001A great You ready? All right. We'll go ahead and call our special meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education to order. It is 4:04. And at the same 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. Let the record show that all board members are present in person. Miss Jackson who is joining us by phone this evening and we can begin with our local school improvement council presentation from middle. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it. Appreciate you swapping um your time and being here with us today. Uh the members what you have is a packet that has all of the questions that you need to answer in order. So the members
002are listed for LSIC. Our enrollment report we have 167 students, 90 female, 77 male, 37 students with IEPs. Kim, when you first came here, what was the enrollment? There was 220. Yeah. So, if we look at some data, I wanted to start with math. This is the longitudinal data that I pulled um yesterday actually. And what I was looking at was a five-year mark. These are the same students and it it looks at them for five years. Um what we are looking at is a little more red than we want. We want to move those students who are on urgent intervention and intervention up to on watch and above. Okay. So our math is what um we are focused on this year and we were focused on it last year. I have six, seventh and
003eighth grade. Um all three I would seventh grade has um reduced their um intervention urgent intervention to yellow which is where we want to get a lot of our students yellow to blue. um eighth grade is about the same that they have done a little bit better um over the uh during their eighth grade year. But what we really want to see is a trend like our ELA. So, if you turn the page and you look at our sixth grade ELA, normally when you have students go from um fifth to sixth, there's usually some kind of bump that they actually go down. But in our sixth grade ELA, they have actually improved on getting those students um from that urgent intervention up to partial mastery and mastery. And it's actually the same with our sixth
004grade ELA, seventh grade ELA, and our eighth grade ELA. So, that is something that I'm really proud of that the that we are seeing that trend from that COVID year and that red line is going the correct way and it is decreasing the way that we need it to. Um, do you have any questions about any of that progress in the right direction? I think I think so. Our instructional reading level 42% of students are at or above instructional reading level. That is for sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Um, 42% we took the numbers yesterday with Tanya Bowen because she was already here. And we took those numbers and came up with an average for all of our student body and it was 42% of students are at their reading level or above. Um something
005we've had an issue with that really started coming to light more last year than any other is the chronic absenteeism. We have 32% of our student population that is chronically absent. Um, I can honestly say that is the highest we have ever had um here at Venton and that's that's probably what bothers me the most. I'm as much as we reach out to these kids, our interventions, not just the daily calls, but we have an on-site social uh worker, Missy Lambert, who is always she she will do home visits weekly and calls along with our secretary, Miss Bowen. They will both call all through the week. We have a strive for five um weekly awards like most other schools. We give away gift cards um every Friday to students who have not missed any any
006school that week. Um the Lewis Foundation and our six week rewards that attendance is filtered into who is who is able to go based on how many days you miss, discipline, and your academics. Um, we have a home room winner each month where the home room with the highest um percent attendance, they get um their own they get their own treat once a month that's brought into them. Um, our student of the month is also based on attendance. They get a gift card to Camden Corner. Um and then we have an end of the year attendance celebration um where we are hoping that students with um less than 10 days who have missed that are excused can participate in that end of the year celebration. um with so many things that we do to try
007to get students here at school, um you know, it is still shocking to me that it's 32% uh chronically absent. Um, we have, um, several students that we literally pull two or three times a week and have one-on-one discussions with them about their attendance because these are the students that are going to be on the court docket and those are the ones that we are trying our best to get to school. So, they are not going to have those consequences um that they're headed toward. And um it it can be very difficult. Yeah. And you're not the only school that struggles through that. That's something I don't really talk about much in me. Just it still surprises me when I see that. Well, it was centuries ago that I was in elementary school. I guess
008I should thank my mother. I never miss school unless I was really sick. Yeah. I was there. Yeah. and and we you know I'm not sure I I I know Terry Lynn and I and Mr. Alexander we've all had this conversation so many times. It isn't just one thing. It's it's this compilation of all of these different factors um that have kind of hit us in the last four or five years um that's causing these attendance issues. Whether it be just we have a lot of grandparents who do raise their grandchildren things and and it and it is just that it's it's a mindset I think um and it is it's just several different factors it's difficult to overcome for us this year. So, what was interesting, I was reading an article. It's it's, you
009know, it's a state thing. It's a national thing. But then I was reading an article about two weeks ago. Um, Great Britain is having the same kind of conversations about chronic absenteeism and that since the pandemic, they've had a difficult time getting students back in school for regular attendance. And uh a lot of that article talked about things that are talked about here in in relation to chronic absenteeism that they they had interesting terms for it that um they identify students as school reluctant, you know, that that type of thing. But um they were they were facing the same issues with just having kids that uh just did not want to be in school. It's almost in some of the kids it's a like a there has been something flipped in their mind and it's
010almost like a brick wall. Honestly, it's it's quite shocking when you they I I'm not sure. I'm not sure but it is like you said they are reluctant and you cannot change their mindset and um it's very um could be very disturbing and and that's why you get 32% of chronically absent students you know in a building with 167 kids that's and as much as we do as you know we're we're I consider us a smaller school smaller middle school and as much as we do and these amazing connections we make with these kids on a daily basis. We are still struggling like this. So yeah, ask you one question. Todd early on asked you how many students were here when you came here. Yes. How long ago also? Um eight years. Eight years. Yeah.
