001And before uh we have the pledge of allegiance, I would like to uh the board would like to have a moment of silence and on behalf of Andy Wolf and Sarah the people Thank you. Um, Dr. Hley, would you mind the pledge? >> Sure. >> I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh, next on the agenda is board announcements. Announcement. >> Oh, I do have tickets to the Martin Luther King Scholarship Committee dinner. Uh, if anybody >> superintendent announcements will be your I apologize. >> Um, sure. Absolutely. Um what? That's okay. How does how does um >> Yes. >> That's okay. Thank you. Um, all right. So, um, Stormmy, our snow dog,
002has shared her reminder a few weeks ago with families, but I wanted to make sure we had a reminder once again about our intimate weather process as we return from break and begin to head into the colder days. Uh the first one through five days that would be called as a closure are not made up in the school district due to equivalent time option being offered through the department of education. Days 6 through 10 would become remote learning days. Those are the five what they call non-traditional instructional days. They're imported in statute for school districts to use. we would be using this sequence of days um prior to having to make up any OSE days that are built into the calendar already. So, we just wanted to clarify that the first five days that we
003would have to call would be not have to be made up. They would just be, you know, district is closed. Um and then days 6 through 10 would be the remote learning uh opportunity that we would have for students. Those days do not have to be made up because they're actually remote learning options. And then anything after 10 days would have to be either taken at OSE days or we would have to have a calendar amendment. So I just ask stay in touch for weather related decisions on our social media pages via text uh via text and app alerts and through our local media partners. And if you haven't already done so today, we did announce that we do have a two-hour delay for tomorrow morning. Uh we want to be able to give families
004as much advanced notice as possible. Uh we are monitoring the weather. Um, and in fact, we have an eight o'clock weather briefing with the National Weather Service so we can stay on top of it. And then of course in the morning, um, as long as there's no other changes, uh, from the weather report that we have this evening, um, we will have road crews out on the roads, uh, checking road conditions, uh, for our school buses and for our families. [clears throat] uh board. Um like last year, we're asking that you fill out the budget request form as much as you can just so we can keep track of everything as we prepare for the FY27 budget. If you have an estimate of the cost of your request, please include that, which we'll have finance
005look into to get a better idea as we start the process of prioritizing those projects. Um we're asking that if you can to return your requests to Mrs. Manuel by January 7th uh so she can compile them and get them to finance for the board to review and to consider on our uh January 15th >> 14th uh board workshop where we will be reviewing um the uh the that's the first meeting that we're going to start reviewing the budget for next school year once we complete our first budget update in Janu at the January special meeting um Mrs. Manuel will reach out like last year to have you prioritize those considered requests so we can make informed decisions as we f further along in the budget season. Um she wanted me to tell you that
006it's coming soon and to be on the lookout. Uh also I wanted to be able um and to and to make a statement. I know that there has been some recent court decisions um that impact different parts of the state. Um, and I I do think that there might be some confusion um out there among some of our families. And so I wanted to be able to just sort of address this uh this at this time. Uh at this time, Berkeley County Schools has not been directed by any court or the West Virginia Board of Education to stop enforcing West Virginia code 16-3-4 or our local immunization policy. Unless and until such a directive is issued to our district, we are required to follow the law as written. The compulsory vaccine law provides for a
007medical exemption and does not recognize a religious exemption. In fact, on September 24th, 2025, the Berkeley County Circ Court entered into an order uh in a matter involving Berkeley County Schoolers that the CVL currently requires the public school children be immunized against certain infectious diseases including chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, menitis, mumps, um dyspheria, polio, reubella, tetanus, and whooping cough. West Virginia code 16-3-4B. The CVL provides for only one narrow exception to the compulsory immunization of school children and that's a medical exemption. Certain children who are medical at medical risk if they take the vaccine can request a medical exemption which must be accompanied by the certificate of a licensed physician stating that the physical condition of the child is such that immunization is contra contradicated or there exists a specific precaution to a particular vaccine.
008West Virginia Code 16-3-4H1. Over the years, and as recently as the 2025 legislative session, the legislature has vigorously debated amending the CVL to attend to add a religious exemption. Historically, and again in 2025, the legislature declined to add such a religious exemption. And while the litigation was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs who brought it against Berkeley County Schools, the statute has not changed and the board is continuing to follow our policy. Again, we await any other court's jurisdiction to tell us otherwise. Um, and so, uh, I wanted to be able to provide that update to the community so they understood why we're why we're taking the position to continue to follow the policy and the state code in 16-3-4. Our next regular meeting will be Monday, December 15th at 6 p.m. here in the Winchester
009Avenue boardroom. >> Thank you, Madam President. Board members, that concludes my update. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Recognitions. Student of the month. This is props from Rosemont. >> Oh, Paul. Yes. >> Good evening, President Long, Dr. Saxs, and board members. I'm Paul Hatter, assistant principal at Rosewood Elementary. I'm here this evening to present um a very special Rosemont Rocket Kate Campbell as the Berkeley County Schools student of the month for December. Kate is in the third grade and has attended Rosemont since she began school. Looking back at her time at Rosemont, we asked each of her teachers to share a little something about Kate and they did it. So, I'm going to share what they what they said. Her kindergarten teacher
010who's with us this evening, Mrs. Jan said that Kate is such a sweet student and so intelligent. She has a quiet demeanor and is a hard worker. She cares about her fellow classmates and is always willing to lend a helping hand even around the school, working with her parents on a cleanup day to keep our school looking nice, pulling weeds or whatever needed done. I am so happy to hear that she is being ready. Her first grade teacher, Mrs. Sarah, who is also with us this evening, said the father. Even as a first grade student, Kate Campbell was someone you couldn't help but notice. She stood out because she was intelligent, funny, and full of heart. Kate approached every task with gratitude and gave her very best effort, no matter how small the job. I
011still miss our little conversations and the way she was always ready to lend a helping hand. Seeing her receive this award fills me with so much pride. It's wonderful to know that the same light she shared back then continues to shine brightly today. Her second grade teacher, Mrs. Brooke Hughes, who is also here with us, said the follow. What a great choice for this award. Kate is very eager to learn and absolutely loves writing long stories. She is an avid reader and thoroughly enjoys books. Her spirit in the classroom is contagious. She is always positive and on task. Couldn't ask for a better student. And finally, her third grade teacher this year, Mrs. Lindseay Bowman, who is also with us, said the following. Kate is a creative thinker who always brings great ideas to our
012class lessons and projects. She treats everyone with respect and kindness and is a great classmate who helps make our classroom a positive place to learn. Kate consistently works hard, stays focused, and gives her best on assignments and activities. I'm very proud of her determination and positive attitude. I think you heard a common threat throughout those statements. >> As you've heard from her teachers, we all think that Kate is very deserving of this award. She is one of Berkeley County's brightest and hardworking students and we know that she'll do great things in her future and we're happy that you got your start with us at Rosemont. We have a little saying at Rosemont, once a rocket, always a rocket. Kate, you will always be a Rosemont rocket. Remember, you started at Rosemont, but I think you're
013going to go on to do great and wonderful things and congratulations. On behalf of the board, we just want to say congratulations. And I think one of the most impressive things is that all of your teachers wrote something and showed up. That really shows us what a wonderful student you are and the example that you're setting for your classmates. Please keep it up. We need more students like you. >> Yes. and Kate, on behalf of the superintendent's office, I want to present you with the superintendent's coin of excellence. This is for a job well done and for such a bright future. So, congratulations and keep up the hard work. Okay, now you have the speech. >> I really thank those heard from Hey, did you introduce your family? >> Yes. >> This is my mom,
014Julia. >> And um this is my grandpa and grandma and my other grand. >> Can Can each of you all stand up? Family members. Let's give Let's give the family a big round of applause. We're gonna have an opportunity for a picture here shortly. Okay, >> thank you. >> Next on the agenda is the caring educator award. Mrs. I elementary. >> Good evening board members. S Nelson is my privilege I think I can do this maybe might have to hold it like this so sorry I hand wrote it so that was a mistake okay it's my privilege and honor to present this month's ACE a caring educator award to Stephanie Nelston Mrs. Nelson embodies the highest ideals of this award. She's kind, passionate, she's deeply committed to her students and school community. Her joyful spirit
015is unmistakable. She's rarely without a smile and she brings energy, warmth, and positivity to our building each day. She has the best laugh. You can hear it every day. Um, within her classroom, Mrs. Nelson establishes a true learning community. Each day, she begins with what we call a morning meeting [clears throat] that sets the tone for meaningful engagement. Students are encouraged to share, listen, and demonstrate empathy. It creates a foundation of trust and belonging within her classroom. Under her guidance and encouragement, her students strive. She blends compassion with high expectations, helping each child grow into thoughtful and wellprepared students. Mrs. Nelson maintains a strong academic focus and a commitment to excellence. Her students clearly understand the learning objectives for each lesson and they demonstrate a strong grasp of the academic vocabulary that's essential to their
016success. She regularly provides opportunities for students to explain their thinking, fostering critical reasoning and deep understanding. In addition to her work in the classroom, Mrs. Nelson continually seeks innovative strategies to enhance instruction and she shares them generously with her second grade team. As a team leader, she's trusted to organize, guide, and collaborate effectively as they review data, share best practices, and make informed decisions that benefit all students. I truly value her opinion on schoolwide decisions. She's thoughtful in her approach, intentional in her planning, and reliable in every responsibility that she assumes. Mrs. Nelson is a leader, a collaborator, and an educator of the highest caliber. She exemplifies the spirit of the ACE award in every way. And um I have Hazel Comr here with Hazel. Um she is one of our second grade students and
017she's gonna come up. She had a couple things she wanted to say about her teacher. You don't have to stand. You don't have stand. Why don't you stand in front? Stand right here now. Right. Right here. >> Miss Nelson is my positive and entertaining teacher. She encouraged me to work hard and try my best. She includes everyone in our class. I am inspired by everything she does. She helps me learn math and time. She makes I reading fun and too she's a really great teacher, too. And I'm thankful she's mine. >> So sweet. Well, I was supposed to have a speech after that. Hazel, you did a great job. That was awesome. >> Um, Miss Elson, it's great to hear a little bit about you today. Um, just your the thank you classrooms and Dr.
018Woods recognized you for that. That was great to hear. Um, and also just the your morning meetings. I think that's a concept every classroom could adopt. Even like even like I wish my business would do that. I mean have people talk to each other again. Just listen to each other. I think that's what we need. So this the camaraderie of your students and >> Hazel is just such a testament. Um, so thank you for presenting to the board as well Hazel. >> Thank you. But on behalf of myself and the rest of the board, Miss Alson, congratulations on being respond. >> I don't I don't think that a testimony could be topped by by what she has provided for you. Thank you for what you do for Berkeley County Schools. It is truly a blessing
019to be able to have educators like you working day in and day out for our students and for our families. And so thank you again for for what you do every single day. >> Right. Right. >> Embarrassing. What's in that box? Don't you said, "Wow." >> Now I say that now she'll drop it. >> Oh, that's very pretty. >> Oh, look at that. That's beautiful. >> You want to introduce your um people here today? >> Governor John, thank you for the moral support you provide every >> He knows. He knows. >> Thank you all so much. It's been a pleasure. >> Next on the agenda is citizen sport. Uh first on the list is Beth McCoy. >> Good evening. Uh we are Ryan at Bart Ferguson and I are going to kind of talk together.
