001Okay. I just sent you an email. >> What? My email. >> Join now. I don't know what >> I Slowly. some thousand people. What was it? I thought what? They need a job. >> 40 million. They need a job. That's that's us paying. >> That's what somebody wrote on there. said, "Well, there's 30 days 40 some maybe." >> I think there's more people that you know that want it than you. >> Well, I know what you're going to tell. >> Okay. Ready to go, J? >> Great. We are we ready to go now? >> We are. >> Okay. Everybody look alive. Like call the meeting of the Poconus County Board of Education for October the 21st at the board office in session. All members are present. Please stand as we open up for the pledge
002of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Next item on the agenda number three is delegations. We have not have any delegations. Okay. Number four is recognitions. We have any recognitions. >> Number five, school improvement updates. Dr. Williams reading and mission statement and goals. >> Yes. >> B is Morningington Middle School local school improvement data update and achievements discipline and attendance. C is the CDE accountability day data and D is October collections data. Mrs. or Dr. Williams, you're up. >> So, I always want to start every meeting with our focus on what our mission is and our core beliefs. So, Pocahontas County School strives to provide an engaging and supporting learning environment
003where every student is valued, empowered, and equipped to reach their full potential. Our core beliefs. All staff will engage in team and growth mindsets, promote a positive, promote and model positive behaviors and dialogue, create a safe and supportive learning environment, and establish high expectations for academics. All students can develop a team and growth mindset, display positive behaviors and constructive dialogue, contribute to a safe and supportive learning environment, and meet high expectations for academic excellence to reach their full potential. >> Stronger together. >> We are stronger together. >> The consent of agenda items for number six. >> You got more to say. >> Yes. Are you up? >> She's up next. >> You're up. Come on. [laughter] >> So, I need to sit right here. Right. >> Yes. Right there. Perfect. So, while she's getting ready,
004um, we just want to ask each school this year to present three times on their local LSIC. They're going to discuss student achievement data. They're going to discuss attendance data and behavior data and anything else they would like to highlight. So, this is an excellent opportunity for us to hear from our school and school staff. And thank you all for coming tonight. We really appreciate it. So, I created a PowerPoint to kind of keep me on track. And I'm sorry my voice is a little raspy, but Mr. Williams, do you care to move on? So the LSIT team at Marlington Middle School consists of Lucy Messa who is our president, Bal Monaco as our vice president, and then we have Andrea Cutliff as our third parent. Our community members this year are Kendall Beverage and
005Michelle Deeds. And our school staff, uh, we have Becky Davis, Missy Hill, Crystal Lewis, Loris Su Miller, who is our secretary, and Denise Sharp. And we have two student representatives, Victor Dean and James Monaco. So this year our LSIC has um identified some glows, things that we are doing really well at so far and then some grows, some things that they would like us to continue to work on and their goals for the year. Some things that they believe that we're doing really well at. Um myself and Haley Cumins reached out to some community members and businesses to do some staff pickmeups. So once a month we have someone from the community providing something like a coffee bar or pizza or something just for staff to kind of keep morale up and our community members
006have really stepped up as business partners to do that. We really have an active and engaged student council who are with Miss Hill and Lucy Meso is working with Jessica McNab to get our students involved in the growing of vegetables and just produce and flowers in our high tunnel. So, we're working really hard to utilize that. And so far, just an example, we have produced on our salad bar over four bushels of cucumbers that our children have been able to partake in, grow, and also eat. So, that's been really nice. And we also as a school hosted the secondary literature county fair at the middle school. And some things that we would like to continue working on. Um, one of our biggest priorities and you hear it all the time is we need new lockers.
007Um, our lockers are very small um, widthwise and we can't fit like trapper keepers and things in them. So, we have a lot of issues with lockers. Um, the students really would like our playground to kind of be vamped. So, they want some new equipment and the fence around our playground is starting to fall. So, I've been working with Mr. Gibson to kind of get that fixed. We would like to have some new picnic tables and one of the biggest priorities of LSIC is they would love to have Miss Hill back in our building full-time because it really does put a hurt on us when we are without a counselor two days a week. Yes. So I um kind of focused our presentation or my presentation around our strategic plan and the first goal of
008our strategic plan is we would like 75% of our students to either show growth or meet standards on the summit of assessment. So we will go from last year's summit of assessment to this year. So to do that um I have collected some data from Tide and Zoom WV and you will see um this is our testing data from last year and we had school proficiency, county proficiency and state proficiency and Marlington Middle School is above county and state proficiency in all math and ELA. And I'll give you a second to look at that if you have any questions just on specific data. Excuse [clears throat] me. >> That's really great. >> I think it's important to note that it grows every year. >> Well, we haven't gotten there yet. We haven't gotten there yet.
009>> Um, but this is just last year's here, but we will get there. Miss Hill has seen the presentation. >> Yeah. And if you go ahead and go to the next slide, Mr. Williams, we also added our science. And again, science, our school proficiency is above county and state. And the things that we're working really really hard on for our summit of assessment and this goal on our strategic plan is we have identified our bubble and our sliding kids. So we pulled test data and we have identified children who are within 10 points of moving up or moving down from partial to meet which would raise our proficiency. So with that we have also implemented intervention across our school. So, schoolwide intervention focused on some data from our summit of assessment and our benchmarks. And
010we are also working really hard to use this data to guide instruction and our PLC's within our building. So, at the middle school, I've worked really, really hard to provide grade level PLC's and curriculum PLC's and we do that every other week. Um, we also have some study hall and some required PLC's also within that. So we do have a PLC meeting every single day. So this is from the West Virginia Department of Education um scorecard and this is our county scorecard and what we are focusing on um it has a lot of things here and it's kind of difficult to read but you'll see that Marlin Middle School um we are blue for academic achievement in ELA and yellow in mathematics. And then for academic progress, we're yellow for ELA and blue for mathematics.
