Wayne County Board of Education Meeting 4/8/25, 6 p.m.

001You'll turn your mics on. 96 last. Yeah. All right, everybody on. Great. Okay, we're going to go ahead and call our meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education to order. It's 601. And if you'll stand, we'll say the pledge. Lauren, would you care to lead us this evening 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. Thank you. Let the record show that all board members are present in person this evening and we can begin um with our recognitions if we have any. No recognition. None this evening. Let's move on to our presentations. Our academic spotlight this evening is effective utilization of tools in the West Virginia assessment hub Buffalo Elementary with Jason Hatfield

002Faith Remy and Lisa Knots. So, Mr. Catfield and Miss Knox weren't able to be here, but we actually the person that we really wanted to feature was Mrs. Rainey and her classroom practices. So, um you guys know, you hear us talk about the different tools that the state provides for us um through the West Virginia Assessment Hub. And so, this is where students in grades three through eight go at the end of the year to take their general summit of assessment. But that also is where the tools that the state provides to teachers that are standardsbased that they are able to use as support tools and teaching tools for the students in the classroom and those are as you can see kept in the nonsumitive tab. Um when you go into that tab, you will

003see that there are modules which are over here highlighted on the left and then there are questions through test offering over here on the right. And all of the the questions and the tools that are in these two tabs are standardsbased and align not only to our state standards but also since our summit of assessment is based on our students grade level standards. It also provides lots of opportunities for teachers to have these as teaching tools and for students to have these to really um help hone their skills as they move toward the end of the year. So, um we encourage teachers to start using these tools because they are completely standardsbased and they're grade level aligned. Um we encourage teachers to start using these from the very beginning of the school year. Sometimes that

004can be challenging for teachers. These are very um rigorous questions and um the the modules provide rigorous practice assessments. And so sometimes it can be tempting to leave these closer to testing and then really try to immerse students in them for the last month or two and help them build um not only their comfort level and their skills with the tools that they'll have to utilize, but also to kind of tie up loose ends. Um and that can be a classic mistake. So, I really wanted to look at teachers who use these tools as actual instructional tools because they are u on grade level and they are standardsbased. And as we looked around at some of the different practices, we have lots of teachers who do a really good job with these. Um, but one

005of our best is Miss Dinkens. And one of the things that she does that is so unique is first of all, she starts at the very beginning of the year. She incorporates these and braids them into everything she does throughout the year. She uses them for reading, for writing, and for math. And she um really blends them handinhand with all of our other curricular tools, which is truly a best practice. And her test scores, her summitive results always reflect that. She uh her kids are always some of our highest performing. And so she um really does a great job representing Wayne County and so she has shared some pictures of how she uses this with her students and we wanted her to explain a little more to you guys. Um like she said with I

006use them all year throughout the whole year in reading. I normally pick a passage from test authoring or a module and I I'm one that aligns with the standards I'm going to teach and normally starting on Monday like we'll read the passage and then we do an activity with it and we do something every day with it. And for example on this day we do different graphic organizers. This one is cause and effect with the passage from test authoring. And then you can see as they're filling it out and I have them working with a partner and I try to do a lot of cuz I teach third grade. It's really hard for third graders to look back in the text. They just want to go I think it's this. Yeah. So I think and

007I go well if you can look back how do you know sure? And so I've really been working on that with them and I think these are a great way to do it because they have a lot of rigor and they have a lot of you have to look back. It'll have you talk about answer a question for example what's going on in paragraphs five and six and I tell them I can't remember what's going on in five and six and I've read I don't know how many times. So I teach them, you know, how to look back and we do a lot of organizers that help encourage that cause effect, main idea, van diagrams. A biggie in third grade is comparing and contrasting two texts. And that is hard for them, but you know,

008the more practice we do with these, the more they get used to them. And so this is just showing some of my kids using it. to keep clicking. And also, I stole this from Wayne Elementary, so they get the credit on this, but they talked about how when they use them, they make bookets, you know, the game, it's an online game they can do. And I've started making blitets to have questions about the text. And so, it makes them want to, you know, read it and pay attention more because it's a fun game. So, this is them playing one of the bookets. And I don't put test questions that they're going to see at the end of the week on there because to me that's kind of just memorization. I try to give them one

009so it's going to help prepare them for the end of the week. And like I said, the text evidence I throw in some where they have to go and look back on that paper that's right there beside them. Um, so we do that throughout the week and we read it every day. I have them read a day for homework and then you know the end of the week they take a test on it. they finally get the test and we go onto the portal and they take the test and then you know they get a look back and all that and then we'll I print off their scorecard because it gives one how they do and it has the question it tells how many points they are for example they got a one out of

010one know they got it right zero one they missed it and we pick out they have a tool on there that's the five most missed so we go over the five most for that test however yesterday in the cadre meeting, they showed us another tool that helps break down how they do on each test. So, I think I want to look into using that, too. But, you know, then I use that to help group my kids for reading centers and other things like that. Sometimes we even use these passages in a reading center. And then, just a side note with this, they all have their computers closed because this one, this particular look at is crypto hack. So, as they answer questions, they get so many right, they get a hack into another players's thing

011and they get if they guess the password, you know, they get all their points. So, they all have it close. Yeah. They don't want the other kids to see their password. But anyway, they do enjoy it and I do it for different things. So, that's how I do it for reading. For writing, I pick ones for my passages, which the third grade report card really helps with it because they have an example of each type of writing they have to do in third grade. and they all come from a module and so we do those but I also pull other ones from past modules test we're doing a test authoring narrative right now and we use that and you know we work on scaffolding with writing because we just throw them into the deep end

012you know it might not go too well but it just depends on the kid but you know we work on how do we set up how do we a lot like I said the text evidence especially with opinions and informatives how to go back and look in the text and find it. I've even shown them on the portal when they pull up a passage how they can highlight on the computer so when they go take the end of year test they can do it on that before they go to write their rough draft on the notebook paper. But you know we spend a lot of time looking over and we write it. We do it step by step and I have them peer edit and I mean we use these tools on this test authoring

013the modules and I use it a lot and I even use it in math. Um sometimes some of the questions I use in my math centers the teacher the teacher center because they're more rigor and it helps them. And then at the end of a topic in math, you know, we do the one that goes with our clear math and then Carnegie series, our Carnegie. And then I also do depending where we're at, I'll do a module and a test authoring with that too. And it just exposes them to so many different they're seeing it so many times they're getting used to manipulate on the computer. I think for third grade specifically, a lot of times they struggle just because they don't know how to work the tools on the computer. And so for me,

014this is the this year I've done it more than I have in the past. Each year I've been learning more and building on it, but I feel I don't feel as anxious about testing coming up. I mean, the month off, you know, but overall, I'm not worried about them being able to use the test. And I feel like I've so far I've really prepared them just on the rigor that they're going to see. And my hope is they don't log in and it's not, you know, just their third time seeing that format. They're very comfortable. Yes. I don't want them to be anxious or anything for those, you know, kinds of reasons. I just I just feel like it really helps them and I think it challenges the ones that needs challenge. It gives me

015a chance to get everyone the best I can up to, you know, grade level and all of that. I think it's just a really great tool and it's very easy once you learn it to pair it with your standards. It helps make sure you're teaching what you need to teach. Oh god, she does a she does a really a really good job these tools that they provide for us. And Mr. Alexander always talks about this when we do data meetings with principles. We just we know from the data and from the research that the state provides to us the state department of ed these tools are some of the best available to us and it's not really about just thinking about the end ofear summit of the test is your standards. So as educators we

016are tasked to teach our standards. That's what we do. That's what every state does. And so this provides not only a tool that is standards focused with appropriate grade level content, but it builds in the high expectations because as Faith mentioned several times, it's such a rigorous tool and it really challenges our students and it makes a huge difference. Right. So just giving them the opportunity to work through it for the entire year before they actually have to use it is a huge huge advantage I think. So much material in there. Be know she's worked with it with us, too. It was quite a show last March. She did filled in on maternity leave and it was I mean it's it was hard. It was sixth grade. Very hard. It really challenges our students, doesn't

017it? So, there's even a science, you know, my grandson, did you? For my kids, too. Jane, that's great, too. She was at CK. I was at CK Dennis CK the uh and our teachers are really doing a good job of using the tool. We've seen data from the state about our teacher usage and and at one point I haven't seen anything recently but at one point our teachers were leading the state in usage all counties regardless of the size above all other 54 counties how we utilize the tool and and Faith has been she was one of the early adopters and they have been using that in their classrooms since the I'll never forget I went to a u I went to a state department meeting they introduced the test authoring tool to us. I

