001of education to proceed our meeting with prayer and the pledge of allegiance. We invite you to bow your heads for prayer and stand to join us in the pledge if you so choose. Let's bow our heads. Lord, we respectfully ask for your guidance and wisdom as we proceed with the business before us. Keep us mindful of our purpose of providing a quality education for the students attending Taylor County Schools. Amen. We'll call this meeting to order. All board members are present. Dr. Stallings, uh, do we have any adjustments or addendums to our agenda this evening? >> Yes, ma'am. We do. First I would uh bring to your attention the addendum which reflects item 3047 and within that addendum there's a typo. So it should that you should have the corrected version that the teacher's last
002name is now spelled correctly. The the one you saw and received earlier on Friday and was posted had a typo for that person's name. It has now been corrected in front of you. And secondly, or maybe thirdly, item 5216. 526. The applicant has pulled the bid, so we will not be voting on that this evening. There's still a typo on your addendum. >> No doubt. I was spinning my wheels fast on Friday. What? What? >> Out of count. >> Count me. >> Count [laughter] me. >> Oh, I had um That's not a typo. >> It's all >> I uh I changed our name. No. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Indeed. you I think I was trying to beat the deadline typing with my fist and be as a result of our secretary who is much better
003at that she was not happen to be there that day and so shows you how much I depend on her all right so >> is there another typo I didn't understand correct at the top in the bottom Tell me that again. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Indeed. There are both typos should be corrected the same way. >> Lord, Lord, Lord. >> Thank you. Oh, wait. Mr. Taylor, you're still Is there another typo you have found? All right. I'd love to say that was the test to see how many people could catch them. Thank you, Mrs. G. That is all. >> All right. Um, thank you, Dr. stallings. So with the adjustments to the typos on 3047 and then the pooling of item 526. Uh the superintendent respectfully requests the approval of the amended agenda as
004presented. >> Mr. Summers moves. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Mr. White seconds. All those in favor? I >> I the eyes have it. No opposed. So that moves us down to um our 1000 series information and we do have a delegation. Uh Miss Lynch, I just uh want to ask you with the um adjustments there, are you still wishing to address the board? Okay. So thank you. So then that moves us down to our presentations. So we have Miss Sinclair and Mrs. Knots. >> Mrs. Gallow, as you remember, we have res uh relocated the data reveal to the responsibility of our board, our building principles. And that's what these ladies are here to start. >> Please turn a mic on right there. There you go. >> Hello. Okay. So, uh this evening to start
005us off, you'll be hearing from Diane Kenny. She is the assistant principal at Anna Jarvis Elementary School. It's been a real pleasure to have her as you'll be able to hear of the things that we've got going at the beginning of this school year. It's uh with a lot of effort input by Mrs. Kenny and myself working together. She's going to start us off this evening. >> Thank you for having me here this evening. I have enjoyed my first six months at Anna Jarvis as he assistant principal. As a matter of fact, last week I texted my husband, I love my job at nine o'clock in the morning. So, it was a good day. Uh, our theme this year is building kind hearts and curious minds. I'm really excited about the theme because of the
006building that we are uh seeing in front of our school and we are with our children building their curious minds and kind hearts and we want to thank the PTO for providing t-shirts to the staff which helped build morale and build unity amongst the staff on that very first week of school. first paper that I handed out to you. Put that together today with uh current data and it's just a quick glimpse of numbers AJ by the numbers. I want to highlight we have 400 students in the building. Nice round number. But I want to point out that that is more than half actually 55% to be exact of the elementary age students in in Taylor County that attend Jarvis which I think is pretty neat. Uh I also want to point out another number.
00735% of the students have IEPs and they are served by our special ed teachers, our aids, our speech therapists, our occupational therapists, our physical therapists. So a lot of these students have extra supports that are at Anna Jarvis, which is why our staff of 75 dedicated staff members is actually the largest staff of any school in Taylor County. We have the biggest staff. And at the bottom, you can see our discipline um reports. We've had 40 so far this year with eight total out of school suspensions. Um three students and four incidents already this year. On the second page, oh, I also want to point out our building capacity. Currently, half our school, half our classes are at current capacity. We are full at preK, we're full at kindergarten, and we're full at second grade.
008Uh so, right now, we can't accept any more students. we can surely um share them with the other schools. The second page I asked our community schools member uh Casey Renman and she did an excellent job giving you a kind of a quick overview of our attendance impact and she does a great job by identifying students who have extra needs to improve in in attendance. Last year she had a really great program called Present Potatoes. uh worked so well she plans to continue it this year and her new addition is in the prek initiative ready set show up. The goal of this building uh initiative is to increase attendant habits in preschoolers so when they get to kindergarten they are used to going to school on a regular basis and are in the building and
009that's been working well for us. A couple other things I want to point out. Uh we uh are thankful for art cart with the position of the art teacher being eliminated last year. Uh we want to thank the board for providing um some extra supports to our teachers and art cart is one of them. Our grade level teachers are now required to teach the content standard uh for art at the grade level and this is one program that's going to help them do that. That won't require any extra time and energy out of them but will support them as they teach art. Our first class will be at the end of the month. Last week, we had our first PTO meeting which brought together a lot of great ideas for events and fundraisers this year
010and also elected three parent members to our LSIC. LSIC also met last week. Uh we went over our social contract just like we do with all of our groups. Uh we watched a training video, reviewed bylaws, elected officers, and planned for our next meeting which will be November 18th. Additional information about the start of this year. Something that we've done differently this year compared to other years is we started using our small groupoup instruction for MTSS the multi-tered system of support where we are working on the missing skills with students in the area of reading and math. We we started right away with the end of the year data to put those groups together so that we didn't have lost instructional time waiting for additional assessments to be done at the beginning of the year.
011So, we are currently doing assessments um not just the I Ready um other informal math and reading assessments because you can't just go by one type of assessment um and expect it to be 100% accurate. So, we're proud of that we have started the MTSS groups uh very early this year. uh PLC's the professional learning communities that is by grade level and this year our West Virginia impact literacy coach Lisa Phillips has mel met with all of the grade level teachers to look at the core phonics survey resource. We are using that as a common assessment that aligns with the science of reading and that is for phonics instruction. She also has met with teachers to set up and do some cycles with with teachers and is just now beginning to do her full uh
012coaching cycles and has lined up with volunteer teachers to do that as well. So, we're we're very happy to be able to have that resource for our school. Uh some more numbers for you. So far this year, we have completed 61 walkthroughs and have completed and documented that many. There have been a few extra which because my laptop died, it's not documented but things happen, right? All right. And also immediate feedback is given with those walkthroughs. 260 of our 341 assigned students for I Ready have completed the reading diagnostic as we have started those this past Monday. 52 of our students have already completed the I Ready math diagnostic. We will be looking at the I Ready diagnostic data on October 5th with our title one teachers and our grade level teachers to change our
013MTSS groups based on the skill using that additional information. Also, so far this year, we have over the past four weeks have had committee meetings, two meetings each for four committees that we have put together for this year. We have a curriculum and instruction with technology committee, we have a safety committee, we have a capturing kids hearts committee, and we have a climate and culture committee. The curriculum instruction committee has worked on ensuring that writing is embedded in all of our subjects and has started working on getting curriculum maps in the hands of all of our teachers and that has been through the help of Miss Melissa Carr who is one of our uh central office support members. Our safety committee has worked on the school crisis plan, the code procedures, and have come up
014with some ideas for making our dismissal procedures a bit better. Have come up with ideas that I've talked to Dr. Stallings about and he is working on some things and getting back to me on some of those ideas if we can actually um put some of those things in place. our capturing kids hearts committee. We are working on getting our new staff trained up in the procedures that we are using from the capturing kids hearts because we have the expectation that we are using that program buildingwide, schoolwide. And so in order for them to have all of the resources, they have to go through a training that the rest of us were given at the beginning of last year. And so until they can have that training, we are just depending on their grade level
015team members to share resources and to help guide them along on some of those practices and procedures that they've not had the opportunity to learn about yet. Uh some of those things are using the four questions which are four specific questions when there is a misbehavior. The capturing kids hearts committee has also uh come up with the focus for the month of September which is empathy where lessons are being taught to students and we are we are highlighting um that trait and also um recognizing students who are showing that trait. The trait for October is self-direction. Our climate and culture committee has come up with activities for the staff that will spread kindness or boost morale. This evening when we met, we even started looking at things that the committee can plan that will connect
016with parents. So, we're looking forward to having those things in place. Tomorrow, we have a special speaker. Since we have a PL day, we have lined up David Weber who's going to do a presentation that was offered during not this past summer, but the summer before academy days, and it had really good feedback from the teachers, and it's some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue. So, even the ones that have heard that presentation before, they're really looking forward to hearing it again. It was really uplifting. Uh also tomorrow our teachers will be doing the deescalating training and frontline. We'll be working on data disegregation from the spring general summit of assessment. We do have IEP meeting scheduled and also an ATS boost meeting. Now remember our school is designated an ATS school
017that was based off of couple years ago um our scores with our gap from our special ed. And so we have a a meeting to get all caught up on where are we now that is scheduled for tomorrow. So that is in a nutshell what's going on at Anna Jarvis and thank you for letting us share that with you tonight. >> I have a couple questions. I don't know if anyone else from the board does but um just a question on the I Ready. So, I heard you mention you're going to review that data October 5th and then um you have 260 out of 341 students have completed that. Is that like a requirement that they all complete that by October 5th or is it like 80% of the kids like what is the goal
018there? >> So, we we are almost all the way completed with reading. So because out of that number, I know you see only 260 out of 341, but a lot of those assessments are in progress right now. So they test for about 20 minutes and then they have a break and then they can come back and test again. >> Uh so of course with tomorrow being a PL day, we won't have time to assess. But then so I'm I'm expecting that the majority of the students will be starting if they haven't yet on their math assessments. Of course, we have catchup with any kids that are absent. Um, but that gives us all basically of next week to be working on getting all these caught up. So, I'm very confident that by the 5th of
019October everything will be completed so that we can look at all of our students status, make those grades. >> So, now that do they um have time in class to complete that or is that at at home? >> So, we have been using our MTSS time to complete that. So, rather than meeting with the small groups to be working on those missing skills. We're using that time to complete the assessment. So, our title one teachers are going in classrooms with the grade level teachers to help monitor, make sure that everyone's it's a it's a great testing environment and that everyone's taking it seriously because that data is important for us to plan for instruction. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because you need as much of it as you can to make plans for the future. Absolutely. And
020then um I had a question about your walkthroughs. So what exactly does that consist of? If you can share that. Is that regarding safety? Is that regarding any behavioral issues, any academic concerns? Like what what does that entail? So a a walkth through typically is an administrator going to a classroom and you can be looking at specific things, but our leadership team has come up with what they would like to be looked at during our walkthroughs, which ours right now is capturing what an administrator is seeing related to capturing kids hearts. >> It's looking at what do we see with PBIS. We're looking at what is happening academically. Just the obvious like are you teaching math, reading, what's going on? And then what are the teaching strategies that are being used? Is this whole group,
