001to call the April 1st, 2025 War County Board of Education meet to order. First uh um item of business is our pledge of allegiance. And this evening, we're going to ask uh let's see who am I going to pick on. I ask Mrs. French and her student if you'd lead us in the ah See, you thought Yeah. You thought it was funny when I said Mrs. French, right? You do it from right there. Aliance 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. Okay. Uh next, uh if the board would indulge me, I I know that you won't mind, but we've had several u uh people that have passed away that have worked for
002us in the past or work for us now. And like to just do a moment of silence in their memory. And I have down Joe March who passed away a couple weeks ago now. Uh Kay Arnold who uh Joe was a custodian for us for many, many years. and K who um was a substitute for us for many years. uh did a tremendous job for us. And then just this past week uh we had Pastor Roy Altop who really worked for us for several years I think about 13 14 years and then uh went to private business but still worked for us as a as a basketball coach and then come back this year as basketball coach and and Roy passed away suddenly also. So Joe March K Arnold and Roy Altop. So, if you
003don't bow your heads, we'll have a moment of silence. Thank you. Okay, we're down to uh the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? So, move. Okay, I see nothing on the uh nothing added into the agenda. It looks like how we published is how we'll go tonight. Anybody see anything I missed? Share anything I No. No. Okay. With that being said, any questions on the agenda hear? None. We have a motion to approve the agenda as presented. All in favor say I. I. Post say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Okay. Down to recognitions. We have a couple of different rec recognitions tonight. First one is work can high school uh wrestling and uh yeah wrestling. So with that being said, Mr. McCallen is sure. So we have
004some recognitions for wrestling. Under regional state qualifiers, we have Chaz Chaz Burns and Matt Bis. And then a sixth place state finish, we have Anston Kurthers. And so we're happy to bring those before you and recognize you. And let's see, we got Matt and Anston here, right? Yeah. Come on up, guys. We have uh certificates for you and we'll get some pictures. Good job. We're proud of you. Okay. Come up to get pictures. [Music] You're fine. No. No. Seriously. Yeah. You stand by. I'll stand by yours. Congratulations, man. Okay, our neck rec our next recognitions are War County Middle School and that's the uh middle school honor band. Mr. Macau. So, we had several War County middle school students that made regional 2 middle school honor band. We had Leah Martin, fourth chair clarinet. Um
005Riker Net, seventh chair clarinet. Alex Schaefer, third chair, percussion, and Harley Rosenbomb, first chair, alto saxophone. So I don't think that you brought all those with you. Um, so I will give you the other certificates. We've got all the signatures, so if you don't mind to distribute them, but um, Harley, if you want to come up. Congratulations on the first chair. Quite an accomplishment. [Applause] any chair accomplish Mrs. French. Thank you, Mrs. French. Again, thank you. Thank you for the job that you do for us. Okay, we're down to information. Mr. Macau an update on the the survey that we're going to put out. So, I made the amendments that the board wished for from last time and I just wanted to let you peruse this one last time before we put it down to
006see if there's any other additions or amendments that you would like to make. And Mr. Sherlock, I apologize. I forgot to add your last amendment on there. Just an other box for other commentary or thoughts, but I don't know why that slipped out of my mind when I was working on this today, but I just thought of it. I will include that um in the final product. Thank you. Okay. So, you you'll put that in there before you publish. Okay. I and I apologize. I made a note of that and then when I was working on it today, I forgot about it. Any questions? So, what we'll do now is Mr. Macau will go ahead and publish this if it's okay with everybody with the with the one thing from Mr. Sherlock. um we'll get
007published and see what uh what comes back. And when it's uh when it's published, who will it be sent out to? Like how how will it how we we will post it on the website and then put the link out on our social media pages for for folks and I can probably do a parent link call out to all of the to parents to let them know to be looking for that. Since uh we're talking about the community as a whole, could you also reach out to the uh work kind of journal and ask them to Yes. Yes, I can do that. Yeah. I'm not sure who's who's writing the articles now. Sherry, do you who do you get the stuff? Mr. Armstrong. Yeah. Yeah. Now, are we filling this out what we feel is
