Board of Education Meeting--October 20, 2025

001here on this windy day, but only wind that's going on in here will be coming for Mr. Bright. So, >> wow, she really conditioned it out. >> I take that back, but it was so wonderful. >> Okay, we have it on videotape. He said it was fine. I'll call the meeting to order if we can get oursel under control. And once again, I welcome you here. Mr. Baker's going to lead us in the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> I have a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move. >> All in favor? I >> oppos. Motion carries. Reco recognitions. Uh the first one is uh

002this paper service award, Miss Principal Baker from Bunker Hill Elementary. >> I'm so happy to be here tonight. Uh we have uh some representatives from Bunker Hill here and I'll ask for you guys to stand. Bunker Hill if you will. >> All right. Thank you. Um >> to all of the board members, uh Dr. Saxs, um and uh to Miss Long. Uh, good evening. It is my honor to recognize Mrs. Wilma Snow, recipient of the Berkeley County Schools Disting Distinguished Service Award. This past summer, when our head custodian was out on medical leave, Miss Wilma uh willingly stepped up and took the that leadership role without any hesitation. Uh now, as many as you know, as many of you know, um in the summertime is when they're getting the school uh right and ready for

003the next uh school year, and it uh includes waxing floors. Uh but if you were at Bunker Hill Elementary this summer, you know, it wasn't a simple task. We were moving uh out four third grade classes and uh moving in four prek classrooms. In the middle of uh that organized chaos, Miss Wilma didn't flinch. She led uh with excellence, determination, and a smile. Uh though she's only uh been with us a little over a year, her impact has been extraordinary. Our building has never looked better. Uh Miss Wulma sets a high standard for cleanliness and holds herself to it every single day. if she has to stay late, she'll stay late. If she has to come early, she'll come early because she wants to make sure that school looks good. So, our our custodians are

004all wonderful and and one is even a past distinguished service award recipient, but right now, Miss Wilma is uh is it's your time to shine. And uh so please join me in congratulating Miss Wilma Snow for her outstanding service to Bunker Hill Elementary and Berkeley County Schools. >> Miss Wilma, I had a pleasure to talk to Mr. Baker this evening um just about your experience and what you've done for Bunker Hill so far. Um he corrected me very quickly because I called you Miss Snow but your name is Miss >> It's absolutely nice to meet you and thank you for what you do for the Bears down there and um glad your uh colleagues are here tonight to support you. So thank you for do for what you do for Brook County Schools and on

005behalf of myself and the rest of the board members. Thank you and congratulations. Next on the agenda is the volunteer device. >> Hello board members, Dr. Spax, President Wong. I'm Melissa, principal of Berkeley Heights Elementary, and I have the pleasure to introduce Miss Julia Lunderberg. She is our outstanding volunteer for the month for Berkeley County Schools. Um, so Miss Ladderberg has worn many hats at our school, most recently as our dedicated PTA president, now the volunteer of the month. Um, and now we're thrilled to welcome her as our newly hired kindergarten ECAT. Um, nothing says they like your school better when you get paid to be there now. So, she has been a constant presence. She's been pouring countless hours and weekends into making our school a better place. Whether it was cutting out hundreds

006of paper pumpkins and hiding them all over our building, brewing early morning coffee to amp up PTA membership, um organizing unforgettable teacher appreciation events with great themes like friends and Disney, um or even stepping into our Badger mascot costume, which she also in the PTA also purchased for us, um with a smile. Her love of our school and its students is so strong, she decided to make it official and get paid to be here. So, from celebrating student birthdays each month um in our foyer to supporting every classroom in between, Mrs. Liber has become an irreplaceable part of our school family and we're very lucky to have her. So, please join me in welcoming Miss Julie. I when I called up to find out cuz uh right out you I was confused. I thought for

007a minute you were the service employee. I said wait a minute long told me to volunteer. >> Now the question I want to ask is since you're on the payroll are you allowed to do all the things you did before? She still is. She still does. >> My my boys actually one of my my middle one goes to Berkeley. So my my last one comes next year. So I'll be there helping the longest with their own there and my orders. >> Well, Miss told me that you work after hours. Now I go by you work. >> Thank you for what you're doing over there. >> Thank you. It's lovely to have uh get two for one. >> Yes. Thank you. Also, thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you, >> good evening, board. Um, it is

008uh wonderful to be here with you this evening. Uh it has been a busy several days uh in uh over the past uh week or so in Berkeley County Schools. Um one of my favorite events that we were able to participate in and I want to thank our food service department for organizing um the first annual Berkeley County Schools corn chucking event which was at Berkeley Heights Elementary. Um and this was sponsored by Kilmer Farms. Kilmer Farms donated uh close to 1,400 fresh ears of sweet corn. And uh this was an opportunity for our students to tr have experience a true farm-totable experience. Um and what was amazing was that these students from Berkeley Heights um when they came out, they weren't really sure what to expect. And it was I don't think our food

009service staff was uh ready. I don't think they understood what to expect either. Um because it was surprising to find when you'd ask the students, "How many of you have actually shucked an ear of corn, there were only one or two hands of a popup?" And so, uh, as they pulled back each leaf and the silk and the kernels came into view, um, the excitement that they saw because they finally put it together of what had been on their tray in the past times to where it came from. Um it was they were very excited and they couldn't wait to to do their second year. Um but it was an excellent time and I I really do again and of course the next day our wonderful food service staff at Berkeley Heights was able to

010cook those ears of corn. Um so the students were able to see it from the time that it was uh in its harvest form to the time that it was on their tray. And of course, you see um our meal participation at Berkeley Heights on Friday of last week was an all-time high uh due to those years of corn. So again, I want to thank the the vision of uh Mrs. Setney and the food service staff um especially at Berkeley Heights for being there and participating. The school staff at Berkeley Heights, they all came. They were part of this event. And again, I think that um we're going to only plan additional activities. I know that our food service is looking at something they can do closer to December for the holiday meal time as

011well that can be again a hands-on uh farm-to-table event. And we also obviously want to thank Kilmers for donating that uh that corn. Uh it is Hispanic Heritage Month throughout the county and we recently uh wrapped up celebrating uh last Wednesday. our students engaged in meaningful activities that exposed them to uh the understanding of the rich culture uh that many of our students and staff here in Berkeley County know firsthand. Here in the pictures you see North Middle School which held a festival for students and our families that included food and activities about different countries and traditions. So again, um recognizing um Hispanic Heritage Month across the school district gave a lot of our students and our families um a perspective from some of those uh students that that um come from Hispanic homes. Last

012week, we also um hosted the school building authority um where Mr. Tyson um and Dr. Schoolie and I were able to meet with members of the school building authority as well as um our uh architects to be able to look at the two different projects that we're asking the SBA to consider funding. And that was um Rosemont Elementary to add on uh several classrooms at that site as well as Hedgesville High School. And so as always, we definitely appreciate the partnership that we have with the school building authority. They've been good to Berkeley County. Um as Mr. Tyson will talk about the uh bond project updates here shortly. Um so we always appreciate the the partnership that we have with the school building authority and we look forward to presenting uh more information on these

013projects to the school building authority and its members um here in a few weeks. Our next regular meeting will be Tuesday, November 4th. Um here in our boardroom we have a workshop we have a workshop on the 15th >> the 12th I believe. Oh, I'm sorry. >> It's the Wednesday after this meeting. >> The 12th. Yeah, that's right. The 12th. And uh it will be focusing on the CFP process um and sort of bringing to light the steering committee's recommendations for projects um for the revised CFP um that we would like to be able to have approved at the November 17th board meeting. and getting your feedback at that workshop at that work session will be instrumental in making sure that the proposal that I bring to you all on November 17th is the strongest

014proposal possible to again bring uh to the forefront priority projects that ensure we're meeting the needs of our students across our school district um and addressing our capacity and our boundary some of our boundary challenges that we have and I want to just say that um that workshop session I want to commend the members of our steering committee who have been working just so hard in fleshing out and getting feedback from our community members. Um it's it's been a true team effort. So we'll be bringing that to you on uh the 12. Madame President, board members, that concludes my update. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you. >> Really well thorough question. Um, could you touch on some of the on the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and some of the

015concerns citizens had regarding some inappropriate comments made by adults on our pages and why they can or cannot remove them. >> Yeah. So, um, that's a great question. A lot of times we get we get questions as to what is posted on our social media pages as a public organization providing and making public posts. Um it we have to be very cautious over individuals uh first amendment freedom of speech rights and um we do have specific guidelines that um have to be followed um as it relates to those first amendment rights. And so arbitrarily uh deleting or or hiding posts that uh may be offensive is something that we have to be very cautious about doing. And so therefore, um, uh, we can't, uh, hinder one individual's free speech. Um, and it's unfortunate that there

016are some distasteful posts. Um, but we also have to be respectful of individuals first amendment rights >> and and the comments that were attached to those posts that was >> referring to. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I just want to make sure that the public understood why why we can and cannot do that. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Uh board announcements. I want to introduce former state superintendent Dr. Steve Payne that's here with us tonight. Um just he's been cruising the bird and thought he'd drop in for our board meeting. So we appreciate you being here. very much an honor to be here. >> Dr. Dr. If I might, Dr. Payne has been a friend of uh Berkeley County Schools for quite some time and he's been a dear personal

017friend of mine for quite some time as well. Um from the time that he was state superintendent uh the the first time and he visited my classroom u way down in Lincoln County. uh he gave me a tremendous amount of support and advice back then and um and then of course u coming back to West Virginia to be a superintendent and I got to experience his leadership at the state level that time and he's um always had students in West Virginia first and foremost um and I definitely appreciate his mentorship over the years. So thank you sir and thank you for being here. >> Very kind. I have had great privilege to um get to know Dr. Ping when he was in Morgan County and then they took stole him or talked him into or

018gave him the honor of being state superintendent twice. So I was privileged >> you know what happened the second time. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Justice said screwed it up the first time. Better come back fix it the second time. >> I don't remember that part. I wouldn't privy to that. You never told me that. But he's done a lot for me over the years and a lot for service personnel in our state. So that I appreciate him and his friendship. So thank you for being here. >> Is a flagship county and always been very proud of school. >> Thank you so much. Next, anybody else? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Great. >> Yeah. Mr. I I don't want to end on such a pause there, but I I know somebody let me go more in trouble.