020Um last not last week I guess before Thanksgiving at some point it all blurs together u we had a meeting with all of the South Berkeley principles that are impacted by uh the restructuring um and redistricting due to the opening of Mountain Ridge Primary School. Um in that meeting uh we were looking at the long-term plans for Berkeley County Schools and looking at the best entrance of the whole group. Um and in part of the plan and part of the original survey was to look at um for the school year 2627 redistricting the south end to support the opening of Mountain Ridge Primary as well as um keeping Mil Creek with room 35 and Bunker Hill Valley View and um yeah Valley View Mil Creek. Um in that discussion um it also was brought up
021that the vision for school year would be um to streamline Bunker Hill Valley Hill Creek into K5. Um so within that conversation we also started looking at and talking about if that is the long-term vision and we have to redistrict next year which is a good thing because we're opening a new school. um can we look at doing both of them next year? Um so this evening we're going to kind of talk to you a little about some of our thoughts we put together collectively um about pros and cons and how that will impact what we feel um as our schools collectively and then individually as individual schools. >> Good evening. On tonight's agenda, we are invited uh to discuss the potential boundary changes that could impact Bucker Hill Elementary, Valley Elementary, and Mil Creek
022Intermediate and the transition to a K- through5 model in the 2627 school year or consider waiting till the 2728 school year. As leaders of South Berkeley community, we collectively comprise a list of advantages and challenges to moving forward with a closer timeline than originally discussed. We would like to share a few of those thoughts with you so that we can take them into consideration when making these this important decision. It affects our students, our families, our educators, and the long-term direction of our district and our South Berkeley community. Again, just a little bit background me. I'm Ryan. I've been blessed to serve as an educator in some capacity in the South Berkeley community since 2005. I've been principal primary since 2013. And it's a it's a wonderful community. And I think regardless of the decision
023made um we we've been lots of changes in the last 20 years. We can figure out roundabouts. We can figure out the decisions that we make in the best interest of our students. Uh one thing for um the upcoming school year, Ter Elementary School and Inwood Primary School are closing. Our students are going somewhere next year anyhow. We're going to a different school. And the thought of redistricting next school year and then potentially those students have be to be redistrict again and then two years later redistrict to the middle school. I think it's a lot. I think it's a lot on our students. Transitions are tough and I think at this point I would say if we're going to do it and that's the vision of Berkeley County Schools, do it. And then the community,
024the educators, everyone will rally together and we'll make it work and we'll be successful. That's what we do in South Berley. your part up there. >> Good evening. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to share our thoughts with you. I'm Barb Ferguson. I'm the principal at Deerstown Elementary School. I've been there since um 2018. And so, while it is a sad to see our little school closing, um it is exciting what is coming for our students. And so I've been um the one who gets to share some of those positive advantages of making that transition now um as opposed to waiting until the next school year in 2720th school year. I need my eyes so just a second. Um so transitioning to the to the K5 next year would streamline the changes for families
025like Mr. A just mentioned. um you know the the idea of having three changes um is overwhelming for some families and students. So if we could streamline that, make that happen, make it maybe just two years in a row instead, um that would uh make a whole lot of sense for families and the consistency for education. Um the K5 model is a stronger consistency. Students develop long-term relationships with their teachers and staff. they benefit from the overall school populations and that receive that continuous academic and support services from the teachers they've made that those connections with. It allows us to streamline the resources like our libraries, our playgrounds and our ex extracurricular activities. It also promotes that convenience for families when all of the the families K5 students um attend the same school and simplifies
026our parent involvement with the PTA, PTO, um with our volunteer opportunities and again really promotes that strong sense of community. Um we thought about the vertical planning within each school uh where um right now we we have the we enjoy the K one and two getting to talk to each other as they move on up. It will be K one two three four five getting to speak to one another making sure that instructional practices and best practices continue from classroom to classroom. Um it would reduce those transportation transfers. I know Mrs. employ touched on that a little bit, but um that's a huge thing for especially our little ones having to transition from uh move from one bus to another bus at a different school location. Currently for me that is at Mount Ridge Intermediate
027that gets to be uh very overwhelming. We've mastered it but um it you know again it would streamline that. Um it would keep students from changing schools in multiple consecutive years. The proposed boundary realignment was already designed with the K5 model in mind. And so the shift would allow each school to uh assume that full responsibility for early literacy under the third grade success act. And uh as I know all of you are aware, we're seeing more and more and more students facing trauma and mental health concerns. Remaining in one school for a longer period of time provides stability and emotional support. Um we looked at some research from handover from from John Hattie. The handover um research supports that fewer transitions improve the students since uh community and performance and um indicated that teacher
028efficacy is the most significant factor in achievement. And then we of course know that John Hag has done a lot of research and studies on that teacher effectiveness. if we have that collective teacher efficacy in a building um with six grade levels um that could just really be huge for student achievement. So I am through with my part of the presentation and I'm moving on to Mrs. McCoy here. >> Thank you for listening. And um along with any change, you have to look at um challenges as well so that we know what we're up against and how we can tackle that um in a positive direction and um you know look weigh out all of our options. So some of the challenges um that we came across looking at making this move immediately um in
029preparation for next school year was less preparation time. Um it does raise a concern for, you know, from a human resources standpoint, it would we would have to do some staffing and reshuffleling. Um also with special education services, furniture, um library materials, and making those curriculum adjustments, all of those things are doable. Um but we would just have less time to prepare for that. Um the immediate change could potentially create a disruption for some families um that just were realigned from third grade to Bunker from Bunker Hill to Mil Creek this year. Um I with it's a very small amount of students that are involved in that um we movement. Um but there is a potential where some students just joined Mil Creek for third grade and would be realigned back to Bunker Hill for
030fourth and fifth grade. Um so those are some things that we have to figure out how we can support that group of students. Um the realignment of the dis with the district lines and the transition to K5 would add complexity complexity to Muscle and Middle School. Um currently Mrs. Surah has one feeder school that's Mil Creek. Um with this realignment it would she would move to three feeder schools. Um which honestly is currently what we have at Mil Creek with three feeder schools. So once again, it is doable, but it does take some planning and thought um process to process out what we're supposed how we can streamline that in the best interest of our students. Um, another thing that we need to consider are some current policies and procedures that we have in place.
031Currently, our K2 students use Seesaw um and they are a standardsbased um curriculum reporting um with their report cards. 35. Uh we use Schooly and um give letter grades. If we're going to have K one through or K through five in one building, that may be something that we want to consider and to look at is our greeting practices and our communication platforms so that it is the same for all families. And then finally, shifting um only a small group of schools within our county to K5 would create a temporary inconsistency um with grade configurations across the entire county. Um we would only have three K5 schools next school year as opposed to the current K2 35 um with the other other schools within Berkeley County. Um, this decision does require a balancing act between
032making short-term challenges with long-term stability and improvement for student experiences. Um, aligning the K5 move with in 2026 alongside the redistricting that needs to take place for Mountain Ridge Primary would create major changes in one year, but it would also create a stronger continuity for all of our students over a longer period of time. Whatever timeline we choose, our focus needs to remain and ha always has and will be on doing what's best for our students in the long term. Um, we must support our teachers through this change. As Mrs. Ferguson said, um, they are our number one indicator in student success. So, um, those are just some of our thoughts this evening. So, thank you for an opportunity to share those with you. And I think, um, next, I don't know if Mr. Baker
033or Mrs. Fry is next on your list, but >> Mr. Baker's [laughter] Mr. Baker's on our list and I neglected to say that you had three minutes. So, >> okay, >> taking all your three minutes. >> Free [laughter] to balance my time, Mr. Baker. >> Nine minutes. So, you have >> So, I'm by myself. I'm by myself because they wouldn't let me play with them. [laughter] >> She's a bully. >> Oh. recorded, right? >> I don't have that much to say. Anyway, it's to me it's a numbers thing. Um, I want to I want Bunker Hill. Um, I think we we want to be able to um help Mil Creek. I mean, Mil Creek is bigger than um Muslim Middle School right now. And the way it was laid out to me in that meeting,
034it made sense as far as the numbers, how they divided everything. We would end up with about 400 students and Valley View, a little more than 400. Everybody would be kind of even. And we would utilize our whole building and and I I think that is is key. And also transitions. Um the the kids we would limit the amount of transitions they have to make. Um, we did have third grade last year in our uh school and we use Seesaw and we use Schooly for the for grades. Uh, so, you know, we can we can do all of that. Um, but for me, what convinced me because I'm not really a big cheerleader for either one. I I came from counties where Ben and Raleigh County where they had K5 and it worked well. I
035think there are arguments for both sides. uh but I think as far as this county is concerned uh is concerned I I think as far as the numbers are concerned this is the best way and we're moving towards it like they say if we're going to move towards it let's just do it rip the band-aid off and let's let's just do it and not put our kids through all of those uh different changes um but I I think that it it would be the best balance for numbers if we had three uh K5 schools I know it presents some complications I you know I talked to uh Beth earlier today as I was talking about primary they might not want to teach intermediate but she was saying intermediate might not want to teach primary so
036we know that it has that that discomfort to it but I think when we talking about doing what's best for kids in Berkeley County and the best use of our resources I think that's the way to go. >> Thank you. >> Not fancy like them. >> Thank you. and I'm the wrap-up to this group. Um, the early years are not simply the beginning of a child's academic journey. They are the foundation of who our students will become as learners, friends, and teammates. In an elementary setting, something magical happens. Students do not grow in isolation. They grow together. They learn to say please and thank you. They learn to take turns, to share crayons, to solve disagreements without hurting feelings. They learn that every classmate has a voice that's worth listening to. And they learn that
037sometimes they themselves are capable of learning something new every single day. When students of multiple grade levels, which we're talking about, share one school or in my situation, one campus, those lessons multiply. Interactions between our primary students and our intermediate students teach responsibility, empathy, and leadership in ways that no textbook ever could teach a child. Multi-grade environments create opportunities for mentorship. Younger students learn that asking questions is normal and healthy. Older students discover that teaching someone else can be just as powerful as learning something themselves. And everyone begins to understand that a school is part of a community, not a collection of single classrooms. A child who struggles to read in second grade might find encouragement from a classmate who patiently helps them sound out words. And a shy student who might have confidence need
038to find confidence through a buddy or a shared art project with an older peer. These moments may seem small, but they teach children how to support one another and how to ask for help when they need it. The truth is learning is not only academic. We all know that it's deeply human. It is built on trust, encouragement, and a shared experience. When students grow up together in a K5 environment, they are not just learning multiplication and phonics. They are learning how to be kind, how to collaborate, and how to celebrate differences and uplift one another. Those are the lessons that are going to last. Those are the relationships that shape the children into capable, compassionate adults. So this evening, as we think about our schools and the environment that we want to create for our
039students, let us honor the value of a connected multi-age grade level community. Let us continue to foster spaces where children learn from one another, where big kids become role models and little kids become future leaders. Because when students grow together, they don't just become smarter. they become stronger individually. >> Thank you. >> Next on the uh sheet is Brook Eldridge. So I'm Broo Eldridge. Um as I've met some of you previously and my comments aren't scripted. Um they're straight from the heart. I have children who attend Pekken Elementary. one of which was um told that he had to be unenrolled because of his vaccine status, although he did receive a religious exemption from the state department um for the West Virginia Department of Health stating that he was um permitted to be in school. um
040it specifically states on his religious exemption and um the recent ruling from the judge that's come out, Judge Crawl, has said that the court has found that the jurisdiction under the Equal Protection for Religion Act as well as rule 23 has issued a statewide declaration and if necessary will provide injunctive relief to the entire state and under both of those acts that they have the right and the ability to do though. He further goes on to state that in West Virginia code 53-5-4 that a circuit court has general jurisdiction in awarding injunctions whether the judgment is enjoined um or not in within his circuit. In layman's terms, what that means is that his decision to allow for students who have religious exemption to attend school applies to all 570 students within the state of West