011And something that we are working on, and this is countywide, um, in our schools really hitting it hard, is our attendance, our student success, and also our behavior. And I'm going to discuss that in just a second. So, this is Marlington Middle School's actual school card and it breaks down the summit of assessment uh by different categories or subgroups. And as it was mentioned last board meeting, I believe Marlington Middle School um is becoming a focus school based on children with disabilities. So, we're working really, really hard to close the gap of children with disabilities and our general education children. So, I believe we're going to have some resources to do that and some guidance and you'll see that we're working really hard to kind of figure that out ourselves because it's kind of hard
012to swallow when our test scores are so good. So, it's something that we are working on um to fill that gap. So, I had one of my teachers put together some data. So we work really hard to compile our data and I do it by individual child and we just focused on the special education students because that's what we are being kind of focused on right now and you will see so what we have here is I took out the column for students so just imagine on the left hand side of the summit of assessment 2022 you have a child's name and those scores follow a specific child and I took that out but you will see for our math and special education. Uh we only had two children from 2022 to 2025 that dropped
013in their um I'm sorry I lost my train of thought in their score. >> Scale score. >> So their scale score. Thank you. I was looking for the word. So we had two children who dropped in scale score from 2022 to 2025. So we're just trying to get this information and kind of swallow it a little bit and figure out what we're doing. So, if you want to move on to ELA, um, we did the same thing for ELA. And you will notice ELA, we have a few more who have dropped in their scale score. But as a school, there's some things that we're doing differently that we have not been able to do before. And the biggest thing is we are now offering a resource ELA and math class for some children who are
014not self-contained or who they just need a smaller group of, you know, environment for math and ELA. We are doing interventions schoolwide and that's something we started last year and it's getting it's a pretty strong program. We're building and we're just continuing to work on that. We are implementing co-eing models in all of our classrooms. So there's six models and my teachers are working really hard to implement those six models within their classroom weekly, monthly, you know, however they see fit with the second adult. Specially designed instruction is just meeting the accommodations using supplementary services for our special education students. Our special ed department is also working with I Ready to progress monitor and benchmark to see kind of where they're at, what they need, and what we can do to continue to grow those
015children. And as I mentioned before, we're using the West Virginia General Summit of Assessment benchmarks to track and identify our needs and our gaps. And again, we're working on our PLC's. I got a question. >> Go ahead. >> Have you It'd be interesting the attendance for those kids that dropped. >> So that'll be like another layer we add to it. Um >> would that be one of the major reasons that they dropped? >> Well, as it was identified from the state, you know, there's been some changes with our special ed across the board. So, it'll be interesting to see if some of that is a factor. I haven't gone that far. And our another strategic plan goal is we're working really really hard to work on chronic attendance. So at Marllinson Middle School, we're shooting
016for the moon. I hope we get there. Um to try to decrease our chronic attendance by 10% this school year. And [clears throat] to do that, we created a um kind of a picture. I have a picture here that's probably hard for you all to read, but that picture just identifies our different tiers. So, our tier 1, tier 2, and tier three children for chronic absences. And at Marlington Middle School, we um work everything around our Copperhead crew. So, we identify cooperation, responsibility, excellent attendance, and a winning attitude. And our whole day across the board is used doing that. And these are just some things that we've done so far at Marlington Middle School to implement to try to work on our attendance. Um we had popcorn with the mountaineer. Uh, I had staff members
017adopt chronically absent students. So, if a child is identified as chronically absent or if they're just on the cusp of being chronically absent, I have some staff members who are setting goals for themselves to adopt that child and just check in and make meaningful contact about like, hey, where were you at today? It's really nice that you're in school today. Can I help you get a note? Those kind of things. Um, if I have a grade level who has perfect attendance, so if eighth grade, all eighth graders are there for the day. they get an extra recess, which is a huge thing at the middle school. We have one kid out and they just get bummed. Um, I know today we had one child in sixth, one in seventh, and one in eighth, and no
018one got recess, extra recess. So, they were really like, it's a competitive thing, and we'll see them running from home room to home room in the morning to see who's here and who's not. So, it is a healthy competition. Um, in our hallway, we have a thermometer for sixth, seventh, and eighth. And I actually have thrown staff in there. So, we have four thermometers in our hallway and we track our attendance rates for the week. So, I think it's important for students to see staff attendance and staff to see student attendance because I think that there's a correlation. Um, we're using a documentation tool to document our meaningful contacts. We have an Excel sheet and we use Weeus. Um, we as staff uh chose to wear or buy bright orange safety vest. Um, we wanted
019our children um to come to school one day and like be like, "Oh, something's going on." So, when our staff show up at bus duty and cafeteria duty and their safety vest, they know there's going to be something special that day. So, anybody that's in attendance that day will get to attend the reward. So, just anybody who's in attendance gets to go. Um, we have perfect attendance. Student of the month, our daily highest class in attendance gets to line up first for lunch. We have student council, class dojo, and then an October activity planned. Um, if anybody wants to come hang out with us, we'll tell you afterwards when that is because I don't want we want kids to, you know, cut. So, the thing that I wanted to touch base, and this is something
020we're really, really proud of. Um the special ed audit happened last year we're all aware of and when we were reviewing it at the end of the day I was sitting across the table from two women from the state department and I finished their sentence before they could say it like I knew what one of our problems were we were punitive instead of positive and as soon as she started talking about it like I knew what she wanted to say. So this was a goal of ours at the end of last year going into this year and we wanted to turn all of our class schoolwide expectations positive versus punitive. So we have adopted class dojo. It's a free program online. And we um reward children every period a point for cooperation, responsibility, excellent attendance,
021and a winning attitude. So, a child can get four points in a class and then they can kind of cash in those prizes. So, in fizzed, they might earn 10 minutes of free play. In ELA, they might earn um a fivepoint bonus coupon or a homework pass. They cash those points in for something they want. So, the kids kind of came up with rewards that they would want to spend their points on. So, that's something we've worked really, really hard on. And as of today, and this is something we're really proud of, we have 92% of our students families connected on Class Dojo. >> That's amazing. >> So, and I will say of the 10 families who are not connected, um, two of them have siblings, so that's four kids. Um, and nine of those
02210 kids live with grandparents and may not have access to the internet. So, we're really very proud of the 92%. We've worked really, really hard on that. Um, so that's something we're pretty proud of. And then the next thing I want to talk about is our discipline um in Weebas. And I will say that we are guilty of overdocumenting because we like documentation and we like to have that as the tool. Um, so right now I have 78 weevous infractions, which sounds like a lot. Um, but of those 78, 40 of them are only conferences. So, what that means is, let's say my child gets in trouble for being disrespectful in the hallway. The first time that happens, they're going to come, they're going to hang out with me, we're going to talk about it.
