going to read um the top part which is the non-compliance and the corrective action that the West Virginia Department of Education recommended and under the liaison at that time which would have been um dear decline those things were worked a list of those things were completed and put into place. So compliance number one is an annual comprehensive school counseling plan um has not been developed or coordinated and implemented a counseling program designed
008to address student needs. The most recent counseling plan at that point in time was from 2223 and it was in violation of West Virginia board policy 2315. Next thing was at the beginning of the review a process to develop student peps was not in place. Um PEPs are an essential component of developing a studentdriven master schedule. Those two things were what we were out of compliance. So we didn't have a plan of how we were going to address student needs and the plan for students on how they will graduate as they progress through high school was not in place for students. So I think it's really important down here at the bottom um interviews revealed uh that advisement including helping students explore available services, set educational and career career goals, select programs and study and
009make course choices has largely been handled by home room teachers. So we're going all the way back to 22 23 23 24 25 and now we're in the current school year. At that point in time, the home room teachers, not the counselor, was developing the pet plans according to this report. So, corrective action was to develop a data-driven professional counseling standards plan. So, data from the students, data from what the needs were the school were, they were to develop a plan. So our plan this year, our counseling plan addresses attendance because we had 48% of our students chronically absent. We have an emotional and social support specialist there in Lois Wilon for our CIS that is primarily overseeing that part of the plan and the attendance initiatives. Um, school leadership will create a yearly review
010of the pet plans. And in order to do a yearly review of the PET plans, you are to have parents come in and meet with you to do the pet plans. That's what we did with our students. We went in, sat down, and said, "Well, my student wants to take this, but I think they should take that." We talked about it, worked it out. So parent input at the fundamental level is at the school level and that's where they meet with the counselor or whoever is working with the PEP plan. So parent input and transparency starts at the school level. So the next thing that we had and we had a tremendous amount in this area is grading, transcribing and scheduling. And one of the first things I did to address that was I reorganized
011the county office and I put an ace, one of the best technology people I've ever seen, Miss Christy Hammonds in charge of weas and she is so excited about his role and responsibility. [laughter] One staff member had been tasked with transcribing grades and inputting the master schedule into Weas. The team that came in determined the school principal central office staff lacked the experience and the expertise to effectively oversee these processes. And I think if you remember the kids came to school and they were there without a schedule for a couple of weeks. Interviews confirmed the school's master schedule and individual student schedules were not prepared before the start of the school year. School staff indicated that central office staff instructed them to stop working on the schedule at the end of the 23 24 school
012year. Teachers and administrators created the school schedule after students reported at the start of school. So the schedule wasn't even worked on until the students reported to school. Review of WEA data revealed inconsistencies in course codes and the naming of courses creating potential issues with college admission, scholarship applications, and collegic athletic eligibility. What that means is legitimate courses in Wevas, you get a course code that makes that course legal and what was on their report card did not match. They didn't match first semester, second semester. there was variations of transcribing that had occurred and I actually looked over some of those transcripts when I got here personally. Um teachers did not uh articulate a consistent process for making changes to grades once they had been transcribed. The absence of a clear and consistent process has
013created a potential for teachers to be influenced to change transcribed grades. So what that means is there was no process and it was in violation of actually policy. Uh law and policy says that you can only change a student's grade if there's a calculation error. There's no other reason for changing a student's grade. It's illegal otherwise. And a parent can't influence you to change a student's grade if there's not a calculation error. Interview comments and evidence provided indicates that teachers may have changed transcribe grades based on pressure from parents and not because of a grading error. That's in violation of West Virginia code 18-5-46. Staff expressed the school's approach to credit recovery has been insufficient to meet the students needs. staff members share credit recovery concerns including conflicting guidance, lack of communication, inaccurate or incomplete
014records and poor instructional quality. So points of non-compliance under that area uh evidence indicates students a student was transcribed inaccurately transfer credits. Interview comments and documentation suggest this may have been intentionally and not as a result of a grading error. So grades were being changed not because of an error but because of influence student plans were not completed and student schedules were not prepared in advance for the 2425 school year. The school principal could not release transcripts for prior graduates due to lack of access to the system. No school policy existed for grade changes and one staff member informally made grade changes in the past based upon informal verbal or email requests by administrators. So that'd be like just walking by and say, "Hey, Mr. McNab, can you change Oie's grade from a C to
015a B?" And there's no evidence that that happened and the conflict of information there. So leadership was the next area that we had to focus on. Central office supports for the principles have been inadequate to meet the needs of the beginning school leader um and to ensure overall success for the school. During interviews, a culture of shared ownership for student success was not evident. Many interviews many interview response indicated that school had been without a cohesive vision, a lack of a mission. Staff members and leaders expressed the need for high quality professional learning in areas of WEVA, scheduling, transcripts, policy and procedure development, and leadership capacity. The team discovered that district leaders did not visit schools on a regular basis. Several staff members shared concerns about retaliation and host hostility from the central office. In
016the absence of a comprehensive scheduling procedure, there was no master schedule ready prior to the first day of school. point of non-compliance. Evidence including failure to provide appropriate mentor. At that point in time, there wasn't been a mentor. According to this report for the high school principal, a team to determine a lack of clear and focused learning mission, a comprehensive system of monitoring and support does not exist between the district staff and the school leadership. And this actually is validated in our federal programs because we haven't given um feedback on our strategic plans. So, we had to work on that. and evidence from interview response indicate a lack of communication between central office leaders, school administrators, and school personnel. Area four was a positive and safe school environment. And I think this is one that
017concerns me the most. Um, I was kind of surprised when I went to Pocahontas County High School and I learned that students had the door access code. Like everybody had the door access code. So if you're between classes, you just punched it in. I mean, that's a true breach of security and safety. The team observed safe and appropriate student behavior and positive interactions between the staff. During the first on-site vis visit, which occurred October 22nd, 2024, the principal relayed she did not have access to review the cameras for special education. The school crisis prevention and response plan was was submitted on time. However, the Department of Homeland Security reviewed it and it was returned August 13, 2020 2020 2024 for revisions. As of October 22nd, 2024, the required corrections to the plan had not been