041Virginia who have received religious exemptions, including my son. And so I'm here tonight to ask the board um two questions. The first question I would like to address with the board is did the direction to um make the decision whether or not to honor religious exemptions come on your own accord or did that come from the state board of education? Would anybody like to answer? This is just your citizens form. You speak to us but we don't code. >> They can't answer and they won't. >> It's code and you're are you on this list? >> I'm not. You're supposed to be a Christian. You're a Christian man and you're allowing this. >> Um, would you ask for him out? >> I'll leave it. I will be running for your position by the way. >> That's
042fine. >> I don't got out of school and you're a Christian man. >> Please take him out. >> You can always talk another time, Mr. Left. Go ahead. >> This is not the proper place for that. Go ahead. >> So, I would like to ask the board who issued the directive for the board to make that decision as to who can honor religious exemptions. Was that made by the state board of education? >> Ma'am, we at since it's born, we can't have conversation, vote on anything that you bring up. We just And I wrote the original law that gave people a chance to speak. Before that law was passed, people couldn't even come in and speak to us, but we the law was changed. But it's just a one-way conversation right now and we are
043not allowed to have a dialogue or to vote on anything at this point because it's not it's not within the parameters of Sus's point, but we are listening to >> we could be brought up in contempt. >> It's under code. So we're listening to you. If you whatever you want to continue to say, you're free to say. >> Understood. So my second question that you can answer to yourselves in your own heads is why not approve for religious exemptions to be honored per a judge's order that's been issued with a statewide injunction to include all 570 plus students who have received religious exemptions which is less than 2% of the statewide population. Again you can answer that in your own head if you'd like to respond to me otherwise at a later time. You're certainly
044welcome to do so. Um, we actually have a student who is sitting here in the front row tonight who went to school on the first day of school, her senior year. Senior year is supposed to be a time where you can go and have your parking spot painted. You can join clubs. You can do all different kinds of activities. And she was told that because of her vaccine status and her religious exemption that she would be denied all of those things this year. Those are all missed opportunities. I understand that you're here as educators and that you are here seeking an ability to provide for the best education for students in Berkeley County. And I feel very strongly that that's not being done with the stance that you are taking against students who have received
045religious exemptions and philosophical exemptions within Berkeley County. Those students are being denied, as the lady before me said, an opportunity to have education amongst their peers. They're being denied the opportunity to have those experiences. And as the lady before me said, students don't learn in isolation. They learn amongst their peers. And this is isolating a very small percentage of students within our county. And it's wrong. And so tonight, my plea to the board is to reconsider your decision, reconsider your stance on how you continue to move forward because this does impact families within our community. families who have gone through the right protocol like myself, the protocols who have applied for and received a religious exemption which states that my children are approved per the West Virginia State um Department of Health and that they
046are permitted to be in school currently. They are not he is not permitted to be in school and that is a violation of truency. It's a violation of the order that has been issued by the judge and quite frankly it's a moral violation which I hope that you will reconsider um when you go back and reflect on my conversation and my addressing with you tonight. It's wrong for our students. It's wrong for our teachers. It's wrong for those who are being denied the ability to interact with their peers. the ability like the girl in the front row here to have those special final senior year moments. And it's not okay. And so I'm here to be the voice of many families who have reached out to me with their concern and for one reason or
047another aren't able to be here tonight because the board needs to hear the voice of concerned families within the community and that your decisions to honestly violate these orders does impact families and it does impact families on a very negative manner. And so my plea with you tonight is to reconsider your stance because religious exemptions does matter. The courts do feel that it matters. The courts feel that it um is something that applies at a state level under the Equal Protection for Religion Act again under code 23 as well as the West Virginia code 53-5-4. So um that's all I have for you. feel free to answer the questions that I've asked rhetorically. I'm sure you have my contact information as well and I'm happy to receive email correspondence with you further if you'd like
048to do that outside of the setting. Thank you. >> You don't have an email address though. >> I'm happy to put it. You're you're I' I've been in communication. I'll write it before I leave tonight. Um >> he has it. >> I thought so, but I'm happy to write it just so everybody has it for their reference moving forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next on the agenda is monitoring items operations update. Executive director of communications. >> Well, actually before Mrs. Tropman comes up, I was going to ask if Mr. Kacer could come up just briefly uh because we did have uh something out front that was on was being shown for the board and for the public if they wanted to see it. So, you just provide a quick snapshot of what we have
049and and why we're presenting. Absolutely. So, I'm very excited. We got our first bus that Bernick County has ever purchased with air conditioning and along with and Melissa Powers is asked to be at the next training session because I'm going to make sure it's as cold as ice in there. >> But, don't invite me cuz I don't want >> It was hotter than blue blazes when I drove that time. So, >> and the exciting thing was I was thinking about it when we when we received it. Um, you know, it's going to help a lot in bus runs. However, you got to remember we're open and closing doors a lot. So, it's going to be cooler, but the perfect thing for it is our summer runs because we run in hubs. So, we're going to
050be able to get that bus cooled down. Kids get on and take them to a school and it's going to be cool on the bus at the hottest time of the year. I think that's the biggest advantage we have moving forward with these buses. So, we got the first of 14 last week. Um, now Mr. Martin can tell you. I think I scared him to death >> cuz he was walking across the parking lot and I just found this out, but we have a speaker on the outside of the bus that we can use the PA system for inside. >> Did you get him good? >> I said, "Hey, Mr. Martin." So, really some new features on it. Now, when we when we get all of these, our bus drivers are going to have to
051be trained on them because they have a lot of new features on them. The buttons are all different. We have a digital dash. Um, as Mr. Martin can attest to, you can't even see the camera heads going going down the sides. And they're brand new technology, three 360 fish lens. Um, and they record in the dark. >> How many cameras are on the bus? >> Uh, eight. >> Is that both inside and out? >> Yes, we have there's a camera facing both ways on the outside, six cameras on the inside. We also have two uh forward and rearward facing cameras, one for our GPS, one for our 247. When were the other when we're getting them as spurts? >> The next couple weeks they'll they'll they have to go through. We have our first our
052company that we buy from, they install our cameras and our GPS. That way when we get it, it's turnkey and they're inspected at that lot. So as soon as we get them, we give them to a driver. >> Mr. Key, just for the public to understand, how many buses do we have on our fleet running every single day? >> Every single day is 243. >> 243. And we have 305 total uh whispers for those. >> So we have one of the largest transportation. We have the largest >> we have the largest in the state. Yeah. So >> that means that there's a lot of operational logistics. And of course keeping the fleet current is also something that's very important. So when the public hears 14 buses that's that is a traditional purchase that we have
053to do to maintain the fleet on a cycle of basically every 12 years being replaced. >> Yes sir. The bus that's out there will last for will serve 12 years worth of students minimum. Minimum in 12 years. Yeah. >> Some of those buses were 20 years old. >> Yeah. We don't we don't have any bus over Yeah. Yeah. We used to we well that's what you used to have to do. >> Yeah. >> Um until Virginia upped up their up the game for the funding. But uh we don't have anything over 14 years. >> Uh well first we're under monitoring. That's why we're having this conversation, citizens born. Um, my question for you is, uh, the primary and intermediate students when you're doing the bus rooms, they're both picked up at the same time. >>
054So, the children who are going to the primary near me at schools on the bus are K through five students. >> K through five. Yeah. Right. Besides, the public doesn't realize when they think of the two school the the present configuration, >> they don't realize the children are all together at some point with just the driver. >> Yes. >> Unless it's a special ed, >> right? >> They have a driver at the front of the bus who looking in the mirror and also looking ahead as well. and various children and I'm sure they're separated. >> They're separated. Yes, that's a policy we have. >> But they're on the bus together >> and and and just to piggy back on that, Mr. Murphy, there are some of our primary students that have to transfer buses at
055the intermediate school to get onto another bus to go to the primary school. And that was what Mrs. McCoy was Mrs. [clears throat] McCoy and Mrs. Ferguson was sort of referencing. And that that was something we were going to actually look at also because when you when you transfer I I'm I don't want to say yes or no on transfers because there there is a use for them. Um however you get into a situation where when a student does transfer you have to have eyes on them as supervision even if it's not at their school. The other school has to have supervision over their kids. >> Thank you. >> I love that we've got a lot of security coming in with this. you know, the safety aspect of cameras and stuff. I know that that's
056>> that's going to be pivotal for our administrators when they have to review things with our bus drivers and what happened on the bus >> on our technology. >> Huge feedback. >> We that, >> you know, we've had that for years and it really is a help with our s with our GPS when we incorporated their cameras. We can take almost a live picture if something happened on the bus and send it to the principal. That's great. >> Yeah, it's really cool. It is awesome. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate you doing that on the fly. >> Oh, no problem. Hey, I thought >> uh now this is right. An overview of the communication practices and protocols of work. >> Hi, good evening, President Long, Superintendent Saxs, and members of the board. Um, I
057do have a couple slides. >> Oh, I didn't. >> Oh, okay. That's okay. I can talk through it. Not a problem. Um I am here to just um >> only >> give an update on our um our communication channels. Um and this is in alignment with the superintendent. So um first we have our mass communication system, mass notification system, um also known as InTouch. With InTouch, we um utilize um the app, we utilize our website, and we um utilize text, email, and phone calls. So, if you can just scroll down a little bit, I'll share um some data with you. We currently have 20,000 app downloads. Um just pretty significant. That's great. Um app um pushes go out instantaneously. You can sign up to follow Berkeley County Schools on the app or in the individual
058schools or all the schools. Um our website um averages um daily about 4,000 users. Um that sounds high, but keep in mind our staff links are on our website. So our staff um uses our website to to access internal documents um and log into um SharePoint from there as well. And then um our other three communication channels are text which go out to um primary and secondary guardians to staff and we also have a community list. Anyone in um and around the community just like the app can um can sign up to receive messages from the district or schools and email. Same thing goes to primary and secondary guardians staff and community list. And then calls we do reserve for attendance um or emergencies. So we try to avoid um making phone calls um except
059in those instances. Um on the next page is our social media. This would be you know kind of a secondary form of of communication. We currently have 200 or 25,000 followers on Facebook. um just they these demographics are women um between the ages of 35 and 44 and we average about two posts a day um on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram has almost 9,000 followers, same demographics, although the second set um the next highest group is a little younger population as you might imagine and we post the same content there averaging um about two posts a day. our learning management systems. We have two and that's where um students can access um grades, activities, updates, um coursework, course materials, um grades, messaging um with teachers and that is Seesaw for grades preK through two and schooly
060for grades 3 to 12. >> Why the difference? Why the difference? Um this was adopted by the district years ago. Um the school that you product goes from K to 12. Um I think Seesaw is a little maybe more um interactive. It's not quite as mature looking as Schooly. So maybe it's just easier to use for primary families. I'm not sure why Schooly wasn't adopted districtwide. I don't know. It's it's been quite a while though, >> right? >> Um and then we do try to consolidate information just for um ease of receiving information to um to not let um have information coming in from so many sources that things get lost. So in an effort to do that and consolidate information, we started a district newsletter about a year ago and that goes out monthly
061to parents, staff in the community. And then uh we started a staff newsletter maybe about six months ago that goes out monthly um internally. And then just a few months ago we started a board recap which was a suggestion of um Miss Powers and we um do kind of a recap. Miss Mo puts that together. The day after a board meeting, kind of highlights some of the um action items from the meeting, spotlights um our recognitions, and then we provide a link to the um the board docs page of our website where people can go to um watch the um the video of the board meeting and look at all the documents from the board meeting. And then the next page um a couple new initiatives I wanted to share. We are launching a chatbot
