Board of Education Regular Meeting 5-5-25

001and welcome everyone here tonight. Michelle Bournehart 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. Have a motion to approve the agenda. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Music recognition. Yes. Thank you, Madam President, board members. Tonight, we are very excited to be able to honor all of our students in Berkeley County who have earned um state level honors this year um in music um and celebration of the arts. And so we are so excited to be able to recognize these these um young students and young adults. And so with that being said, I am now going to turn the floor over to Heather. Heather who and I'm sorry

002Heather what's your last name now. Heather now. Now we are going to turn it over to Mrs. Now and she's going to help recognize our students. So thank you so much for being here with us. Thank you for bringing in. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. First I want to thank you all for uh taking the time to recognize our students. Um I'm honored to stand here to recognize them. Just found out today. So, and I got this job. This is Valley View Elementary. Thank you. Hi there. So, Enwood is at a standstill right now. There's a huge wreck and a lot of my students have sent me messages that says that they cannot get here and I am sorry. But we do have some representation tonight with these two lovelies. All right. So these are the

003show choir stars. Yes. Um from second grade. Yes. And the names are Summer Hobson, Naa Poetsz, Takora West, Bela Gardo, Sophia Biden, Mia Billig, Sydney Diggs, Joselyn Little, Liliana Baky, Rosalyn Crawford, Helani, Hinsley Hannah, Haven K, Hinsley Miller, Harper Agnu, Lenza Bour, Presley Miller, Abigail Pitzer, and Sophia Warner. Congratulations. And what is your name? Sophia. Sophia. And what's your last name? Sophia Wana. And Kenley. Kinsley. Nice. What's your last name? Miller. Mill. Miller. Oh, Miller. Nice to meet you. Here is the superintendent's coin of excellence for a job well done. Congratulations on your state level win. That's wonderful. Thank you, sir. Thank you. We're going to have uh Dr. Woods and several other and and Dr. Skoolley are going to meet with you down in the other room for pictures. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Thank you.

004Oh, and Dr. S have certificates. I'm sorry. I'm Melissa Kelly. I'm the director. This is Tara McConnell. She's my assistant director. Thank you both so much. Thank you. I'm going to give these to you for all the other students. Okay. And if you can give them to their their pictures, it' be great. Thank you so much for the leadership you provided for. I appreciate that. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. Next we have Spring Mills Middle School Band under the direction of Jordan English. At region nine honor band we've had Lillian Ferguson, Caitlyn Coleman Nasai, Haley Grant, Lizzie Garrett, David Dell, and Logan Rush. And at the North Central West Virginia Honor Band, we have Lillian Ferguson, Haley Grant, Lizzy Grant, and David Detel. Spring Mills Middle School here. Congratulations. We have

005Kaitlyn. Congratulations. NASA NASA NASA. Congratulations. Haley Lizzy. Congratulations. Some of them are double like they have two. Yeah, they're two different groups. Lizzy and Oh, two different groups. Well, you get two. There you go. and Lizzy Grant. Oh, did I give you two? Are you Grant? Oh, there we that Lizzie got two awards. Oh, okay. And David. Congratulations. Good job, Mr. English. Yes. Don't want to forget. Yes, sir. Congratulations. Great job. Thank you. That's a superintendent's coin, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I think that's it. All right. Thank you so much. Teachers, the one I have your name. Next is Martin Martinsburg South Middle School under the direction of me. All State bands. Michaela Loper, North Central West Virginia Honor Band, Michaela Loper, Everett Sarin, Violet Leuen, Matthew Head, Risea Harrison, India Luen,

006Michaela Orna, Luke Bryan, Olivia Campbell, Satie Elliot, and Amari Olsen. And in West Virginia Region 9 Honor Band, Michaela Loper, Megan Brunt, Esmeralda Quentin, Daros, Violet Leuen, Eli Fowler, Marley Fishell, India Leuen, Marcelus Crawford, Jaden Paxton, and Imari Olsen. Congratulations. Michaela, I'll have you come up and just come up for me. Congratulations. Great job. Everett, sure. Violet Matthew head India [Music] Congratulations Michaela Brian Olivia Campbell Sie Elliot Congratulations. Megan broke. [Music] Congratulations. Esmeralda, Eli. California Marley. Am I saying it right? Congratulations. was excited to get congratulations. All right. I know. What's the next list? University Windon. Okay. Next we have Mountain Ridge Middle School under the direction of Mark Albbright. I don't see that. We have West Virginia Middle School Allstate Band. Michaela Alonzo, Charlie Arin, Eden Carl, Katie Peach, Sloan Place, Jonathan Sa, Zoe

007Fischer, and Jonah Lopez. Got to stand right here. Michaela first. No, not a couple. I don't see them. Oh, what's your name? Uh, Katie. Katie, nice to meet you. And your names? Michaela, this is for you. This is from the superintendent. Congratulations, ladies. Great job. I'm so proud of both of you. Thank you. Yes. All right. Y Hedgesville is not here, but we are recognizing from All State orchestra, Isabella Huy, and from uh Middle School, All State Orchestra, Isabella Weber. from Pedesville High School and Middle School. And from Martin High School under the direction of Casey Rogers Adams for all state band we have William Wagner and Nate Riley Shepard University Honor Bandon Mey Macy Marshall Rana Molenex Lenor Ariel Punkhauser Theo Warren Benjamin McClung all the rest of you okay Sean Head Tristan Wilson