018came back to the district the next day, went to a classroom and a teacher was using it in the classroom the next day. It hadn't been out for a week and our teachers were already using it. It went live on a Wednesday and on that day, Nikki, Stephie, and Kelly Arthur and Rhonda O'Neal and I and the other time at the time we had four curriculum specialists. We all came together the day it went live and we divided up the the um 11 schools because it's a three through eight tool and within two days one of us had trained every teacher three through eight. what it was. It was a pretty big um undertaking, but we knew that it was such an important tool because we've had the modules, but the modules are prepackaged. So,

019you can go in and search for certain standards, but when they introduced test authoring, they took all of those modules and not only broke them apart, which allowed you to pick and choose what you wanted to use, but it gave teachers they and then they added additional content. So, it gives teachers the option of it's not just a whole class period or a two-day activity. Maybe I want to choose three questions of a specific format that align to a specific standard and I may want to use those as um a a pre-activity to introduce a standard or maybe I want to use it as an exit ticket as a form a way to formatively assess did my students master what I taught. So, it just really puts um a lot of control in the hands

020of the teachers, but anything they use, the rigor is there and it's based on our grade level standards, so it puts those high expectations automatically in place. It's a great tool. Fantastic. Third grade is such a trans transitional year anyway for kids. So giving them that advantage, a little bit of a shock to their little system, right? Different. You get surprised at what they can do though. Oh yeah. Once you introduce it, I'm sure they just take right off. But just getting someone to to use those tools and introduce them to the students. That's fantastic. I've been surprised by how well they're doing. I tell I've told them, you know, people brag on you, right? Absolutely. I think that's great. It's all it takes sometimes. A little motivation. Thank you, Faith. We appreciate it. Can

021I get a picture? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. That's fantastic. [Applause] And Faith, you can you can sneak out if you SL on out of here. Feel free to stay. Nobody's looking. Yeah. Uh, every every June we go over the uh annual desk audit from the U Department of Education that they provide for the special education department. Uh, this year they have done a early release of data and they have asked Miss Connley to share that with stakeholders including the board of ed. Now these are not finalized numbers. We will go over that document, the full document in June when it's released. And I say June whenever they do release it. It's usually June. Um but u Marsha wanted the opportunity to go over early numbers with us. Yeah. And I'll make it quick because

022these are not certified. These are preliminary numbers. So um this is what I shared with you at the beginning of the year. We kind of have an action plan and I kind of explained to you that several of the indicators are from previous data. So what I presented at the beginning of the year was from um the year from 22 23 and now we're looking at 23 24 data. So um the red these are the state targets. They increase on us every year um and then the ones on the right in the red and green are where we have um performed again not certified data um for the 23 24 school year. Um, so you can see, you know, some of, if you remember, some of our action plans focusing on these areas that we're

023still kind of falling short on as far as um, graduations uh, with um, with students with regular diplomas and then dropout rate for our kiddos with these are all special ed numbers. Um, and then these are participation rates. um just taking the assessment the alternate and the general summitive these are assessment proficiencies. Um and then you see some this is the GSA is your general the ASA down here is your alternate standards. Uh I do caution you keep in mind for alternate standards those those um cell sizes are very small. So you know we have kids maybe three kids in that grade taking it. So those numbers kind of will be skewed very quickly if one out of three or or two out of three. Um so if you go ahead and scroll down, this

024looks at growth. So look comparing last year and that's where I'm seeing some discrepancy. I'm in contact with the state with some of our numbers. Um looking at growth from last year to this year. Um and then we go into um some let me see what we got. So LR code. This is one of the areas that we've really focused on to try to increase our kiddos's exposure and time in the gened environment being um exposed to curriculum that is on grade level. Just making sure that that's happening. Uh we still are not where we would like to be on that one. Um looking at separate settings, we we're falling in the green in those areas. A lot of these are prek. Um, we've talked about that in the past where they are rated as

025they enter preschool and then they're rated as they exit. And this looks at the growth in those areas. Um, disast. No, you're fine. Keep going. I'm trying to be quick. Um, we looked at disproportionality is not an issue in our district at this time. Um, transition services. Now, I'm going to kind of I'm going to brag on this one. So, we did hit 100% um this year, but they're they're changing the way they report it and putting us on I think a monitor cycle. So, it's going to show up even at the final. My understanding is it's going to still show up, but they're going to pull that um when they rank us as far as um our determination. So, right now we're in needs assistant. My goal is of course to get us to

026meet meets um standards. So, or meets the criteria. And then these these are one-year follow-ups. Um, we have a beautiful participation rate in like after they graduate, what are you doing? How are you doing? And then we're we're looking at what are you actually doing? And I think a lot of this was training in the in the people who were doing the surveys, but what are you doing a year later? Are you doing further education? Are you employed? That sort of thing. So, these are preliminary numbers. again I'll come back and present them once they're um certified and I have gone through and looked at growth or stagnation or decline in each number um and we'll come up with you know some a plan to address anything that we remind us just real quick what

027our plan was for the um what was our action plan for the parts of the um so we I don't have it with me but we had several so we had we looked at a lot of the transition. So, we were out of compliance in transition and it requires 100% to meet. You get 100% or you get nothing, right? So, we really have worked hard in trainings. Um, we've got an early warning system. We've, you know, we've implemented some like job fairs. Um, we've implemented some supports from mental health specialists, counselors in that area. Um, and then we have met compliance. So, that one of those areas of transition. There are several pieces. So, the graduation rate was one. Uh the dropout rate was one, right? Um compliance. So we have met compliance, meaning our

028our um our IEPs align with what the students say they want to do. We're supporting what they want to do and trying to follow through with that. And then another one of our goal, our T- SIP goal, which is a little bit different than the action plan I presented was that one that I said is still falling in red, was to try to um increase the number in our it's called a least restrictive environment in the gened primarily. So, right, we're still not where we would like to be in that way. What do we what's your I guess your action plan for doing that or why why are we not still there yet? Is it is it a staffing issue? Is it um an IEP issue? what why what's holding us back there? So, yeah,

029I think like I think our increase I think this year we have increased our um our push into co-e environments. So, we've kind of moved it down. So, it was a three-year plan that started at the high school, went to the middle school this year, went to the elementary school. So, we've trained them this year um you know, and done some supports and done some additional supports with our our ATS schools that weren't demonstrating growth in the special ed. Um so we have kind of moved that down so that we have more co-e at the younger level right um so that's kind of we're hoping to continue that and see you know sufficient prog I mean the goal is to meet the kids needs whatever they are sure but you know um it it research

030shows that you spend time in gened experiencing gened standards to the greatest extent possible so that is a push and like I said it's been it's been this is a year three it was kind of a three-year Right. And so we we got down to the elementary. Is there a reason why we started at the high school and then moved down? In my if I'm looking at it, I would think you would want to start at the elementary and then you wouldn't have as much in the middle school or the high school to worry about, but it seems like we went backwards. Yeah. And I can't speak to that because that was before me, but it when you look at our deficits in our like our littles, right? um a lot of times they will

031do a short pull out and push them back in. So they're spending more time in the gen ed whereas when you get to the high school you have periods you have blocks. So I go to science, I go to ELA, I go to math and so the ability to to bring those to co-e versus those pulled out. I got you. Does that make sense? Yeah. So um you know that to me that would be impactful and then try to get we started you know they kind of went feeder schools to try to we'll start at Spring Valley. a look at, you know, men and chat that right Tulsson. Got and our prek numbers. I know there's some Yeah. Um some concern there. Yeah. So, um our prek Yeah. the these these are tricky and there

032is a couple reasons why. One, we continue staff development, but but two, you know, one of Mr. Cox's points is, you know, when you get kiddos um particularly that have needs significant enough to qualify um and you're identifying them properly, uh you don't typically see the amount of growth in those kids that are that have pretty significant. So, and that's what would you say, you know? Yeah, that's what we see a lot of. So, there's two areas that we see in there um that you see for preschool. There's two different goals for each one of those. And sometimes we meet the second one, but it's very rare for those as well because each one of those is broken into two parts. One of them is about the growth that we see for every child and

