001Great. >> I would like to welcome you to our board of education meeting and thank you for participating. Uh let me see here Dr. Mr. would lead us into the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for its one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> I have a motion to approve agent. First, I want to say that Mr. Martin is on virtual and teach signing. >> Yes, Mr. Martin is on virtual tonight. So, having said that, can I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. Thank you. Now I need a motion to go into executive session under West Virginia code 6-9A-4 section 2 to discuss uh the superintendent's annual goals and objective. So move second. All
002in favor? >> I hear. >> So we will leave the room and go back as quick as you can. discussion at 50 and uh I need a motion uh to approve the superintendent for an objective mutually agreed upon in the executive session. >> So move >> second. >> All in favor? >> I recognition. [Music] >> Yes. You ready? >> Yeah. I'm ready. >> Oh, that was quick. We'll bring in You got two doctors. >> I do. >> Okay. Good. Good. You're ready. >> I am prepped. >> I did not send a memo ahead of time, but we should be all right. Mr. >> Molina, come on up here with me. >> You realize why you're here? Meet my boss. We do have several people here. Jasmine, >> Ray, >> Eastston, >> this is Lena Nil.
003She is the September student of the month for Berkeley County Schools. There are some primary staff here. We have this shield. Yes, he'll do. Does anyone else think? All right, let's give him a round of applause. You want to say it or you want me? I better say it. Huh? M >> is for motivated, always doing her best. A is for authentic, always keeping us oppressed. L is for lovely in her demeanor that she shows. E is for enthusiastic, always wanting to learn and grow. N is for nurturing, treating other others with kindness and heart. A is for amazing. She's been a shining star from the start. A We have a couple of things for her. >> We do. >> So, actually, I'm going to ask, can you come up around and I'm going to
004present this to you here >> with our board president. So, as Berkeley County's student of the month, I want to congratulate you for a job well done. You have a bright future, and I'm so proud of you. Congratulations. And this is the superintendent's coin. It only goes to super super special people. So I want to congratulate you. So you do that. Okay. Congratulations. One more. There we go. You step forward. >> You come forward. >> Yep. Then I'm going to ask the board pop in here. >> Will you scoot the balloons over? Oh. >> Oh, absolutely. Mr. Aught, will you come in here as well? >> And then if we can get the staff and mom and dad, if you all want to come up here with us as well, pop in here behind the
005board. >> You didn't know you were going to have all this, did you? >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Mom and dad. >> There we go. Right over. >> Okay. Ready? Everybody fits. >> Perfect. >> All right. Now, I always like to do a fun one. And because this is the student of the month, let's I'll give her some credit by pointing to her right here. Ready? There we go. >> Hey, good job. Congratulations. I love the way um Jessica Manuel writes all my paper. Make sure this is a surprise. So I don't I've done that before. Superintendent. >> Oh, thank you so much. >> I want to thank our step-in tech team. They're doing a great job this evening. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> Got to work on your excitement
006next time. >> We're doing a great job and I want to make sure that you have the confidence you're doing a great job. doing great. >> Um so, uh board members and uh families across Berkeley County, we are so excited that tomorrow um actually if you can advance it one more time. Thank you. >> Absolutely. That is not right. Um >> we take job. >> Can you skip at two? Let's see what happens at two. >> There we go. Okay. >> So, uh we are so excited that we are going to be hosting tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3rd, our educational futures conference, which is the official launch of our district-wide planning process um for our facilities. And so, as we think about Berkeley County Schools um providing world-class education to our students, what we want to
007hear from our stakeholders, from our families, from our educators, from our community members, is is what does Berkeley County Schools need to look like in 50 years? And the reason that is so important is that because the schools in 50 years in order to plan for them and we're the construction and the renovation that we're going to be doing um now is going to impact that. So we need to be able to hear from again our constituents and our families and our um community members and our educators as to what do our buildings need to look like um as we we plan for that. So um the educational futures conference is tomorrow at the Holiday Inn. Uh it's going to be starting at 6 PM. We are uh really looking forward to getting your input.
008That's going to again spearhead uh the work of a uh facility planning steering committee to revise and update our 10-year facility plan. Um because we have completed a significant number of projects in the 2020 CFP, the comprehensive educational facilities plan. Um many of which were funded through the 2022 school bond. Um, and so now is the time to say, you know what, we've completed so many of these projects. We want to calibrate and make sure that the priorities that we have left are still the priorities. We want to make sure that the community understands that the next project is this and is is that really where the need is is this next project. uh is there do we need to shift a little bit and think about perhaps um you know a set of classrooms
009at this site or on this end of the county or a school on this end of the county with the growth that we are seeing here in Berkeley County schools. Um and so this is really an opportunity to provide your input into that process. Uh we um still have I believe the um the ability for uh registration to come to to take place because it is open to the community and we look forward to having you. So again, um we we can provide that to you. There was uh some information that went out to families. Um I believe I see Carlo back there, but I think that that you can find the link on our website as to how to register. >> Um we also want to invite you to join us for the bullying
010prevention kickoff community event at War Memorial Park on September 18th from 5:00 to 7:00. We want to really thank our partners and education for being able to put together this bullying prevention um and our community partners are just absolutely phenomenal. It's a great event for families. It's great event for our students and we want to make sure that um you join us. Uh you can go back. I'm sorry I got that all out of whack. I apologize. That was my fault, not yours. Uh, I also want to say a big thank you to our school staffs all across Berkeley County schools. Um, uh, I have been visiting our schools, uh, on a daily basis. Um, and while I've tried to get into some classrooms or cafeterias to help open some milks in our primary class,
011our primary grades, um, I want to really thank our school leaders and our teachers and our cooks, our service personnel who've just been phenomenal. um and with a really really good start to the school year. I know that there's been a lot of changes and that can bring a lot about angst, but I see the work you're doing every single day in our schools and it is absolutely exceptional and I am just so proud of the work that we are doing every single day across Berkeley County, doesn't matter what school you're in, and providing a world-class exceptional education for every single Berkeley County student. um challenges are still going to come up and we recognize that. But working together uh with our team of of educators, service personnel, and our school leaders, we know that
012we'll be able to solve those those challenges and those problems. Um and uh it's going to be a great school year. So, I want to thank you for that. Uh our next board meeting is on September 22nd, 2025 right here at the Winchester Avenue office. Um, just as a reminder, board members, our schedule for September does stray from our normal schedule to provide you all of the time to attend the mandatory trainings through the West Virginia School uh, board association conference and then of course for us to prepare for our second meeting of the month. We will also have a special work session um on September 17th where we will be reviewing um, our beginning of year diagnostic data from our schools. Um, so we'll be prepared to share with you. Here's how we're starting
013out the year and here's how we're going to be providing support in our classrooms to address any specific academic uh trends or challenges that we see. Madam President, board member, that concludes my update. You're still on here a minute. Sorry. At the same time, I saw you running for me, but you're good. >> Okay. >> Um, >> any questions? >> Questions for um board member update announcements. I just want to second with Dr. Sax that um thanking everyone getting the school year started off. Um I know there was some challenges and we've had some changes but uh and you know the board hears from a lot of people. We appreciate um that that you contact us and and that you share what's on your mind. So, I want to thank everyone for for what they
014do from the first people that pick those kids up in the morning to the last ones that leave them off and then and everyone in between, teachers, and staff, the bus operators, aids. I don't want to leave anybody out, so I'll stop there because I know I've got emails about that, but it's been a great start to the school year, and we can't thank you enough. Thank you. Next on the agenda is uh citizens forum. Well, first let me just say um that you'll have three minutes to speak and if you want to if not finish your three minutes but the next person start their three minutes. So uh please don't use any student names or derogatory comments and I'm sure that you all would not do that. So >> uh good evening President Wong,
