001Second item on the agenda is open to the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the entire republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Number three is delegations. Mr. Arbagast, >> you're up. Mr. Lloyd Arbest. >> All you all know me except I just met the superintendent. Rest of you know who I am. Lloyd Arbest. U I was here I think it was two months ago. I mentioned about the possibility of having the Ten Commandments put up. Let me say this to start with. I believe that every one of you all care for our kids. You want what's best for you. We look at things a little different sometimes. But and I realize you got all kind
002of rulers, right? But there's a couple things that's happened since the last time this year which brought me back. One was that in godly trust which I understand it's mandated by the government. It's there. So people can't say that you can't have any display of anything religious cuz right there it is. If there was somebody saying you can't do that. Uh I also talked to uh board of education in Charleston and they said uh there wasn't anything that prohibited having the ten commandments. Um of course they said there might be legal matters. Always bring that up. But uh they said that and I also thought that since it says in God we trust that is a step because I don't think pro I won't say nobody but I would say the majority of Pelvis County
003thinks it would be fine to have the ten commandments and that would like to see it with their kids. And I think it's a plus because I think without any moral standards, we're missing something in the education program. And in America, as you all a lot of you historians know, for the 200 first 200 years our country, it wasn't a question. We had God in the schools and had God there till about 50 years ago. And you all know what happened in about that time, the 60s. But before that they had preaching in the capital, they had preaching in the schools that they were they had prayers. Our first president said, "I don't see how you could govern this country without God." Um, so they was in about 1850 there was a Supreme Court. There
004was a case brought to them. A school wanted to be a private school and they said, "Can we have a school without the Bible in it?" Now, did you hear that right? They said, "Can we have a school without it?" That was in 1850. So, in other words, up until then, it was understood it was there. And they at that time ruled it. No, you cannot have a school school without the Bible in it. We are a Judeo-Christian nation. Not everybody agrees with it, but they agreed on that as a foundation. and I won't window all that, but also talk to Jeff Campbell and then to make it clear and you all probably know that by now. You know how you get rumors out and they're not always true on Facebook. Uh the legislature that
005uh bill that come up 2525 back in February to mandate the Ten Commandments. It did not pass, but it wasn't voted down. It was never voted on. You see, I looked and the first thing I seen is they said, "No, you can't do it." That's not what it was if you check it out. They just debated for a while and like a whole lot of other things they do, they never voted on. So it just it was just dropped by lack of motion on it. And uh so there's no mandate for it, but it's nothing that prohibits it as I understand. Uh I think it could only help having some moral guidance for students. I think it's an opportunity and hey they can look at it and they can ask you what's this mean just
006like they can ask what do you mean in god we trust. They can say what's it mean you should can't steal or don't steal or don't lie or don't cheat. uh that can't really as far as and you all probably agree that can't hurt anybody even if they don't believe and I've heard the argument well they shouldn't have to look at it my kids ought to have to see that well they're looking at some right now that's religious right and God we trust I mean there it is that's something to think about and I do not believe that the minority ought to leave. I think the majority should leave. Doesn't say you won't have any resistance. And I heard mention that, you know, you'd spoke to your lawyer, which is common sense. But, you know,
007that probably is. If you don't have a lawyer that's on your pay payroll or on call, they're not going to say anything that might cause him any more work. Is that not true? If you've already got a contract with them, of course they're not going to have anything that they think might cause something else. Uh, okay. Uh, so I'm asking for you all to consider it again. Consider I know you got a lot of things going on your school now and changes coming up. I ask you to consider also Jeff said that uh only thing that had to happen truly don't say excuse me don't say what'll happen after that but all it takes for it to go up is for the board of education to rule to put it up and I won't guarantee
008what happened after the cut but you all say it puts it up you can put it up just like you put your warrior signs up and the other pictures and everything else. So that's mainly what I hit. You all heard that before. I ask you to seriously consider it again. And if you want to see it, uh, friend of mine, you got these three things with the ten commandments. I'll leave them with you to look at. U, but here's one of them. And uh it's been suggested that sometimes the wording in it isn't as clear for little ones. And if you want all that here or there, I'll leave you with you >> if you can just give it to Holly. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> And here's another one that's full of it
009is quite different. you wouldn't have to have the same thing at every school. And there's all kind of different versions, I'm sure, and things. So, I'll leave them for you to look at and you have any questions? That's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Arvagast. Well, I might just mention I read in the paper of Messi two things you've said that I really like. You're working hard to get things back in line. I understand. One of them is you said people ought to be able to get out of high school to do math and figure their finances out. >> Yes. >> That's a huge plus. I like that. And the next thing is cursive writing. >> Yes. >> You said you'd like to have them graduate being able to cursive right. Those are good things I'm
010concerned. >> Well, thank positive things. So, you all hang in there. We're together. I'm just saying this because I care and I think would actually be a plus. One of them signs would look good right under that one. >> And uh other questions. That's it. >> Well, we're not allowed to. >> I'm sure that >> we're not allowed to uh recognition. >> We have >> You have some recognition? >> We do not. We will have everybody on the next agenda for recognition. It'll be a long meeting. >> Okay. U item number five is school improvement updates, mission statements and goals. Dr. Williams is A. B is LSIC data presentation. Martin Elementary School principal Anderson and team other part of it. C is 21st century community learning center grant presentation Stephanie Burns and Christy Hammond. D
011update spatial education progress to meeting compliance indicators. E update on Poconos County High School state of emergency process progress. F is update on attendance and progress. Do I have a motion? >> Mr. McComes made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second it, sir. >> Mr. Gibson seconded. All those in favor? I >> Let's open it up and see what we got. So, I'm going to start off with the mission and the core beliefs of Pocahontas County Schools. I think it's really important that each time we have a meeting, we focus in on our mission statement and what we want to accomplish, what we believe for all of our staff and what we believe for all of our students. Pocahontas County School strives to provide an engaging and supportive learning environment where every
012student is valued, empowered, and equipped to reach their full potential. Our core beliefs. All staff will engage in a team and growth mindset. All staff will promote and model positive behaviors and dialogue. All staff will create a safe and supportive learning environment. All staff will establish high expectations for academic excellence. The student version of that that we are connecting to student learning is all students can develop a team and growth mindset. All students can display positive behaviors and constructive dialogue. All students can contribute to a safe and supportive learning environment. And all students can meet high expectations for academic excellence and reach their full potential. It is our motto and slogan this year that we are stronger together. So working together and teamwork is the core of where we are going as a county. I
013like it. Nice. Anything else? >> You're done. Good. Mr. Anderson, you and your team's up. Steve going to present as Dr. Williams has talked to us about the LSIC meeting. Um, and I do have a few things for you as we want to go over things that she wanted me to uh required us to uh go over, which I think was really good because it's actually got us on track of looking at things and just uh a lot of times we know what to do, but if we're not talking about it and we're not revisiting it, we're not doing it. So, and I feel that that's really a good thing that Dr. Williams has brought to us. And uh so I'm really excited to be here tonight to share this with you. Um some of
014the things that is going on at Marlington Elementary School and uh some of the things that we're doing and the areas that uh um make our school function. So the first thing is that I'll talk to you about is our attendance. One thing that uh we're looking at with our attendance and there's several things that we've been doing. So I'm going to pass out this uh with the community and schools. I've been working with them and they have been making these um building healthy routines at the heart of learning with community and schools and they're newsletters every month and I don't think that I have enough columns for everybody students are getting these and this was September's edition just share one with you. Thank you. >> And then also October, which looks a lot the
015same, but there are some different things about talking about our attendance facts in Pocahontas County. um quick tips for parents, why routine matters and things that you know just to try to help with things that we are needing to focus on for attendance. That's a big thing this year that is on our radar to improve. Um so that you'll see that they actually we have an attendance tracker. Um this talking about when school they get different types of uh um add a collar or sticker to the box and just even like stickers each day is whenever the kids see that is amazing that how proud that they are of getting those things. Um you can look through that and and ask me if you any questions for the attendance. There's other things though that I
016would like to to tell you about with our attendance. Um, our attendance has three tiers and u I know that uh there a tiered system and I've been working I know Mrs. Mrs. Schiff or I'm sorry Mrs. Dunlop we've been talking and she is I mean she has been really good. She's sent me back about four times to say, "No, you need to redo this and this need to to do this wording." And I'm still not sure that I've got it quite right. But uh that's okay because the uh the business uh teacher in her got she wants us to be right there and have it uh the way that is easy to read and make sense. So I like that. But uh the three tiers um with the system basically this the first tier
017is is you know rewarding the students with uh different types of things that we have for for good attendance and coming through and uh you know having them uh um you know whether it's a movie or whether it's a recess or whether it's just recognizing them with um morning announcements um you know things that uh that go on that. So then if that's you know tier two or students that well whenever they miss three days or have five days letters then we start uh we have three-day and a five-day letter and then after that we al we go to a sat meeting with personalized goal setting. So we we get the student and the family in to talk about you know that um we'll do daily call homes with the students. Um students will be
018offered um social worker things of that. So we'll look at that and uh um talking with the parent and giving them guidance on how to improve student attendance. Then if that doesn't work, we'll go to the 10day, the tier three. And these are students that are at risk, okay, of the 10day. And actually that's an assistant meeting like it could be an MTD meeting, referral for a hearing or referral to other services as well. So, uh, like youth health services and things of that nature to, uh, you know, to see where we're at to, um, get the kid in school. So, those are the tiers of for the attendance things that we're doing. I'm also going to share you a little bit of data of our school personal data like where we're at with attendance