033the second ones that they're entering and exit. What she's talking about is errors every year. I go through the cost training of all of my teachers and then I have to do an audit on every one of them to make sure that they've done the enter and exit for the child. So I have to make sure that they've actually put that in the system. So those costs at the end of each year has to be checked and verified. Gotcha. So it's something that has that extra step you have to make sure that's completed. So when we're going through this process right now, we're going to the you know prek to kindergarten transition. So once those are completed, I have to make sure that all those exits once they've gone to kindergarten has been completed and

034done. Teachers just don't teachers just Oh, I think that these levels, but wait, wait, wait. You might need to look over this information. Let's revisit it. Let's make sure that we've got the right tools in there. Gotcha. So, it's documentation sometimes. Documentation, just teacher understanding sometimes, not checking on it, just errors sometimes, just not having the conversations. Gotcha. And what's the uh the non-applicable um what the p what was that? Parents and receiving special education. We were not part of the survey. It doesn't happen every year. So, we weren't part of it. I got you. Um, that seems like that would be something I' I'd want to survey every year. I mean, if you've got parents, I think it's every three, but I could be wrong, but I I believe it's every three years. And

035we work a part of that. And these kids that are in our prek, um, they come to us from birth to three sometimes. And are they are they evaluated there as well as when they come to us? So if they're receiving birth to three services then they get like referral we have referral or referred as they are hitting that age three. Okay. Because then it's school age you know then it's preschool services. So so so the birth to three sends referrals to us to say you need to evaluate this kiddo and see if they qualify for. I was just curious if I mean some of these kids that we get in prek probably didn't have birth to three. Correct. So they we may be the first point of contact for any kind of services. Right.

036And so if they're in a in a preschool, the teachers can do referrals. The parents can come in and do referrals also, you know, outside. Gotcha. Okay. And we we created a cadre, correct? A special education cadre that we did and that's going well. And is it is this helpful? Well, we haven't met for a while. Well, we planned to meet and then and then snow happened. Once I get this finalized, yeah, we I pulled the data from for the last meeting that didn't happen from uh Renaissance and we were looking at growth in our special ed versus growth in our gen ed. Right. But we did not. So, I know our our goal is to get everyone exposed to grade level standards. Right. Right. So, I'm just curious how we're I mean, we have

037a math cadre. We've got an ELA cadre. Yeah, I just want to make sure we have special education educators. We have representatives on on those um content specialized cadres with our gened teachers as well. Okay, good. So, we want that voice at the table, right? Um also when we look at the math and for elementary and secondary. Okay. Okay. Good to know. Thank you. All right. I'll I'll be back when it when it's all certified. See you in June. All right, it's all of our presentations this evening. So, we can move on to good news. Anyone? I thought I saw on Facebook where we had a couple two or three people. Was it basketball where they were named first team? Yeah, we had we had students from u all three high school teams that have

038been named to u the uh all state teams, least honorable mention. And then we had some that were named first team all state. So we're doing post about that on our Facebook page. Gota love. Okay. Any anybody else? All right. Moving on to ourformational items. Uh we're going to reconvene our special meeting from March 11th on Tuesday, April 15th, beginning at 4 o'clock here in the board conference room. Spring break will be April 14th through the 18th. We're back here for a regular meeting on April 22nd at 6 o'clock and then a special meeting on Tuesday, April 29th, beginning at 4. And this will be at Crumb PreK8. And then we will uh recess and reconvene at Tulsa High School at 5:15. And those are our LSIC meetings for those two schools. I'll probably need

039to call in on March 11, excuse me, the April 15 reconvening March 11. And I'll probably be calling you number 22 over my cataract surgery. Feel like coming. Gotcha. That's fine. All right. Uh, moving on to our construction project updates. Yeah. In a separate packet of information I provided you this evening. The top page of that document, page one, is a report from our contractor EP Leon Suns regarding the Wayne Elementary School additions. And uh I'll concentrate on the work plan for the next two weeks uh which is this week and and next week. Um it indicates that EP Leech is going to pour first pad for frost slab on April 2nd. Also plan on pouring housekeeping pad for transformer and electrical room. So the concrete slabs are are starting to be poured. Mason's plan

040to be done with cocking in the interior by the end of the week. by the end of this week. The electrical contractor is planning to pull wire spring break and the mechanical contractor also decided to wait until then to do their waterline tie-ins. Um the metal for the roof is expected to be ready on April 11th with installation to follow the next day. So we're moving along with that project. It's really looking nice, isn't it? Yeah, it's looking pretty nice. the last time I went by uh Serita Kenova the uh the MIP project there for the uh refurbishment of the basement. Uh the design has been submitted to the West Virginia Department of Education for their approval. Uh Buffalo Middle School design, we have a civil engineer meeting tomorrow uh to again look at the

041traffic patterns for the school. And so uh we we are near uh near uh time to submit that to the Department of Education. So hopefully we'll make some steps towards that during tomorrow's meeting. Um the next item is in your packet on page two. We've talked about the work that we're going to have to do out at Spring Valley High School due to that drainage collapse out there on the soccer field. On page two, we have an ad in the paper this week, an advertisement for bids on that project. And then I've also included the project specifications uh for the uh line installation beginning on page three. That's just an FYI. That runs three through page six. Was that something that was done when they originally built the high school? Uh yeah, when the when

042the soccer field was originally constructed, they put that drain line in underneath and uh part of um I don't know. I don't know. Do you have any recourse? No, no, it's a it's just age. Uh it was a metal uh metal drain pipe and those those give way after a time. The the big problem with it is it's 20 ft deep, which is unusual, but they brought in enough fill in there that it's it's really deep. So, um everything's moving along. We have the permit from the U Department of Highways to install the new line. Um we've been in contact with FEMA. FEMA's coming down to see if they can help fund part of the project. And uh so that's up in the air, but uh we're moving along and going to get the contractor

043started on it soon. But with FEMA involved, we have to make sure we go through all of the proper uh all the proper advertising uh for hiring the contractor. So, we're going through those steps now. That's all I have for construction projects. All right. Uh no delegations this evening. No. Superintendent reports. We're going to start a and Mike Hart, our safety manager, is here. We're going to start a a school security pilot project here with Wayne High School at the end of the year. Maybe run it maybe a little bit at the beginning of next year. Uh and I wanted uh Mike to talk to you a little bit about that. Got your little hand out. This is off of their website. That's a picture of what the app looks like. Thank you. So over

044the years we look at several different products, devices, and apps to see, you know, what we can utilize and what's best for our school system and what's really just fluff and not really going to help us. There's a lot of products out there and you go to conferences and you look at all these things and sometimes it's just a panic button. Well, just panic button. It doesn't really do much for you. uh or just utilizes cameras or certain devices like that or apps that just notify people of an alert. This the great thing about this app and I really like it is it does three things. You can choose you see the buttons at the top there. The circles you can it's an unidentified person in your school. The next one's a medical emergency. The

045next one's a fire weather. And the little gun there is active shooter. So what you do, all the staff will have this downloaded on their cell phones and desktops if they choose to laptops. Um, so they have the ability if they happen to see, let's say it's an active shooter in the building, they happen to see somebody in the cafeteria that's got a gun, they can hit that little button with the gun on it and what comes up is that map that you see there and all of our schools will be, you know, brought up, whatever school we're at, and the floor plans laid over top of that just like you see there. and you can designate where that person is. Let's say he's in the cafeteria. And you click, you can zoom in on

046it and click in that exact room. And that way it tells everybody, every staff member immediately gets this on their phone. It comes up and it big loud noise uh that activates whether you got your phone on silent or not. It overrides it. So they'll get the message and it shows them exactly where that intruder is. So that's like any other app I've seen. The good thing about that is if you're at the other end of that building, you can evacuate. That's what we tell people to do. Run. First thing you do, get out of the building if you can. That notify the resource officer, too. Yes. It'll be on his and it notifies 911. I've already talked to the 911 center. They're going to have this exact exact app on their desktop. So, they

047will get the same notification. that we get. That way when they roll up to the school, they know exactly where this person is. Now, let's say this guy moves around. By the time they get there, he's now in the gym. Somebody else saw him in the They can update it. Boom. Drop that little pin where it's at and they'll know that now he's in the gym, so they know where to go. So, I think that's a wonderful app. It does all three three of those things. is it notifies your staff, notifies 911, and it shows you where the incident is and it tells the staff what it is. A lot of times we go on lockdown, we don't know what staff doesn't know what's going on, right? But this tells you exactly what's going on.