015Dr. Saxs, members of the board. My name is Tresette Matrido. I am the principal at Tomahawk Intermediate. This evening, you will hear from various schools regarding the positive impact of the Just's Renaissance program. Um, I want to begin by saying that I'm here tonight to represent our Renaissance team at Tomahawk along with Yolita Bridges, who is one of our exceptional education teachers. Um, she stands with me in support of this program because of the difference it is already making in our school. I'll be honest, when I first heard about Renaissance, I was a bit of a skeptic. I wondered if it would be just another initiative layered on top of everything else that we already do. But attending the Renaissance conference this past summer completely shifted my perspective. It wasn't just inspirational. It was practical,
016intentional, and focused on what really matters. Building strong relationships, recognizing students and staff, and creating a school culture where people feel seen and valued. At Tomahawk, we had been dabbling in Renaissance type initiatives before this year, recognizing students, trying new ideas to boost staff morale, and experimenting with ways to build culture. But this year is different. With the Renaissance framework in full implementation, we now have structure, consistency, and intentional systems to take those ideas further and truly transform our school culture. Just last week, we held our very first Renaissance rally. The focus was on reviewing schoolwide expectations, introducing our new staff members, and setting the tone for a positive culture this year. The energy in the gym was incredible, and days later, our students are still talking about it. That kind of shared experience sparks
017excitement, strengthens relationships, and helps create the sense of community we want to carry throughout the year. We are also building momentum beyond the rallies. Every Monday, we've launched motivational Mondays where staff greet students with high fives in the parking lot to start the week with positivity and connection. And each quarter, our rallies spotlight academic growth and celebrate students who demonstrate positive behaviors, ensuring that both effort and achievement are recognized on a consistent basis. Additionally, we know that our community is deeply concerned about attracting qualified applicants and ensuring schools can be fully staffed and also retaining them. As a principal, I have seen firsthand how culture impacts our teachers. In fact, I spent a year researching and writing a dissertation on this very topic. The conclusion the conclusion was unmistakable. Climate and culture consistently rose to
018the top as the most critical factors in teacher retention. Teacher retention is a nationwide crisis, not just here in Berkeley County, which is why it's so important to be intentional in how we support our staff. At Tomahawk, this past summer, our staff remained remarkably stable with just one teacher choosing to accept a position across the border in Maryland. Today, all 25 of our home rooms are led by fully certified teachers, and we have just one permanent substitute in exceptional education who is actively working towards certification. That kind of stability doesn't happen by accident. It comes from focusing on culture and relationships, and programs like Renaissance will be vital helping us address those moving forward. I stand before you as not a skeptic but as a believer. It's making a huge difference and we need to
019focus on the returns which are for our kids, our teachers and our schools. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Saxs, member of the boards board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Michael Bur and I'm the assistant principal at Spring Hills High School. I want to take a few minutes to share share with you how the Jo's Renaissance program has helped us made real lasting impact not just with students, but with more importantly our staff. This past summer, I reached a low point. Like many ed educators at the end of the year, I was stressed. I felt I was physically sick um and I was emotionally drained. Honestly, I was not quite sure how much longer I could keep going in the profession. Having said that, both my parents were teachers, so
020I grew up in a school. I know how important teaching is to the community and how much it is to me personally. the pressure, the exhaustion, the constant criticism, it takes a it takes a toll on our staff uh as it took us a toll on me. This summer, I had the opportunity to attend the Justin's Renaissance Conference in San Diego and it completely shifted to my perspective as well. Uh the experience didn't just re-energize me, it restored my purpose. It reminded me that a school culture starts with how we treat people. And while Renaissance is well known for celebrating student successes, what often gets overlooked is the impact it has is on our staff. Our teachers, our support staff, and administrators are often the first to arrive, the last to leaves, and the ones
021carrying the emotional weight from their students. Uh this year, I made my personal mission to fight against burnout and to make our make sure our staff feel seen. Uh the value make sure the staff feel seen and valued and supported every step of the way. One initiative that we launched is the car caring cardinal award. uh staff members nominate someone staff members nominate another staff member for doing something positive. This forces them to intentionally get out and see positive interactions from staff members. Uh those recognized are recognized receive the cardinal chain and that is a visual reminder of their efforts for having positive interactions. It's more than just a symbolic award. It's about changing our mindset, shifting away from negativity that often surrounds education. uh especially on social media platforms such as Facebook where the
022loudest voices are often the most critical and always the most un uninformed. Uh we want to train our team to seek out the good and be intentional about recognizing what is right inside of our buildings and to take pride into communicating in the community that we're building together. Join Renaissance gives a structure to do that. It's not just fluff. It's not just, you know, something good to say. It's meaningful. It's practical and it's transformative. When staff morale impro improves, student outcomes improve. Let me say it one more time. When staff morale improves, student outcomes improve. Before I close, I want to take make a sincere invitation to each one of you to take one summer to attend a Justin's conference. Uh it will it will transform your viewpoint of it. You can hear all you
023want how great it is, but until you actually attend the conference that you won't be able to see until you see it for yourself. Uh see it for yourself. experienced what it's like to be in a room full of educators and leaders who are passionate about changing their school culture. Uh I believe it would tr it would truly shift your perspective the same way it shifted mine. Uh change is never an accident. It is an intentional and if we want culture we want a culture where people thrive, we must choose to build it every single day. Thank you again for your time and your leadership. >> Michelle, did I get that right? It's all right. It's close. >> You're good. >> Good evening. My name is Michelle Stashosski from Ptoic Intermediate. Tonight, I'm here to
024share the positive impacts that the Just's Renaissance program has brought to our school. Our school has attended JRGC for three years and have brought back several ideas that has improved our climate, culture, attendance, behavior, and academics. The first year we focused on faculty and introduced the PTOIC belt. The battoomeic belt is given to uh given monthly between staff members but can't keep be given to a member on the same grade level or team. With over 100 staff, this has helped us connect across the building and celebrate the amazing things happening at PTOIC. Students love seeing their teachers wear the belt with pride and they do wear the belt with pride. The next year we implemented JRGC for our students and became a rally school where all students get to attend the rally. At JRGC, we
025attended a session where an elementary school shared that all students should attend rallies, not just to participate, but to watch their peers earn to play the games and to be recognized. When students see others succeed, they are motivated to earn that recognition themselves. At a rally, we recognize students for positive behavior, academics, attendance, and new this year from JRGC, schoolwide goals such as I Ready, attendance, and behavior. We have also built a community within our campus. You see, PTONic is unique in the fact that we don't have the Spring Mills name, but we are part of that community. Last year, we started partnering with the high school's leadership team. We also had sports players come into classrooms to help with projects and read to students. We even took over 900 students, faculty, and a therapy
026dog on a walking field trip to attend a rally at the high school. These future Cardinals are excited to continue their educational career because of how JRGC has brought us together. Through JRGC, we implemented one of my favorite things, quarterly store awards. These are given by teachers to students who show safety, organization, accountability, and respect. When students receive the awards, the other students get so excited. I mean, they go crazy, clapping, cheering, smiling for them. Sometimes these are given to our high achieving students, but also these are given to students who improved during a quarter or given to students who try so hard but don't quite make the honor roll. During our last rally last year, I announced a name and the student's eyes got wide. When he came to get the award, he smiled