008what people has told us? Well, we're going to publish it. want to publish it and get the the opinions of everybody out there and get input from. Okay. But there's questions here like the first one that says uh what issues or problems with the current high school that need addressed. I've had people tell me, you know, but is is that for what people's told me or what I feel is what I think it could be if somebody shared a concern with you, I don't mind if others re reshare that. So it could be either or. Okay. But this will go out and everybody will have their own answers. Correct. It'll be what the person that's filling out the survey. This is just a copy. So when you when you when you fill it out, you
009could put those, but the people that you talk to, encourage them to do the survey and put those Yeah. Okay. put them themselves additionally. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Okay. So at this time I will we have to h we have to have the first public hearing for the calendar and that is under recess. Okay. So at this time I will entertain a motion to recess for first public hearing for the 2526 school calendar. Any questions, comments? Good. He did. Okay. Okay, we have a motion at uh um 6:10 to recess uh to hold the first public hearing for the 2526 school calendar. All in favor say I. I post say nay. Eyes have it. Okay, we are in recess. Mr. Macau. So, we had three submissions for the calendar and I've asked Mrs.
010Brown to join us this evening. She's got a brief presentation and then she also has the public comment where we've had it open for folks to comment on the the three calendars that are there. So, I'll turn things over to Mrs. Brown. Good evening. So, I just have put together a list of factual information basically on the three calendars. So, first of all, we just like to reiterate the things to consider when we're developing a calendar would be uh the board policy that governs the calendar um format and everything that's compliance. Then the state department also puts together a school calendar guidance document. Uh Mr. Macau shares those out with everyone so they have access to it if they wish to develop one. Um, and then we also have to consider the office of finance
011timelines as far as payroll and everything goes. And then we also um look forward into the following year's assessment windows because we need to make sure that we have ample time um instructional time for those. So I know this is too small for you to read, but I believe you have the copies of these uh three calendars. Uh so the first sample a just some points that go along with that. It starts and ends August 12th to May 28th. First semester ending December 23rd. The OS days go with uh four with breaks and then two reserved at the very end. Uh graduation has to be May 15th or after. on that calendar you will see that the proposed date is May 17th but it can be anytime after the 15th and there are fewer O
012which are out of calendar days there's only nine with this calendar sample B and starting with 811 and ending on June 2nd first semester ends 1222 and I should have said with that with the first semester and second semester we try to look and make sure that we have as equal as possible but we do have the ability to end um and looking at that u Christmas break and ending first semester and having a clean switch um OS days are two with breaks and then four at the end uh graduation could be May 18th or after so looking at the difference between if you look at the graduation date can't be until the 18th on this calendar, I would kind of push it days uh to that possible 3-day window weekend. Usually, we consult with
013the high school, of course, for the picking of that day. And then there's a long winter break with sample B. And then calendar C starting on 8:13 ending June 5th. First semester ends December 19th. There are three OS days with breaks and then three at the end. Graduation date here has to be May 21st or after and then it also has a long winter break. And then I will pass out for you. These are comments that we have thus far collected from having it advertised on our website. Thank you. Just out of curiosity, what's the last day that you can have school? What day are we required to have school over by the end of June? End of June. So if we have a bad winter, then we would have to turn as many of
014those days into instructional days. So June 30, but graduation won't change. Graduation, right? Would graduation change at that point? Um, I I would think if it's really bad, we would consider it, but I don't know that the state department is ever graduation. It was it was that Carlin the if they um if they approve the new legislation that gives 10 of the NIT days, right? Did I say that right? Instead of five. That really doesn't do anything though as far as correct. That just would make Yeah, it would Mr. Mac would have the ability give us five more days before we've got to take those um start going towards OS days on days on at the end or taking days out of the breaks where those OS days are. Yeah. And with this winter, I
015would be in favor of that legislation to give us five more days before we've got to start adding them to the calendar. Okay, it is public hearing. This is just a chance for anybody to Well, I signed up to be comment speaker too for the public hearing. Um, so I did my duties for Mr. Macau and now so I just want to speak on behalf so I've never been a special ed director that has to keep track of timelines before. So, I can honestly say that from my experience with our current calendar, it was very difficult. Uh truly wre havoc on our um special ed timelines this year because we had two weeks off and then all of the snow days in between. And we legitimately had teachers coming in and working on those days