018submitted. During interviews, the team learned that the school secretary's computer was accessible by others during the day because her password was saved. Accessing all the student transcript grades and all the attendance data. Points of non-compliance. School disciplinary protocol is not consistent schoolwide and may not provide appropriate interventions for support and positive safe school environment. School access and security measures are insufficient, which I just told you one of those that was insufficient. Hallways were not clear. Students didn't go to class. Bathrooms were vandalized. There was a whole plethora of things that was about safety. The school crisis prevention and response plan has not yet been revised. No. >> And student information was potentially accessible to unauthorized personnel based on unsecure access to the secretary's computer. and then the catalyst for what led to the rest of
019the county's intervention. So, Pocahontas County High School and special ed at Pocahontas County High School was ground zero for the county. So, when we are looking at IEPs, five IEPs were reviewed for service verification, zero verified. So that means pulled five IEPs looked at service. Those services will not be able to be verified in those IEPs. IEPs are not uh reviewed within 365 days. You have to do that. So they were not those that were pulled. Parents and students are not being informed of a student's 17th birthday and the transfer of educational rights. That wasn't being done. At the time of the review, the principal did not have access to self-contained videos. Again, back to the special education cameras. At the time of the review, the school did not have a student assistance team process
020established to support success and there are no procedures to ensure special education services are in place for transferred students. So, what happened after this review? What did you go through? When did it start? How how did we address that? So, I'm going to pull up um a Pocahontas County categorized and prioritized list that was completed by Dearra Klein, our West Virginia Department of Education support liaison. And I'm going to just highlight a few areas because there has been substantial work done at Pocahontas County High School. Even from the beginning of the year when I started as superintendent to now, it is a completely different learning and cultural environment. So the first thing that she started working on on March 20th was testing and communication. Then she started looking at at risk students, academic contract expectations
021for students that were DNF. You have to pull those and notify parents. Um, she also started looking at senior credit recovery contract meetings. Then she moves on to the LSIC agenda process because the LSIC wasn't functioning appropriately at the high school. She goes on to working on the cameras and starting that price process and making sure the crisis plan was in place. review, drill, correction, submit to Department of Homeland Security um March the 28th with our new school safety officer. We still have some lockdown procedures that haven't been practiced at the high school. We're going to have our very first safe schools training with I love you guys on February the 16th and I would like to invite all of our board members to attend that. It will be countywide, bus drivers, cooks, secretaries, teachers,
022principles, so that if we have a situation, we are ready to lock down and we are all on the same page. Again, back to that theme of being stronger together and building capacity. >> What's the date on? >> February the 16th. >> High school. >> At the high school in the auditorium, just like at the beginning of the year, 9:00. [laughter] Um the central office will communicate consistently with school leadership. She started working on those communication forums. Principles will have access to the teacher evaluation system. Principles will have access to the communication platform. If we move on down to student services, they started immediately with reviewing senior transcripts. They thoroughly checked, revised, and made revisions approved. Have a paper trail in place for how we look at transcripts for our students now. that is now
023an artifact that we have and and something that will last a long period of time. Looked at beautifification of uh grounds and did central office walkthroughs. Now, now we're starting this uh round two of priorities. When we get to school culture July 3rd, I've been on the job for two days. Now, now we're talking about me, talking about myself and Miss Klein and how we work together to uh transition me into my position so that I knew what was going on so that we continued the same great work and there wasn't a conflict. We were working together, stronger together. So on July 3rd, um we walked through every single school in the county. We identified areas of needs of improvement with the principal. Um, and some of the needs of improvement that were already underway
024at Pocahontas County High School was the office area and the bathrooms. The other area that we had to address was we had a special education self-contained classroom that did not have the appropriate bathroom facilities and was not located in the best of places. It wasn't in the mainstream of students. So, we had to move those. Those were get this done before school started under the state's guidance. And the central office was also here. And here's what's going on with the central office. Why we had to redo the central office. Confidentiality was an issue. When Dr. Colmes is talking on the phone about a personnel issue, she should have some privacy. When Mr. Anderson is talking about a special ed issue, he needs privacy. When Oie is talking about as the coordinator of personnel, what you
025need to do for your certification, she needs privacy. When I'm in my office meeting with an angry pant, which I have done, um I need some privacy. So, we have to respect the confidentiality not just of the workers in the office, but of the people that come in to work with us in the office. Um final grade disposition, monitoring transcripts. We started that paper trail grade change process, PEP process and timelines, bail schedule ready before May 2nd. Uh semester test schedule was created, transcribing grades, credit recording, permanent record process, all those paper trails have been put into place, special education schedule, blend it within the master schedule. If we go down here, club rotation schedule. Again, a transcript uh request process. Uh beautifification of interior building classrooms ready before the first day staff arrived for
026the 2526 school year. Maintenance projects projections. So, I want I want to be clear that our maintenance staff, [laughter] they were stressed out, but they pulled it together. We painted, I think, five classrooms at Pocahontas County High School. We painted the gym. We redid the gym. I mean, it was work 24/7. And I'm eternally grateful for all of the support that I received from our facility staff, our maintenance staff, and our custodial staff that we uh advertise for. New exterior numbers system was put into place. syllabus creation for all of our courses, special education process for IEPs and 504s. I believe I came to the board, we had an assistant principal that was an athletic director, and I came back to the board and I said, "Hey, we need some help. We need an assistant
027principal that oversees IEP compliance. That has made all the world of difference separating those two positions out." I think Mr. Anderson will concur with that. attendance incentives and celebrations. So, while our attendance hasn't improved at the high school as much as it has at other schools, we've gone from 48 to 32, which is an astronomical improvement for that school. >> 48. >> Mhm. Um, new camera systems put in place. We now have all of our cameras on the same dashboard so that we can look at them, we can see them. I mean, we have moved up in the world according to technology and I I I feel like we're right on the right path. We have anything else in this one, Christie? I don't think nothing else is highlighted. Now, I'm going to pull up