019Uh I know somebody who works at CCAP and they they had a lot of business today and um there's a lot of people in the community hurting. Um, I'd just like to encourage people to support the groups that provide food from those least able to uh provide for themselves uh such as CCAP uh the backpack uh and any school food drives. Are there any schools out there that want to try to tap into the motivation of the students sense of community service? uh this is a this is a time when it's really deep. So I just want to point out to our community that uh and it affects our children, our students as well. We try to help them as much in school as possible. The backpack programs are an example that but there's a

020big need for food assistance here in the community. >> I appreciate that. >> And and speaking of Dr. the pain. I have a law book at home that has your name on it and I'd like to get a newer copy. I have more but the thing I noticed is that when Roy Trudy was superintendent was about this thing now it's about three pounds thick and if we can get the latest blue coffee I'd appreciate it. >> We can make it happen. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other comments from Woodman? Uh next on the agenda is citizens form and we have no one signed up to speak so we'll go uh next to the monitoring items which is um human resources overview and recruitment and staffing Dr. Fley Mr. Cam Losi, Aaron Hansel, uh, the

021whole shebang is here. >> The 18th, what I like to call >> Yes, that is. >> Uh, good evening, members of the board, Dr. Saxs. Um, >> tonight I have um Karen Hensel, who is our director of service personnel, and Nidora Apara, who is our our recruiting coordinator here with me. We're going to give you a little recruitment update, talk about um some some things with the department numbers and things like that. Just to give you a little bit of an update with the department. Um yeah, my there we go. Uh so we we've changed and as you all know within the structure um and the I guess the restructure of the central office staff um Dr. Skoolie is no longer just over human resources. He's now over the entire operations department. So um he

022handles HR uh food nutrition transportation uh technology uh he's now over our executive director of technology Leah Bass as well. So he is now the deputy superintendent of operations. I have inherited the HR department from him. Um and we are um I would say I tell people we're kind of a reactive department whenever we meet with them. Um we're not typically you know people that necessarily going to reach out to you. We actually kind of wait for people to reach out to us and then we troubleshoot and help them solve problems. Um, but we have a wonderful department. Karen, like I said, is over service. Uh, Lora, who is here with us tonight. She actually just got back from recruiting trip. She went to Marshall um last week and was at Frostber today. So, uh,

023we also have Debbie Walker and Amanda Stickles. They are in our benefits department. They do a wonderful job with that. Um, with me on the professional side are Lauren Garrett and um, Susie Cookus. They help me with um substitute teacher hires, professional hires, um certification. Um the real engines of the department are Michelle Brock and Tesa Keys. Those are our two secretaries. Um Michelle and Teresa do a great job. Um I do think we potentially could be looking at some retirements there in the near future, which is going to be a really sad day for us. Um and then Clay Winger is our epic uh investigator. So, I'm going to turn this over to Lora to start out with uh so she can talk about just recruiting in general and then Karen and I will

024touch on um things within the department from the professional and the service side. So, click her. There you go. >> Hi everyone. How are you? >> Hi. >> Yes, I just got back from um literally minutes ago. Um so, I'm happy that I had safe travel and was able to make it here on time. So I am going to talk about some of our recruitment updates. Um I'm going to talk about some events, some onboarding and some advertisement. So, the past fall we kept with our busy schedule um doing different events uh attending local career fairs at um higher education institutions such as Bloom Ridge College um Shannondoa University also uh Concord and Shepard University. Some of those events were tables like information tables as you see there. Others were classroom presentations on classroom management

025and just being able to connect with our future teachers and hopefully start that recruitment early while they're still in school. This past fall, we've also been really busy. We just had our Berkeley County job fair um on the 8th. It was a great turnout just like last year's job fair. Um it was wonderful to have it at 401. Um it was really really busy and we were able to accommodate um people who were coming in to talk to the different people at the tables as well as have our testing room open so they could start that application process on site. Um this fall we also did some high school career fairs. uh Muscleman High School had a career fair, an opportunity to connect with those seniors and let them know that there are um job

026opportunities with Berkeley County after they graduate. They can be a substitute um custodian aid secretary um and cook. Also, this fall we um started the grow your own for our service personnel. This is nothing new, but we're really trying to emphasize it and communicate it with our service personnel. This is an opportunity for those who are interested in becoming teachers to earn an associates degree uh for free with Blue Ridge. We have partnered with them. Uh that is funded by the West Virginia Invest grant. So that's where that money is coming from. We have over 125 service personnel so far that have showed interest in that and hopefully will be starting this January. Um, also this fall, like I said, I just got back from Boss Frostber and Marshall, we had a lot of open

027testing sessions uh for our service personnel and just really excited that we had an opportunity to do some um veteran career affairs as well. So we went to Penn State, they had a veteran career fair and um the veterans department in Barnsburg, they had a career fair. It was an opportunity to share again those possibilities and careers that they can have in Berkeley County. Uh they come with a strong skill set of organizational and leadership skills that would definitely benefit um our classroom. >> How was that attended? Was it well attended? >> Yeah. Yeah, they were well attended. the one in um Penn State, they had all the students uh come and I think they gave them dinner because it was an evening event and a lot of them were surprised that they could come

028into the school system. They thought they had to have a degree and I shared with them the opportunities of starting as a substitute teacher and then exploring the alert program to become a certified teacher. So, it was a great turnout for both of them. Um, in the past spring, uh, we also stay busy. Uh, we had the largest grow your own cohort with our high school seniors. So, this past spring, seven high school seniors graduated a part of the third class with the West Virginia grow your own program. So, that was really exciting. hopefully that Kilbert can continue to grow because this is a way for us to um bridge from bridge that gap from school to becoming a teacher to help them get at least 60 credit hours paid for uh so they don't

029have as much student debt and then when they graduate they can come back to Berkeley County and they can even come back as early um to do their student teaching almost like a teacher and residency. So, that's really exciting that um this is our third our third graduating class. Uh this past spring, we also had a teacher visitation day where interested applicants came to visit um and really get to see Berkeley County in person. So, we just had a really um a wide range of activities that took place. >> I got question about the grow your own program. >> Yes, sir. >> Um how are students recruited to be a part of or are students recruited to be a part of that program? or how do they get into that? >> That's a great question.

030So, the last few years I've been trying to um connect with our counselors. I've gone to a few counselor meetings because they're the ones who help them create their senior coursework and get into that jump start program with Blueridge. So I really just shared that opportunity with the counselors and made sure that they were able to talk to the students about it because some students don't know that they might be interested in teaching those who are in you know students um student council and different leadership roles within the school would be great um people to join the grow your end cohort. So it's really that partnership with the counselors at the high school. A lot of our events um are in person, but we also have some virtual career affairs that we attend as well.

031We had our test drive the bus event. Again, I feel like this is an annual thing that we do. We try to do it twice a year. There's always a big turnout. People love coming to test drive the bus. I know a few of y'all did that one year. Um, so this is just a great opportunity for people to sit in the driver's seat and see what it's like to test drive the bus. Uh, we also went to over, you know, 55 events across several states um, in person and again virtual fairs and those classroom presentations. Um this picture right here at the top is that Davis and Elkins that is uh Davis and Elkins education majors as well as West Virginia Wesland education majors and I had an opportunity to uh provide the keynote

032address at that event. Um I must say that these events would not be possible without everyone that's a part of um my recruitment team and my recruitment team consists of staff members uh whether it be principles, assistant principles, as um uh people over to departments like uh office of child nutrition. We try to get everyone involved, transportation, maintenance. We want to get the people that are actually in the field a part of the events because it just makes it so much richer to pro provide that perspective. >> Question. >> Yes sir. Or which >> where's the largest group of teacher candidates being produced in the state? >> Well, that's that's kind of hard to answer right now because those numbers haven't come in because school just started. So they're still um working on the current

033enrollment. But Marshall has a great turnout. I think they're going to have this year. I spoke to someone while I was there about a hundred, no 75, about 75 or 80 graduates in the spring and they're going to have uh about 25 to 30 graduates in the fall. So Frostber, it wasn't a large number. They have 17 graduating in December. But the great opportunity in that is that we were able to have those one-on-one conversations and be able to talk to everyone. So enrollment is down everywhere when it comes to education. So we are trying to make sure that we are in those spots where there's either 17 or 50 graduates. Um all right so our for onboarding process we definitely start with posting jobs. We post jobs on our website LinkedIn um ND different

034social media outlets. Um and then we also provide testing opportunities. The testing opportunities are for our service personnel positions and after that is the energy process. Um we collaborate again with different departments, office of child nutrition, transportation, maintenance, and then myself and uh Miss Karen Hensel in the HR department. Um it's a collaborative effort when it comes to the paperwork. We like to make it as comprehensive as possible, like a one-stop shop. So when people come in to do their paperwork, they have an opportunity to talk to payroll, finance, technology, and really get all their questions answered. So when they leave, they feel ready and supported to get out there. Um, our training is also comprehensive. Um, we have, for example, our aid training once a month. They have a Ukeru training, which is a

035hands-off restraint training. Um we also have an a training that takes place and covers specialed, medical, instructional and bus um operations. So when they are out there taking those jobs, they feel comfortable uh with the skill sets and also that support. So some advertisement um we won best of the tri state uh this year. Last year we were finalists. This year we won. So that's kind of cool that we are the best place to work in the tri-state. Um we have posted our jobs also at Valley College and workforce careers sharing um the different opportunities on as many platforms as possible. Our advertisement also goes to places where people might not be actively looking, but while they're there, they come across some opportunities to join Berkeley County, such as the bowling alley and uh the

036DMV. This is the latest um updated video for the DMV. So, while people are waiting to renew their license or whatnot, they have this video. Um, and again, a lot of people don't know that they have this opportunity to explore growth with Berkeley County. And then this is a picture of our new testing room at 401. Um, it really gives us a space to help that on boarding process be a little bit smoother. We have a room where we do the paperwork and we also have a designated place for testing. And this is kind of a multi-purpose room. We also use that for on boarding when we need to, but it's just been really nice to be able to have the space to um do that on boarding at 401. >> I just want to