062on our website. Um this is a typical chatbot like you would see on any other website. A little um box will pop up um at the bottom of the screen. Ask the user if they're looking for something have a question, you know, if they're we can help direct them um where you know where they need to go. the the point of the chatbot is really to provide um another level of customer service and make sure that people are getting their questions answered by the right people in the right department. If that what the chatbot will do is um just search all the content on the district and all the school websites to pull the information. If it's not there and it can't be found, it will connect them um via email to um to the
063department head or deputy superintendent or principal or you know, whoever that contact is based on the um the question that was put in the chat box. So, we're going to kind of soft launch that in December and then we will communicate and do a full roll out of that um in January. Um the next thing I wanted to share is something um new called um and it's just kind of some guidance um to share with families about where to take questions and concerns. There was a policy um that was up for review um cycle a few months ago and um we tabled it. It has been recommended um by the attorneys for abolishment and this this sort of replaces it but also just expands it so that we Is there any way we can pull
064that? It was in the other attachment. >> Yeah, it was in the very first >> I think that Yeah, >> there you go. So this is broken down into um whether the question or concern involves a student or a particular classroom, a school or a district. And so as you can see, if the the issue, the question, the concern um involves a student or classroom should go to the teacher first, then the principal, and then a dis the district administrative team, um then deputy superintendent, superintendent, and then um and then the board. The school process goes to administration, school administration, and then district um administrative team, and then follows the rest of that path down. And then if the um the question or concern involves the district as a whole, it would go to the
065depending on the topic would go to the department of specific dele leader and then follows the rest um of that path. And then you know I have noted at the bottom safety concerns of course should always be reported immediately to law enforcement or the principal. Um but that staff and families and community members are always welcome to share concerns with members of our board. Um, we just, you know, ask that the the process for that, just so everyone is aware, is that the board will um will make an attempt to first direct you to the appropriate staff person. And it's really just because in most cases a question or concern can be solved um at at the at the ground level whether that is in the classroom in the school um with the departmental leader
066before it needs to escalate. And also, you know, sometimes there are just more pieces to the puzzle that need to be captured and collected um before that um question or concern kind of escalates up through um through that process as shown. But we do we did want to mention that that the board is still um you welcome to receive those types of input. Um and then you know of course we do request that information um or thoughts are shared with us over phone or email. And um we hope that this in conjunction with a chatbot will help reduce the time it takes to get in touch with someone um for a question or concern just because we are ensuring you know we're trying to to connect the right person um you know depending on what
067the nature of the u the issue is. >> The chat box is for um parents >> anybody anyone who uses the the website um has access to the chat box. >> Okay. this document everybody knew that >> the um this document will be posted on our website but will also be um provided to principles that they can share within their schools in their newsletter in their welcome toolkit um for the beginning of school any new students that join um a school just so they you know those families um are aware of the process >> questions from M when is the chat is the chat box >> it's not Yeah. Um we're going to soft launch it probably you might see it pop up um next week sometime >> and then um we just want to
068ensure that the chatbot is um drawing from all the correct places and all the sites. We've been doing sweeps of all our websites to be sure that you know the links are up to date and that it's capturing things correctly. But we want to before we do a, you know, more global roll out of that, which would probably be after Christmas break, um, we just wanted a few weeks to, you know, have people try it out and see. >> Will you guys be after it launches, will you guys periodically be looking at the chat >> that is done and conducted and just to make sure and confirm, but also that [laughter] >> there isn't some other conversation stupid on >> well chat box. It does it does have analytics along with it. So remember it
069is it is primarily a customer service tool. So um so you know we can look back to see that a question has been um you know answered fulfilled closed out reassigned um to someone else and we can see what that period of time is. So you know we are um we are saying that in 24 hours someone needs to be contacted back even if they just say I've got your me I have your message I need to research that a little bit you know um within 24 hours they need to make contact but we will have a platform um where we can look at that. >> What about concerning language in the day and age that we live in? So there is a filter in the chatbot that it will not receive messages that um
070are triggered by certain words. >> Okay. Like I had >> Yeah. And it also and it will also notify the person who was attempting to do that and it doesn't comply and that you know um the other thing this was actually a very important um uh project for me. Um, and I want to thank Carla and her team for really taking a look at how we can accomplish this. One is is that, you know, is is we want to be able to have quick uh uh information for our families when they come to our website and, you know, if they're having a hard time navigating where they can locate the information. That's what this chatbot will be able to do is help get the right uh answers to families uh or employees for that matter
071in in a very quick quick turnaround time. And if it can't answer the question based upon the information that it has, then that's when it's going to direct it to one of our district leads. Uh everything here though is logged. So you know if there is a concerning message or if there is something like that, a threat or what have you, we will be able to have that tracked. But as Mrs. Tropman was is indicating, there are analytics also to the platform. And what that means is that a after the let's say after a school year, we could go back and they can run analytics on what were the most frequent types of questions that we were getting, what you know, what was the the the different topics that people were asking questions on needing
072a resolution to um you know, was it special education related? Was it the the the IEP process? Was it weather related? >> Was it weather related? Was it about you know, board meeting schedules, you know, whatever? Or transportation or food service. Okay. and it will help us categorize things that maybe we need to do a better job in putting in front forward facing information. >> The other thing it will do is for the constituents that do, you know, reach out to us and are asking us questions once we're able to hopefully resolve that issue, it has an has the ability for them to rate the quality of the communication they had with our staff. And so because we do need to make sure that we have a customer service mindset. We're serving the community, we're
073serving our families, and we serve our employees. And so from the district level leadership uh accountability standpoint, making sure that um that communication is timely, it's accurate, and that um we are are are doing so is is very important. And getting that feedback. Now, there's going to be answers that we provide that, you know, we might have been timely, we might have been accurate, but someone still doesn't like it, and they may rate it really low, but that's okay. Um, at least we have a a barometer to be able to measure how how well we are responding to folks and that sort of thing. Um, so it will definitely be a qualitative uh resource for us um to figure out how we can continue to to serve the public and our community and our our
074staff in the best way possible. >> Thank you. the uh in the p I haven't tried this recently but in the past and I've personally tried to find a policy technology and it it was difficult and I couldn't find it in our policy. >> Um so that is somewhat recently. We've made a lot of enhancements um around the um ADA accessibility um compliance on our website over the past year and the way that the um the board um documents are input into boards now does have a really good search function. Um, so there's a little search bar at the top left um of of the um ordocs page of the website where you can search for policies and then it gives you the option to download and you can see the you know the whole
075full policy. >> Jackie, do you remember this? >> Oh yeah, because I couldn't find many policies myself. I still have difficult time but I wasn't you I was just using the website. I don't do that. >> Well, it links to to um and then in the upper top left is a is a search bar >> and anything that's in the title or the description I think of the policy um should pull it up. >> Okay. >> I see this manual but I didn't heard >> I'm doing a training for you guys. You also got a PDF early last year. I'm resending to you to show you how to use it. But if you need me to go for work, >> I usually just text Dr. schooling. [laughter] >> That's my sort of >> Yeah, but
076I my concern is we're having trouble >> too. And I have people text me and say, "Can I you know, I can't find, you know, where Paul's lot. I can't find it either, so I can extend." When Miss Daniel moved to two board, it'll even search for words in the policy. >> It doesn't just search the title. It search actually policy itself because it's in a format that's standard throughout. It's not in a word or a PDF. It's actually in Gord. So, it can search itself. >> Well, that that's very helpful. >> That's been about not quite a year or so. And so, the other prior stuff Yes. It was just by name, by letter only. >> Yeah. >> But this is a much different search tool. I haven't heard recently because I had a
077chart use. >> Thank you. >> Um, sure. So, two more things um I just want to share quickly on um our communication channels. Um the next is um social media informative versus celebratory post. Um we're going to start making more of an intentional effort to keep social media social um less um informative and more celebratory. Um information tends to get um misconstrued, misinterpreted um in the comment section of informative post and sometimes it um it detracts from from the message that we're trying to share. And um and also and it happens occasionally on on celebratory um post as well, but we really just want our social media to just be social. We want it to be light-hearted to be fun and we want people to utilize all the communication channels that I've shared with you
078this evening. That is our primary mode of communication. Um we will continue to post informative um posts in um for example weather um safety any safety related messages calendar reminders um parent teacher conferences things like that. But um but we are going to disable comments on the informative post. That way um the message there is no chance of the message that we're trying to get out being misinterpreted or um contradicted or any kind of fusion confusion to take place in the comment section. So I would say it's kind of twofold. We're going to focus more on celebratory and a little less on you know informative but our standard informative posts related to some of those topics that I just shared um will have comments disabled on them. And we still of course have a lot
079of channels that if people have you know questions or um you know about any post that they can um that they can certainly contact us for that. >> Will we still be using social media um to promote vacancies that we have within the county? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yep. We will. And actually, I love some of those posts because they're really engaging with people that say, "Oh my gosh, that was my we try to use our own staff um in our ads. We're doing a recruitment campaign right now and we have um photographed maybe six or seven staff members and it's really nice to see people say, "Oh, that's my bus driver or you know, I worked, you know, I worked in that school, you know, whatever." So, that's really engaging and that is kind
080of a self-promotion celebratory in and of itself even though it's a job posting. >> Plus, we'll still be putting out along those lines um like when our next recruiting, hiring. >> Oh, yeah. Testing. >> Yes, absolutely. Okay. >> Did we get pictures of the new bus that we have with the AC? >> We're going. We're going to We haven't We haven't photographed it yet. And I know the bus drivers are going through some training um with all the new technology on the bus, but we definitely will. Not that we need the air conditioning right now. >> Not right now. >> Um but yes, and then the last thing I wanted to share is um I did kind of an assessment of all our communication platforms. So as I me or mentioned earlier with learning systems,
081we have Seesaw and we have Schooly. But then we have opportunities for staff and teachers to communicate with students and families outside of that. And that would be clubs, athletics, um sometimes counseling, sometimes homeschool that doesn't utilize or one of our learning platforms. And that assessment um showed that we had a we had a very large number of platforms in which we were utilizing to communicate with families. it puts us at risk. They're not vetted. They're not secure. They're not archived. You know, we can't we can't access those records. Um and we need to really reel that in. Um you know, athletics has many different platforms that they're using for, you know, for different um things. Same um same with clubs. And we're I put a work group. Actually, we have our first meeting on
082Wednesday. And it consists of coaches, teachers, athletic directors, principles, um someone from counseling, homeschool, and really we we need to just make a list of kind of what all if we could have one platform that covered everything. I I realize that there are some elements to athletics with scheduling that may make one um platform harder, but we're going we're going to try to have one platform. Ideally, when um a student enters Berkeley County School, we should be able to say to the parent, "This is how we communicate with you over Seesaw for prek to 2, schoolage through 3 to 12." Our, you know, our mass communication system that I message, the app, you know, um text, email, and one other product, and that would encompass anything else. Um, and in fact, there are some states,
083I think it was Kentucky, um, did just um, pass a law requiring um, schools to consolidate their communications platforms and that if they if a student or parent receives a message outside of their sanctioned communications platform that needs to be reported. Um, so you know, we really, um, we we need to just reel it back in and we need to, you know, um, I have two products in mind that I've kind of already vetted and that we can sample within this group, but we need to, um, ensure that we can check all the boxes for everyone, but also um, just provide a little more structure around the tools we're using to communicate with students and families. >> Other questions? Thanks, Qu. Thank you. >> Would you close that door, please, and lock in the thermostat?