027the biggest smile and said, "I've never won anything in my entire life." >> For that student, he felt recognized for the improvements that he made. But for the JRGC team, it validated that this program is worth it. So, as you, the board, are looking at PDS for schools to attend, I hope you continue to let any school wants to attend JRGC continue to do that. This conference is not just a one-time conference. Every year is different because admin, teachers, and students are the presenters. And I know we've had many people here at Berkeley County be presenters. Students, teachers, admin. Every year we have come back with ideas to make our school, which is the largest intermediate school in West Virginia. >> There it is. >> Thanks for over 100 faculty and 940 plus kids want
028to come to school. Thank you so much. [Music] I am Jasmine Sanchez. I am a sixth grade teacher over at Spring Hills Middle School. I have my student leaders. I would like to give the floor to them to speak about their experiences with Johnson. Did they uh did they hear that they have spring? >> Yes. >> Good evening, Lauren. My name is Marissa Brim and I'm one of the student representatives of Springville. I've been in Dustin's Massage for three years now and I couldn't be more grateful. This program has brought so many new things and experiences to me. For example, I've met lifelong friends, developed skills, and I've had even more school pride than I've come out of. Um, I've seen and felt firsthand how Joson's Renaissance has meant for the community and help like
029us build a better community at my school and I just I feel so happy when we go to pep rallies or assemblies for guest speakers whenever Boston springs are and I would see the smiling faces in the crowd ready to learn. I just feel like the kids at my school are excited and Renaissance has improved the atmosphere, morale and quality at SMS. In fact, it's one of the reasons I'm here to speak today and that is I'm getting proud of. So, thank you John. >> I think that Justin's Renaissance has had an amazing impact on springville. It has brought students and teachers together. In my time at Spring Middle, Renaissance has made me have has made school more fun for me. I love the concept of rewarding students for having good attendance and GPA. The
030pep rallies are very inspirational and motivational. Renaissance gives all students opport. It makes everyone feel seen and feel like they can contribute something positive for our school. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. >> Good evening. As the largest middle school in the state, we are proud to share how implementing sorry. We are proud to share how implementing Renaissance has transformed our culture. We now celebrate not only our students but our staff at every opportunity. Over 300 students are actively engaged in clubs strengthening connection and belonging. Each quarter, more than 500 students are recognized, not only for academic achievement and attendance, but also for the growth that they've shown. Our students take great pride in the Renaissance cards, which symbolize effort, progress, and accomplishment. Most importantly, every student is included in our
031rally events, and every student who shows growth in a positive direction, whether it's grades, attendance, or behavior, is celebrated. Any growth at all. Renaissance has helped us to create a culture where progress is valued, achievement is honored, and every member of our school community feels seen, supported, and inspired to succeed. >> Marissa, they're my group. >> Oh, they're your Kelsey with you. Kelsey. Okay. Kelsey. Yes. Hi. Um, I'm Kelsey Ducing and I am here to represent North Middle School's Renaissance program. Um, this is our second year implementing Renaissance and it has become a program that I am personally very proud of, but so is our school. This program has helped us grow our sense of community and our school pride. and has fostered a culture where encouragement and recognition are both widespread and consistent, which
032has ultimately increased both staff and student morale. Through Renaissance, North has been able to create a consistent system to encourage students to always strive for their best. Our rent card system, which we implemented last year and have expanded this year, promotes attendance, academics, behavior, as well as good character. Students can receive points for success in each of these categories and earn rewards, incentives, and recognition both the classroom as well as schoolwide through things like rent rallies as well as different events that we host like carnivals and other big happy things that our students have ultimately helped design. Um, students are already coming to me on a regular basis, what do I need to do to get my points? because they know from last year that they want to earn these things because they're helping create
033them and their stakeholders in these incentives for themselves. And speaking of recognition, REN has been an amazing tool to help recognize our staff and to make coming to work a fun place. Our Ren Club has really helped to recognize some people that are forgotten within some of our, you know, situations. We have done pepperoni rolls for our bus drivers who are fabulous. Spa kits for our amazing hardworking cooks. Um lunches and handwritten notes for our custodians who absolutely go above and beyond especially in those winter months with all that snow. Um and they're just amazing. Our rent club has also organized letters of gratitude to our entire staff. Um, and I think that that is probably one of the most impactful things because everyone likes to know that they're they're being acknowledged and they are
034an important part of our our community. Um, overall it has been an incredibly impactful relationship building experience. Um, this program has also and one of the most things I'm proud of is student leadership. It has greatly grown our student leadership um because it's programmed to be ran by the students for the students and the staff. Um last year we began with an afterchool program of roughly 40 kids which is you know pretty big for the first year. Um all of these students had to complete an application of recommendations um based off of the characteristics I listed in our rent cards. Um this year we've expanded. We now have a leadership class. Um, and on top of that, at least twice a day, a student asked me when this year's applications will be open because they
035want to be a part of it and they want to know what they're doing. And I also want to point out that almost all of my eighth graders last year that were in our program aspire to be in their high school's Renaissance program or leadership. REN has strengthened our sense of community and school pride. And I've seen our staff and students come together in new ways, united by our celebration and goals. And we've moved beyond individual successes to a more unified school culture. >> What's the holiday? >> Sorry. >> You sit down with her at the holiday. brother. >> Good evening, Dr. Madam President and board. >> I apologize. >> Kevin, my name is Melissa G and I am principal of Berkeley Heights Elementary Schools. You've heard from multiple schools this evening about the Renaissance
036framework and we would like to add to that conversation about what Renaissance has done for our school. The professional development of the global conference helped us focus on the metrics that we wanted to measure and track progress towards goals. Creating positive culture and climate naturally increases attendance, decreases behavior issues, and increases the overall happiness and the look of our school. Partnering with school mark through Renaissance, we were able to brainstorm a new mascot and a new identity for school that needed an uplift as it went from a K to 5 school to a K to3 school to now K to2 school. The service was completely free through school mark and renaissance and they not only met with us as a team, they helped design the mascot and gave us all of the images. Um, this
037is our poster here. We teach our students to be badgers. They are brave, accepting, driven, grateful, extraordinary, respectful, and successful. And I'd like to turn it over to one of our Renaissance leaders, Miss Katrina. >> Good evening. I'm also the EL teacher at Berkeley Heights. Thank thank you for allowing me to uh speak tonight. For us, Renaissance has been so much more than a program. It's become part of who we are at Brookie Heights. It's a mindset that reminds us to recognize, celebrate, and really importantly connect. Not only connect with our students, but connect with each other. I've already learned a few things from our other schools that spoke earlier. at Bay Heights where a lot of our students are diverse and come from diverse backgrounds and face unique challenges. Renaissance has given us a
038common language of recognition. It allows us to celebrate not just the academics but effort, kindness, growth and character. You can see the impact in our traditions that we are building at Berkeley Heights. Our mascot which is normally Miss A here and our costume. These are pep rallies. Teachers write notes of encouragement. students are recognized showing what a Brookie Heights Badger is. And if you ask them for first and second graders, what does it mean to good Badger? They can tell you kindergarten, we're getting there. Um, you know, um, and they answer with pride. And that's what we're looking for. All of these moments create pride and belonging. Renaissance has given us tools to show every student and every every staff member that they matter. For me, as an educator, it has reshaped how I view
039recognition. I've learned it doesn't always take a big event or prize to make a big deal. Sometimes a high five, a little cheer, or a call home, and I've called home to students that aren't mine before to recognize something that they have done. I presented last year at the conference um at in San Diego. And it was showing how to incorporate and how to bring in our EL students with school culture and climate in an elementary school. In the upper grade, it's a little easier. I can send you that presentation. It does have data connected with it as well. um to show that having them feel safe, their culture be welcomed, it really helped motivate and gave them a positive outlook and they felt like they belonged. I am such a believer in this program.