021small group? Is it co-eing? Uh are is the teacher using different modalities? Is there uh feedback being given to the students? Is the teacher and the aid circulating? So, it's a whole list of things that we would be seeing >> um for instructional strategies in the classroom. It also has on there, you know, did the principal um check the lesson plans that are that's in there? And then I did I catch it all any comments? >> Yeah. And then there's room for any comments. So, if there's something that that I want to type in there, it can be like what what is the teacher um excelling at? Is there is there something that you have that I have a question about that that I'm looking at that I'm wondering? Um and then just any final
022comments. So, and then that gets as soon as I hit submit, it's an automatic email >> back to the teacher. And if there's something that I want to follow up with them about, then I'll add in there, you know, please see me about this walk. >> So, there's some debrief time set in there. Okay. Thank you. >> I think to clarify, uh, Mrs. Sinclair, this this particular walkthrough she's referencing is like a snapshot. It's not one of the formalized sit down and observe the class instruction for a longer period of time which is more evaluative. Just I don't want to speak for you but I believe that's the that's the intent and that's what's been brought to their attent. They work together the leadership team to uh help identify what she would refer to as
023look fors. Could could you go a little deeper into that when you say a snapshot and I mean is the teacher whatever it is I I don't know if you if you look at [snorts] cooking staff and maintenance staff that kind of thing but are they aware you're coming and how long you're stay how how long do you typically stay in the classroom? So on a walkth through, I don't know if I've ever scheduled a walkth through because it really is just a quick pop in. So it's roughly it could be like as short as two minutes. I tend to stay longer just because even to go through the form and click all of the things, it takes it takes a while. So I'm able to observe more while I'm in there. I would say
024probably an average of five to eight minutes that I'm in a classroom and but I can make it as long as I want and I want to do it randomly so that I can see it different times of the day different things that are happening and this is just our u teachers so the walk for these particular walkthrough forms and what Dr. Stings was referring to um on the other hand is if I want to do a formal observation those are required to be a 30 minute or longer if I'm doing something that's going towards the teacher evaluation. Um those observations those formal observations will be 30 minutes long. Um, and just depending on if they're an initial teacher, intermediate teacher, or an advanced teacher, how many of those that they need to have in
025a year. So, the um initial and the um did I say intermediate? That's not right. Is it right? It might be right. Okay. The like the first observation is due by October 1st on that. And so those would be the ones, but I'm getting into the classrooms just to get a quick snapshot at different times of the day just to see like how are things going right now? Is there something that that I see that's obvious that oh, I really should offer this as a help to this person because I can see maybe they don't even know that they need this or that they could have it or something like that. So >> So it's strictly for the the the teaching staff. >> These particular walkthroughs are for the teaching staff. There there are also
026um observations that are done for service personnel uh for their evaluations, but these particular ones I'm talking about are for the teaching staff. >> Okay. And you use a lot of acronyms that I'm not familiar with like PBTS or something like that. So PBIS is the positive behavior support that all schools really are asked to have a PBIS uh program in place for the schools. And so that is in order to um get students to make good choices. Um and so that our response to them is a positive response to say for example if somebody does something wrong instead of saying you know, you're you're going to be after school detention. You know, we're you're going to have a a positive thing like Susie, I'm really glad to see that that you were, you know,
027sitting in your chair exactly the way that we need to be. And then, you know, um Marcy, who was not doing that, is going to hear the positive comment that you made to this child, and that's going to cause them to want to do it as well. And so, it's just a different spin on how you handle um discipline to come at it in more of a positive direction. Um, it's it's supposed to have a a big impact and and we do see it um causing kids to want to be at school because, you know, they're they're looking for the the positives that's coming from the staff instead of the negatives to help them learn about how they're supposed to be in school. >> Miss Gall, I kind of interrupted you. I appreciate you letting
028me do that. I just want to stay while we're on that subject. I do have other questions, but I' I' I'd like to finish out all the discussions on this walkthrough before we move to the next topic. So, I I'll I'll bow down for now. >> You're fine. Anyone else have any questions or >> Okay. Uh I'm I'm a numbers kind of guy here. Uh and and I'm also um keen or not keen to acronyms and so on, but I saw 10 students with 504 plans is is can you I don't know what that means at all. I mean 504 is sort of like a 401k, so I'm assuming. [laughter] >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So a 504 is a federal uh plan that I say federal because it's like an IEP is federal. like
029there's there are there are laws for how you um address and take care of students. And so a 504 is a plan that you will have for a student that has something medical that's causing them not to be able to have the same access to their education. And so there will be some accommodation that is put in place for the student. Um and then it's it's a formal process so where you're going to have the teacher, the administrator, the parent um in the meeting to be able to document uh what those needs are for the students and then what are those accommodations and the requirement is to at least meet annually um to update that. >> Okay, I appreciate you clarifying that. And then you say you have 26 students with SAT plans, scholastic aptitude.
030Well, so there there are there is an SAT that is for for testing when you're in high school, right? So, but for us, it stands for student assistance team and that is this team where we start the process whenever um a parent or a teacher has a concern about a student that they feel like goes beyond just having a conversation between the two of them where you might want some additional boards that might have administrator input. You might have an interventionist come, you might have a counselor come, behavior interventionist, um to sit down and problem solve uh what we think might be going on with the student. Um they plan interventions. Obviously, they're looking at data to determine that. Sometimes the SAT team will request assessments from um the county level. Uh there can be
031referrals to look at do do we want to give extra supports to a student because we suspect that they may be gifted. So you can it can be on the other spectrum as well. Um we also go through the SAT to create a 504 if we feel that that's necessary and obviously the IEP you go through the SAT before a student would um be determined eligible for an IEP. Okay. Thank you. That that that was good clarification on both those. Thank you. Uh one further question. Um your your attendance data is just for this year like August and September to date. >> Yes. >> Okay. That that's what I thought. Now what doesn't add up with me, you have about a 96% attendance rate, which means that's probably a good thing. But we say we
032have 15% chronically absent and that adds up to about 111%. I'm a little bit confused with those two numbers. >> So, so those don't go hand in hand. So, the attendance rate looks at the percentage of the days that the students are coming to school where the chronically absent is looking at the actual students. So, the it's it's apples and oranges. It it is very confusing and to give you any more clarification, I literally would have to look it up [laughter] because it it does throw throw a lot of people off. It's like a a 95 although that looks like a good number. Other I would believe that for example like West Taylor might have like a 97 98 you know so like there's room to grow for our our our year-to- date attendance rate.
033Um and the chronically absent in the past we we like towards the end of the year um have had it as high as like 24% and that's that would be 24% of the student population would miss more than 18 days of school whether or not they were excused. Um so that's how they determine the chronically absent. you you are missing more than 10% of the days that you could be in school for instruction. Um I'm sorry. I wish I could give you a better explanation than that, [laughter] but >> Okay. So, yeah, because I can't just leave this lie. I I mean, when I look at this, I look, hey, we don't have a problem, but yep, we have a serious problem. And if you don't know if you have a problem or have a
034serious problem, if you're in the green or if you're in the red, so we're going to need some clarification. And so I would ask maybe if we could get in another meeting sort of the formulas behind these numbers because I would assume if West Taylor or Flemington or the high school would come up here and present these numbers. Uh again, as a board member, it's good information to have, but I don't know what I'm looking at if I don't know what we're measuring and what the outcome and what the goals are. And so um and so it's it's just numbers on paper till we understand it. And so, you know, I I just don't know if we have a problem if we're if we if we should be getting a gold star from what I
035see here. So, so I I I respect the fact that it's probably a formula that's used that you're not aware of and that's okay. Um I would just ask that at some point in the near future this be uh addressed and and tell us exactly what we're looking at at these numbers. So, thank you. we can pro uh arrange to have a a mini seminar about the difference of those two categories for you >> and I'd really like to see the kind of the formula behind them. So right >> you know ax plus b equals c or something. So >> I've made a note here that we'll do that >> and so that kind of teed me up. Um, I had a question on the definition of chronically absent. And so it's 10% >> you
036you have to have missed more than 10% of the days in school no matter what time of the year, right? >> So at the end of the year, obviously they have 180 days of attendance. So, we're looking at any kid that might have missed more than 18 days already will not come off that chronically absent list for us for the year. >> But if if you have um how many how many days have we attended so far? 30 days. So, we've had we've had 14% of the kids have missed three or more days. That's what you're that's what I'm I'm hearing. Okay. >> Yes. Yes. And this is preschool through fourth grade. this data even even though so >> we know that preschool is not a mandatory attended grade level but like Mrs. Kenny was
037sharing that um our communities and schools coordinator has a prek initiative that you see on that document says ready set show up because we're trying to um explain to the kiddos as young as they are and also sharing out information to our parents about the impact of missing school. And so um those initiatives are really important to be able to have that in place. But in I mean, moving forward as early as you would want it, we could give you a breakdown of what does it look like by grade level. I mean, it's really easy to do. We have a platform. We go in to West Virginia Zoom and we can look at our chronically absent and it break already breaks it down for us by grade level. So, >> all right. Thank you. Thank
038you for that. And then, um, I had a couple other comments um about the capturing kids hearts. Um, I'm no expert at it, but I I heard a presentation at Flemington Elementary School last year. And one of the things that that caught me that I was uh excited about was the teachers um they greet the children by name. You know, Johnny, Susie, hey, how are you doing? And you get a feel for how that kid what kind of morning maybe that they're having. Are they having a good day? Are they having a bad day? Are they grumpy? Have they not had their coffee? you know, um, so I think that that's something that we could go ahead and, you know, go ahead and implement just right off the bat, right? We already have morning greeters
039in place. Yeah, it is a great strategy. >> Great. Fantastic. And then my last question was, um, to do with the, uh, student behavior data says, uh, eight out of school suspension days. Um I don't want to get into any kind of details, but did any of those require like removing students from classrooms and where we had to um notify uh parents outside maybe send one of these home? >> Yes, we've used the helping hand program already. >> So we have used this helping hand. Okay. >> Yes, we have. >> We've gotten good response, good feedback. >> It's worked. Yes. >> Okay. Thank Thank you. >> I'm appreciative that you had the hand there to show me. [laughter] Um, I just also wanted to comment on the little present potatoes. That's really cute. And I
040I hope that maybe when we come to visit at your school, maybe have some pictures of that for us to share with us. >> Thanks. I I like the flyer, too. That's a nice snapshot. >> We We enjoy our community schools coordinator, Casey, and uh try to hog her at at our school as much as we can. All right. Thank you. >> Mrs. KN. >> Next, we have Mrs. KN from West Taylor. >> To clarify for the board there. This is I this this and our last board being in that chart will include two schools. Uh my goal was to uh spread them throughout the year. And uh in order to give everyone an equal opportunity to present, you have to as we kick this season off. Welcome, Mrs. Knots. Good evening and I'd like
041to first of all say as we begin this new school year I want to thank everyone that has had been part of the planning and the preparation. Um it's just not at our school of course it's your level also. Um all the planning and dedication has helped us start off successfully. Um our teachers and staff have welcomed students into a safe, organized and supportive learning environments. Our families have prepared their children for a fresh start and our students have returned with energy and promise. Um this year at West Taylor, our priorities are clear. strong academics, consistent attendance, and a successful school year for each student. Um, academic achievement remains at the center of our work. We provide rigorous instruction. We're monitoring student progress and we're responding quickly when student needs, you know, any additional support.