019and what we're doing and how we're tracking that in just a minute. So uh let's uh while I'm doing that also want to uh share with you that uh we are at right now the chronic absences is what we're f focusing on. So the chronic absences is two days miss a month or more will be chronic absence. So with that being said, those are the kids that were actually really focused on. And this this uh question between this is not all we use but this is a good baseline data and I think I've shared this with you guys before but our chronic absenteeism right now is 15.8% last year it was 25% Dr. Williams has asked us to decrease that by 10%. And right now we are, you know, we're there, but we just have
020to focus on keeping it that there. And hopefully um we uh you know, even make that less by these steps that we're we're taking with the tears and and talking with um Mrs. Dunlop with ways that we're focusing more not letting these treatments be chronically acid. So if we look at it a little deeper which is pretty cool way to uh um dig into it. So if I go to looking at the chronic absences. So this is a an interesting second the graph will show us. >> It's trying. >> It's raining. Thank you for being here. Okay, while that's loading, I don't want to, you know, sit here and waste your guys' time, which I don't feel I am, but I want to move on to uh the next thing, discipline. So the discipline in
021our school which I feel like we have been focused on as well more so with different avenues of looking at uh um uh ways to uh approach discipline and things that we are doing and how to make it better for uh our um our PBIS system. So our school has a PBIS system and that is our our baseline for our our discipline. With that being said, discipline is tracked through weaveless through different levels. have a level one, two, three, and four which whenever a child has something that they do um you know in that and it's written up by the teacher or the principal and it's a level one, level two, level three, level four and depending on what they um what they've done and then with within that there's an intervention that is to
022be done whether you know always a call home the parent whether it's from the teacher the principal to discuss what the what has happened and then we look at our uh um our hierarchy which some things that we have uh for instance what level it is depending on where it's at it'll it could be a detention it could be that we are in school suspension could be that we just have talked to the student to give them you know this is your warning Or it could also be, you know, um out of school suspension depending on what the the level it is and how um you know, how many times it's happened things, you know, um level two, three, and four offenses. Um so those things are are looked at and uh decided upon you
023know myself but we also we do have a protocol for that um with attendance we also navigating it Dr. Williams has visit did that with us like when a student does something wrong um like you know we look at determine the level of infraction for that discipline but you know we also have to take in mind does that student have an IEP or a 504 and then if they do then it goes into a different category than if the student does not have a 504 or IEP meaning we look that it goes down a different tier of uh direction and I went over that with the staff and and looking at ways to develop and and keep the thing is is Dr. Williams and and uh is really wanting us to uh and and I
024think it's a good thing is to make sure that we are um looking at this data and that we are documenting it and having a good documentation of it. So that's something that we are are working on. Um, okay. So I'm kind of jumping back and forth because this sounds rough. I want to go back to the absences and you can see that um, uh, for chronic absences. Okay, so this is where we're at, the 15% it needs attention. So, I can click on those and find out the students that we need to focus on, which is really nice. Um, the grades with the most chronically absent students, it breaks it down pretty nice. So, you can see right now it's third grade. So, going to the third grade, teachers will say, "Okay, what's what's
025going on here? We need to look at that." It's actually broken down within the grade file. um which I find it's very you know useful to have these graphs kind of put it in perspective uh looking at the most chronically absent students I'm sorry the years here um from from past years to uh this year we've been up to which we know after co it was a huge monthly asset a lot of things happened there 22 23 that was one of the years after co 36% % which was huge. So we've kind of we went down the year and then we went back up last year a little bit more so than I would have liked for sure and that's just too much to have 29% that's chronically absent. So uh we need to really
026focus on seeing what the root cause is to that to bring that down. And I feel that now that we've we're really looking at it and digging into it that that will uh that will improve. >> Go back up to the third grade. Um that at 32% but we've only been in school for a month. So I've looked at a lot of these students and I've talked to the parents and we've looked at it. So September >> How many How many graders do you have? Uh there's 30, let's see, 18, 18, 36, 37. So quite a few. Um the the thing though, September is the month of vacation with parents. And there was several kids in third grade that went on vacations with their parents. And if they did that, then they were going to
027be chronically absent because all they had to do is miss two days in September. Okay. And then there were some sicknesses when when people come back to school and get together. There are sicknesses a lot of times that we have. So I mean you take all those things in and you know too. So you know we have to whenever those things happen even though that they went on vacation or they're sick, they're not at school, they're they're still chronically absent. They miss those days. You know that just is they're not there then uh they missed. So that's one thing to keep in mind, too. But we do want to keep in contact with those parents to see what's going on and how we know we can get them to school. And we we try to
028put a positive light on it to, you know, to make them not feel like, you know, it's because we know that there's a lot of avenues now where if uh they can, you know, look at other options and we don't want that. We want them in school. we want them to be in the best place that possible to there to learn education. >> So going back to uh the discipline so I can go back and look at a little bit of our discipline here. So, so far this year we've had 30 discipline incidents put into uh um the way the system to track it. And we go down here and this will show us uh like the severity of the level and what it is here like whether it's a battery against student, threat of
029injury, harassment, lar so forth and so on. So this will give you the totals of of where we've been at from years past and and years of of this year. So looking at last year for instance we had 152. This year so far we've had about 30 uh we've had 30 writeups in the system and that could be anywhere from a disruptive conduct to inappropriate to uh inappropriate language to disruptive disrespectful conduct. A lot of these are disrespect and disruptive conduct, but I feel that we've done a better job this year and looking at the overall picture of this where we'll see this go down eventually and I think this year we'll have it uh go down even some. But the this is the thing if some like if we're documenting it and we're having
030things documented then that's good. And I think the documentation's good. Even when a child is on something that is, you know, like, well, maybe we should document it. And I'm telling my staff like, yes, do document it. Please document it because that gives us a, you know, it's not the end of the world to document it. It's actually good to do that. And uh, you know, we might have a whole lot more um, writeups, but they're documented and and it's it's addressing the fallen more so than not. So looking at that the discipline is uh you know it's it's an ongoing thing that uh um we're looking at. So uh and then the third thing that I was any questions so far about the that you have with the um the discipline or the um
031attendance so far that I've talked to you about this it's fascinating data I think it's good good to see this >> and the last thing that uh that I was asked to talk to you about which is really exciting to talk to you about and it has been from the past years that I've talked to you our school and I like to toot our horn a little bit with our teachers and our students is our performance. So uh our performance again I feel that uh we are moving in the right directions to uh um to meet uh standards and our district and also from our school. So I mean looking at our school for sure um for last year um third grade okay in the math um we were at 45% and the state was
03252%. So we were a little bit below the state but we were not too far below the state a little bit uh 7%. Looking at fourth grade math we were actually we have some really smart fourth graders. This was last year's data because it was this assessment that was given at the end of the year. We were at 60% in the school and the and the state was 50%. So we had 60% and and that was that was awesome. Um in the fifth grade math we were right there with the state which we were 41 and the state was 42. So we, you know, we're right on track to be at the proficiency of where the state is saying this is what the state is and this is what you all are at. Obviously I'd
033like to be above the state and we have been in the past years at least in the last couple years. Last year I feel like you know um there was things that uh you know we could have done better because we had a lot of kids and I'm going to talk to you in a little bit about that. We're focusing on this year. I feel like Dr. Williams again and I appreciate that brought us in as a group to really focus on these students that I'm going to tell you about. But before I do that, the third grade ELA we were at 48% with the school and then uh um 44% with the state. The fourth grade was 66% okay with the school and the state was 50%. So we were 16% above the school
034in fourth grade in ELA which was really good. In the fifth grade the ELA um 44 or 43% school in the state was 49%. And I also found this interesting that in the fifth grade they um they test on science and our school was at 43% with the state only being 33%. So we were 10% higher than the than the state in science. So that's good. So this year we were brought in as a team, the principles, Dr. Williams had us in here at a principal's meeting and uh she had us all our uh data and this is the first year that I've done this and and I do really appreciate that because it was a lot of learning that we took those students and we categorized them by what they call the bubble students
035and these bubble students were a lot of students that were in our grade in my or in my school that were either 10 10 points above the cut score or 10 points below. below the cut score. So those are the students that you can move up to the cut score and above for meet standards to focus on that. That's where you really see the the gains and getting your scores up. And I think that that's and and correct me if I'm wrong because I know that this was just a first learning curve for me to do this and and it was it was fascinating to do that to find our bubble students. So once we found these bubble students, I went back to the school. I gave them to the teachers. I gave them to
036the title one teacher, the community and schools teacher. Say these are the students that we want to focus on all of our students. But these students we want to give a little bit extra care to because you know uh they're right there. They're ready to to meet these standards and we want to make sure that we're not you know they're we want to get them you know just check on them. Of course, we want to do that with all of our students, but the bubble students are ones that we kind of we want to adopt to get them to the next level. And I I do think that that'll make a difference this year. And I, you know, so being able to share those and and look at those um to identify those was a