008Ambrose Bow and and and Siri, Juliet Leuen, Nick Barrett, Lachland Campbell, Michael Mine, Eric Mosy, Jonah Molyx, Tommy Fam, Jonah Morant, William Wagner, Antonio Margin, Joshua Livingston, Sean Snow, Tyler Shade, Jacob Klene, Frank Graves, Dawson Harvey, Jacob Pratto, Ryan Palma, Anthony Stevens, James Riley, and Nathaniel Riley. We're region nine honor band. Matthew Wolfford, Nate Riley, Andrew Salgado, Ruth Vice, Ambrose Bowen, Chari, Tyler Shade, Joshua Livingston, and William Wagner. And here joining us tonight is That's me. That's for honoring us. There you go. Congratulations, sir. There you go. And Cassie, can you please Oh, I do that every time. Thank you. Okay, I'll try to remember that. I will try to yell. Muscleman High School is not here tonight under the direction of Michael Neper. For West Virginia All State Band, we have uh for the

009second time, Gabriel Gonzalez on trumpet. WBU Honor Jazz Band, Gabriel Gonzalez, Downing, Judes Crawford, Hunter Hall, and Jonah Smith. Shepherd Honor Band, Gabriel Gonzalez, Downing June Crawford, Hunter Hall, Jonah Smith, Nicole Copitz, Zachary Bowers, Cameron Delapenta, John Catlet, Blandon Schaffer, Renee Reed, Victoria Jackson, Juliana Trrenam, Faith McDonald, Tayen Bridges, Emerson Shaper, Lauren Daniels, and Savannah Carpa. Marshall University Honor Band, Hunter Hall, Faith McDonald, Gabriel Gonzalez, and Westan University Honor Band, Hunter Hall, and Faith McDonald, the Musleman High School band. Middle School under the direction of Nathan Ren, um, All State Orchestra, Adriennez, Caitlyn Martin, and Felix Hugas from Muscleman Middle Mountain Ridge Middle School. Sorry. High School. Also directed by Nathan Ren and W West Virginia High School Alterate Orchestra is Eric Hugas. W Honors Orchestra. Uh from our Spring Mills kids here. Okay. From

010Spring Mills High School, we have Ariana DeAndrea and Nia Fog. ladies. Thank you. Congratulations. Great job. your certificate coin. Did you have good congratulations? This is definitely a board of education endeavor. It is probably on the bottom. Right off this. There we go. She has Thank you. Thank you. Also in WVU orchestra or honors orchestra from Hedgeville High School is Evelyn Wisman, Alex Wolffeld, Emily Davis, Satie Wall, Llaya Greenfield, Isabella Huey, Catalina Lazaro, and Roman Material. from Martinsburg High School, Katie Gavin, Kenzie Langan, and Billy James. From Muscleman High School, Eric Hugus, Xavier Brown, Finn Walker, Sophie Carpenter, Trisha Orori Yadu, Giana Platy, Sam Hume, and Jacob Vincent. That was WVU honors orchestra for all state middle school orchestra under the direction of Michelle Zallik is EMTT Cones. I'm not sure what school EMTT is

011from, but he did all state orchestra. And from Spring Mills High School under the direction of Priscilla McGar. All State High School orchestra was Ariana DeAndrea and Sarah Beach. WDU Honor Orchestra already did those from Spring Mills High School band under the direction of Lee Cheek. All State band is Briana Davis and Jonathan Falconee. And last but not least is Martinsburg High School Choir under the direction of Kaylee Cohen, All State Honor Choir, Madison De Leon, Ava D Pascal, Isabella de Pascal, Brody Fishell, Nate Jordan, Chris Miller, Amaya Mott, and Tyler Shade. All State Honor Choir. Thank you so much. Great job. I appreciate it. certificate. I wonder if we have the dance team separated. Never mind. dance recognitions. Correct. What? The dance recognitions. Yes. I'm sorry. The dance recognition. Okay. Want to be sure

012because you're not Alexis May. So I But I'll take over. Berkeley County Board Members, Superintendent Sax, thanks for the opportunity to be here. Most of you know I'm Elizabeth Adams, but I am representing Coach Alexis May, who teaches dance one, two, three, and four, and co and and the coach of the Velocity High dance team. It's a great honor to be recognized for our outstanding contribution to the art of dance. Each year, Velocity strives to use dance to impact our community and spread our love and knowledge of dance. We do this through school visits, through Dancing with the Dogs, fall and winter camps, and through local, state, and national dance competitions. We also volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club, creating cra crafts and dancing with the children. This year, we were able to visit