042At this time, I think that we should celebrate um we should celebrate our growth, not only high scores, but also our daily progress made through our uh persistence, effective teaching, and meaningful partnerships with our families. Um included in your packets that I gave you, which I could have added a lot more, but I thought you better just stop now. Um a lot of data is in that packet as you see. Um it's our current enrollment um our academic or beginning of the year progress um attendance data and an update from our um West Taylor family engagement coordinator Val Leachch. This data does offer a wide view of our current performance areas of progress and opportunities for improvement. Um, I share this information as we continue to make informed decisions that support our students and our
043school. Our [clears throat] students cannot benefit fully from excellent instruction if they are not present. Attendance is essential to achievement. Every day in school give students another opportunity to learn, build relationships, and develop the habits they need for future success. Even occasional absences can accumulate and create those learning gaps that are difficult to overcome. Improving attendance requires shared effort. Um, just as uh AJ has reported, we have our community and schools that are bringing the same initiatives that they talked about to our school with our prek and um with um the other grades as well. Families need clear communication and support and when attendance concerns arise, our response will be early, compassionate, and focused on removing the barriers. I think that's very important when we look at why do our kids miss school and what
044can we do as a school to help remove those barriers. Um a successful start is important but sustaining that success throughout the school year will require continued focus and West Taylor is committed to using our academics and attendance data um thoughtfully. We want to recognize effective practices that we're doing and we want to address those challenges that we have promptly. Um, and we want to ensure that our teachers and our staff have the resources that they need to be able to do that. I'm confident by working together we can build on positive be on this positive beginning and West Taylor will remain united in our commitment to high expectations, regular attendance and meaningful opportunities for every student. Um I do thank your leadership um and keeping our kids at the heart of the decisions that
045we make. Um I I the school year has started off I believe that um we've seen an increase in our family engagement. We are having our book fair right now and tonight there was lots of parents coming in and out and you know the kids got to visit all week and then they get to bring their parents in to share. So, we're committed to keeping those relationships and it makes overcoming barriers much easier when you have the relationship with the families to be able to sit down and talk about, you know, what can I do for you? What can I do with you? How can I help you? Um, so that's one thing that I am committed as an administrator of a wonderful school and a and a and a very um deeprooted culture that
046we have there at West Taylor. Um, that's my commitment to them this year. And, um, we kind of have a new little catch there at West Taylor. Um, is we're just going to keep swimming. It sometimes it gets rough, but we're going to keep swimming. So, um, also, uh, we met for the first time for our LSIC, which was last week, which was our organizational meeting. So, there's really not much to report out. We haven't really got into, um, our regular meetings. We have several ideas that we are going to be talking about. Um what I was able to report um which was thanks to the board and our maintenance department some of the safety concerns they had at our school which were completed this summer and they were quite pleased with that. Um also
047our PTO most of you are very well um aware of our PTO at West Taylor. Um they are a very dedicated group of ladies and we do have a couple gentlemen that help us out from time to time. Um they are just committed this year. Tomorrow I will present during our PL day um the dates they have everything scheduled for the entire school year of all the celebrations and all the great things that they have planned to do as the organization for our students and our family and our school. Um can't say enough about our family uh enrichment or engagement coordinator Val Leach. She has been on top of it. She hit the ground running. We um actually this year was the first year that we started a a new read. We used to have
048summer reading challenge and I had talked with Miss Dolan over at Flemington and she had tried a new um program, found a lot of success, and I said, "Okay, I'm going to borrow that. Thank you." She was very helpful and give me her details and then we kind of did our own little spin-off. We did a new um and it's called our summer skills challenge. Um every grade level was asked to create a summer skills packet and they turned those in and uh with some help and some volunteers. We made the copies of the packets. We also made those available digitally. So in the summertime when the packet got lost or, you know, got misplaced or left on vacation, we were able to get the parents the packet that the kids would need to complete
049those skills that were in that packet. So when our first grade kids were leaving first grade and getting ready to second grade, they got the second grade packet. This idea was to give parents and families a glimpse at what was going to be coming because oftentimes you don't know what's going to be in the next grade or what should my child know before they get there. So it was it wasn't wellreceived in the beginning because it was of course new and the teachers were like I don't know maybe a little hesitant but I said trust me and let's try it. If it doesn't work, we go back. Many times at the beginning of the school year when we were getting ready for our reading challenge reward, I had parents flying in and signing papers real
050quick or I was getting a printed off sheet from the internet saying, "My kid read 25 books and here they are." Okay. And parents signed it. you know, how do you and I said, as a teacher, a former teacher myself, I would rather know my children in front of me, what can they do or what can't they do? Where's the problem where, you know, we had kindergarten kids trying to write letters for the first time. You know, it wasn't great, but that's okay. We saw what they were able to do. Um, they were not um the only thing they had to do was attempt it, complete it, and turn it in. Some of our teachers added a little reading component with it. You know, maybe read five grade level books. Here's some suggestions. Um, kids
051brought their packets back. Um, we did give a little grace period in the beginning of the school year, of course, for new enrolles or families that, you know, may needed a a little help along the way. But we gave about a two week almost a two-eek grace period that, okay, here's last chance. Here it is. Let's see what you got. They brought the packets back and our parent volunteers along with Miss Leech, they organized a funday for the kids and everyone who did the extra work during the summer, they got to be part of that. They were outside. They had stations set up everywhere. And if you've ever seen any of the reward um days that our PTO and our families put on, it's pretty exciting for the kids. So, they had lots of fun.
052The other children had other opportunities. They weren't punished. Um, but they had other opportunities. We did a few things inside. They got to do a few things. Um, and it was a great success. So, I do believe we will be doing that again next year. Teachers now said, "Wow, that's kind of nice to know that I have, you know, 14 out of my 25 students who don't know how to write their name yet." And you know and that's something that we we expect as they come in you know maybe as kindergarten first grade that these skills would already be there and and so they have a better look into that. Also we are starting off um you know on a great start academically. If you'll look through um some of this of course you see
053our attendance data was or I mean our enrollment data was first. We're at 235 students currently at West Taylor. Um we have been still trickling in a few more here and there so that pleases us. Um as you look down it does show uh you know the different enrollment uh that we do have 35 then our attendance summary and of course um Miss Sinclair talked about that as you will see we're right now West Taylor is at 96.7% attendance rate which is pretty good. Um I didn't put my um chronically absent on there because I know it is so very confusing and I have to say hats off to Heather. did a great job of explaining that which she would have did better than I did. Um, right now I'm please don't quote me on
054this. I can't get you the exact number, but I think my chronically absent maybe around 7 point something percent. Um, that is um typical that will go up a little bit as we go on. Um, but of course sometimes that is expected. Um but we do um talk to I tell you one of the one of the best things is work for West Taylor when it comes to attendance and getting the attention of the parents and the families is the three and five day letters that we have that are generated through weas that are printed in our community and schools. Um she does help with that and collects that data. We get those letters done. Now this year my secretary will be he will be getting those ready out and mailed out to the families
055when that letter arrives. you know, it's a it's a pretty formal letter and that makes them think, oh, this is not just saying, hey, little Johnny missed, you know, five days, we need to get on. It's a very formal letter. And they do they do pay a lot of attention to it. Um, that's probably the number one phone call I'll be getting, you know, in the the next few months to come is, "What's this letter mean? Am I going to court?" Well, not right now. You're not, but we got to do something here. So that's that is a great support for us administrators and our our our teachers to be able to have that to help with uh promoting getting those kids to school. As you look at our um I Ready uh data for
056the beginning of the year again just like our um the uh October 5th is when the I Ready data when the assessment closes that benchmark will close. You will notice through mine that um some of them are are almost there. Uh our our first grade for their reading is, you know, 27 out of the 36 kids have completed it. Um it looks pretty promising. Um I didn't put it in this packet, but for my own knowledge, I want to I pulled up last year's beginning of the year, but it was it was already completed. It wasn't um at this stage. Everybody had already completed it all, but maybe two. and it was very comparable. So that to me that says, okay, we're we're on the right track there. Um I'm anxious to look at this
057after everyone has completed in kindergarten will have completed theirs. Also, um our kindergarten teachers at West Taylor tend to like to put the brakes on till the last possible minute when you're going to assess their kids they've only had for a couple of weeks. So they take great pride in what they teach their kids and and the student success. So, um it's it's pretty typical. So, I'm I'm pretty pleased with that. As you move on through the packet, you'll see that this is last year's at the end of the year um WV uh GSA test scores. Um we were pleasantly pleased and surprised at our not really surprised but um last year my fourth grade teachers uh did say many times I'm worried. I'm worried these students are not getting it. Like they think they've
058got it and then I ask them and then they don't have it and I don't. And I said well we just got to trust the process. Let's just I think we got to give some pep talk here and we have to keep them focused on what they're doing and how important it is. Um I took time before each assessment I went in I give the pep talk and I told them how important it was not only for them but for our school as the whole community that they try their best and they do they do what they know and and don't rush and just those typical things you go through. And as you can see on the proficiency rate um and math um as you look down at third grade and fourth grade, they did
059very well. Very proud of them for that. Um third grade uh they were um way above the state. Uh we were very very proud of that in the district. They were above in the district too. So uh reading also um That's where we thought we were going to struggle. We were really uh thinking, "Oh, this may not be good." You know, we're used to pretty nice scorers and and the kids being able to, you know, put out what they know. But I have to say, when I was um hesitantly logging on to Zoom and trying to get in there to see where were we, what was happening, and when it popped up, I was I was very pleased at what I saw. [clears throat] my fourth grade teachers are still a little bit um like,