084>> Oh, that feels really good. >> Where's Jim? Jim. Jim agrees. Thank >> you. Next on the agenda, uh, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. Next is action items. get to that boundary change uh options and the potential configuration adjustments for leading schools into Muslin High to discuss possible action. >> Dr. School and Scott, is he online? >> Yes, he is. >> Yep, I'm here. >> Can you speak again, Scott? >> Yep. Can you hear me? Testing. >> We're going to turn you over a little bit. Okay. Testing. Want me to sing a song? >> You sound like you're in Florida. [laughter] >> Hang on. >> All right. We'll try it now. >> Testing. One, two, three. >> That's
085better. That's better. >> Okay. >> Oh, that's perfect. Okay. >> Good evening, President Law. Members of the board, uh, this evening, we had Scott Leo with HPM with us this evening. Uh following our last board meeting, uh we received some information from some of our administrators about some concerns as well as some other ideas that they might be able to present to the administration regarding some of the boundary changes that were put out. So, we put on hold uh the original information uh regarding the surveyed appearance. until you heard this information about a couple positive alternatives uh that could be used as well as an additional option that we would like to put forward for your consideration this evening. >> So Scott, if you could begin. >> Okay, great. Um I'd just like to kind
086of start out with we've had a lot of you know I've been listening the whole time. A lot of public the public comment kind of took a lot of my presentation away so I'll go through parts of it a little quickly. Uh, but everything that you see tonight, it's already been pre-recorded. We've got a survey that'll be launching as well. Um, so anybody, you know, can get all this information, uh, regardless of whether they're attending or watching the meeting now, we'll have all that information. Uh, and we also have a online school locator, which I'll demonstrate at the end of this, too. And so, uh, just, uh, gota move this or it's going to drive me nuts. Hold on. There we go. Uh just to kind of reiterate the timeline, uh we're going to launch
087the survey uh either tonight or tomorrow. Uh it will include maps and an address locator with uh all the videos embedded just like we did for the CFP process. Uh it's going to be spent specifically to uh Yardstown, Inwood, Valley View, Bunker Hill, Mountain Ridge, uh Mil Creek, and Muscleman communities. We'll have that survey open through the 9th of this month and then we'll [snorts] come back with uh more discussion and action on the 15th. Uh so just to kind of reiterate why we're here. Uh we've as we've heard before, Mountain Ridge Primary is opening the fall of 26. Inwood will close at the end of this school year and will be rebuilt as a prek center to serve students in the area. Its estimated completion is the fall of 2027. Uh the options that
088you're going to see will determine where students will go for the fall of the 2627 school year. Uh Jared'stown will close at the end of this school year, 2526, and all students will be re reassigned to Mountain Ridge Primary. And that's going to be the same in every single option. Anybody who's at Jaredstown now, they're going to be at Mountain Ridge Primary. Uh the original plan was for Bunker Hill to keep its prek students until Inwood opens in the fall of 27. And based on conversations that we had with uh school leadership, it is possible to move that prek, you know, roughly 100 students from Bunker Hill to Jaredtown for the 26 27 school year until Inwood is open. This would allow Bunker Hill to convert to a K5 earlier, basically next school year uh
089in 2627. And that's really why we're here. It's the desire to hey, if we're going to go K5, let's do it next school year instead of waiting in a year. and you know having to shuffle kids you know all around >> this chart here >> Scott I apologize I just no >> worries >> I I know that um the conversation you know this evening that um what has been discussed is that there's the possibility that in several years we would be revisiting the the the great configuration to possibly consider going to K5. None of that had been decided or or or um definitively determined, but we knew that it was a possibility that we would be having that conversation around the same time that our our first K5 would actually be opening up, which is
090at Falling Waters. And so bringing that topic up to say, okay, do we want to, you know, consider great reconfigurations based upon the best utilization of our buildings also would have occurred, you know, two years down the road. And that was really what preempted some of this conversation. So I just wanted to clarify that no decision had been made that that was definitively what we were going to do other than it would be brought up around that time when we have to do the boundary changes for falling waters. And I just wanted to clarify that for for everyone listening. >> Yeah. And and just to kind of take it back, the reason why we had, you know, one set of option, you know, one option that we presented to you a couple weeks ago, uh,
091what really changed was that ability to move the Bunker Hill students into Jaredtown. And that's why we're having this discussion now. Uh, and so again, we haven't made any decisions. We want to get some feedback from the community and bring that back to you to make the final decision later this month. Uh but just to kind of start out, this is review. Uh this is our current feeder pattern. Uh Jared'stown, Back Creek Valley, Mountain Ridge, uh and and eventually Mountain Ridge Primary. Uh they would feed into uh Mountain Ridge Intermediate, Mountain Ridge Middle School, a Valley View. Uh this is currently splitting. We've got some kids going from Valley View to Mountain Ridge Intermediate and then to Mountain Ridge Middle. We've got some kids going to Mil Creek and Musma Middle School. And so that's
092one thing that we wanted to try to address through this. So again, these are our current boundaries and these colors are going to be consistent throughout all the options that you'll see. And so the blue is the Bat Creek Valley, the yellow is uh Jared'stown and what will be Mountain Ridge Primary. The green is Valley View, the red is Inwood, the purple is uh Bunker Hill. And if you look at the orange outlines, that shows the middle school, intermediate school boundaries. And so this is that split that we were talking about. The northern half of Valley View comes to Mountain Ridge Intermediate and Middle School. The southern half goes to Mil Creek uh and Musman Middle School. uh we did this little comparison between uh K235 and we did you know we are asking some
093more questions on the survey. Hey please share any other insight you have you know how do you feel about K235 versus K5. Uh this just kind of gives a couple of the tradeoffs. You know we've got you know the challenges that are going to be in pink. The benefits are in green. Uh we haven't prioritize these. Every one of these is going to probably hit everybody a little bit differently as far as what they value, what they think is most important. Uh so transportation, uh for K235, we got longer bus times because most routes, uh do both pickup and drop offs to both primary and intermediate schools. Uh as we talked about earlier this evening, uh K5 will have shorter times because routes would only go to one K5 facility. It's also more convenient for
094parents with children that span K5 because they'll all be in the same building. uh staffing. K235 is going to be more efficient. Uh there are more students per grade in each building and it is less likely that you get a couple students that push you over into having one more section. Uh and that quite the opposite with uh K5 less efficient. There are less students in the building per grade. Uh it is more likely that a few students in a grade could push you over to another section. Uh school culture and a split model. Responsibility for student growth is shared across two separate buildings which make it more challenging to maintain a single continu continuous accountability structure uh for student learning outcomes. For K5 because staff will keep the students longer uh there's more time
095to build culture. There's also accountability for performance. This allows staff to build long-term relationships and to develop a deeper understanding of each learner's needs. And for facilities, uh existing facilities are configured for the current grade configuration. And then K5, some intermediate schools may need minor modifications such as changing a furniture to accommodate students in lower grades. So again, just to kind of, you know, give everybody a little background on both of these and and the trade-offs there. Okay, so option 1 A, uh, this is exactly what you saw a couple weeks ago. This creates a boundary for Mountain Ridge Primary that pushes east all the way to the railroad tracks in some places and to Winchester Avenue in others. The boundary is very close to Valley View and Bunker Hill. Uh but both Bunker Hill
096and Valley View will feed 100% to Mil Creek and then to Muscleman. Uh the benefits of this, it spreads the impact of change among all schools. Uh it's the most compact boundaries for transportation at all levels. Challenge is it requires changes in intermediate middle school. It impacts a large number of students. Students that are in close proximity to Valley View, Mil Creek, and Bunker Hill would be assigned and transported uh to the Mountain Ridge campus and it would require double moves if the direction is to move towards K5 after the 2526 school year. And so this option 1A maintains the current K235 configuration. We have Valley View and Bunker Hill aligned with Mil Creek and then Muscleman and then Mountain Ridge Primary and Back Creek Valley aligned with Mountain Ridge Intermediate and then Mountain Ridge
097Middle. And then this map kind of shows what those changes look like. And so the area that's just outlined in yellow, that's the Jared'stown that would just move to Mountain Rids Primary. And then you can see we end up just pulling these kids all the way from kind of those railroad tracks down here across from Bunker Hill and then to Winchester Avenue once we get north of Inwood. And that's to really fill up uh Mountain Roots Primary. And then Inwood backfills Valley View. And so that's that half of Inwood that's that's east of the railroad tracks. They would go to Valley View. And then for uh intermediate middle school, we kind of have the same corresponding changes over here. Uh this area is already at uh Mountain Ridge Intermediate and Middle. And then we have
098this area, the northern half of Valley View would go into uh Mil Creek and Muscleman to clean up that feeder pattern. And then here's what the final boundaries would look like in this scenario. >> Mr. Wright has a question. >> Sure. I'm not sure if it was on this map or not, but I know hearing from some uh community members that uh with the tracks or whatever they're even the example that you gave said some students almost live right across the street would be bust somewhere else. Uh even though they're right their neighborhood right across from the school. Um I guess that's one of the biggest things we need to be concerned about your stiffness. >> Yeah. as we as we kind of went through these. I mean, we're not we're not busing anybody who
099is eligible to walk. They all would have busing to Bunker Hill, uh, Mil Creek, and Valley View. Um, it possibly less convenient for those parents that aren't using the bus to just drop their kids off. But as we looked at this, it was like this was a way that we could kind of get compact boundaries and not have to have uh you know, as you'll see in one option, we have you know, students in Valley View literally driving past Valley View to get to Mountain Ridge. And we can we'll talk about that as we get to that option, but this kind of shares that onus of uh you know, moving kids into Mountain Ridge among all the schools and not centering in just one. And Scott, this was the this was the plan that had
100been discussed at the last meeting. Is that right? >> That's correct. >> This isn't what is being suggested. Well, >> yeah. It's just one of four options now. >> This was what this what had been presented at the last meeting. >> I just didn't want um the listening audience to discussing all that, but that's what is being recommended by you said. >> No. >> Oh, no. No. This is just the option. There's four different options and we haven't made a recommendation on any of them until we get feedback from the community. I just wanted to clarify that this was the original one that had been presented to the board at the last meeting. That's all that clarification. >> Okay. Uh we've got two different data sheets. This is the complicated one. The next one is
101the easy one. So if this one overwhelms you, that's okay. We've got an easier version next. But this just kind of shows you how many students would move uh from each school to each school. And so Valley View, we'd have 70 students moving from Valley View to Mountain Ridge Primary. 23 from Inwood to Mountain Ridge Primary. 86 from Bunker Hill to Mountain Ridge Primary. And we've got Mil Creek 150 moving to Mountain Ridge Intermediate. And then Muscleman Middle, we've got this is kind of that flip-flop. Uh we've got 169 moving to Mountain R or to Mountain Ridge Middle for Muscleman. And then this line down the middle, this kind of gives you the students that aren't moving. And then we have what our total live-in enrollment is over here, our forecasted live-in enrollment. And then
102it gives our gives us our total number of students moving. And so if we uh if we look at this kind of across the board, we've got o over a thousand students moving, but that includes rising kindergarteners, uh you know, fifth graders that may or may not be grandfathered and allowed to finish. That's just the, you know, that's the worst case scenario. That includes like, well, I thought I was going to go to one school. I haven't set foot in the other one, but you changed from the school that I thought I was going to go to, so I'm impacted. And so that's again it's going to be consistent between all of the options but I wouldn't necessarily fixate on the number that we're moving a thousand or 1100 kits and then just this just
103kind of shows the summary. This shows our current live-in utilization and then our forecasted uh utilization. Uh the only number that kind of jumps out at me here is we didn't do much to help Mil Creek. Mil Creek's still at 111%. Uh but this is one of the situations where our lower classes, you know, the the incoming kindergarten, first and second grades in that area are smaller than the existing three through five. So that will naturally kind of come down over time. I think it'll drop by 50 kids in two or three years. Uh Scott, I think it's also important to point out for, you know, um the public understanding is that when we talk about school capacity, which is something that I think we all realize and see on a daily basis in our