013six Berkeley County schools and compete in three competitions. In January, the team went to Wheeling Park to the Wheeling Park Dance Invitational where they received first place in hiphop and then they also won the best choreography of the entire competition. All of the dances won. In February, we traveled to Ocean City, Maryland to the Reach the Beach National Championship where we received second place in palm and first place in jazz and also first place in hiphop. Without the hard work of our students, a push from the parents, and the support of the community, we would not be able to continue with this s this level of success. Thank you for not only supporting Velocity, but for supporting and believing in dance in our schools. We look forward to many more years dancing for you, and

014we are hoping to compete at the national level this coming year. So, it's the Velocity Dance Team. Can you just introduce yourself and then we'll go right down the line and tell me what your favorite style of dance is that you were able to perform? My name is Syron George and my favorite type of dance is hip-hop. My name is Delaney Simpson and my favorite type of dance is palm. My name is Leah Demarco and my favorite style of dance is palm. My name is Jenna Cybel and my favorite dance is palm. What is palm? We dance with palm. Oh yeah. My name is McKen and my favorite style of dance is My name is Zora Grantham and my favorite style of dance is jazz. My name is Julia Wuna and my favorite type of

015dance is pop. My name is Karen Marple and my favorite type of dance is jazz. My name is Natalie Figureroa Perez and my favorite is jazz. My name is Caribel and my favorite type of dance is Jess. Well, on behalf of the board of education in the school district, congratulations for all your hard work. Um, and I must say one of these days we hope that we get an invitation to one of your performances so we can come watch. I know it's hard to believe board members, but back in another chapter I was a swing dancer. I I did swing and dad, believe it or not, but that was a long time ago. So, one of these days, maybe I'll put my shoes back on and I'll Well, when we go on stage with the

016ladies, go see them. You can join right up. I'm sure that it won't look as good as it used to. It didn't probably didn't look that good back then, but since you were asking for an invitation, you're more than welcome to come watch them Thursday at 7 in at Martinsburg High in the gym. Very good. That's excellent. Thank you. Very good. Congratulations again. I'm going to give you a coin and then we'll go this way for pictures. Okay. Thank you so much. Radio. Richard. I see you sir. Yes. I have a girl in tech week at the apology. So she missed this. You can get her coin. Coin. You want Can you get her coin for her? Okay. Okay. Tony's next. Okay. Uh science fair. Mr. P, I'm sitting just do the social studies at

017science fair together. Good evening, President Long, Dr. Zack, members of the board, and our guests here tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to be here to celebrate the achievements of five amazing BCS students who recently won first place in either the West Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair or the West Virginia State Social Studies Fair. Now, just to make it to the state fair, each student here had to win first place in their division at the respective schools, then take home first place at the county and the regional fairs as well. And of course, the competition gets significantly harder at each level. So what we have here are the best of the best uh out of thousands of of projects within the state of West Virginia. So their projects exemplify the dedication and rigorous research

018while also demonstrating their creativity and originality and problem solving and presenting their findings. So I would like to acknowledge these five students and have Dr. Saxs if it's okay give a certificate to them and I would like for you guys to hear the titles of our projects. Yes. I can't wait. So for middle school for the social studies fair we have first place and state for anthropology Miss Mia Mills for her project for middle school. Who are you and why do you want to know? And for the state social studies fair for high school first place for psychology for group we have Nick Butler and Ava Bowers from Muscleman High School for what triggers a sniper. And for the state science and engineering fair for intermediate level, first place, Daniel Middles from Tomahawk Intermediate for

019plant science. This is bananas. And I was really hoping he was going to wear his. And then first place for high school from Spring Mills High School in biomemed engineering for constructing an inexpensive transformable refreshable rail display and printer with optical character recognition transition and transportation features for the blind and disabled. I have no idea what I just said. congratulations. What innovative ideas? Yes. How you don't think of that? Yeah. How do you come up with those projects? I don't know. What was your inspiration for the braille machine? My inspiration was I was really looking online for an idea overall for the science fair when I came across a video of a blind boy. It was his first time getting his full braille set of Harry Potter books and I didn't know why it was

020one of his only sets of books. And so I researched into the issue and I realized that just to transform regular books into braille cost over $15,000. And so that really delved me into the issue of professional brow displays and that I wanted to create a new less costly one for education. Love it. Great job. Great. Good job. We have any winners here who have won a state social stud in the past or have made it to the state social science fair. So we have some repeat customers here. Nice. Congratulations. Oh. Oh wow. Awesome. Awesome. animal sciences versus GMO. Thank you all so much. [Music] Who's here for that? Okay. And I see How are you? Hi there, coach. Hello. How are you? Are you sir? Good to see you. Good to see you. Don't

021know where they're supposed to go. Right there. So, um Jeff Duggar, Sophie Walker, and Susan Engel were presenting, but I don't see a Susan here. or Sophie. It will be You'll have to put up with me. Jeff is down there on the other end of that. So, tell us about the team. So, this is Chosen and Majesty Clark and Zack Duggar. Um, they are in first Lego League. Uh, I've been working at it since August and they just got back from the World Championship in Houston this year. Awesome. So, two weeks ago they got back. It was over spring break. And what did it take to qualify for the national competition? Uh, we won the West Virginia State Tournament. Excellent. Congrats. Which gave us a bid to world. Yeah. Wow. Um, yes. So, they were