037I just want to commend Miss Lora because she's done a fabulous job for our school district. Um and I think, you know, leveraging what it is that we do um as an employer to be able to earn best of the tri-state for 2025 is no small feat. And so I want to thank you for your leadership in that process. Uh there before we transition to some of the other things though um I also wanted to just highlight for the board two different initiatives that um uh Mr. Camlowski and I have been working on. One is that we just recently applied um as with a in a partnership for um a new um Ascend Teach West Virginia program. Um and if you're familiar with Ascend West Virginia, are you going to talk about that? It's >>

038okay. Go ahead. >> Oh, I will stop. Nope. I apologize. Drum roll. >> I didn't realize that was down low. I thought that was part of recruitment. I'm sorry. But I I will say that I am very excited that um similar to what the state um provided as an initiative for Ascend West Virginia, which was to to initially relocate folks from all across the country that work remotely to move to West Virginia and to provide financial incentives to move to West Virginia through um the whether it be relocation assistance, but also being able to have free access to our state parks and the the amenities of tourism in West Virginia. They're doing the exact same thing with Teach West Virginia. It was piloted in Monelia and Preston counties this past year and now they want

039to be able to work with Berkeley to do the exact same thing. So, we're >> we we're working on a proposal uh with the state on that. The other thing is is that we're we're becoming a little bit more strategic also. Are you going to talk about this one too? >> A lot of >> about the teach res if you're going to do it. I'm not saying You're on a roll. >> Okay, come on. >> The other thing is that we're working closely with the Department of Education on recruiting also to be able to to uh try to become more competitive with other other folks across the state in recruiting those those um teacher and resident folks, which are the students that are the highest caliber coming out of our our universities and teaching and

040they get paid to work for us during their their student field experience. um and leveraging how we can uh work with universities to make Berkeley the most attractive district for those teachers, those upcoming teachers to start their career. So, I will let Mr. Kimlowski uh uh expand upon that when I as I yield my time back >> to the HR folks. and andor Pat just to answer your question too WPU this is the first year that they will allow those CTRs to work outside of like M county yes so that is a resource that we are going to be able to tap into potentially to get people here so if we have like kids from Berkeley County that are ready to student teach we actually bring them home now as opposed to them student teaching

041or having student teach over there so that just started this Wonderful. >> So, sorry. Um, so yeah, so that just starts this year. So, just to answer your question about that, because WVU, you know, in the past was like a market that we really couldn't tap into for that. We tap into a lot with Shepard. Um, we have quite a few CTRs with Shepard. Um, you know, but this is the first time that we'll be able to kind of hopefully get into the WVU area. I don't know how many we can get this year. Um, but for future years certainly it'll be something that you know like when we're talking about like some of these grow your own kids or any of these education kids that are leaving Berkeley to go to Morgantown to go

042to school, we can now say, "Hey, you can cut that that lease off a year early. Come on home and teach for us and then we'll just slide you into a classroom teaching position." So, >> and oh, by the way, we want to reimburse them higher than anybody else. >> You know, we can we can try. So, I mean, we Yeah. I mean, as you're hearing from her, I mean, we we really do I don't want to steal your thunder. I'm sorry. >> You know, >> we turn over every rock. That's right. Any rock we can, we're going to try to throw it there. >> And one thing for the university is they have to have somebody evaluating the state. >> They do. >> So, we could work with them. I know. Our shepherd uses

043some of our retired principles as evaluators of the year the experienced teachers >> and we have principles currently that are relentless about you know once kids are even doing like clinical hours with them they'll start putting a seat in their head like hey you can actually student teach and get paid to student teach you know >> part of that which is good I mean we have some that I mean they are absolutely relentless about that we have some CTRs right now sheepard um and They I mean I would say 100% of the time for the most part transition right into a classroom teaching job. So they just roll right student teaching and just stay in their classroom which is perfect because you really don't want to you know uproot a teacher in that classroom for

044kids in January and bring somebody else new. So it's a win-win but yeah hopefully the WVU route we're able to get more of those those kids back here. So, >> and just to piggy back on that, um the teachers who are doing their student teaching as a care, you know, starting their career there, they still get that support of the schoolbased mentor and the county based mentor. So, they still have those layers of support while they are doing their first year of teaching. But, you know, there's a great segway hand this is I I I' I've been, you know, here just a few years, but I love seeing your face when you come in. You've always got a smile and I I'm so thankful that you were able to get here safely, but that you

045spent all day >> and still came back after driving back and still have a smile on your face to share with us. the excitement that you have is is is there and thank you for your time. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah, recruiting is a job where you have to be okay traveling and you know she she doesn't I mean she does she travel >> constant smiles. >> Yeah. >> Well, the one thing that she touched on a little bit, but you know she gets into those classrooms when kids are sophomores in college. So she's you know she's getting in the classrooms early to say like hey come work for us. And when she talked about having like a teacher recruitment day, we literally brought people in here on a recruiting visit and and

046took them around the county, they had a couple target interviews with principles. Um, you know, just to get some of those kids from the southern part of the state because what we've realized is we have to get them here because it's hard to get them to understand the growth here >> and all these things we have to offer. >> You know, when you can literally tell somebody like, "Hey, we've got two Chick-fil-As within 15 miles from another." like it's truly it is hard for some even after something like that, >> right? >> Um >> so, you know, but she does she really does a great job. Um because I know like for me personally, like with the recruitment stuff, I could not travel like that myself. I mean, I you know, there's just no way.

047So, you know, I appreciate her being so willing to turn over so many rocks in so many different places. Um, you know, just to touch a little bit on the department, we have went over, you know, there's been a lot of change and one of the changes is we moved, you know, we moved buildings and and um, so kind of what is old is new again. So, we're back over in 401. And when she was talking about the on boarding process, one of the things we realized about 401 is the the the setup over there is kind of odd because the front door is technically kind of the back door because everybody parks in the back. So what we've done to try to personalize our process for things like onboarding, paperwork, testing, every Friday as

048a department, we meet and we discuss what events we have during the week and somebody takes door duty. So there's always somebody at the back door to greet those people as they come in. And then what we've done is we funnel them from station to station. So they go into the testing room, which is our holding room, then they get their badge picture taken, then they get funneled back down and we take them to the boardroom. every single step of the way they have facetime with somebody in the departments and it's everybody. So like Michelle and Teresa will take the door, Karen will take the door and it doesn't matter if it's a service personnel thing or it's a professional thing. Everybody pitches in and just like hey I'll take the door this day I'll

049take the door this day. So cuz what we realized is coming in a lot of them are nervous. >> Yeah. >> Especially for the testing piece. >> Oh yeah. >> When those service people show up to test they are scared to death. And for them to be able to just see one of us, hey, how you doing? Welcome to Berkeley County Schools. you're here to test. It gets them calmed down. Um, you know, and some days we're even able to go in. Like a couple weeks ago, I went in and just talk to the group. You know, I was just trying to get them to settle down and just Lor was over there setting up the computers. I could tell they were tense. You know, I walked in, cracked a few jokes, asked them where

050they were from. You know, what are you here for? So, just trying to make it more personalized on things like that. And it also gives our department a chance to get together because we're out of that hallway we were in, which was, you know, now we're a little more segmented in our areas. So every, you know, every Friday we get together. Um, we share out, we share successes, you know, what we have coming up. I mean, and it's not just with work. You know, some kids, some people talk about their kids, talk about their grandkids. So, it's just a chance for us to get together. Um, just talking about staffing, and this is just a snapshot, but, you know, a lot of these numbers are are similar from year to year. It's, you know, it's

051one of those things where we do we do hire quite a few people. We do post quite a few jobs. Um, I think context is important because, you know, whenever we say we've posted 525 positions, that doesn't mean that we've hired 525 new people. It doesn't mean we've lost 525 people. You know, every time we post a job, you know, someone transfers from one position to another within the county, we need to post their position. So, you know, every every action has a reaction. Um, you know, this year we were slightly down in a few things, which some of them are good and county transfers are down, which tends to mean, you know, people are not looking to necessarily move from one building to the other. We were down in resignations. Um, the retirement number

052ticked up a little bit. Um, you know, and I think that's for a number of reasons. Uh, you know, Pat, I know we talk a lot about the exit surveys and I can just share with you the number one reason that we're hearing is PEIA. I mean, that's that's a reason why people are are leaving. Um the perm sum uh permanent sum number has stayed pretty steady right around 200. You know we will look through some initiatives that I'll talk about on on trying to get that down below 200 people but you know if you recall a couple years ago we had about 265 of those. So I mean we really tore into that number. Um one thing that we've tried to do and we've worked with principles on this and and Karen can probably

053attest to this is we have streamlined all of our hiring paperwork now is automated. So there's no more like the old paper form they used to have to fill out. There's no more of that. They can actually go online and do that which the principles will tell you it takes them about 30 seconds to get it done now. And they can do it for every position. They can do it for a service job, professional job, a coaching job, anything. It just they go to a Microsoft form, build out, boom, we get it. Now, we print it out and still do on our end, but it just has made things so much easier on the principles to try to streamline this because, you know, between me and Karen, when you're posting almost $900 or 900 jobs

054in a year, you know, you got to do something to help the principles out, that's a lot of paperwork for them to do. So, we got their feedback on it. Um, John Carver is really the driving force out of technology, though. He did. I mean, he and I sat down, he was like, "This is what I can do for you." And I was like, >> he's a miracle. >> He is John is awesome. Like and I mean you know when when I because I went to him I'm like hey you can help us out with this because this is a lot like and what we were finding was like every time you know because hiring season comes and goes for principles but when we were in the middle of school they'd be like oh where's

055that hiring form so I'd have to email it back to them. I was like, I just need a link I can send them to bookmark. And two weeks later, like he had this wonderful website link built on it's through Microsoft Teams and I shared it with principles meeting and I mean they love it because of how how easy it is. So um that was one thing like John helped us out huge on I got to give a huge shout out to John Carper cuz he's been absolutely awesome throughout that whole process and you know he got good feedback from me and we were taking the principal. So, but you know, I just when we're talking about jobs and Karen will talk about hers too, like I do think context is important that like it is