040It truly offers the most positive approach for our school culture and climate and I couldn't be a happier. Chan, I'd like you to pass this around and read my little notes on here and thank you for your pass. >> I have no one. I'm sorry. students. Yes, they can pick a lunch and decide what they want. Middle school students, intermediate students, kindergarten through second grade cannot. We have these kindergarteners that takes up half of their trade. They have to carry it out. They don't know what to do. I have 10 to 14 packers. I have to help them with their lunch. I have to make sure they can carry their trays out. This is putting stress on the cooks because now they have to cook two lunches. One cook quit at our school. It puts
041stress on the aids, extra stress on us because we in the mornings have to tell the children, "Do you want a red lunch or do you want a blue lunch?" I have to sit there and explain to them what the food is. Some of these kindergarteners cannot they don't know the fruits. They don't know their vegetables. They only know the names, their alphabets. How can you expect them to have food through the mine and carry them? They can barely hold in pencil. Secretaries. They have to scan the fingers. They bring their trays out. the little child and they scan. Some of these kids can't even reach to cut the trays up. You are putting more stress on the elementary people, yes. Like I said, high school, yes. Middle school, yes. Intermediate, yes. They have they
042know. But a kindergarten through second grade, this is not good. Please, please I ask you to cons reconsider having one lunch, one lunch for elementary, one lunch to choose from. Either just just the lunch if I'm not saying pick two lunches, the lunch for the day would be chicken nuggets, the Fridays would be your pizza. Again, please think about the stare. Think about these little kids. They were just learning how to pick up a tray, how to pick up a pencil, how to recognize letters. You know what? You know what they do recognize? Mr. McDonald's, Mrs. Wendy's, and Burger King. And I'm not talking about the King of DC. I'm talking about Burger King. Please take time and look at this. Yes, some kids. Yes, they could probably do it at home. But we got
043so many kids that don't get any temperature at home. They don't get love. They get it from us. They need us to teach them about food. They cannot hold their tray. Some of them we have to take and hold it for them to walk it out. We do not have time to do this every day because of our packers. Please reconsider one lunch for elementary one that they get to go to one please. Thank you for and that uh salad there if you want to pass it down was from a student today who did not touch it. The salad I got from a student today who did not touch it. got the salad dressing but did not touch it. So this is your tax is going to waste. >> Thank you. >> Angela Pittinger. >>
044Yeah. The next person is April. She's coming. Sorry. >> Yeah. We can do this together. >> Well, hello. Um my name is Angeler and introduce yourself. I'm April Cecil >> and we are here representing the Mil Creek Intermediate Renaissance Squad. Um we want to thank you first for allowing us the opportunity to speak this evening about the Renaissance program that we have been utilizing. We are going into our fourth year um at Mil Creek. So I wanted to start off by saying um for those of you who don't know, I'm a PE teacher and a lot of times in the school setting, this is no offense to home room teachers, but we're usually the planning period. we are not the important folk because no offense but we're looked over a lot in all honest and
045that's how we feel a lot of times. So, I um used to work with a lady named Casey Harmon and we were sitting around talking one day and she was talking about the Jos's Renaissance and I said, "Hey, my first two years at Musman High School. They did this. They did this awesome event called La Palooa." I remember the kids coming out and they were stoked to be outside. They had great events for the kids. They had a punch card they had to use and she's like, "Let's go to the conference." I was like, "Well, we have to talk to Mrs. McCoy and see if she'll approve it and see if it's okay that we go." So, we talked to Mrs. McCoy and she probably thought that we were crazy when we came back because
046it's okay >> because when we came back it's okay when we came back we were on fire like we were ready to just completely change our school. I can't explain it to you because when you go to this conference you listen to people you engage you get these awesome ideas but it's almost like a movement like it completely changes your brain your focus everything. It's made me a better teacher because of it. out to the teacher of the year finalist two years ago and I wholeheartedly believe a lot of it is because of joins um you go there and you learn different strategies different techniques not only things to make your teaching more noticeable with your students but how you treat the students it's huge like even s giving them a high five like many
047of the schools have talked about interacting with the students it's just gone above and beyond and um it's very empowering empowering and I've seen a difference in our school alone. We have we do the student shout outs. We do the rallies just like the other schools do because we've learned about them. We know about them now. We want to make a difference. And Miss Pinger is going to tell you all about our differences. >> So, I am a data person. I like to look at data. I like to be able to look at things and see not only the feelood moments, but also what does it look like? So, um I went to our principal, Miss McCoy, and I said, "I need some data. If we're going to go and we're going to talk about
048this, like what can we talk about?" So, while we know there are areas as I'm talking about this that we need to make growth, the growth that we have made is wonderful. We started this program the 2000 the 2022 2023 school year. Our ELA scores have increased from 31% to 45 in just those couple of years. Our math scores have increased from 27 to 43. On our 2025 student uh climate survey, 98.9% of our students answered that they believe that the teachers in their school care about them, which is up from the county, which is 93.8, and the state, which is 96. 95% of our students said that their teachers notice when they're not there, which is up as well. Our climate survey for staff, 94% of our staff strongly agree that our school is
049a safe and envir inviting place to learn. 88% of our staff strongly agree that our school is a supportive and inviting place that they want to work. All of these data points are showing the improvement that we're making, but there are also those things that we cannot measure with data. Our students are Can I ask you to star wrapping up? >> Yeah, absolutely. Our students are excited to come to school. They love their pep rally days. They love reward events, dress up days, all of those things. This year we even held a parent pep rally um our first week of school to let them know about our store program and what it was all about. And they get a on pep rally day with your parents out the car window when they're dropping their kids
050off. Go white tea, go green tea. So it's completely transformed the way that we're looking at things at school. Not only for the staff, but also for the students and our parents. Yeah. So if you're asking if it's worth it, it's worth it for all of us. All of our compounders still. I can hear that already. >> Robert McCauley. >> Good evening, Dr. Saxs, board members. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Robert McCauley. I am the spouse of an educator. I am the parent of four students that have been through Berkeley County Schools. And I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the direction our district is headed. I believe that the decisions that are being made right now will shape not just this next school year, but the future
051of our community. Our teachers are some of the most qualified professionals that we have. Many hold master's degrees, advanced certifications, and years of classroom experience. They are experts not just in their subjects, but in knowing how to reach students with different learning styles, backgrounds, and needs. Yet, instead of trusting these highly trained professionals, the board is stripping away their autonomy and replacing it with micromanagement. The message that teachers are hearing is, "We don't trust you." They are being told to stick to only what is in the textbook unless expressly approved by the board. Even though supplemental resources have been long essential for covering standards that the textbooks do not address fully, many of these supplemental materials have been acquired over years of teaching, often at the teacher's own expense. They're asked to document the standards
052on the whiteboard daily as if compliance on the wall matters more than comprehension in the classroom. They spend hours filling out lesson plans that could have been spent preparing meaningful activities for students. These policies are not helping our children they are hurting. Meanwhile, we live in a world dominated by artificial intelligence and constant change. Our children need teachers that can adapt lessons in real real time, who can make learning relevant, and who can help students navigate an overwhelming sea of information. But when we tie teachers to rigid scripts and unnecessary busy work, we take away their ability to adapt and innovate that harm students directly. We already face a severe teacher shortage and just across the border, schools pay more and place more trust in their teachers. Every additional obstacle that we pile on here
053pushes our great educators to leave. And once they leave, it is our children who pay the price. This is urgent. We cannot afford to keep losing our teachers. We cannot afford to keep discouraging the ones that we have left. I urge the board to act quickly and decisively to remove the unnecessary obstacles. Restore professional trust and empower teachers to meet standards in ways that work best for their classrooms. Engage teachers as partners instead of treating them as people who must constantly improve themselves. If we want strong schools, we need strong teachers. And if we want strong teachers, we must support them, not stifle them. The future of our students depends on the choices you make right now. Thank you very much for your time. later on. I was a late fantastic fresh, you know. >>