028the central office list. So, this was the central office to-do list. Um, like I said, I started setting in on the central office meetings and um, I will say my first meeting with the central office staff was pretty ominous. There was not a lot of smiles in the room and I was so excited to be superintendent [laughter] and now they're all smiling, but there was not a lot of smiles in the room. So, I think we've had a cultural shift and we're a team here. We got each other's back. We're out in school. It's changed the the atmosphere of this board office has changed. So, um we developed a a mission. It's on our actual agenda. We have our core beliefs and our goals. We work with the board on that. We have letterhead that
029you got to vote on and you got to pick. That makes us kind of a very official. Um we have an employee handbook. We have established a county safety meeting and we have processes in place moving forward. You get the gist of it. We've done a lot at the central office. We have transformed our the way we work together, our climate, how we feel about coming to work. And that has translated into how we feel about going to our schools and serving our schools. I have been at the school no less than probably nine times a month. I take Julie sometimes. I take Phillip sometimes. I take Rhonda sometimes. Sarah, Ollie, we all get up and we go to our schools because we believe in them and we're here to support them. You want to
030pull the presentation up. [clears throat] >> What was that? Absentee draw 48. >> 48 to 32 I believe was the last report. Okay. 35. So 48 to 35. Great. >> So I want to stop right here for the board. That's um Pocahontas County High School. That's where everything started and that's where we had our greatest need. Are there any questions about the state of emergency or that part of the presentation before I move on to the next series of things that's occurred? >> Get any you get any check marks for doing anything right at that time? We talked about everything wrong. Are we doing anything at all >> in that report which I have included in your agenda? There wasn't a great amount of praise. Um, and the reason there wasn't a great amount of
031praise is because we had a culture and a climate issue, a pro protocol and procedures. But I will say there's great things going on now. >> Yeah. >> We're not defined by where we were. We're defined by where we are and how we move forward. So there's great things going on in our school. >> So um I'm superintendent for um I don't know I think it was July 5th. Uh, I called President Grimes and I said, "Uh, President Grimes, we're in a bad situation. [laughter] I've heard this rumor about a report and we're we're under state intervention. We're in a state of emergency." And um, we need to we need to we need to get a plan together. And President Grimes, as he always does, he said, "Well, okay. Let's talk about it and see
032what we can do." [laughter] And I said, I'm going to contact the state department through our West Virginia liaison and I'm going to go down and ask them because I'm a new superintendent to give us time to fix what's not right. So on July 11th, President Grimes, myself, the West Virginia Department of Education liaison Dearra Klein, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Kelly, Executive Director of Accountability, Alexander Croner, and Executive Director of Special Education Sheila Pel. We went to debrief our 2025 LEA compliance monitoring report for special education. It was not good at all. And I did not want to acknowledge it wasn't good sitting there. I was I put on a very brave face, but I knew there was a lot of work ahead of us and that we had to buckle down. So on August the
03313th, I was invited back to the West Virginia Department of Education to present a plan for how we would address our issues moving forward. And at the risk of sounding a flip, President Grimes did tease me the whole way about being on TV, and I was pretty nervous when I went there. But um they gave us six months to correct our problems. Um at first we had to have all of our um non-compliance indicators corrected by October 3rd. I emailed them. I asked them if we could have till December 3rd. And December 3rd by that time we had I think right before November we had all of our stuff indicators uploaded. Mr. Anderson. So they gave us six months. So I want to start off with what happened on July one and where we were
034in the central office because I think it's important to see what the situation was and the work that's gone into it. So we had a new chief school business officer I had no special education director, so I had to be the special education director. No personnel and technology director, so I had to assume the role of personnel and technology director. No accounts payable, so the new chief school business officer had to do her new job and her old job. Uh PCHS school schedule was not completed. Students had not received their schedules by the be at the end of the year. And um board members were pretty tough on me. They asked me when those schedules were going out on a regular basis. So I was really stressed out about getting those schedules out. Um two
035grade levels of transcripts still had to be checked and reviewed. It was our lower grades. They weren't the our crisis grades. Attendance was not being handled properly. I went to Miss Klein, our support specialist, and I said, "Can you take this off of my plate? can you get something in place at Pocahontas County High School where we are taking attendance every morning in every classroom and she worked on that process. Diplomas had not been handed out after graduation. So diplomas I actually um sat here in the office with directors and the principal and mailed out the diplomas after I had already taken my job. Report cards had not been mailed. um gym project was not being managed. I think Mr. McNab looked at me at the very first meeting and said, "What do you know
036about the gym?" And I'm like, "It's my first day. I don't know anything about the gym." [laughter] Talk about some pressure. But I did get on that. I had something at the next meeting. Um facilities projects, PCHs, office remodeling and bathroom remodeling had not been completed. So, I made that a priority on July 3rd. And I want to give uh Director Gibson a shout out because that was a holiday. And when I said, "Will you work on a holiday for me?" He said, "Why not?" And we spent a whole day walking through schools. Um, and it was a good day. It was a good day of bonding. Special education self-contained room was non-compliant. We had to find a new place for that. Talk about a hard task being a new superintendent in the school system
037and asking a teacher to move out of their classroom. That's a big deal. I teachers are attached to classrooms. So that was a real big deal. We had no athletic director, no athletic trainer. Sports was getting ready to start. And being new to a county, I know that football has to start on time. So there a lot of searching, a lot of begging. We found an excellent athletic trainer to help us out. Mr. grounds help me with some names in the community. Um, state job application platform was not being used appro appropriately. So, random people from all over the state would just send me an email, hey, I want to apply for this job. I'm like, apply in frontline. So, I'm just doing what I naturally know the right process to be, apply in frontline.
038And it's kind of upsetting the apple cart because people are just used to sending an email and Miss Barkley's in my office. Did you get an email? Did you get any? I'm like, why? Why you asking these questions? [laughter] She said, "That's the way we do it around here." And I said, "Girl, we're going to do it a different way around here." They have to apply online the appropriate platform. Notifications that there was a special ed monitoring that may lead to county intervention. So, this is all within the first five days on the job. These are all the things that were put on my plate within the first five days of the job. Again, I go back to this. I went home and I told my husband, I said, "I am a school improvement specialist.