104schools, is that our our schools have, you know, capacity issues. We're we're busting the seams many of our facilities is that um what the school building authority considers full utilization is actually 80%. It's not 100%, it's 80% because you have other other spaces within those square footages of of a facility that are needed for you know utilities and so on and so forth. So when we talk about utilization you know full utilization uh at capacity is actually at 80%. And if you look at the current livein utilization of those schools um they they are all well most of them are well well beyond that 80% or approaching 80%. And and so part of the challenge is is that we need to be able to balance the enrollment from some of those facilities as opposed to
105well we're just going to throw another building up for example uh which is probably going to cost you know 30 to $40 million. There's a way to there's a way to address capacity through some of these boundary uh modifications possibly. >> I have a question is the capacity for Back Creek 150 or 175 It's 175. We just took prek out of the equation. >> Okay. >> I saw the two different numbers though. >> No, that makes sense. So, >> okay. >> Dr. Sex, >> if parents have problems understanding their charts, >> during the survey period, will there be a way for a number or a place that could answer their inquiry? Um, well, there's a couple different things that we're going to do. I know that like for staff, we're going to actually be having
106an opportunity for staff to answer questions with HR. Um, I believe it's tomorrow evening. Um, but we can also make sure that uh we have a an email address set up so that if they have a question that someone can follow up with them based upon a question. Um, Carla, are you back there? I am. Carla can make sure that in the message that goes out that there is a uniform uh email address that people can respond to with questions if we can follow up with them. >> And Mr. Murphy, uh there is a video and uh embedded in the survey as you go through it. I explain all the charts. >> Oh, thank you. >> Concern I have is there's so many charts here. I just don't want that. >> It's a lot of
107information. >> I'm already confused. I can't imagine what somebody else's going >> and that was one of the reasons we wanted to be able to have the simplified chart so but if someone wanted to really dig in they would have the opportunity so to do so but I think that's where Scott does a a video tutorial through the the presentation where he can explain those numbers someone can slow it down replay if they needed to there again if they if if they really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty all they would have to do is email us we have a phone call and we would we would help walk them through um >> those questions they they have. >> Okay. All right. Option 1B very simply is the K5 version of 1A. And so what
108this one does is the boundary for the Mountain Ridge is exactly the same, but Bunker Hill, Valley View, and Mil Creek would all convert to K5s that would feed into Muscleman. And so again, spreads the impact of the change among all the schools. most compact boundaries. Uh this would not require any double moves because we're going to K5 next year. Uh again, it does require changes at middle school. This moves the greatest number of students overall. Uh and again, the students that would be in close proximity to Valley View, Mil Creek, and Bunker Hill, uh they would be reassigned and transported to the Mountain Ridge campus. Okay. Okay. And so at the K2 level, again, this is exactly the same. Over here, we've got all these areas moving over to Mountain Ridge uh primary. And
109then over here, it's a little different because we have Inwood basically converting to Mil Creek. And so we've got a little piece of Bunker Hill moving to Mil Creek, larger piece of Valley View moving to Mil Creek, and then again that uh eastern part of Inwood moving to Mil Creek to establish that K5 boundary for Mil Creek. And then this is why we end up moving so many students in this scenario. Uh we take the students that are currently in Mil Creek in that Valley View area and they go to Valley View. Uh same with this area down here, but they would go from Valley View to Mil Creek and then Mil Creek to Bunker Hill down here. And so that's that situation we talked about where we might have a student that just left
110Mil Creek or they just left Bunker Hill to go to Mil Creek in third grade that they would come back to Bunker Hill for fourth and fifth grade. And this is what this boundary would look like. And so again, Mountain Ridge Primary, Intermediate, Middle School is the same in both 1A and 1B. 1B again is that K5 version. So, Valley View in the green, Mil Creek in the pink, and Bunker Hill in the purple. And then looking at this, uh the total number of students moving is uh 1441. If we don't count Jared'stown, uh it's 1239. Uh but you can just see the the large number of students kind of moving around in different areas. And I'll move to the next slide to just kind of show you what this looks like. Uh I I
111think this one starts to be starts to balance a little bit better. So we've got uh Mil Creek, for example, that's currently at 112 as a 35 gets down to 78%. Bunker Hill's a little higher. You know, it goes up to 386 students. Uh but we've we're comfortable with that number and again it will go down a little bit over time but this just kind of balances everything out a little bit better uh compared to option 1 A. Okay. So this is option 2 A and this is lovingly called the Beth McCoy option. She's still there. Uh so this uh what this does very simply is this extends the boundary that exists for mountain ridge intermediate and middle down to the primary in the valley view area. So if I go to valley view but
112I go to mountain ridge intermediate and mountain ridge middle I'm now going to go to mountain ridge primary. Uh and then the inwood students would very simply just back fill into valley view. Uh this is a minimal amount of impact. There are no changes at intermediate or middle school because of that and it keeps all the Inwood students together. Uh challenges, primary students would need to travel past Valley View to get to Mountain Ridge Primary. Uh this would also require double moves if the direction is to move towards K5 after the 2526 school year. So this is still a K235 option. And so these are the changes, very simple. Uh that northern half of Valley View uh moves to Mountain Ridge Primary. Uh so they do kind of drive past Valley View to get there,
113but they're already going there for intermediate middle school. And so the thought was is that they're used to that community anyway. Let's just make it simple and if and keep them keep those students at that at that Mountain Ridge campus essentially K8 and then all of the Inwood students then backfill into Valley View and then there's no changes at middle school or intermediate. The boundaries stay exactly the same. And then this is what it looks like at the end. And so this boundary over here in the in the yellow is Mountain Ridge Primary, intermediate and middle school. And then for intermediate middle school, of course, it picks up that Back Creek Valley section. And then Inwood just simply moves into Valley View. And then looking at the changes here, uh, again, I think looking at
114this makes this chart a little bit easier to understand. So, here's all 158 students going from Inwood or from Valley View uh to Mountain Ridge Primary. Here's our Inwood students, 126 into Valley View. And then here's our 202 from Jared'stown into Mountain Ridge Primary. Total number of students moving is only 486. Uh and if we don't count Jared'stown, it's 284. And then here's our overall uh numbers here. Uh again, we we've got that number that's a little higher at Mil Creek. It basically stays at its current enrollment number uh because it's unchanged. Uh but again, we do anticipate that that will go down over time, but you can kind of see everything else is pretty well balanced. Okay. And now keeping with our theme, option two 2B is the K5 version of this. And so
115again, uh it continues to extend that boundary uh for Mountain Ridge Intermediate to Middle to the primary in the Valley View area. Uh in this case, the middle the the Inwood students would move into Mil Creek as a K5. So still uh you know, not a lot of impact. Uh no changes at the middle school level. We would have changes at intermediate. We'll get to that. and it does keep all the Inwood students together. Still the same challenge of primary students would need to travel past Valley View to get to uh Mountain Ridge Primary. So, here is the here's our changes here. Uh so, again, the same change up here would go from uh Valley View to Mountain Ridge Primary. And then you can see we're forming the boundary here for Mil Creek uh as
116a K5. And so we'd have Inwood into Mil Creek and then we'd have a section of Bunker Hill into Mil Creek to to form that Mil Creek K5. And then here's those changes. Uh at 35, we'd have Mil Creek going back to Bunker Hill down here for 35 and Mil Creek going back to Valley View up here for 35. And then here's what the final boundaries would look like. Again, same thing kind of on the Mountain Ridge side of this. We just have that Muscleman Middle School side split up into those three K5s. the Valley U in the green, Mil Creek in the red, and Bunker Hill in the purple. Then here's our changes here. Uh again, the inter, you know, these are going to be pretty similar to the previous one. We just have
117a lot more kids moving going back at the intermediate level, which bring that number up. Our total number of students moving is 979. 777 if we don't count Jared'stown. And then from a a utilization balance standpoint, this is really good, Back Creek Valley 149. You can see all really well balanced. Okay, so that's the four options. Again, this is our overall timeline. Uh again, this survey will be open through the 9th and I will pop over now and show you what the school locator looks like. And so this is the the boundary locator that we've created for this. Uh you can put in any address in the area and it'll give you what the assignment is or you can just simply click on it. Of course, it loves to zoom. So any point I can
118click on and it'll load. It'll give me what my current assignment is and then my proposed assignments for each of the options. And so the >> that's after that's after you put your address in. Correct. >> That's after you put your address in. That's what it'll do. >> And I'm gonna >> Yep. >> Go ahead. No, go ahead. Finish off. I I'm going to try to I think there's a way that I can have like the names light up in red if it's change, but as it is right now, you just kind of have to look at it and compare your current assignment to what it would be. Well, what I was what I was going to say is the principles are having a those uh South Brookwood principles are having a meeting tomorrow night
119with staff from here. Well, >> and that and what I was going to say is that once they are fairly understanding of what the changes, boundary changes might be perceived as and what these options say that they could also help answer questions. >> Absolutely. that I feel the parents would be more comfortable with plus have the option to email anybody in here and get an answer. >> Yeah, actually that's a really good point, Madam President. That was actually something that that when the principles and I met um two weeks ago and we talked about the fact that we were sort of adding another layer to the possibility of how we were going to address the the the new boundary for Mountain Ridge Primary was is that you know as we as we open up this
120other opportunity um and we make sure that we get community feedback and family feedback and employee feedback as to what they think is uh the the the the more for uh the more um pref preferred option for the board to consider um is that it's really incumbent upon the principles to be able to help um lead some of those questions and and answer questions of of their of their you know of their community and their families because they are their most trusted individual in those communities. And um you know obviously here at the district level we want to be able to answer as many questions as possible as well. Um and uh provide insight as to well this is this is what this would look like. This is what that would look like. And of
121course you know the whole reason we do public feedback is to one gauge which which option you know is maybe the more favorable across the board but it's also to elicit any kind of feedback that oh well maybe there is a tweak that's needed. um and and so we can hear that and make some of those potential tweaks uh before bringing a a final recommendation to the board um you know at the middle of the month. So um that's that's the the emphasis behind um making sure that we talk to our staff. Then of course the other thing is is that any of these configurations could have an impact on how staffing has to occur for next year. And we want to be able to answer those those questions of this the staff members as
122well. Does any board member have a question for uh Scott? Dr. Sack or Dr. School? I >> have a quick one for Scott. Um I I had a few comments um from some folks that um so with you with HPNM, did you guys do as best as you could to keep um on either side of 81 doing these districts? >> Uh we tried to. The issue was in in kind of those first scenarios, um, we just couldn't get, uh, Mountain Ridge Primary full without going east of 81. I think that we'd have less than like 200 students in there if we didn't go east of 81. Yeah, if I remember correctly, um, Scott, part of the challenge there was is if we were to do that, it was really Back Creek that was throwing the
123the the kink in the in the whole plan is is that Back Creek was sort of, you know, when you think about that district was taking so many had so many students and so that was the that was it would have been severely underutilized. >> Um, and so that was, you know, one of the major considerations that we had. Now, in the first iteration which was presented to the board, which I think is 1A, you know, we're not at 81. We're actually right along um 11 there. Is it 11? Right. 11. >> So, it's either 11 or the railroad tracks depending on where you are. >> Yeah. And um in the in the new sort of updated version um that is K5 or primary intermediate um it actually goes to the interstate. Correct. It goes
124to 81. Well, it basically maintains what the current boundary is. >> Right. Right. >> So, it uses 81 and because it keeps this, you know, the Bunker Hill area completely unchanged, like we're going all the way across 81 up here to grab these Valley View kits to do it. >> So, it's just it's accomplishing the same thing. It's just doing it in different ways. Like, >> yeah. And I and I know that on the original iteration, which was option 1A, some of the concerns that have been brought forward was is that you had families that would be li living right across 11 from Bunker Hill that would be districted to Mountain Ridge. And you know, the the new the new option uh 2A and 2B addresses that. Um, but it does it also means that