022with 159 other teams out of 35,000. Wow. Made it. So, 160 out of 35,000. Now, a few of us a few of us know I know um Miss Long and I know that what you guys did as far as as your competition because we had the privilege of following you guys on one of your WR uh interviews and then I was listening to the next one that you gave just recently. Yes. Um so can you explain what the project was and ideally I'd love to hear them them explain it because they did a phenomenal job on WR&R. Yeah. I was so impressed. So impressed. All of you guys are very articulate. Just so you know, being on the radio is very hard. And so I commend you guys. So tell us what you did. What

023was your project this year? It was a device that underwater that divers could use to communicate uh by sending a vibration underwater. and uh had four features, an emergency alert feature that would vibrate like if they're too far away from their body, it would vibrate and let them know to go closer to each other. Very cool. So, part of their their competition is four parts. They have to build a robot and do a robot on the table, but then they have to solve a real world problem with an innovative solution that they developed called the buddy band, but it's for divers to help divers. Then they have to explain their robot design and coding process. That's awesome. And they get graded on how well they behave and how well they act around each other. So,

024you know, I not only congratulate them so much, but you too as well um for all you do with them and to keep them moving and um interested and wanting to go further because I know they want to go further and further. They are joining the older team next year. We got two Spring Mills and one Martinsburg High School here. There we go. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. And our students, I have the superintendent's point of excellence. So, congratulations for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you for providing these youngsters with the opportunities that you have. Congratulations. Thank you. Great job. Great job. Congratulations. Good job. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Out that way, I think, for pictures. Thank you guys very much. South Middle, Cindy Evers, and

025Sharon Mason, the other coach. Okay. Thank you all so much for what you do with them to get them where uh they go and to uh train them or I guess they train you. I don't know how that works. How do they just have to have the knowledge? Correct. Yeah. We just get them started and then they take off from there. Wow. So, and this is their third year that they're going to be going to the world tournament. I know. I You know, we keep up with that and they're so proud of what they do. It's amazing. I'm going to ask a dumb question. Not dumb. And what is VEX Robotics? It's kind of like they kind of built like their own like program and like they just like they come up with new challenges

026every year cuz like built for your Yeah, it's built for like and high school is BRC which still like derives from the same VEX program but like the VEX program is robot like robotics and Legos. So like it gets you like it gets your feet in the water with the with like the robotics type of thing and then you go higher into the program and then like you start building with metal parts and all the other things. So that's where that's where you dealt with a little bit of metal next year like next year. I admire you for what you do definitely Dr. S. I'm sorry. Oh no no I apologize. I just um that's way over my head. I can I I um bought a um a Lego chicken for Easter to put together

027and I had a hard time with that. So it's and it's just big. So that's what you build. So I'm so proud. So are you judged on the quality of what you build or once you build it, it has to go through like an obstacle course or do certain functions? Um pretty much all of it. It's the way that we work as a team, the way we build, the way we record that building and just overall and there's like a challenge. So like this year we had to score balls and pass and then you get put into a bracket once you're done that into the division finals. So like you have 10 matches to get the highest seed you can possibly get and we so like for instance at states we got third and then

028won our division finals because we were in the second seed and that's what got us to world. So, it's mostly based on your teamwork with other teams and then how well you do in the qualification matches that gets you into the position to go to college. That's awesome. What What um what got you all interested in this this program? Was there something that was going on at school or what was what inspired you? Very good. Way, way to go, Miss Al. Well, on behalf of the board and myself, this is the superintendent's coin of excellence. So, thank you and congratulations all your hard work. I have one more. Hang on one second. You'll be back here next year. I know. Well, they're moving on to the next. Oh, they're so you'll have a different team.

029If they come back, it won't be with me. I'll be cheering them on. But you'll have a different team. Yes, we have a couple more teams at South. So go next week today. Yes. Sunday. See you Sunday. Mother's Day. Okay. But the competition goes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we fly back Thursday. That's right. How many do you watch? Is it on Discovery Channel the the robot wars where they Battlebot? Battlebot. Do y'all watch Battlebot? Yeah. I mean, I think we ought to create like a whole battlebot competition here. That would be awesome. Oh, no. I love the excitement already. We're going to figure this out. We do our own battle. After the competition is over, all three teams battle it out. And that's when we take the robots apart the next year. I think

030I think this would be an awesome initiative. I love I like that idea. So, yeah. Thank you all so much. I'm going to I'm going to have someone from the district appointed to put it together and working with you. We're going to do it. 11. Yep. That's how that is. Yes. See what happens when you come to a board meeting. Do you want to do it? See, sometimes you all That's even better. We've got seats. That's good sharing, ladies. Wow. I love it. Please show me. She gives us our invitation. Mrs. Eer, are you ready? Just to do that. Caring educator. Good evening everyone. It's my privilege and honor to present this month's ACE award. A caring educator to the outstanding Mrs. Janelle Ellis. Mrs. Ellis is the embodiment of everything the ACE Award stands