060oh, okay, we can do this. This is good. So, hats off to them. They worked very hard to get the students where they were and and the test scores showed that. Um on through the packet, of course, is just some more proficiency rate by uh grade and and subject of the math and the reading of the two different grades. um 73, you know, percent of them in third grade in mathematics are proficient and 64 in reading for the third grade. And of course, you'll see 54% um in mathematics for fourth grade and 58% in reading. Goes on through just the trends um throughout the different years. Um this is West Taylor's trends in math and reading. as it goes through. As you can see, we do have a few years are a little higher than
061others, but it does stay consistent pretty much throughout the years of where they're scoring and where they're um the academics are. Um on the last page, and I won't read that, that is just for yours. Um Miss Val Leech was going to be with us tonight and of course family and other obligations kind of got in the way. So, she said, "Let me give you a rundown of what we've been doing. I'll put that in print for you." And I said, "Absolutely." So, these are some of the things that we've done so far this year at West Taylor for our students and our families. Um, and as you can see, she has been one busy lady. Can't thank her enough. Do you have any questions or anything that you would like any clarification on from
062me? >> Um, yeah, I have a couple comments. I was at the uh schoolboard training uh conference, fall conference this uh this past weekend and and one of the pres presenters was talking about risk takingaking and sometimes it's good to to take a risk and a calculated risk. So um as far as the summer skills challenge and you identifying that you'd like to take that risk and trust me looks like looks like that was well received. So thank you for that. Um, do you know what the what maybe you already said it, but what what the percentage of participation was out of your 235 students, >> you know, and that I believe is back here in Miss Leech's report. Um, so let's see students. Um, no, she talked more about the different stations and things
063that they did. Um, >> just rough. >> It was High. High. It was high. Okay. Good. Yeah. And and I do tell and and something that I believe every kid deserves a chance. And sometimes we have to leave it up to our kids. Of course, our younger grades, you know, not so much. But our older kids, if you want this here, this is, you know, here's this packet. Let's work on it. Let's get it done. And then we're going to see where you're at. And you're going to get you're going to get to participate in some of these fun activities. A lot of our students took advantage of that. And it's not about the timing of when you do it. It's more about getting it done and doing it over the summer. That was more
064for the parent than it really was the student is be able to see what your child's going to be expected to do when they enter the second grade or the third grade or the fourth grade. And we had a lot of parents that commented on it like, "Oh, I didn't know that they were going to be doing, you know, division." and you know they're so th those were things that were kind of um nice to see that you know it was it had a multi- you know multiple different pluses to it not just hey we're just going to see what these kids know you know it there was a lot to it there was a lot of thought behind it and like I said Miss Dolan was very um helpful and she was like here
065anything I have is yours and you know we'll work together and and it really did it was it was a nice thing and I do believe we are going to continue that throughout the next few years. And I and I think that my teachers now have bought into it and like, "Oh, well, if I knew this, then maybe I'll want to know that." And and I told him, I said, "We're keeping it simple. It's a very small pack. It's it's like maybe one page every week of a skill." You know, for a kindergarten, it might have been writing the alphabet one time or tracing the letters one time. Nothing that's going to say, "Oh my gosh, I can't go on vacation because my kids have homework." It was nothing like that. It was just the
066basic skills and I asked the teachers think about what is the most important skill that you are not seeing. You know what is it that you think would benefit the student and the class and your your instruction to know before you ever got them. Think about those skills. And that's what they did. You know, fourth grade had, you know, they worked together and got theirs together. you know, they worked in teams to create the packet. So, it was one packet for all fourth grade students. It was one packet for all third grade students. So, it wasn't like every classroom had a different packet. >> Sounds like it's a nice way to get the student engaged and excited about what's coming. Yeah. Up to get their >> um their buy in. Right. >> We were excited
067because some of the students said, "Well, I already know this." We're like, "Great. That's really good. I I just want to take the time to thank you and and the team for manager Jarvis both this was good information. I appreciate very much you all bringing this up to us. Uh it helps us a lot to have this kind of information and all that. So it it was well worth our time seeing what you have and from both schools. So I appreciate that very much. So >> thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, >> successful kickoff for the new process. That's good to know. Thank you, ladies. >> They did very well. >> So, that takes us to uh superintendent updates. What do you have for us, Dr. Stallings? >> There you go. Thank
068you, Miss Gallow. I want to first start uh with providing you a calendar that's been provided so that all of you know, as you all know, I don't sports, but I'm getting significantly better at it. And one of those is to give everyone a calendar so that you can This is a refrigerator calendar so you can keep track of when and where and who. And this has been provided to us as a courtesy from the athletic director at the high school who is busily uh air traffic controlling the the Craftton High School campus facilities as you know and I hope those are you may get updates periodically when there's a change. Uh, but I hope that would be I thought that would be helpful. >> Dr. Stallings, before you go any further, >> yeah, not
069not to interrupt, but does um does that include the middle school stuff as well, or could we get one? >> There should be there should be something reflected in there. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Oh, I do see it. Yep. >> I wanted to ask if um you know, the elementary schools could share. I know you said your PTO already has things scheduled for the whole year and I know the board really likes to be able to come and attend those events when we can. So, I didn't know if if you all have that information if you could send it to Dr. Stallings or send it to us. Thanks. >> That'd be great. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to. I wanted to catch them. >> It just be another page of your
070refrigerator calendars. >> Thank you. Y'all watch for that ladies and we'll make sure that Mrs. Dolan knows as well. Good question. So, all right. So the next thing I wanted to mention to you is that the uh I have uh a proclamation that needs to be read tonight because we have an activity that I am encouraging our board to acknowledge for the it's actually the 24th and I learned from the state that this is an important event that we don't want to overlook and so with your permission that is the West Virginia school service personnel day proclamation. So, if you'll be so kind as allow me to read that tonight at this time, it says this. Whereas, school service personnel are involved in nearly every aspect of education by maintaining buildings and grounds, preparing and
071serving meals, keeping school facilities clean and orderly, and assisting in the classroom, as well as providing administrative support functions. safe transportation and many other specialized services. And whereas school service personnel are instrumental in West Virginia's res uh responsibility to educate all students. And whereas these dedicated individuals serve the children of West Virginia in our public education system and have an important role of non-instructional service to the educational system. And whereas it is fitting to recognize the outstanding work these individuals do for this state, our communities, and the students enrolled in West Virginia schools and specifically Taylor County schools. Now therefore, be it resolved that we proclaim September 24th, 2026 as West Virginia School Service Personnel Day. And that will be signed by our president, Mrs. Gallow and myself as superintendent and we will post that
072on our county website. So please when you see any member of our service personnel especially on Thursday of this week we are now declaring that as this year's West Virginia School Service Personnel Day. Thank you. I'll pass this down for your signature as well. Thank you. I'll wait while you officially sign so they can people are watching. Thank you. The next thing I want to do is give you a brief update of the new anarvis emergency school. We now have officially installed the cornerstone that was dedicated prior to the actual building initial building construction and that has found its now its resting place in the northeastmost corner of the building as is tradition. Um, and as one of the last things I want to share uh with you this evening, it's a brief report uh
073in addition to the helpful information we received from our school bu building administrators. Um, as you saw in the response, there was a concern that was raised throughout the county. We do not have an outbreak of lice in the county school system. Uh, I did some research and some digging primarily through our school nurses as well as the Taylor County Health Department and all affirmed that it was there was for the record a family that happened to be experiencing that unfortunate circumstance which can happen. However, that was taken care of quickly with the parents involved uh the family involved. it was simply one family that was unfortunately uh dealing with that and that was handled uh expeditiously at that school. So I want to reassure and actually say publicly publicly uh that we uh it
074was brought to our attention. We looked into that as quickly as possible because we do take that very seriously as anyone would and to reassure everyone that we have addressed that appropriately. And that is all I have for you this evening. Thank you for your time and for letting me do my job. Appreciate you. >> Thank you. So that moves us then to our board. Oh, sorry. You had something else. >> I do. As per our our indications earlier in the summer in policy 8,400. I did initiate uh the invitations to those people who are being asked to serve on our uh districtwide uh safety council. Uh we were, as you all know, um well, I know that Mrs. Belner had been volunteered or assigned or agreed to whatever the word is serve as a
075board member on that. Um we were waiting until the end of this month to identify all the chairpersons of the individual school LSIC's who are also part of that that committee membership. And I am in the process right now of rece I've sent them the invitations to there about 20 21 people on that committee. uh that's repres representing the full scope per the dictate the suggestions in the policy um uh I have not received one I don't want to do that they're all willing to say have been saying thank you for the suggest the invitation I will be present and our initial meeting is uh October 22nd I anticipate that committee might even develop into some subcommittees that will be reaching out for additional people from time to time um because I know that that
076will be a a broad interest of many many people. And now I think I've covered all the notes I had for you tonight. Thank you. >> I do. Uh >> one second, Mr. I I I don't I did forget one thing. It was a little post-it note over here, but I wanted to I have a shout out. Uh and this individual is probably gonna kick me under the table. This week I learned that we have some notoriety about to happen on Friday that Dr. Decker has been identified as uh one of the cheerleading the state cheerleading champion. She was a Bridgeport High School in her just a couple of days ago when she was a cheerleader at that location and they were the first team to be uh recognized in the state as a girls