037really a good pro or a really good thing that we did. Um so that was with uh looking at our our performance data. Um as you can see here our the assessment of proficiency um it's going up okay overall you know for most of it and and this is fifth grade. This is only looking at fifth grade in the last few years but uh you know um our scores have been holding pretty strong. We just like to see them grow more and get to where we're at. Uh, you know, uh, and I think that we're, um, focusing more on data this year and, uh, and that comes from the top down. So, I really appreciate that and I think the teachers are the teachers do that. They do an amazing job with that. So, uh,
038looking at the K through two S or K through three students though. Okay. So, we do have a new bill that you guys may or may not be aware of, the third grade success act. >> And that act is uh something that I've been working with uh um Stephanie with um Stephanie Burns has been really involved in this bill to help our school um and it is basically looking at these students by we test them and we do three benchmarks. Okay. So, we do and it's ready testing. So these I reading testings are given at the beginning of the school year, the middle of the school year and the end of the school year. And this is for all of our students by the way, but for the K2 or K3 students, we do this
039specifically ready testing. And whenever they have a they have a benchmark that they need to make or a a score that they have to hit. Now, if they don't hit that score, then we have to look at them and uh figure out why they didn't and help them with uh interventions and and and do things that help them to get to that score the next time. Because by the third grade, then we really have to have reasons why if that kid did not meet those scores that we've done all the interventions and we've done our job proving that uh we did everything we could help to these students that uh you know and these students are not ones that you know if they have there's a lot of things in that bill though so it's
040just not cut and dry just one you know there's a lot of things that with special needs students and with other things that we have that uh you know we have to look at but uh it also helps us focus on kids that are at risk that could be there kind of like the bubble students I kind of feel like and then uh what we're doing and and Mrs. Burns has suggested this and we kind of met the other day about this is we're going to have a folder or a binder for each classroom that's for these students that uh if they do not make the the cut score on those students on that test then we're going to build them a portfolio and say this is what we're going to do and how we're
041going to do it with interventions title one teachers um getting on board to focus on these students to make sure that for, you know, not missing something that they're not that we're not missing them to so they can achieve as well. And I think it's a good thing. It's a lot of work. It's going to be a lot of work, but it's also it's going to be good to um you know, if we can keep up with all of it, which we're working on it because it's a new thing that the that you know and and thank goodness for Mrs. Burns to help us directing that, too. So, um, that's where we're at with the, um, looking at our data with the the assessments and, uh, um, with our school, our snapshot. Do you guys
042have any questions? >> I got some questions. I got questions. >> Okay. Do you all So, >> thank you for your academic update. It's important. It's good for people to know that. Um, let's get to the building. What the the orange fence is up back out back. Are you happy with that now? >> Well, I mean it's a temporary thing. It's a temporary thing. >> Um Okay. So, uh you know, and then I I was really excited to share this with you and I like cuz this is like this is taking up a lot of time. I know the board me I don't want to go on forever, but we do like since you brought this up and asked >> um Okay. We do have a um as far as I know now, it hasn't
043happened. I haven't seen in writing yet, but I have seen like some emails exchanged that uh we have someone that's very interested in helping us uh fix our playground to be like I mean new courts um new shade just a whole new like uh faceelift and we have a donor when and then what it is is um it's it's through uh um Lucy Meeso is involved with this which I really appreciate that and uh she's Um they've picked Marlington Elementary Schools at one of the three spots where um the the gentleman wants to build a lot of uh build it up, but he wants a um I want to call it's not raet ball. What is it? Pickle ball. Pickle ball. >> So he wants these pickle ball courts, but he also is going to
044make it really nice. And pickle ball is a huge thing. >> I mean good sport for old people. >> Grandpa can. >> So I mean he's going to >> you know help us with that. And uh um it's probably not going to happen overnight, but it seems like it's going to be a good transformation with everything and and we're going like we've raised some money to help with that to put in the pavilion, which that's where whenever I started that fund when I said it was going to go. So we will, you know, put it towards that. And I think there's the PTO um has a lot to do with the the playgrounds along with that extra fund that we have. So, we'll be able to uh you know, help with some of the funding
045that we see that you know that guy's he's going to do like u a lot of it sounds like or most of it, but we'll have things to even put some bells and whistles that uh maybe not that we didn't have before. So, exciting things are happening. >> Well, that's going to >> That's great. I know. But, you know, it's long time coming. >> We should probably We should probably that fence. We should probably maybe consider that as a one of our next summer's to-do projects because it's that's a big deal that safety >> I think Mr. Gibson is working on the if I understand correctly we talked with Mr. Anderson and um the orange fence is up now the fence mesh fencing >> but there was some buildings that we wanted to relocate up
046there I believe correct >> and then we have looked at the type of fence that's around the dairy >> dairy land yes >> I don't know the names but we're going to put something maybe like that up so Mr. Gibson and I have talked about that. Um, we haven't touched base in a little bit about it, so I'll have to check with him, but that is on our radar. >> Yes, it's a thing. >> Yes, it is. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anybody else got any questions for Mr. Anderson? >> Appreciate you coming on. Sure. >> So, I I want to say something about um the the presentations that the principles will be giving. Um, local school improvement council is a data-driven organization that's meant to improve schools. So, one of the things
047that I've asked all the principles to do is present their data to their councils and discuss ways in which we can improve the areas that we need to and celebrate the areas that we're already doing great in. And I'm sorry Mr. Anderson had to go first. >> But that's okay. >> Just like students when they learn a new skill, it's important that they get up and articulate that skill and talk about it because the more we talk about it, the more we focus on it and the better our students performance will go. So, thank you, Mr. Anderson. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. >> Thank you. >> Item number C on the agenda is Centry Community Learning Center grant presentation. That is Miss Stephanie Burns and Miss Christy Hammonds. Thank you for
048coming. >> Oh, thank you. >> 15 years. >> We'll talk about this, but here's just for reference if anybody would like to look at it. It's so thick. We didn't want to mention Here you go, Mr. Gibson. I know you like this type of thing. You can have this. >> I read all this stuff. >> I know you do. >> I mean, I got to do it in the morning. You're more ambitious than >> That's why I gave him the coffee. >> Huh? >> I said that's why I gave you the on my phone. I don't really know anything. You can set anyone. >> Okay, we ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh Stephanie and I are here with fantastic news and we can't wait to talk to you guys about this. Um so we have
049a presentation to you about the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant that we received for this school year. Um so we want to talk to you about this grant and let you know the great opportunities that are coming for our students with this. So, first thing uh I want to sort of throw out there is you guys probably want to know why the tech person is standing here talking to you about this. Um I I got invited to help with writing this grant last year. Um I was honored to help and uh so I know a lot about the grant. I've been helping Stephanie with the communications aspect and um but but Stephanie has shouldered a lot of this um in this process. So that's why I'm here tonight is to help out and and
050to tell you the things that I know about the grant as they are. >> So in spring 2025, you guys will remember that we came here and we took a survey and we presented those results to you guys. And one of the key questions on this survey, and I I want to thank Stephanie for this was completely her design. This this question was um we said to families, we said, "How can our school system support you?" And families had a whole bunch of options to pick from and these are the top five options that they picked from. This is what they told us they needed from us to make their students better students. Right. >> Any option? >> Yeah. >> So, you're just seeing the top five. >> Yep. So, we're focusing in on the
051we picked the top five. So the things that they want are support checking students grades in the Weas parent portal, better access to afterchool programs, stronger communication from school to parents, assistant interpreting grade level standards and expectations and afterchool tutoring for students have the perfect answer that this opportunities will be able to address all five of those areas. So to start off with, what is a 21st century grant? Uh what is the program focused on? The 21st century learning centers, it supports student academic success, offers enriching activities, and involves families in education. So um a lot of it is academic help. Uh it's it supports tutoring for students to meet academic standards. It offers a lot of enrichment activities like arts, stems, health programs. um family engagement. It encourages family involvement to strengthen learning and
052community. So, like I said, in May 2025, we sat down and we said, "We are going to shoot for the moon with this grant. We're going to try to get the money." Um and so, we spent a great deal of time fine-tuning this grant application to try and get money. Um, so we asked for $250,000 over a 5-year period for middle and high school students uh to receive after school programming and we were awarded the full amount in 2025. >> Yay. >> So, the first thing that you're going to want to probably ask us is why just middle and high school students? We got an extra points awarded to us for focusing on secondary students. So we said we want the maximum amount of points. We want to win this grant. So you know we
053focused on things that we felt like would give us the best opportunity to bring money to our students. So we wrote the grant. We wrote it for middle and high school students. And a lot of what they want you to focus on is not just tutoring. Now we need a lot of social emotional learning for our students. after co there was a big adjustment for our kids coming back to school readjusting to those social emotional um settings. So we wrote that into the grant and we also um got extra points for just being Pocahontas County. So we got we got some points there. Um so with the learning boy on the bell we basically had to create a program overview. Um, and because this is sort of uh Stephanie's forte, I'm going to let Stephanie
054talk about, you know, the what our goals are and how we intend to meet those. So, we addressed two major goals, which were academic achievement and increase family engagement. And you can see on the pathway the areas that we focused on academic achievement, math, literacy, um training, tutoring, uh focusing on STEM, preparing older students for taking the SAT, uh benchmarks, report cards related to whatever data is we are receiving based on those students. Um, we also wanted to focus on their confidence. And so we are going to do a quick check every day, kind of moni monitor their self-esteem, their confidence in what they are doing. And our goal is to improve that and put in pieces and support to help support them become confident young people. >> Yeah. >> Um, and increase family engagement.