048So, and it's desktop friendly. So, if they don't have a cell phone, we still have Absolutely. iPad, laptop, desktop. Yeah. So, is that something that we can put on our our tablets that we issue to the kids if they don't I mean there's legislation that's trying to stop cell phones from being in schools at all. So, these don't go to the kids. The students will not receive this. Not at all. Because they will Yeah, I can see that. Another thing it does is senior prank day. Yeah, if you click on the chat part, you can chat with your staff. You know, I'm missing so and so. He went to the bathroom. We don't know where he is. You know, you can count for your students immediately. I have 19 out of 20. Chat with the

049administration so the admin people know. You don't want chatter between the teachers because that could go back and forth. I don't know where, you know, you don't want to get into all that. But it is an accountability of all your students and if you do have somebody missing, you can chat right to the admin and they know who's missing immediately. Um, well 911, you know, we got cameras in all the schools now, right? Always and stuff. Yes, sir. Will this be able to augment with 911 so they can see? Well, they have access cameras and they will have access to this. work it'll work together and they can pull a camera up in that area so they'll have that access. That's a great idea. Is there a price attached to this or Well, I'll let

050Mr. Alexander question. No, the company uh agreed to allow us to run a pilot at no charge. Okay. Now, obviously, if we sign up for the services, there is a price associated with that. But it's um you know for the entire district and you know prices change but for the entire entire district you're looking at under $100,000 for the entire district per year. For a year. Yeah. It's an it's an annual fee. Um but we're going to run a pilot and see you know what kind of advantages it provides us. The big advantage that it provides you is it automatically gives all of your staff the ability to notify the rest of the school immediately when there's um when there's an event going on. All those little green dots you see on that school map

051are teachers or staff. And they can check that button at the top. It says, you know, I'm okay. Like everybody is accounted for and we got everybody and we're good. And or you can say I need help. Like somebody shot or the person's nearby so the police see that too so they know who needs help. I'm going to go towards the green area. Um, so it's also got a reunification part to this where you're going to reunite with your parent or guardian. So whenever we get into a safe area, there's a part there where you type in the student's name. If parent comes up, they give you the name, you type in, you hit search, and it'll come up with four different um choices. you know, this child is still waiting. This child's already been

052picked up. You know, forget what the other two were. But the good thing about it is if it comes up says child already picked up and you're a guardian, you don't know if somebody's husband's picked him up, wife. So when they pick the child up, they take a picture with the guardian, whoever picked him up, and it saves it in the database. So as documentation so when they come and say hey I didn't pick him up where'd he go so they can show that documentation the picture right there comes up soon as they search that child's name so it's a good reunification part too price point price point wise it's very very competitive with with similar similar type applications yeah a lot of those don't don't have the map the map is the key yeah

053being able to visually see where that event is actually happening. So, but we're going to run a no cost trial just to Sure. give it a try. Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Um I want to mention on page seven of your separate attachments, our calendar has been approved by the state department. Yeah. So, uh, this is the calendar that will be in effect next year. We'll start sending out, uh, communications to our parents and to our faculty that the calendar has been approved, so it's official now. Okay. Okay. Yep. Fantastic. And then I had received a foyer request that's on page eight. That's just an FYI. Okay. Anytime we get a foyer request, I'll let you know that. So, page eight is the latest one that we've

054received. Okay. And then of course we had on Friday we had to uh close the district due to the uh heavy rains and flooding that had fallen and the mudslides were occurring across the district. So we closed down on Friday and of course that's going to add another day to our calendar. Yeah. So our students last day is now going to be June the 9th and our employees last day is going to be June the 10th. And so, uh, we're still utilizing those out of school environment, uh, days that are made to, um, make up for the weather. And so, um, that'll push the kids last day back to a Monday and the teachers last day back to a Tuesday. And again, we'll be sending out announcements about that as well. Yeah, there'd be a

055lot of school on Monday. Oh, yeah. To be at the beach. All right. Anything else? That's it. All right. All right. No board directives or board reports? None. And no unfinished business. Move on to our new business. Consent action items. 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 items may be requested by members of the board andor the superintendent. Items are subject to change. Any blanks will be filled in prior to the meeting. In the event a nominee withdrawals, we reserve the right to put in the next candidate for that position. Number one is consider for approval the recommended personnel matters. Pages 1 through 10. And in your separate packet that I provided this evening, beginning

056on page nine of the separate packet is the uh revised version with a few corrections in it. Okay. If we want to go through that, we've got quite an agenda here. So, let me just walk you through the uh walk you through the agenda because we have our reduction in force and transfers for the year on here. All right. So, and again, I'm looking at the separate um these separate attachment items. Page nine, I'm looking at the revised personnel matters. Okay. On on that page nine, you see a list of uh terminations that's due to the reduction in force for the 25206 school year. There's 26 names listed there. Now, it's important to note that these positions aren't necessarily being eliminated. These people might have been bumped out of their position by more senior employee.

057So, these are the folks who would get a riff letter and uh there were there were 26 names on that uh list. And again, these folks are um positions aren't necessarily being eliminated. I think there's about six or seven positions on here that are actually being eliminated, but they're being displaced due to more senior employees taking their positions. So, they'll have a chance to bid somewhere else. Correct. And again, as I've explained before, um the uh we've had to go through some heavy reductions um in the past eight years, and we have not had anybody that hasn't been able to get back to a full-time position uh the next year. Um we did have a couple service positions that it was October when they got back on full-time. Professional wise, we've been a able to

058get everybody that wanted to return uh a position by the beginning of next year. So, we'll be working to do that again this year. On page 10, these are the actually the positions that are going away. So, there's 35 positions on this list. This is the same information that was provided you to you in the chart in the earlier board meeting uh regarding the positions that we're actually going to abolish. And then at the bottom of the list, you see the create positions. There are seven positions there that are being created even either because positions are being consolidated or there's an enrollment shift. And so if you take that 35 abolished positions, you subtract the seven that we're creating, that's a reduction of 28 professional positions overall. Gotcha. Uh page 11, our employment items are

059all related to summer school. Yeah. So there's really nothing there to do with riff or transfer. That is all summer school action. And that continues on to uh page 12 as well. There's also the hiring of a substitute teacher at the bottom of page 12. On page 13, we go to the countywide transfers. So, these positions line up with the positions that are being eliminated. These are more senior employees that were transferred to other positions. You see that there's a list of 17 people on the countywide transfer list. Now, obviously, we eliminated more positions than that. some of those positions had people that were retiring in them or they were positions that h that had a substitute in them that hadn't been filled yet. So that's why those numbers don't match. And then you have

060below that the realignments personnel law allows if you're in an elementary school, and this is only true for elementary schools. If you're in an elementary school and you are not the least senior in your certification areas, you can be realigned and moved within your building and then the other person uh the less senior person would be the one that moved out. So there's three realignments there on the list. Okay. At the bottom of page 13 is just our typical request for leaves of absence dealing with FMLA and medical leaves. There's one correction there that's on that page. We had an employee that was going to be off until May 1st. That's been changed to April 11th. And then they're going to be intermittent from April 12th until the conclusion of the year. Okay. On page

06114, we have our second item. Uh there's a resignation there. Rebecca Matthysse, 8hour cafeteria manager cook at Spring Valley High, we have two Rebecca Matthyssees. So in your revision, they make clear that that's Rebecca D. Matthysse. And then at the bottom of page 14, we start the uh reduction in force for the service personnel. And you'll see that there's six and a half positions that are listed there. And then there's an additional position there listed at the bottom of the page that is um so that takes the number to seven and a half. On page 15, you see the actual positions that are being abolished. And again, this lines up with the chart that you were provided earlier. And this is 16 and a half positions that are being reduced. And then you have your

062create positions be below that. These are two positions that we know that are going to be created for next year. Now, I want to emphasize that um the third grade ECADs would be on this list except the legislature is con considering some u shifts in that law that gives counties flexibility on possibly hiring interventionist. So, I don't want to create those positions until the legislative session's over and we know exactly what that law what that law is and what we're dealing with so we can make an intelligent decision at that time. Right. So, um uh when I talked to you about this earlier when we looked at the chart, I told you that we were cutting 16 and a half positions from the service side, but we were looking at adding 16 and 12 positions.