077state champion cheerleading team. Did I get that correct? >> For Bridgeport High School. So, I just thought it was important to recognize one of our own. Just because she was in Bridgeport doesn't mean anything. it is that she we have her here and I think it's worthy of recognizing her. So, won't you please congratulate her with me? She humbly doesn't want you to know that, but I it is important that we recognize her accomplishment. Thank you. I do believe I will stop giving you updates as of now. >> Mr. Taylor, >> yes. Uh I have an update. Uh in in addition to uh having the school service personnel being recognized, this week is West Virginia Association of Retired School Employees Week. Uh it has been so designated by the Taylor County Commission at their most
078recent meeting. Uh and uh I' I'd like to announce that at uh for our school board. uh we uh thought one proclamation was enough so we didn't go through the uh the board as well. Uh and today as a matter of fact the uh Taylor County Association of Retired School employees packed for the backpack program. Uh we we do that about six times a year and other civic organizations do it as well. Uh but uh we pack for the backpack program. So, all of the backpacks you get this week were packed by retired school employees. Uh, one other thing I I ought to mention, uh, in a little less than an hour at 8:05, we will reach the equinox and summer will be over. So, you just have a little less than an hour of
079summer left. >> He didn't have to depress us. [laughter] Any other board member updates, committee reports? >> I I'd just like to uh make a quick comment about the uh the fall conference um from from last week and Friday and Saturday. Uh, one of the big topics was, you know, this I Ready testing and for the third grade students and they said, you know, you we have to be sure as county boards to communicate, communicate, communicate that the last thing we want is come May or June, a parent, that's the first time that they think that they're hearing that their child is going to be held back, right? So, communication is key. Um, another thing that that they um we talked about a lot was I love West Virginia public schools. So, there was a
080really good presentation um on that. Um I do realize that uh some of the folks that attended virtually didn't get the slideshows and I guess the slides were were small. I do have copies of of what they handed out. So, if anybody wants those slides, they're they're more than welcome to. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Galla. Um a couple things. one um the I I don't know what else all the other schools did. I want to congratulate and uh and I appreciate what Graphs High School and possibly the football team uh at their home game on uh 911 did for the first responders, firemen, whatever. That was a great presentation, a great show and uh I appreciate that very much them doing that. So uh that that was great. Uh the next
081thing is the uh training. Uh I I did attend as I think just about everybody here did. It was it was a pretty good training course. Um one thing that you know they they were pushing the I love public schools and you know it made me think a lot and uh I'm still going through that training. I'm still working with Mr. Oall and and their their staff down there. Um you know on the theme that Mr. White hair brought up about I love uh West Virginia public schools. And so, you know, I I was thinking about, you know, what what what we can do better as a board, what we can do better better as a community. And uh one thing we can do is definitely uh this is this is not a we. This
082is a team effort. And so we have to recognize and and and be aware and and uh support those that don't use public schools but are still here in our community because uh there's a lot we can do, but we need to hear from them. And and a couple things I brought up one little thing last week and then after the training was over, I asked, "Can I get an evaluation form?" And she said, "Sure." And I was assuming I would get a link to just click on it and do the evaluation. and it was a PDF file and worse than that it was a non-fillable PDF file. So they said fill out the 13 pages and send it back. So I'm like this is the best that the people running West Virginia public schools
083can do. And and so it's things like that that we have to think about. And it it reminds me last meeting when I brought up about the the residency forms and a lot of the other forms that get handed out to students on the first week of school. We have to do better. We have to make these all electronic. And I know uh we talked about our goals and objectives for this coming year, but you know, to me that was just that was just kind of ironic that they're pushing I love West Virginia public schools, but make it so difficult. So, they finally said, "Well, you could bring it to your your schoolboard uh office here and it can be scanned and sent to them, but but that still means someone's got to sit down
084and type all that in, everything I wrote, which is totally inefficient." And so, it's it's just a little bit ironic that and I'm going to work with Mr. cool on this and others that want to work with me, but you know, we we have to do better and we have to make things better in today's world and paper forms and mailing paper forms is not a place in today's society. So, anytime we have something that we just all put our heads together and think about what can we do better to make everything, you know, online, make everything a a link to click just so you can fill this out because it gets entered immediately. No one has to intervene. It's there. So, so that was one of the big training things I took away from
085that. And so, I'm going to make sure they they understand that down in Charleston. All the people put that together. It was it was a lot of information. It was intense. It was it was very intense. We started at 1:00, I think, on Friday and went to almost 9:00 that night. Had to miss the football game. Uh got started the next morning, went right all almost through till noon or so, maybe at 11:30 or something. So, uh, you know, I was there every minute, you know, and, uh, it was intense and and there was a lot of good topics. There was a lot of topics that like the ones I just mentioned that made me think, but anything we can take away from that to make it better because, you know, we're all just in
086this county to make the world, you know, survive and go forward and we all have to work together. And so, anything we can do would be great. So, any ideas you have, I'd be glad to take them. And and I'll I'll I'll end with that. And again, thank you for the 911 activities. Uh, I printed mine off and mailed it out. Cost a $140 to mail. >> And someone has to sit down now and type or do something with everything you wrote. >> Yeah, Mr. Summers. I have shared that at almost every conference I've went to. Please make this electronic. This could be electronic >> without without that. There are survey there are survey companies out there that will do it for practically nothing. I know for less than what a person would have to
087take two or 300 forms and type in. You just click on it and it gives them a summary. My wife's used them and everything and there it's it's got to there's got to be a better way. And I'm going to keep promoting that all over and but I would really like for us to look internally at our own forms, our own paper assessments, our own, you know, get the students in on the first week and say, "What can we do to make these electronic?" Because it's burdening the parents. Uh it's burdening the students. It's burdening the papers back and forth. It gets lost. I'm assume if a paper comes in, we got to store it somewhere to what's entered or pay someone to enter it. So, we've got to do better. So, >> and and
088I'm a part of that. So, I'll help too. I'd just like to add that um the um another focus was to promote your schools. When's the last time or promote our counties or our um technical education programs? You know, just last meeting we had a we voted to let a um non- studentent attend one of our uh CTE programs at the high school, right? So, uh, we need to promote those CTE programs, promote our facilities, um, sell ourselves, right? Continue to sell ourselves. So, I think that's important. Something else that they talked about, wonder what our state testing numbers would look like if we were if we were able to back those students that chronically absent, that number, if we could back those out of our test scores, what would our test scores look like?
089It's >> just something to think about. All right. If nothing else, then that moves us on down to our 2000 series, our minutes, policies, contracts, and agreements. Um, I did catch a um edit that for our meeting minutes. Um, on the financial, it was me that asked about the WOI payment. So, I don't know if that could be corrected. Thank you. >> Can you reference where that is, Mr. >> Yeah, it's under a 4,000 financial and I inquired about our WOI payment, what that was for, and the reason. Mr. Dolan. >> Okay. >> Said that was part of that contract agreement. >> Were there any other edits you have recommended? >> If nothing else, the superintendent respectfully requests the approval of the minutes from the regular meeting of September 8th, 2026 with that adjustment. So
090move. >> Mr. Taylor moves. >> Second. >> Mrs. Belner seconds. All those in favor? >> I I >> Okay. So, that moves us further down into the 2000 series to some agreements that we have there and um a contract. Superintendent respectfully requests approval of items 2036 through 2040 in the 2000 series. have a recommendation for motion. >> So moved. >> Mr. White Hair moves. I'll second. Any comments, questions, concerns? >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. >> All right. Moving uh forward. That moves us to the 3000 series consent calendar. We have several um shop rooms for multiple different schools there as well as um our a lot of trips, out of county trips, um out of state field trips, request of use of facilities, [clears throat] and this is also
091where we had the um addendum in there. So, >> I'd like the addendum to be voted on separately, please. >> Okay. Do you are you making that motion that we vote on that separately? >> So, move. >> I will second that. All those in favor to vote on item 3047 separately. >> I >> Okay, >> Mrs. Gallow, also before you vote. >> Yes. >> Well, no one said it. Never mind. You have don't have a motion yet. So, I'll hold have a comment for you. Oh, okay. All right. So, we'll do the other items in the 3000 series first. So, superintendent respectfully requests approval of items 30 33 through 3046 in the 3000 series. >> So, move. >> Mrs. Belner moves. >> Second. >> Mr. Taylor seconds. Comments, questions, concerns. Is this where you had
092something you wanted to add, Dr. stallings or >> so these are those not including 40 30 30 47 >> correct >> good on page item [clears throat] 40 3042 the bottom of your page in your agenda I'm sure Mr. Mr. Ammons would appreciate the fact that we are not sending we are sending only 15 not 515 students with them on that activity. That is an inadvertent >> addition. >> Oh yeah, >> that's a lot of children. >> I need a lot more help there. >> I was going to say two people with that many I would say crazy request. So I will apologize for allowing that to happen in our review. That is all. Thank you. >> Okay. >> I would ask you make that adjustment as well. I missed it for the other updates.
093>> Any other comments, questions, concerns? >> I do like to see that our students are getting a variety of different uh opportunities here to enrich their academics um and extracurricular with these different activities. um really want to thank our chaperones um for their commitment there as well as our teachers because I know that those that's that's a big responsibility. I do uh anticipate I don't I can't guarantee that but I do anticipate because this is the beginning of the year you have a larger number of requests because there are some booking requirements or uh uh seizing opportunities to have like a travel bus or something if there's something in the spring that if they don't start now they might have difficulty approved or not to obtain that because companies have a certain number of buses
094to be uh hired etc. I also appreciate that they're it seems they're being proactive and and like you said in getting these things [snorts] on here because I know that that can take time. >> Okay. So, we have an open motion on the floor. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. The odds have it. So, then that moves us to item 3047. >> Uh I'd like to thank uh Dr. Stallings for salvaging this trip. Uh but as my granddaughter is one of the students that was a participant, I'd like to recuse myself from this vote. >> Okay. >> So, we'll give Mr. Taylor a moment to step out. >> Sorry. I would also like for it to be in the minutes that we are approving a trip that already took place today.
095>> Yes. What? I'm sorry. The question was what? >> She said of of of a opportunity of a trip that happened current day. >> I'm still telling me what >> I want that noted in the minutes that this >> that we're voting on something that happened today. >> Indeed. >> All right. So, do I have a motion to approve? So move >> Mr. Summers moves. >> I'll second. >> Mr. White here seconds. Any other comments, questions, concerns? So I I will ask is um there going to be kind of followup with that so that there's a more prompt request with with these things to the board. We yes we have uh indeed set a specific timeline that was not maintained. >> Okay. >> Uh my attempt was to maintain that but uh I found myself
096being pressured into doing it otherwise. And I I made the administrative decision because I didn't want the the children to suffer. That was my decision. And um it is not a precedent I want to make or wanted to make. Uh and I aired on the side of students. Uh I am hopeful that we will not receive any kind of additional pressuring from the powers that be to do otherwise. >> Yeah. Uh, for the record, I yielded to that pressure. Um, >> yes, because this isn't a trip that I mean, it happens every year at the same time. >> I >> for the last four years, >> I'm not con uh completely aware of that. However, I didn't want to make sure I wanted to make sure that these particular children didn't suffer because it just
097happened to be their year. >> Right. >> And I agree. I'm glad you said yes. I'm just saying thank you >> for the future >> and I'm I want people to know that my goal is not to yield to those pressures but on occasion >> but I think >> I'm trying to be politically >> appropriate here and I'm not one to you know I care about our kids first and foremost >> um and I I felt I didn't have any choice but to penalize them for something completely out of their control >> and I think because this provides them a potential future opportunity for other >> it does indeed and other things to answer your question Mrs. time sensit time sensitive for them. >> Yeah. When trust me on this one on anything, please I
098don't lie to you, but I would when I'm torn between procedure and what's in the best interest of my ch my children. Um, and for the record, my grandsons or grandkids are not involved with this. Um, I consider them all my kids >> as you want me to do that. uh and uh I have made myself clear to the people that dropped the ball that don't do this to me again because I'm getting pressure from two sides. Um but again, I will stand firm on the kids, >> right? I am I'm glad you did for the kids. >> Thank you. Thank you. I have I have gotten that message out, though. I can assure you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. So we have an open motion on the floor then. So
099all those in favor >> I. All right. So that uh moves that for zero. So we can have Mr. Taylor come back in. We'll give him a minute to get situated. Right. That moves us to the 4000 series financial. So, um we will ask Mr. Dolan uh what information he would like to share with us. [clears throat] >> Good evening. Uh inside your packet, uh the first part u of your financial update is the um August uh bank information. uh you should have a copy of u the beginning balance and ending balance of our bank statement for the month of August where we had a beginning balance of $860,000 deposits of uh 2,784,53846 and expenses of $2,188,79867 was which left us with an ending balance of 1,456 our uh August BTI I uh West Virginia
100savings account. Uh the beginning balance was 6,676,161.99. We had a withdrawal of $600,000 and an interest uh interest acred of 20,79237 which le left us with an ending balance of 6,96 $96,954.36. Our bond account is $6,733,52.50. We had withdrawals of $18,617.85 with interest that month of $21,44.61, which left us with an ending balance of 6,735,47926. Any questions on those accounts? >> Uh, yeah, I I have one comment. Um uh the rightmost column uh the only difference between it and the middle column is the word bond. And last I looked in the minutes and it said I requested clarification which you did provide last time but I guess I didn't make it clear. I take that one myself. I really wanted the term an AJ anarvis elementary school in that column. Uh so it was clear
101that's clear that bond is clearly for the anarvis construction and uh so for next month can we make sure AJES is in that column with all the other lettering >> Mr. summers. So I do want to cl I do want to clarify it's not merely Anna Jervis. It's for all the schools uh security and improvements as well. In fact, >> it was for the for the for the levy that was passed for all of that stuff. >> The bond. >> Yes. >> The bond that was surpassed. And so that's covering not just Anna Jarvis's new building construction, but it also includes uh >> there was some security at all the schools and all. Yes, sir. Can we make some indication because uh the word bond to me doesn't separate it because there could be >>
102I just want to caution you not it's not just an >> I agree and I agree and I I >> so we can we can we can address >> you're absolutely correct and I'm not trying to point out I just want to make sure I've got a clear distinction when I look at this which one is that >> where the voters approved to to build the school and do the other work is is this column and the other one is just our continuing bond that we keep in for reserves. we are on the same page. I just want to make don't forget that we have the so other schools don't feel like we're just forgetting them, >> right? >> We're building a big building in front of Anarvis right now and a lot of people
103think that might be all we're doing. Uh but there is there are security measures being done across the county. >> Yeah. But and I thank you for pointing that out that you're absolutely right. But could we just make sure that column gets clarified in future meetings? >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Mr. Dolan and I will work on that. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh the next part of the packet is the uh August 2026 expenses uh that we're going to continue to update here until we get our uh financial information uh sorted out. And then below it is your uh August 2026 expenses for FY27 broken down. And then I added the column at the bottom, Mr. Taylor for your reserve for contingencies that you wanted to see. >> Does anybody have any questions on
104those numbers? >> I do. Uh >> okay. >> What number should we compare the reserve p uh for contingencies percentage with? Uh would it be the total budget number uh or the budget number with minus Anna Jarvis construction? uh we're going to have to compare it with because it's uh solely based on your general fund is what the state required it to be. So I would have to make something totally completely different if you want a percentage to base that off of. >> But as it stands right now, that's the percentage that that has been that's the dollar figure and the percentage that I've provided to you since we've done the budget. >> Yeah. I'm I'm interested in seeing where we are on the state requirements to have at minimum of 5% and suggested 16
105and a half. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> I will correct that for the next time. That way you can compare it against what the budget figure was and what we have currently at this time. >> So you can calculate your percentage. >> Thank you sir. >> You're welcome. So, so for clarification, what are we going to use for the for the budget for the percentage that Mr. Taylor is asking for? Because if I do the math, you know, 5% of if we just take the number that's in front of us for our >> it's going to be a number that's not included. is included in this chart, but it's going to be the budgeted number that I provided for fund 11, our general fund that is included in all of these numbers. It's going
106to be a totally separate number by itself. Okay. So, um it so it the 5% is based on just what the state aid formula provides. That is correct. >> Okay. So, so you you've added this line and this chart at the bottom. And so um I'm I'm not sure how that fits in for the reserve for contingencies, but uh so our I would assume this chart would show state aid funded uh monies provided by the state times 5% would give a number and that should then we could look at that number and that number probably won't change once we see it like it should be the same for year because they don't they don't change it monthly. It's yeah, it's set on October 1st and it's given and that's your number for the year. So,
107we'll know at that point what 5% of that number is. And so, that should be a very easy number to look then at. And I'm assuming we're not using the construction numbers, but only what's in the CD or the whatever it is, the one uh fund column plus our checkbook, because what's in the checkbook is money we have on hand. Those two added together divided by the state aid formula number should be the percentage we're at today and and the state age formula number should not change and so it's just what we have in our reserves to see we're meeting. So do you know what state a formula roughly or what it was last year? No, I did not off the top of my head, sir. >> Because if it's, you know, it's it's definitely
108less than the 42 million that we have in the budget from last year or 63 million, whatever, minus standard. Let's say 40 million. 5% of that is is $2 million. And we have well over that. So, you know, if you do the math, it's, you know, it's not we're not getting $40 million from them. So, you know, let's just say we get half of our money from the state, which state a formula, which I don't know if we do or not, but three4s, whatever, if it's $30 million times 5% is only a million and a half. We have that much in our checkbook plus the CD. So, we're clearly meeting that requirement, I would think, if you do the math. And once we see that number, we'll know. Um, and then but but is there
109not also a requirement that says we have to have two months of payouts in reserve at all times as well? I think I've heard that from some of the training we've taken. So in other words, if we didn't get any income for two months, we would remain solvent for two months to be able to pay the bills, pay teacher salaries, buy, you know, diesel fuel for the buses and all that, which if you do the math, you know, if our budgets, it says there 48 million 5 by 12, that's $4 million a year. That's $8 million is two months. Uh, and so we clearly have about that much in reserve. who are meeting that reserve requirement, too, which lets me believe we're very fiscally solvent. But I don't want to say that until I see
110the numbers on paper. And so, we're going to need that to to make those clarifications and make that because we can only manage to what what we know and we have to have the actual fact. So, I I I applaud what you're doing, Mr. Taylor, to get this on there. We just need to make sure what we're seeing. So, does does that make sense? Is that clear to everybody? >> And I think we'll have a better um estimate of that whenever that final report gets ready to be sent to the state. Right. >> That is correct. >> Okay. >> Once I have everything finalized from last year and reports to the state and then I have >> the carryover amounts that are entered in and everything. So by the end of October it >> I'll
111have a clearer picture for you. >> That's what I was going to say. I thought it was in October. Right. There's a good possibility that that number will increase once I get, you know, everything situated. >> Did you say your question was >> I said increased in increased. >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. No, it's fine. >> I didn't hear what Dr. Stallin said on >> I was just saying yes to your question. Just clarify. >> Okay. I have I have a couple more questions. Um, I noticed on the line item utilities and line item food service, uh, the total FY budget increased this month over last month and which caused the, uh, total FY budget to increase. So, I I'd like to clarify it because our budget's the budget for the year and it's what
112we approved and had for the public meeting we had back in April. And I don't know how we can change our budget two months, six weeks into the new year, two months into the new year. And so how how did the budget change? And do we have a public meeting on that? [clears throat] We spoke about this there when you came to the office one time. Every time we approve a budget supplement that uh that you all approve, that's an increase to the budget. So, so, >> so anytime we get a grant, anytime we get any funding, uh, to that nature, uh, like I'm going to speak to here in just a minute, that's going to increase our budget. >> Now, it it could be very possible that when I ran my report, I might
113have included or excluded something on the previous report or included something on this report. So, it might just be a a difference in the the way I ran the report this time. It could be very possible that way. >> We receive uh >> we receive money throughout the year. Sorry, Dr. >> I was going to say those same words. In fact, just yesterday, we received three different grants that came through that were approved and accepted. >> But that doesn't make sense to me from a fiscal me being the manager, us five being the manager of being fiscally responsible. A budget can't change. You set a budget for the year. So if all of a sudden the county commission says, "Hey, you know, Larine did this and that causes us to have to give the school,
114we don't change our budget. We may get more than we budgeted for." >> But I think that's the point he's making. I believe Mr. Dolan is making the grants. They came in. They weren't bills. They were grants that came in. They're auditions. >> So, but that doesn't change our budget. >> It it does change the budget. >> It changed the amount of income we have. But we approved a budget in April that had to go to the public for every county taxpayer to see and that was the budget approved for FY2027. >> You are correct. >> You don't change the budget from from month to month or how do you manage if you how do you manage if you don't have a budget that's solid? You can't change the budget every year or every month.
115And so or or we should have a public meeting every month on the budget like >> you have two meetings a month. That's what I'm saying is that when I present to you a budget supplement just like you're going to just like I'm going to speak to here as soon as we get through this part. you are approving a change to the budget because the budget in this instance the budget is increasing by $2,400 >> but >> because this wasn't on the original budget that I presented to you in May, >> right? But you don't you don't change the budget just because you know uh diesel fuel dropped a dollar a gallon or something. Your budget's still the budget that you approved and you manage to the budget. If we're going to change the budget
116monthly, we can't manage this organization. Uh, you know, it's it's just impossible to manage to a changing budget. Okay. Um, just because we got a $24,000 grant, okay, we'll put it in the there and we'll spend it and we'll use it and it may means we end up with a surplus over the budget, but the budget's the budget. And in that budget, we know how much we're going to spend on salaries and everything. And we just can't change that every month. Okay? Uh we we'll deal with changing prices. We have reserves built in there. But that budget column should never change. It should be exactly what we approved in April for the public. Okay? Because I asked specifically when was our public meeting. We said it was the one we held at the high school
117where we went through that 2hour 2 and a half hour meeting and and all that was there and those numbers which I can't find in the minutes anywhere. That was my next question. I don't know what budget we approved in April. I I have no record of it. I have nothing in in the minutes or anything that shows here's what we approved as our annual budget for FY 2027. So if someone can show it to me in the minutes, I would like to see that. But and maybe I missed it. It could be my fault, but I couldn't find it. I spent a lot of time today going through all the all the minutes since we had that meeting and there's nothing documented there what our budget was and what we recorded. I never did
118I read I get the newspaper just so I can see the legals and I've never seen the Ter County school budget in the legals since April. Now maybe I missed it. Okay. Uh it's very possible it was in there. So, I I have some I have some not concerns. I I just have I I I have we have to show the public we have a solid budget and we're managing to the budget. And if we can't do that, which if the budget changes monthly, we can't do that. And so, we approved a budget in April. I I would like to see those numbers in this column. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's it's my understanding that when you have a budget supplement, you are adjusting that budget that you previously approved so that it reflects the
119current budget, not the original budget. >> And that's that's what we're doing on a monthly basis when we approve changes. we are are approving a change to the budget so that it reflects reality not not what we thought it would be. So then, so if it I I can look under state code. I I I've done a lot of work on budgets, the federal government, everybody, my budget, my personal budget. We know what I've got coming in this year through a social security, through getting paid to come to these meetings, etc. And so I know what that is. If tomorrow I hit the lottery and win $1,000, I don't change my budget. It goes into the checkbook and I spend my bill, but my budget's still the same. Okay? And it should be the same
120here. In other words, so so let me ask you this then. Mr. uh the Dr. Stallings came to me before as a meeting before the meeting started and said I could I could be paid for attending the training virtually last last Friday night and Saturday morning. And I said no, I don't want to take money from the kids. So, if I take that money and then turn around and give that $250 $260 back to this organization like I did back in April, is that a budget supplement because the school got $260 from me? I think not. Okay? And you can't change the budget every time we find a quarter in a chair at at the in the auditorium. Okay? I don't mean to be that simple, but I think part of that is when we
121get those supplements, we have to be transparent. So, we do have to >> report them as income. And that's why I'd like for the income to be just a little bit more money, but the budget is still the budget. So, in other words, let's just say the county says, you know, for whatever reason, we didn't collect all the taxes this year by $7 million. You're going to be six six million short. You know, we got to manage to that. But the budget is still the budget where we plan that. Okay? And so you can't change your budget every month or or you or you have nothing to manage to. Okay? And we can't manage to a a changing field every time we get $1,000. It's just my opinion. Uh, you know, I I I didn't
122have a meeting on I didn't I don't see anything in the minutes in this documentation here that says we got a budget supplement and that this is a budget supplement approval. Okay. There's nothing in the minutes anywhere that states that. And so, you know, maybe we're on a terminology situation here, >> but we we we we have to have, >> you know, for the most part, we think it says we're going to get about 40 we're going to get about 48 million this year to run this school system in this county. Okay. Changing it $30,000, $22,000 is not going to change our budget. Okay? We're still going to manage to that about $48 million. Okay? And that's what we have to manage to. But we can't change it every month. And if it is changed
123every month, it has to be clearly stated because then why do we have the public meeting in J in in April for this fiscal year for the public to know what we're going to spend of their taxpayers dollars? So again, I can stand corrected. I'm not the expert on this, but I've done a lot of of multi-million dollar budgets, and budgets don't change, okay? Once you set them for a period of time. So, uh, I I'm willing to take this offline, discuss it. I'm willing to come back here another day and we can go through it in detail. I'm I'm willing to have another meeting. And if you're training me, I won't even charge the public for come to that meeting. Okay? So, I'll come for free. But but I I can't fiscally be responsible
124if I don't know what the budget is. If you tell me the budget's going to change monthly every time we get a $1,000 grant. So >> So Dr. Stallings, for a future meeting, could you um I I don't know if maybe Mr. Cummings or uh Mr. A cool could help us um and provide us some more insight on looking at what we have in our agendas and um reviewing that and just kind of giving us some feedback on maybe do we need to add something or just so we have um transparency and consistency so we all understand to make sure that we're aligned with what's what's required. >> I will do that. >> Thank you. >> And I [clears throat] think that's a good idea and I I applaud you for for that, Miss Gallow.
125Um I I get emotional about this and and get that >> is clear as it can be told. But but I'm passionate about this and I I really want the I really think this school system I really think this county is great. this county supports with its bonds and levies and everything this school system tremendously and anytime the athletics need something, everybody steps up. So, I just want the public to know that we're doing the best we can with that and we're managing to set numbers and we're and we're doing a good job and I think we're very fiscally sound. The state's not knocking on our doors and all that. >> Thank you for cl Thank you for clarifying so you did not frighten our community. Okay. So, um >> well when and it and
126it is important and as we know, you know, different counties within our state have, you know, ran into some difficulties. So, um yes, I appreciate we all want to make sure that we're all on the same page and that we all understand everything and that we are um you know, solvent and we're doing everything appropriately. So I appreciate if you could do that for us, Dr. Stallings. So >> I will do that. >> Thank you. >> And I have one further request is that the numbers that we approved uh back in April, can they be put can they be provided in this breakout like we have on this chart which says total FY budget so that I can see the difference if it's different than what's changed from last month to this month. So I'm
127assuming it's changed since April as well, but I'd like to see what we approved in April broken out into these categories. >> So and then when you provide us with the um kind of packet that you typically do that in October, it it will have a lot all that kind of information in there as well. >> It'll [clears throat] have everything from FY26. Yeah. So it'll be the from last year. Okay. >> It won't have the budget for this year. Okay. >> And I'm assuming what you're doing for FY26 is actual. It's not budgeted information, but it's the actual expenditures and income. >> Correct. >> Like about what thick? >> Yeah. By the time it's all said and done. Yes. >> I have no further questions. I appreciate the time. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr.
128Dolan. Um, did you have after the expenses and the breakouts there, did you have further information you wanted us to? >> Yeah. The next item is a budget supplement >> and it is for a grant that we received uh for some uh employees that went to a conference and they received a stipen for going to the conference. Uh the the total amount of the grant was $2,400 and it was broken out into uh salary supplements and then uh overhead expenses such as uh retirement and uh FIC and Medicare. Next item in your packet are the uh checks that have already been written. Uh those are for some normal bills for uh sewage and water. uh some of our construction projects that we have going on here in the county. Hope gas um looks like maybe
129included some of the items that were approved at the last meeting. Does anybody have any questions about those? I have one question on page five on the checks already written. There are a couple payments um made to Haymon Public Service District. What property do we have that would be serviced by Haymon Public Service District? What would that be for? >> Um excuse me. Um I believe that's for a water bill. Um but I'm not sure what facility it provides service to. Sorry. >> Yeah. I'm just kind of curious that into the county what what um and I'm not sure what what their public service district encompasses. It could be like southwestern water. You know, they're Flemington, but I I live in Prunny Town and they come all the way to Prunny Town. I'm a still
130a Southwestern. So, not not sure. But I just just question that. That's all. >> Okay. The next [clears throat] items in your packet are schedule checks to be written. Um those are for some supplies for the uh for the school system. Uh looks like we have one maybe to air gas for our welding shop there at the uh at the high school. Uh we have some travel checks. We have some items from um for technology. um some invoices that we've received for um for various items throughout the school system. So, does anybody have any questions on those? >> All right, that's all I have for you this evening. Then >> I I do have one question um for you, Mr. Dolan, the uh this was in our packet this week. It says something about the
131financial completed financial statements of the board's October 13, 20 26 meeting. Uh it I I I didn't understand what this was. It was in our packet this week, but it said >> it was just letting you know that that I'll have the completed financial statements to you presented to you on the 13th meeting. So, so >> that is correct. >> Is it >> I believe Mr. Summers that was an indication of typically we had established the end of each month and that particular information would not be available until because this is when the month brings everything to closure. >> Okay. So, this is for FY26. This is closure for FY26. Is that what this is referring to? >> That is what I believe Mr. Dolan was telling us. >> Okay. And it says you you
132Yeah. Pardon? >> Sorry. I was Mr. Mr. W here said something. >> Yeah. Okay. And and that's fine. Just just it didn't say anything anything about FY because it it followed up to say something about a fixed asset report from a vendor and and so I was like, okay, it just got me totally confused. I didn't know what I was reading. >> My apologies. I probably should have put more detail on there for you. And that's there there that is the confusion is that I didn't put FY26 information on there. So >> So we'll get the FY26 at the October 13th meeting, not the one at the end of the month. >> Oh, you'll get two financial reports next month. The FY26 finale and then I'll give you what you normally get on the end
133of the month. >> Okay. All right. That makes sense. Thank you. >> Okay. Did Did you have something you wanted to >> I was gonna answer questions? >> I I was thinking that but I wasn't sure. >> Makes sense. >> Thank you. >> It could you're mentioning with the southwestern reaching all the way to praying town. Haymon suggests the Haymon community which is the norththeast corner of the county and that is not it's reaches this direction as well. >> Thank you for that Mr. Shoemaker. >> Right. If we have no other questions, uh the superintendent respectfully requests approval of the items in the 4000 series. >> So move. >> Mrs. Belner moves. >> Second. Uh, Mr. Summers, is that who it was? Seconds. All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? 5