056a lot of positions, but it doesn't mean we're losing that many people. It just means we have movement. Like it is what it is. Like we're a big county. It's going to continue. Like we accept the challenge. We love it. That's why we send Lora out where we do, you know, we acknowledge it and we turn over the rocks. Um we have done some targeted Facebook recruiting. This is actually an ad that we posted in North Carolina because if you have not followed um the SER money that we dealt with um there were some counties down there that did not plan well for that. So they laid a bunch of teachers off. So we've tried to do is target Facebook ads in North Carolina just to see if we can pull anybody from down there

057up that way. Lor actually did a recruiting trip down there in the fall like early in the fall and that's kind of how we learned about this. Um, so we worked with Carla and her team on coming up with an ad and then Tyler Khan was the one who posted this for us and targeted in North Carolina to try to get people. Now, we've not seen like this massive influx of people from North Carolina, but that doesn't mean down the road, you know, as we continue to post jobs, we won't. Um, and it's a pretty costefficient way to get our name out there in other parts, you know, of the of the eastern seabboard, too. And as it relates to North Carolina, we actually pay pretty well. So, even though we're a little bit far

058away from them, our pay is actually really good. Um, and if you see like what we did was we tried to put on here like where we're close to. Um, and and you know because >> well what Lora learned was they couldn't believe how close we were to DC and Baltimore. >> Yeah. >> You know, people hear West Virginia and they don't think we're 90 minutes away from those two places. >> I live here for a year and I still can't believe >> I mean it's, you know, so people think West Virginia and think, "Oh, there's no way you're that close." But it's like, yeah, we're actually right, you know, right on the doorstep, so to speak. What what about the big cuts down in DC? Are we trying to tap into that margin or

059>> We have actually had some substitute teachers we've hired that have been laid off from the federal government. >> Yes, >> there there are some because they're not certified, but yes, we have hired I've probably three or four recently that have been laid off by the federal government that are substitute teachers for us. One of them we actually hired um he has already went and got certified to be a science teacher. I think he's at Mart High School. >> Oh, wonderful. Nice. >> Yeah. So yeah, I mean it trickles in, you know. I mean, again, the pay discrepancy there is is massive. I mean, between what they're making with the federal government versus what they're going to make, but they're just looking for work. And you know, what I tell all of them is just

060get them in the door. We just get it. We just hook them. You know, we might be able to keep them. Um, you know, and even if they only give us a year, like that's more than we would get otherwise. So >> 100 children been exposed to eligible. >> Yeah. And I mean that's that's the thing. they bring other things to the table. >> Um and so anybody we you know and as far as you know talk about substitute hiring um we have now sent substitutes to principles to be interviewed. So they actually go to the school and interview with either their principal or an assistant principal before we bring them on board. And what the principal does is they give us feedback on you know do they want to be dayto-day? Are they looking

061longterm? And what the principal has done a good job is they've said like, "Hey, you can just sub here." So they kind of have now this like person on deck that they've interviewed. They've gotten comfortable with maybe they've got So we've had a few I think that have been able to I know um Miss Lynch at Martinsburg has one that she interviewed and he's he's sub her quite a bit. So the idea behind that is they go to the school and interview and what I try to do is I look at their address and I try to get them to a school that's very close to them. >> So that way they're just going really close and that they get into a school and they get interviewed by an actual principal. So, as opposed to

062us doing it, you know, down here to actually go into a school and that way they can see the school. So, again, just trying to do everything we can outside the box to get people in the door and and see it. Um, we do still have our international teachers. I know we brought them here last year. Um, we brought two new ones on this year. We added Ghana um to our list this year and we also have one more from the Philippines and I'm happy to say they're both settling in nicely. Um the man from Ghana actually goes to my church. So I do see him on Sundays at church. Um he's doing a good job for us teaching math at Martinsburg High School. So um you know this is again a program that we

063will continue to to you know tap into. Um we've you know I know there were some questions I think about you know the visa process but so far everything's been smooth with them. There's not really been too many hiccups with everything. So you know hopefully we continue to tap into this um you know probably in small doses. I don't think it's one of those things where we bring in like 30 or 40 of these. But I mean definitely if we can find a way to fill a need like in a very critical place like a math teacher and it's the right fit. That's definitely something we continue to look at. >> How many are we up to now? Is it 12? >> Uh I think we have 11 right now. >> So um you know

064we've even have one she trans um she went from being a Spanish teacher to now she's teaching EL for us. Um so yeah she went she's now at high school teaching EL. So, and it's really great because, you know, she's working like small groups with those kids. I think she's I think she's more comfortable with that. So, she's doing a good job for us. So, um yeah, it's been that positive. Um now, just to touch on a couple things that Dr. Sax was talking about. Um so, Alert has been really good for us. Um we have managed to get 70 people hired on permit or fully certified teachers through these alternative certification programs. And one of the things that we offer is tuition reimbursement. Uh because what we found is the even though it's a

065very costefficient way of getting certified as a teacher, you know, some of these programs can cost around $3,000, which is still a lot of money. So we do reimburse them for that the same way they would get reimbursed as if they were taking a master's level course. Um they do have to work for us for three years. Um and but you know what ends up happening is you know these are people that are usually from our community. they've been a firm sub for us and now we're able to get them certified as teachers. A lot of them have been in their classroom sometimes for four, five, six years. What we have learned and Dr. Saxs and I had a meeting with Dr. Woods and some people from the state a couple weeks ago. There is

066um we actually sunset our program. It's a it's an it's called an option two. And it is a county-based alternative certification program. And what when we talked to the state, what we realized is a lot of the PD that we do anyways, which our perm subs get all of like we don't delineate between your certified and you're a perm sub, if you're a teacher in a classroom, you get the same training. what the state looked at some of our training and really David I think I don't know if David's here but what they looked at was a lot of what we do for special ed and they said a lot of those courses could count as part of this option two pathway >> so what we are looking at doing is resurrecting this countybased program

067using our existing PD and then adding some other components to it and it would literally be almost free. So that whole thing of saying, "Hey, you've got to go through I teach or American Board and pay whatever amount of money would would really go by the wayside altogether." Um, and what we would kind of create is like this this network of people that are firm subs for us that would get um, PD from different departments in the county, instructional practices, even professional skills, resume writing, you know, cover letters, you know, interview questions, how to how to get better at an interview because a lot of them, you know, are nervous about that. um and provide support through our own people, things that we're really already doing, but just adding another layer to it to bring

068this program back. And so, you know, the the whole goal would be to retain and train our own perm subs, which Loren and I talked about really targeting those people because they're already working for us and we're already piling all these resources in there. You know, they're we have perm sub orientation. We have PD days where they're showing up and getting the same training as a certified teacher. So yeah, going out and recruiting new people, absolutely, but we have 200 people working for us that are getting all of the same resources given to them that we're getting certified teachers. So if we can we can just capitalize on that and build this program. Um hopefully by spring we can have something that we can implement with Fidelity that these people can sign up for that

069we can say look we're taking the money out of the equation all together for you. Like this you can do this through us. >> We're going to start small. you know, I picture like a group of maybe a dozen of them to start out with. Um, and saying, "Look, you know, we want to carry you through next year and try to get you certified this way." Um, I'm actually working right now, um, Dr. Crowder with the state, she requested, I'm working on it right now. They want a list of all of our firm subs so they can go through and actually give us the list of people we should target for this. So, >> well, that's very helpful. >> It is. And I'll tell you, I mean, honestly, it's a lot of his connections down

070there because when we got on the call with with them, you know, and I mean, they flat out said it's because he's willing to do it. >> They said, "You've always been willing to listen to things like that." Um, and so what I think they look at is we have to we have to get waivers forms subs. And they looked at the sheer number of waivers we have to turn in and they came to us and said, "We can we think we can help you with this." >> This was actually Yeah. And I was going to say that this was actually something that um we started in my previous district and saw a tremendous amount of success with. Um and knowing if you if you if you think back to how we've restructured our district

071level team, it it's it's a natural fit for us to be able to do this. So through our academic specialists, our Ames and then even our special ed coordinators that we have, we we really have the the secret ingredient that is the district level expertise to be able to have a very systematic process for this alternative certification program. And so I know I'm excited about it. >> Yeah. And anything we can offer, like I said, the cost is typically the biggest barrier. So anything we can offer to help them out with that, you know, hopefully we can we can get a big big chunk of that. Um, so that's all I have on the professional. I'm going to turn it over to Karen. >> Sure. >> Yes. Um, the if the teachers don't work for

072us for three years, >> they know that I didn't know they have a per way to come out or >> doesn't usually happen that way. A lot especially with the um firm subs get certified. They tend to stay here because they grew up here. They went to school here. Um, and a lot of times the certificate they get is non- transferable, meaning they can't leave the state. So the only other place they can go is another western county and they're really not and that's that really is the biggest thing about our firms like they want to be here. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Like they want to work here. Um and again like they're getting the same training and all that that everybody else is getting. They're working in the same classroom. So yeah, but if

073they leave and that's true for all I mean doesn't matter if it's a somebody went through all sort or if it's somebody that we paid for a master's level course like they they would have to pay it back. Yeah. too. >> I had one question for the door. Did you have one? >> No, no, no question. >> Go ahead. >> Um, and I think Mr. Ritzoff asked this before. Do we recruit from Howard University? >> So, last spring we went to Howard uh County. We went to not the university, but we did go to um a community college there and be able to recruit. So, we have ventured out into the DC area. >> Okay. I just wonder because it's closer. >> Yeah, >> I don't know if individuals would come this way for the

074pay >> that might be um a steep ask, you know, because they do pay a little bit more there. Um but I will say in my on boarding efforts, I've seen a lot of people from um PG County um the DC area that are coming to this area to live because they just like the lifestyle. it's a little bit more calmer and um they're able to just do a little bit more and then they can go to DC and you know for the weekend or whatever and then come back. So I have seen a lot of um people coming this way from the local city areas like the nearby areas. >> Mr. Martin, >> two quick things um for future work session potentially if we can talk about like professional development um separating like veteran