063It was pretty much a wash. That's why you don't see those under the create positions tonight. We're just gonna hold off. Okay. Going to page uh 16, you have employments. Again, this is all summer school related. Flipping over to page 17. We're going to pull a couple of um these bus operator positions. There's been some changes u at the grievance board with how these positions are selected. We're reviewing that to see how it impacts our process. So, I'm we'll bring these back to you at some point. We just want to make sure that we're recommending the right names based upon how the uh law is currently being applied for these summer school positions. That's Kimmy Thompson. Timmy Thompson and Casey Cyrus. We're going to pull those for now, but I'll bring those back to you

064at another time. Okay. At the bottom of the page, uh page 17 begins the countywide transfer list. It continues on to page 18. You'll see that there's eight and a half names there. And again, those are people whose positions are being eliminated, but they have more seniority, so they're moving to another location, another position. And then the transfers that are listed on page 18, those are normal uh normal transfers that are occurring uh due to postings. There's a correction there. The bus uh was originally listed as 1279. It's 1297 is the bus. Autism, dyslexia, 79 to 97. Yeah. And then at the bottom of the page, the request for leaves of absence that completes the personnel matters. And again, um, with the abolished positions that are being recommended, the reason that we're doing that is

065because of the number of positions that were out of formula. Um, we uh in in your in your separate attachments, I've included beginning on page 19, the staffing pages that were provided to us by the state department of education. You've seen this plenty of times. Uh, we've looked at this several times. Um, but looking at page 20, the number there on the far right, if you go down to Wayne County, all 55 counties are listed here. We are projected to be, and again, this is a projection based upon our enrollment loss this year. We're projected to be with the current number of positions that we have, we're projected to be 50 over formula on the professional side. page 21 and that's professional instructional side 50 of the formula. On page 21 is the service side.

066When you look at Wayne County, you go to the far right, you'll see that that number is at 73.55 73 and a half over. And then skipping back a couple pages on page 24. This is our professional student uh our I'm sorry, our student support personnel. So this is our counselors. This is our social workers. Those positions we are our nurses are included in there. We're 5.71 over formula for those positions. And then the very last page, page 25, is a summary of those positions. The professional student support personnel added in with the professional educators to give us a total number of approximately 50.88 on the professional side. And we had shared earlier at a board meeting about the u the financial data for the district. So the the problem is is those numbers out

067of formula as we lose enrollment even though the number of positions aren't growing. We have to pay more and more out of local funds for the positions and it just becomes to a point where the amount of money is too much. And that we had looked at the last projection and I know Jeb's in the room. The last projection had us projected to be up at 9 million that was coming out of local funds for to pay for those uh positions that uh are out of formula. So we have to reduce those numbers. Uh last year we took the first step in doing that. I know I noticed in the U newspaper article um I think it was 45 positions that were cut last year from the professional side. Now some of those were COVID

068funded positions. So it didn't help our numbers over formula for the for the general fund. Uh but we had cut about 45 last year. This year we're looking at cutting about 28. Um I believe that if we go forward with the uh recommendations that you have uh in front of you this evening, that's going to put us uh in a pretty good place. Uh depending on how those enrollment numbers turn out next year as we start next year. Another factor we have to consider too is that the um the price of PEIA is increasing and that includes for the employer and Jeb they had u Jeb's back there in the second row. Jeb, they had told us that price was going up approximately 14% uh for each employee and employer share also employer share. And

069so as uh for every positions that that's out of formula, we absorb 100% of that of that raise. And so that's why it's necessary, this is always a different time of year, but that's why it's necessary to reduce the positions. And again, we've been very successful in getting these people back and into spots by the beginning of the next year. And I don't I don't see why this this year uh would be any different. So, that's the recommendation. I'm not Are we ready to go? I'd like to pull the termination of the coordinator preschool for a separate vote. Can we do that? Yeah, we can pull that separately. Does need a second? No. John made the motion. Yeah. Dennis, did you have a second? Yeah. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. So, we'll pull that

070one for separate consideration. Let's go back and do the bulk of it first then. So, personnel matters minus um the prek position. Yeah, I need to recuse myself because my family's on the loose. Okay, let's if we can do the separate one first because it might have an impact on the the overall list if there's a change there. Okay, gotcha. Okay, do that. Okay, cool. All right, so we'll do the pulled separate consideration first. So, what what's the motion? Did you pull uh the termination of contract Jason College coordinator preschool preschool special needs? Are you rescending that? Is that the motion that we're putting forward? Yes, that's the motion I want to make to resend it. Okay. The motion is to resend that termination. Yes. I think the motion would be just to reject it.

071Reject the recommendation. That sounds good. That sounds better. Does it need a second? I'll do it. Motion by Jonita, second Dennis. Any questions or concerns on that particular item? So again, just to make it clear, if you vote yes, then you're voting to reject the recommendation. Yes. For the one position. For the one position. One position. Yes. Discussion. I do have a question. And I'm not sure if it um is specific to this or not, but I do have a question that how many positions are being held at the central office that could or are counted against us in the school state aid formula? because I have an issue personally and districtwide and our students to be honest with you that I know that there are some really good teachers that are on this riff

072list that I hate to see them lose their job and I feel like that without a sacrifice in the central office and we're not being doing justice to our students and our schools. I can agree with you to a certain point on that. feel like personally um we've got to look out for our youngest learners as well. Oh, I'm not saying that. I'm That's not the point at all. Nothing personal. I mean, we're just talking about positions, not people. And I get it. Yeah. I'm just uh just my opinion is that we need to make sure that that we're cutting where we need to first. Even though I agree that we've got, you know, certain positions that we could do away with, but I just don't think that this particular one is one that we

073need to do away with at this point. Well, I think in my opinion, I think it would be detrimental to the kids if we get rid of, you know, if if we have to get rid of this position, then we have to go we have to go and hire in people that don't really know, right, aren't familiar. county, uh, if they'd have to have training, all that, we're not going to save any money. We're going to still be spending pretty much the same amount. And so, I mean, that's my opinion. I just I figured out this position when Missy and I first came into office, that was a that was a goal of the board at the time. And some of some positions were changed, reduced, and eliminated as best we could. But then we

074found out that there's situations where you can't really do it for the good of the county, the kids. So there you are. You know what I mean? And I that's what you're getting at, isn't it? I think so. I think I think it's just something that I understand that we want to, you know, reduce the amount of that we have over top. Every chance we get though, we should do it. I think the point that I wanted to make is I think every one of us as a And I was the one that made the request for the salaries for the central office. It was sent out to everyone. I made that request last week and I saw those numbers and I'm just going to be honest with you, those numbers compared to what our

075staff, our service personnel, and what our teachers make are completely out of kilter. And the median in the median salary or median income in Wayne County, and I've done some research, is around $37,000. I have a real problem just to be honest u with some of those salaries that we are seeing in the central office and then we're talking about laying off custodians and cooks and teachers that are making half of that. Understand? I understand completely. Understand. But the counter is I will tell you central offices like everything else. They don't run on autopilot. Right. You got to have I'm astounded every day how daggone complicated this world is. It drives me crazy sometimes. Yeah. I want to use that old Shakespeare quote. Let's kill all the lawyers. blame part part of it, but that

076that office is not going to run by itself. I understand that, but I also understand too that our enrollment is dropping. Yes, our enrollment is dropping every year and we're maintaining the level of directors, coordinators, but we're getting rid of the people that are in constant contact with our students, whether they be the teachers or the ones that's serving them lunch. I just, you know, that's just my two cents and I'm here to represent the people that put me here. Ideally, that's what we want to do. But then there's something, it comes down to you have to have people in a position where there's a certain amount of competency and you have to do it when you can. I understand that. I do understand. I'm very open to the any I'm open to reducing force

077anywhere we can. people that are when we can, right? Not necessary, but and gosh, this is one of the worst things about this job. You don't want to particularly let go of anybody, right? No. But it's easy to say, "Yeah, let's cut it all." Hey, you talked to me 10 years ago, I'd have probably been saying that, too. I didn't Exactly. But I'm very open. Hey, this is something we can do without is fine. I'm open to hear that. I just haven't been persuaded of that yet. Until I am, I'm not just going to have to get rid of some. Right. Agreed. Anyone else? All right. So the motion was to reject the termination of the prek coordinator position and the motion was made by Jonita and second by Dennis. And again a vote of

078yes means you're rejecting the u the elimination of the position of the of the contract and then a vote of no would be that you're voting to eliminate the contract. So everyone clear? No, that's I'm not. If you're voting, the motion was to reject the recommendation. Yeah. So, wouldn't that be So, if you vote yes, that means you're saying yes, I want to reject it. Keeping it. Keeping it. Oh, okay. I know. Okay. Okay. And this is for this single position. Single position. Single positions. All right. Any other questions, concerns? Everyone clear? Clear. All right. All in favor to reject the motion or to reject the position's termination. I I I. No. Yes. You if you're keep it, you're right. I want to keep it. Yes, you're fine. Then you voted correct. Okay. Any opposed?