039I have done this. We can do this. If we can get our arrows going in the right direction, if we can get an aligned system, we can overcome this. But the first thing I have to do is let the people of this county know how happy I am to be here and that I love them, I'll support them, and we will move through this together. So the first act was building a culture of inclusiveness, a climate of value. And I didn't start at teachers. I started with bus drivers, cooks, custodians, board members. We set the house on fire with Larry Bell. He bonded us. And in that moment, we remembered who we were and why we were educators. And I think it gave us the momentum to move forward. So, I brought all the teachers
040in on August the 21st, and I really believe this, and my husband can tell you I'm pretty forgetful sometimes. So, I'm like, I'm not doing this in small pockets. Everybody gets to hear the same information at the same time. And I think Mr. McNab was there that day. So, the West Virginia Department of Education, our support consultant, we reviewed what we had to work on. If everybody doesn't know, you can't be a T. So, I'm going to kind of go over those. I want to go over some vocabulary first. For the 2425 school year, 17 LEAs were monitored as part of the cyclical monitoring during that school year. So that in LEA 17 other districts were monitored. Three service verifications were completed at each elementary, middle, and high school visited by an on-site team totally
041nine service verifications per district. That's part of the monitoring process. Last year, 155 random individual student files were reviewed for service verification in the state of West Virginia. So that's what what services are they going to get. So, two words that we need to know and two colors we need to know as we move through this presentation. If you see it in the black color, it's compliance. Means you did a good job. It was right. If you see it in the red color, not a good job. It's a problem. So, those are two things, compliance and non-compliance. So, when I say non-compliant, we weren't doing it correctly. So, statewide non-compliance for 2024 was 44%. So 68 of the 155 IEPs pulled, 44% were non-compliant. In the state of West Virginia, 56% were compliant. So that's
04287. So obviously the top number is your lowest value and your bottom number is your greatest value. So how many out of those are you getting? So, five schools were monitored in Pocahontas County schools during April 2025. A special circumstance review, eight new verifications were completed in April. Four at Greenbank, Hillsboro, and Marlington for a tw total of 12. Three at Marlington Middle and three at Pocahontas County High School. Non-compliant for PC for Pocahontas County schools was 89%. 89% of our IEPs that were reviewed were non-compliant. So that means that 11% were compliant. So only two students were getting the services that they should have been getting. So general foul review for the whole entire system. So now we're looking at the whole entire system. What was going on? What do we have to fix?
043What did they tell President Grimes and I we needed to work on when we were down there? The school year 24 25. So this is a general file checklist. So when they pull an IEP, they have this general file checklist and they check it for these indicators to see if you're compliant. And I just put that in there so you can see what it looks like. So data analysis for each LEA the WVDE calculated a percent of compliance based on the data collected. Compliance metrics includes adherence to the monitoring manual which is what I just showed you. That's the monitoring manual. The average compliance rate was determined by taking the compliance percentage from the LEA and calculating the mean. So you can just see here the files and how they were uh used the second
044month report for how many they were going to pull and second month report is what sets our enrollment. So what is a systemic finding? All items scores below 80%. So anything below 80% is a finding systemically in your organization. Methods for addressing systemic findings. things I had to do. I had to ensure we're done. That's me and our school system hearing. We had to amend our IEPs. We had to reconvene eligibility committee meetings or the IEP meetings. We had to issue memorandums andor clarifications. We had to conduct staff trainings and we had to provide monitoring services. So in supplementary services we were at a 40% it was a systemic finding. So when we look at these up at the top you'll see the indicator and it says initial placement parent consent and the number out
045beside that says how compliant we were. How good did we do on this? Zero files pulled were compliant. zero. So, we had no wet signatures and that means you signed in person on any of the IEPs that were pulled. We did not have the parent consent EFY services. Zero zero of the files pulled were compliant in our system. Prior written notice, which is the 8-day notice that says, "Hey parents, we're going to have a meeting in 8 days." We were only 33.33%. Evaluation procedures only 33.33% of the IEP board were compliant. Um placement extension with of participation with non-exceptional students and that's where we call integration into our classrooms. Um we were only 40% compliant. So we we didn't explain it and we weren't doing exactly what we said we were going to do. Annual
046goals specially designed instruction for student performance only 46% compliant specially designed in annual goal specially designed instruction for student performance. So I wanted to give you an example because that's kind of jargon like you don't know what that means specially designed instruction. So what does that mean? So, if you have a student that has a reading comprehension problem, this would be something you would do for that student. Given graphic organizers and guided practice, the student will identify the main idea and two supporting details in grade level non-fiction text with 80% accuracy. So, we're using a graphic organizer. We're helping them extrapolate information from the text, make meaning of it so they understand what they're reading is basically what that says. Math problem solving solving with the use of manipulatives and step-by-step modeling, the students will
047solve multi-step word problems involving addition and subtraction. So, we're going to use cubes. We're going to use something that's very concrete. We're going to teach them how to add and subtract with that in multi-step problems. A very tactile thing that some students are and then behavior regulation. Using a visual schedule and self-monitoring checklist, the student will transition between classroom activities with no more than one prompt four out of five times daily. As a principal, I had this I had this going on in my elementary school. I had about 290 kids in my elementary school and we had to prompt them. Some of them did not know how to move from one activity to the other without throwing a fit, for example. you know, pushing all their stuff in the floor. So, we we're training them
048how to be part of a group and how to interact with the group and learn. So, that's what that is talking about. So, supplementary services, we were 46% compliant. So, supplementary services are not identified appropriately within the ple. So, I want to say what a ple is because that's a hard word. A hard it has a special meaning. So, your present level of performance, where are you in your performance, where do we want you to go? That's what that's talking about. Present levels, impact statements. Um, we didn't have these in our plans. We didn't have why why are we doing this? What does this mean? Or they didn't align. So, we had to really look at that in our plans. Only 66% compliant. Special education services identified 73% compliance. Um, annual goals, observable, measurable, actionable
049actions for student performance, 73% compliant. So, if you notice so far, we've not met the benchmark to be in the black. We're still in the red. So, I think I put that one in there twice. So, here's our score. We were of all the indicators for the general foul review. We were not compliant in any of those indicators. Now, we got better in some of those, but we weren't compliant in any of them. This is the state. So, you can compare the state. The state's out of compliant on some of theirs. Some of the ones where we had zero, they had 60. uh that they had some down here like their their 8-day notice which is the prior written notice they had 82% compliance. We had 0% compliant. Um I'll put that one in our
050slides too. I don't know what's going on. The administrative findings um a formal determination that policy regulation and law or standard has not been followed. Administrative findings could be issued for an individual student, individual school or for the entire LEA. We had them for the entire LEA. It was systemic, it was systemwide, and then we had some that were just for the schools. So these are our administrative findings, instructional groupings, certification and case load, and the specially designed instruction is um under AF8. classroom management was under there, leadership, monitoring the schools, the school safety plan, crisis plans, FBA's be uh behavior intervention plans, and then we were out of compliance with our cameras after three warnings. I think we were on our third warnings for the cameras. So, what do we need to do? We
051need to develop and implement functional behavior assessments and behavior intervention plans. We weren't doing it. People said they didn't know how to do it. said they weren't doing it. They didn't know who who told them to do it. Then the report said, "We trained you on how to do it and you still say you don't know how to do it." Basically is what happened there. Um administrative findings, schoolwide concerns, grade level instruction, students are not receiving instruction align with the West Virginia College and career standards that were on grade level. So, hypothetically, you're at the high school, you're in 11th grade, you're on a program that has standards for fourth or fifth grade. That was one of our findings. Um, general educators, teachers reported that their input is often overlooked during IEP meetings. Least restrictive
052environments. Special education students are being grouped together with special education teachers during intervention periods, which is a conflict of LEA, the least restrictive environments. And then for students with disabilities, the preventative discipline program must include a tiered system of support and positive behavior interventions, PBIS. So again, we're going through the findings. An example of the finding is if a finding relates to staff training, a corrective action must be included. And this is where I came in cuz we had a plethora of findings that related to training that our staff needed training to know how to do things. So our first batch of corrections were due December 3rd, 2025. All the corrections has to be in place by July 12th, 2026. And we will be getting another on-site review. So, this will be fast. Um, superintendent
053actions taken July 1. July one, first day, new job, new agenda format, new seating arrangement. I moved right over there with the board members, my people. Um, proposed realignment of the central office staff. Um, we had to have defined roles and responsibilities. We created a website, a web page for each of the central office staff that has their stuff on it and what they do. And I think I think it's alleviated some stress. I think Miss Dunlap had a lot of jobs. Um July 3rd, we did a walkthrough of all the schools. Uh July 29th, special board meeting, we had to train the board on protocols, procedures, and how we operate. That was Dr. Paul, Jason Long, and Dear Japan. Uh July 2025, board of education with options of official letterhead. I presented that hired
054Lydia Young August 2025 release dates for midterms and report cards. So that was consistent countywide. Principals academy we had that from August 11th to August 13th included Furpa training to address those data issues and a debrief to special education monitoring. We had a teachers academy August 19th through the 21st. August 19th we provide data training for the Pocahontas County Board of Education. Uh, new staff training on August the 25th, special education teacher training on September the 2nd. August the 26th, principal debrief of the special education monitoring to take back to the school. August 28th, all staff training on relationships and understanding with Larry Bell. August 29th, principles were to debrief that information with their staff. That's August and July. September and October. September, we realigned the counseling service to move Missy Peele to PCHS two
055days a week in Dana Cutlup to PCHS one day a week and two days at Greenbank Elementary Middle School. So, the myth that there's not a counselor at those schools and they're not receiving counselor students and we are not compliant with the law is completely untrue. I proposed this plan to the West Virginia Board of Education on August 13th. Those things have been done and those ladies are doing a great job. posted through the SCESC for special education consultant and a special education compliance expert using special education funds is how we're paying for those. Those are funds that are allotted for those activities. Um September 16th presented updated job descriptions which was part of our thing uh our finding that we had to update our teacher job descriptions to include case loads and update our
056special education job description. and I presented those to the board and you approved those before I posted those positions. September 26, special meeting for finance report and budget overview uh for the renovations of the board office and I think Dr. Hollingsworth said Dr. Williams do everything in the schools first and then do the board office and that's exactly what we have done. Remember that. Um then we have established written protocols for curricular extracurricular trips, fundraising and lesson plans so that we can monitor those processes better. Special education PLC where they worked on 24/19 and did a 2419 study. October 7th presented board with the IEP file review checklist that we started reviewing with each of our schools. Um and we hired uh Miss Ruth Bland. She went around and used the IEP checklist and Mr.
057Anderson and um we started gradually working through all of our plans to make sure they were compliant. October 17th, we launched a volunteer training for our principles because they didn't have a formal volunteer training. Moving on to the November and December, November the 3, we had the CTE PLC where we looked at all of our student data. We talked about bubble kids. talked about relationships. We talked about reaching out to that kid that just needs that one person that doesn't have them at home to change their life, to change their score, to get them on the right track. November 4th, we had the federal programs monitoring. We had the prek monitoring. November 6th and 7th, we had a three-hour early out on co-eing training and specially designed instruction for all schools, all staff. November 14th,
058I visited all schools and checked with all principles to make sure they understand what we had been trained on. November 17th, I took a Strive conference to uh Lewisburg and that included our new director of special education, Philip Anderson, principal Jordan from Greenbank Elementary Middle, Laurel Dilly, math at PCHS, Crystal Lewis, teacher at special ed at Marlington Middle School, and Janette Wagber Wagner, our assistant principal at the high school. November the 18th, we had behavior and intervention plan and BIP training. November 19th, we had CHAMS training for classroom management procedures and protocols. November 11th through the 17th, we have a financial aid and completed a financial investigation at PCHS. December 22nd, 2025, we have a special meeting of the uh Pocahontas County Board of Education and debriefed that financial audit providing transparency to the public.
059On January 26th, all principles were trained by Miss Hammonds, the best trainer on grade transcribing. And we have that process. That's a lot. >> And all that has been done. Every compliance indicator has Now, are we perfect? Absolutely not. Are we on the right track? Absolutely. Do we have capacity and knowledge? Sure we do. and we're going to keep building and keep growing and keep getting better. Um, so I wanted to give you a time uh for questions and I want to tell you that my husband was driving me over Kenisonson Mountain and I'm like, "Stop the car. Stop the car." And this was absolutely one of the most beautiful scenes that I have ever seen. So, uh, Pocahontas County right there. Any questions, comments, concerns from the board of education for me? >> What
060do you think? What's your feeling of that? Are they going to need more work or you think they're going to release us or what's your feeling? >> I am hopefully optimistic that we have submitted everything and um that they'll say you're on the right track. We think you have the capacity. The board's moving in the right direction, but nothing is done until the board votes on it. So, tune in and hopefully on February 11th, the county will get new good news, the board of education will get good news and we will we will continue to grow and expand as a team. >> The state board has >> That's correct. And we are on the agenda. >> Any other questions? like to say thank you getting special ed straightened out because I we heard I'm sure
061for all of us heard from special ed teachers constantly what a mess it was but we were told it was perfect and they were disgruntled >> and I haven't heard anything and all this training all this stuff that special ed teachers have went through I haven't heard nobody complain about >> I would like to say that I feel like we as at Pocahontas County staff have made me proud. I'm their new superintendent, but I could not be prouder of the staff in this county and the work that they have done. And I could not be prouder of Mr. Anderson for stepping up and being my special education director and Heather Simmons being our special education secretary part-time. We are doing great things. Do you want to say anything, Mr. Anderson? and right here county land
062coming together to help you invest. So, it's been it's work work in progress. >> It's a good it's good work. It's valuable work cuz we're doing something great for our kids. I'd like to make one comment. I said, "Whenever you when you first started, we had to do seminars up at the high school." And I I attended those. >> I don't know how many of our staff come up to me and told me, they said, "We'll do whatever you all want. We just Nobody's ever told us what to do. >> They never had any direction. They had no guidance." And I think you since you come on board, you've given them that. And they I think they trust you and they believe in you. I know we do. >> Thank you. Thank you for that.
063>> And I I trust them. I believe in them because if I have been told once, I've been told a thousand times. We support you. We're here to pull together. We need help. Thank you for helping us. Thank you for the professional development. So, it has been uh a good work. It's been a work of the heart. >> It's a job well done. >> Thank you. >> You've done really good job. But, you know, the teachers have pulled together. >> They've done their part. custodians, the maintenance crew. It's took us all, it's took a community pulling together to get this to this point. >> Yeah. >> Uh I don't think any of us realized how bad things were whenever you come in. I mean, really, we you know, we wasn't told >> everything was good,
064>> but we knew we was hunting for a special individual whenever we was looking for a new superintendent. And I think hopefully we we was smart enough that that we knew when we found one because you fit the bill and you really you really brought everything to life and now we expect us from now on. You know that's the way it goes about that. You work better under stress. [laughter] >> I know. I was talking to President Grimes the other day and he said get to work. Go do your job. I'm like [laughter] okay let me get on now. But you've done a great job and we thank you as a board for it. [clears throat] >> Absolutely. >> I'd like to see some numbers now. >> This sounds we've done a lot. Can we
065get some Can we get some numbers on this these projects and things? >> Um actually I talked to Mr. Anderson. I said, "Can you give me a rough number? We have 167 IEPs in the county. a number of how many of those are in compliance or how many of them are in the rep or do we have do we have any glaring concerns Mr. Anderson. >> I know whenever I took this job October, didn't really get into it until November. There were over 200 at the red that were not compliant in the hospital. And today we have zebra. >> I think that's a that's good work right there. >> That'll be good on the 11. It will be, >> you know, they'll be glad though. >> And I think that we we I want to
066be clear, our IEPs were out of compliance, some of them, not just because of what was up here, but because we were serving our students four days a week instead of five. If you remember, I shared that data, and that's when we found that we were having our highest absentee rate. So, we have seen our absentee rate improve. And I believe um that that is evident of us serving our students five days a week. You really worked hard. Yes. >> Thank you. Every You've worked hard as a board. The county has worked hard. I mean, they were the nicest people when I put them out on those three-hour delays to do trainings. Um, they were good trainings and I think they went really well. So, thank you. >> We'll see what's said on the 11th.
067We will be there. Yes, >> that uh that state board meeting is also virtually. So you can any anybody that wants to go watch it can >> we can see it there. >> You can see it. It starts at 9:00 >> on the 11th. I think it's begins at 9:00. So anybody in Poconos County who wants to see that can go into the website and watch that. >> Maybe Ollie could pull the link down and send it on that day. It's the lines page. There's a link on there for the city of education. >> Okay. All right. Moving on. Consent agenda. Approval of the agenda. Approval of the agenda minutes for January 6, 2026 in a special meeting for January 9th, 2026. Payment of bills subject to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the
068board meeting. Payment of vendor listings 90,97843. Payment of the PC card 19,45936. January the 22,26 payroll employee payroll 274,750. We got an error right there. I don't know what it is. 75148. That's what I'm going to say. Sarah, you can look at it to see. It's got 7514.48. >> 274,75148. >> Okay. Got it. Thank you. >> Too many fours. Extra four was added there. >> Extra duty pay for January 2026 11,55203. Budget adjustments, budget transfers with supplements and subject to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the board. >> Do I have a motion? >> They move. >> Commes made the motion and Dr. Hollandsworth second that. Any questions? >> We need to pull the >> Extra duty. Okay. All right. Anything else? You got any additions or anything you want to pull from the
069agenda? >> Um on superintendent updates B8 uh athletic updates. I'm going to pull that. >> Okay. Is that it? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh we are going to pull out D extra duty pay for January the 20 2026 for 11,585203 and vote on it separate. We will be voting on everything else. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Motion carries. And now we will be voting on item D. And let the record show that Mr. Mcomes have recused himself from this vote. All those in favor sign by saying I. I. Motion carries. He can come back now. Personnel matters. Do I have a motion? Seven. Mr. McMah may have made the motion. >> Second. >> And Dr. Hollmssworth second it. Any questions on this one? Did you want executive session? >> Um,
070yeah. I'd like to have an executive session before we vote on all of the >> Is this this on a personnel matter, right? >> Personnel. Yes. >> Dr. Hollinssworth has made a motion for an executive session on a personnel matter. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNab has seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. Motion carries. and Mr. McNab second it. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. We come back out at 7:32. Okay. Ollie, do you want to read the personnel? >> Personnel agenda for February 3rd, 2026. Uh, professional Tessa Gum request to transfer from teacher of special education at Greenbank Elementary Middle School to teacher of fourth grade at Greenbank Elementary Middle School effective for the 2627 school year. Darlene Armagas requested transfer from
071teacher of special education at Popens County High School to CTE teacher business management at Pops County High School effective for the remainder of the 2526 school year only. uh of the following is substitute teachers for Poconos County high schools that stake basic professional salary for the 2526 school year as needed. Paul Murphy, Emily Sharp, and Britney Fence. Service recommendations is Terry S. Sharp for the custodian 3 at Poconus County High School effective February the 4th, 2026 for 102 days for the remainder of the 2526 school year and shall be 220 days each year thereafter. Angela Taylor has requested to be removed from the substitute aid list effective January the 22nd 2026. We have 21st century grant position contingent for an adequate number of students for the program. An additional teacher at Greenbank Elementary Middle School,
072Susan Ray, 21st Century Media um consultant and and technician would be Christy Hammonds. Paul Heel is the baseball coach for Popkins County High School effective 2526 athletic year. James D. Sharp as assistant basketball coach for the Poconus County High School effective for the 2526 athletic year. Aaron Pew requested for parental leave effective March the 10th 2026 through April the 30th 2026. >> Thank you all. >> Okay. Uh we're going to pull out Darlene Aras and we're going to vote on all the rest of them. Is that okay with everybody? >> Okay. Uh all those in favor signify by saying I. >> Okay. Darlene Aras request transfer from teacher of special education at Poconos County High School to CTE teacher of business management at Poconos County High School effective for the remainder of the 2526 school
073year. Do I have a motion on her to transfer her? >> We need a motion. Okay. Morgan has made a motion. And do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. Gibson second it. We are going to vote to leave her where she's at. >> Transfer. >> The transfer has been denied. All those in favor of trans the transfer being denied signify by saying I. Okay. >> I think just to go back. >> Yes. >> Think when you first read that you said a vote to transfer. >> Yeah. Okay. >> You you're >> I was I was just reading what was on here. >> I was reading what was on here, but the transfer has been denied on a vote of the board of education 50 vote. >> Okay. >> So, she stays
074as special education teacher at Pocahontas County High School. >> I think that's where the greatest need is. >> Well, yeah. that and we believe that's where the need is at. It's there because we're short-handed on special education teachers. Okay. Got to look where I'm at on the agenda because I don't know old business. A discussion regarding special circumstances review at PCHS. Do I have a motion? >> And skip. >> Did I skip one? Hey, member S. >> Oh, superintendent updates. >> Yes. Okay. So, and I don't need a motion for that, but you can just go ahead with that. So, >> Athletic guidance. Um, I have been getting uh a great deal of questions about when we add dollar coaches, when we don't add dollar coaches, can we have five dollar coaches? Uh, how many
075dollar coaches is allowable? So, I reached out to Chris Wells at the WVSSAC and he worked in Richie County and I asked him I said, "Well, what did you do? How did you handle this when you worked in Richie County?" So, he had given me what his ratio was. So, the ratios set forth herein is the guidance I'm giving are intended to guide rather than fix staffing mandates and may be adjusted as appropriate. As a general policy, athletic programs shall not assign a number of supplemental dollar coaches that exceeds the number of paid coaching positions. So, if you have one coach that's paid, you can have one supplemental coach. to be equitable in that you shouldn't have one paid coach and four supplemental coaches. So our policy, most of our policy said superintendent will give
076guidelines regulations. So that's that's the first one. And then I did some research actually spent a whole day doing this research looking at all national data. I gave you >> I got it. So for lowrisk sports, track and field, cross country, golf, tennis, I looked up what the recommended ratio is. It's one coach for 15 to 20 students. The head coach is responsible for ensuring that assistant coaches are appropriately assigned supervising athletics when they are dispersed across the large area or at multiple events. You see shouldn't see all the students here, all the coaches here. They should be assigned to task that they're going to do with specialized coaching for the various teams. Moderate risk teams which are basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball. The recommended ratio is one coach per 10 to 15 students. Again,
077the head coach is responsible for assigning the students appropriately during the drills, making sure that equipment is taken care of. For high-risk, high contact sports such as football, wrestling, and lacrosse, it is recommended that they have one coach for five to 10 students, multiple coaches are required for contact drills, live play, and scrimmages. One coach should not be responsible for supervising a large group of students during a high contact activities. The head coach is responsible for ensuring that assistant coaches are appropriately assigned. I mean, I understand that in football, even though I'm not a football scholar, >> I know that you have offensive coaches, defensive coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, and um from watching high school football, you know, they get back off the line coach. Um, and if there is additional staffing and there
078is specialized skill for any of these sports that they are brooding to it and they have a specialized skill, then that would be a reason to request a dollar coach. I took the WVSSAC safety expectation policy and I'm aligning this to guidance. I sent it up the framework up to uh WBSSAC. They do not advocate for it. They're not saying this is perfect, but they said that this looked like good guidance and that will be our guidance moving forward to for coaching and it will be placed on the superintendent's web page. Then the next thing I have on here um lots of discussion about this in the county, lots of questions about it and I did not have any guidance because I didn't know which calendar it was. But we've missed two days of school
079that we have to make up and I will I want to discuss it today. I'll put it on the next agenda. So our out of school environment days are March the 30th, March 31st, um April 1, April 2, April 3, and June 15th. So you can take those in any or order backwards or forward. For example, you could say we want to start with our makeup on June 15th. That'll be our first makeup day. Then the next makeup day will be uh April the 3rd, then April the 2nd and then April the 1st. Or you could say we want to start with March the 30th. Go to March the 31st and then skip down and go to June the 15th and still have three days of break. Any combination of making up those days is
080appropriate as decided by the board. And whatever you decide or you would like to do, I will put them on the next agenda for your approval. I just need some guidance on how to >> I think the kids would rather get out earlier than >> we have how many like >> professional learning days. >> Yeah, it is. >> Can we use professional learning days for >> We cannot. These five these six days are the days we can use for making up. Can't use Can't use faculty senate any of that kind of thing. >> I actually pulled the guidance right before I got here. >> So those are the days. >> Can't use professional can't cannot use that's off limits. Can we can we check with the staff and see what they would like to do?
081>> Okay. Do you want me to put out three or four scenarios and whichever one gets the most votes will. >> But Christy, make sure they can only vote. >> Yeah. Make sure they can only vote one time. >> Well, Dr. Colmes will be the one doing the survey, but she'll certainly collaborate with Christie. Yeah, [laughter] because last year when we picked this calendar, we had people voted 100 times. >> Yeah. >> And I think we have different >> goodies. >> Well, I'm sure they do, but you know, our our teachers are sometimes a little bit smarter than other people in other counties, so they know how to manipulate. When does the new calendar go on public call? >> Well, the new calendar, Dr. Cole sent the the committee uh collect uh Do you want
082to say something about that? >> So, I'm just now putting the committee together. Um based on recommendation from the principal, they can have one professional and service personnel and we're going to tenatively meet in two weeks and start the process. And >> so, it's what first of March or something? >> I think by mid March, >> early March. Okay. >> But I think that's the best way to handle that. How about you all? I mean, if we just let the staff because it it's not going to matter to us. >> Just just they don't they can't vote 100 times. >> Yeah. How >> about this? Because that can get a little cumbersome. >> Each school, you could put a vote for for what they would like to do >> and then we'll put those five
083things out there and they can vote and whichever school gets the most vote wins. >> There you go. Sounds absolutely great. >> Together we can work this out. We're strong together. [laughter] >> We're strong. >> Pretty good. >> But I I think it's up there. >> You'll be surprised when all five schools will want the same thing. >> There you go. >> Although it would be that hard to do, would it? Okay. >> Don't give up hope. >> Uh that >> no old business. >> Nope. I already did that. >> So we don't have to worry about that one. I only have to make a motion. New business approval of fundraiser approval out of county out of state and overnight field trips. C is discussion, review, and possible action. Energy Express contact contract cost for
084board of education 11,83911 plus $1,090 for Energy Express mentors to have breakfast and lunch, $1,9,9291. discussion and request to post $1 coach for baseball, $1 coach for softball, and two $1 coaches for track. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Dr. Hollinssworth made a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNab second that any questions on any of these. I will say this, the fundraisers are going to be closely monitored. >> Yes, sir. Um, Miss >> Miss Bland will be overseeing those in the entire process. She's the one that email them to us and I feel confident that she will take care of that situation. >> Can I ask your question? >> Yes, absolutely. Treasure, >> you will watch over this. >> Yes, sir. [laughter] >> I should say
085will you? I'm sorry if I because you know in the county right now we're getting a lot of friction. So we need to be very careful about fundraisers out there. Okay. >> Thank you, sir. Any other questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Board members remarks. Mr. McConn once again Dr. Williams for getting this 10 12 years of mess straightened out. You've been amazing in six months. >> I agree with Mr. McC. It's been a long time getting here and wonderful work to get it this far along in this short a period of time. and high hopes we're going to get it all cleaned up and keep it that way. >> Yes, >> Mr. Gibson. Um, happy about going back to school this week. >> Do we have any issues
086with the buildings? Everything was cool during that time. >> Everything was equipped. >> No, it's good. It's always good. Um, you know, I I think I want to I want to I want to stay on track with keeping up with our money. We like to have some accountability on some of these things we talked about tonight. Um, and I can get with you. I'll get with you on one. Yes, ma'am. Um, I'd like to send a big note out to our staff, you guys, Miss Cols and Sarah and all. You all done good work and I appreciate you. And uh that's all I have. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm really happy about the high schools um absentee rate coming down significantly. That's pretty good. I mean, that's a big deal. It's a lot of work there
087and that's all happened. >> M same thing as everybody else. I just want to thank Dr. Williams and her staff and our all all of our employees because all the work that that in the presentation tonight, it didn't just happen by chance. That's right. >> It happened with leadership, guidance, and everybody's buying and everybody working towards the goal to fix it. because I'm I I'll be honest with you whenever I first got into this position and it was actually the first night that it was brought about about the transcripts and all this stuff and I was embarrassed and sh ashamed. >> I mean it's but now I think we're headed in the right direction. We've got the right correct people making the right decisions. Uh and we'll just keep on going and thank him for
088everything you've done. All of you Dr. I I wish um Miss Jordan her sympathies I know it'll be a tough week for her to know that the board Jamie Brag too. >> James Yeah, I forgot about >> Yes, >> I forgot about Jamie. That's true. Uh you've done a great job. Not hardly a day goes by. sometime during the day that we don't have a conversation. [laughter] >> But over the time, if you look back from the last six months, them conversations have got better. >> Yes. >> They they've got better as we've come along. And I'm I'm happy with the progress we've made. And I asked any of you that wants to pray for us whenever we go down there. >> Yeah. >> Because we're going to need all the help we can get.
089>> Absolutely. [laughter] >> Hopefully. you know, the board office whenever we went for the redo, they all said, "We're gonna pray for you while you're gone." And it turned out to be a great meeting. So, [laughter] I'm glad that. And I'd also like to say, "Happy birthday, Sarah." [laughter] >> Sarah >> and we will not sing which will be [laughter] >> okay. We are our next board meeting will be February 17th, 2026 at the Ponas County Board of Education conference room beginning at 6 o'clock. We are here by