075teachers what that would look like. Um I just got some concerns um from better teachers about PD um so we can get that on agenda for the future. Um, the second thing I think the growing our program is really something that we can like slingshot. Yeah. Us especially at the border counties, but we always talk about keeping kids in West Virginia. Um, that can be like just coming right out of college, coming back. Um, good benefits, good payer. >> Um, my my goal is to get our cohort up to 12. I I think it's possible to get at least three seniors from each high school that want to be teachers. Um the service personnel grow your own program um is also a really great thing that we're excited about because when I'm interviewing a lot

076of the people I'm interviewing said they always wanted to be teachers but they but they think it's too late. It's never too late. It's never too late. So yeah, the grow your own program is something that I'm really excited about. And with the high school students, um what's really great is once they complete 60 credit hours, they can come back and be a dayto-day substitute teacher. And that's significant because in order to be a substitute teacher, you have to be 21. And when they get those 60 hours, they're not quite 21, but they're able to sub um with those 60 hours. and they can only sub in like elementary and middle school. So they won't be in the high school. Uh so it's kind of specialized for that. >> If we have our own bring

077your own program, is there any way that we're able to and this I apologize this might be more directed towards um Dr. Saxs or um Mr. Kowski um with the grow your own. Is there any way that we can incorporate some of those ECAT classes that ordinarily would h would be like I I oh man like I so want to I so want to see some of our kids graduate high school and they have their ecats and we can hire them right into the classroom. >> Yeah. >> That's where my brain is is like oh my gosh that would be so awesome if we could do >> we are on the same wave >> like like it's almost like a CT but it's not quite like >> you know what I mean. So, we've been

078working with um Susie Kokus, who um helps with the ECATs, and uh Dr. Paige Moore at Blue Ridge Community College, really trying to get that push to where those classes count towards it. Um so, that's something that is in the works and hopefully we will be able >> Well, why doesn't it it did before? I mean, they went to Blue Ridge and got their associate degree and early childhood and or andor um had to participate in the uh early childhood development program uh through um workplace. Justin, what was it? >> Through the Department of Labor, that was a two-year process. What they can do now can be quicker. Well, I know it's like >> the CT program is part of the program that they are starting to offer that course work in the child development

079course. So, someone can graduate next with that that's coming with the Hila opening. There's actually a classroom for James Ramsey students to come over go into the room, look through a window and see the classroom as well as actual classroom for those James students to debrief with their teacher for the day. So you'll see that as it gets ready to open and we are making that connection uh for the high school that would be at J. I couldn't answer it any better. >> Thank you Dr. Saxs. That was amazing. Had several different voices going on at the same time. [Music] >> And my eyes are a little on and off of my glasses. But um service personnel, we are a collaborative effort. Leora and I work u closely together. And I will say when we

080moved over to 401, uh Mr. Camlowski was very strategic and how he how he placed all of us. And uh Leidora and I are very close together by the testing room and we talk to each other and and collaborate every day. Um I went to her a couple weeks ago and I said, "I'm really worried. uh our number of unfilled substitute jobs is alarming. Um this early in the year I said we need to do something. So we got uh with Mr. Camlowski and we planned the job fair that we had. Uh she started doing open testing twice a week. Um you know so we we talk all the time about the numbers and and the big push for us right now is substitute service. um we really need to increase those lists because over

081the course of hiring in the summer, we tend to steal from that list for our full-time jobs. So, I feel like we're always trying to refill the pot of substitutes. Uh along with we're always hiring full-time during the year, as you remember, you're always with service, there's a lot of transition and moving around. So, we're always hiring. So, >> except back then, I had a stack to pick from like that. So, right, those stats are they're like >> they're like that. Yes. Correct. Um, but just to look at some of our numbers and this is just a snapshot from last Tuesday when we had to have our slides ready. The numbers have already changed. I hired three new full-time people today for positions who um have never worked for us before. But just to look

082at the numbers um you know, we've done 382 and you can see the um dispersement of different classifications. again, open jobs, that's a revolving number. It changes all the time. I think the one number that, um, I've seen increase a lot is the midday bus runs. >> Um, and that is you might have one child at Tuscarora who needs to be picked up and taken home at 11:00. So, you have to get a sometimes a driver in today just to take care of that one student. Um, so I've seen that number go up quite a bit this year. We're adding those midday runs. Um, and also LPNs, that's another number that I've seen grow this year. So, just to look at our filled jobs, um, and the majority of those are filled in your summer

083months. New employees, that includes substitutes and people who have never worked for us. I would say that number is a majority substitutes. And then internal transfers came from our transfer list or people that moved from different positions um, into other jobs. New jobs added for this year, 124. As you can see, a majority or a lot of those were our third grade aids, and I'll talk about that on the next slide. Uh, and then other classroom aids, which would be in any other special ed classroom. We added the two ISS uh aids at the intermediate schools. The two actually each one shares um two schools. So, uh then we added seven cooks and that's all based on meals served. And then we added two secretaries this school year. a sense of the legislature changed the

084law some categories about having a high school correct >> um or be seeing any impact there >> I haven't seen any increase that was not uh usually an issue most people had a GED or high school diploma I I would think in in all my years I've only um had one or two people that that was really an issue I was very disappoint pointing to me that they lessen the qualifications. >> I mean, you're you're in education and you want the individual applying to have education. >> Does that make sense? >> Mr. leg was instrumental in getting a requirement of high school diploma because one of the biggest employers the school system with drawbacks and so he he did that. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask a question real fast? >> Sure. >> Um

085when you put subs on now sometimes they don't sub even they go right in that position. So correct. I guess it's difficult for those individuals to do any kind of um working with another specifically an aid like working elementary and middle or high school >> to shadow. >> Yeah. To shadow trying to get that out. >> Right. Well, we and Leora and I worked together. Um I hired somebody last week and a PR and we told the principal she can start but next week we're going to have the two trainings. she'll need to use school business to go ahead and get and and they agree because that training is so very important. So, they still will get that. They may not get the bus training that we would give, but they can get everything out.

086>> Okay, good. >> Uh but sometimes it's um time is of the essence and we need to get them in the room. Um but we try to follow up and make sure they get that training that they need. >> Okay, that's good. I just wondered about that when they went directly to the classroom. Well, and I will say that's the one thing over the years that we've tried to work on is getting more training and shadowing for these aids because many of them have never been in a classroom and it's it's fish out of water and they need to have the tools to be able to be successful. So, the next thing I wanted to talk about is we're in our last year of the third grade success act. We added the third grade aids

087and you can look at the numbers a little different this year. There's a couple things to note. Um, one, Dr. Saxs during staffing um decided that we were going to have used a combination of um the uh ECATs, but then also um and I'm drawing >> the interventionist. >> Um so, >> sure. >> In school in in classes, that's okay. In schools that have say four classrooms, two would be served by one interventionist and then the other two classes would have the ECAT and then it would be fluid. They they would work with all of the classrooms, all three of them, however it is needed to be. Um, so that's why that number looks different than the other years. And the other thing, if you'll see, this is the first year we did not hire

088anybody outside of the school system for any of those jobs. um most most of them came from our transfer list and a majority of those were from prek and some other areas. So they were already ECATs and then the remainder remainders were internal transfers from other specialized classes. So I thought those those were two interesting things to notate when looking at the numbers over the years. Um everybody was hired within our system. Um so this was the last year of the third grade success act. Um, did you all have any questions about that? >> That number jumped out. Why don't we have 60, right? >> Third group. >> It would have been really hard to fill all those also. I think I think it was actually it was a win-win because many of our schools,

089some of our schools where they lost their title one status were concerned about losing interventionists. Yeah. and this helped fill that gap um and um being able to fulfill that additional need for nearly you know 40 44 uh additional ECADs. So >> give people some new opportunities. Then the only other slide I always like to put in is our ECAD certification. And I will tell you our ECADs work really really hard. It's it's four classes. They're not easy. it's on their own time um away from their families. You know, they have to finish them. They have three years to finish the four classes. And some people would say, "Oh, that has to be pretty easy." But when you're working a full-time job and you have a family, um it it's it's a hard it's somewhat

090of a hardship. And I commend every one of our ECATs. They work very hard, but um so they have to take those four classes, child development, special needs, science of reading, and numeracy. um and they're getting uh great training to work with those third grade students, first, second, and third grade students. So, that's all I have. >> Anything questions for anyone that presented or anyone that's um in HR? >> Um we're not having more slides. >> Yeah. >> Oh, and Dr. Saxs, I gave you a forward warning, right? >> You gave me you did give me warning. Any questions you have, Mr. Okay. I got As long as it's not on bathrooms. Well, >> okay. Well, it's You might want to flush this one. >> I've been through the rest of your presentation. This was

091the rest of it was recruit retained and fried. And I don't expect you to have a question here. I'm just going to throw something out here that I've long time thought about. and you were talking about trying to retain and recruit and in one of the slides um you were talking about the uh we we didn't get to this but it was the culture the atmosphere that we're trying to keep our employees in to retain a positive culture and I jotted in collective bargaining I think that I don't know if any state any county in the state does It's illegal in West Virginia. >> Yeah, I don't think it is. >> Well, I remember >> I know. Well, >> you you know a lot that I don't agree. >> But anyway, here >> I I

092think I think that I've watched people leave. You're talking about PEIA and we we couldn't bargain that the process then. But I think that really it would be an attractive process in this county to attract people to this county. If we had it then I think that the the the thing here now it says teachers feel valued and heard. I think all the employees we want them to feel valued and heard and I think that process would establish that that helper enhance that process. It's now we try to go down to where they are. We look at the exit interviews. You look at the we we have a dialogue with the superintendent has dialogue with the interest groups. But I think a more formal process at bord and I don't know the process. I know

093Dr. Saxs is familiar with it from his experience elsewhere in the country but I think that it would be a positive process. I used to the first year back in 1990 when the strike was born I was one of the legislators who said no this is wrong because I'd always advocated collective bargaining with the no strike clause. But when he came be became a member of the board of education, I'd watched the trip drip trip of resignations. Thank goodness we don't have them tonight. And on one of those slides you all had, the number of resignations had decreased. But I think watching the slow erosion of our workforce, people who don't even wait till June to quit on us, they leave. I think that if we had a bargaining process, we couldn't solve everything. But