079There was none opposed. So we are five to zero to keep the prek position. I would hate to sit down. Right. Okay. Now, that's going to create a change in our list. Okay. Go back. So, give me a minute to first page there. I have another question. Can I ask another question? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because yeah, we still got the whole other I was say I'm the new guy. So, I'm gonna I've got a question. Use that m forever. But my question is, is it possible that there can be a are we past the time where we cannot save any of these other jobs? [Music] Do you mean cut any of these other jobs? Resend cuts on the ones that the recommendations that you've made are do can we can we pull individual out? Can do

080we have to do it as one? I mean, we just pulled an individual one out. Can Can I hypothetically hypothetically can I make a motion to pull another one to reject them all? Yeah, you can make a motion to reject them all. Yes. Okay. I I'll make that motion to reject all the Well, let's let's let's straighten out the list first. Uh so on the very first page which is page nine under the termination list the third name down Kayla Brody third grade at Fort Gay PreK through 8. Correct Chanda? Yes. Okay. She can be removed from the list. Hold on. What page? First page there. Oh nine. Yeah. Who? Page nine, Caleb Brody. Okay. Mark third grade at Fort Fort Gay. Yes. Got it. That was the position that Mr. Cox would have assumed

081if it went through. Okay. Gotcha. So, she will stay in that position. She will stay in that position. Okay. And then um on [Applause] page 13. There's an item here for a transfer approval. the fourth one down with the transfer to and uh from coordinator or preschool preschool special needs to unassign. So that I'm going to pull that now. So I'm pulling both of those items. Okay. Okay. So, we've got a revised revised personnel matters. Okay. So, I need a motion for the revised revised personnel matters. I make a motion to approve the re revised. These are just the revised, not the whole stuff. Right. Right. Not all of them. the rev. So to Mark's point, Mark, if you're if you're not wanting to approve the rest of the list, you just vote no on

082the rest of the list. Motion, Johnny. What? You made the motion. You made a second. I thought you were going. No, he asked who made the motion. I thought you were. Sorry. Okay. I made the motion to approve the rest of the personnel matter, right? Yeah. On a personal note, second. I kind of agree with with Mark this time of year because I came out of the school system. By the same token, in the position we're in, we have a fidiciary responsibility. Responsibility. Yeah. And it's forced me to do things I don't want to do. Yeah. And nobody wants to nobody wants to eliminate any of the positions, but And I do understand that. I I really do. And I think you you know, I've been on here since July and I think most of

083you know that every time when we go over expenditures, I'm the one that's got a million questions and I got a million more after a while when we get there. But I'm just thinking about like Dennis said, I've been there. I've seen things happen. I And I may not have the highest degree in the room. I said that last week, but I'm going to do everything I possibly can to save those positions that the people that I know every day are down there or over there or up there working with our kids. I feel like with everything in me, they're more important than office positions. One good thing is we'd have to keep in mind is that like we said last year, everyone that wanted a position ended up back Yeah. in a in a

084position. So, I appreciate your positions because it keeps us all on our toes. Make sure we're doing the right thing for everybody, especially the children. Okay. All right. Any other questions or concerns on our personnel matters? This is the revised. Revised revised with the two items I pulled off of the list. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Last chance. All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Four to one. Motion carries. Four to one. Okay. And now I'm go recuse myself. All right. Or you do the rest of it. Okay. Which which one? Medicate for you have to make a motion to pull it separately. Yep. Oh yeah. Tell me what I'm doing. You talking about the coordinator thing? Is this another personnel matter? Yeah. It's in the service personnel side. Is that is

085she a director? Yeah. Last page. Yeah. Betty Atkins. Betty Atkins. All right. So, now we're pulling Betty Atkins. The rest of them before we already did. We just did. I just did. Yes. So, now you can refute yourself and we'll pull this one. I'm going home. I'm just going to take my coat and just go right around. Copy while you're at it. So, we we have pulled the Betty Atkins uh secretary at Wayne Elementary. Um and Janita has recused herself from this vote. So, I need a motion question just to make make sure we're clear. Okay. That person is married to my first cousin. Do I need to or can Am I clear about rolling? Yeah. Immediate family like mother-in-law, father-in-law. I thought so, but I just wanted to I just wanted to No, you're

086good. decision from the chair. So, we're accused to everybody that's related to we'd all be families in Wayne County each other to make sure this is a motion to approve the transfer of Betty Akins. So, I need a motion for that. So, moved Mark, second by Dennis. Any other questions or concerns? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries four to zero on that particular personnel matter. Okay. Find Johnny to make sure she hasn't gone home. Thought maybe you'd left the building. Okay. Um motion by Mark, second by Dennis, and it was four to one or four to zero, sorry. Okay. Moving moving on to number two. Consider for approval the voucher payments for March 2025 on pages 11 through 20. Motion. Motion. Motion by Randy. Second. Second. Jonita. Any questions or concerns on those voucher

087payments 11 through 20? Anytime. And I think we've got Jeff, do we have some documentation on some of those? You want to bring it up? We brought documentation on some of them. Some of the generic ones that uh are larger amounts that are questioned. So Jeb will bring that up. the highlighter ones or what we pulled basically Amazon and Walmart some of the other ones through this list I went through that I didn't quite know what they were off top my head so I just made notes on there my notes of what the expend okay So, no need for me to ask questions here. You think they're there? Can I if I ask the ones that I'm questioning, can you recall? Can you recall? They're already Yeah, these are I just I'm just ahead. Just

088curious. I mean, it's like every month with with me on the first page, not quite halfway down the page. Mhs. I just don't know what that is. Okay. Uh, same page. Skip a few. Sid Harvey Industries. It's Harvey Industries. $426. Okay, we can pull it for you. Okay, I can tell. Oh, pec cards. What else you got? I hate that. I know. Okay, page 13. Two unfamiliar names about halfway down the page. Richard Franic and Sarah Jones 2028 and 2050 Frankilities. Okay. I think We did a full utility audit. It's with um a Frank utility uh Frank utility audit. So they audited all of our utilities. And then if they found errors in billing uh that we were being charged, anything that they found, maybe we were paying for meters that weren't being used anymore,

089that type of thing, then we had a contract with them that they would uh they would receive half of the savings that they found uh for a two-year period. So that was board approved. Yeah, we should be about finished with him, too. And then Sarah Jones right underneath Sarah Jones. Do you recognize that name? She's our parent center. No, she works with She's not person. She travels with the county. She provides special education services. She's the go between between parents educators. So the if a question arises parent needs outside resources, she's paid through the IDA grant. So parents can call in for outside resources with her through my office and through special office. So this would be like a services rendered. Yeah. Like if a parent called in contract, she's grant the pay for it.

090and over on page five down next to the bottom. And I know who it's for, but there's something I did want to bring to your attention. Mason and Barry down next to the bottom. I noticed two on there. And I wanted to let you know that the parts that were taken off of that new unit at Wayne High School have not been returned. Okay, page 16. Not quite halfway down the page. Koffield Development Corporation, $4,980. What would that expenditure? I'm sorry. I didn't. I'm sorry, Jeb. Local honey. I'm sorry. Just didn't know what it was. Going through right under I know several different places we had expenditures on the food service equipment. You know what those were for? Yeah, they they service um any items that break down in the kitchens. Kathy can probably speak

091to it better. So, you'll have oven repairs, refrigerator repairs, that type of thing. Dishwasher. Did anybody else have any before I go to my next page? Okay. Page 18, a little over halfway down the page. Moth Man and Sun. That's a solar that's solar company. I saw that, too. That was on another page. Did you say what? No, I didn't. I just seen what that's the contract with Solar Holler where they're providing um where they're providing electricity for uh the schools. So, it's a utility payment. I thought that contract Wayne County schools didn't have to pay anything for the solar. We didn't have to pay to put the panels on. We They are providing electricity for us at a at a guaranteed reduced rate from the power company. So that's how they make their money