031for. She is kind, passionate about teaching, deeply devoted to her students and school, and thorough in every task undertakes. without a smile, even when it's stressful. And she brings energy, warmth, and fun into our school environment each day. Miss Stellis is a highly requested teacher, and it's no wonder why. Her students thrive under her thoughtful guidance and loving encouragement. She helps them become the best version of themselves, blending compassion, high expectations. Her classroom is a place where students flourish, an environment marked by structure, support, and genuine care. She continually seeks out new engaging strategies to reach her students and generously shares them with the first grade team. As a team leader, she is trusted to organize, guide, and collaborate as they review student data and make decisions that benefit the entire grade level. This year,

032I had the pleasure of working closely with Mrs. Ellis during her leadership internship. I witnessed firsthand her dedication, efficiency, and excellence. Every assignment I gave her was met with thoroughess and heart. She's a thoughtful problem solver, a reliable contributor, and someone I can always count on. Without question, she is a future principal in our district. Although we will certainly miss her powerful presence in the classroom, the administration and the sorry, the admiration and appreciation her colleagues feel for her speak volumes. Her instructional assistant who's here tonight, Mrs. Welch said this. Co-eing with you has been one of the greatest joys, a true partnership built on trust, laughter, and shared purpose. You're not just an incredible educator, but a remarkable friend. No one deserves this award more than you. Don't you cry because then I'll have

033to look this way. Mrs. Courtney Samson reflected on her journey with Mrs. Ellis. She has inspired me to be the best teacher I could ever be. I used to dance in her classroom when she taught prek, and she never stopped me. She lets me be myself and sometimes she has to remind the staff to take me seriously, especially during my pranks. From teaching my youngest daughter to supporting me professionally, Janelle has impacted my life deeply. I've watched her grow from teacher to mom to soon to be principal. It's been a privilege to be part of her journey. Mrs. Kelly Comr, assistant principal and parent, shared, "What a delight it's been to see my own child who's here in the front row right beside her teacher. Um, what a delight to see my own child grow

034under the leadership and guidance of Mrs. Ellis. She carefully crafts each day to make learning both meaningful and memorable. Her classroom is a community where students grow in relationships and academics. She challenges them, supports them, and inspires them. She's played a pivotal role in our school's transition this year, and our family is forever grateful for her impact. And finally, one of the most heartfelt reflections comes from a colleague who has known her from the very beginning, Miss Jackson, who's here in the audience. I first met Janelle Ellis as a student teacher in my classroom many years ago. While she was an exceptional student, eager to learn and full of questions, we soon also became fast friends. That summer, when she texted me that she had accepted a position at a Pekkin as a prek teacher,

035I was ecstatic to know we'd be working side by side. Once I confirmed that there was still a second there was a second classroom and I still had a job. Over the years I've watched Danell grow from an enthusiastic first grade teacher into the accomplished educator she is today. She brings her best to school every day, puts her students first and consistently strives for excellence. She's not only a tremendous support to her students but also a trusted friend and competent to many on staff. I'm in awe of all she has managed this past year. raising a young family, earning her masters in administration, and ensuring her students always have what they need. I can't wait to see all that she will accomplish in the in her next chapter. As you can see from these beautiful

036words, Mrs. Ellis has made a lasting impact on everyone around her, students, parents, colleagues, and administrators alike. Perhaps the highest compliment of all is the word friend. It appears in all of their testimonials. Mrs. Ellis makes a peekin and the world around her a better place simply by being herself. Congratulations, Mrs. Ellis. You are truly the epitome of an ace behalf of the board. I just want to say that um not only what you do at OPEC and and you do it for Berkeley County School students and and St. When I contacted Mrs. Tyler and and read her words to hear the admiration that the staff has for you uh over the years and it just continues and continues and I do know that there there is a higher calling for you although you're needed

037in your classroom desperately. So, uh we appreciate so much what you do for these young learners. It's you're amazing. Mr. Murphy and I've been over there a couple of times and around in your room and you are the catch meow. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks. And next is the volunteer of the month. Yes. So, we are incredibly proud to recognize Mr. Lorenzo Everett as the Berkeley County Volunteer of the Month. Mr. Everett is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a recipient of the Bronze Star and two Silver Star medals. This these prestigious honors are awarded to service members who demonstrate exceptional bravery or meritorious service in a combat zone. It reflects not only his courage but his unwavering commitment to serving others. Following his military service, Mr. Ever continued to serve his community

038through various roles, including as a hospital worker and a long-distance truck driver. His spirit of service didn't stop there. He brought that same dedication into our schools. Mr. ever began volunteering through the path program at Orchard View Intermediate when his grandson was in third grade. He's 22 now. Since then, his impact has expanded across six schools. A Hecken Elementary, Burk Street Elementary, North Middle, South Middle, um Orchard View Intermediate, and Eagle School Intermediate. In some cases, he's even followed students as they advance through high school, offering consistent encouragement and mentorship. At a Pekkin Elementary alone, he currently mentors five students. When asked about Mr. Ever, they shared heartfelt comments, and some of them are funny, but um I put in as many as I could. Mr. Ever is fun. I like playing Uno with him

039and doing puzzles. I like his smile. He smells good. I hope he follows me to third grade. They also remember his words of encouragement. Use your knowledge. Keep trying and work hard. you can do this. One student added, "He taught me to tell time." And another said, "I like his eye color. They remind me of the police, and I want to be a police officer." Although Mr. Ever is unable to be with us this evening as he recovers, we felt it was important to move forward with his well-deserved recognition. It's our pleasure to present this award to his wife, who is here on his behalf tonight. We thank Mr. Ever for his service, his mentorship, and the joy he brings to our students. We wish him a full and speed recovery. This ever like to

040come up. Thank you. He wants to say hello. Sever you know your husband both members of the NAACP. He's uh he's always been good leader. Uh I I would like to acknowledge I don't know he's I'm sure he's younger than me but our generation was inspired by President Kennedy when he said ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country and his example here not only in the military and combat with his friends colleagues but also in our community working in six schools with young people would need that inspiration and possible leadership and he is doing that. So he is living the dream that Dr. and President Kennedy instilled in all of us in that generation and telling people I would thank you. Thank you for the

041rest of the meeting. You're more than welcome. right there. Just say I'm sorry. wasn't consistent. [Music] Uh, next on the agenda is Citizens Forum and on the first on the list is Julie Robertson and Josie. Yes. Come up to the please. And you have two minutes. And and uh if you um run over, I'll let you finish. Okay. Oh, three. I'm sorry. Oh, is that Julie? Yes. Oh, hi Julie. No, I'm Julie. This is Josie. Okay. Sorry. Hello everyone. My name is Josie. my family and to talk about new living with I love science and history. I love 4 where I am a member of the German 48 club. I I love spending time with my coco. I love going to the local Georgia and watching that on Friday night. [Music] Hawaii. Good afternoon everyone.

042This is my daughter Josie and she was diagnosed at the age of three with a childhood of speech. A child has a neurological speech disorder. A child with this condition makes problems sounding correctly consistently. The proxy is a problem with coordinating the speech from her brain to her mouth. It's a very rare speech disorder that affects one to two children per four per thousand in in the case and the brain struggles to develop the plan to speech movement with this disorder where the speech muscles are weak but it performs the brain difficulty speaking and the coordination of the movement children with CA may also have trouble eating they might have problems with coordinating their tongue or have sensing problems with sensory food problems or it's a long time long time diagnosed with that required intensive

043speech therapy. As a parent of a child of someone with aroxia, we see the firsthand the child and frustrations that come with the diagnosis. For eight years, we Josie has been living with a practice of speech. She started speech and OT therapy when she was two and a half. We've learned the intensive awareness and permanent understanding of this condition. Josie generally has a good understanding of language and knows what she wants to say, but has a difficult learning and carrying out the complex of understanding speech. Praxia is one of the most severe childhood and communication disorders. With araxia being a neurological disorder, this has infected both Jod's bind and grow motor skills. For example, Jod's fine motor skills skills writing, cutting, using scissors, picking up small objects, drawing, and playing with musical instruments and tying

044shoes. Her gross motor skills like swimming, riding a bike has landed her intensive OT therapy. I remember the countless hours that has Josie has spent in speech therapy, struggling to pronounce words that we take for granted. The tears of filling the helpness were overwhelming at times, but the support of our speech team, family, our friends, our teachers at Mil Creek Valley View, the doctors, the Josie has made great progress. One of the biggest joys is watching her grow within our speech. It's been a long journey, but has taught us to be patient and it takes a village to raise a child and hearing loss. [Music] to me and everyone to for me and for all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Not able to comment, but you're amazing and I want to learn more about

045those rabbits. Michelle here today as a parent and I wanted to I'll say education is the number one way to break the cycle of poverty. Martinsburg High School has the most is the most socioeconomic diverse high school in the entire state of West Virginia. Berley County Schools and Blige Community Technical College offer free dual credit college courses in each Berkeley County high school. The last board meeting that personal actions were done, you all approved the resignation of one of the college English teachers or the college English teacher from Martinsburg High School. um the one that works for the free uh gives the free inschool courses with rich. Um tonight you're going to approve the resignation of another teacher that teaches college course at Martinsburg High School. Currently my son was set to take the college

046course from the teacher who resigned from Brooklyn County Schools. Currently, there is not anyone employed who meets the qualifications to teach the class in Martinsburg High School. Martinsburg High School wants to hire somebody. They think that they will be able to hire somebody with their credentials, but we know how it is. They hardly have any certified teachers as it is to teach at Martinsburg High School. So, I'm going to stick my son in another class where I'm going to have to pay. But again, it is the largest most diverse high school in the entire state where not everybody can just decide to pay somebody for their kid to get the college credits that every other high school in this county can get. So my question to you is I have been speaking at these board

047meetings since 2018 about the staffing crisis that we have in Berkeley County Schools. Now I know that you guys are knowledgeable about that and I know that you have you know tried to find things work with the people at the state but nothing is working. Senator Rucker suggested in a newspaper article that parents sue the state, but the state is not the one that's not providing the education to the students in Berkeley County schools. It's Berkeley County School. So my question is, is there something more that you can do in your seats that's not playing nice that maybe you have to play a little bit of hard ball to make it so that the kids in our county are educated? because currently they are not. If you look at who is promised eligible for Martinsburg

048High School in the past, let's say five years and they're the top 10% of their graduating class. How many of them are not finest eligible? It's a very big crisis and the kids in Berkeley County schools deserve to be educated and not just him all along with substitutes in a classroom that don't know the content. Thank you. Next on the agenda is monitoring items instructional update. Mr. Patch Good evening, Madam President, board members, superintendent Dr. Saxs. I want to thank you for the invitation to present a state of the CTE for Berkeley County Schools. First, I want to recognize and thank two individuals that are retiring that have been very helpful to the CTE department. Director Christy Heaton. her role and with his program studies is much appreciated. As the Department of Education makes changes

049to CTE course descriptions and course codes, she's been very helpful. She's allowed me also to participate for monthly counselor meetings. Second is Miss Pat Jackson. She's been our financial secretary, not only for the CTE, but teaching and learning at federal programs. I will miss these two ladies and I greatly appreciate the work they have helped over the years with CTE. I report to the executive director, Miss Holly, and she plays a vital role with CTE with her support. But it's with the school counselors helping. It's with the administration of all the high schools. It's just not the CTE teachers in our high schools or the middle schools that make CTE possible for our students, but it's this effort that makes student schedules work so students can have and fit a career life plan into their

050class. I'm very thankful and appreciative of how they make CTE successful in county schools. The slide before you. The slide before you are the completer programs we offer in Berkeley County Schools. Not every program is at every school. But let me explain. To be a completer, you must have taken four courses in high school in the same subject area to be a completer in that concentration. All programs have four required courses and a few of the other program few of our programs have extra courses for the students to take during their high school career. We offer almost 100 CT courses in our high school. New programs that we started this year are tourism, social journalism, and building and maintenance operations. Our building maintenance operation is only offered at Musk High School. These new programs allow

051for students interest and career paths. For example, the business maintenance and operation is a program and upon completion and passing the no test, the students will be certified as a county custodian in our schools. The skill sets for this class are the basic understandings of painting, blocking, block, masonry, electrical, and plumbing to name a few. Next year we'll be offering multimedia publishing, building and maintenance operation at Hesville High School and therapeutic services which will be at Springless High School and Martsburg High School. The therapeutic services is a partnership with the help of education alliance and our local WVU hospital. To explain, 10 students were were chosen from a screening and interview process from each of those two high schools. We recently had a ser a signing ceremony with the students, families, and our senior staff

052at WVU hospital administration. Upon the students completion of this concentration, the student will be employed at WVU hospital here in Marksburg. This program is a handson in the hospital during the second year. new for next year and I do appreciate your support on this that we have two a programs going into our middle schools, Mountain Ridge Middle and South Middle. These two schools will have active year-round green houses and future chicken coops with laying hands. These programs will count toward our accountability and programs in the CTE middle school programs. A CTE student has opportunities in their class and we want that student when they exit to have industry skill sets. They will have soft skills that relate to job requirements. They will have participated in a simulated workplace. They will have had the opportunity for

053leadership roles in classrooms and workplace environment. Our students will have the possibility for labor credentials that relate to a career and hopefully will pass the nationally recognized endorse test. Our students will have opportunities to participate in county, state, and national uh national competitions. Our students will be learning from hands-on activities as well as our students do multiple volunteer activities in and around our community. Let me get a little bit deep in the weeds here with CTB accountability. I'm sharing with you the accountability indicators that are required to be met by the state. And you can see the percents that are required in our middle school. I'm glad to say that 69% of our students are enrolled in a middle school CTE course. That sounds crazy, but our family consumer science classes are not counted as

054a CTE course. and I believe that will be changed for next year. The main course is called discover your future. This course is driven by student interest from an inventory test and the students are introduced to 16 clusters of CT. Those clusters are from a construction, audiovisisual, business, education, finance, government, health sciences, tourism, technology just to name a few. In our high schools, high schools, 62% of our students presently are enrolled in at least one CTE class. 62% of our students in a CTE class in our high schools. 24% of our students are taking at least two CTE courses this year. I can moving on down to I can say that over 11% of our students will be a completer this year in our high schools. Well over 11% of our students have participated in

055a workforce I'm sorry an official workbased learning opportunity and that number is a moving number as teachers and students enter that into their into the systems. Our technical assessment is called the NOTI. It's a national test to determine if the student has the skills of workforce entry for that concentration. Every concentration has a different cut score and every test is different. I believe our performance for this c for the county this year will be around 74% again above the standard. As far as endorsements, 81 of our 81% of our teachers are certified. I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your attention. But most importantly, I want to thank you for your support. At this time, we have a short video. This video was created, produced, directed, and provided