054Uh, good evening. My name is Austin Jordan and I'm a student at Hezville High School. Um, this summer I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend the Johnson's Renaissance conference along with three other students and two faculty members. Um, as a member of the school of student council and superintendent advisory board, I felt like this was a perfect per opportunity for me to learn new ways to help influence my peers and community and make high school the best it can be. The trip was funded by fundraisers held at school and donation from our families and communities. At the conference, over 37 states and 9,000 students were represented. over 1,600 people in attendance. The purpose of the conference was to improve school culture and climate and introduce new ways for school to make being
055at school a more positive and enjoyable experience. Since we have to be there, we might as well enjoy it. One presenter described the Renaissance program as a reverse mode because you have to party up front to get the results in the back. Running songs, we have implemented a variety of things. We host fun Fridays during lunch and we have fun activities for the entire student body. Things like limbo, karaoke, a hot chocolate bar, or line dancing. We have weekly attendance awards with our student of the week where every department recognizes a student who has been present all week and done well in class. We host club days once a month to give students who may not be able to stay at school an opportunity to be involved. We have monthly faculty and staff appreciation days
056like a chocolate fountain, snacks in the mail room, a special lunch, or a dirty soda bar. And one of our most popular activities we got from Renaissance that started about 10 years ago was the senior walk. This is where the students wear their caps and gowns and make a final walk through the halls of the elementary and middle schools they once attended. The Renaissance program also offers monthly challenges for schools to participate in. They give us suggestions of activities we can implement. For example, last year we wrote positive messages from closed pins and secretly clipped them stupid. We gathered so many ideas from the conference which was amazing, but it was so much more than that. We had the chance to meet people from all around the country, share ideas, listen to motivational speaker speakers,
057and really just get excited for school. The school year has just begun, but the participation at events, student involvement, and the morale has definitely been positive and I contribute that to the amazing Renaissance program and everyone at HHS working hard to implement. Thank you for the opportunity to share some of the great things with you that we are doing at HHS. We hope even more students and staff can attend next year. Thank you. >> Kristen B. It's actually going to be um some students. >> Okay. >> Are all fairly speaking? >> Yes. So that will only be like a minute before we have it time. >> We actually made little packets with some more information. We can't include everything we want to tell you in three minutes. [Music] Let me know where you're at. >>
058Well, first off, hi, I'm Alice Patrick from and I'm a senior in our leadership class at Lman High School. Brianna Russell, also a senior at Musman High School. >> My name is Marissa Wer and I'm also a senior at Musman High School. Um, we attended the Josh Conference over the summer. To us at Muscleman, leadership isn't just a title. It's a commitment to making a difference to our teachers and our students. We focused on service, school spirit, and academic excellence. Renaissance is the root of positive climate and culture at our school. We have so many ideas that we've gathered from the conference um that we've implemented and so we're just going to run down this whole list because there's so much to say. Um and so we're going to rapid fire right at you. Um
059but just everything that we have done has really just improved our positive climate and culture at Western High School. >> In August we did the leadership boot camp, uh freshman orientation and senior sunrise, welcome to new teachers, sidewalking, mentoring programs. During September, we did the mega food drive. We babysitted uh PE we babysitted during the parent teacher conferences, volunteering we at elementary schools and and park partnerships in October. Um this is homecoming. So homecoming traditions, spirit week, pep rallies. This is a week that students literally make Snapchat stories for because it's such a big deal and they look forwarded to to it so much. Um haunted trail trunk or treat Halloween surprises for staff. High five Fridays and challenges in November and December talent show, fall fest, gift wrapping for our teachers because they are
060busy. Um, reading with Santa, spirit of the Appleman holiday season, winter dress up days. Um, yeah, we also have a winter spirit week to keep the morale going throughout. Um, winter depression is real, especially in students as well as teachers. So, it's um good to have those again have something to look forward to. >> In January and February, we host multiple charity events, including our annual teddy bear toss, blessing bags, and raffle baskets for families in need. Um we also hold a few events for our students and staff like our academic pep rally, um Valentine's, and the warm beverage culture challenge. Um in March and April, those are some of my favorite months of the school year. Um, I have so many good memories from our traditions at Muscleman like Charmview, Mr. Muscleman, and of
061course prom. We also make sure to support all of our student body by putting together SAT's care packages and attending the Tri County prom with our special education buddies. Uh, during May, we do like teacher apprec appreciation week. It's near the end of the year. We do senior sunset and Dubai, La Palooa. Someone said it earlier, step up day, eighth grade tours. We bring in the eighth graders to see what they're going to, you know, this is your new high school. Uh we do community outdoor movie night and we while doing all the months we're we're doing birthdays, music, online Fridays, attendance checks, we do student and staff spotlight, we um inclusion in substitutes, text, diversity, and year-long culture challenges. From August to May, Muslim leadership is about service, spirit, and shaping tomorrow's leaders. Together,
062we don't just talk about leadership. We live it. >> We do this entirely student fund raised fund student funded and we now have two leadership classes and just instead of one because it's so much. >> We each um had our own fundraising. Um we each were responsible for raising $1,000. So we were very driven and motivated and inspired and it is seriously likely to share it. >> Thank you. She was with us. >> Oh, Marissa >> Brianna Sawyer not >> Matthew. >> Good evening. Uh, as they said, my name is Matt Freeman. I have the unique position of being both the father of a student that is involved in the renaissance program at Muselman. Uh but I'm also Jennifer Freeman's husband is one of the adviserss there. So I've seen it from all sides. Uh
063I've seen the sacrifice that those adviserss put into this program. Uh the climate and culture that you've heard so much about. I'm not going to focus on the individual acts that they've done because we've had so many great presenters already. I'll keep it to what I know. Uh what I know is that my son's gotten a great deal out of it. He is more confident. He is more capable of walking into a room filling a room full of people who he may not know what his ideas are for why, you know, a certain thing may be more positive for the community, for the school. Um as far as my wife is concerned, I have seen the hours that she puts in. Uh she works uh she always worked hard before as all of our teachers
064do. They take the work home with them. She takes that work home with her and then now she also takes additionally the Renaissance work home with her. Um and she and Mr. Bond as well who we heard from earlier uh put in literally dozens of hours a week uh into this program uh for which they're not paid. Uh they don't receive the stipens that many of our c that our uh uh faculty advisors receive for other uh aspects of the school. uh from you know things like coaching uh things like uh you know other again I'm not going to list anything everybody deserves what they get when they put in their extra time but but these people are putting in the extra time to help the children in the school that help the entire school
065as a whole u we've heard the climate and culture thing that we keep pointing to but one of the things I really wanted to focus on was that really there's two main challenges uh facing Berkeley County education West Virginia education education as a whole That's truency and that's staff retention. And this is a program that's designed to target exactly those two problems. >> And it's completely free to the taxpayer. We've got students raising their own money to send themselves to these conferences that we heard are life-changing. Uh we've got businesses in the community that are contributing things like gift certificates uh that are contributing, you know, their time, uh their their money towards things to to try to get our kids to go to school and want to be there and get our teachers to
066feel appreciated so that they'll stay there. Uh my day job is that I'm an attorney for the public defenders office. I represent juveniles uh exclusively. Uh and probably about 65% of the juveniles in Berkeley County that are charged with truency are my clients. Uh, and so I deal with the issue of truency on a daily basis. I see how pervasive it is and I see what my son and my wife are doing along with the other folks in the Renaissance program at Muskman High School to try to fight those problems. Uh, and it's not something that we have any one direct policy to get to. Um, but they are we're heroic effort to make every kid feel appreciated, feel like they belong there. Uh, and as I said before, right now they're unpaid, but that
067would be nice if that could change because they put in so many efforts, so much effort and so much work toward this uh that they're certainly deserving of. Thank you. >> Before we go on to next part of our agenda, if anybody wants to go, um, but we welcome you. remember aside, I email day and I guess they didn't make the board his children's father. >> She was actually also spot I thought they were doing this together. He was he was perfect and eloquent. >> Next on the agenda is monitoring items instructional update Dr. >> Y. Good evening. Madam President >> and Patton is with me. >> I believe Dr. Wood may be online. >> I was I need to share my screen. >> Okay. Let me Can I share it? >> I don't see.