092is that we pay utilities for that contract. Instead of paying a we're paying the solar. Yeah. Or part of part of it goes to the solar on page 32 mark with the same. Okay. They pay moth man. That still makes me laugh but No, me too. Rather than a mason county. Yeah. They so yeah they have a they have a a collection that they make in electricity that they provide to our buildings. So it lowers our utility rates at the buildings and then what they do is they uh summarize how much they're going to collect over a year's period and then they break that down into monthly payments. So that's what you're seeing there. And so what we've got to do as we move forward is track our payments to AppCo uh to make sure

093that they're reducing in the amount that we're paying out for that solar electricity because these payments are both in one month, but one could have been. Yeah, there's multiple sites. You'll you'll see those popping up as sites come along. Yeah, we have two two completed already. CK's completed. CK and Chrome. Yeah. Ready? Yep. Yep. Ready. Page 19. Couple there, but the the one I just didn't recognize the name. A little more than halfway down the page. Mary M. Lewis. $2,300. She's one of our speech path. I'm sorry. Speech path, I think. Is it? Is it? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Then Edward's Educational Services. Um, how long is that contract and how long are we going to be contracted with them? I know they've been here since my days. Yeah, there the only contract that they

094have running with us now is at Fort Gay and it's that's paid for out of title funds. Correct. When will that be up? And it's up at the end of the year. It's got to be renewed every year. So in July. Yeah. Okay. That's been Fort Gay has been choosing to use them though. It's not a mandatory thing though. They've been requesting to use them. Good. Yes. Good to know. A school decision. Good to know. And then on the last page, last one, 2J Supply. I don't remember seeing them anywhere. They do uh HVAC supplies. That's fine. Any others? All right. So, those are the voucher payments for March 2025, 11 through 20. Brandy made the motion. Jina made the second. No further discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? The motion carries five to zero.

095Number three, consider for approval of purchase requisition order and quotes in excess of $5,000 pages 21 through 24. Motion. Motion by Randy. Second, Dennis. I would like I would like to pull for separate consideration. Uh, the West Virginia School Board Association. It's page 22. The membership is Yes. Membership for West Virginia School Board Association like to pull for separate consideration. Okay. All right. Any questions? That leaves 21, 23, and 24 up first, I guess. Yeah. Right. Any questions on those requisitions? 21, 23, and 24. None. All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Five to zero. The separate consideration for the West Virginia School Board Association membership in the amount of $6,943. Need a motion. Motion. Dennis. Second. Second. Jonita. Questions or concerns? Yes. What benefits does the members membership do for the

096Wayne County Board of Education and students and our staff being affiliated with this organization? I think the biggest plus is that it gives us a voice um in Charleston. It gives us a collective voice. And I'm glad that you said that to be honest with you. Have you looked at any of the bills that they they are either sponsoring or in favor of or against? Yeah, I've looked at a lot of Have you? I don't think personally there was Senate Bill 154. I won't go into all the details. I don't think that that Senate Bill 154 actually represents the the feelings of the people in Wayne County. What's it about? It is require it. The Senate Bill 154 is requiring school service personnel or school service teachers, whatever to report when a student wishes to

097be change a pronoun, uh, seek gender care and those types of things. It just seen that bill on anything that they've sent to us as far as what weation supports. It was a item of concern and I was there two years and I seen their their their lobbying efforts and stuff that they supported. you know, it's okay. I mean, I'm I'm just going I'm just voicing my opinion of this and it's not required by the state law that we become we are members of that and I just personally feel that that's $7,000 that um we could spend in our classrooms and that's I kind of differ with that. It keeps we get training. It keeps us doing what we're supposed to be doing according the law. And the training is actually state law that's mandated

098by the legislature and that training has to be provided by the state school board. Well, the state school board of education has to provide that training. It provides a service. It's uh it's something that we get legal representation and if if you want to try to get the school board to to take it take up the that mantle that's fine with me but until then I'm for schoolboard association. That's that's fine. It's just that we can differ and do things right. Take care of the kids. Make sure I don't violate any laws. don't viol any any ethics or anything like that and they they tell you to stay in your lane and we try to do that. We just we just see it differently and that's okay. Um like I said, we have uh legal

099counsel, we paid for a bunch more legal counsel and we have all kinds of legal counsel and uh I don't think that being a member of a association necessarily and this is just my personal opinion and I'm fine if y'all feel differently. I mean that's you know we're um all members of this board and um that's where I'm at and um I will be a no vote. Okay, understood. Couple of questions. One the Wesba that's what we have been getting during this current legislative session. Correct. Right. I will tell you that some of that information I found very useful particularly with regard and I can almost I won't do the I'm not going to try to do the number because I might get I could probably by memory but there was a bill pending in

100the House of Delegates uh basically so-called pilot where we they would forcibly start combining counties. Yeah. And right not that I have many people checking anything I put post on Facebook because I rarely post anything on Facebook. But that got enough. It's like this is crazy kind of scary and Yeah. And I think it looked to me like the ultimate thing down the road was a combination of several counties. Right. And to me, it's worth it to Wayne County to know to do whatever to keep that from happening. Sure. And I and I I'll just say this my two cents. I agree with Dennis in terms of the law and the regulations. Again, I'll raise my hand to say a decade ago, I was totally ignorant of school law and how daggone complicated it is,

101right? and I got a lot of grie and I didn't know any of that and I still don't know nearly enough but I this job scares me the way it is. I'd be terrified to do it without some legal guidance. Sure. So agreed is scary enough but that that's fine. We can have different opinions and sure move on. So we will vote for this particular requisition page 22 school board association. Motion by Dennis, second by Johnita. All in favor? Any opposed? No. Motion carries four to one. Okay. New business, separate action items. Uh number one, consider for approval the treasure report for March 2025 on page 25. Motion. Second. Motion by Janita. Second. Mark. questions or concerns on the treasury report? Anything you need to add, Jim? Anything you need to add? All right. No

102questions. No discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Number two, consider for approval the budget supplement and transfers for March 2025 on pages 26 through 35. Some move. Motion by Mark. Second by Jonita. Questions, concerns, discussion. No one. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Five to zero. my pages here. Uh, number three, consider for approval the annual memorandum of agreement between Wayne County Board of Education and WVU WVU Extension and the Wayne County Extension Office for the county extension work at an annual cost of $50,769 for the year 2025 through 2026. Make a motion. Motion by Dennis. Second. Don't need it. Second. This is funded through the county's excess lovy and it's one of the items that's identified on the excess lobby for funding. Any questions, concerns? It's really raised

103through the years too. Discussion the amount of Yeah. It did not raise from last year. our school system committed to agricultural and CTE. It all goes together, right? Because kids need to grow up knowing how to be self-sufficient and be able to feed theirelves. Don't you think? Y they're hatching chickens, too. I like that idea. And you like chicken clubs, too? They're hatching chickens. I saw them for club. Yeah, Lisa's actually doing Lisa does a lot of activities with our younger kids. That's what I was talking about. They're doing a incubator thing with the kids. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Number four, consider for approval the agreement with P school for license and subscription fees for Smart Find Express ES school at an annual cost

104of $16,769.3 uh for July 1st through June 30th, 2026. It's a substitute management calling system. Motion substitute calling system. Okay. How employees report absences and it calls out substitutes, that type of matter. motion. Anyone? I like it. Dennis, even though I was confused when I used it. Oh, it's not not user friendly. Is that what you're saying? Or But now it doesn't do professional because principals can call their own. Okay. Well, it calls out um but yeah, they don't have to use it to call out meant they don't. Yeah. An employee can mark it as numbers and everything and I forget numbers. for you. I'm wrote down second. Second. Do I have a second? John. Yeah. Any other questions or concerns? No discussion. All in favor? Any opposed? Carries 5 to zero. Number five, consideration

105and possible action on submitted written proposals for the West Morland property, the former West Morland Middle School. And the written proposals were have been provided to you. There's one of them that was in the separate items that I gave to you this evening. Gotcha. All right. I believe we can um we may need to do part of this in executive session just because we're dealing with I think we can talk specific. We going to executive session to discuss this or not. You can I've talked to the attorney uh this afternoon since it's a property transfer and there's uh there's possible money implications. You can go into executive session. Do we need an executive session? Yes. I'll make a motion to go into effective session. Motion by Jonita. Second. I'll make it Dennis. All in favor?