125there's a trade-off because you're going to have some students that are going to have to drive uh potentially by uh u >> Valley View. But I do think I don't am I correct that it's it's it's probably a few a smaller population, but those students would be going to the middle school anyway. >> They would be district they would be districted to Mountain Ridge Middle School anyway. And so later in life, >> they're going to be driving by the school regardless. Yeah. uh it just and and and so you got to sort of pick which one is is the most desirable in order to again affect the balancing of the enrollment >> schools that are so far over capacity. I mean the problem is is that Mil Creek >> is unsustainable. Um and that's why
126I think when we had done you know some studies in the past especially our CDF that's why there was another intermediate slated for construction in the south end. Well, we don't need us we don't need to add a $40 million facility in the south end if we could just balance enrollment and and so that's that's part of it. >> Yeah. And really keeping for Mount Ridge primary at that 80% capacity. >> That is exactly >> that's what we're really really balancing >> and that makes at the end of the day. >> That's right. And there will still even under this solution um 2A or 2B there will still be room for growth at Mountain Ridge Primary. You know, I mean, it it's I don't know. Did you see what was its capacity at, Scott? Under
1272A or 2B? >> Which school? >> The new Mountain Ridge Primary. >> Oh, yeah. I think it's it's like [snorts] >> right around >> 80. >> Yeah. >> 2 A 2B is 80. >> Yeah, it's the same. 360 kids. I have a question. >> Can you go over to 2A? I'm sorry. Can you go Yes, sir. Can you go to 2A, though? >> Because the 2A does address Mil Creek a little bit better, though, >> because if you looked at Mil Creek, it was at 112. >> And I believe it still. >> It's 112. >> It's still 112. 1B. That's >> 1B is the one that really helps. >> Oh, I see. Okay. >> Quite a ton. >> All right. Thank you for that clarification, >> Mr. Scott. First, um I I read the comments
128and else is countywide. I think he had two over 2,000 responders and I and >> that's was from the first survey >> from the first survey >> the facilities >> and I'm glad focusing on the impacted area and not outside the area but and uh do we have students enrolled in the all these schools who are not residents of the area. They're either using their grandmother's address or the parents are transporting them in. >> I don't know that he would know that. >> I I can tell you yes, at Mil Creek, a lot of it is due to daycare or um you know before school and after school care for parents and some employees that um you know live outside of the district but work at Musman Middle School, Musman High School for example. So
129>> are these number so are these numbers included in this uh enrollment pattern? >> It's only the live-in students. >> So everything is kind of equal across this. We're just using the students that live in the boundaries. >> Well, what about the >> So any transfers in >> any transfers included that that is not included in these numbers because they live outside the district. So if you are a family that is transferred into the Milk Street for example, you're not included in this number and >> they're home school number >> they're figured into their home school number and should any of the you know the problem is is that in any of these scenarios it's still going to be based upon capacity. And so if there is room in a fourth grade classroom at Mil
130Creek, you know, and they can accept a transfer, then they can still accept a transfer. It's the same issue we have at PTOAC and at at Spring Mills Primary and and Spring Hills Middle or Intermediate is is that we're we're so far at capacity, we can't accept transfers in anymore, you know, and I'm not saying that that would occur under all of these scenarios, but the numbers that are included in just these scenarios are just the in district residences of those schools. >> And my my second comment, it's just an observation. I appreciate the superintendent talking to the principles. >> Yeah. and a suggestion to uh curtail the amount of interruptions for having one plan one year and then coming back the next year if if the community is board chooses to be able to
131be our >> well we have a great we have a great principal team and um one of the things I'm I'm really proud of is that that um we have I think a lot of comfort with each other when there's an issue were a challenge to bring it up and um you know sort of this open door policy and I just I thank them because they were the ones who as we had gone through the facility planning process we had skirted around you know do we want to consider K5 you know so on and so forth and so I just appreciate them saying hey let's let's take a step back let's try to look at this a little bit more in depth so that there is a little bit more continuity and we could look
132at really making sure we're making decisions on what's best for students and we're giving our families the the the best options in order to make those decisions. So, I appreciate that. >> So, Dr. School, you have anything to add? This this survey will go out tomorrow, the 2nd through the 9th, >> correct? >> And then the information will come back on the 15th >> um as retained and then it'll come to the board on the 15th. >> I would expect there's going to be a lot of questions from folks. I mean, if it took us this long to comprehend, understand, and ask the questions that we have. And just for us to get it, I I think we're gonna I I love you principles. >> I don't think they'll be able to answer those. >>
133They'll be able to. It's just going to be a lot. Do we have an FAQ or something that we can provide to like I I don't know. This is just I'm throwing it out there. Do we have an FAQ or something that would help? Well, like I said, this whole presentation is videoed as parents go through this the input survey. >> Okay. Plus, they can put their address in. >> Yeah. So, they'll have time to play with it, they'll have time to play with it to figure out how they're going to be individually impacted. What I would also say is that if as we're, you know, as we get a couple days into it, if the school, if a school would feel like they have enough uh requests for us to come out, we we
134would be happy to come out, you know, uh and have an evening time to to be able to address concerns or questions so that people have the best information possible. You know, >> how long will the survey be out? >> Till the 9th. >> To the 9th. >> Okay. Second. Okay. So, a full week. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Soation for this one if that's okay. Um so madam president board members um I recommend authorizing uh the superintendent to present updated boundaries and grade configuration options to South Berkeley school community for feedback during the December 2nd through the 9th input period and provide a summary of that feedback to the board for consideration ahead of the December 15th action. >> You've heard the superintendent's recommendation. Do you have a motion? >> I I'll
135make that motion. >> Second. Second. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank Scott. Uh >> absolutely. Anytime. >> Uh next on the agenda is the possible uh discussion discussion possible action on file KF donations to schools. U Dr. Sax is Dr. involved in that. >> Just me. I gave him I gave him some reprieve on that one. Um, yes, Madam President, board member, this was reviewed by our council. Um, and some uh, you know, they they made some modifications because it was quite an outdated policy. Um, it was out for public review September 23rd through October 25th. No comments were received and um, I I'd be happy to enter any questions before making a recommendation. Yes, sir. Uh, one of the problems I've seen, as I said here on the board, uh,
136in the past is athletics and you have a ruling by the SSAC, which all of our high schools are members, the principal >> and and they uh, it's usually an eligibility. saw it happen in Berkeley County where a player was playing for one of our teams. I'm not going to get into detail, but uh the player was ineligible and the poster club went to court. The local courts ruled that the play team should be whatever ruled in favor of the team, >> but then it went on to a higher court and was ruled in the negative. But what happened that I was concerned is a booster club can go into court and they'll drag the school board who may not agree with the position into court and you have booster clubs here. Now I know
137this is giving physical property to the school system but I just I just looked at this. I thought is there a way to to incorporate that issue? words. It I think it says here that the booster club would have to come to the super uh before purchase or installation. I'm just wondering if if if this this action noneducational group um this this thing gives them requests is for individuals who are not part of the system to give you know microscopes or or some sort of supportive equipment to the school system. But when a when a group goes into court that's part of that's not part of the school system that drags us into the process. Should we uh should we have some sort of uh checkle system or something? I I think the SSAC system
138is a fair process for controlling something that could really get out of hand as far as athletics is concerned. And I just I just worry that, you know, this this drive uh unchecked drive that draws us into something that we should have a say before we're given this package. >> Yeah. Well, first of all, I I think that your concern um is on two separate issues. This one as it relates to gifts and bequests. if a booster was to raise money, you know, our concern of making sure that that there is someone from the district that goes through the approval process is things like when they want to build a a storage building, >> you know, and so in order to build a storage building, they want to put it on a piece of our
139property and uh maintenance and operations needs to know where the gas lines are and the water lines and well, if you build it, then we would have to be responsible for maintaining it. And is that something that we based upon how you want to, you know, get something to us that, you know, we're not going to have to go in, you know, after a year and fix it because it's not the code. Those are the reasons that it's that that it's specifically with this policy. I think your question, and maybe Mr. Buts, I don't know if if you would want to clarify this uh for the board, but boosters operate under two different types of oices. they they operate under as their own 5013C where they go through their nonprofit federal status or they can
140operate under um the opaces of the of the actual physical high school if it's really high school there's Berkeley we don't have any middle schools do we that are that operate boosters so but but at the high school level then they could also operate under the opice of the school where the school handles all the the accounting and recordkeeping and so on and so forth um as a as a nonprofit entity, I don't know that there would be any ability to control the operations of that entity. Um, however, in the scenario you bring up, um, I would have to look into that that situation. Um, because usually the way that appeals are are handled through eligibility is the SSAC handles that appeal based upon the appeal of the student. Um, and the school has to
141also sign off on that appeal and whether or not they agree that that the appeal is merited or or warranted. Then it goes before the SSAC board and they their governance board actually determines whether or not the appeal can be granted or denied and so on and so forth. Now, obviously after the SSAC rules, someone could take that and file some sort of civil action having a a judge compel, you know, eligibility. Um, but that would be on the that would be on the standpoint of the student. And so I'm not aware of of a booster taking that stance. Now, maybe they're providing moral support, but the booster actually filing suit, I'm surprised that they would have any kind of jurisdiction over that because it's because it's like so I would have to look into
142that specific situation to see what would be possible. But Jim, did I did I say anything incorrectly there? >> No, I agree. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Well, last year in the state playoffs and it didn't happen in Burkh, >> but it happened in Burk County before that a couple years ago, but we had two Burket County schools playing in the state. Mhm. >> So if we got brought, you know, if we got pulled into something, we would be working against we might agree with the SSC. I I usually think that they're right on spot on >> except for when they build all these, >> right, >> when a tried to incorporate other parameters, >> but >> we would have been in a dilemma if it had happened last year because we had been working for
143one school against one of the other schools. But that's not that wasn't a gift. You thought we told >> I've just I've just I saw booster clubs brought up that idea. >> I've seen booster clubs go go on on a charge and usually your local judge will rule maybe the athlete. I saw that at the >> Well, luckily in Berkeley most of our football coaches uh have a camaraderie with each other. So, you know, but there's but I have been in situations u in other places where there's not and that that same situation has occurred. Um and that's where you just defer to the SSAC for their their final ruling. But as it relates to boosters, I I probably need to look into that one to understand the logistics a little bit better to make
144any kind of definitive recommendation there. >> Any other questions about the policy? Uh, I need a motion to approve uh policy KH as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. >> Next on the agenda is the ming contract for FY27, Mr. Dyson. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Uh tonight I'm seeking approval to renew the million contract with a maid in the shade. Uh we advertised the million for bid in the spring and maiden the shade was the qualified bidder uh to take us through the this 2025 season. And so I'm seeking approval to renew them for year two of this contract to do our ming. And if you say approved, then if they they were to every single week throughout the entire million season, it's $491,358 and 20 cents. So
145that is why I'm here tonight. Seeking approval for the mayor. >> That's a two-year contract. >> No, this is year two of potential three-year contract. >> You're year one of two-year contract. Uh I think I asked Mr. Tyson this earlier in the week. um a week or so ago where Thanksgiving u seemed like a lot but when we discussed how much mowing they do um how many times they do it and all the acreage we have a lot >> it's not as not as much as you think they >> questions I had a question obviously probably too late to even look at now and obviously we're looking at year two of this this two-year contract. Um what would be the difference or cost comparison to employing our own folks who would do the lawn mowing