011So in eight years you've gone from 200 something. Yes. It would it would be it would stay around 220 230. Um and now this is where we're at. Yeah, we always stayed around there for probably the first four years I was here. I would think it was it was pretty good pretty good attendance and then it just and it just kept falling off. So our discipline, if you turn to the next page, we've had 26 suspensions this year. Those are out of school suspensions, out of out of environment. Um those are 20 kids. Uh 20 kids have been suspended adding up to 26 times. Four of those students are um have IEPs. um and they have I think the total was 20 days those four students uh had had missed school. Um we have changed
012some of our policies especially regarding things like nicotine in the schools in our school suspending a student out out of this environment. I do not like to do that. Especially a student who who may already have attendance problems. You send them home and that really does nothing. So, we have kind of altered our attendance our um discipline policy with suspensions as far as dates and things like that go. Um it just in my opinion what I've seen that doesn't work if you suspend kids for that. Violence is something that we do suspend kids for. Any type of aggression, physical aggression towards students or staff, that is something that would be we would suspend for. Um there are three of these students who were suspended um who had behavior plans that we started and they are
013tailored just for those two students. These are students that do not have IEPs, but um in order to try to get them on track, we did create to uh their own behavior plan and there are certain things that they follow. When that is not followed and you know, of course, parents and guardians are aware then they would be suspended for repeatedly um having those u behaviors when when they are just repeated. a lot of the change to changing demographics. Um I think that that is definitely possible. I I did not city moved out here. Yeah, we we do get um we do get several, you know, kids from Central City. Um I I do not have an issue with bringing in kids from other counties whatsoever. I, you know, those kids are my job as
014much as anyone else's. Um, I didn't grow up in West Morland, but I can just say that the people that I work with who did grow up in West Morland, they are the ones that have said, you know, there's a change in this in the climate in this area. And that could absolutely um be one of the attributing factors to having some of these discipline issues that we that we see. Yeah. Do you all have any questions for me before I hand it over? Johnita, are you away? Yes, I am. Thank you. I was just checking. Uh, sorry I didn't get to see your pretty face. Oh, thank you. I'm still kind of in that twoton sleep, I think. If you don't have any more questions, I'm going to um turn it over to Miss
015Hayden. She has given you a list of things that um we have discussed, the two of us have discussed at length. um several times over the past few years and I'm going to let her kind of go over that with you just real quick. Okay. Well, it's me again asking for some outside athletic help. Um I put the f, you know, I put the stuff that was left on there from last time. Um, put some pictures on there of the fencing, um, the gates, the broken edges down by baseball. It's leaning so much. I don't know if the strong wind might flip it over, except for the concrete's real good down there. Um, and then there's a part of the down by the football locker room, that gate there at the end is broken. We
016cannot get it to latch. Um, so it's just open all the time. We can't get it to lock. Sometimes I'll just be down there and then the gates open. So clearly somebody's been in there doing something. So it's just like that mechanism that closes down. It's just stuck. So I don't know. It needs some love. But the fencing in a hole is just in really bad shape. And um I think it may have been two years ago now. We had gotten the latest quote for a fence. We quoted everything inside and outside. Um, obviously the outside's going, if we only do the outside, that'll be cheaper. Uh, that's the part that looks the worst and is kind of safety issues if kids climb up on the fence or anything like that. Um, the football press
017box, we have some issues with that. That fascia on the side is still missing. Um we're worried with the weather that it's going to get raw in there. And then um earlier this later last week, I went to get the microphone out of the press box and when you step right into the door, it gives what the floor gets wet. So like those boards are, you know, getting rotten. I don't know whether it's the roof's leaking, if it's coming under the door or what, but I can see that that would be a big save. If somebody falls from that present box, that's not going to be good. Yeah. Yeah. But that is the only building that we didn't get a metal roof on when the youth league was putting the metal roofs on the buildings.
018We didn't get it on that. So, I think it would be wise to get somebody up there. I know some shingles have came off with the storms. So just to get up there and see really what it looks like. There might not be any left or you know but definitely that fascia and stuff because birds get in there animals and of course the rain but I don't want anybody to fall. So when they replace the step treads it goes like four or five steps and then there's a landing before it goes into the press box. those didn't get replaced the landing part. So, I don't they seem okay and maybe that's why they didn't. But, you know, then it leads into there. If you look on like the last pages, you can see I took
019pictures of the floor. But right when you step where that nails at, it kind of gives way those. So, it's on the inside. Yes. And is it locked? It is. Okay. Yeah. Do do we have keys here? Yes. Yes, sir. I was I sent that to Tim. I was like, uh, I don't want somebody like, well, stay off of it, please. Yeah. And just so you know, we are raising money to get a new sound system there because right now we have to take these ginormously heavy speakers and carry them out and back. So, I would like to the sound system people wanted to mount the speakers on top of the press box. They're weather resistant, but I don't want to do that till we get a new roof, right? And we don't want to
020put in all that money we're trying to to buy this this system with and put it on something that isn't solid. You know, that wouldn't make sense. Yeah. It's like $5,600 for a new sound system. side. Um, I don't know if you guys remember when you guys painted here before, they painted these three light poles on this side of the field, but only halfway up and didn't paint the light poles on the other side of the field. Uh, and you know, Brian says those are good, solid, but they do need painted so the weather doesn't deteriorate them. Yeah. did not understand that. We were like, "What?" I was like, I said, "I don't understand. They're coming back. They have to come back." I would just leave them like that. But another thing about painting was
021they use flat paint on all those buildings rather than the oilbased paint on the outside. Um, so like the doors you you can notice when you drive by like they're turning pink uh from the sun. Uh, it's the weirdest thing. So wish pink wasn't Yeah. It's just like in between a orange and a pinkish color. I'm like, "Wait a minute. What is happening?" Now I don't know if it's just because they're steel doors because of the paint they used because it wasn't oil based. I don't I'm not a painter, but it used to have a oil based panel. Um so that might be something we need to look at redoing those doors at least. Um, and then you guys had updated the outside of the baseball press box and it looks nice and everything. I
022just put it on there. I didn't know if we were doing anything to the inside. Is there is there any specific request for the inside? Well, it's just open 2x4s and like a piece of wood on the floor. You know what I'm saying? Not that it's not nailed down, but I just didn't know that the walls up. I don't know. It's nothing urgent, but you know, it doesn't look very nice, right? No, it looks like a shack in the inside. As nice as it looks on the outside. Um and then our back stop netting still needs repaired. We have the wire and stuff and um I thought they were going to come at the beginning of the season. They had talked to broad, but uh they must have got backed up somewhere, but that's just
023still needs. We just don't have the equipment to get up there to do it. We have the wire to do it. We just don't have the lift. Okay. I'm not tall enough. I guess. Um and then there are old locker room bleachers behind the bleachers. A locker room that the hospital used to use and where it's connected to the bleachers, it's leaking and was able to see that a couple I don't know, a few months ago or something. Mr. Hart, well, I think you had finally seen that room that we were talking about. It's on the back of that. It's all sealed up, correct? I think they came down and put a door or a They came down and sealed it up where nobody could get back in there. Um, they did seal the where
024the water and stuff is. Yes. Um, but uh where the locker room is. So, like the there's a little room that just has a bunch of junk and broken toilets and all kinds of things. But then there's Yeah, people have thrown all kinds of crazy stuff, but the turn off valve for the water to the field is in that. So, if we need to turn that off, like they just put metal and bolted that. So, right, I don't know how we can get I don't know how you would get back in there to turn if we needed to turn that water off. Now we can go out on the street and turn it off with a water key. Um so it but it's no longer used at all. So if it disappeared, you all would
025be okay with that. That locker room. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The youth league uh when Brian and I were with the youth league. We used that. We used it for everything because it wasn't in that bad shape. I I live in there and it wasn't But yeah, the ceiling's falling down and it's leaking water. So they quit using it. But yeah, it could go away. You know what I'm saying? [Music] Um, of course, you know, our situation with our glacures. I just left that on there. Um, I think I didn't talk about the end of the uh concession stand of the football. Like there's some fascia stuff missing there. There's a ginormous bird's nest right in there. Now, where is where is that building? It's a football. So as soon as you walk in the football