068>> Okay. Yeah, you go ahead. All right. Is that big enough for everyone? >> Well, we have it. But the rest of the audience, >> can you can any everybody see it that wants to see it that needs to see it? >> All right. Bad President, Superintendent Zachs, members of the board. Um, Mr. Patton and I are here today to present to you a restructuring of the Berkeley County Schools project aware um, therapeutic services with presence. Um, we were tasked with finding an agency that had fully licensed therapist for our project aware program and we were able to find that in presence. Um last school year I wrote a grant for the opioid response trust grant for innovation and the innovating um piece about it was that uh it offer move this world offers social
069emotional learning um curriculum for students and we were able to get presence with move this world through the Martinsburg initiative. So as we transition to um mental health services provided in a virtual modality um we thought of some guiding questions for this presentation which cover service continuity and transition planning integration with existing systems and outcome measurement and accountability. The first questions under service continuity and transition planning or how will we ensure a seamless transition for students currently receiving services through Eastridge and what specific protocols are in place to maintain continuity of care and prevent service disruptions during the transition period. I read both of these together the answers will go together. Um there were uh we did that was our doing that is we stayed in communication with Rita Quinn at Eastridge who's the CEO
070there and has been a true great partner and and with project aware of Berby County School and there were 49 families that continued therapy services over the summer. So, uh, what we did was we sent out messages to the communications department, text messages and email messages to every single one of those families proactively so to let them know about the the changes that were coming, explaining that Easter is still there, that we're looking at presence as a possible virtual option so that they could make a choice for what was best for their student. Um, I then followed up those texts and phone calls by calling every single one of those families, following up by phone. um to make do everything we could to make sure that that message is being reached. Um spoke with several
071of the families, many of them, most of them are looking forward and are looking into the possibility of staying with stretch through their own assurance. Um and some even raised the possibility of that virtual might be a better fit for their student. So that is how we're working through the u making sure that they the services continue and that there's continuity of care. In addition, Eastridge is going to continue to be a great partner. They're a great partner because they're a community partner. Um, one of the things that they available to do is crisis evaluation. We have a student in the school building who um is has expressed posit suicidal ideation and the uh what they've always been they do a great job of doing is getting their crisis counselor when available which is most
072often to that building uh with the parents permission um to evaluate the student in the building rather than go to the emergency room. And that often um allows the evaluation to happen and keeps the family from having to go through the experience of the emergency room and set up services right there in the building. Um also they um they're going to continue because they do have a psychiatrist available. We have we don't project never paid for psychiatric care. to pay for the therapy piece, but they've also agreed to continue to allow us to have that that kind of expedited service. When we have a student who's in real need of a medication evaluation, needs to see a psychiatrist, we can call and and they'll work with us to help them. again working on that continuity
073of care, making sure that while this process is going on, the students who are being seen there and have been need that ongoing care needed over the summers can continue to um what they did to continue over the summer because of our budget. They they were already paying out of pocket or using their own insurance. So, they have that option to continue while we're working through that. Um >> can I please would you rather let me ask questions now? >> Um does the um does our therapy take place at each fridge? >> Thank you for that question. Uh they do it any number of ways. They do mostly um the therapy start off say there's a referral and there's only one or two referrals in that building. Yes, the therapy would play take place in
074the Eastridge office or virtually. uh that ever since co that has become more accepted and um research has shown that that is a valid form of treatment and many students even especially the teenagers because they're on screens all the time once we've had three students in the building then they embed a therapist in that building who starts to build the case load. So what what they've done in the past is provided any number of ways what best fits that student. But if the if the therapy if the students are in our building there um so the therapist isn't housed at that location it's housed in the special ed office or wherever and they are you talking about the restructuring or >> I'm just talking about how we are serving these kids and do we have
075enough >> well the therapist the we're looking at the company we're working with the presence um and they provide um and this is what they promote is that they provide and have access to a couple of 2,000 licensed therapists around the country to provide virtual therapy. >> Okay. >> And what and the other thing that we have done is at Dr. Ruth's direction, we've set up meetings with every single principal in school council on a programmatic level to start to identify the logistics of how they would work through that in their particular school. getting the student from a classroom to a room with the computer um and make sure that there's a person available to handle take phone calls from the therapist if you know to let them know that things are needed or when
076the therapy session is >> I think also to answer to answer your question um it would be helpful to in the way of contact to say that it's a multiaceted approach to meeting the needs of our students. So obviously, you know, we have, you know, uh counselors, we have social workers, we have community and schools folks. Um and then we have whether it be East Ridge or Presence that can offer more um ongoing therapy uh uh services for students who have these identified needs. And so depending upon the the level of need, we have tried to approach it from a like again a multiaceted approach to ensure that we do have good coverage of of services. Is that >> is that a is that a would you say that's an accurate statement then? >> I
077would build. Oh, I was just saying that it's virtual in all 32 buildings and like he said, um each principal and the school counseling team has set up a central point of contact person um who can either retrieve the student from class to get them into their session or call them down. But there's supervision um uh to the room for the student safety. >> Who can track at their appointment time? >> It will it will be the central contact person offers a dashboard so we can see all student activity and um we'll get to that the the activity piece in part three. I want to talk about how there's an integration with existing systems. So, presence uh taotherapy model integrates with our existing MTSS frameworks and um complement the move this world program which last
078year we had a pilot for it and this year move this world will be in 12 schools which is Berkeley Heights, Tuserora, Eagle School North, Orchard View, Martinsburg, Muscleman, Rosemont, Burke Street, Mountain Ridge Intermediate, Mountain Ridge Middle School and all of PreK. So all of those buildings will still use that social emotional learning curriculum and during these therapy sessions um presence pulls from that curriculum to help teach students what they call castle competencies like relationship building, problem solving, self-regulation and um the specific metrics that we'll use to evaluate their effectiveness. First of all, therapy is a tier three intervention. So in order to even get presents, we need to have the students recommended through the student assistance team process. And with every student assistance team meeting, we um that team will offer a tier one
079or tier 2 intervention and monitor progress for 3 to six weeks before they decide we need to go to a tier three intervention like therapy through presence. And so presence also does an evaluation every six weeks to determine whether they will um release the student or if they need to keep the student for ongoing therapy. and we have decided that when they decide that they will release the student, we will go back through the stat process to see if the school thinks that's an appropriate um measure for them since they're part of the team that >> was one of my questions. >> So, we already answered the questions. Um, we just made this really pretty for you. Um so we talked about service capacity, the comprehensive continuum of care and then the data driven decision
080making. Other things that came into consideration when we thought about implementing presence was technology infrastructure which we have that staff training which um once we uh continue to work with presidents through um the contract portion of it, we will then get a more comprehensive training that Pat will use to train the um um members of our staff like school counselors. social workers, site coordinators, and then um he's already reached out and talked to several of our parents who are already receiving therapy support through the east through East Ridge. So, we've taken steps. sort of explaining um how this is the restructuring of a current model that we already use which is really we're taking it from in person to virtual >> and then I guess we will determine at the end how well this is
081working. >> We will but the grant is for three years. So we we qualified for a $500,000 grant over the course of 30 years. >> Nice. So it really helps us out. >> Yeah. >> Question. >> What year are we on right now? >> We haven't started yet. >> Something started I think start >> this would be our first year. >> Okay. All right. >> Question. >> Um I have questions. What um I guess what spurred this change? um was it something from the patent's office or >> well what's the change was um essentially a budgetary issue so for example we needed um licensed therapists so when we have a licensed therapist they can build the students insurance if we have a person who is under supervision who's not quite licensed but being supervised it