055So, we listed some of the activities and the list is endless really. We want to be able to provide FASA workshops in the evening. Uh, parent teacher conferences if needed in the evening. Um, career and college nights, family game nights, painting parties, culinary workshops, you name it. If anybody has a talent that are willing to share with us, we will help support it through this after school program. So, uh, one of the first things I'll point out is we have a logo. This is a program of its own that we got funding for. This is, um, of course through Pocahontas County Schools, but it is its own beast. So, we'll talk later about the sort of staffing and sites that we're going to work on. Um, but learning beyond the bell is its own program.
056Um, so the first thing I'm going to show you is a budget summary. the uh when we first started talking about we've received this grant and what are we going to do? We got on a conference call with um among others Dr. Williams >> and we talked about how we have $250,000 to use over five years. And so we figured we had 50 grand a year for after school tutoring at three sites, which is great. That's not We've never had that kind of money before. We were super excited. Right. Then we talked to the state and the state says that's not right. You have $250,000 a year for five years. Now the catch is >> the first three years we can be funded in full >> and then Right. Right. >> 70 to 80% of
057that >> over the last two years. So I'll still take 70% of $250,000 for our kids. So, we took our original budget and we said, "All right, let's make this our dream program." Stephanie said on one of our conference calls, and I love it. She says, "We shot for the moon and we got the universe." So, um, we're talking to staff. We're we're thinking about how do we build this program to just really bring it home for our kids. So, one of the first things we said is we want to increase the number of staff at each site. We originally planned one staff member at that $50,000 a year budget. Now we can do at least two to three at those sites depending on your student interest. We said let's make sure that they are
058quality interested staff. So we're going to pay them $30 an hour. All right. Then our next goal is for we pay our site coordinators well. We want to pay them $35 an hour. So they're going to have a little bit of extra responsibility, but they're going to be paid well for doing that. Um, we're going to expand the program to elementary at Greenbank because they're a combined school. We'll be able to do that. Um, so we're very excited to bring programming to that elementary school. We went sponsor to come down and possibly guide those teachers or guide those future teachers into tutoring the students. So, we are brainstorming some ways of how we can support the other two elementary school >> and this is federal money. So, you guys know we jump through a lot
059of hoops for federal money. A lot of these things that that we want to do, we also have to make 100% sure that we're doing kosher things. Um, there are very specific guidelines in this grant of things that you can and cannot spend money for. For instance, we will be offering a substantial snack to the kids during this program so that everybody's nobody's hangry while they're trying to learn, right? But we can't buy food. Isn't that strange? We can do this through our nutrition program. We can provide a snack, which we'll work with Miss Dunlap for, but we can't buy extra food for this. So, there's lots of things we can and can't do with the money, and we're still working a lot of that out. This is a brand new program for us. Um,
060another thing that we another option that we have is to add transportation options. So, we are going to use activity buses for these after school programs so kids can get home. But the the question is, can we add another activity bus? Can we run south to north? Can we capture those snowshoe kids? Can we capture those kids that just need to ride back to Marleon? Um, so we're hoping to do that. Um, we want to, you know, equip the sites with some high quality technology resources, 3D printers, poster printers, STEM robots, tablets. Um, and one of my favorites is provide field trips and college visit opportunities. Um, I know when I was a kid, if you would have told me on Saturday, we're going to visit a college, if you said, we're going to visit
061a college and go to a football game, I might I might be interested in that. Um so we want to provide a lot of those uh opportunities. Uh one thing I want to point out is a lot of grants you have to provide a match for. We don't have to provide a matching for this. We have to provide some inind services like the use of our buildings. Um but in general we this is not costing us a lot of money. program operations. Um, I'll let Stephanie talk about that part. >> There's still, as she said, with federal grants, there are certain stipulations and things you have to jump through. So, there are certain requirements at our sites. Um, I'm currently working on all the documentation for that. Um, after school schedule, the students will be
062there approximately 2 and 1/2 hours. We'll be paying staff three hours because by the time they make sure their transportation is safe, whether it's parents picking them up or whether it's riding the bus, it's going to be 3 hours after school. Um, for the staff and 2 and 1/2 hours for the students, it's 4 days a week. Uh and our goal is 29 weeks annually where um the students will the requirement is the minimum requirement is 250 hours but if we are able to consistently provide this after school opportunity it's going to be over 290 hours for the students. Um, so in addition to those other things, we're um also working on establishing a student referral system. We want all students to be welcome. So um it doesn't matter if if you know your special
063education, you have an IEP, we want to make sure that you come. We give you the supports that you need. Um we want to prioritize students that have D's, Fs, or academic gaps. So you'll be able to refer a student to us. uh excuse me, the site coordinator or the program director will make sure that they reach out and sort of um try and get that kid involved in the program. Um activity bus, we sort of already talked about this. In general, it's an inind service, but we're hoping to beef that up and uh >> can we use this for credit recovery? I mean, is there something that we can, you know, is there something that >> we actually talked a little bit about that because we provide that during the summer, >> but the
064response we received is that we did not in the grant apply for summer school, which would be during that credit recovery time. >> But, um, that's something we just need to find out some further information. >> Um, we talked about the snack program. We'll work with uh um Mrs. Dunlap to um get that in place so the kids will um you know make sure that they have uh decent snack after school too before they start in this program. Program personnel. So this is what we're asking you guys for tonight. It's on the agenda. Um the very first thing we're going to need is we're going to need a program director or program coordinator, if you will, for the district. Um, and what they're going to do is they're going to oversee this program. We're they're
065expected to spend about 10 hours a week on this program. Um, so it's it's not a light job. It's not a light lift. Um, so we're going to be looking for somebody for that. Um, each site is going to have a site coordinator who, um, you know, one of their main responsibilities is going to be to keep up with those things that we need to monitor for federal programs. um you know, make sure we're taking attendance, make sure we're checking in with our um our data, you know, to keep up with that. So, they'll have a little bit more responsibility, but they're also going to assist with tutors. So, we also are going to post multiple tutor positions and um Stephanie can talk a little bit about the idea that we have there with tutors.