094I think the employees would feel valued and heard because we would have a process there that they are going to be valued and heard. And I uh I I'm not taking any motions or advocating anything, but when I was reading through the remainder of the slides here, I had it down here. I believe that the u the uh loss of certified teachers um in our classrooms monthly has had a more devastating impact than a strike does of four or five days. That's that's a big interruption and it really hurt the community is aware of that the community is not aware of what we're the talent we're losing through resignations both in professional and in service and I believe quite frankly if we if we as a county and I disagree with Miss Long at least

095it used to be Chelsea Brownley back in the day says when canal county bus drivers said they wanted to bargain And the first county board of education many years ago said is can we do it? Sea Valley at that time said yes. Now I know a lot of laws and I was talking to Dr. Payne there earlier that law book has gotten bigger and I'm sure that Jackie may be aware of something that's happened that I'm not aware of. But I'm saying if this county could explore the possibility of bargaining with this employees, I think it would be an improvement for the existing employees and attraction for future employees that they felt they were coming into an atmosphere where their voices and needs were given a chance to be formerly heard and the board would

096be put in a position to delay those pros and cons. Right now, we're in a benevolent process. We as a board shower our employees for things we think they want, but they can all due respect. I think the conversation should be two ways and that's the bargaining process. And so, I'm just saying this because I saw an opening that you didn't go that far, but I think that we should seriously think about it. And I don't want to put my fellow colleagues here in the spot saying let's put on the agenda vote on it sometime future. I didn't I think the administration should be thinking about it. >> You can't collect a bargain in West Virginia. That's it's against the law. And I I know that Tibidly um because it's the only way that Joe

097Mansion said he would allow us to collect if we gave up 18A of the code and that at that time we were not willing to do any of that. So and you know president bargained every day with superintendent and I bargained every day here. He shared a little bit and gave a little bit, but that's >> two teacher strikes and I'm glad to share with this board for a place to donate. >> I I I think I I I'm not I am not going to argue one way or the other with either of my wonderful esteemed colleagues. But what I will say is I think it's See, I'm I'm buttering you up just a smidge. >> I got Yeah. Um I will say this much we are the teachers are not allowed to strike >>

098anymore. So any bargaining that they have or leverage they would have is been taken away from them. >> They can always get they can always get sick. >> I I I'm sure um however I'm not necessarily sure I want the apple flu. Okay. I'm going to call it the apple flu. Um I will I I will say this much. I I would love to be able to have some level of bargaining that that that you know um uh Pat has referenced the snag is that we don't have the ability to change certain things the way that they would want. Better pay, better insurance. Those are things we cannot control in many ways. So I don't know how it would work with us. We have to advocate with our legislators, >> which is what we're doing

099now. >> I say again, I bargained every day with this administration every day and it got usually what I wanted. Most of those things are in >> So, can we send you down to Charleston, please? >> I probably out of the Capitol building. >> Just for clarification, Mr. Wright did did show me why Mrs. Wright and Mrs. 18-4 says they came to live. I'd be willing to call it hoola dancing or whatever else. uh just that but I think that it would help us with retaining and recruiting our employees if we made it a two-way street and not just hat they come forward. >> Well Mr. Mr. Murphy kind of if you permit me I do want to share that last year I think was probably one of the first year well I don't want

100to take I don't want to say that I apologize last year I can tell you the work we did that is that I meet monthly with our employee associations now if not any true form of collective bargaining but I did share with our employee associations the things that I was looking at bringing to the board for uh budget requests things that um I was hearing from board members with budget requests but I also asked them what would you like to Um and of course that was where you know they got to totally behind the housing supplement um and of course the continued sick leave intend the u the attendance incentive and so while that is not a true form of collective bargaining it is involving our employees with process especially of setting the budget for

101next year and I'm and I I'm committed to making sure that we continue to do that with our employees um and our employee associations because they do have a perspective I think is very important as we think about um how we uh set our priorities financially for the school district um and we can also make sure and and that's not just about like pay incentives that's professional development how do we strate how how do we strategically support our teachers in the classroom through uh support and resources so I just wanted to share that I do think that we engage in that in that process because it is tremendously valuable so >> yeah and and appreciate I mean I do appreciate what we try to do now. I just feel like the the dignity of the

102work would reflect be better reflected if we sat down and had a two-way conversation formerly through the bargaining process. U I was unaware of what you were saying. I hate to think you were right. >> I know you do. But for me, but but and and for the record, I did notify Dr. Sax today that I was going to bring some so that I did not blindside. >> That was and that was not the reason that they stopped their presentation. By the way, I just want you. >> Yeah. I when he stopped any question, >> he's like, "Oh, Sax got me. >> You you stopped three pink slips, boys." But thank you for letting me uh express that and I do believe that the uh well I start I had question um in terms of

103hiring um both for teachers and professional administrative positions um are we allowed to or do we consider school culture, climate uh student makeup because I know there are the various nine categories but then there's another one in 18847A that says other measures or indicators upon which the relative qualifications of the applicant but may fairly be judged. So are we allowed to consider a school cult or climate change student makeup because how will whatever position that's filled impact the students like are we okay this is this is the person that's going to help the students the most >> not necessarily that they on paper have the highest qualifications but say for instance um I'm applying for a position at South >> and I live on Wilson Street Right. So, I'm I'm serving that community. I live

104in that community versus somebody lives where I live in Falling Waters. They have no ties to the South Middle community where I'll be my students every day and they go home. >> So, are in hiring are you allowed to consider any of those things because of other measures? >> But that'd be a grievance. >> No, it wouldn't. Well, >> approach McDire closer to market. >> I didn't say that's the only reason. I said because that would be like seniority's part of it as well, but seniority is not the only thing you consider. It's also eight other things plus this one. >> That I know. >> So that's why I'm not saying I'm not saying it's only based on say can be one of the considerations. >> To answer your question is it it relates to

105those other factors that be consider to be fairly considered. Um there is a little bit of uh from the hiring committee and that's if it's we're talking about a teaching position for example that's going to be the faculty senate chair or the principal collaborating on what those what that fact what those factors may be. However um to get to the root of what you're asking the grievance board has held that um qualifications being determined based upon um someone who would have an easier transition or someone who is from the community would be considered arbitrary and capriccious. So, what we have to do in order to get at the root of what we're looking for in a qualified candidate, let's say for a um a school that has a high population of low SCES students in

106its inner city, is is that we would want to look for characteristics or experiences that that person can exhibit that says, I've worked with populations like this in the past, so I have the knowhow that would meet the criteria rather than saying we want someone who lives within a five mile radius. I was given the that as example. That's why I said um low SCS, small I wouldn't consider just where you live cuz definitely just be that, >> right? >> But it helps when somebody has some type of tie to where they are and like you said a connection, a work history in general work history or whatever uh schooling or whatever that can help that particular school. >> Sure. versus somebody else that may have a doctorate, but >> they grew up their whole

107life in a $400,000 house and they're coming here. They're going to southern West treatment. >> Like you can't you can't relate to the students that are on food stamps. 90% of these students are food stamps. You've never missed a meal in your life. >> Yeah. >> Just just to follow up, some school back in the past, but the they used to bring a the teach the teacher would at least ride around the neighborhood. They were serving. They were aware of >> they were what? >> They were aware of the neighborhoods they were serving. >> Oh, sure. >> And if you get people who live in the neighborhoods or close to it, they one of the slides you all wrote down there. That was a good idea. I bring it up is that you're you're doing

108the exit surveys, but you're also now going to expand it to the stay interviews. And I just want it idea why they're choosing the state. >> Oh, I didn't understand. >> Yeah, it's >> been something Dr. Schoolies wanted to implement since I came down here is trying to figure out, you know, essentially coming up with a portfolio of what Nebraska County teacher is, you know, why do you continue to stay despite some of the financial challenges? Why is, you know, why is it you continue to stay? Because I would say most of the feedback we get strictly is I mean a lot of it's PI. I'd say 75 to 80% of PI >> and we it seemed like we were only interested in hearing what people felt as they were walking out the door but

109the people who stayed with us >> well we could continue this for hours but we'll end there. Mr. Mark, are you coming out with a question? I'm out. Thanks, >> board members. >> Let's keep going. >> Thank you. >> Very good. Uh, next on the agenda as the bond construction update, Mr. Tyson. >> All right. >> Good evening everyone. >> You got your uh construction and bond updates. Am I running this thing? Right. You you get the Hesville Early Learning Academy, uh, as I shared in the previous meeting, is back on track. Picture here in the bottom middle is the corner that has been put on pause, but the excavator, the excavation team is back on site. Uh, they were not on site for quite a while because there was nothing they could do, but

110they are back on site and working in that area. They had to demo some of the utilities and footer work that was done there. And so that has been completed and they're starting to move forward with the construction uh on that corner. And also the um they're a lot of the brick veneers are finishing up like you see on the gable there in the front entrance. So that gable is actually complete now. And the um a lot of the sprinkler work is in progress. And right now based on the schedule that the contractor has shared with us, the completion date is still March 31st and we'll be opening that school up in August. >> Any questions on Hedgesville? >> No. >> Uh the Martinsburg fan arts edition of course is uh just the auditorium is

111remaining and it seems like there isn't much progress happening there because there is only a couple of things that can go on. The main thing is the sprinkler installation. So, I mean, I took a picture of the sprinkler pipe, but until they get that finished up, a lot of the other trades can't get in there and do what they need to do. Um, and also the one trade that can get in there is the plaster repair. There's a lot of uh lot of uh cracks that have occurred over the years. So, the plaster team uh there was just an example where they filled in a window, but um a lot of the plaster repair is ongoing along with the sprinkler work. Apparently, this project is to finish scheduled to finish April 6th. >> Is that

112that's >> Martinsburg? >> That's the new addition you're seeing. >> Yeah. There wasn't much to show you in auditorium. >> Okay. >> You're in the balcony. >> Yeah. >> It didn't look the same as I like the branding. >> Oh, yes. I took a picture. Pretty nice. Yeah. By the way, that that was the if you all recall, um if you look at the the the new construction where you have the branding and then you have the transition between the the wall and the sidewalk, that was a a resolution that we were able to achieve through a potential change order because of the way that the concrete needed to come up. And so we opted instead of having all that concrete to reduce our our costs by doing some very attractive landscaping. So sounds good.