106Any opposed? No. Motion carries 4 to one. It is 7:39 and this will just take a few minutes. Yes. And if you'll mute your mic. Did you have this? No, leave it on. I'm actually about right this evening. My wife and I, we fight all the time about temperature. I'm kidding. You know, last time I saw Wonderful. [Music] You ready? All right. I need a motion to return. Motion second. Motion by Janita. Second by Dennis. I'll do it. Yeah. What time did we go in? 7:39. 7:39. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5 to zero and it is 8:05. No decisions were made while we were in executive session. We are back to consider consideration and the possible action on the submitted written repo proposals for the West Morland property. I'd like to

107make a motion. I'll second. I'd like to make Here's my motion. I would like to let me explain my motion. Let me hear the motion first. Okay. Motion mark. I move to transfer the ownership of the West Morland property, the gymnasium, and the two classrooms to the West Morland Historical Society and the Vincent Youth League. So, the motion is to transfer the property, part of the property, yeah, to our Vincent West Morland Community Historical Society. Right. That would be the gym and the connecting classrooms. Everyone clear on that? Yes. Any questions or concerns about the motion? And just to be clear, the youth league wasn't part of the proposal. They're included in the proposal, but the property uh the neg the contract that we'll work on would take place with the historic society. Yeah. So,

108is everybody clear on the motion? Yes. Any questions, concerns, discussion? Did we have a second? I did. Just now. So, second by Jonita. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll do the best we can, but we have no doubt. So, we need us to teach them. Yeah. I used one of those classrooms as my classroom for about 15 years. Oh, yeah. So, you're just going back home then. Yeah. I want to say taking the blackboards off the wall. Now, they got computer on there. You believe that? I can't believe it. So, that that leaves a portion of the property that's the six classrooms. Prometheian board. Yeah. So, we can make um Does anyone have a motion for the remainder of the property? I have a

109motion for the remainder of the property to be to give Mr. Alexander the authority to enter back into negotiations on dispersal of the remainder of that property. I'll second motion by Mark, second by Randy to allow Mr. Alexander to negotiate um the remainder of the property with other entities. Any questions or concerns on the remainder of that West Morland property? No discussion? All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Thank you all. Ready to get out of here. Appreciate it. They get their way and they take off. Right. 45 minutes. I'll be in touch. You're probably the only one in here slower than me. Contact. Sometime. It's good to see you. 96. How long is that? 30 some years. Oh yeah. I was down there in 94, 95, 95, 96.

110And I figured out as assistant principal, I wasn't making much more than the the teachers and it was a whole lot of work. We're taking a picture. Thank you. Take care. Say hello to everybody for me. Yeah. Gina, just excuse me just a second. Will you talk to Hey, I told I told John that you was wondering where the coffee was. Yeah. When I was on the board, we had coffee. We We try to keep the meeting shorter. We found that coffee makes them last longer. I was telling them we had one night. It was It was almost midnight before we got Yeah. Thank you. Well, this is longer than most of them. Yeah. For us, move on now to number six. Consider for approval of the out ofstate travel request employee to travel to

111Elevate Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on June 13th through the 15th. Title Dennis made the motion. Yeah, I'll second. All right, let's just hurry and we'll just And it is title four funded. Yeah, thank you. Any questions or concerns? All in favor? I was in a hurry. Beat you that time. Motion carries five to zero. Number seven, consider for approval the bid for mowing services for the 2025 mowing season. And we So moved. Mark. Mark. Second. Second by Randy. Any questions or concerns? I'll the low bid on that uh on that um through the bidding process was Holl Holland's Lawn Care at $95,000. Is it my understanding that's about 10,000 less than the previous contract? 5,000 less. 5,000. Okay. Okay. Holland's longer. We know anything went down in price anymore. Yeah. Unless it's overpriced. Any other

112discussion? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Number eight, consider for approval the amendment to comprehensive educational facilities plan. And I included that. I think I included that on page 34. Look at this. Okay, so we've talked about we were applying for a major improvement project that included safe school entrances um at some of our schools, Spring Valley High School, Tulsa High School, Benson Middle, Kellogg. Um the uh in our current CFP, we had three of those schools listed in there already for those projects, but Kellogg was not listed. So I needed to list that. and then change some budget items in the CFP application. So, I've provided you the information that we're recommending. This is the application that goes to the state department of ed. The state board also

113has to approve this and u it has to be a part of our CFP for it to be considered for funding. So, this application allows us to um to meet that requirement. All right. I need a motion. I make a motion in a second. Second by Johnita. Any questions or concerns? Our amendment. None. Heard. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Number nine, consider for continuation of the fire services courses for the 25 26 school year. Yeah. So, the plan is um in talking with Chief Codddle, the plan is to uh expand that those classes to Spring Valley High School next year. Great. In a block. Yes. Excellent. I'll make a motion. Motion by second by Mark. Any other questions or concerns? Are we still funded through um the grant funding

114service training? We're going to try to seek funding for next year, correct? Do we have to apply again? We probably need to. Yeah. Um, just kind of let you all update. I've got six students in my Wayne class. So far, all of them have passed four out of their five state tests. Wow. And, um, got a fire truck. Lob fire department donated a fire truck and I've got a whole trailer full of equipment and the sheriff is is going to give me a trailer to put all the stuff in. Good. And um, it it's been an experience, right? It's been an experience, but uh four of the four of the students are already on volunteer fire departments. So, Lavallet's going to pick up one, Wayne's going to pick up two, and um East Lyn's going

115to pick up two. Fantastic. So, I think I think I think it's it's a good program. I think the students are learning a lot. The longer we have it, the more not you know, will grow. I I anticipate with just kind of the timing thing at at Spring Valley, if we do it in the block, we should be able to take 12 to 14 students that to have time for all the practicals and and all of that. Great. And I will say that I know I've shared it with you before. I know we have with Mr. Alexander, this is got out across the state and I'm getting people from all across the state. How do we get this started? How do you do that? And you know, it's just it's not just being a firefighter,

116but the life skills that they're going to learn in that, you know, and the responsibility thing. I think it's a great thing. Makes the community safer, too. It is. You can see the maturity level of the students are growing as we go. And I've got a sophomore, I've got a junior, and four seniors class. It worked. It's worked. I think it's worked out really well. Um, I have to tell you this little story. I was walking down the hall and uh, one of the teachers came up to me and she says, "Are you that fire service instructor?" I said, "Yes, ma'am." She says, "Well, I just want you to know that you're a distraction." She says, I'm thinking of distraction. She says, "Yeah, I can't pay attention to teaching you." That's great. But I appreciate

117all y'all done and I know that you that the students really appreciate it. I think it also goes along with a good instructor. Yeah. You know, well, I appreciate that. Uh and one one other thing I might mention is that after going through a whole year of this, I think it would be extremely difficult to do this class second semester for the simple fact of the snow days because there's only about a six to eight hour window time wise and and if if we were do if we were doing the block now we would we would be sore for time to to finish. Gotcha. That would be my comment on that. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. So, the motion by Johnita and second by Mark for continuation of

118our fire service courses. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries five to zero. Potential items for a future agenda. Yeah, we we are working on you. We've had a lot of property discussion tonight. We were working on the transfer of the Fort Gay property to the town of Fort Gay. So, uh there's a chance I can't guarantee it. Um but we have our attorneys talking with Fort Gay's attorneys uh going doing the paperwork. So, um hopefully I'll be able to bring that to you for your approval maybe at our next regular meeting. Be good. That's all I have. Motion to journ. [Laughter] Nobody wants a second. Yeah. Yeah. Second. I think Dennis wanted to say something. Dennis, did you Oh, sorry. serving my home community. I was trying to come

119up with a proposal. Sooner or later, I know talked to Todd about it about fencing in where the old high school was at Buffalo, especially towards the street and trying to get volunteers or somebody to get some playground equipment in there because I think it would serve the community. It would make it safer for a lot of the kids to go to these football games and middle school football games and everything else a distraction something for to do because I know when my kids were involved in it when they weren't playing they put in about 15 miles all around the stadium and stuff. You never knew where they were at. There fencing already around the parking lot. I wonder if we could just reconfigure where we have it and then add to that. Somewhere around

120that Wellman shelter. Yeah, shelter. Yeah, good idea. I second that. Second the idea or second the motion. The motion. All right. So, motion to adjurnn by Randy, seconded by Johnita. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 5 to zero. It is. There you go. 818. 88. You beat her fist. Thanks to those that joined us online. [Music]