082goes back to the school district even though the student has insurance. So, we wanted to make sure that wherever we went, every license, every therapist was licensed. And um because we're paying for this out of a grant, we don't even need to worry about insurance in that capacity. Only if a person needs insert in in-person support through Easter >> and then that's when they're build. >> Correct. >> Okay. or they're in short. >> Yes. And Medicaid >> I mean approximately how many students are going to some 49 but during the year is it around that same number or >> no it's much higher last year was 150 students for same services. We've been up to about 225. >> How long does it take? uh from the time they're recommended uh till they started therapy. >>
083Well, we haven't experienced that with your presence yet and they have not provided any information on that. Previously, it's been about recruiting. If there's a crisis presently, if you go down the East Ridge, how fast do they respond versus if there's a crisis and we have to go through presence? Well, we've talked about this and if there's a crisis situation where a student has psychosis or suicidal ideiation or is a harm to themselves or others, we would recommend Eastidge over presence that that student is not a good candidate for virtual therapy. When we've also discussed that Mr. Patton, who's also licensed himself, could provide support temporarily >> and and specifically with those those three criteria that Dr. our father just mentioned those would be students that would need to be evaluated for on an emergency
084service. So either the um depending on the severity of that of the symptoms they were presenting uh we we might reach out to uh Rita Quinity research to see about the crisis work coming to the school but considering the severity that could also be an emergency. >> Any other questions? Well, I have a statement about what you're talking about here, but just want to pass along a compliment. I got uh this goes to Miss Trump, to you, Dr. Alonso, Shelley Fra at the front desk, and some other people they couldn't name. Uh, two individuals came in this past week. have a problem about the website and u they wanted to be volunteers and stuff and the website wasn't working correctly and they said you all work together saw them right there and they asked me
085to pass them on their appreciation without their name. >> Yeah, they're very pleasant to work with. >> Yeah. >> Did you have any question? Thank you all so much. Thank you very much. Appreciate Mr. Tyson and Dr. Bond and Representative >> HM HPM. [Music] >> No, that's going to be that'll be Very nice. All right. Well, thank you. Good evening. And I just have your continuation of bond updates of the Hedgesville Early Learning Academy is the first one bring up. Uh right now they're continuing with the exterior brick veneer and on the interior. There's a lot happening with utilities, mechanical HVAC, interior walls. You can see some pictures there of the interior walls that are uh taking place on the inside. And then also the roofing is in progress. Approximately 2 or 3 weeks ago,
086we actually heard back, and I say we, McKenley architecture and engineering actually heard back from First Energy, not with an approval, but with some clarification of some questions regarding the updated drawings. McKenley has responded to those questions. And so now we are, of course, waiting again for the final approval, but we got enough information to know that the contractor can move forward with ordering the steel uh beams for that section because it's worn at an angle. Those are going to be modified and steel is a 60-day lead time and so that's going to set back the substantial completion date. Uh remember it was going to be December. That was the goal. Let's finish this thing in December and move kids in in January. We're not going to be able to do that now. Uh we've
087confirmed the the setback and based on the contractor's adjusted schedule. It's looking like looking looking like right now the completion will be March 31st for this uh Pedesville Early Learning Academy. So, I want to make sure you're aware of that tonight. All right, next one. The Martinsburg fine arts edition. Of course, we all know that the band room, the dance room, and the choir room have wrapped up. There's still a handful of punch list items in those spaces, but essentially those are finished and the only thing remaining is to complete the auditorium. And right now, uh there's a lot of electrical taking place. uh you know they have to prepare for the there's pendant lightings that are going to be hanging in that space and all of the wiring is complete with that. All of
088the old wiring has been demoed and removed so it's it's out of there. Uh there was open walls that had to be filled in for a firewall that's been complete and I got a picture of the the walls there I think for you to see. Uh and and of course they're um waiting on some of the HAC duct work to uh finish up so that the sprinkler guys can move in and do their part. And the sound booth, you can see uh that's the very top of the balcony in that picture there to the lower left. Uh the sound booth has been updated and uh and the walls are built for that space as well. >> How the estimation based on that? >> Uh that one is still somewhat up in the air. They haven't
089finalized the schedule. Uh but last I talked to them, it probably is uh February or March, but I haven't received the official schedule yet. But that was the the talk. I think it depended on some uh they were waiting on some approvals. One of those were the acoustical sound panels. So now that that's been approved in previous board meeting, they can get those ordered. So it's things like that that they're going to fine-tune in that schedule. Hopefully I'll have an update next meeting. Uh the next one is Mountain Ridge Primary School. Uh this school is moving along on schedule and uh just this week, well actually on Friday they poured the uh the first of the concrete footers. Uh 68 yards of concrete was poured on Friday and a whole lot more um well today.
090Uh so a lot of footers you can see the open ditches here but if you went there right now you would see concrete in those footers. And so again that one's still on on schedule. Uh they're also simultaneously working on the road that goes all the way past the other two schools down to Route 51. Uh so that can be completed. Uh so they're going to take it within 100 feet of Route 51 to finish it until we get final approvals on uh the you know how we're going to I guess fund that. So um that is Mount Ridge Primary School. >> We haven't received the final design. I guess >> we have not. >> Right. I mean, so it's contingent >> on design and then bidding and then funding. >> Yes. >> How how
091do you import footings for a building that's not fully designed? >> The road. It's the connector. It's the connector. >> He's not talking about the entire road that goes past the schools. Just the part that is going to modify about 50. >> Okay. >> We're just going to build as we go. We uh I think I actually bring up a really good point. >> Um we have a conceptual of how we want to be able to do the connector of the of the school road to the the highway, >> but it's also subject to the DO approval. Um so >> I'm lagging here. I'm sorry. >> Oh, >> be sure you cut Mr. Murphy's comment out of there because It's a good question. >> Everybody's gonna get up in order. They heard that. >> All
092right. So, the last slide is just a summary of it. I had this slide on there last week, actually, so I probably could have removed it, but in case you missed it, there it is. Those are the remaining 2022 bond projects to be completed. And in just a few weeks, the athletic facilities and the security cameras will be able to mark them off the list. Those will be finished. The only thing left will be the buildings remodels and additions. >> Good. And then of course we also have tomahawk that we've also been able to you know it's a feather in the cap of the district that we've been able to get that completed as well. >> Yes. questions for Mr. >> that are legit feel like coach from repres. >> I know. Well, so so
093board members, I want to introduce to you Scott Leopold uh with HPM. Um Scott uh well, he's actually under he's actually still under the operations update. Um Dr. Skully has been working with with Scott as well as Carla and I. Um you're going to see Scott tomorrow evening. He will be our facilitator for the educational futures conference. Um, but HPM is helping lead uh and facilitate the work of our CFP um revision process. And I'm not going to take all your thunder, but I just give want to give it some context. Um, and I've had the privilege of working with Scott um on several different projects throughout my time, both actually in Florida and in Cab County um around facilities planning um uh and taking a look at school capacities, uh school usage, um >>
094Huh. boundaries, >> boundaries, those sort of things. Um, and so we wanted to have an opportunity for him to present to you all this evening and introduce yourself. >> Great. Thank you. Great to see you again. I was here a couple months ago. Remember that. >> Yeah. Um, I'm here because we're blew in a day early just a chance to meet with you all. And so the futures conference is really the first kind of kickoff meeting in this update or revision process. Um, it's really going to be about discussion. So, we're going to kind of share some, you know, track record of where we've been with the previous projects that we have. Talk about, you know, what's really happening in education. I think the big kind of wakeup call is, hey, we're building buildings that
095have to last another 50 or 75 years. Do we know what programs are going to have in 50 or 75 years? No, we don't know. And so, we're really at kind of an inflection point. We need to really figure out as we move forward in our facilities plan, what can we afford and what are we going to need moving forward? because a lot of things that we may have in the plan like a high school that's going to take up all the money if that's if that's the direction the district wants to go and if that's that's where we want to go fine let's have the conversation about some alternatives and so really the future conference is about talking big picture what's changing in education what are the needs of the community as far as
096career career readiness and how can we best build a plan to serve that and so we'll have a lot of output from the comm for our our exercises tomorrow. We'll be asking people to come up with ideas. We'll be getting the white paper out, the smelly markers and all that and be sharing all that out. And that's going to really pour into the task force process. So, we'll have a committee that will help us throughout the fall develop a series of options. We'll have another community meeting. I think we've got a date, Carl, for that at some point October. >> October something. >> That's where we'll start to roll out some potential options uh you know to update the CFP with. And so tomorrow is really big picture ideas that will then feed into the