134Z. Um, so then that moves us to um our 5,000 series. So, we have some u student matters and uh personnel. So, we have some separate student matters that we need to vote on separately. So, let's go ahead and take a look at those. So we have um item 5206 for uh permission for to drive the student to drive themselves to United Technical Center. >> As a reminder to the board, we have instituted the uh double layer contract, one of the school and one with you. >> Superintendent respectfully requests approval of item 5206 in the 5000 series. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Mr. White here moves. >> Second. >> Mr. Taylor seconds. All those in favor? >> I motion passes. That moves us to um item 5207, which is also a
135similar U student to drive themselves to United Technical Center for the remainder of the school year. >> Also has the double lever level contract. >> Thank you. Superintendent respectfully requests approval of item 5207 in the 5000 series. Do I have a motion? >> Mr. Taylor move it moves. I believe Miss Belner was in there, so we'll give her the second. All those in favor? >> I motion passes. Moves us further into our um 5,000 series with personnel. So we have uh some employment some resignations, substitutions, leaves of absence, creation of a job. >> Reminder that number 5216 was pulled. >> Yes. And we do have a item that was pulled in this series. Also, transfers, substitutes, uh substitute resignations, a lot of information to look over here. Since that one was pulled, does that mean
136it will be reposted now? >> Tomorrow. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Superintendent respectfully requests approval of items 5208 to 5234 with the exception of 5216 in the 5000 series. Do I have a motion? Mr. Summers moves. >> Mrs. Belner seconds comments, questions, concerns. I do have a um question regarding um postings and um advertisement of such. What is code? What is the requirement and does it differ between personnel and extracurricular >> for posting? The question is well the so the practice is that >> when a resignation is accepted by the board >> so let's even back it up a step so for example a principal may receive a resignation or it might come to Dr. stings or myself depends on which situation that happens. Um then it gets added to the next available
137board agenda and then once you take action on it or a resignation, a transfer, any any reason that a job becomes open for bid. As soon as the board takes action, it immediately posts the following day after a board meeting and it posts for five days. [clears throat] And then following those uh five days uh usually the Wednesday morning my practice is I send uh the school administration an email of anyone that's qualified certified for the position. So we might have certain positions where people apply that they do not hold the proper certification then they cannot be considered an applicant for the position. So that is why I send that email. The principles are able to see everyone that has applied in frontline, but uh I send them the email. These are the people that
138hold the proper certification. So, please proceed with your interviews and then make your recommendation to me. I typically give them a deadline of when the next board agenda is. Um they technically have 20 days after the posting to fill that job. Typically, they try to get it for the next board agenda just to keep things moving. Uh so [clears throat] then once that recommendation comes in I al I obviously put it in front of the board. How we advertise jobs is a requirement uh in the code that jobs be posted for five days and we advertise them. Uh the state now is part of a consortium through frontline. So the state has uh all of us submit our jobs and then uh there is a website that's at the state level that advertises our jobs
139for us. So, an applicant that's interested in a job all around the state can see all of our jobs that are open. And so, it automatically goes to that state site and then also goes to our county website uh where everyone that's interested can look and see that those jobs are posted. We as a personnel office, that is the code code requirement. That's what we do. We do not post them anywhere else on social media or any other sort. Um, I believe some schools have done that and that's maybe where some concerning questions are coming up. And so that might need to be a clearing up of what that looks like and and what that does. But that is not required. Um, it's not even a practice that I say um I'm encouraging. I I
140think that uh that's what maybe has muddied the water a little bit on a recent situation. Um, I will say that I followed up with um some of the schools really I've seen one school do it. I don't really see many schools do that and the reasoning they do that is if a job has not been able to be filled on a on a a posting or two. So then they try to promote it a little bit heavier that way. But as that happens, that's the procedure I follow every posting since I have uh started in the personnel office. Um I I'm not sure what happened prior to my arrival, but um for consistency, that is the process that's followed every time of a posting. So anytime that information is sent, it goes on the
141next available board agenda. And then every and for public to know immediately following a board meeting, the day after the Wednesday is when jobs post. So if there's an action taken on a board agenda, know that the very next day that job's going to post for five days. And if there happens to be, for example, a day off, like a Monday, it does extend um till to the Wednesday instead of the Tuesday. >> So it's five it's five business days. five business days. >> Just to be clear, those jobs are posted for county employees or >> members of the community. Correct. And and they can go to the Taylor County Schools website, click on current job openings, and that's when that takes you to that frontline page. >> Correct. Correct. And then you can apply
142as an internal or an external applicant depending on if you are a Taylor County employee and you've tied yourself to our county, then you you look as an internal applicant. All that all that does is it has information already filled out for you. If you're an external applicant, you have to put in a little bit more information is all that does. But that's why it's really important that everyone knows it goes to that state site. That's where it's advertised statewide. Um, anyone that's looking for a job in West Virginia, our jobs appear there for everybody to see. [clears throat] >> Sorry, I'm getting a little cough. >> Thank you, Dr. Decker, for walking us through that process. >> Yeah. So, if if for some reason it posted for five days say no one applied >>
143then then at that point does any advertisement happen or what is the process there so then it just repost it follows the same procedure that um so typically I send an email so that when I'm sending the applicants I'll say no one applied we'll repost and so it just is automatically then we repost it for the very next board agenda posting so we post. We post following every board meeting. That's when our postings happen twice a month. >> And that is again a timeline of being able to get a posting closed, getting people to interview or not interview and then getting it reposted again. That's where that timeline falls. So before you email, you're you've already done the background work of checking to make sure that they have the certifications required for that position. >>
144Correct. And then does that just go to the building administrator or building administrators? >> I I copy building administrators. So all building administrators >> all building administrators are aware after the applicants have applied. So are they notified that the posting is up or just they understand that after a board meeting there's going to be a posting of this? >> They know the procedure. Again, most of the time, I will not say 100% of the time, most of the time though, they get the letters of resignation because their employees are are giving those letters to them and then they send those to me. It it's a rare occasion that I am the only person or that doc sometimes Dr. Stallings may get one um and then he copies people on that saying because obviously the personnel
145office needs to know and and the school needs to know. So, but for the most part, the schools typically are who get the resignation letters. Um, and if not, we typically uh try to copy them on that saying, "Thank you for letting us know you're resigning." And and then they know that, too. But yes, so they've all know the process and procedure as to what the timeline looks like. I just actually reminded them of that of the last admin council meeting to make sure they're checking board agendas and postings for accuracy and making sure that if there's something that they don't see or that, you know, we're all human. Sometimes people make mistakes to to be checking my office to make sure that um we're all we're getting everything that we need to get. They're
146good. Believe me, they know because they want their jobs filled. So, they're checking >> and we want those jobs filled as quickly as possible, too, which is hence the reason why we try to get them on the very next available board agenda to be able to take action to post the next job or the next job if we're moving people around. >> Okay. Thank you for that clarification. And then as far as the advertisement, because yes, I do believe that um it was brought to my attention by several constituents that we have advertisements for some positions and not others. So I wanted clarification on that. So thank you for clearing that up. >> On social media, correct? You're saying yes. Yes. So that is a school doing that. That is not coming from our office
147because we do not publicize on it. >> So it's not a requirement. That's what I just wanted clarification. Okay. Any other questions? >> Okay. So we have an open motion on the floor. All those in favor? >> I. Any oppose? Okay. All right, that moves us um to our 8000 series. So, we have um the discussion of data information that has been obtained from our recent steering committee on enrollment and uh building planning uh meetings. At this time, I would entertain a motion to uh move to executive session. Since we're talking about construction plans and building properties, student safety, uh I'll make that motion that we go into executive session. >> Mr. Taylor second. So, we have a motion on the floor to go into executive session. Does anyone have any comments, questions, concerns before
148we vote? All those in favor? >> I. Any oppose? The board will convene into executive session at 8:09. Fine. The board is uh returned from executive session. I'd like to at this time make a motion to that we direct the steering committee to continue to investigate the data based on the steering committee's suggestion, gather any information, and report back to the board through the superintendent's update on October the 13th. >> I will second that motion. All those in favor? >> I. Any oppose? Motion passes. And Dr. Stallings, you will gather that information, report back to us on the 13th. >> I will do that. >> Thank you. >> Right. That moves us from the 8000 series to the 9,000 series for future meetings. So, we have October 13th uh will be our first visit to
149our schools. We'll be going to Taylor County Middle School at 6:00. October 27th at the board office at 6. November 10th at 6, we will travel to Grafton High School. November 17th at 6 o'clock, we will be at Taylor County Board Office here. December 1st uh at 6:00 we'll be at Anna Jarvis. December 15th at 6:00 back here at the board office. Uh January 12th of 2027 at 6:00 we'll be at Flemington Elementary School. January 26, 2027, six o'clock, we'll be back at the board office. >> Are there any additions? Miss Gall, I just want to mention to you and the board that uh as you are aware and you heard at your training of late that there is an initiative to uh regarding the I love West West Virginia public schools and that uh
150each county has been requested to uh consider sending some representatives uh to each of the daily uh legislative sessions >> just to be able to be present as a representative of endorsement of that particular item. And Taylor County's date is fe Friday, February 19th, >> Friday, February 19th. >> Right. And that is at the in Charleston at their legislative session during there. I'm just asking that you be aware of that. Uh we will be trying to send some representatives. Uh it is in my calendar and some others, Dr. Decker's calendar and some others. We will be encouraging them to do that. And I am also inviting you as board members who might be inclined to be available to consider that as well. Um just as a heads up, it's way, you know, it's not till
151February 19th, but that's part of that legislative session. Um, we're doing our, as we've said before, you've heard me say in board meetings that public education is under attack and we are at least trying to remind our legislators that we exist as well. Uh, and I'm not saying something disparaging about our legislators, but I think uh, it is important to have our entity represented as is the case in attempt by all county superintendents and boards. That's what I wanted to add to your calendar. Thank you. >> Thank you um for sharing that very important information. Um >> all right. If there's >> I have one comment to make. >> Yeah. >> Uh next Tuesday at noon, uh September 29th, I've been asked to attend the Rotary meeting and give an update and a talk on
152Tater County Board of Education. So I'll be there representing sort of what we're trying to do. So >> okay. >> All right. So um just want to also since we had the proclamation this evening just thank all of our service personnel for all the uh wonderful work that they do for us. I know we all appreciate them. So at this time I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> Mr. Taylor moves. >> Second. Miss Belner seconds. The meeting is adjourned at 10:22. Thank you all. >> [laughter] >> I think it's your nails.