016because we had to meet timelines. So, one, you never know when snow's going to hit. Yes. But if you already plan to be off a full two weeks, um I mean I don't even like going going that long without seeing kids, you know, in the winter and over the holidays is always a rough time. So that's just from my perspective as special ed director. Um it's seldom that we kind of get a calendar that you have that option, but I would I would like to stay away from those longer breaks if possible. Um, and you know, I worked with each of the other two individuals that submitted calendars and you know, everybody's very, you know, like we had back and forth. I'm like, okay, you need another day here, another day there to make things
017work. Um I would also kind of like to see um a committee come together and instead of like you know Karen and I were even talking before we came and it was like well if we would have thought to pick this day or that day but if you and and we did share amongst the board office um and tried to gather ideas but if you had a representative from each school and at the board office to kind of hash out and say you know what can we compromise on this And I just I guess just a suggestion for maybe in the future to have something that's just kind of like a sit down and have a conversation about the pros and the cons and okay I'll I'll give you February 13th if you'll give me
018April 4th. You know that kind of bartering and then we could have a calendar that it's not like half of the people lose and half of the people win when when we vote. But so on calendar A, I really like the fact that whoever thought to do it kind of tried to align their breaks with college breaks, like people that have kids in college. That would be me and and some other people that I talked to about it. Um, but that's always something that, you know, our people that have kids in college, just like your kids on break and you want to be on break with them and then you're not. So that's also a consideration that people look at when they're doing the calendar and we try to do things like Good Friday. You
019know, it's not a holiday for us, but if we can put a day on it, um Columbus Day, other business businesses are off and not necessarily a holiday for school systems, but if we can put a day on something like that that you know parents, you know, if they get a day off on because they work in the business world and they get that day as a holiday, it's nice that their kids be off too. So those things are always nice to try to do. So that was probably my three minutes that I got to talk. Appreciate your work on that. Carl, I have one question. Uh does all three of them uh uh include uh having uh uh the semester end before the the holiday break? Yes, I believed all three of them were
020ending because that's one of the concerns before I was here and that you know and I can understand that you know if you have a break and then afterwards have your test and that stuff would be good. Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Do all uh all three calendars have the same amount of planned instructional days? Yes, they all meet all the requirements for the 180 instructional days. Yeah. before we put them out. Even if there's something that they submitted and it's wrong, I always let them know so they can fix it. So, all three of these met all the criteria that are required. And then, um, has there been any tracking of trends on the calendars in the past and correlate that with student achievement? Because you mentioned certain break periods um, for the students you
021work with. I'm assuming that the problem is it diminishes their achievement in the long run. So, do we know which one of these calendar has it has that been even looked at? I couldn't say in the past. I mean, you know, I've only been here two years, so I don't even know what the calendars would have been in the past year. Pretty similar calendar start and end date. Um, in the five years that I have been here, it's they can't count can't like the length of the Christmas break and where it falls and where spring break falls has has differed some, but as far as the approximate start date and end date, they've been pretty similar each year. So, so not much difference to be able to difference then in student performance on longer breaks
022in the middle or mult or shorter breaks or anything like that or or where we divide up the semester. I don't know that we've looked at that because typically um I think last year was the first year that things lined up and we had a longer Christmas break. I don't think that we've done that in previous years before before this past year. I have a question kind of based off of what Mr. Sherlock was saying. since they both have the same amount of instructional days. So based on when testing occurs, which one of the calendars has the most instructional seat time for students prior to testing day? Well, of course, if you look at your OS days and then your orange O days, the fewer of those you have, um, which looking at A, it
023has fewer out of days and then fewer, um, OS days before combined. So when we're looking at shorter breaks so forth, then then that's going to get you more instructional time. Is that what you're So testing is So we do have testing windows. So the it doesn't necessarily matter when spring break falls because pretty much all of them are either going to be right when the testing window starts or kind of in the middle of it. But it's those days prior to like our our Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are really where that helps. And I will say just a matter of point um that I kind of forgot to mention on my slides. We always like to have a day where we can have staff complete hours of trainings and calendars A and B allow
024for that. on um November 28th and calendar C did not where we have typically put a CD day. So that would be something that we would want to consider for calendar C to make sure how we're going to cover those hours for all the trainings training hours they have to complete. Okay. So, we have to have one more public hearing. So, maybe some of the questions that were asked here this evening, something that we take a look at. Uh, but we will have one more public hearing, I believe, next board meeting. Yes. So, at this time, if there's no other questions from the public, I will entertain a motion to return to regular session. Thank you. So, thank Carla. Okay, we have a motion to return to regular session to 6:24. All in favor say
025I. I. I. Post say nay. Eyes have it. Okay, we are down to approval of the minutes. Any motion to approve the March 18th, 2025 regular meeting minutes? So move. Any corrections, comments, concerns? Hear none. We have a motion approve the March 18th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. And finance motion approve the payment of the invoices amount of $80,15845. So move. Mr. McKenna. So two runs of expenditures for your consideration tonight. The first on 32025 totals $21,769. Noteworthy in this we have produce for $5,2925 and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture for $4,1119. The next run of expenditures on $327 2025 totaling $59,81.76. Noteworthy on this, we have some technology Advantis virtual reality goggles for 91.48 and the West Virginia Department
026of Education virtual school tuition bill for first semester in the amount of $18,350. These two runs of expenditures combined total at $80,15845. Any questions, comments? Hear none. We have a motion to approve the payment of invoices the amount of $80,15845. All in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Have no supplements tonight. So we're down to transfers. Need a motion approved budget transfers amount of $86,54461. So move. Mr. Mac. So, the first in the amount of $6,000 is a transfer um title one school improvement for work county primary center staff development subs and afterchool tutoring. The next in the amount of $3,000 a transfer state special ed funding for contracted vision services. The next in the amount of $35,980 transfer step seven funding for virtual tuition. The next in the
027amount of $4,500 transfer IDA for diagnostic testing services. The next in the amount of $9,000 transfer step 7D for contracted staff development services. And finally, in the amount of $28,6381 transfer title one for summer school program at York County Primary Center. These transfers total $86,54461. Any questions, comments? Hear none. We have a motion to approve the budget transfers amount of $86,54461. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Okay. Now, we are looking for a motion to approve uh West Virginia School Board Association uh for FY2026 membership subscription fee in the amount of $2,284. So, move that was in your packet for where Sher was asking how much that was and we um with your approval tonight, we'll get an invoice and pay that expenditure for you. Any
028questions here? None. We have a motion to approve the membership subscription fee for West Virginia School Board Association for fiscal year 2026 in the amount of $2,284. All in favor say I. I. Oppose say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Okay, we're into personnel matters. Uh first one is resignations and leave absences. Need a motion to approve the resignation of Matthew Hayes, alternative education teacher, special ed, effective March 21, 2025. So move. Mr. Macau. So his letter was in your packet. He's done an outstanding job with alternative ed thus far, but some family issues have arisen per his letter and he needs to um spend more time with that. Any questions? Hear none. We have a motion to approve the resignation of Matthew Hayes as alternative education teacher special education effective March 21, 2025. All
029in favor say I. I. I. Oppose say nay. Eyes have it. Down into employment. At this time, I would like to make a motion to enter into executive session to discuss employment of uh teachers. So, I made that motion. Any questions, comments? We have a motion to enter into executive session, discuss employment of teacher. All in favor say I. I. I. Post say nay. Eyes have it.