023We might call the mom, we might call the grandma, we might just have trying to build relationships. So, of those 40, like they've sat down with me or Miss Hill or the teacher and we're trying to make that meaningful contact of building relationships and trying to fix the problem before it becomes a problem because a lot of these kids, if you talk to them one time, they might not be back in my office ever again. So, I don't want them to come in the first time and I throw the hammer at them like let's try to build a relationship. So 40 of those are just conferences and then 38 of them um might be a day of noon detention or in school or an out of school suspension. So we're working really hard just to
024change the word discipline, you know, cuz I think if we build relationships, we won't have as much. And then the last goal we have on our strategic plan is we're working to just increase community awareness and involvement. um as a secondary school, I will say it's very hard to get um involvement from communities and families. It's not like an elementary school. So, this is really a priority of ours. And this year so far, we've met our goal, which we're really happy about. So, next year we'll shoot for higher. Um we have completed this list of things on the left. I've talked about a lot of those already. Um open house is a huge thing at Marsona Middle School. Miss Hughes has worked really really hard to revamp it. Um, and it has become a really
025big thing and that we're proud of. Um, we have the think program which is through the Reo Health um, center in Greenar County. We have the get a life program through the West Virginia Department of Treasury. They come and do that. And then just yesterday we had parent teacher conferences and the standards of excellence um, ceremony. So we had parents and students come in for that. And then the last thing that we have scheduled right now in our near future that we would love to have people come to is our quarter auction. Um we're working really hard to raise money for student attendance incentives and this is going to be our big uh fundraiser for the year. So I appreciate you guys um supporting that and approving it. Um but it is going to be
026on November 8th at the Marland Middle School gym at 4:00. And right now we probably have 40 prizes that are donated from local community members or families >> at four o'clock >> Saturday. Yes. So we have a lot of um lot of efforts from the community and school to try to make good things happen for our kids. And just some things that are really good. I surveyed the staff to kind of be like, "Hey, what do you want me to talk about at the board meeting?" And these are some things they would like you to know that's happening. Uh Miss Kirks worked really hard to develop this art Sonia. It's an online digital portfolio that children in art and CTE like if we do a self-portrait, she then can take a picture of the self-portrait,
027upload it online under a child's name, and then a family member can buy a coffee cup with that self-portrait on it. Or you can kind of purchase things that have their art on it. Our band numbers are continuing to grow. We do have a new band director who's been really good at the middle school. Um, and it is known, you know, in studies that if a child's in band, their attendance, you know, those um, elective classes tend to raise attendance. The seventh grade kindness project, Miss Hughes is going to talk about stations are happening, which are great. We have a online comic strip maker that we're using in sixth and seventh grade ELA. The children love it. Um, Miss Hughes is going to talk about in a minute. Our communications club and after school drama
028club are going very, very well. And we look forward to the bell-to-bell um program that's going to be offered after school. And as you guys uh approved, there's all kinds of interest at Marenta Middle School. So, I believe that will continue to grow with students. All of our students we sent to the C uh regional literature fair place first or second. And the school just feels good. Our students feel happy. Staff, they feel stressed, you know, but I think overall just the environment and morale of the building feels good. So, Miss Hughes, I'm going to let you talk. I'll hand it out while you talk. >> In seventh grade, um, I took on a reading lab class, um, which is an extra class, well beyond their ELA. um which was exciting for me because we
029got to do some some kind of more creative things uh since I knew that they were getting the good stuff for ELA. Um, and one thing that we did is we talked about um, kindness and where we saw it and where we didn't in school. And we made a map and we made some hot spots and some cold spots and talked about um, [clears throat] why why it wasn't the ideal place that we wanted to see. Um, and kids talked about how the kindness and respect sometimes felt uneven, that there was some bullying that made students feel unwelcome and that not all the kids felt excited about this. And the kids did make these slides. [laughter] And then uh their goal was to make MMS feel more welcoming. So they uh were they chose their
030groups and they each designed a project that was um intended to spend create positivity, uh, inclusion, or it's not on there, but, um, just general overall well-being. Uh, and then they've come up with their base data where they found out they took um the temperature of the school and found out how kids felt now. And we're going to do some more data afterwards and do some comparison math stuff. Um, and they're really excited to be working on the projects. You want to hit the next slide? So, these are the different projects they came up with. Um, they wanted to repaint the lines on the basketball court because they have faded and so the kids get in arguments about whether balls are in or balls are out. [laughter] Um and so as part of that they
031grew a bigger conversation about expectations on the playground and they broke into groups and came up with uh signage that they wanted on the playground that was positively framed in terms of crew. So our cooperation, what do we expect for cooperation on the playground? Responsibility, excellence, winning attitude. Um hallway murals. They're very excited about murals that have kind thoughts and um nice sayings. Um our front of building beauty, so I've got a group of boys that are pulling weeds and working hard [laughter] um and making plans for the spring and how they're going to make it look uh welcoming as they come into the school. Um, the kids wanted to add to our dojo our four um our four things they can earn points for in each class. They wanted a kindness button to run
032um during kindness week which is in November. Um and you could earn things like a free hat day if you got a certain amount of kindness uh that was seen. There is kindness mail. So if you want to thank somebody, you can write down a little note and they will deliver it uh to the person you're thanking. Um I have a group of kids who are working really hard to come up with inspirational like I notice you and you're you're a great person to magnet to go on every single kid's locker. Um they're designing a game of crew where you there's the classes compete to see who can have the most kindness in each home room. Uh and um they're cleaning the copper head trail and putting out things and trying to bring the copperhead
033trail back um so that we can have more outdoor time and re use the outdoor classroom more um and get the kids outside when we can. Um [snorts] and that's just sort of a the highlights. So there's there's quite a few projects. Um, I think what's been I didn't expect them to be so ambitious. You know, they they're they have big plans. Um, I thought, well, we'll make kindness chains and letters and then we'll move on to the next unit. Um, but they have been incredibly self-sufficient and self-guided. You know, they come in every day. I say, "Okay, what's the plan? What's your next step? What's the step after that?" and they're making check marks and talking and you know what can we get done and how can we do it um and really driving
034the projects um because of I think they feel ownership for them being successful and trying to build their own version of how school should look um and so it's really exciting it's you know the teacher in me is just really blown away to see kids be just excited to you know so somebody said so do we get a grade for this and And I was like kind of and they were like well it doesn't really matter you know and it was like good you know I want you to do this cuz you want to do this. Um so that's the kindness project. Um and the seventh graders are trying to like spearhead the the feeling that the kids can lead. Um the main idea I think that being that we can say be kinder be
035kinder. You know you don't know what other kids have going on in their lives. Be kinder. But if it's not coming from your peer, if you're not the kids on the ground changing the the feelings in the room, um then it doesn't doesn't hold water really, you know. So they're really excited about it. Um so that is the kindness project. The other thing I wanted to mention uh is we have drama club after school and this year in the summer two eighth graders emailed me out of the blue and said we really really really want to do a newsletter this year can we? So we found a way. Uh so there's now an afterchool communications club. Um and we are really excited about learning beyond the bell. Um we have almost the full staff is
036involved with um wanting to participate and be a part of putting together clubs. Um had a kid making a petition for a engineering STEM club today, you know, so they are very excited to um make sure that the offerings after school are the things they're excited about and to sort of lead the way again on what it should be like. Um, and I think I think all of our hopes is that if if kids are excited for their classes and if they're excited for what they do after school, then they'll come to school, you know, they'll be here for the fun stuff and that fun stuff is enriching and it's exciting and it grows your interests in life, you know, and then you start to see the need for the math and the science and
037the English, you know. So, those are some of the things we're excited about. Yeah. I guess I'll just ask if you have any questions. I know we said a lot. I will say I'm very very proud of the staff at the middle school. Like when we talk about what we're doing and the bell to bell and we've stayed after school two days this in the last week to work on some stuff and all but two staff members have been there. So everyone's in. We are something to be proud of. grew into they like they're reading some big novels and once they're finished reading then they work on their projects. It's grown into just a lot of positives. And if if a seventh grader comes into the office and now they're kind of they've been unkind
038or they've been disrespectful, you should have to say, "Are you Miss Jesus class when we're trying to promote kindness?" And we all [laughter] and they're like, "Oh yeah, is that kind? Does that help make someone stay better or does that make someone else's day worse?" and their full perspective on it has changed and in the long run it will absolutely help test scores. Um that was a we just look at our data really strong at the middle school. We find our needs and then we try to adapt the schedule to address those needs the best we can with the staff we have in that class has just blossomed like we really thought oh kids are going to have English class today they're planning they're going to munch and here they learn you know painting murals
039and bring you know bringing their little kind of books to class and to the office to share their ideas to the cafeteria to see if like one of the boards could be a student guided lunch venue one day a month like they've come up with some of these like doable ideas and it's been really sweet but they have taken ownership in it because when you say oh it's that kind I mean you get a a different reaction than what you would have gotten without that program I think we're also getting to the point now where there's very few kids being absent in a grade level in a day like I have to say was everybody here and then I'm like oh no there was one kid absent I It's just awesome. >> That is awesome.