066Um but what I will say there is all of these folks are are going to be certified teachers. The tutoring section there is going to be well the lesson plan we have or the schedule we have created for example they will have a period of time of home homework help then they'll have about 30 minutes of numeracy or math support 30 minutes of literacy uh support um then they will have an opportunity whether it's a STEM project uh so the teachers will be providing that instruction for the students. Plus, they'll be supporting the lesson plans just as the site coordinator will be. And we are hoping to have 30 students at each site. Um, and that's why we're hoping that you will agree so we can post the positions. This grants will be >> um
067program goals. we already sort of covered this is, you know, we're looking for academic achievement growth there and confident growth. Um, family engagement. I can't drive home enough how much we wanted to bring families to schools and give them an opportunity to interact with us to build relationships. Uh, one thing that we talked to Dr. Williams about is we had a leadership academy, we had a teacher academy, why not a parent academy? So, we want to bring Terrence in and we want to talk about things like House Bill 3035, which is your third grade success act, which is driving a lot of things in elementary right now. We want to talk about technology. How do you check your your child or your grandchild's grade, right? Because we have a lot of grand families right now
068and they have a learning curve. So, we bring you in and we talk about how do you monitor your child's device and make sure that they're being safe online? lots of things that maybe folks haven't thought about or they haven't learned. We want to set up parentmies so that they can learn these um these tactics. The other thing is not just um learning sessions but also family fun night sessions. >> So a a family board game night, a family uh paint party. >> Yeah. >> Um a culinary class. Um, these are all things that are within our ability to provide for sure. Um, just to go back one thing, um, I have program hurdles on here because we are so excited about this money. We we have so much potential here, but it's always important
069to say here are the things that could catch us up, right? Finding staff for the program. So 3 to 6 after school every day is a big ask, right? Um not everybody's going to want to do that. If you have a family, that's meal time, that's homework time. We get that, you know, and so that's why we're posting a lot of positions to, you know, if we need to divide days up, we can do that. Um but but that can be a hurdle. So um that's that's number one. The other one is meeting those attendance goals. The expectation is that you meet the goals that you set for attendance. So we said we want 30 kids at each site. So we have to meet those goals. We have to meet a certain percentage. I believe
070it's 70 or 75. Um so that's a big deal. We're a small community. So asking for 30 kids at Marlein Middle where there's 12 something, that's a big ask. But I will say this to you. When I left Marlatin Middle, who is piloting a communications club for us, which is something that we think can be really successful for all of the schools after school, um where the kids can can build a newsletter, they can build websites, they can build um anything communications related. There were 10 kids in a classroom excited, engaged, writing a newsletter, reading articles. I mean, if you build it, they will come. And this is just a pilot. We, you know, we didn't do a lot of, you know, publishing. We just asked try this out and see how it works. And
071man, was it working. So, if we build it, they will come. We just have to make kids want to come. >> You've got to get that word to the parents. >> Yeah. You got to get it to the parent because whenever they look at their grades to report cards and they got a D or they got an F, they got an after school program that you're going to attend. >> You know, I know how I was as a parent >> for sure. >> You know, kids is not going to high school kids especially is not going to stay after school if they got a date. But if parents get involved >> and there's a huge communication aspect to this. Even in your application, this 65page application that we put there, you have to to say
072several times how you're going to communicate. So the first thing that we have done is we've designed a flyer to send home and we have a startup meeting that's going to happen on October 13th. Parents can come and tell us how can we get your kids here? How can we get you here? How can we get the interest? So, that's our startup meeting. That's we when we're going to start pulling parents in, but man, will I hit the social media and website hard. You're going to see a lot about learning beyond the bell. Um, Stephanie and I are just taking off on this. We're we're learning, but we will grow with it. Um, so the last hurdle we have is after this money is gone, after five years is sustaining this program, right? But for
073a lot of grants we get, we usually have for a one year and five years is a long time, right? I'm excited. Five years can make a huge difference. Um, community engagement. The other part of the grant that we we put in there is we want to invite the communities into our schools. So, if we invited a local bank to come to the high school and talk about personal finance to help you set up a checking account. If you're 18, can we help you set up a checking account? My nephew is 18. Had no idea how to set up a checking account. >> Aren't we teaching that in civics? >> It's part of the curriculum. Yes, >> it's and we probably are, but >> it's being integrated. But let's say you had a bank come
074in that said, "Let's set it up. I have my laptop here. we're going to set you up a checking account. That brings it home, right? We're probably teaching it, but the bank can come in and help make it real, right? So, we're bringing in community partners to make things real. Um, you know, we can talk about science all we want, but if we bring in a scientist from the observatory, we're going to make it real. Yeah. Um, so we talked about, um, Mr. Grimes, you brought up diverse communication. We need to outreach. So, you're going to see flyers. You're we're going to we're going to reach out to Alagany Mountain Radio. We're going to reach out to the paper. We're going to get articles going to get parents aware of what's happening here. And we
075talked about parent academy before. All right. So, how can you help us with this? Please vote to fund those positions. Um technically, we're not funding those positions. That grant is funding those positions. So, that's the first thing you can do for us. Um, encourage staff. Um, we know you guys, the staff, reach out. You talk to those guys. We we we need good staff for those positions. We want this program to be a success. We want to see good staff in those positions. Spread the word about the program. Um, you know, you guys hear from the community more than anyone else. So, spread the word. We're having a new afterchool program. Get your kids there. encourage parents to come to this meeting. Like I said, tomorrow things are going to go home with students to
076get this startup meeting. Um, they're going to get information about the program. We're going to invite them to come on October 13th at 4:30. They're going to give us feedback after we talk about the program. So, it's going to be collaborative, stronger together, right? >> So, we're going to build it with the community, with the parents, with the students so that everybody is invested in this. And then give us your ideas, you know, like Sam, that's a great question. Can we use it for, you know, uh, credit recovery? Can we use it for whatever? Reach out. Let us know if you have an idea. We're open to it. >> So, guess the way it'll physically work is the kids will will they stay after school or they go home and come back. >> They will.
077>> So, that's going to help a lot, you know. >> Yes. And the program times are going to basically run based on the activity bus. So we'll start the activity bus at the high school and we'll we'll take kids home by the activity bus by those regular routes. And we're hoping to add more, but I can't guarantee that. We just don't know yet. So that's something we would like to try. >> Any other questions? >> We've talked about having meetings uh a couple in the county, probably one around here and one at the high school with meet your board members. So, if the public's got any questions, parents or anybody that come and ask us and also our new superintendent, she's not new anymore. She's new to the county, kind of new, >> this would
078be this would be a good time for whenever we get this set up. This would be a good time for you all to come present this. So, hopefully we'll have some parents there. >> Yes. Nice. >> And not to stroke your egos, but if I, as a parent, know that I can maybe come and and I could chat with a board member about, you know, things in in the county and and what's going on, you know, that that will help us. >> Well, you know, we get questions all the time. Why did you all do this? Well, it's the law. >> You know, we got to do this and we got to do it this way. And >> a lot of parents don't understand, >> right? >> Exactly. >> Uh, you know, as Mrs. Hamilton
079will tell you we can only use certain funds for certain things and it's the same way with this grant. >> Yep. And so when you look back at that that survey and and one of the things was communication, >> right? Right. There's our opportunity as board members, you could get a greater opportunity to to give information to parents. So I I think that sounds like a great idea. President Browns, anybody else have any questions, comments? >> I don't know about anybody else. >> I was here in the school system when I think we had the last one of these and that's been 20 years ago >> when I was just starting out >> and I will say this grant was no joke you guys will see this >> is it's a tremendous amount of work
080>> to apply for it >> and this is the largest grant that I've ever heard a school system getting. >> Wow. >> Through that program. >> Congratulations, ladies, on getting this together. >> Thank you. >> Are you sure it's 250,000? >> Dr. Colmes helped us with that. Dr. Colmes was like, "But wait, are you sure? we needed to see it in writing um just because it's mindblowing. It's mindboggling and um you know all of the goals that we all have as a board, as a superintendent. Um nearly a million dollars over five years can really help get us there. Um so, uh I hope that you guys are as excited as we are about it. Um man, what a great opportunity. And like I said, if we build it, they will come. All right. Thank
081you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you, girls. That was wonderful. >> We're going to take a five minute break. >> Okay. Super >> good. You sure you don't like candy? You want some now? Okay. So, you will have later. >> You're probably not a grandpa, but my favorite. >> Oh, yeah. anything. Let's take some How you doing? Good. back here now, but I was a little bit late and I was here to support Mr. request. Oh, he's a superc expect It's a state. Monday to Friday. Amazing. Well, rest. They're all coming up. miles. I love so many Okay. Thank you everybody. Mr. Gibson. >> Mr. Gibson. Huh? >> Who did Where'd he go? I got to wait for Morgan. >> Yeah, you get to start anyway, huh? Say, >> I know. >> I get
082five minutes. You all try to stretch it. At the end, just work trying to work on job where you give breaks. >> Get this thing under control here. >> Mr. Board President. Mr. President. >> Yes. Thank you for keeping us under control. >> Yeah, we got to keep this under control. See, >> okay, >> I got to wait on Mr. Mcomes. >> Here he comes. >> I'm usually just slowly. >> Okay. Item number C on this agenda is uh 21st Century Community Learning Center grant present. We done done that one. That was the one we just done. it's update special education progress to meeting compliance indicators. >> Okay. So in looking at our um special review in our special review we had um the requirement to hire a compliance specialist. So last week we went
083through that would be Miss Young, Miss Bland and myself. We spent five hours going through our review and we have let me get past one to Ollie please. We have developed the things that we need to monitor and how frequently we will monitor them for um special education. So we have weekly task. You take one um bi-weekly task, monthly task and timelines to meet. These are all things that we need to >> maybe so each one supposed to get two. >> Yes, please. >> Okay, we're in good. >> Um, so that is part of our special education progress to meet our December 3rd guideline. Within that, we developed a checklist that Miss Bland will be using as she goes around and reviews IEPs. Every AP and every school will be checked and monitored for meeting
084the compliance indicator. And this is the checklist that she is using. She's already started um doing 10 files at each school. And then she will turn these in and this will be part of our documentation that we are moving forward. We're building capacity and we are building traditions that we will keep in place to ensure that our program is performing well and meeting the needs of our students. So those are two things that we've done this week. The additional thing that we have done is um sent in a team that will represent us in the strive cons um conference which is uh special education related. We have tried to diversify that team to include different people. So, Mr. Anderson will be on the team. Miss Jordan will be on the team. Miss Wagner will be
085on the team. Um, Miss Lewis, Crystal Lewis from Marlington Middle School will be on the team as a special education team u member. And to diversify the team, often we search our elementary schools for members. I have asked Laurel Dilly from the high school and math teacher to serve on the strive team so that we are starting to branch out and include secondary and elementary. The elementary schools have the literacy team and the numeracy team but we really need to start including and building capacity at our secondary levels. So those are strides that we have made this week um in terms of special education. Do you have any questions about that or >> it's outstanding? >> Thank you. >> Keep going. >> Do you want me to go ahead and do the high school updates?