146and the plowing of our facilities during the winter time when it's the off season. I'm just trying to figure out because it's a lot of money. >> Half mill. >> We did that Walmart. >> I don't remember when that was done from when >> I was on the board. >> We we were not able to keep those individuals. Many of them we couldn't get enough people to play out. We had to hire contract out and then when we didn't have enough people to mow >> well >> and the custodians were going >> as it relates to the loading >> since I mean previously you know custodians would have taken care of the matter >> sure >> but because we have gone this direction >> we have sold off and got rid of all of our
147equipment >> now there's a few pieces of equipment uh for custodians to have snow plows on to do the sidewalks Sure. Sure. >> But essentially, we would have to >> reacquire >> we have to rebuild our our supply that sort of thing. >> Kind of like how we're doing an out, you know, there is an output for for certain costs. I guess I'm just trying to figure out because there is purchase. Hold on. I'm just trying to figure out like what is our co >> Listen Listen. I'm asking the question, okay? I would not be fiscally doing my due diligence if I didn't ask this question according to the last board training that we had. >> We've been through this before with year one when we discussed all the >> why don't we continue to
148do it. That's where I'm looking at is I'd love to see some level of cost comparison to see what that would look like. Some sort of and I know that there's not necessarily the ability to do hard numbers, but even of some level of estimate. I know that means work >> that one of the issues was with >> I'm just trying to figure out what the you know are we doing the best we can >> was was the plowing trying to get enough people to plow um not just our people because we didn't have enough of them our the main estimate >> I I hear all that I I understand I'm just asking It's a he >> it's just something he can do. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I'm sure. >> Could you have a
149thought of 15th? >> No. No. I'm thinking over the course of the next o over the course of the next by the time we have to review these contracts again. >> So next year at this time. >> Yes. >> Well, yeah. Give us or or you know six months kind of thing. Get help us see what's going on. Yeah, I give you a computer. >> Just just give us an idea, I guess, where my brain is going. I just want to make sure that we're fiscally responsible with the money that we've been given by our taxpayers, that we're doing our due diligence, and then it gets reviewed every so often. >> Are you that's all >> suggesting also that the Christians go back to Maryland? >> I'm not suggesting that whatsoever. I'm not suggesting that
150whatsoever. I'm actually thinking what would it look like to have our own team, our own set of landscapers, our own people that would would be designated as the ones who would mow the lawns and then during the winter time be working on the you know upkeep of the lawn maintenance equipment because you you need to replace parts, you need to um you know make sure that everything's welloiled and everything else, but then also do the snow. And I get what you're saying that we didn't have the ability to keep staff. I'm just trying to figure out are we doing everything fiscally responsible? That's all. >> I agree with that. >> That's all. I just want it's kind of like us monitoring what properties we have in in the school district. What does this look like
151if we were to do this in-house versus contract out? >> That's all. >> Can I answer that? I know I sort of caught on the end, but I will tell you >> I tried to answer. >> Oh, absolutely. Well, I was going to say speaking from experience, what I will say is is that um you know in cattle that you know we had um 27 school sites compared to the 32 that are in burial. >> Um and we did not contract out for the the the service or even snow removal to be honest with you. Um, and what I have found though is is that with with the way that we have done staffing here, we are saving a considerable amount with because of staffing by by outsourcing. >> And basically, you would probably need
152to add at least one additional position at each school in order to take care of those grounds. Uh, so for us, that'd be another 32 custodians. um that would have to be on an extended contract too because that's when they're doing the mowing. Um so I do think that there is a a significant savings to to continue to explore contracting when it makes you know financial sense. Obviously, if it balloons, then we need to take another look at it. But I think under what we currently have, uh, by the time we would add 32 custodians on like a 240 flex schedule kind of thing, we are at a we are in a better position than we would be otherwise. And on top of that, you have the the maintenance of that equipment. And I would
153because if because that was the other thing is is that we were probably budgeting somewhere between um 50 to $75,000 a year for the um the cyclical renewal of just like we have a bus fleet that we have to renew. We would have a mower fleet that would also have to be renewed on a cycle. Um and when you're talking with about commercial mowers on some of these properties um you know those are not cheap. you're talking anywhere from, you know, uh, six to, you know, $10,000 a piece of equipment. And then you then you have to have like a maintenance department that can change blades and oil changes and those sort of things. So, >> I get all that. >> It does require a lot more than that. >> I get all that. I
154am not discounting that whatsoever. I'm I hear what you're saying. >> You won't see a bumper. I I guess where I'm looking I'm where I'm looking at it as from from a previous training that we had with board with with the board. They were encouraging us to be due diligent do our due diligence and asking some of these in for some of this information to understand where all the money's going. Why are we doing this decision versus that decision? Most of the time we might not always see all the backend stuff that you guys are doing. You guys might have those conversations, right? you know, periodically. We might not be privy to that because we are supposed to be outside of the management [laughter] of of the district. So, this is where I'm asking the
155question, could we see some level of of numbers? Even I I understand it's estimates, but based on reality, where are we at? Are we doing things fiscally responsible? At the end of the day, we are more than likely 99.9% of the time going to land exactly where you're at because he has been very good at fiscal responsibility. I'm just asking for awareness. >> I think actually I'm I'm glad you're asking the question. I think what we can do is we could uh we could conduct um an example of what it would take in order to have a you for comparison sake. >> Yeah. >> You know, what will we have to do in order to have um our own services provided? And we could do that in consultation with another county that does something similar
156to say yes, hey, we have 32 sites. Here's much how much property. Because the other thing you have to take into consideration is you if you have a if you have a school that is on, for example, Burke Street, you know, Burke Street's maintenance is going to be much different than um a new Falling Waters for >> or Tomahawk >> or a Tomahawk. And so what we could do is we can we can run um what we believe is an analysis of what it would cost if we were to do it in house. And I think we do that as a board workshop. Um we can do a we could do a board workshop in the spring and that way the board and we do that on the front end because this if the board
157approves this this contract um you know it wouldn't be up for uh approval again until this time they got here. >> So we would have ample time to be able to consider all of the factors the board to make informed decisions. Um and you know we also want to be we also want to be uh good customers with our vendors. We do >> so that they have if if there was a shift that they would have ample time to prepare for that too because obviously you know our vendor has made significant investments in being able to um address our our facility needs across the district too. And I I will say um uh Maiden Shade has done an exceptional job with uh our our facilities. Um in fact, I will say that when I first
158came on, I I threw a little bit of concern toward toward them on some trim type stuff and there wasn't a complaint. There wasn't a this is the way it has to be. They addressed it and and so I appreciate that. And we would want to if we were to make a shift, I'd want to make sure that we were able to give them ample time to prepare for that shift. >> These questions, I want to make sure this is very clear. These questions I'm asking have nothing to do with the quality of work. >> Nothing to do with the quality. It's about financial. >> It's about financial responsibility that was kind of hammered in that training. >> You'd have to have 32 figure out 32 positions with fixed cost and insurance. >> Agreed. Agreed.
159But there's >> but that that should be pretty easy to figure out >> Mr. Martin. >> Yeah. Great. Yeah. Great man. Great Western company vendor. Question is how many times did we um last year defer you know >> did we defer >> where you all have the ability to say we need it this week or we don't need it this week. >> Oh there was a drast we went through. I don't know the exact count but there uh Jason shade back here and I have a few conversations where it's not raining you don't need any mo I don't know how many times but there were a few >> notice I'm asking questions and I did do the disclaimer and I didn't know you were sitting there >> question how many people are we service employees
160over service. >> I thought it was 149. >> No, it's higher. >> 130. >> Yeah. So, there you have 32 more on that. >> 162. >> Okay. >> Great. >> Just a lot of things to think about. >> Yeah. And we're building a few more schools. >> Yeah. >> Oh, heavens. >> Well, but don't remind us. >> You have a year to get us that. Okay, I appreciate we'll do it. We'll do it before then. We'll do it before. >> Number 15. >> I appreciate I appreciate everybody just listening to, you know, this person say something, but this is because it was hammered into us. That's all. >> I'm glad you asked the question. Thank you. >> I I'd rather be able to answer, you know, tell somebody that's in our county, why are you
161doing this? What is the purpose behind it? And are we saving money? and be able to answer transparently without saying, "Let me check." >> Well, and I guess what I remember is why we did in the first place was >> for those reasons, but you >> I wasn't here. So, >> Thank you, Mr. Tyson. >> Wait, are you getting ready for that? But you have a question, Mr. Mark. >> Uh, hearing all that, can I have a motion to approve your two of the lawn care service with made in the shade at uh is it $284,000 or the >> it's $491,35820. >> So move. Well, but the the total for July to November was $284,827.98, right? >> But I'm seeking approval for the entire voting season. Okay. So that from April 1st to November 1st
162is $491,35820. >> Yes. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I post. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. T. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Next on the agenda is uh Dr. Fost. No action. Good evening, President Long, members of the board. Uh the personnel action dated for tonight, Monday, December 1st, uh are as follows. Uh we begin with three coaching appointments and all of these are unpaid coaches. We have one appointment of an interim coach, one extra duty resignation, one new healthc care appointment, uh two individuals for a 17th pay for planning period. We have three professional appointments. Uh we have one revised appointment with the effective start date. Allow that safety officer start sooner. On line 14, we have a ratification of an unpaid suspension
163and termination and that individual is Hunter Reed. Um, we then have one resignation professional personnel. On the service side, we have one new service appointment, four changes of assignments remaining in their current location. On line 21, we have one ratification of an upper determination and that is Christopher Bowman. We have five resignations of service personnel. Uh two retirements of service personnel and five transfers of service personnel. However, on line 31, that should be 12 to 25, not 10 to 25. So the effective date on line 31 is December the 2nd, 2025. Tomorrow we have uh one person receiving their transfer for next school year. Uh two individuals uh for upgrades and classifications, 10 new substitute service personnel. uh one person removed from the substitute service personnel list and three new substitute teachers for appointment for
164a total of 49 professional service substitute and coaching personnel actions all dated for today Monday December 1st 2025 with superintendent sax's recommendation questions for Dr. I will say we have two individuals retiring with many years of service. Uh they are great employees. Yeah. Hearing none. I I have a recommendation um app to approve the personnel actions with a correction to line 31 with a correction date 12 2025. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> Um motion. >> Actually, before you do that, Madam President, um I did want to let you know I got a message from Scott. I I don't think he's with us any longer. He did after he logged off, he recognized that there was an error on um slide 2B. If you remember 2B
165um option 2B anyway, that said Mil Creek was at 112% and it was the same at both >> 2B is actually it's not 112, it's 81%. >> So what it and he will fix that on the slide. So that's what the public will have. I just wanted to to share that with you. Um that didn't make sense why they're both 112. So because I knew that it improved the capacity in creek town. >> Oh, we'll fix there. Yes, I'll I will car message him and let him know that the board president slayed him on his because I got after him on that other >> dozen different ways. >> What's the percentage? Did you say again for the corrected amount, please? 81. >> Okay, thank you. Just making sure I'm ready to >> And I also
166just wanted to say that Eric Keyer and his team will be out on the roads early in the morning um to um you know see the status. We've been in close contact with the National Weather Service out of Sterling uh this evening and um any uh any decision on uh whether or not we would move from a 2-hour delay to closed will be made by 6:00 a.m. in the morning. So, just to give families as much time to prepare. >> So, we will uh have a 2-hour delay also. >> We already have I'm sorry, we already have a 2-hour delay. >> Okay. And then change that >> if the roads warrant changing it yet. change to the 6. >> We will make a decision by 6:00 a.m. >> Okay. One way or the other. >>
167Okay. >> Carrying all that. Have a motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? I