040You're looking at that's very good. That's a true testament. You all you guys talk about. Can we talk about Mrs. Hilfrey? >> Well, [laughter] it's appropriate to talk about her right now. >> She's Yeah, we do. Because of the LSIC was to have Mrs. Hill back to Mrs. Hill land at MA. >> Mrs. Hill land. So I mean >> Oh, I like that. >> Right. So I mean what's the are we still striving to hire counselors at the other schools or what? >> We are. >> Okay. So this is kind of a she's a Is it a temporary thing for her or is >> she applied for a position? She's in that position. >> Okay. the coordinator because time but now I'm really just going to the high school two days a week and running
041to school three days a week because there really isn't anyone to coordinate >> because we have so many openings and Vanessa is all family medical leave is a social worker bank in the hospital we have a cenate posting so right now I'm the only active school counselor that's certified in the count. >> I actually had that was going to bring us up later in this evening was that we had a parent want to know what the deal was. You know, they love Mrs. Hill, but they want >> they want somebody there, you know, at each school and >> Well, and it's hard it's hard. >> Yeah. >> That high school needs a full time guidance counselor. They need at the high school because Miss Campbell's new her job. Mrs. Swagger's doing her job. Um, I've
042not been trained at all in some of the leaders and transcripts and the needs of the high school. Um, and it's been really I've worked a lot at home and on Saturdays trying to do things and it's been a big challenge. I would like to I would like my old job. I'll just be honest. [laughter] So, with that stated, um I do want to say that the principles in our county are second to none and the middle school is to be commended on their outstanding performance um on last year's assessment and this presentation was amazing. I thank you for that. Um, I did look it up while I was sitting here and the middle school is ranked 15 out of 168, which is >> I should add that in my presentation. >> So, thank you
043so much for coming tonight. Thank you for your wonderful presentation and um I'm impressed with the kindness club. I think that's just amazing because in the adoption of students for attendance. Um I appreciate all your hard work to learn. >> Well, we want to say thank you for the great job that you do. >> Thank you. >> You we really do because you got a good staff. >> You really do. And it's worked really well and so we just want you to know that we see it and we appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. And I know what it was like from personal experience. [laughter] This is wonderful. >> I love my staff, that's for sure. >> They make my job easy. >> That must go both ways. [laughter] >> Any other questions? >>
044Thank you. >> That one now is October. >> I'm going to give you the No, I'm going to show you the So, next is the CTE accountability. CTE accountability. Yeah. >> So, in your packet, if you'll turn to 5C, um we're just going to look at CTE accountability from last year versus CTE accountability this year. So what you see project on the screen is um the CTE numbers from last year and what we have in our packet are the CTE numbers for this year and our overall count um accountability score. So this is 2425 that's 2324. So for participation um we had 110 um last year and for participation this year we have um concentrations we had a score of 37.31. For completion, we got we had 34 completers and we got a score of
04513.08. For workbased learning, we had a score of 17.69%. And performance overall 774 and our composite score was the same as last year, which was 93%. So, we these were just released. Um, I don't know why it's not on the dashboard, but we did meet our CTE score again this year. And then just for October collections, we've turned in our graduation rate. We have turned in the number of special education students we have this year. We have 173. We have 833 students. Um we do have uh our chronically absentee rate is hovering around 20 21 22%. 20.89 so it's dropped about a percent. So >> we are working hard on chronically absenteeism because you know that we are on an uh intensive support. So, I just wanted to keep you updated on what we are
046doing and each of our accountability scores as they come out. >> How many special? >> Oh, 173. >> 173 out of 800. That's a quarter, >> correct? >> What was the absentee rate? >> The rate of saving from them is 20.89%. chronic absentee >> for the county >> 22 >> 20 >> we've been working really hard on chronically absent each of our schools are making contact we're sending our 3-day letters our five-day letters our call you can see that it's an important thing in each of our schools LSSIC so I believe that we are going to improve significantly Great. >> So, we're ready for the cons. >> You ready? How come the group rate is so low? I mean, is it I think we would be more of a completer. >> 12% of the students
047that are completers. >> 12% of the students population. That means they took four CTE courses. So, and that's a that's a they're in the ballpark. >> So, >> that's not unusual. That that's about right when you when we get to it because we have some of them that can take it as a sophomore to complete, some a junior, some a senior. You've got some flexibility. Now, our goal is to increase that. >> Yeah. >> Have more student participation, but that's that was not a bad number. 12% of our our half the population for CPE with with the number of classes that we've got uh in and AP portions and fitting them in their schedules. So that's what we're going to work on as our schedule to make sure that they have that opportunity to see
048classes in that 30 years. >> That don't seem like it's that bad when you look at the whole high school population. >> Say it's just 12% of them >> because a lot of them don't take >> well actually want a piece of it. Yeah, they just went up. >> Our goal was 12%, our actual performance was 14.08. So, we exceeded our goal. >> 13.08. >> We've got some good CTE. We do. >> We do. We have good. >> We got some good staff. >> Absolutely. >> You ready to move on to the next one? Yes, sir. >> So, consent agenda items? >> Okay. Number six. Do I have a motion? Mr. Mcomes made a motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. McNav second. And we're going with A. Approval of minutes
049for September the 16th, 2025. B is approval of the agenda. C is payment of bills subject to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the board meeting. And then we go back to A is payment of vendor listing 1121 15817. B, payment of local government purchasing card 27483831. C is October the 3rd, 2025 employee payroll 281,66266. Bank reconciliations for the month of September budget adjustments and D is budget transfers and supplement supplement to additions, deletions or other changes prior to the board meeting. Do we have any of them? >> Yes. Um on our payment of vendor listings, we have some additional vendor checks to add making that total 13217702. >> Okay. Does anybody uh want anything pulled out of them I just read and voted on separately or do we want to vote on them
050all? All those in favor signify by saying I. Motion carries. Item number seven is personnel matters. Do I have a motion? So move. >> Mr. Mcomes made a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Dr. Holmes were second. Ollie, I think we're up for that. >> Personnel agenda for October the 28th, 2025. We have at the current time 16 open positions in the professional category. The recommendation tonight will be for Chloe Fafner as principal of Arlington Elementary School effective at a later date whenever we have that coming back. We have service recommendations for Stephanie Ames and Sabrina Jordan for the fresh fruits and vegetables program at Marlington Elementary School. Amy Hefner for the fresh fruits and vegetables program at Hillsport Elementary School. Um Noah Barkley as a substitute bus operator for the county.