026concession stand where the picnic tables are connected on the right hand side on the end it's open. So that that would be a very easy fix. And you know the youth league used to do a lot uh had a lot of people had a lot of funds and they really did they did a lot the first few years I was here they were very generous and and we had they were able to do a lot but again it has it's different it's different yeah I don't think they have the manpower um to do the extra you know do the stuff for the kids and the facilities are just kind do your basics but not any upgrades or anything. Now, facilitywise, as far as things we were able to get done in the past year, we
027you got new windows. Yes. You got new blinds, new Hback, new HBAC in the building. Um, we put the roof on the band room. Yes. We repaired the roof out by the gymnasium. Yes, we'll say that. Yes. And then um we repaired the baseball press box on the outside, what you were talking about, and replaced the steps to it. Yes. And then I think they did some additional bracing for the football and the steps that go up to it. Um was there anything else? No, I don't think so. We do love the windows. Um they're very nice. The blinds are Thank you. Very nice. That's been It's nice when they match. Oh my goodness. They're It's a wonder. It makes me feel very nice. Right. And then of course, we turned in a u major
028improvement project. Um this was one of the sites that we were going to put a safe school entry in. So before you leave, I'll show you kind of what we were looking at doing. Oh, good. And um we we submitted that. So we'll get a decision on that in June. And of course, it's a grant, so it might not come through. Oh, I was going to ask that. Yeah, we're we're looking to do a separate entry here. Yes. Where the coffee room is they will remodel that new entry for the bars for Yes. Okay. Anything else facility wise? [Music] Um, my custodians do a fantastic job. They do do a fantast and you know Steve and they I'm just I'm very fortunate with my entire staff. I've said that so many times. It really all
029comes back to them. Yeah. They're fantastic on the back on your the J support from our specialists that you need Kelly. Oh yes, absolutely. Um I I think Kelly is fantastic. She's she is helping us now with um one of our teachers coming in and and staying the day with her and and that is above and beyond for Kelly like like she she does not have to do that and she's doing that because it's for the betterment of the kids and she's doing a fantastic job. Yeah. And Miss Tanya Tanya Bowen coming in. um wonderful collaborator. She's always full of great ideas. Helping out with with with Will, helping helping me handle Will. No, but helps out with, you know, talking to Will and I about things that we can do. And she she's fantastic.
030Yeah, she is. That those girls um are a big help for sure. and my master teacher who you know I love that program because wow she really goes above and beyond getting everything ready for any new teacher making the books and things she's fantastic so yeah excellent I think what he said about his parents thanking his parents and these kids being absent is the lack of parenting these days the parents are nonchalant about coming to school. We see it in sports even. Well, Johnny's not coming to practice today. Yeah. It's like, why isn't Johnny coming to you? I mean, you know, so I think that goes right back to the generation of parenting that's coming through the world. Yes. I I never miss I never miss school. I mean, we would literally get on the
031bus in three inches of snow and mom would say, "They have not cancelled yet. Get on the bus." And I'm like, "And then we would come back home." But but we would go if if if the bus went by, I was on that bus regardless of the weather, little two wooden schoolhouse, of course, you know, but I can't really I sit here thinking about it. Are any kids ever missing? Yeah. No, no one had attendance problem. I don't remember anyone having attendance problems. That was never We um I grew up in Mason County and went to school there and we had uh I don't know if anyone's familiar with Jerry's Red Road and it's just a curvy. So there was a big slide of where the road caped in. We the bus would stop. We
032had students had to get off and walk past this thing. the bus came across and then we got back on. We didn't miss school. That's funny. It's just different now that it just really is crazy. All right. Okay, I think we're good. We want to head to Spring Valley. I just need a motion to recess. Motion by second by Dennis. Okay, that's okay. You move. All in favor? Are you in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 5 to zero. It is 4:35. John will call you from Spring Valley. Thank you guys so much. We appreciate it. Everything you do for us. Those online will start a separate feed at Spring Valley in about 20 minutes.