113>> That was something that we discussed earlier. So that's going to remain white at the bottom. >> Oh, yes. That was white at the bottom. >> I don't remember that when I was over there. >> I thought it was more of it's more of like a limestone look. So it's it's a larger it's a larger block. >> It is larger. You look at it in person. >> But it does match the rest of the pre-existing building. So we It's a design. >> So the rest of the building has that look. >> It does. Yes. >> I don't remember. I I I look >> it's just it's not as white. >> I I I look the fact that I can remember what a lot of the buildings on the outside and inside look like after you

114start touring all the everything starts to run together. >> I just didn't remember any of that. I mean >> I didn't for a high school when I was over there and we did we did >> it it does have such features and some different locations. So that the idea of course that I remember that >> well if you think about where you're standing there you probably didn't see it because that's where the marching band was standing when they played. >> Oh yeah. >> So they probably blocked that from when we were standing there when we did the tour. Were you there for the time? >> No, I was there for the tour, but I was I I I've been around for other events. I just I don't >> I don't remember. But I don't remember

115that. >> It's a good thing I brought this picture. >> Um All right. Next one. >> No, it's not toilet. We're not arguing over toilets. >> There's a lot going on here. Primary. The uh the concrete slabs are in progress. Uh these guys are even starting early in the morning working in the dark pouring concrete. >> Wow. And uh it's it's really moving along fast it seems because even though I took this picture here of some concrete block going up uh today there were approximately 25 to 30 masons on site slinging mud and stacking block and there are some significant walls that have uh been installed in the past couple of days. Um the uh plumbing and electric rough in is ongoing and as soon as they finish the concrete slab folks move in behind

116them and the uh the road uh is still a work in progress as they are grading and hauling material. There's just a shot of the road that heads down toward Jared'stown Road and the completion for this project is still on schedule July 31st just in time to move in some furniture and some teachers for the uh students in August. That's good. >> I I have to say I I want to commend um once again the Warner Construction. They've done a fabulous job in some of the challenges that we've had at Ela, but here at Mountain Ridge Primary making sure that we're able to keep um our on schedule and um so they've been very very good to work with. Of course, uh, Harley Miller has also been fabulous to work with our other projects, but

117this project is is one that they are really adhering to the timeline and we're very much appreciative. So, >> absolutely. >> And then, oh yes, >> well, just for Dr. Sax, later we'll be talking about principles for these schools that we completed. >> What do you do? They begin their job in the spring recruiting teachers. What do they do it all over the summer? How how do they go about doing this? >> Well, um that's a that's more of a complicated answer for you, but I want I want to be able to answer it for you. So the staffs because there's consolidations that that are involved, Berkeley County School staff will actually have to vote on how priority will be given to those impacted teachers from the consolidations and whether or not they have Justin,

118I'm sorry. Can you help me? >> It's whether or not they have seniority based upon help me answer that question. >> We've already done it for Hila uh when we staff thinking they were going to be moving in in January of this year. So the service personnel voted as a collective unit to give priority to the service personnel of the schools that are being the prek programs will be closing in. Uh as well as most the prek teachers in these sites are permanent subs. There's only a couple teachers that are given priority and filling them. So it would just be the continuing that cycle through the spring of trying to fill ELA with a regular process of teachers. uh and the aids have already been through priority and been voted because of the transfer lists

119thinking of opening January. The same thing would occur either in December or January. We'd have a faculty center vote for priority of the schools that be effective or closing the program at those location. Uh and where the student population might be added in the same way with service personnel, they would be as a collective in the county. able to vote whether or not they have priority in filling jobs created by the movement of those program classes. >> And some of that's going to be determined by our November 17th vote on the CFP revisions because part of that also requires the district boundaries moving for the new Mountain Ridge primary and so on and so forth. So most of Jared'stown will be going to the new Mountain Ridge primary. Inwood though, based upon transportation logistics and

120capacity, Inwood will have some students going to the new Mountain Ridge primary and some going to Valley View. And so we that that will impact how those staff's seniority will be impacted based upon whatever vote and whatever options we we can provide. But but the major crux there is how we're going to be how the board will consider those new district boundaries for those schools. When are >> it'll be in I think January. >> Probably December. >> Oh, December. Okay. Yeah. >> So, hopefully that answers that question. So, >> Mr. T. >> Uh, next one is Winchester Avenue retaining wall and the everything has been demoed. The old retaining wall is gone. The sidewalk has been demoed and the uh front steps, all that has been removed. They're in the process of well, as you

121can also see, they ran into a significant rock ledge. >> Um, sorry to say that that'll be a change order coming up in the near future, but they did run into a rock ledge. However, um, because of such a significant rock ledge uh, for a good portion of this um, project, the footers do not need to be as deep uh, since it's sitting on rock. So, we we did work with the engineers to um establish a compromise so that um where the styled rock is, we're just taking it down 12 in instead of 36 in. >> Oh, wow. >> Um so, uh big difference. However, there still was a good bit of rock hidden behind that wall. Um so, the footers have been excavated. Um you can see here where they they dug the footers

122or working on the footers. And actually, that process is already complete. Today, they they poured the concrete footers. So the footers are are poured and the wall should be finished here in the next few weeks. >> Any other questions? I think that was my last slot. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Uh next on the agenda is a legal update and the board will need to go in executive session. Have a motion to go in executive session under West Virginia code 6-98-4B section two. >> So move. >> Second. All in favor I motion carries the short We are back from executive session. I'm not sure what time >> 21 um >> and I rise as out of executive session and we'll go on to um we do not have any motion support

123executive session, right? >> No ma'am. Next on the agenda, it's a consent agenda. Can I have a motion to present to um approve the consent agenda? Did we took something off of this? Did we not? >> Okay. Motion to agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Oppos? >> Motion carries. Uh action items. Dr. Skooly will present all the policies that we have before us. I know one of them will will be removing we'll be pulling 10.8 the >> I removed that one. >> Good evening. Uh this evening uh we have a number of policies before you given the changes uh to our policy cycle trying to present them as a group and getting comments and changes. This is our first group petitioner for your consideration and changes. Item 11.1 county file

124BH code of ethics for board members. Uh there was minor language updates from legal counsel on this. It was placed out for review and comment from September the 23rd through October the 6th. No comments were received during that period. The superintendent recommends a motion to approve uh policy BH code of ethics for board members. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Okay. The second policy on 11.2 before you this evening at this for council discussion and action uh is Burke County file BA the board school board legal status. Again, the legal council has provided and advised that minor language changes uh to the co- policy comment period was September the 23rd through October 6th. No comments were received. Therefore, the superintendent recommends a motion to approve Brook County file BA school board

125legal status. >> Motion. >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Okay. 11.3 uh discussion action for uh Berkeley County FAC CA school superintendent legal status. Uh this one did see quite some updates from legal council based upon amended codes of West Virginia code section 1841, 1842 and 1843. Uh this was put out for review and comment on September the 23rd through October 6th. Uh no comments were received. So therefore, the superintendent recommends a motion to approve Burken County file CA school superintendent legal stat legal status based upon recommendation of council. >> Motion to approve second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. >> 11.4 is your discussion of possible action on Berkeley County file CV recovery of lost instructional time. uh this policy in part simplified and provided

126more clarity to reflect the requirements of equivalent time that is in within provision of western code 18545. Uh it was uh pace out for comment on September 23rd through October 6th and no comments were received. Therefore, the superintendent recommends a motion to approve Burken County file CB recovery of lost constructional time. >> Motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. Second. All in favor? >> Question. >> Yeah, I saw that they to change the 15 minutes to 30 minutes with each instructional day and I was just wondering if if they don't have snow then will the 15 minutes extra 15 minutes reduce the school year by equivalent. No, this is just that you have that ability to have those AIT days as well as time bank or your two-hour delays or your teacher prep days

127that we've added to the calendar uh with the 2-hour delays for teachers to do grades and stuff. So, without that, you wouldn't be able to accomplish those activities. >> Well, we were doing it before at 15 minutes. just >> it's always based upon the code section it was been it's been 30 minutes unless that was always been added to the school calendar again that's why we're correcting our policy because law requires 30 minutes in essence we were doing what the code said but our policy was not to >> I'm just seeing this maybe I'm wrong here but it looks like we're adding 30 minutes per day to the employee. >> It still fell within the instructional day uh of the employees. We still hit the uh 7-hour workday for most of our service personnel and

128the 7 and 1/2 hour minimum day for professional personnel. It didn't change. They were able to the start and stop time be able to extend. We got recess kind of PA your P so your PD med. So they were able to work it out within the instructional day. uh less than like a bell time shaving up a minute here or there to get in the 30 minutes of all schools to have this approved structure. >> Did we vote? >> Oh, we had a question. Um can I have a motion to approve? >> I think you already had >> Yeah, we had a motion second. >> We did. We did have those. Yeah. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. >> I thought it was clarified because I was afraid that I was on

129the wrong agenda. Yeah, >> I saw I saw an agenda that already had Damon voting and I'm like, wait a second. >> 11 five uh this evening you have before you the discussion of possible action county val KP election authorities. Uh this policy was reviewed by legal council and as part of this process uh the administration along with uh Mrs. Long and Mr. Murphy were able to meet with the county clerk to discuss how this policy would apply to upcoming and future elections. If you can see on lines 15 through uh 16 that original language was struck. However, after that meeting uh the administration is proposing new language to be inserted there to uh to allow for the opening and closing building to comply with its state code. Uh most likely your election workers have

130to be in the in to the facilities ready to go uh an hour prior to election day. Uh and sometimes you have to be there the day before in order to deliver the machines and have those secured within the buildings. So this is just assuring that we meet uh those the time that's required by code and authorizing for payment of those employees as well to include that time if necessary. So based upon this code uh recommendation and change or the policy changes in the language presented to you this evening u we would recommend a motion to approve uh item 11.5 county file KP election authorities >> motion to approve >> so move second. All in favor? I >> I just wanted to say regarding this policy that um that I know there was a significant

131amount of effort to make sure that the uh policy KP met the requirements of and the expectations of our of our county clerk and um that it was in accordance with what is in statute. And I really want to thank um uh Mr. Murphy for his time invested in making sure that this this policy was the best that it could be >> and contacting the >> Yeah, Mr. Patrice and his staff. >> The next policy we have before you this evening is 11.6 a discussion and possible action on Burka County FB critical need substitute teachers. Uh this policy is an annual policy that has to be placed out to allow retirees to work beyond the 140 days within code with other stipulation. The policy was put out for comment on November the 23rd through October