051And then the recommendations for the 21st century grant positions that they had talked about earlier. Marshia Beverage for the district coordinator uh for the Greenbank teachers we have Shannon Writtenhouse and Britney Place. For the Marlington Middle School we have Aaron Daws, Melissa Hills, Charlie Hughes, Crystal Lewis, Rachel McCome, Wendy Picarelli, Abby Fritz, Denise Sharp, Sherman Taylor, and Tina Tracy. At Poplandis County High School, we have Janette Wagner as the site coordinator and Darlene Arbagast as the teacher for that program. We are currently looking posting some more of those positions to feed that focus and we have a copy of that. >> Yeah, we're missing something. >> We don't have >> We have everything except the last but last part. >> It's in the email. Yeah. >> Century 21st century brain. So it's going to be
052all school for start. >> It's for the secondary and high school. So presentation we had last meeting not elementary. Okay. >> The scope of the grant was for the secondary. Um, and I believe that's one of the reasons we were selected because we were providing the services to the second year. >> Have to pull Rachel. >> Huh? >> Need Rachel separate. >> Okay. >> She here. Yes, she is. >> Which one's she on? The middle. >> She's on this one here. You can send me. >> Well, yeah. >> Yeah, we don't have a copy of it. That's okay. >> You want to make a copy? >> No, I'm good. We can No, no, we're good. We can read it off to here. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, we can do all of them except
053Rachel. >> Yes. We are going to pull out Rachel Mcomes and vote on her second. We will be voting on all the rest of them at this time. All those in favor sign by saying I. >> I. Now, we're going to pull out Rachel Mcomes and let the record show that Morgan Mcomes has recused himself from this. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Motion carries. And now Morgan can reenter the room. Okay. [laughter] >> Just to give you a little exercise. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh number eight. >> Number eight is superintendent updates. >> Go from there. You want me to read each one of them? >> I can go from here. >> You can go from there. >> So, the first thing in your packet for superintendent update um item
054A is the plan view of the renovation and that is in your packet. It shows us the view of what the renovations will look like. Um we're getting drops, the glass walls, the sliding window. There'll actually be a new door right here that comes from that conference room that comes in here to make that more accessible. Um, it has been put out on bid and I believe it was last Friday. Um, Mr. Gibson has sent um ESG7 local contractors to bid on it. We had Ed Bryant show up. Um, and City Construction from um, also has put in a bid on it. City Construction has worked with Pocahontas County Schools before and done a doors and windows project. So, more likely than not, it will be one of those two folks that will win the
055construction of the board office. And if there's any questions about the blueprint, I'm prepared to answer those. or we love behind a glass. [laughter] >> Ollie actually has a glass sliding glass a big nice sliding glass window on hers so she can slide it open when people come in and then there'll be a sliding um glass window on uh the one behind her for the personnel director. >> Ollie the bulletproof. [laughter] Was there a last meeting when you had a was it we met on the phone a lady who's >> Yes. Audrey Blackwell. >> That's who's doing it? They're putting out the bids. >> They we contracted them to give us a turnkey service. They're also doing the boiler at Hillsboro, which they've already um fixed that of the one that's there, put a seal
056in it. >> Um that is working very well. Patched it. So we are moving right along with our project. So B is in our packet and um I wanted to uh tell the board that first of all I feel like our um corrections and compliance for our special education special review monitoring are coming along very well. We are doing a great things in our schools, not because just because of that special review, but because we want to do the right things for our kids and we are working hard, which has been illustrated in our last two presentations from Marlington Elementary and Marlington Middle School tonight. We we are working hard for our kids, but we have been selected by a disabilities rights group uh to get a fullblown um audit of all of our services
057that we are providing in our schools um between October 2025 and September 2026. Um, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about preparation for that and making sure that we are where we need to be, but I am confident that we are moving in the right direction and things. We may not have turned things around 360°, but we have made 180 degrees progress and we are working harder every day to move our county forward. Then um is there any questions on that? Because it is quite extensive if you if you read it. Um I >> think if this Yeah. The problem with this monitoring is will they be in a room stressing out our teachers and all this stuff for >> they will interview everybody. >> We don't need anymore. We don't need
058any of that. >> We we are not the ones that makes that decision. >> We're not the ones. But we we welcome the opportunity to showcase the great things we are doing. >> Okay. >> And we feel confident that we are going to they're going to see great things in our school. >> So I I feel like I feel like we're going to do a good job. >> December the third is >> No, this is a different review. This is a second one separate from the last till September next year. They're about a year to do it. >> Okay. So, we don't know when anybody is. >> So, and I I I want to address Mr. Gibson's question. Mr. Gibson is referring to the monitoring and review we had by the West Virginia Department of
059Education. This is not that review. This is an advocacy group for disability rights in the state of West Virginia and they are allowed to come in and review your schools. So, this is a separate group, okay, >> that will send us a report. So they they seem like they're the same thing cuz they do the same thing, but it's a separate agency that is a is an oversight agency. Does that make sense? Any other questions? Okay. Then this is my um when I started my job here um July 1, actually mid June, but we won't get into it. Um, [laughter] [gasps] when I started up my job here in Pocahontas County Schools, uh, can you put pictures, please? Um, I I have been asked about the gym at my very first board meeting on Delaw.
060What's going on with the gym? Can you give us a status update? And I went to Mr. Gibson. I said, "Mr. Gibson, what's going on with the gym?" And he said, "Well, I don't know. I haven't been really involved in that." me. So he said it was somebody else and we don't know what the design is and don't know what the colors are. So we have made significant progress and um this is our center floor. Obviously that lining that's underneath is going to come out. This is what we have at center court. Um it's absolutely amazing. Um it's actually finished. We have a few touchy little details. And there's Mr. Gibson and I, the architect, taking our picture. I mean, I'm just smitten with the floor, the feathers, and the tomahawks, you know, really representative.
061And then if you can go to the next picture maybe here is a um view one side view of a finished the finished how beautiful it looks the paint on the floor >> the gun stock I think is what the the >> what is that the >> the three point fort looks like it's shiny it's beautiful our paints up um and then maybe just one more picture and then there's a side view. You can see our arrow there with Pocahontas and on the other side we have tribe. I mean it is looking sharp and uh one of our maintenance guys Darren is going around and just taking meticulous details and painting the black under the under the bleachers where it looks a little scuffed up. He trimmed the stage in black today. um painting the
062door frames, making them black, and it's just really it's really shining. It's it's it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. >> I would like to have some kind of community onvelli, maybe an alumni game or something where we could all celebrate the opening of the gym and com commemorate it and have a community in to celebrate the great things that are going on at Poker basketball game >> something there. >> That'd be that' be fun. Uh that would be a great time and advertise it. >> Yeah. [snorts] >> And cut the ribbon. >> Oh, that would be amazing. >> A new gym. >> Yes. So, we got to get the call and see when the first first girls game. >> First game is >> be girls first. >> And you guys come? >> Oh, yeah. We'll come.
063You can talk about the gym and we'll smile. >> It's just it's just an amazing thing like we [laughter] did. >> Well, it's been a team effort. I mean, it's been um [laughter] it's it's absolutely amazing and I'm so proud of it and I'm so proud of this project and all the hard work that's >> But we need to advertise it. We need to get in the paper and Tim get us on the radio and whenever the girls first basketball game is and really get crowd there if we can. It'll also help with the concession stand for them. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uhhuh. you know, because there, believe it or not, that's one of that's one of the main things that's talked about in the county. >> It is. And the girls basketball team is
064usually pretty good. >> They're supposed to be pretty good at >> Yeah. So, you know, we're not only >> Yeah. Okay. I will work on that and I'll be in touch and let you know what the plan is. I'll work with the principal. But yes, I'm so proud proud of this project and everything that's gone into it. That's all I have for that superintendent's updates. Unless there's questions. >> Any questions? >> I don't I don't have a question. I got comment. Uh you were talking about the schools and the and the with the presentation and stuff and where they're going up and a lot of that is you you brought that with you. >> Sure is. >> And I I want to thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> When they call, they're going
065to get an answer. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And that is really a motivation to them to keep them going because if you call and you don't hear back or you send an email and you don't hear back, it's not long till everything goes down. They know you care. They know you already that you're driven. We're we're going to turn it around and everything's and we've done we've already turned it 180 at least or more with your guidance >> in a short period of time. >> Yes. >> Thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. Means a lot. Okay. Any any questions for Dr. Williams? Okay. Old business. A discussion of deed conveying property. Well, let's get a motion first. Do I have a motion? Second. >> Mr. Mcomes made a motion. Do I have
066a second? >> Second. >> Mr. McNab seconded. I guess we'll go through these one by one. So, I'll read a first. Is discussion deconveyed property to the town of Morningington. Uh, this was something that Mr. Felton come up or Mayor Felton come up and went over with us and we agreed to to do that. Uh our students can still continue to park there. If nothing happens in uh uh >> two and a half years it reverts back to the school >> on him getting his grant >> on on them getting the grant. Now, we give them two years to apply for that grant uh this year and then next year. And if they don't get it, then it conveys back to the Pop County Board of Education. But it would be good for the community
067if they do it. I'm sure that's what we look at as a board. Okay. Any questions or discussions on that one? Okay. B is discussion and action proposal policy for revision 5200 attendance and the second reading. >> Okay. >> So these were in your packet last time. >> Yes. Yes. >> And all of these policies have been out of comment and there's no comments. >> No comments on the comment form >> on any of the policies. Everybody likes them. Okay. >> Be attendance. [laughter] >> Okay. And number C is discussion or action proposed policy revision on 2371 coach scholarship. And this is the second reading. Has anybody got any questions about that or any comments? Right. D is proposed policy revisions for 2451 alternative school program. Second reading E discussion or action proposed policy revisions
068on 5600 student discipline second reading and F is discussion action proposal policy revision for 3120.12 substitutes in area of critical shortage. Any questions on any of these? Not. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Motion carries. Now under new business. Do I have a motion? Mr. Mcomes made the motion. Do I have a second? Second. Mr. McNab seconded as. Now, uh, I'm not going to read all these, but you look down through them and tell me if you want anything pulled out, and we'll vote on it separately. Uh if you see anything or any comments or discussions on any of these, >> I would like to highlight H if I can. >> What? H. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> So for H, um we have several required trainings in our special review.
069So these dates are for meeting those guidelines. making sure our staff gets the absolute best uh professional development possible. So it is for six days, two trainers and there will be a second uh training in the spring. So this is to introduce our staff and make sure they understand specialized design instruction, co-eing and classroom management. In the spring, February or March, we will have these same two ladies back that train these schools and they will go into the schools and help with implementation at the classroom level and provide feedback. And the funds used to pay for these are um old old staff development funds and special education funds. So, it is nothing that is modern funds. We're just um using funds from old accounts. Any questions for that one? Jay is a good one, too.