097task force process. That task force will then help us develop some options which will then bring to you as recommendations in November. So that's again just kind of the pitch for tomorrow. It's really the kickoff of this process. It's not going to be a long presentation. Most of the time is going to be focused on small group table discussions. >> Uh Mr. Leupold, I know that one of the things that I've been catching is some messages going back and forth. What's our uh registrations up for tomorrow? Do you know what the number is? >> Um approximately >> as of 20 minutes ago, we were about 160. >> Oh wow, that's really good. >> Fantastic. >> So they've been pushing. >> Yeah, we've been pushing. We want we want to make sure people know that we
098want their input. This is not this is not an administrative, >> you know, initiative to say this is what we want and then, you know, we're going to bring it to >> to the board and then, you know, the community has had the input. We want to have total community input in this process. And so, um, not only is there the educational futures conference and then we have the steering committee, but I I believe it's that October some we're going to have opportunities for regional regional input by, you know, sort of feeder patterns and say, "Hey, here's some options. We're looking at districtwide. You probably want to look a little more what's going to affect this community or this this school feeder pattern and what what suggestions do you have based upon around some of
099these ideas?" And that'll also include an online version of the survey. Not not tomorrow, but in October when we get into the actual options, we'll have an online version of the survey with embedded videos so that people that may not be able to attend a community meeting at that point, they can still participate and share their feedback online. And board members, I want to uh be very open and forthright is is that this is a pretty aggressive timeline that uh we're working with in order to update and to make sure that we have the best plan in the way of our CFP as possible. But the reason and the purpose that this is expedited is is that we want to be able to meet a December deadline for the school building authority. So that um
100you know as we think about the me the the the means and the methods to in order to put together the community's plan and I want to call it this this is the community's plan. >> Absolutely. >> This is not the Ryan Sax's plan. This is not uh you know Berkeley County Schools administrator's plan. This is a community plan for our schools. And so um but we want to be able to have the the means and the methods to be able to to fund these things. And so that uh December school building authority meeting is the is the meeting for us to be able to request money, right? >> And to also make sure that um the school building authority sees that we put a lot of thought and a lot of detail into this
101and this is um not something that was just developed 5 years ago and it's just the next thing on the list. We want this is a current this is current, right? >> So I really appreciate that. >> Thank you. Welcome. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Uh, next is the consent agenda. Madam President, I was wondering if we could move 11.2 and 11.3 to um to occur before 11.1. My husband's getting ready to go into the hospital again. I just got the text message and I was wondering if we could take care of those two items because I would have to recuse myself from 11.1. >> Yeah, sure. >> So, um, >> do it now. >> I was thinking maybe if we could just shift 11.1 to to happen
102in the back end, I could scoot out more cleanly and I can be there for those votes that that would would matter because there's there's I can end vote on versus actually handling that item anyway. >> Right. >> Oh, okay. The only thing we need to discuss is 11:22. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I do think we need to make sure we approve the consent agenda. >> Yeah, we have to approve the consent agenda. >> Yeah. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Second. All in favor? >> I carries. Um now 11.2 which is the snow removal. Mr. >> Yes. Yeah, >> good evening again. Seeking approval to renew the snow removal contract. Uh this be so approved. This would be year number three with blazing space and I gave you
103some information. Uh last year the snow removal amount of course depends on the amount of snow we get, but it end up being 170,000. Uh so no way to know for sure what this contract will be this round, but that's what we spent last year. So seeking approval for the uh the renewal if you so desire. questions for Mr. Pricson. >> I just wanted to say thank you to you and Dr. Saxs and the rest of the team for you know working together and pulling some stuff and you know together some of the materials that we were >> looking at before were had some different dates on it that were needed to be updated and such and I I just wanted to thank you for for working through that. Well, and u I have to
104I have to also say though because it's power um I appreciate your diligence in reviewing what we prepared because you know you know we always intend to put forth the correct information but you identified uh you know uh a an error that we needed to make sure was right so that again we were bringing the most current information to you all for approval. And so I appreciate your diligence as a board member to to uh check and to uh verify uh because that actually led to us looking into it and saying you know what you know you're right we do need to add um the additional paperwork that's required for this. So thank you. >> Yeah team effort. I love that we work together on that. So appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> So madam president
105board members I encourage approval of 11.2 the snow removal contract. Uh, can I sec a motion to approve the snow removal contract for blades and shades? Shades and blade blades blades and shades. >> So move and the amount $170,41150. >> All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. And um now we'll have the personal would you say? >> I wouldn't stay for that and I have a few more minutes I can do and then I'm going to scoot right after. >> I know it's a long one >> but these are important so >> Okay. Good evening members of the board and Dr. Stack. The personnel actions dated for Tuesday September 2nd 2025 are as follows. Uh this evening we have seven coaching appointments and three coaching resignations. We have 32 extra duty appointments. Um,
106one resend of an extra duty appointment and one resignation. We have 390 healthcare appointments. That's the bulk of what we have uh on there this evening. On lines 436 and 437, we have um two unpaid leaves of absence for their consideration this evening. For professional personnel, we have six professional appointments and 267th appointments for the 256 school year. We have one correction of an appointment, one revised appointment, and one change of assignment. Uh we have two professional resignations and one retirement. We have one transfer and one correction of a transfer of the 2526 school year. We also have one correction of a staff member removed from the transfer list, and that was to add a school uh location as part of that assignment. Uh for service actions, we have 23 new service personnel appointments and
107two midday appointments. We also have six change of assignments of service personnel. We have five service resignations and one retirement. We have six transfers of service personnel and 10 service personnel upgrades. Um for substitute service personnel, we have seven new appointments. Uh we also have one revised leave of absence appointment and we rescend the appointment of one substitute service personnel. We also have two revised appointments and we removed three substitutes from the sublist. We also have two resignations of substitute service personnel. For professional substitute teachers, we have nine appointments. uh professional day-to-day substitutes and four renewals of substitute contracts. We also had six substitute teacher resignations for a total of 565 professional service and substitute personnel actions tonight for your consideration of Superintendent Sax's recommendation. >> Questions question. I did want to um give a
108shout out thank you to Peter Santoro at Headville Elementary had the opportunity to visit his class last year. supposed to be retiring after 20 years. Yeah. Very uh creative. Very interesting to play our explosion. So he does some public. >> Uh did I have a motion? I have a motion to second. >> Second. >> I assume that was a motion. Did we already hers? >> No, there it's not in there. 11.1 is is the one that I >> Oh, there wasn't a personel. >> Oh, there no. >> Thank you. Okay. I >> made a motion. Mr. >> Second all favor >> I motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Actually, >> it's okay. My goodness. It's okay. Your name can be attached to at this time. >> Um at this time, uh we will go into
109executive session. If I can have a motion to discuss the legal update, will we make any uh and since we won't be voting on um any recommendations afterwards, we will dismiss something. I want to let you know, Jess, so if I can have a before you begin, I'm a member of the Martin Luther King Scholarship Committee. >> Yes. >> And I'm going to have to be missed that meeting because the meeting began next week, Wednesday. But I was wondering if we could change October 15th. Sorry. >> We will Oh, >> actually Pat, we don't have it next week. Um the 17th is our special meeting. So >> he said on October 15th. >> I know, but he said next week. We don't >> the next meeting. >> Okay. Well, the next meeting >> September September
110the 17th. >> Okay. >> So what what are you doing? I'm just asking for the October 15th meeting if we can beat on another meeting. >> Okay. Not the September 17. Okay. >> And I will have uh Miss Emanuel reach out to you all to find an alternative date. You let her know we'll work it out. >> And I can't be here on the 17th maybe. So well might be driving back. If we need to find another meeting for the 17th date, then please let Mr. Emanuel know. >> You're all saying we can't be here. I mean, what what does that look like? >> We we we will definitely work with you all to see if we need to come up with different dates. Uh, having said all that, uh, can, u, I'd like to
111make a motion to go into executive session under uh, West Virginia code 6-9A-4, section two, to discuss legal update and there'll be no action taken after >> Second all in favor. Nice. >> It is um 7:45 7:45 >> he's going down. Yeah.