132the 6th. Uh there is one correction as needed to this policy on line 78. Uh this previous code section expired on June 30th, 2025. The legislature in the previous in the last legislative session extended this code section for suns setting to 2030. So the date on line 76 should be June 30th of 2030 uh within this policy. Uh without one correction, the superintendent recommends a motion to approve Brook County FGB critical need shortage of substitute teachers. >> I move the policy as correctly. >> Second. Second. All in favor? opposed. Motion carries. >> Okay. The last policy for your consideration this evening is discussion and action on policy GABA uh the critical needs shortage of retired substitute bus for bus operators. Uh this is a couple years into this policy as well. Uh it's an annual

133review policy based upon the needs of every county. Has to be approved by the state board as well. This policy was reviewed and brow for comment from September the 23rd to October the 6th. No comments are received during this period. So the superintendent recommend the motion to approve Burke County F GABA critical need shortage for retired substitute bus operators. >> So move second. >> Yes. All in >> favor. Motion carries. We we're pulling um 11.8. So we will Mr. Tyson. >> Actually, if it's okay, I'll just go ahead and present this one. >> Yeah, go for it. >> Is that all right? Okay. Thank you. Um while Mr. Tyson's I know is prepared, I just wanted to make sure that I gave this agenda uh some specific attention to the board. Um this uh change

134order for $435,46 is a result of a change order um that was identified based upon the power a power line easement footprint footprint change um that requires us to remove redesign and reconstruct a portion of the building located within the power line easement. And um it it was determined the footprint encroached on the power line easement as a result of an error uh from the site planning that was prepared by our architect um and uh the subconultant for surveying. Um so the board has made a claim against the architect and its subconultant to recoup the the cost of the change order and so we are going through the contractual requirements to uh recoup um those uh this expenditure. However, um the reason I'm asking for the board to approve this tonight is so that the

135construction can remain on time um and that the contractor can continue their work while we go through again that contractual requirement for uh the claim uh against the architect. uh the importance of us continuing the project also prevents any additional uh perhaps claims by the contractor that they're being held up with whether it be their timeline of project or the um or their or their subcontractors as well. So, with that being said, um I fully anticipate that we will be able to recoup um the amount of $435,46 through the the uh process outlined in our contract um and filing a claim against the architect. >> Questions for superintendent? >> Hearing none. Have a motion to approve. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> Uh, Madame President, this um Nope, I'm

136sorry that you can do this one. >> Okay. Martinsburg High School was next. All right. The Martinsburg High School edition. Uh, because we um had to change the scope of work and remove the entire plaster ceiling in the upper auditorium and beneath the balcony. Um we are paying the contractor basically on a town of material type of situation for those two major renovation changes. So uh this is a listing here currently of those items. Uh one is um there was a wall that had to be demoed and inside that wall there was a window discovered that was unknown and the window had asbestous caulking that had to be abaded and removed. So that's the first one listed for 2500. The next one is or the next two are for the demolition of the lower balcony

137and the upper auditorium ceiling. Um actually there's three of them listed there where there's um basically it's the demolition of all that ceiling. the um auditorium. In order to access that ceiling, they had to uh construct scaffolding which was not a part of the original plan, but because of the extensive demolition, scaffolding was uh you know installed throughout the entire space. So that is on the list. And then there was one uh slight little change of not as much carpet was needed in one of the offices. So there's a a little credit. Uh total change orders presented here is $259,330. >> Questions for Mr. Tarson. >> And just to clarify, the reason why we had to demo the ceilings was because we needed to upgrade the sprinkler system. >> That is correct. Yes. >> Just

138making sure that everybody is understanding that. >> And also, you could add to that list, we had to the fire marshall said that we had to remove all of the old wiring. >> Yes. >> We could not just leave it in place and there was no way to access it. So that also went along with the the sprinkler as well uh for removing that plaster. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Yes. >> And I I just want to say that any time that you have a renovation of a facility of this age >> and some of the infrastructure that was in place um there's always going to be things that when you do your due diligence are unseen window >> like like a window or or like the a canister light that is not able to

139be moved without ripping out half of the ceiling. and um and so that is an unfortunate challenge when you have um significant uh renovations taking place in >> a lot of times when we just to turn this into another little bit of a moment. That's why when we look at especially aged buildings, we have to balance whether or not we renovate them to bring them up to 21st century standards or depending upon the scope of the building, do we build a new building? Yeah. And so, um, because whenever you do renovations, you're always gonna you're always going to run into situations that you did not know about or did not see because you you can't look behind those walls. >> The unknown can be very costly. >> Yes, it can. >> How old is I'm

140not sure how the auditorium is. I'll get back to you on that one, >> but it's old. >> The fact that it's plaster tells us a lot. Yeah, >> the large crown molding is all made out of that's a very old way of doing crown molding. >> Yeah, it is. >> It's an art. That's an art. >> I was going to say that's beautiful. >> It looks very nice. Absolutely. >> So move. >> We have a motion. >> Motion. Miss second. >> All in favor? >> Oppos? Motion carries. Um primary change order. >> Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Board members, I'm going to also clarify on this one. This is very similar to the other situation. Um on this one, uh we have also filed a claim with the architect and more specifically uh it's

141subconsultant for um survey work. Uh but the this is a result of uh some additional work. is required to correct elevations um for the sanitary sewer line. Um and so once again, a claim has been made and we're following our contractual procedures in order to um recoup um the uh extent of the change order here. And um again, being able to approve this so that the work can continue um and it doesn't hold up any additional portions of the project um keeps the board from any kind of additional liability from the contractor themselves. >> And it's item number three on this list is the one that he's referencing. >> Yes. >> The other two are is fairly straightforward change order situations, but it's that third one. Can I motion to approve this change order for

142Mountain Lake Primary? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Camelowski. >> Good evening members of the board and Dr. Saxs. The personal actions dated for Monday, October 20th, 2025 are as follows. Uh this evening we have two coaching appointments and one coaching resignation. We have 27 extra duty appointments and uh six healthc care appointments. We also rescended 14 healthcare appointments. For professional personnel, we have three professional appointments. Um and on line 58, I need to announce a change. That employee decided to rescend their acceptance and they will not be joining us. >> Okay. >> What line? >> Uh line 58. Uh we have 117th pay appointment. We have three resignations and two transfers that are effectively the 26 27th school year.

143Um they're also um those two transfers are for the two principal positions. Um and this evening um we have the two principles that will be joining us next year at our new buildings. Um at Mountain Ridge Primary, we have Miss Autumn Fry. Um and at the Hedesville Early Learning Academy, we have um Miss Barb Ferguson. So they are both in attendance this evening. They will be the principles to open up those two brand new buildings for us next year. For service actions, we have 10 new service personnel appointments and six midday appointments. We revised the appointment of one employee and we have five change of assignments of service personnel. Uh we have one service personnel member who passed away and one administrative resignation. We also have three service resignations, one midday resignation and one correction

144of a resignation. Uh we have one transfer of service personnel and we have one service personnel upgrade. This evening we have two 20 new or we have 20 new appointments of substitute service personnel and we rescended the appointment um of one service substitute. Uh for professional substitute teachers we have eight appointments of professional day-to-day substitutes on line 122. We have one ratification of an unpaid suspension and termination of a professional substitute teacher. That employee is Candace Cron. We also have 29 removals from the substitute list and one resignation of a professional substitute teacher for a total of 151 professional service and substitute personnel actions for tonight consideration with superintendent Sax's recommendation. Madame President you said line 58 >> that was a res that was a resound >> that was a a resation. >> I'm sorry

145that should have been line 53. That is a community school site manager. She will not be joining us. I'm sorry. >> So we'll go to the next version. time reposted. >> Um I'll have to check with Mr. Patton to see how they want to proceed with that. >> Um unless there's any other questions, Madam President, board members um regarding uh the potential ratification um of unpaid suspension and termination of an employee. Uh, I'm going to request that the board uh approve the personnel action except for line 122, the ratification of paid suspension of termination of Candace Crumb because that employee would like to be able to speak to the board. And so, uh, we would need to go into executive session for that. Um, so we could have approval of the entire >> and just

146we're going to hold that one out for now. Mark >> has a question. Just administrative resignation. What's Did the person resign or did the administrator say they're going to >> administrative resign? >> What was that? >> I said or did administration resign? >> Yeah. Well, I don't have an updated. I'm looking at Ashley Seville at Burkream Eat. >> So, that person is an ECAT. Um, ECADs have to take a class in order to stay certified. Unfortunately, she did not complete that class. >> Okay. >> So, kind of like we would do with a sub teacher or with a teacher who doesn't get the certification, we put them back on the sub list. The same thing has happened. >> There's uh let me ask you this. Um, we've taken her out of that position because she

147hasn't fulfilled her obligation. But if she goes back on the sub list, we won't put her in there as a perm sub, would we? >> We actually we're going to hire somebody. >> Okay. >> Make sure we're not sent last week. >> Okay. >> And she was given up position. >> Okay. Um, where will we Uh, do I have a motion to approve the agenda minus line 22? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. So now we will need a motion. We could have a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel. >> Um, I I move and I also congratulate principles of of the changes. So there there I did motion and I think >> second >> all in favor executive session. >> And uh as we go in

148I just want to say again congratulations to our two uh seasoned administrators who are going to do a great job in opening up two beautiful new schools. And how exciting is it that you all are going to have that opportunity to build um again the the staffs uh and the culture um at two of these buildings that are going to be raising generations of Berkeley County students. So excited. >> Congratulations. Yes. >> And of course if I rem say that we want to thank Mr. Fry um as well. I believe is this is this your your son? >> This is our youngest son. We want to thank you for being here to support mom and wife. So, another excellent Bley County principal that we have here. All right. session. >> Um, so we are going

149to vote on line 122 uh where we have a ratification of the unpaid suspension and termination of uh Candace Craw who is a professional substitute teacher for us. >> Motion to terminate. So move >> 22. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. >> Motion carries. >> Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries.