001January the 20th, 2026. All members are present. I stand for a pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. You want to read the rules there for us? >> According to the current policy on public participation at board meetings, there is a provision that the president grimes would like for me to read tonight. The presiding officer may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant's statement when the statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant. Two, he can request an individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decor. Number three, request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly
002person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progression of the meeting. Number four, call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public quorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such actions. And number five, wave these rules with the approval of the board when necessary for the protection of privacy or the administration of the board's business. >> Before we get into the meeting, I'd like to say something especially me and Frosty come into this two years ago, Frosty, a year and a half ago, and we was kind of blind by what we was seeing. And the other three board members that was on here at the time was fed a blanket of roses. They was told that everything was perfect. Now, a lot
003of people in the public knew that this wasn't perfect because they I got a lot of calls, and I'm sure Frosty probably did, too. But we really did not know what we was walking into. We had no idea how bad this was until the state come in and whenever they wrote up everything and then we got to see it along with everybody else, the general public and everybody else exactly what they found. But I can tell you this, for the last year and a half along with Dr. Williams, we have worked diligently to put this Poconus County Board of Education back on track. We have made numerous trips to Charleston, had meetings with the state department, went in front of the state board of education, and hopefully hopefully in February, we will get released from
004that. But it's hard to do whenever we come back to Pocahontas County and everybody's telling us what a bad job we're doing and how we shouldn't be doing things that has been recommended by the state. We have to do that. The positions that you're seeing, it's going to be abolished tonight. There's no study teacher in them positions. We're not cutting any AP classes. Not a one of them has a study. The social studies job I'm well aware of because my daughter taught there. She resigned that position two years ago. We have had that job posted ever since she left. We've never find a certified applicant for that job. >> Right. >> The business job we got in a long-term sub right now. That's, you know, whether he's doing the job or not, I have no
005idea. But what it is is a body in that class with it with abolishing impositions. Dr. Williams can get in a little bit more about how we are going to create different >> avenues would you say or different classes to make up for them positions uh that we think the kids of Pope County deserve. Now, we're not in this for the entitled few and we're not in it for the bottom few. We are entitled. worry in it for all the students in Pakanis County. Every one of them. You know, they start out in kindergarten and they go to the 12th grade and a lot of people expect them to all run the same race. Well, that don't happen because t kids have different abilities. They don't run the same race. Some of them require more
006help than others. But we're for all them kids. And I can tell you sitting on this board, all five of us, we've had discussion after discussion about it. We're for the children of Pope County. And I can tell you since Dr. Williams come on board, she's done a heck of a job and she's for the kids of Poconos County and we're going to get this thing turned around. But we need your help in doing that. It's not like going out there and saying we're abolishing AP classes. You know, whenever I was on the board before, several years ago, we put them classes in place. I wouldn't vote to abolish one of them because it saves parents in Pocahontas County 10 $15,000 when they their kids go to college. I'm not going to abolish that. We're
007not going to do it. And whenever it was up the last time to do that, I was running and campaigned against doing it. I'm not going to abolish them classes. And I don't think any of us would if we knew exactly what it meant. But I just want to state that before we get started because it is really tough whenever you come back and we hear all the stuff on Facebook about how the step we'd be better off if the state took us over. Well, let me tell you a little bit about what happens if the state takes us over. We'll have one school located somewhere probably around Pokers County High School. going to be hard to look at that little kindergartener coming off of Ceda Mountain at 6:00 or 5:30 in the morning or
008on top of Pendleton County and tell them they got to get on a bus and ride to the high school. So, that's what you're up against. So, we need to really work hard at keeping this school system in our hands. Okay. The first is it uh what's that mean? >> Rufus Morgan. Is that it? Hi, my name is Rufus Morgan and I am a sixth grader at Greenbank School. Um, I think that cutting the positions of vice principal, special education teacher, science teacher, fourth grade teacher, and counselor would not be a good decision because we are already struggling enough. Having Miss Schoffner increased scores in math, reading, and attendance. So even though she was a vice principal, she was also supporting students and staff. We do have teachers. We do have a science teacher and
009a fourth grade teacher, but they are both long-term subs. So, one, they could not be fully qualified for the job, and two, they could walk out any day, leaving the position open again. [snorts] We have counselors from youth health services coming every Wednesday to our school, but some kids, they could need counseling every single day. Our school has dealt with a lot of death, having a coach recently die, and um it could be hard for students to focus during school hours dealing with death. [snorts] Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Rufus. Amy Hey everybody. Um I'm Amy Henry Morgan. I'm a um parent at Greenbank. Rufus is my son. I also have a daughter who's in third grade, Luna. Um and really I'm here tonight so that um as a community and as
010a county, we're a huge county, right? So there's tons of information disseminated in different ways. Um, and I know being from the northern end of the county, people feel forgotten. Um, I think the same can be said for Hillsboro folks. So, there's we've got such this huge county and I think what we really want is transparency with the county budget. So, you're saying, "Okay, we're going to abolish all these positions. Then what? What's the plan?" We want to know the plan. We want to have it spelled out for us and in an easily readable online. Okay, everyone can read this and understand this because I'm on the website today and I'm not quite sure, you know, I'm trying to find this or trying to read this and yeah, there's the agendas and there's the minutes
011from every meeting and that's great, but I think we need to understand the plan, understand, okay, you went to the state, you went to Charleston, who did you talk to and who advised that you cut these positions and then what? Then what? You know, we're my daughter's going into fourth grade. I know that there are 26 fourth graders at Greenbank that have one teacher. So, 15 of those kids probably are not at the reading level that they should be or not at the math level that they should be. And so, they're going into fourth grade and what's going to happen? They're just going to keep falling behind. And then by eighth grade, are they going to hit the level? you know, Poconus County, all of West Virginia, all of our numbers are suffering. But what
012we saw when we had an assistant principal, and I know that's not the only position that we need, but when we had her, we had increased attendance. We had every single school grade, every every grade had increased reading, increased math, increased attendance. She helped with counseling. We needed that. We have four students that died in the last five years, which is insane for a small community. That is just awful. Then in December, a coach passes away. So like Rufus said, there are kids that need, you know, we have a shared counselor between Hillsboro and Greenbank and sometimes we have them two days a week. Usually we don't. If we're lucky, we get them one day a week. and that I know that you know we we are a small population and a huge county and
013therefore we don't have as many people applying for these positions but what are we doing to entice the graduates you know to bring them back to say this is where you want to work and this is the community that you want to live in and work in so I just want to know what our what your plan is so what the financial plan is what the budget is where this money is going to go if those positions are taken away. Um, I know no one's going to lose their job, but and I heard that the high school is going to get a new graduation coach, which is great, but what are the other options? Like, what else is happening? What are the positives that are going to come out of these um out of these
014cuts? Thank you. >> Dr. Le, you want to address some of that? >> You want to wait till the end of the delegation? We need to >> probably >> address her right now. >> Yes. Well, for your particular position, the assistant principal's job was part of your school improvement funding. So, the funding source for that position doesn't exist anymore. It's just like the ESSER funding that they talk about, they hired people that were temporary and that was always a position that wasn't going to be kept. As for your counselor, I have tried to recruit. I have tried to contract. I have looked high and low for counselors. It's not just a shortage here in Pocahontas County. It's a shortage across the state with counselors. It's an issue. It's the only certification that doesn't have um
015an alternate pathway. Is that correct? >> You need 60 extra hours and it's really hard to find. Yeah, I've like looked into that. That's like a state certification issue. >> Yeah. So I I'm not sure why that certification issue is like that because in other positions we can get teachers that apply for them and put them on permit and Ollie works on our certification but that is a position that we cannot put on permit is that >> okay and aside from that I realize that um the director positions that we have seven in this county I feel that some of that funding could be better utilized for this the teaching positions and I know that's not my job to decide who to delegate money to, but I feel that the central office has quite a
016healthy budget compared to these schools that are losing teachers. So, that was my last that was my last comment. Thank you, >> Willa Hardy. >> Good evening, board members, parents, staff, students, and community members. My name is Willa Hardy and I'm a sophomore at Pocahontas County High School. I'm here tonight as the sophomore class president, but more importantly, I'm speaking as a person who has a vested interest in this school system succeeding. I emphasize this last part because I want to point out that for the board members in this room, the decisions that you make daily are your job, something you chose and campaign to take part in. I have no such choice. The outcomes of meetings like this have an undeniable effect on the entirety of my future, which means that my peers and
017I have more at stake than anyone else. This point is applicable to anything this board does, but especially something as impactful as the loss of educators at my school. At the LSIC meeting on Friday at PCHS, Miss Bland was the first to inform the attendees that the end goal of these removals is to transition to a different schedule with completely different avenues for getting required credits. Despite the promised positive outcome that these cuts are to have on our school, how was it even suggested before getting staff and especially student input? I want to be in a school system where my voice is heard and valued, particularly when it comes to decisions that change the opportunities that are available to me. There are many resources available to you to get the opinions of others. Unfortunately, we
018have no student representative in place despite students best efforts, but you could have utilized the student council or the LSIC that are in place at the high school for this exact purpose. The final point that I would like to make tonight is that the claim that no one is losing a job as a result of these changes is something that I just strongly disagree with. We are not speaking about empty classrooms or positions that no one will fill. There are real people in those social studies and English posts. People who spend every day giving all that they can to help our students succeed. Long-term sub or not, they are paid employees of this county and they deserve the basic respect of recognition. I hope that we can all find agreement on the fact that anyone
019who serves in any of our schools, regardless of certification, is incredibly valuable and beneficial to our education system. Board members, I ask you to delay any vote involving personnel changes tonight until we can give students and staff the opportunity to understand and give feedback to any new proposals. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am. Josh Harding. >> Thank you all for your time this evening. Um, just wanted to let you all know that the high school LSIC met on Friday evening to kind of just understand um what was going on with the proposed staffing changes at the high school, specifically the elimination of three teaching jobs and the counselor position. And and I think kind of what came out of that meeting is is that this plan might be a a very good plan. I mean
020in the sense that um it could very well alleviate um inefficiencies in the scheduling um in staffing um and it could allow us to put our resources towards other uh other things that would be beneficial for the high school. However, I think what also came out of it is that there's kind of three big concerns that still remain as to whether this plan can actually work. Um the first uh uh uh concern is that the for in order for this plan to work to eliminate these positions and still have a manageable schedule at the high school, we're going to have to move to a block schedule and and that seems to be something that's very achievable and and that the teachers and the staff up there support and and in fact want to do. However,
021there there are still some very concerns that the state had issues with that at the beginning of the year that when we had proposed returning to a block schedule, which we had used, I think three or four years ago, the state put up some red flags on that. And so, if the state is again going to tell us no block schedule at the high school or or that's going to violate some policy of the state, then it would seem that this plan is is off to a very bad start. if the state does permit the block schedule, we're still then we have to have this embedded CTE program in place and that's not in place yet. We had it in place, but the state when they came in and took over, they told us to
022cut it out. And so the embedded CTE program is absolutely essential to making this plan work because if the embedded CTE program is in place, then students in CTE can also get credits for ELA or other other subject areas. But if those classes aren't available, then that's an impossibility. And again, the state told us, I think it was that we were administering our our embedded CTE incorrectly or something. And in any event, they told us to cut it out. And so before we go forward with this plan, I think it would be really smart for us to make sure one that the state approves us of of having this embedded CTE program in place. Um, a and that in fact they approve it. Lastly, and and kind of to where my daughter Willow was going
023is is this whole thing also needs, in other words, the students need to want to take the embedded CTE classes even if we can get to the block schedule and even if the state approves the the the the embedded classes that we're offering, if there's no enrollment in those classes, then the teachers are completely overwhelmed and the schedule hits the wall. So before we put this plan in place as to the teachers, I really think those three issues really need to be determined and settled and the state needs to sign off of it so that we can go forward with that. With regard to the counselor, we don't want to see that eliminated. Um we appreciate the superintendent's letter to the public indicating that the idea of the graduation coach, that's a wonderful idea. The