086>> Yeah. >> Okay. So high school updates to let you know our progress we are making towards getting the high school off of state of emergency this week. Um I have the things that we accomplished through for the week of September. Our goal one, our goal two, we are struggling slightly with the attendance taking process at the high school. I have spoken to Miss Dunlap and to uh Miss Hammonds. I met with the principal uh principal Campbell and I met with our representative from the state department, Miss Klene. We talked about getting a universal attendance taking procedure and documents to memorialize that process and establishing it for every teacher in every school in the county so that we are consistently and pervasively taking attendance the same way and we are doing it in weas which
087is the platform that we need to be taking it in. So we are working through that. Uh we have done administrative walkthroughs at the high school. Um created a custodial checklist, student handbooks. Miss Dunlap reviewed those and those have gone home. Um we have went up Miss Dunlap and myself and Miss Klein went and spent the entire afternoon on Monday meeting with the principal. She had missed the principal's meeting where we looked at our bubble kids. We identified um skills gaps. We talked about their advisory program restructuring that program to make it highly academic and highly effective for addressing student needs. So, and I have also met with Miss Burns and Miss Burke Kinderman about that. So we do have a solid plan in place to address our skills gaps at the high school to
088address our areas that we are not making proficiency. Um we talked about if those of you that remember attending Larry Bell we talked about the importance of relationships and estab establishing mentors which is what Mr. Anderson referred to in our meeting because a relationship with an adult that cares for you is not something that every student has at home. So adopting students that we know just that relationship factor and that little bit of intervention can move them over the top. We are doing that all the way through our schools. And we talked about how it's important to check and say, "I noticed you weren't at school yesterday. You know, I noticed you failed your test. Do you need some extra help? Do you need to be in the after school program?" So, we really talked
089about that with Miss Campbell and what her next steps is. And we h after looking at the data, the high school has November 1 to get their plan in place. So, we feel really good about the direction of the high school. Things are moving in the right direction. >> And then the improvements look great. The restrooms, >> yes, >> great. >> The office, I mean, it looks great. Looks really great. Looks great, great, great, great. >> And I have gone up uh except for last week, I've gone up two days a week, almost every week, and I've taken Mrs. Good >> Dunlap with me. So we are giving our school the love and attention and affection that it needs to move off the state of emergency. >> That's that's going to pay off for student.
090>> So any questions about that? Okay. So I have asked Miss Dunrep to give us an attendance update. Uh because I think that attendance is a focus of ours. Um when I went to the state board of education, I was questioned about attendance. So we have to make it uh we have to make it a priority and the more you talk about priorities is the more fluent you become and the better you are at addressing them. So Miss on that would you give us an update please? >> So focus anybody. We're just making sure everybody's included and everybody's involved. >> Uh it's communication with parents, it's communication with students, and the importance of attendance. And we um it's not that we don't do that, but I think we need to polish our plan. But our
091tier 2 support is targeted. That's more for our smaller group. It's our atrisisk students. Um typically it's about 15% of our students that are in this area. um the ones that are targeting with the unexcused, you know, if they have three to five unexcused absences, that's a red flag. Uh that's when you start the SAT process and and start calling that in. What I've asked the the all the principles have their own multi-terism of support and then following this guidance and I I have one of these you all like copy of it. It's just the guide. It's not the exact PL. We're not ready to share you because we we've got to make a few tweaks, right? But the important thing is um we don't sit there and wait for someone that says, "Oh, I'm
092not going to look at this student until they have three unexcused absences." They could have 15 excused absences. Somebody needs to be checking on this again and see what's going on. It's looking universally at the whole picture is what we're doing. So in in the school plans, they have their their systems in place. Um but that's where it starts. That's where we start process monitoring, making attendance plans. Tier three is much more intensive. That's when they're past that point. They're usually past that five day point. And that's a a red flag. Okay. Now, I'm I'm not every day, but more than once a week, I'm looking at just student absences in the students. There's I can sort sort them in a report and I can go in and I can look and then I'll pull
093up on say this kid's got four absences. Well, part of them were doctor's notes and I do know we've had some illness in the school and we've had him put them out. So, that required more than a day or two out of school. So I don't get too bent out of shape because they've got the doc and they've got the parent note, but I'm also communicating and saying, "Hey, have you checked on this kid or have you done that?" I've been in communication with all the principles to check with that. Um been in contact with Miss Cutlip u on a couple of students and and she's been able to assist and and help with that and Miss Hill also talked to her uh about a few students. So we've got we're building this plan to
094make it work. Every school's probably going to be a little different and obviously, you know, Green makes them a broader area than what Hillsboro Elementary have. And that's why I want them to have their tiered support in place. They all have their teams. They have their personal contact. For example, they have this two days of school and I my mom didn't call in to say, "Hey, Julie's not going to be at school tomorrow. Can I pick her homework up today?" Um, then Mr. Anderson's phone somebody on his list how he's got it teared down. I think he might have had the janess on there. So I think he's had a regroup and I asked them to have their first call, their second person and then a backup to the backup person in line and they're
095going to call and reach out to my parents and say, "Hey, we just want we notice that you haven't been at school for a couple days. Is everything okay? What's going on? Is there anything we can do to help you? Do we need to provide supports?" It's that friendly reach out. It's not the the old school got you truly safe skirt. We want it to be friendly and supportive. So, we're not there yet with anybody, but that's a bonus. Um but in that I when we get to that tier three and they aren't at that level and it may be that we have to do a pregnancy version where they're at 10 excused absences because they have excessive excused absences but we need to make sure that we understand what the root cause is that's
096causing that absence and what we can do to support it getting there because present is important whether and and I I don't know how to redirect the um that it's okay to just miss a school for vacation. Um but and I understand completely that sometimes it's just more economical for the family to go that's a lot of education because currently we've been in school for 25 days. >> Yeah. >> So 10% of that is 2 and a half days. >> That's that makes you chronically absent and we have and I've run the numbers. I I look at them pretty frequently and Mr. Anderson shared his our countywide percentage rate now for chronically absent is 21.72%. We've had uh three SAT meetings at Greenbank. The high school has five scheduled and Hillsboro had one. Ron Elementary
097and Mon have not had these s yet. Um contacts made roommates made 93. The high schools made 150. Rollins Elementary had four contacts. Mons had 15 and had two they were concerned about. >> Do you want to explain what the contact is? Because a laws change is a two-way meaningful >> meaningful contact is not mailing a letter. The letter doesn't talk to anybody. But a phone call is communication. Or maybe it's easier for that parent to communicate by email. Then we have their email address and we can communicate and it's back and forth. It's a followup if they don't respond or pick up the phone and have that conversation and leave a voice message. Hey, hey, please call me. We want to talk about this and make this work. So we we're making it better.
098Um, I think we've already seen some things that we thought, "Oh, this sounds great on paper and it's not working so well." So, we're still polishing a little bit, but we're in a much better direction. Everybody's got their plan. They've got their graphics. And so, what we've got before we go to before the referral report is called a truency diversion agreement. And that's what the support um I'm still waiting to hear back from um probation on ask us actually having the option to have a probation officer at this meeting to just share with them the unfortunates of what happens if we have to proceed with filing the petition for truency. But this agreement says that stu the student agrees to do their work and attend school. The parents there in the meeting the parent agrees
099students going to attend work and they're going to support them and let us know that there are supports that they need and it's just an agreement that they're going to come to school. It's not filing any paperwork. It's not high enough the time of the prosecutor until we have to get to that point. But it's just we're serious about what we mean and we don't want to have to go there. We want to support you. So we we're um definitely more targeted than others that we have in um we participated. We did say civil schools. We've got um everybody was able to put in office that you all approved and was beneicial to them. We've got textbooks that came from the conference reference books that they can use for for guides. We've got um we
100had the W mountaineering team last Monday to talk to all the schools about uh all of the benefits of attendance and those that's just one of many things that the schools are going to be working together to provide for these students and have just surprised you know overall today um for example at Marlington Middle I know when the mountaineer was there he was going on the two were wearing blazer they weren't wearing lime green they were wearing high vest and I like what's going on and well that was their surprise day M was there. Then they all got popcorn, which is a little snack by the way. >> So, but that was their surprise. That was if you're here today and you're present, this is what you get today. Uh they're doing uh positive boards
101announcements on positive, you know, perfect attendance. They're doing announcements. They're doing displays. Um they're displaying even on parent making a competition. Roommate has a trophy. then the class who has the best attendance gets a trophy and then they have to hand it off that if somebody beats them on their attendance. So little things like that they're trying to see what works and and I think if we continue to do the same thing over and over again and who will become complacent and that's what we don't want. We want to keep the game stirred up and keep it curious and interested and have the kids come in and see why I don't want to miss a day because they might be doing something I want to do today. So that that's our end goal and that's
102where we're going. Everybody they they've given me their plans. they um they know we're serious about the contact. And I know we all get busy in the strangers and can attest to this, but we still have to make the time. It doesn't take that long to stop and look at just your school >> and say, "Okay, I've got this many kids out. What's going on today or you know, but it hit hard. I don't know if it's your school hand, mouth, but I think it's working its way to Orange County right now." Mhm. >> So there's nothing we can do about that illness and it's unfortunate, >> but an absence is an absence. We want to make sure that we provide supports for those students to get them academically where they need to be and
103movement of our scores even more than we could this year. Um I have I have a question too um about attendance from a special ed standpoint reviewing 24/19 and stuff and part one of the questions on there when you fall qualify a child for special ed is is this due to lack of education I know last year we had a couple kids that were special ed students with IEPs >> that were like um 46 days absent so that's over a quarter of the year. So at that point, I don't know, I don't know if you can even answer this, but at that point, does it become that you know the child's delay or disability is because due to lack of education? Well, in in the multi-tered system of support and the identification process in that
104flowchart, that is a question and students can move from skill gap to skill gap group in the intervention and they may never move out of the intervention cycle because of their attendance. So, that should that should be considered long before you get to the IEP and part of that process. And that's another Yeah, I actually have uh the chart from the state for that and I'll share that. >> Okay. When she was talking about the things that teacher that schools are doing to improve several years back at Hillsboro, they had a teacher torture attendance award. >> If the kids were present for five days, they got a coupon. I was victim to this. um they put a coupon and after a nine weeks of all the stu all the coupons they pulled out um a
105coupon each class I think each grade level had a box so they got like a kindergartener got pulled out for you know the more days you were at school obviously the more chances you got and then you got to pick whipped cream ice water um I forget what all it was I just remember that being smeared in my face and then you know teachers got to volunteer. We let a child in Portuguese. So there we sat waiting for our torture. So as they got their ticket, they got to um as their name got called, they got to let us or pick the teacher in the way they wanted to torture us. And the kids when they were last, oh my gosh, they were here every day because they were going to get us. >> Thank
106you. >> Whenever I run companies, the one question I always ask is how often did you go to school? because it's a direct reflection on how often you'll come to work, you know. >> Yeah. >> So, it's important to employers. >> Mhm. >> Because I know it wasn't only me doing that. There was a lot of other employers that was checking records to see because if we're not in school, they're not going to come to work. And you know, in school, you get a report card. >> Mhm. >> Same as money. It's same as money because that you know on jobs the report card is how much money you make. >> So it's the same ain't much difference. >> So we got to get them there. Okay. Anything else you could add there? >> No,
107I just want to say that we are working diligently and um Mr. Gibson had my undivided attention at the beginning of the year and Miss Don life has had my undivided attention and she's um enduring the pressure >> greatly with a great attitude. >> All these any questions on these? We just went over it. >> All those in favor sign by saying I. >> Motion carries. Number six, consent agenda items. Approval of minutes August 19th, 2025 to September 2nd, 2025. September 11th, 2025. Approval of the agenda. Payment of bills subjects to additions, deletions, or other changes prior to the board meeting. Payment of vendor listing 51,28957. Payment of local government purchasing card 1673117. Bank reconciliation for the month of August. Extra duty pay September the 25th September 2025 36,95389 granted boards and budget adjustments. Do
108I have a motion? >> So move. >> Mrs. Hollinssworth made the motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. Gibson second it. Any questions on any of these items? >> Do we extra duty pay? >> No. No, we'll we'll just pull it out because uh we're voting on everything except the extra duty pay which is line D on the consent agenda item. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Now let's let the record show that Mr. Mcomes has recused himself and we're voting on item number D which is extra duty pay for September 2025 36,95389. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Tell Mr. Mcomes he can come back in the room. >> You just get out. >> This is you know.