070In his approval to purchase a new 2026 CE school bus, next generation diesel power 77 passenger conventional school bus for Pocahontas County Schools. And the price of that is 141,828.40. And that's for one bus. >> And I mean, I'm glad we're getting a new bus. It' be a nice bus. Put the money back for that. >> We get funded for two buses each year. That's part of that transportation funding. >> Yeah. But that's It was amazing to me whenever I was looking at this and a school bus is $142,000. >> Hey, it's not electric. But listen, we [laughter] we can't use that. >> But you compare it to a $80,000 pickup truck. >> Well, that's that's very true. Takes a little bit more metal. Okay. Any questions on any of these that we've looked at?
071Hearing none. All those in favor sign by saying I. Motion carries. Okay. Number 11 is board members remarks. Mr. Gibson. I got a couple things here. >> We already answer a couple of these. I had a parent just what's today yesterday asked about the 21st century ran at Marlington Elementary School and uh so here's one from a staff member have a staff member that wants to she wants to have a staff survey created for staff members and she wants to have an anonymous comment placed on there. She thinks that she has some comments and she doesn't want to be her name mentioned that. So, um there you go. I thought I'd bring that up to you. Um >> can I address that, please? Okay. >> There's an open door policy. Any staff member that would
072like to discuss something with me is free to send me an email or come and talk to me. And um I'm available. >> Well, that's I mentioned that to him, but the new super was very open to that. So I I thought I mentioned that to you and Miss Hann um Miss Julie, you mentioned a couple times there's this no kid left behind policy program. The no kid left behind. >> What is it? >> Which one? >> No. Um, adopt a kid. I mean, the adopted student, >> the one that Miss Scotch spoke about, the mentors. >> The mentors. >> Yes. >> Who all does that? You have to be a school staff to >> I'll address it. Yes. We for our bubble kids and our kids that are chronically absent that are on the
073bubble, we have asked our staff to be provide them mentors. Um, we want our mentors to be someone that has regular access to those students. Um, however, I think what you're getting at is can other people be mentors to these students when we have um years ago the first Vista for communities and schools started Eastern Green Middle School with me. and you can do a mentoring program, but that has to be vetted out and aligned with the particular needs of those students. So, if someone would like to be a mentor of the students, we would have to look at what our policy is on that and what the protocol would be and getting permission for outside people to mentor students. >> So, I guess direct that to you too, you or Miss Sull, >> right?
074Okay. And then my uh down the list here was about Mrs. Hill. So we dealt with that. >> You know, we do have folks that are looking for counseling to other schools. Um and that's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Gibson. Mr. McNab, I I don't really have anything to add other than than thank you for what you're doing. Uh, like I say, you've you've got us going in the right direction and I we're going to continue and I was very impressed with the presentation and like Yeah, >> thank you. You're doing a great job. >> Thank you, Mr. Mcomes. >> I was impressed with the presentation and I think one thing that leads right into it that kind of shows the climate of our school and how the public is looking at us
075is the fact that nobody comment on any policy exams cuz people are happy. They're not complaining. They're not happy. I mean, last year we had policies goes out in 25 comments because it gave them a chance to pin. >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> So, that's a real I think measure of how well things are going. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Holmes. >> I would say that in the community there have been a lot of people asking me how are things going under the new superintendent. I don't [laughter] ever say your name, >> but I do use your name in response, but um and I said it's all good. I can't say anything anything negative. It's all been positive. And I said, one thing you can count on is Dr. Williams says this is what
076she's going to do. She doesn't. And the teachers and the staff are starting to learn if she says you will do this, you need to do it. And and I think that people respect that more than anything. that um you know where you stand and if you don't like where you stand [laughter] but um all positive and Marlington Middle School the change there >> it's amazing >> is it is amazing that the kids are happy to be there I mean that's been the middle school with the most problems. >> Well, that is amazing. >> And now it's I've been there twice as the principal >> and we get it going again and it just goes back down. But I think with this staff it's going to stay up. They're doing they are doing a great
077job here. Yes, they are. Uh adding to what Dr. Hollensworth said uh back some time ago, if I went to IGA or any of the local businesses, you know, you was talking about school, somebody was hitting you up saying, "How's school doing? I have this problem. I have that problem." And uh I was at a local restaurant about couple three weeks ago and I run into the superintendent and her husband and we were sitting there talking and not one person not one while I was there. We was there for I was there probably 40 minutes waiting on food. Not one person commented on how good the how bad the schools was. You know any other time it was hard to go to a local restaurant or a grocery store. So that I think that's a
078combination to you and what you've done since July the 1st. I mean, it's really a big turnaround and we all It is amazing and we all see it. Now, the next thing that I want to bring up is uh the November 4th meeting. That's the same day that we have uh you two have to go to the SBA for uh for that conference. So, you won't be back here for the board meeting. And I was wondering if we could just change that to I think it's November the 18th. Has anybody got any problem with that? That would be our next regularly scheduled meeting. in it. Is it am I right? November 18th scheduled meeting and that would be helpful to me and Mr. >> because they've got to go that date in front of the
079SBA and then you know we laid this board meeting over a week so it's not going to be that long till November the 18th. >> So you will skip the form? >> Yes, because of the SBA. >> Okay. >> Is that all right with everybody? I think the way everything's going, I mean, it's not like last time you had so much stuff. No, >> we can't do this. That's cautious birthday. We got to sing rotating caution dog. >> Well, you can do that in >> Yeah, [laughter] maybe to bring caution down. >> Okay, getting getting back to the agenda. Uh, we are adjournment. Our next meeting will be November the 18th, 2025 at the Pocahontas County Board of Education conference room at 6:00. We are adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Sam, you can sing happy
080birthday now to anybody you want to. >> Mr. funds. >> It's all the