024only thing that we would ask if we're going to see the elimination of this counselor job um to put it to also on the schedule to have the creation of the new job to eliminate this job without creating the new job in the same agenda simply gives us real concern. Lastly, with all of these jobs, just because we don't have certified people to fill them doesn't necessarily mean we should do away with them. I mean, we don't have to staff them if we don't need them, but to do away with them entirely means we stop looking and we stop trying and we shouldn't do that. Thank you, >> Joseph Van Mater. Members of the board, thank you for allowing me to speak yet again. I want to be honest. Each time I come to these
025meetings, it becomes harder to believe that what I say as a delegate will change the outcome. I believe last year when I was student representative, communication was clear. Things did get done and the environment didn't feel so heavy. But I'm here anyway because this issue is bigger than one student, one school year, or even one past administrator. Tonight's agenda proposes abolishing several positions at Poconus County. These are not extra positions. These are core supports for students academically, professionally, and emotionally. When we remove them, students don't just lose classes, they lose stability, guidance, and opportunity. Currently, I am in the business management CT pathway. I've learned crucial tools for building a business or working for one. I've learned how to use two important applications that are needed for the photograph photography business that I run. I've
026learned how to use Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Excel. Excel is a necessary tool to be able to navigate. I've used this program to organize clients, including their needs, wants, and what I'm owed. I've also used it in college application processes with organizing what schools I've applied to, if I've been accepted, deferred, or rejected, if I needed to send them my financial aid information, and other deadlines and requirements that they ask for. In the business pathway, we are taught business ethics and communications. We've learned how to send proper emails or memos, how to dress in a business environment, and how to work cohesively as a team, and many other things. I also want to address the reality of what is being proposed as a solution. One rumor that I've heard, but not claiming that is true,
027is allowing some students to earn an English credit through a CT course. I want to be very clear, CT programs are valuable, and they serve an important purpose, but they are also not suitable for a full English education. Reading a textbook in welding or business is not the same as learning grammar, understanding independent and dependent clauses, developing critical reading skills, or learning how to write a defendable thesis. These skills are fundamental and actually are things I've only learned in an advanced placement English class. They follow students into college, the workforce, and civic life. Replacing in English classes with something adjacent is not the same as teaching English. Many other countries have students learning multiple languages, and the United States does lack in language education. But learning English from a carpentry safety textbook is not learning
028English. What concerns me most is the struggle is not unique to our county. Across West Virginia, school systems are under extraordinary strain. Hancock County recently had multiple positions replaced by the state, including their superintendent. Randolph County has received a six-month extension on their state of emergency, and I believe Rowan County schools are also under a state of emergency. And this list goes on. Is deeply disappointing that our county is included in that list, but it shows this is a systematic issue, one that extends far beyond any single school. I also want to briefly address JOTC. When my family moved here, my parents actually tried to bring JOTC to the high school and were told there was not enough demand. To me, that re reality has not changed. Each graduation class averages only two or three
029students students interested in joining a branch of the military. I struggle to understand how removing core academic classes, English, and social studies classes every student depends on can be justified in favor of a program that historically has not been high demand in this community. Lastly, I want to speak as a student leader. I've served on student council for over four years and uh I'm the president this year. We are meant to be the voice of our school. Yet during that time, we have never had clear or consistent communication with the board office. There's no relationship. That disconnect matters. When students feel unheard, they disengage and trust is lost. I don't say any of this to be dramatic or confrontational. I say because I care deeply about the school and the community. I may sound tired
030because many students are, but we are still here and still speaking and still hoping our voices matter. No amount of inspirational quotes on our walls will fix the school environment until we work through these issues. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I don't want to say something. >> Good. Dr. William, you want to respond? >> I do. I want to uh just address a few issues and I actually have some information to pull up. [clears throat] So, I want to talk about first of all our enrollment trends. And if we're paying attention to what's going on right now, we know that the 1400 floor is in jeopardy, serious jeopardy. And I believe it's down to 1,200, which is $1.7 million of our budget, of our staffing budget. Um, and I think there's a bill actually
031going through the legislative branch right now as we talk. As our enrollment decline, representing our enrollment decline, it has been a hot topic even at the state board meeting. Um, then we look at Pocahontas County High School and they have also lost 53 students. We've lost 109 countywide. 53 of those students has been lost in enrollment with Pocahontas County High School. When we look at our teachers, um good practice is to look at your class enrollment sizes and really we should have our class enrollment at least around 15 10 to 15 students. We have multiple class periods that have five students, five, seven students, um three students. So we have some flexibility in our schedule as we look at it right now. And then if we go down to our business numbers, we have some
032classes with twos, some classes with four, but we don't have any classes with 10 students in it. So in looking at those enrollment numbers, I wanted to talk about that first. If we can look at graphic two, please, Miss Hammonds. So this is our graph that represents the decline in our enrollment in our county which is significant. Now a portion of those students that are no longer in our county school system have enrolled in the West Virginia Virtual Academy and in other homeschool programs. So certainly we have the possibility of attracting those students back. And then if we look at our enrollment in Pocahontas County High School, we can see that there's been a decline over the last few years. And I do believe that is because um for two years and speaking to the
033students, it has been a mess. I mean, we have had some issues at your school and I recognize that and it has to have been traumatic. you have gone through and the staff has gone through various situations and those situations actually started with the school schedule I believe I believe that's where they originated was there so in looking at working on the school schedule talking to the staff at the school meeting with the staff at the school um they have come to me and asked me about the block schedule because it is hurting some of our CTE courses the way the that students students are having to choose between AP classes or advanced classes and CTE programs. We want our students to have an opportunity to participate in whatever program. I mean, they obviously won't
034be able to do everything they want, but there needs to be more flexibility in that schedule. Um, and it needs to be built correctly. It hasn't been done correctly for I would say three or four years now. I I would say that that's the time period that we're looking at. In no way, shape, form, or fashion are we cutting any AP coursework. If we're going to do anything for our high school students, we're going to add dual credit college course work, which they haven't had an opportunity to participate in the past. So looking at classroom averages where our social studies position and I want to say our social studies position does not have a certified teacher in it and we have not been able to get a certified teacher. Same with our English position, same
035with our business position. Those positions are not going away forever, but we need to look at how we can better utilize those positions. They may come back as an English teacher. They may come back as an English and a social studies combined teacher. There's a variety of ways to look at it. We are getting ready to start personnel season and the first thing you have to look at is the person personnel that you have that you're not utilizing and how you can better utilize those staff members. This slide is showing the average class the average size per class period. So you can still see that our if we have three teachers, we still have really low average class sizes. I was a social studies and a political science teacher. I know that collaboration in those
036classes and studying concepts requires a little more students. You want I wanted to have about 15 to 20 kids in my class because you grow from the discussion. That's how you grow in those classes is having those alternate views and discussing them. The same with our ELA classes. We can see that there's a couple we have a period couple of periods that's below on average of 10 students. Um so we really again we should have class periods and when I first took the job when they were working on the class periods I thought we were eliminating any class periods that were under 10 students. I can now see why we didn't do that because there's so many class periods that are under 10 students and the way the schedule was set up was the best
037possible way that people knew how to set it up at that time. So, they did the best possible job that they could do at that time and kids were put into their schedules by a random machine. They were scheduled by the machine. They were not put in there by a counselor, by a principal or a handch. Now, I worked at Eastern Green Middle School and we handched a lot of our students because that scheduler is not always accurate. You have to go back and individually review each and every student's schedule. So, we're scheduling last year in Braxton County, I know we had to go back. We built a schedule, then we had to go back and refine that. So, again, with our business, our class sizes 274 76. That's that that's a a planning period
038that we don't have that. So, if we could move on to the next graphic. So, for those that don't like all the the bar graph and the average. So, this is showing you average class sizes for our students in ELA and in social studies. And up there at the top where it says it says 14.7. And I had a little bit of a hard time getting my graph to adjust so that uh people could see that we can see that we still have significant room in our schedule because we have extremely small class sizes. Now the argument is usually put into place that smaller class sizes are better. But recently I've been to the high school and we have 56 students that are in jeopardy of not getting their first semester credit. Parents are being
039contacted by Miss Lan. So if class sizes were the the difference maker in this particular case, we would not have so many students that were in small classes that are not getting their in jeopardy of not getting their credit first semester. So the last thing I want to show you and this is just a mockup. This is if we had uh below the current or the current averages with three students counting only active sessions versus a hypothetical average of two teachers in those positions. What are the class sizes going to blow up? Are we going to have 30 kids in the class? Well, if we look at this, we can see that if we had two teachers right now at the high school for each of these positions, the maximum students in first period would
040be 20. The maximum students in second period would be equal to the number of students that's in the period already. Same for third uh an addition of 6.5 in fourth. Fifth same equal extra students 20 students instead of 13 6.7 and then an increase to 13 students in seventh period. And that's our social study schedule. If we were hypothetically with just two teachers right now, if we move down to ELA, again, 15 students, that would be the maximum class size in first period. 18 students maximum class size in second period. Uh 22 students will be the maximum class size in third, 17 would be equal, 14.5 in fifth, 11.5, which is a decrease. And it's just because of the way the schedule is goes and the way that things are offered. A decrease of 11.5
041in that period. And we can see that those students have bumped up 7.3 of them. They've been spread out through the other classes. And then in seventh period, we have have 18. The maximum size would be 18. Now, that's hypothetical. Doesn't mean we're just going to have three two English teachers. Nothing. That doesn't mean. Uh in order to form a plan to share with the public, first we have to start the mechanism of getting ready to do the plan. Um with that stated, I'm going to read a statement because I do believe the community deserves a response to our delegations and our delegations deserve a response from the superintendent when they present. So I want to clarify that we are not yet in personnel season, but [clears throat] we are starting the beginnings of planning
042for next school year. The process started by speaking with the staff about the high school schedule in the programs. The high school staff has expressed their interest in moving back to a form of block scheduling to support CTE and achievement. We also need to address programs and ensure that all students have access to opportunities for college and career development. All students, even if you don't have the means to leave Pocahontas County Schools, you should have an opportunity to earn a degree. Other students in high schools across the state have an opportunity to earn an associates degree at the end of 12th grade or to start uh most of their coursework and just have a semester of school left. We have to provide that for our students. And I know it's hard to trust that because
043it hasn't happened before, but it can and it will happen. We still have about a month before we begin a full review of staffing and personnel data. That said, the positions included on tonight's agenda are ones that have not been filled this year, and many of them were not filled last year either. These are vacant positions. These cuts would not impact a current a currently employed teacher. I believe this is a minimum a minimum impact to our students. It would be shortsighted not to pause and evaluate positions that have remained vacant for extended periods of time. If we are unable to staff positions with content certified full-time employees, those positions are ultimately not serving our students in the way they are intended. The same consideration applies to the position at Hillsboro. That role has gone
044unfilled all year. And after speaking with the principal, we agreed that position needed to be revisited and potentially reconfigured because the position has not been filled. I am not able to abolish it to I am able to abolish it to thoughtfully restructure it in a way that better supports that school. With respect to the green bank's assistant principal's position, the federally funded the federal funding that supported that role has ended. Those funds are no longer available to the school system. The position was always intended to be temporary while the school was receiving improvement funds and the school was aware from the beginning that the funds were not permanent due to the nature of the improvement cycle. I spoke with the principal at the start of the year and again when the assistant principal's position was
045vacated. Given the fact that the funding source has ended, I will not recommend replacing that position. There are a few important points I want the community to please keep in mind. One, as we move fully into personnel season, I will bring the board of education staffing comparisons of similar schools throughout our region. I will also present the board information tonight on enrollment trends and class sizes at the high school. I want all decisions made with context and transparency. The 1400 student enrollment floor is currently under review. It has been a topic at the state board meeting specifically referencing Pocahontas County and there is currently a bill to change the funding. I do not believe that the that the 1400 funding for our county will be a continued luxury in the years to come. So we
046must manage our personnel as to impact as it impacts our budget. Personnel consumes 80% of any school systems budget. So it must align with student enrollments. We are moving in a positive direction towards exiting our state of emergency. But that progress requires difficult decisions and careful management of our resources. Ultimately, we must manage and regulate ourselves or others will manage and regulate us. The board and the community have made some important decisions and I respect those decisions. The board and community have made the intentional decision not to convert the high school into a 612 model and not to close smaller schools. That choice requires responsible management of our resources, including maintaining flexibility in our budget to respond to unexpected needs such as adding special education teachers and/or special ed education aids when circumstances arrive. We
047never know when a student's going to move into our county and we will require another teacher and another aid for that student. It is up on us to fund those positions. I want to assure the community that I am committed to working closely with our schools and the board of education to ensure that every school has the resources it needs based on their enrollment. I want to acknowledge that there is often a difference between wants and needs and that can be a difficult reality to navigate both for myself, for the board, for the community, for the students, for the teachers, for everyone involved. It is difficult to navigate that situation. As a final thought, I urge our community to turn away from social media post that undermines responsible practices, narrowing the focus to a few
048isolated issues without examining the system as a whole. It is harmful both to our school system and to our county. Social media cannot be allowed to influence administrative decisions. Too often it is used to impede responsible decisions while framing while while being framed as a concern. As our community, we must be cautious about accepting information that is shared without a comprehensive understanding of policies and procedures. Funding for personnel decisions are complex and very nuanced. At times even I must consult with the attorneys and the state leaders to ensure that I fully understand the many factors involved in funding streams and the funding formula. We have seen as you pointed out many counties are under takeover because they don't understand the funding formula. As superintendent I am about the business of children. I want the community
049and the school employees to know that I will lead with transparency in all decisions. When we talk about being stronger together, we have to understand policies and procedures and some of those I have to work really hard to ensure I'm leading the county in the right direction. Thank you. >> We're up to number four, recognitions. >> Absolutely. A, you go ahead and read them. A is PCHS all state fall athletes. >> Yes. >> Here they are. I'm going to read the names of all the the folks that um are at all state. I understand that several of them could not come tonight and um Mr. Kerbert sent us a photo that will be placed online. I'm going to read their names and then I believe we have one student that is here. We'll get his
050picture taken. Would you like to come up and get ready? >> If you'll come back. >> You want us in front? >> Yes, please. >> Sit down. [laughter] >> We're going to start off with our first dearest way. Garber Garber. Barber in recognition for outstanding dedication, leadership, and athletic excellence resulting in selection to the following all state athletic team boys soccer first team. Congratulations. >> Right here. >> [laughter] >> He's a menace. >> Well, I forgot you referee. So, other students that I would like to recognize tonight that are not able to be here is Griffin Taylor, um, Hayden Moore, Shayla Bennett, Riley Hassel. >> Yes. >> Um, Allison Taylor, Chloe, Arnette, Annette, Annette, Annette, >> Annette, is that correct? Um Tristan Oeen Ostein Oeen um Luke Taylor Quincy Sharp Hayden Wayne and Ramona Hardy.
051Would you like her to take her? >> Yes. Thank you. Um I just want to say that I think that um athletes have a special gift, a lot of love, a lot of dedication goes into that and I recognize that and I think our athletes are participating in our sports. I believe our next one, Miss Shiplet's going to come up and um we're going to recognize our teachers from first semester that have perfect attendance. We often talk about students with perfect attendance, >> but we forget to recognize our staff that is dedicated every day to come to our school and make some difference. Um you might have to say, do we have some speakers here? way too long. [laughter] >> I'm sorry, missing. >> Oh my god. >> Come on up here. >> I mean,
052is it a big deal that we have some speakers with this? You want me to read all the name of all the schools? Yes, please. >> Oh, go. >> All right. So this is from Green Bay Joseph Judy Jessica Carolyn Pennington >> Kimberly Toiver and that's Melissa Green. >> So Green Bay. How many was that in the ship? Do you know? So, let's give a huge round of applause. Okay. And Karen Lart Elementary. I have Stephanie Ames, A Rose, Samantha Feather, Joe Jordan, >> I have Joanna Berman, Michael >> [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Good job. [laughter] >> Would you like your picture taken or >> No, [laughter] we've also got our Christy Hammonds who's running the >> camera. Are you come up here and shake our hands or no? >> Come on, Christy. [laughter]
053>> You want your picture, too? Melissa Hill. >> We also have Kimberly Jordan. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you. All right. And last but not least, this county school is Andrew, >> Alexander H, Justin Fur, and Tristan Taylor. >> Good job. Lead by example. What's a big deal with those teachers are? >> Yeah, they're they're incredibly busy. They all got kids. >> Item number five on the agenda is school improvement updates. A spring collaboration dates are scheduled. Topics that will be covered are Axel, PCHS, special facial design, instruction, SDI, code teaching, classroom management, PBIS, CHAMPS, and policy 2419 review and MTSS. And then on B is the attendance report. >> So, um, we are continuing to focus on our special circumstance review and our special education monitoring. Uh prior to Thanksgiving, we did three
054trainings. We did a training on specially designed instruction, champs, and co-eing. We are following up on that within our collaboration time to make sure that that's embedded and we start to see those practices in the classroom. Mr. Anderson is leading a 24/19 policy review because that was something that we had to do for our special circumstances review. And it's something to do because it's the right thing to do. We need to make sure that we know how to serve our special education students and we are putting our best for foot forward to improve our achievement with those students and do what's right. So then our next thing um we have been on intensive intervention and Mrs. Dunlap has worked diligently for our attendance. So, she's going to come up and um talk to us about
055our attendance report and where we were and where we are and how much we've improved. So what what I did like I started talking about this we feel sad last week. So it was like the 78th day of school that we had. So what I did was I was back and I pulled the first 78 days of school last year. So I just wanted to show you where we compare from last year to this year. We actually have three schools that have dropped significantly and their chronic absenteeism. Um, for example, Hillsboro last year at first date was seeing 27.77% chronic absentism. This year they're saying >> usually. >> So that's a significant difference. So over 19%. Um is holding steady. They're about the same. They had they started out the year unfortunately with a little
056bit of illness, but they're at 2135. Right now they're at 2153 for this year. Uh Marlington Elementary School last year was sitting at 31.65%. This year was currently sitting at 20.3%. They're down 11.35%. Marlington Middle last year at this at 78 days was at 36.84%. They are currently sitting at 18.96%. So they dropped 17.87%. >> The high school uh last year was sitting at 35.78%. Uh this year they're setting that 37 15%. Uh they've had a little bit increase compared last year but I think that things are improving. Uh they are working on phone calls home getting notes in meetings and home but today she didn't really some of the outcomes at least the last couple of weeks which is having that communication and that face to face. So she feels confident that things are
057getting better for them. So overall for our county we are setting in a decrease. You know, last year we at this time we were sitting at 31.21% and we are currently at 24.69 which is not below the 15% that they would like to see for CO absentism but a significant difference from what we were at last year this time and I feel like we are going in a positive direction. All the schools are working with families um reaching out making meaningful contact and and it's making a difference. >> Thank you. >> Any questions for Miss D? >> Isn't that great? That's great. Yep. Good job. Right. That's our teachers right there. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Number six is the consent agenda item. A is approval of the agenda. B payment of bills subject to addition
058deletions or other changes prior to the board meeting. A payment of vendor listing 189,98151. Payment of P card 17612327. January 20 January 6, 2026 pay employee payroll $270,44051 bank reconciliation for December 2025 grant awards F is budget adjustments and D is budget transfers and supplements subject to additions deletions or other prior to the board meeting. Do I have a motion? Mr. McComes made the motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Dr. Hollings were seconded. Any questions on any of the ones I just read? >> Hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Motion carries. Number seven is personnel matters. And I'd like to ask for executive session on legal matter or personnel. >> I'll second her. >> At this time, Mr. Mcomes has asked for an executive session on
059a legal matter and Mr. McNab has seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. We will now go into executive station. Tell me when you're ready. Chrissy, do I have a motion come out of executive session into regular session? >> Mr. Mcomes has made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNab second it. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Motion carries. We are now coming out at 7:15. All right. Personnel matters. Do I have a motion? >> Mr. McCome's made a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNab second it. Olly, you're up. Ron Hall is administrative substitute county school board effectively performing successful background check. Uh the following is substitute teacher county school with the state basic professional salary
060for the 2526 school year as needed will be Sarah Ess. We have the custom county high school and the secretary of three accounting three at Pomeis County High School serve positions that are still available but we are in the process of hiring individuals for those positions. Other recommendations Daryl Shindberry for unpaid medical leave county school effective January the 2nd 2026 for a period of up to 12 weeks. Michelle Rose for unpaid medical leave county schools effective February 23rd 2026 for a period of up to 12 weeks. and James Cheney for personal leave for Copen County Schools back to January 12, 2026 for a period of up to 12. >> Any questions on personnel? >> Is it do we have any are the seven positions included in that in this vote or no? Just what she
061listed there? >> Just what she does. >> Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Number eight is superintendent report general updates and legislative updates 1400 funding floor. >> So for my general update, I wanted to pull up and share with the public the uh artwork for >> Huh. >> One minute on that. Okay. So I'll just go ahead and move the B and then we'll come back to that. Um there has been multiple articles um discussing the funding floor and Pocahontas County Schools gets approximately 3.6 million. Sarah in additional funding we have 833 students. We get funding for an additional I'm looking at you just make sure my numbers are right cuz you're number girl. We get an additional 532 students. Uh we received uh
062the bill that's in the legislation right now. Sarah, you want to say anything about it? >> At this point, they're fighting to keep it at 14, but they've grown enough to drop it to 12. If they go to,200, that's going to be a chunk away from us, >> about $1.7 million. >> All the other counties are looking at less. >> There's seven counties that Well, no, there's 13 counties now that got that right. It's It's added every year. US, Pendleton, Tucker, that's three that close to us. And I don't I don't real Tyler. Uh >> yeah, there was originally seven, but since the population has dropped, >> joined in, >> we get the greatest amount of funding. And we also are the county that lost the greatest amount of students last year. we had lost
06360 students. Um, so we get the most funding and we lost the most students in our enrollment. And I think what people don't realize is that while that funding floor for,400 stays there, we have step 7B which is for our technology. We lose funding for every student we lost for that. We have our federal program for just title one, title two, title four, title five. We lose an amount for those programs, our federal programs at 60 students. So, we are losing an astronomical amount of money. Even though we're keeping that funding floor, um we're losing money in other areas. For example, we have nine positions that are funded through federal programs. So, if the funding floor goes down and federal programs goes down, then we have to start really looking at how we slide those
064in. And we're probably going to have to look at that anyway this year. So, what I wanted to show you, um, any questions on the There's an article I included for everybody. It was the first article that came out. There's been a lot more articles, but just to keep everybody aware of the situation. I wanted to show you the artwork that we received. >> The Let's back up the funding there. Uh, what about the Fed? What's the word on the federal funding? Is that gone or is that flowing now or has that been reinstated or what? >> We the No. >> No. the federal funding is in flex and here's what's going on with that. There's some um reorganizing at the federal level. Um and I believe the discussion Mr. Anderson is that special education
065may be re sent to the department of health and human resources. So correct. >> So that is a shift in where that funding comes from which will more than likely shift how much funding we get. We haven't got the final word on that. Our uh federal programs funding has also been frozen. They're looking at how much you get. Um and we're going to get funding for 60 less students already because we lost 60 students. So those two funding sources we are being cautioned in each of the superintendent updates and they are discussing it regularly at the state board meeting. I tune in to watch the state board meeting so I'm a breast of the the funding issues. So those two funding sources are also uncertain at this time. >> I tell you to like I
066say and it goes back to some of this other stuff. If we start I mean there's two of our major things. If we lose those, thank you for being proactive because we're going to have to start watching or we're going to be in shape the rest of these counties are. We're are going to get taken over and >> I I don't think a lot of fun. >> I don't think a lot of people realize we got to carry a surplus. We cannot go into red. >> 17% of our budget has to be carried over. >> We got to carry over 17% of our budget, >> Sarah. >> And you know, sometimes that that's quite a bit of money cuz you're talking about $25 million budget. >> And they talk about some other counties that are
067low in their carryover and one disaster away from not being financially dependent. What really brought a lot of this is this Hancock County uh that come up that was $8 million over budget and couldn't pay their teachers. And that is really putting an eye on everybody right now. You know, uh I if they cut it, 1200 students, that's 1.7 million. The reason we got that money years ago was because we picked up less students per square mile than a lot of the other counties. that was a transportation need is the reason that come into play. >> But now what would you say 13 counties are doing it that's been added to that and the people that got us that is not around anymore to fight for us >> and I believe Sarah we've gotten a
068portion of it but have we gotten all of our federal force money? >> Oh we've not got all we have gotten some. >> We've gotten some. So we've already had that. We we and that's another reason as the funding sources come in there's no reason to get the entire community worried about money when but when we Sarah went over our budget she talked about that she talked about those funding sources she talked about how much we have so we are dealing with some funding issues >> what did we get from federal for the for service and lit taxes this time >> what's the total we're supposed to get do you have any idea 379,000. >> So we cut. >> So they haven't cut it from one year. >> For sure. Portion of what we usually
069get. >> Well, no, we never got get but >> what do we usually get? >> That would be nice. We haven't got that. >> That's what I was going to say. Each year they've got it. And that can't be included in the budget unless it comes in beforehand. No, you can't. Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. Go ahead, >> Ollie. Did we have the picture of those that artwork in this? Oh, yes, we do. In the very back, it's not in color, but in the very back under handout e um is the artwork uh that Pendleton um paid for for our school system. This is the score table, the very first one. And then the next one is the chair. They are absolutely gorgeous in the school colors. So whenever you see our representatives from Pendleton
070Bank, please please give them a shout out for just the amazing things they're doing. We'll release this online, Christy, later um so that everybody can see it because it right here. >> Well, it's just not in color. Um, >> but I did want to share that and and say >> I could >> thank you to the bank for for what they have released uh for helping us with that because it's they're beautiful and I'm very grateful for community support. That it >> that's it. >> Okay. Old business discussion or action of policy 5223 absences for religious orientation ordinances and instruction final reading be discussion and action of policy 75040.02 digital content and accessibility final reading. Do I have a motion? They made a motion. I have a second. Dr. Hollensworth second it. anything you want
071to tell us about this or any questions or about it? >> No. Um Christie can probably help me out a little bit with policy 75402. Um this is a regulation policy for all of the counties um because we have to be compliant with ADA. I was a little nervous because I thought we had to be compliant in April. Then Christie sprung on me. Dr. Williams, we don't have to be compliant till next year. But Chrissy, would you like to say a little bit about that policy? So, um to Charleston in December to talk about ADA compliance for um digital items that includes our social media, our website um and make sure that we're going to meet this compliance rule that's coming out from the Department of Justice that make sure that all of our content
072is accessible. And so what we mean by that is people with low vision um people that use screen readers so that our content um meets certain guidelines. You know that that we have alternative text on a photo. So if I put a photo up I have to have some sort of description behind that for a text reader so someone that's low vision can understand what that photo is telling. If we put up a photo of a flyer, we have to have alternative text so people could access that. Counties that are bigger by April 2026 have to be in compliance with all of these rules. Um, the Department of Ed has worked really hard this past year to be compliant with most of the rules. They are still not going to communicate if you like all
073for influence that we're in right now. When we record those, we are supposed to have closed captioning that identifies every single speaker in the meeting. The Department of Education spent one whole day doing five minutes of a video, trying to designate each speaker on the video. There are some really tough things that we have to make our content accessible to everyone. So, we're going to start on early. We have a year ahead of a lot of these teaching. So, we're going to do a training with our principles coming up this week about how we can get ahead of it, make sure we are putting things out now that are accessible going forward. >> So, that's that's the gist of why we have that policy on the agenda. >> Any questions? All those in favor say
074I. I. >> Motion carries. New business. A. Approval of fundraisers. B. Approval of out of county, out of state, and overnight field trips. C. Discussing action to request opposed a media specialist for the 21st century grant program to be paid for by the 21st century grant program. Discussing your action. Permission to abolish for the school year. Teacher of ELA Pops County High School. Teacher social studies, Pop County High School. teacher of ECT business management and administration at Poconus County High School. Counselor, Poconus County High School, counselor at Greenbank Elementary Middle, assistant principal at Greenbank Elementary Middle. Funding source has ended. Teacher of multisubjects fourth grade, Greenbank Elementary Middle School, and H is teacher of special education multi-ubjects, Hillsboro Elementary. And E is just a review of the PCH artwork for the new gym. Do I
075have a motion? Mr. Mcomes made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McN have a second. Any questions? >> And I got some stuff on that. Starting with the uh fundraisers. Where's the fundraiser page? >> It is in >> each of the fundraisers are attached. >> What's the number 10? >> 10 A. >> Okay. I mean, that's been a big source of contention here lately. Okay. Hat day. There's a bunch of them here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Lots of pun racers. [laughter] >> Yeah. And and also I want to I would like to pull out D on this. I got some stuff on number D I'd like to talk about and I'd like it to be voted separately from the other ones. If we can, >> we can do
076that. you D >> D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D number N number D the uh abolishing teacher position. >> Uh well D is counselor. >> Well, no >> no D is >> Oh, the big D at the top. >> Okay, what's Okay, well we'll just vote on ABC >> and E. Okay, and we'll hold the rest of them and vote on them separate. All right. Okay, we're voting on A, B, C, and E. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Motion carries. Now, do you want a discussion, Sam, or do you want a vote? >> No, I want a discussion. >> All right, let's discuss A, B, C, D, E, F, and G and H. What's
077your discussion? >> Well, number D on the position on the elimination of this teaching positions. You know, I think I think everybody in the world knows that, you know, budgets are tightening down. Certainly, everybody's paid attention to the state and now the feds have frozen all of our assets. And I don't think anybody's questioning the need to tighten down. It's just I feel that we have handled this totally wrong and going about it the wrong way and you know I have some concerns about this starting with about six weeks ago we approved a had some concerns and we want talking about their resource officer and you know we didn't know how much you didn't know how much it was going to cost. And I asked you about the budget and you come back it cost
078$133,000. I said, "Okay." So, in my mind, and this is how naive >> that was for two. >> That [clears throat] was for two. That's >> got one, right? >> That's right. >> So, in my mind, this is how naive I am. I'm thinking that, okay, the president and the superintendent are pushing forward a plan to hire two new service personnel. So, I'm thinking our financial situation. Apparently, it's pretty solvent that we're thinking about hiring two more people. Well, we trip along. You know, we have the issue with the revision of the email policy which totally pissed off the whole entire planet. We pulled that. We lost a lot of trust there. And then exactly next two weeks, we come out, the agenda comes out with abolishment advisory to abolish seven positions. And so I'm
079like, wait a minute, we just added two jobs, >> voted to add two jobs, and now we're going to add coming back. And so tonight, and so I've been thinking about this You know, we have there's a lot of questions here, you know, and and it's now and now it all bulls back to money and accountability to money. So, let's talk about that for a few minutes. You know, we have in the past year or as long as we've been in this emergency situation at the high school, we have hired more consultants and consultants fees than we and who knows how much how much have we spent on that. Does anybody know how much we spend on consulting fees? [clears throat] >> Pull the exact number. >> Well, I would like to do that and
080I'm going to mention that here in a little while. We have got we've added staff to the central office. We have we have made improvements across the whole spectrum of our schools including the board office here which you know I get that some of them were necessary to be in compliance with but we can sell this building. This building is fluid. It does not house one student achievement in this house. We do not have to have a a a renovated central office. We do not have to have renovated office restrooms at the hospital. So, what I'd like to do, there's several points here. I want to bring up a motion. I want to present a motion. I like the board to support me in a motion here a little bit. But Mrs. Young uh Willa
081Hardy had a great idea earlier. She suggested to practice a pause and come back. And I want to I want to I want to ask the board to wait on this vote for these seven teachers until after we find some more data. And I would like at this time I'd like to Mr. President and Mr. Superintendent, I would like to formally ask for from for support from my board of members a motion in the form of um I would I would I want I request Dr. Williams to provide budget data and analysis on these seven positions, how much they cost, and how much the positions will save once eliminated. And please factor in admin and aid cost as well. I would like to ask Mr. Mrs. Williams to provide docs and policy from the state
082and our county on guidance counselor at schools especially high schools somewhere out there there's policy I want to know what the exact policy says >> as far as what it says >> you got that policy >> number three provide current budget data on all current 261 contracts including supplements. I want to know where are these pos how many positions we have of those in our county and I want to know what the supplements are and what their count costs. Dr. Williams, I want you to provide us with state guidelines on required 261 contracts and what the state requires us to have in that world. >> You're talking about 261 day contracts. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. I want you to uh Dr. Williams, I want you to provide actual today cost of all consulting fees
083starting when the emergency situation of the high school started and to date, you know, and and uh here's also what I want to know concerning our pro officer. I would like Mrs. Williams to provide data from Weebas on our log level three and four offenses. And please break that down for each facility. And also, I want you to list how many times that actual police officers were called to our schools to confront a threat. And that's really all I have. I think that those answers we could really go a long way in clarifying and especially brought up the since you brought up the rift discussion earlier. Yeah, I'd like to >> there's nobody rift nobody's getting rifted. Number one, I have pooched for a pro service since I come on the board since before Dr.
084Williams was here. >> Pocahontas County High School is 20 minutes from anywhere. >> We know it, sir. >> Well, I do know this. I don't know what kind of a price, Mr. Gibson, you put on student safety because we hear about it happening all over the country. We say, "Well, it can't happen here." No, I'm not. Stick with the facts >> because I think we need that. >> Let's stick with the facts. Let's Let's I want to see the data from Weebas. >> It only takes one. >> It only takes >> Stop one. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. That's not up for discussion. What? All right. Let's put it this way. What motion are you making? >> I just went through that. I'm I'm I I'm made a I'm making a motion to request the previous
085requested data from Dr. Williams and to postpone the vote till next meeting. >> Mr. Gibson has made this motion. Do I have a second? The motion dies for lack of a second. >> Get the data. I'm not opposed to it. I am opposed to all those little details. >> This is discovery information that we should be we should be talking about before we make decision. >> Discovery information you should listen to because we've had it. >> No, we have not talked about that. We had we had not talked about eliminating seven jobs. >> Okay. All right. Uh >> imagine that >> uh since Mr. Gibson's motion dies for lack of a lack of a second. We will be voting on A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. All those in favor signify by
086saying I. >> I. [clears throat] Opposed. I. Let the record show that Mr. Gibson voted against it. >> Okay. Motion carries. Number four, board members remarks. Mr. Gibson >> just incredibly incredibly you know and and you said something earlier Mr. Grimes we are not dealing with the entitled none of these students here none of these people none of our students are entitled we work they work their asses off to have what they have and you know that was wrong thank you anything else >> no m I just want to thank Dr. Williams for plan looking ahead and let's move forward and still got 110% faith in you. Mr. McC is we have these discussions over and over and over again. We live in a technological world and we have groups that comes and I think
087everyone here is dedicated to students county wouldn't be here if we didn't care about education. >> Absolutely. But every time we turn around, there's that group sitting out there trying to make the board members and the central office look like they hate kids and want no one to have anything. I mean, if there was a certified gas counselor out there that would apply, we'd all jump for joy. But we can't just pull them out of the air. We can't just pull money out of the air. And you know, I sitting here thinking when I went to high school, there was 600 something right? >> Yes, sir. You are correct. We had three math teachers and three English teachers. People went to college. They were successful. I pillow powdered along and went when was 40ome years
088old take a test to be a BAG teacher and made a 86 on English and a 89 on math. Now I don't think it boils down to we have to have this class, this class, this class. We have to get back wherever student is important. Every student gets what they need. I'm all for AP classes. I'm all for college classes. It helps parents. It helps me when my child had. But who knows where the other 68 of the kids in graduate class go. They should be able in 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road, if they get in a car accident, they can't physically work, they should be able to take classes and know what they are doing. and we've lost sight of that. I'm helping. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr.
089Holl. >> Okay. About these position D abolish. This is not set in stone. I mean, we're going to abolish them now. It doesn't mean that when the new schedule is made or when a counselor applies that we won't hire them. You know, I'd be thrilled if we had a counselor apply to our school system. I know there's a young lady who, and don't ask me her name or where she lives, I don't know, but she's got her degree and is working on her masters >> in counseling and wants to do that here in this county. So, we're not shutting the door on all these position permanently. come April and we say, "Oh, wait a minute. We can hire some of this back." And then and like the teacher of special ed at Hillsboro, 10 students
090don't need one and a half teachers, even if they are special needs. you know, you can deal with 10 students. So, you know, some of it's excess, some of it's necessary, and we're going to find out that it is essential and fix it. >> That's all I have to say. >> Thank you. Let me let me clarify this for you, Mr. Gibson. Whenever I say entitled, I want all the children of Poconus County to have the same opportunity, not [clears throat] just a few. And I I do think some kids is better off than others in this county. We all know that. We see it every day. We see parents who care about their kids that's going to support them in whatever they are about to do, whether it's football, basketball, or something academically. And
091then we see some of our kids that get no support from home or live with their grandparents. So there is a difference. But sitting on this board, we've got to support all of them and do the best we can to get them all through our school with the best education that we can give them possible. All right, our next board. >> Huh? >> Yeah, do that. >> I can't do that yet. Ajournment. Next board meeting. We're going to journ the next board meeting will be February the 3rd, 2026 County Board of Education bumper room at 6 PM three.