109Okay. Number seven is personnel matters. And I'm going to turn that over to Oie. >> I have a motion. >> Mr. McComes made a motion. Do I have a second? >> I second it. >> Mr. Gibson second. Now I'll turn this over to >> personnel agenda for October the 7th, 2025. Professional recommendations is a request to transfer of Darwin Arguest from the CTV business management at Poconus County High School to the special education multicategorical autism at the Poconus County High School effective October the 1st. We then have a list of all of the positions that are currently unfilled. The bottom one of that is director of special education preschool and student support. Mr. Philip Anderson is being recommended for that position tonight. Um service recommendations of the following is substitute aid for the Poconus County
110Schools and State Basic Service Personnel Salary for the 2025 2026 school year as needed is Jan Stannic. Employment of Michelle Wilfong's academic interventionist for Greenbank Elementary Middle School at $25 per hour, three and a half hours per day up to five days per week, not to exceed $15,000 per position. Holidays are not part of this contract. Effective date of employment is October the 8th, 2025 for the remainder of the 2526 school year. Other recommendations is of the following substitute teachers focus county school that state basic professional salary based on degree and experience for the 2526 school year as needed. Patricia Plogger, Ronald Plogger, and Jane Miller. Denise Burns has requested unpaid medical leave at Marlington Elementary School effective September the 13th, 2025 for a period of up to 12 weeks. Janessa Henderson has also requested
111unpaid medical leave at Marlington Elementary School effective September the 29th, 2025 for a period of up to 12 weeks. >> Any questions? >> Did I hear you say that, Phillip? >> Yes, ma'am. Okay. >> What's What's he What's his >> Mr. Anderson is going to be director of special education? He has >> director of special education. >> I do have a question about um don't we have the stay put rule with that would apply to Mrs. Armagas? I mean how what's I don't understand. >> No, not for this case. >> You're not staying put. No, it would be something we would need to talk about. >> Uh, >> yes. >> Yeah. >> But the transfer don't apply in this case. >> So, okay. >> Do you want to do >> request? >> Yeah, we probably
112should request it. Okay. >> Request then executive session to discuss personnel. Okay. Second, Mrs. Holland for uh personnels. Well, we've never voted on personnel yet. Okay. On a any any other questions on personnel? No. >> Hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. Motion carries. Number eight is superintendent report. And I'm going to let you go through it. >> Okay. For item A, county approval and accreditation status. This was just presented at the last board of education meeting. It is number eight in your binder. Victor, you would like right there. >> I got it. >> Um, we are on intensive support for attendance. So that puts us on the same status, not an emergency intervention, but it is an intervention for attendance from the West Virginia Department of Education because we have not
113met the requirements for special education. We are on a needs assistance for special education. In addition to that, we had one school identified as an additional target support school, an ATS school, and that would be Marlington Middle School. They have been identified based on an achievement gap. So, schools identified in 2022 for low performing student subgroups have not shown adequate improvement in subgroup academic performance from 2022 to 2023. So that's our special education subgroup we are on. We are on additional support for Marlington Elementary. And the area that um I identified when I was looking at it, although it's both areas, the greatest gap is occurring between the special education students that are in math and the regular education students that are in math. So if there's any questions about that, we can Number B
114is October calendar and professional learning for staff. >> So, one of the things that we're doing this year that um when I got here, the staff talked to me and said, "We uh need time for collaboration." So each grade level of teachers will come up to the county office and we'll work with myself um Miss Burns and Miss Hammonds and we are going to do the activities that we have done with the principles with the teachers to build capacity in our county to build support in our county and to build communication frameworks and to make sure that we are offering similar or comparable ser services across all of our schools. So all three of our elementary teachers that's in kindergarten, they'll all come. All the first grade teachers will come. All the second grade teachers,
115all the third grade teachers, fourth, fifth, 6th through 12th, science and math will be together. 6 through 12, social studies will be together. Miss Shifflet will work with CTE and related arts because it's important to keep up the momentum that we started at the beginning of the year and to connect with those teachers. So, we're really excited about working with them and the opportunities that we're going to have to work together as a team and grow stronger. >> A special. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. Um, so next I'll just go ahead and move unless there's any questions about the collaboration. I'm going to move on to the certified list and certified enrollment. So on our certified list, we have been funded for 101.85 professionals. We have 149 professionals on staff. So we will get funding
116for slightly um more than one staff members um for service. >> Hold on, hold on, hold on. Read that again. >> We have been funded for 101.85 85 >> 102 >> and we have 100.49. >> Okay. 100.49. >> Yes. >> Woo. >> Oh, that's good. Is this good? >> Yes. >> Go ahead. Now, >> so for service personnel, we have 79 service personnel that we um have on staff. We are funded for 77.7. So we are over 1.3 service personnel. Um we have a 833 students. We are not getting funded for five students. Three of the students that we are not getting funded for have enrolled and they are not in state. So we have to really start looking at that and not enrolling out of state students. We have one student that enrolled and
117they did not meet the age requirement as well. So we have five students in our system that we are paying to educate those students and we did not receive funding for them this year. But our total enrollment is and I believe last year Miss Hammonds we had 893 and we're down about 60 students. So we last year we were at last year at 1 8.93 >> and this year we are at 833 >> at 60 >> but I think we are just not getting funded for 20 we're getting funded for 28 less students. Now I would like to insert this caveat to the board. We are funded at 1,400 enrollments. So just keeping up with our enrollment is what we're doing. But in the legislative branch, we are funded at 1400 students for all of
118our things. So, um, we are not in a bad place. We're actually in an excellent place. Um, so I'm going to go to general updates and I just wanted to show you the final graphic of the floor. Miss Hammonds, if you have that pulled up, I was over and looked at the floor today. It's very beautiful. Um, so we decided to make that black line solid. So that's what the center graphic will look like in our gym floor. The the hatches will be slightly outside of the graphic. We have the three feather colors to represent the three former middle schools. Do you want to pull the whole floor up? And then maybe blow it up a little bit. This is our uh actual gym floor. It is positively gorgeous. We changed the font on the
119arrows to match the warrior font in the center and we made sure warrior was it um contained within the center court circle. Um so it's it's underway. It's looking fabulous. >> Yeah. That's beautiful. Good job. >> Okay. Okay. It's something that is dear to my heart and I want to bring it up because I think it's a thing be when you have a a um new floor we haven't even got yet. The past two or three years we have there's been a fundraising in the county that's this donkey basketball thing. >> Oh, >> okay. >> Not on that floor. >> Yeah, that's what I tell you. I want I'd like to make, you know, some kind of a declaration that we won't do donkey basketball on the brand new gym tour. I mean, is that
120something we can do? >> Yeah. Maybe we got to pass that when it comes to us. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, >> can we make that? Can we agree to agree on that? >> If it comes before us, you will get to vote on it. >> Yeah. if well the superintendent can shut that down before it ever gets >> put your you know I mean >> but it is gorgeous. If you have an opportunity to stop by there, please do. It's it's very beautiful. They haven't put the top coat on yet, but it's looking great. >> Any updates? >> Um let me see. I did meet with the faculty senate president and educate West Virginia. Um, we did have some staff questions on our vector trainings. Um, they're taking they're 3 hours and 51
121minutes to complete the required the first batch of required trainings. So, what I have told staff that I would do is December the 22nd, half of that day is for professional is for staff development. So if they complete their vector training, submit their certificates, then we can have then we can let all the folks that did that have some compensation and get off early the day before Christmas. Another thing that uh was a source of interest was lesson plans. I have thought sought some information from the West Virginia Department of Education and provided that to the staff as well. So, um, feel like everything's going well with our teachers and with our staff. Um, there's communications. I've been in every school um, since our last board meeting at least once. So, it's it's going well.
122Things are looking great out for our schools. Good. >> Number 10 is new business. Do I have a motion? Mr. >> Neon's made motion. Do I have a second? Second, >> Mrs. Holland for second. >> Uh, it's approval of six students and one homeschooled student to complete observation hours for the grow your own college program at Barnet Elementary School, Morning Middle School, Greenbank Elementary Middle School, and Poconus County High School during the 2526 school year. Anybody have any questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Item and under new business, you're going to move down to uh B and you all can look down through that. I'm not going to read all of it. If you would like to read it. Uh do you have any questions on any?
123Well, I guess we need a motion on B right there, don't we? So said move. MS made a motion. I have a second. >> Second. >> Dr. Hollenssworth seconded. Does anybody have any questions on B through O? >> Sir, >> have we read the proposals? Anybody got a question? >> Sir, >> hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. Motion carries. So by leaving a gives Christ and Stephanie what they wanted positions. >> Yes. Yes. Yes it does. The post teacher coordinator grant awards for the 21st century grant. Okay. >> Any any other questions on these? I mean, we voted on it, but if anybody's any questions, we still >> We do have your um permission to start the off the search for security officer. >> We do. >> I've got that on
124here. >> Well, that's I didn't see that, but I am. >> You were making me feel better every minute. >> Okay. So, is that Do I have your permission to start that, sir? >> Yes. >> Okay. We'll do that. >> Well, we'll give it right to you right there whenever we >> Okay. >> voted on it. And I'm I >> give you all that permission. >> Give you the permission. >> Don't Don't ask any more questions to take what you got. Uh I am tickled to death that we're going to get an officer pok high school. I am tickled that I've always worried about that. >> When Morgan was there, I didn't feel so bad about it because I felt he could stand up and take on what happened when you know after that point.
125>> All right, then I will start that process. >> Please do. Mr. Gibson, any questions, any answers or any thing you want to bring up? >> Everything's great in my world school. I've been to most of the schools, too, and they're grounds look great. The grass is cut, teachers are happy, kids are happy, and I I think it's great. I think it's great. Commission Collins what Sam said things are really looking up and moving a positive direction. >> Dr. Oliver thing was sounds like we have a vacancy for an elementary principal. >> It does. It does. Um I I did speak with Mr. Anderson. He is going to stay there for a little bit till we get a person for him to transition in and get them acclimated. But we will start the search on
126Thursday. >> I just want to say whenever we vote on a whole page of stuff and you don't get but one question, you're doing your job. >> So, you know, >> you've done a we have a lot of faith in you. So, not just you, but you know, Mrs. Dunlap, you know, I keep want to say shiftlet, but Mrs. Dunlap Mrs. Hamilton and Ollie, we got a lot of we got a lot of pride in you all and the job you're doing. Next uh adjournment, the next board of education meeting will be October the 21st, 2025. We are done.