001Okay, we're on >> there. >> Okay, we're we're good to go. >> We're good. Everybody on live. Okay, we'll go ahead and call our regular meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education to order. It's six o'clock. And if you'll stand, we'll say the pledge. >> Mark, you care to lead us this evening. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Let the record show that all board members are present in person this evening. And we can begin with uh recognitions if we have any. >> No scheduled recognitions, no scheduled presentations. >> Perfect. Let's move on to our good news section. Um, anyone have any good news to
002share? >> Yeah, I wanted to share that the Crumb PreK through 8 has been named a finalist for as a exemplary school of practice for the West Virginia Department of Education. The Department of Education was scheduled to do an on-site visit today um as they're considering schools uh for that for that final award as an exemplary school practice. These will be schools that uh schools from the region and across the state come to visit for specific instructional practices. >> Excellent. >> So, we're certainly proud that Crumb PreK through 8 was recognized as a as a finalist. >> That's great. And then um I wanted to mention as well that the Tulsa Christmas play which is always a fantastic event um it was scheduled for today uh but Tulsa was closed down due to a uh
003a waterline break uh down in the community. So um it's been moved to tomorrow. So they have three plays that will take u place tomorrow including six o'clock tomorrow evening. So we're looking forward to that. All right. Anyone else have anything to share? Okay. Moving on then to ourformational items. Our regular meeting on Tuesday, December 16th, beginning at 6 here in the board conference room. And then we have no school December 22nd through January 1st. That is our con break construction project updates. >> Just uh we've neighbor construction is underway on the Cerrito Kenova Elementary School. alumni gym uh the renovations [cough] there and that work has started and of course that's a SBA funded project the large percentage of that uh project is funded by the SBA and they are underway and there's going
004to be substantial work done over Christmas break so if you're down that way you'll you'll see uh their setup there outside of the gymnasium >> gota >> that's all I have >> that SBA that was one of our uh smaller awards right that Yeah, that was an MIP award. >> MIP. So, that was a million dollars. >> Yeah, a million dollar >> grant that. >> Okay, perfect. All right, we can move on to our delegation section this evening. I think we have a couple of delegations. So, um Mr. Dylan, we'll let you uh go first if you'd like. >> Okay. And before you get started, I'm sorry. I just want to let you know the the rules of the open meeting um limit us to five minutes uh per person and that the board is
005able to listen and take in notes or um any information that we might need to know from you later, we'll give to Mr. Alexander and he will make contact with you. We're just not allowed to interact or um respond at this point. Okay. >> Okay. >> Your your turn. >> Well, thank you very much. Um and thank you for everyone coming out tonight. I am Delegate Dylan and um you know, I represent district 29, which includes this part of Wayne County, you know, and Dunbo being right in the center of the district. And for over a year, uh we've been wrestling with this issue. I know last year when I came and we were starting to have the discussions, I asked the board for a couple of years, a full cycle of the legislature to
006work on this issue and we're right in the middle of that. We've gone through one one year of the 87th legislature and we're in the second year currently. So this year, what we've heard most of in terms of discussion from superintendent is the fact that birth rates are down. And I'm not going to go into the causes and all the contributing factors for birth rates. Uh we've also heard that we have a budget crisis of I think about 4.4 million in total. That sounds accurate. But however, Genanoa and Dunlow are not responsible for $4.4 million of budget deficit. and we really need to separate out and consider the portion of the financial picture that really applies specifically to Genanoa and Dun. Now, since I've been coming to these meetings, particularly this year, some people have
007issued some criticism that I'm not offering enough help. In fact, one of the u the directors, I believe, who works here in the [snorts] uh Wayne County Board of Education went online and made some disparaging comments about my lack of helpfulness. And um they got me thinking about ways that I could, you know, get the community involved and offer more helpful suggestions because I'm working on legislation at the state level, but that takes time. And this year's legislative session doesn't begin until January 14th. So, as [snorts] I was thinking about this, I thought, you know what? We really need more information. We really need to kind of dig in and see what part of the numbers, not just for this year, but for previous years, going back, what's happened with our financial picture? How did
008we get here? We didn't get here overnight, obviously, you know. So, in that spirit, um, yesterday I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request, looking for some more financial information. This is the first of several follow in the coming days as we get closer to the final decision that Freedom of Information Act request, which was submitted to the superintendent yesterday, I want to make sure was received in good order. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um it included the following items. A list of approved vendors for each fiscal year beginning 2014 to 2015 to the present including the category or good category of good or service provided for each vendor. It requested all purchase orders invoices correlating checks beginning with fiscal year 20145 to the present. All blanket purchase orders authorized beginning fiscal year 20145 to
009the present. List of all current personnel employed including name, title, location of assignment, salary, and number of contracted days. Work records for all extra days worked beginning with fiscal year 2014 15 to the present. Payroll records of amounts paid for each extra day worked beginning fiscal year, you guessed it, 2014 15 to the present. and a spreadsheet showing totals by each year with destinations broke down for travel records, travel reimbursement forms, and associated checks beginning fiscal year 2014 15 to present. The number of homeschool students on record for each year beginning fiscal year 2014 15 to present with the totals for each assigned school if they were enrolled in that school. >> Mr. Dylan, you have one more minute. >> Thank you. Finally, [clears throat] the [snorts] last item of the request, item number seven,
010is agreements for goods and services. Provide agreements entered into for goods or services with terms longer than a period of one month beginning with fiscal year 2014 15 to present. Now, the purpose of this foyer request, as I say, it is to help you guys as a community. We're looking for solutions and we could look at this as an adversarial interaction, but I really wouldn't. I would look at it more as a community just trying to help come up with answers. And you could even call it a community doge if if you want to. It doesn't matter. But the point is, we're going to be looking deeper for answers. We're going to be looking for financial information. We're going to be looking to put together a picture of how we got here and what we
011can do under the current set of circumstances to ensure that we're not closing down schools simply to save on line budget. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, [clears throat] Miss Mills. Good evening. Um I am Kim Mills. I'm the principal at Illinois Elementary. We have hosted you all several times in our building. And I come to you this evening as the principal of our school and a member of our community. And prior to this this evening, we had held twoformational community meetings that Mr. Alexander's going to talk about later. Uh but [clears throat] one of the things before that we had also put out a survey to our parents uh for both communities to fill out if they wanted to and it is just discussing the importance of community school and we are
012asking that you take into consideration consolidation uh in this this evening when he asked um that it not just be closure you also put consolidation on the table. We went through this December six years ago. Um consolidation was the choice at the time and we stood and you know requested that to happen. I think if we had been able to achieve that in 2019, we would not be having the conversations maybe that we're having today. But um I've printed for you the results of the survey that we have to date. So I will give you these copies. There's one for each of you including Mr. Alexander. There is some contact information for people who said you could reach out to them um for their comments and then we will put the survey back out um
013this after this evening we will put it back out um to obtain some other comments. Uh if you flip through them, it is just asking how long you've been associated with a community school and what you believe makes them special and any concerns that you would like or suggestions that you would like for the board to consider. There are 23 responses. I've given you all the responses. >> Okay. >> Um and then it also if you would like to speak there's contact information on the back for all of those, but um I've gone through them. If you have questions once you've reviewed them, you can reach out to Mr. Alexander. Um he'll get with me. I can provide you some answers. Uh, also you can reach me an email. Thank you. >> Thank you. >>
014Thanks again. [cough] >> All right. Is there anyone else that would like to speak before we close our delegation section? [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you both for speaking this evening. We'll move on to our superintendent reports. >> Yeah. And your um Manila folder. That's uh [clears throat] there I want to go through a few items. Uh first up is the uh information that we shared um at the community meetings at Dunlow and Genanoa and it's a PowerPoint. It's the first slide says Wayne County Schools enrollment and financial context. So I just wanted to briefly share with you the information I shared at both of those meetings. At the bottom of that first page, there is a line graph that shows the trend of the enrollment for Wayne County schools since
0152015 2016. And you'll see that there were approximately 7,300 students enrolled in 2015 and that number has dropped to approximately 5700 in u in 2025 2026. That's a decrease of about 1,600 students. One of the things that uh I talked with the principles about is what that 1600 student decrease represents. If we took the current enrollment of our schools, uh 1,600 students are the enrollments of nine different schools combined in the district. Currently 1,600 students is the equivalent of today's current enrollment of Dunlow, Genanoa, Pritchard Elementary, East Land Elementary, Vincent Middle School, Serita Canova Middle School, Buffalo Middle School, Crumb PreK through 8, and Lavallet Elementary. Just to give you an idea of of the type of impact that we're talking about there. Now, in 2015, we were operating 20 buildings. Um, shortly thereafter, uh,
016Crumb, uh, PreK through 8 opened up, which, uh, closed the Crumb Elementary and, and the Crumb Middle School, and then CK Elementary School opened up, which closed, uh, >> Cerrito and and Kenova Elementary. So, we're operating 18 18 buildings now. um with that loss of 1,600 students and and that I think it helps put the financial crunch in into perspective. On page two is just enrollment trends at the schools that we were talking about, Dunlow and Genanoa. At the bottom, you'll see the enrollment numbers from the schools that would receive students. um if Dunlow and Genanoa were closed and that includes East Lynn, Wayne Elementary, and Crumb PreK through 8. When you look at Wayne Elementary, you can see that their enrollment was uh just short of 650 in 2016 and they've dropped to under
017500 now. So, they're one of the schools that's that's been significantly impacted. Page three. Um, delegate Dylan had uh mentioned that I had referred to birth rates and death rates. This is from the 2020 uh this is from the 2020 vital statistics report. I know a lot of times when you talk about declining enrollment a lot a lot of times uh hope scholarship gets gets the blame for that and it's a it's a small piece of that picture. Uh we lost approximately 215 students this year. Went back and checked to see you know how how much of that was attributable to school choice and only 30 out of that 215 students was attributable to the uh hope scholarship program. The work the rest was just a decline in in number of students in the area.
018And uh so it just gives you a statistic there. Now, that's one year. I took a look earlier because at the at the community meeting, somebody brought up that, you know, this was around the COVID year and the deaths were likely exaggerated during that time. I looked at uh going back to 2017. There's usually a gap of births and deaths is around a hundred. There's usually about a hundred more deaths than there are births, which speaks to the declining population. At the [snorts] bottom of page three, you see the utilization uh numbers, and I'm talking about the third column over. Those are current utilization numbers for our schools. So, the way the state calculates this, they take the number of classrooms in a building. Uh they look [snorts] at maximum enrollment uh in each of
019those class periods and come up with a total number that a building could hold during any one class period. And then you divide that out by the number of students that are actually enrolled in the building and you see those utilization numbers. So Dunlow was at 23% Genanoa was at 38% Crumb PreK through 8 brand new building sitting at 28% Fort Gay a newer building sitting at 40%. East Lind sitting at 36%. If you go over to page four, you see a per pupil cost by school. Now, these numbers are generated from a state report uh on how much the district is is spending uh per student at each school. And what you're going to notice at the top of this list is that your title schools are going to be up towards the top
020because those extra federal dollars that come in from those schools is going to push up uh the amount is going to increase the amount that is spent per pupil. And then your smaller schools, those with those small building utilizations are also at the top. So in the top four are Genanoa, Dunlow one and two, Crumb PreK through 8 is three, East Lynn is four, and then on down the line you'll see that the district average was around 15,000 per student. Uh Genanoa this and this is from 2024. This is not from 2025. This is from 2024. Uh Genanoa was sitting at around 23,000 per student. Dunl low was just under that 20,000 mark. At the bottom of page four, uh is and you've seen this plenty of times. We have been over this as part
021of our budget talks. This is our estimated cost of personnel that come from the general fund. And again, it's not because of increasing personnel. It's because the number of positions that are paid for through the school funding formula decreases as enrollment decreases, which pushes more uh personnel cost over to the general fund. And then page five, of course, you've seen this plenty of times. This is our unrestricted fund balance. So th those are the slides that I went over in the community meetings and talking about the need to consider this during this year's uh budget season. And then also in your packets, I provided all of the community feedback forms. I passed out a form for those that um didn't want to ask questions publicly or didn't want to comment publicly at those at those
022meetings. I passed out a form and gave them a chance to provide feedback. I've made you a copy of that and you have all the information that was provided to me from the community members at those meetings. Do we have any idea what our overall loss has been through this decade? If we've lost 1,600 students, I know each year the um state aid formula changes a little bit. So, we might not have gotten as much back in 2015 as we do now, but 1,600 students, if we've lost 200 students this past year at a what was it? $1.5 million in lost funding, can you imagine 1,600 students over the past decade? How much funding that >> points to in total >> would equal to? >> We can get you that number. that will be uh
023that will be a simple calculation when we receive the uh final comps here within the next month. >> I mean that's that's pretty significant. >> Speaking of comps, the next thing in your packet and you've seen these plenty of times before too preliminary computations. This is just the staffing pages. We have not received our preliminary financial numbers yet from for the uh estimate on what we're going to receive from the school funding formula. This is just the staffing pages. And so I wanted to share this with you. Um so you see there on our in the very first column our second month headcount enrollment this year was 5,679. Uh earlier I rounded that off to 5700, but we set at 5,679. If you go to page two, in the far right hand column is the
024number employed in excess of the school funding formula. And if a number's in parentheses, that means that the county's in the whole on those positions. And these are positions that are coming from the general fund. So the initial estimate is is that we're going to be approximately 62.68 over in teaching positions. Now we're below that. Um and we cut 25 positions 20 20 yeah 27 I think when all was said and done >> and then that number has increased to 62 just because of the loss of enrollment. So we're basically back to where we started actually a little worse. >> If you go to the next page you look at the service personnel data again you're going to go to that far right column. Last year we were approximately 75 positions over for service personnel.
025The early estimate is that that number is going to be 78 over. Go skip a couple pages back. Page five. [snorts] This is where they go through a few pages of adding up not only the instructional personnel but counselors um as well. And that information is found on page six. That's your student support personnel. So when you look at the number on the far right, we're just short of just short of four positions over for professional support personnel. And so they add those numbers with that 62 number that we spoke about earlier and they make the adjustments etc. And uh the final number they have is the next next to the last column there to the right they have a 62.51 over. Now you can go up and down the list. Of course this lists
026all 55 counties. And so you can go up and down the list to uh see the uh number of positions that are coming out of the general fund for other counties as well. >> About every counties in that group. >> Yeah. And then page eight is just a summary of everything that we just covered. So when we get the preliminary computations that'll be the financial numbers that they are projecting that we're going to receive from the state for the year. When we get those we will share those with you immediately. Jeb I think at the last meeting you said we've been receiving those in January. >> Yeah they try to come out somewhere mid December but coming out January. So, I just wanted to share that information. And then next up in your packet is
027West Virginia Board of Education policy 7211, resolution of formal complaints. This is just an FYI. This is a new policy that's been approved by the West Virginia Board of Education. Um, they've had a policy for years on uh citizen complaints and how those are uh filed. We've put notice of this on our website. It's under the students and parents section uh in case any parent would uh seek [snorts] to uh utilize this process to resolve a formal complaint. Uh so this is now on our website and again it's just a uhformational for you at this point. On page two of that document, you see the flowcharts. If there's a school level complaint and then, you know, if it's not satisfied, that can kick up to the county level. And again, if it's not satisfied there,
028it can kick up to the uh state level. And there's multiple steps in each, but that is uh explained on this form. So, I just wanted to share that information with you. And then the last thing that I have is the status of the West Virginia school immunization requirements. So there's been more action within the last couple weeks. Um I had sent you notice that the uh circuit court in Raleigh had u exclude or Randy I don't know what the correct term is but they had uh they had u prohibited the West Virginia Board of Education uh from enforcing its uh vaccination requirements. >> Yeah. An injunction. >> Yeah. And so we had received notice from the state that they had been enjoined and uh were not going to be enforcing those vaccination requirements and
029it was up to each county to determine how they were going to move going forward um in consultation with their uh legal counsel and then I don't know probably within 48 hours maybe 72 hours the Supreme Court of West Virginia stepped in and uh put the Raleigh County Circuit Court's order on hold. And so we're right back to where we are. So this is a statement from the West Virginia Board of Education. says, "In light of the West Virginia Supreme Court's stay of the class certification order and the permanent injunction injunction order entered in Raleigh County Circuit Court, the West Virginia Board of Education is reinstating its directive to county boards of education not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws. Uh, this directive will be in effect until the Supreme Court issues further
030guidance. And so that's what we wait for is the Supreme Court's final decision. And then that should settle the matter. [clears throat] Any questions regarding any of those items. [clears throat] >> Okay, that's all I had. >> All right, thank you. Any board directives or board reports? >> None. >> And then we have no unfinished business. So we can move on to our new business consent action items. The superintendent recommends approval of the following action items. Additional items received prior to the time of the meeting may be added. Discussion and or separate action of the items may be requested by members of the board and or the superintendent. Items are subject to change. Any blanks will be filled in prior to the meeting. And in the event a nominee withdrawals, we reserve the right to
031put the next candidate into that position. So number one is consider for approval. The recommended personnel matters on pages one and two. And I think we have a revised version as well. Motion to approve the revised >> motion by Johnita, second by Mark as revised. >> Any questions or concerns on those personnel matters? >> All right. None heard. >> These red That's things you pulled. >> Yeah. Pulled those off. Right. >> Okay. >> [clears throat] >> quite a bit. >> All right. Any other questions? All in favor? >> Any opposed? [snorts] >> Motion carries. 5 to zero. Number two, consider for approval the minutes of the Wayne County Board of Education regular meeting number 13 from November 10th. That's pages 3 through 8. Motion. Randy. >> Motion. >> Second, Dennis. Any questions or concerns on
032the minutes from November the 10th? I don't think I had any. >> All right. I'm good. None. None heard. All in favor then? >> Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Number three, consider for approval purchase requisition order in quotes in excess of $5,000 pages 9 through 11. Motion >> motion second. >> Motion by Randy, second by Dennis. Questions and concerns on those requisitions. >> Page nine is the uh is a language arts program that's requested by our high school teaching staff. It's used across the district. So that's a subscription for it. Uh page 10 is uh the virtual program that we do in partnership with Canal County Schools. How many students are in that? >> Um, looks like >> 61. >> Looks like 60. >> That's 61. >> Secondary. >> Yeah. >> Is that
033the homeschool people or what? >> No. No, that's virtual school. >> We have school. >> Yeah, we have to provide a virtual school option. So, we do that in partnership with Canal County Schools. >> And we do, this was my question from last year and it may have been answered. Let's see t here. He does have access to Yes. >> curriculum and sit in on a class if >> he chooses to. >> Yes. >> Yeah. After that came up at the meetings, we pursued his access for those um programs and yeah, he reported to me that he does have access. Uh and page 11 is uh replacement of desktop desktop computers in the district. This is from the tools for schools fund. This money is earmarked has to be spent on technology. So we're replacing
034computers in the school buildings, >> right? >> Where I have a question on that. >> Sure. >> Where does this like this, you know, that's a4 million dollars almost. What when you say it's earmarked, where does that money come from? And who says that it can't? I know that there's I know those kinds of things happen. I know that not that far off, >> right? >> That's a lot of money. And >> you know, nobody wants my opinion, but I'm going to say that I feel like the computers and has been a detriment to the learning process in our schools for ever since they came around. [snorts] >> Are you talking about the virtual school or what? >> No, we're talking computers that were >> the computers >> funding for those computers. Who makes that
035decision? I guess that that 200 and $3,825 has to be spent on computers because that's a lot of money and that money could be used for a lot of other different things if we had the ability to to use that for other things. Some have been mentioned here tonight. >> Yeah. It has to be spent on technology. I know that. And that comes from the Department of Education and it's it's earmarked. The >> State Department or the >> State Department? Yes. I think that's a lot of our issues >> is a lot of the funding that we do received is your mark. >> Yeah, I know. I know that but you know you understand what I'm saying. Very very >> I understand completely. >> You know my feelings on the state department. I've said that
036[laughter] before so we won't rehash that but that's a lot. >> That's where we are. That's where we are. The [snorts] funding that we receive >> it can't be spent in our discretion. >> I I understand that. I mean, I just think from that level that that's just too many constraints on local boards because we know more what we need in Wayne County and we're facing things right now that most of us don't want to face. >> Exactly. >> And they tell us that we have to spend $23,825 on putting computers in our schools, right? >> That we're not going to if this continues, we're not going to have any schools to put them in. >> Well, we're just defating them. >> Exactly. [laughter] You know, we're gating. >> I know. I agree with that.
037>> We're following. >> I keep asking the school population keeps going down all over the state and the state keeps giving us less and less. Where does that money go that we were getting before the legislature decides to spend it somewhere else or what or the governor? I mean, simple question. I I can see both sides of it, you know. >> Yeah. the restrictions we have by the state board and the legislature and then the the lack of any explanation where that money went. You if we how many students we say we lost since 2015 >> 1600600 students that's in the millions isn't it? Oh, more than that. I'm sure >> what they spend it on. >> But on this, if we don't spend it on technology, they don't give us the money to let
038us use something else. It's >> Yeah. >> Can't be spent on anything else. >> We're trying to be physically frugal. We're trying to put everything towards this improving the student outcome. and provide the teachers and the right >> support people. >> Like they're cutting our fingers off a little bit at a time on us. >> Still limited >> technology and I'm not against technology. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that. But it's every meeting almost that we have. There's multi >> there's a lot of fun of money that goes into technology. >> Exactly. I mean, buus and bukus of money, it would be enough money to keep a couple schools open. >> if we had that ability, >> Yeah. >> Well, it's the same thing with, you know, what we talked about earlier with
039textbooks, >> right? >> You know, we have to go through these textbook adoptions every year and and you know, a mathematics textbook adoption that you have to go through every four to five years is is over a million dollars, >> right? Yeah. >> Bigger every year. where your history, you know, history doesn't change in five years. >> The math textbooks really get to I mean, I was not a wiz at math, but two plus two, it's still 2 plus two, >> right? [laughter] >> No matter if it's 5 years old or 10 years old. >> That's what I wonder about. >> But those are >> Yeah. To your point, you're teaching US history and you're teaching the, you know, certain time period, >> but nothing's changing. >> We're replacing the books. >> Yeah. Every five
040years, too. >> Unless revision going on. satisfy the you know the requirements but that's just it. We are >> what we're dealing with. >> We'll look at the technology budget next Tuesday. >> Oh, yeah. I'm anxious and afraid. >> Right. [laughter] >> Okay. So, where were we? >> I digress. >> Uh we we are on item number three, the purchase requisitions. We've had a motion and a second. Yeah. >> So, any other questions or concerns on those purchase requisitions? Okay, none heard. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. And our new business are separate action items. Uh number one, consider and possible action to acknowledge the superintendent's intent to recommend the closure of Dunlow Elementary and Genanoa Elementary and to authorize the superintendent to schedule the required public hearings. Take all
041steps necessary to comply with code 18513A um and policy 6204 and any other applicable laws, regulations with any decision on closure to be made at a later date. >> Yes. So this this agenda item authorizes uh the public hearings to be scheduled and it it triggers uh since we would be scheduling those public hearings, it triggers the publication of the impact statement for the board's consideration. So again, the board's taking no action tonight other than authorizing me to schedule those hearings and issue those impact statements for the board's consideration. And of course with the public hearings, uh there's a chance for folks to come speak at those hearings and to present information. >> So as we continue budget planning, uh you know, the way we have to have a decision on the schools by the
042end of January. Yeah. uh to submit to the state board. Um we normally make uh budgetary decisions on personnel which is the you know 85% of of our overall budget. We we make those decisions normally in midFebruary. So all this is running concurrently. So as we continue budget planning this is a needed action. uh without it we we can't we can't consider uh the future of the two buildings in January without the uh authorization to go ahead and schedule those public hearings and continue planning. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Let me let me just ask one thing before we proceed here. Mr. Dylan, you said that uh legislature comes back in session on what date? >> January 14th. Um, >> would it be possible, and I don't know how this plays out, if
043we add the consolidation to the closure to consider if by chance the legislature comes through with some type of funding um or formula revision or some type of uh rural schools legislation that we've talked about before in the past, like we did last year. to at least give that option if if it comes up. >> Um, yes. And and there's two ways to get to that. Number one, you know, if I recommend the closure of both schools and one school is closed but the other one isn't, it's that's going to create a natural consolidation process. Um, the other way is to do is to for me to do an impact statement on the consolidation of the two schools as well. And I'm fine with that. It might require two separate books or it'll almost double
044the size of the initial book, but we can do that. >> So, okay. We did. >> Do you want to look at two impact statements then? >> I'm thinking if we could >> Does that include the impact on the communities? You know, I'm >> It's all It's all the same. is >> but that was that Mr. Dylan was correct. We did talk about that last year. >> I'm still not in in any way in favor of closing any school. >> I understand. I don't think any I don't think any of us are about because of our finances. >> That's right. We understand that and that's not that's >> I don't want to do it. Nobody sitting here wants to do it. That's obvious. Nobody nobody wants to see this happen. So, if there's a possibility
045that we might have a miracle or a Hail Mary, whatever you want to call it, um, you know, and Mr. Dylan, like you said, we did talk about this last year, they did ask us to hold on, you know, as long as we could, and we have tried to do that. Um, we are at the point that it is just >> it's it's almost impossible. So, barring some kind of legislative miracle, um, we may not have a choice, but I'd like to at least give us that option if we can put that in here with with the closure. So, that at least that could be an option >> back in the corner because wouldn't there a couple of counties where the state come and take them over took them over because >> they had I
046wouldn't want that to happen either >> and we don't on us. county, our community doing all this, >> but her as far as when we find out when the legislatur's done anything, >> we're going to need help. >> Is it still going to be early enough for us to be able to >> It may it may not be, but at least we can >> just give them the opportunity to, you know, >> because we don't want to lose that time frame where that because we are under the gun as far as our budget and getting our money ready for next year. >> Absolutely. I understand that. But if there's a possibility >> Oh, I agree. But at least we need to write it in, >> right? But we need to be cautious about the time
047we take. >> Sure. >> And how much time we have to make this decision because state department >> there's a time. >> Well, if if the board if the board authorizes me, then I'll start the process of scheduling the hearings. I I had provided you with a draft timeline. So, we would be looking at um scheduling the hearings about the third week of January. We have to do hearings in any school that would be impacted. That includes receiving students. >> Oh gosh. >> Yeah. So there will be Yeah, there would be hearings at multiple schools >> with the consolidation miss. I see another can of worms being opened. >> Well, let's work with this >> close one school. >> Let's work with one and figure it out the rest. >> It's a fight between the
048two schools. >> Yeah. >> Well, that won't be our >> Dennis. Let's just work with >> I should stay open. You should stay open >> one at a time. >> Put us in a real bind. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, not to put more work in your pocket there, but if we could do that, I think we could at least give them the opportunity >> or or consolidation. It's going to be in this. >> So, we're going to do impact statements for closure andor consolidation. >> Okay. andor >> andor. >> Okay. Is everyone clear on what we're voting for here? This is not a final. This is just to >> get our meetings >> get our um all the rules in in in order. Johnita made the motion. Randy made the second >>
049and the final decision will be made at a later date. Yes. >> Okay. So, is everyone clear? >> Yeah. All right. All in favor? I >> I with the stipulation that >> any opposed. >> Nothing else going to happen. >> Motion carries five to zero. >> Okay. Consideration of administrative uh prepared draft or legislative recommendations and author authorization to transmit on behalf of the board. The concept of these recommendations is selected members of the West Virginia uh legislature. >> So move >> motion by Mark. >> Second by Randy. >> So in your separate attachment items that came to you with your agenda, I included some draft legislation that we had talked about in our legislative meeting uh back in I think it was October. Um there were five total bills uh draft bills um concepts
050that that we had talked about. Um my recommendation to you would be that we submit um we prioritize and submit three of these uh for our legislators to consider. And that would be bill two, bill four, and bill five. Bill two starts on page four. That's the essential personnel bridge grant. And what this allows for is is it allows for additional funding for districts that have essential personnel uh that are required for special education services that do not fit within the um [snorts] that do not fit within normal staffing ratio. So if you have a student that needs one-on-one assistance, yeah, >> that doesn't fit within normal staffing ratio. So, as we'll see a little bit later in this meeting, we become responsible for all of that cost. And so, what this does is allow
051the state to take a look at special ed population within the district and to identify um some of these essential personnel costs that districts are being uh faced with with declining enrollments and offer some support through a bridge grant to help support those positions. So that's bill two, bill four, >> page 10. That's an enrollment stabilizer for budget planning. So what this does is instead of every October 1st we have an enrollment number and uh our budget for the next year is determined by that one number. What happens is similar to what happened this year. We had a uh decrease of 215 students with which is a significant percentage for us. And uh so we're, you know, we're faced with a 1.5 million shortfall, >> right, >> uh in one year. So what this enrollment
052stabilizer does is is it gives the uh state board of education uh the ability to average uh the enrollment of a district over a three-year rolling period. >> Yeah. >> So if you do have a significant drop, it it doesn't uh that doesn't hit you all at once. you have a little bit of time uh a little bit more time to adjust to that. So that's uh bill four. And then bill five begins on page 12. >> That's our anchor schools. I like that one. >> We This is referred to as the rural anchor school designation. And what it does is it allows uh each school district to designate a rural anchor school and then it establishes that a minimum enrollment number will be put into effect for that school. So no matter what the
053actual enrollment is the uh the uh school will be counted say let's say for example at 150 students I think is what is suggested in this draft bill. So regardless of what the actual enrollment of the school is, it's funded at 150 and it allows counties to establish one school for that purpose uh to helps to help save some of these small schools uh across the uh state that are closing. And again, the idea comes from this um because currently the state does do this for districts if districts fall below a certain number and I can't remember what the number is. I think it might be 1,500. if they fall below 1500, they are still funded at that 1500 level. >> 800 students in in the whole county. >> Yeah. To to stabilize the district.
054So th this would extend that idea and allow each uh district to establish a rural anchor school. And and um there would be there's certain eligibility requirements to be a rural anchor school that would be included in this. And again, these are just concepts, just drafts for our legislators. be a term for five years and they have to be >> be reassessed. >> Reassessed. >> My only my only ad to that last bill would be instead of just saying one school, could we add one or more schools based on square footage of your or square miles of your county? Because I mean, we're we're a huge county. We're very rural in parts of it, you know, whereas other counties are very small and may not have that same geography or geographical obstacle like we do.
055So, >> I think it wouldn't hurt to try to add that. I mean, >> we'd be fortunate. >> It would help us. >> I'm sure that if this bill was to make it to committee though that it would be >> one >> amended to be one. >> Yeah. Right. I mean, yeah, >> that's asking for a lot. [laughter] >> Doesn't hurt to ask for the legisle in our reality, >> right? We can ask for the moon in the real world. >> We can ask for what we get, right? >> It'd be nice if we could just get one of these three bills to go through. That would be great. >> We take one, >> right? >> And feel very fortunate. >> To me, th those three um most addresses the situation that we're currently in.
056>> I agree. Yep. I agree. >> I think these are a great start. We can at least try. >> But with your with your permission, with your vote tonight, we can u we can share those um with our legislators and for their consideration. >> Absolutely. Any other questions or concerns on those three um proposed bills? >> All right. All in favor? I >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Five to zero. Uh potential items for our future agenda. >> Okay. One more handout I've given you. >> Oh boy. >> There's a Wayne County School special education budget overview. >> Yes. Hang on. I got hand >> and I'm giving this to you tonight. So I I wanted to present this to you early and then next Tuesday I'll give you a chance if you know if there's
057any questions if there's any other information that you want me to bring forward. But u Mark had mentioned about going through the department's budgets. Yeah. And so um this is the the first step is looking at the special education budget. Okay. >> At Tuesday's meeting I will bring to you we'll look at the technology budget. We might do another department or two just so you can see the the overall makeup of that budget. >> So this document is a I believe it's three to four pages and it outlines uh all the funding sources that we use to operate our special education budget. And I think you'll really see how that uh bridge grant that we were talking about with the proposed legislation would be important. >> [snorts] >> So, under item number one on on
058the first page, um there there are three funding sources that we access for our special education program. That's IDA, that's the federal grant, there's a state special education grant that is a much smaller amount. >> Yeah. >> And then there's the percentage that comes from [snorts] local funds. >> That's that comes from our budget. >> Yes. >> 72% >> the general fund. 72% of our special education uh budget comes from local general funds. So uh the budget in total is approximately $7.5 million. Uh $1.9 million is provided by IDA. That's about 25%. State special education funding is about 162,000 which is about 2%. And then our local general funds are at at 72% at 5.4. 4 million. So the next several items breaks down each of those three funding sources. So item number two, the
059IDA grant that 1.9 million. You see a list of items there and the cost for those items. Now I did there was a typo there that I caught and so under those professional development that that amount was 15,000 not 15,000 >> good. >> So as you look at all those items what you'll see is that IDA is heavily personnel driven. >> The vast majority of dollars support staff in classrooms. uh only a small portion of that can be considered discretionary once the core staffing is covered. Uh number three is our state special education funds. That's much more limited, $162,000. Uh the primary line items out of that budget are outofstate placements. So, if we have a special needs student that needs um outofstate care uh at a facility, uh we're responsible for payment for that.
060And so, out of state placements are paid for [clears throat] from those state funds. Uh there's general instructional supplies. Those are requests that come from the rooms from our teachers. That's approximately $20,000 a year. And then, uh our gifted teacher is paid out of those funds as well. Going down to item number four. This is where you get into the local general fund and you'll see $5.4 million of expenditures there, which is the what's referred to here as the backbone of the program. Major cost are personnel uh professional and service salaries. You have substitute cost and and supplemental pay. uh when we have aids riding buses, uh that type of thing, that's uh supplemental pay that occurs on a daily basis. Employee benefits and statutory costs that are tied to that personnel funding. Health insurance
061is at 1.4 million a year. >> Dental is about 133,000. Social Security is a half a million a year. Retirement is over half a million dollars a year. um the OPE which we are that's the unfunded liability workers compensation unemployment related items um is uh up above 1.5 million per year. So the general fund spending is dominated by fixed personnel and benefit obligations. >> Quick question if you don't mind. >> Sure. Uh, which one of these items does the director come from? I mean, I noticed that was like $110,000. What which one of those where does that come from? >> What [snorts] funding source? General >> the general fun >> along with the like the >> elementary the diagnosticians >> diagnosticians specialist supervisors >> all of those positions that are there in that department >>
062I think they come out of a different fund don't they >> do they all come that's my question I say general fund all of them come out general fund do you know how much can you get me how much that would be as combined >> it's Did you get one of the um certified lists? Did we give you one of those yet? >> You got one >> with Oh, you the other day with the 11 by7 thing. I did. So, I'll go through there and check off. But but >> I glanced over. >> Yeah, we we'll get you a we'll get you a summary. >> Yeah, we can do. But if you want to look at it before then, >> that's fine. >> It's there. >> I did pull them out because I didn't know
063where it came from. Those are just listed with salary. I was just going to say if you wanted to look at it before it got to you that okay that you do have that. >> Um item number five just gives you a systemwide view of how those funds are used. So again, you know, you got your personnel, your benefits, cost, you have some contracted and specialized services, BCBA, behavior supports, evaluations, diagnostics, [clears throat] out of district, out of statements, placements, excuse me, instructional materials, PD, transportation, and indirect cost. But it's overwhelmingly about people and the benefits attached to them. which is where that bridge grant would be helpful. >> Um >> the reason it would be helpful is because these are mandated positions that we have to have. >> Yeah. The IEPs determine a lot
064of these positions. >> Even if the funding doesn't even if this funding doesn't cover those positions, we're required mandated to cover those positions. And that's why our numbers are over formula in our service department >> unfunded liabilities. >> So if you if you go down to number six, the cost drivers and pressures is exactly what you're saying, Missy. IEP driven staffing requirements, uh rising benefit and retirement cost, >> right? >> So all these costs for these positions has has went up, >> right? Even though we don't have new positions or more positions. >> Yeah. And we just received notification. Um we're going to receive Jeb what it 3% increase in the uh PEIA cost. >> Um so >> you know individual >> employer and the employee >> also spouse go up also. >> Yeah. So
065employees are hit with that cost but the employers are hit with that cost too. So our our we're going to go up 3% on that for next year's budget. Um, >> and 3% on $1.4 million is not just change in your pocket. >> No. >> So, as we move forward, what we'll be looking at is is um maximizing allowable expenditures through that. Now, again, a significant percentage of that, >> I think it's something like 92% is tied to personnel cost. Um, so there's not much wiggle room there. But one of the things that we've talked about, we can receive Medicaid reimbursement >> for some of the services that our employees provide. >> Right >> now, if they're listed as being funded out of ID, you can't claim that, >> right? So, one of the things
066that we're going to look at is the possibility of doing some split coding where we have more people that are listed in the idea, but a percentage of their salary is paid and not all of it where we can still claim some of that Medicaid funding to try to raise some revenue through it. >> And so, those are things that we'll be looking at. But, u that's your that's your first summary there. And again, I'll have this on the agenda next week for any questions that you have or any further information that you want. >> I have another quick question. If you ask, you may not know the answer, but >> if you recall whenever I requested this and we were talking about that contracted service that we were dealing with. It was like a
067outside 40ome,000 contracted service music therapy or something like that. Yeah, I think is [clears throat] what it was. >> Yeah. What uh any you might be able to answer this? Which one of those funds does that come out of? Does that also come out of the local fund? >> It's I'm not sure. >> So, we'll we'll pull that for you next week. We'll pull all the contracts and and identify which fund they're coming from. >> Okay. >> And that's all I have. >> Anyone else have any questions or concerns? Thanks for this. >> You're welcome. >> No. All [clears throat] right. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion by Johnita. Second. >> Second. >> Dennis is back. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5 to zero. It is 702. Thank you all for
068coming. We appreciate all your comments and um just know that this is not not an easy decision, but we will uh keep talking about it and hopefully something will happen for us. >> Now that the meeting is over, um yes, >> I know that I've seen some hard copies of bills. Um and I know that I have some