056by the Musman Broadcasting class. Your student is here. Yes, sir. This gentleman here before you did this whole video. I'm gonna let you speak here or do you should he speak before you want to speak? Yeah, I can. I like that he didn't hesitate. He was ready to go. He didn't he didn't labor. Participating in our simulated workplace and broadcasting classes allowed me to collaborate on many different projects including filming sports, school events, and special ed projects. the broadcasting CT program coming by my passion pocket camera. So, and your name sir? Marcus. If any of you seen some of the videos from Austin, I know he's been responsible. So, if we can roll that beautiful video, [Music] The A programs have to offer a lot about trades and agricultural obviously. Uh you learn a lot

057about animals and animal production. You also learn a lot about welding and electrical, plumbing, woodworking, a lot of just basic trades that could help you in the future of you know having a job if you're looking to going into trades as a trade school or at James Ramsey. So this class is important because you learn life skills that are applicable to everything. Uh so like you need to put up a ladder. You don't think Pythagorean theorem. You just put the ladder down. And so this is a class where um all the stuff you probably won't use goes out the window and all the stuff you need to know you learn. And what this is, it is not a cook and eat class. It is not a cook and eat program. So in foundations, you learn

058the basics. Uh we go through all the serve safe training and we build on that and we continue studying from it all four levels until you can take your national certification exam in advanced. Um once you earn that, it's a 5-year certificate. you can use it to help yourself, you know, get a job in food service or get a little bit higher rate of pay at your current job if you're already in food service. Um, a lot of what we do involves uh fulfilling orders. Um, we basically teach kids a a work process, start to finish, that type of thing. it and it will provide them um some usage in machine tools, hand tools, um wood identification, stuff that not only would help them professionally, but could help them when they're at their own home.

059Um we teach them how to measure, we teach them how to do uh fundamental math, and we also do a financial program. in hospitality and all the CTE are pretty important because it really gives you a good opportunity to expand your knowledge within West Virginia and really about the whole travel and industry tourism group as a whole. Um, it's a much broader topic than people think. It's not just about hotels or traveling around the world. There's a lot that goes into it, especially in restaurant management. Um, so really any business related uh career path, it's good to know how the CTE and how travel and hospitality works. with business and marketing. I would say I get like business and like marketing skills like when you like get into these classes like it's very important for

060like when you want to like open a business shop or like open up like any type of thing you want to like own like hair, food, anything, business, money. [Music] This class is very good for um working in the real world. You get to learn I like Excel, PowerPoint, um scheduling kind of programs. It's like really good when you get out into the workplace and you just get to learn about everything that you do and it's a really good class. You make really good friends. It's really fun. She makes assignments really easy and you get to understand it really well from a child point of view. Some things we have to offer uh for our class. Uh number one is a wide variety of knowledge as y'all can see in the room here. Uh we've

061reconstructed this whole room, did the walls, doing ceramic tile, flooring, all that good stuff. Uh we do a little bit of welding. Um, you can get your forklift certification, you can get your OSHA 10 certification. Um, if you finish all four courses, uh, there is something in there, uh, to where you could be a custodian for Berkeley County Schools. Um, there there's all sorts of things. We cover everything, like I said, building maintenance from groundkeeping to building maintenance, uh, electrician, building walls, uh, framing, welding. We do a little bit of it all. All right, go for it. My name is Rachel Blackford and I teach graphic arts at Hedgesville High School. Um, we do a lot of things in Illustrator and Photoshop. Um, we also have a poster printer here that the kids and students

062are allowed to use and we use that for a lot of projects. Thank his instructor Mr. Matt Welch uh who coming from industry and working on his certification to be certified. So Mr. Welch, thank you. Um with us is principal from Museland High School and I greatly appreciate her support and definitely with the DT student. U we have with us some four students from the baking and pastry. um if they'd like to come up and say a few words. I know Josh is going to speak up. Dr. Sax, he was pleas with you on the front page and he was thrilled that he was with you in that picture. Yeah, I enjoyed it. So, BA, you want to come up and you can introduce or all of you laugh. Oh, you're gonna laugh. Oh, you

063all got your My bad. Sounds like they have it figured out. They do. Step aside. Hi, I'm Katie. I'm 18 years old. I'm Ed Muselman and I am actually an exchange student from Germany and I came here in August and I have looked up this school online of course and I have seen that they offer baking classes which I was very very excited about because I have dreamed of having a baking class ever since fifth grade. Oh. Uh because baking class we actually had one was very sad because we had a stove and an oven and none of those worked. Yeah. So, um I was very very happy to be here and I first started in Miss McClinto's classroom as a beginner and I was very sad that I was not going to be able

064to be in Miss Nana's class but um they talked to each other and I was able to come over to Miss Nins and help her out and I was uh very soon part of the bakery and I had a lot fun. I really, really like working with so many different kids together and I help out on Fridays during bakery day and I stay longer and get to meet all the other kids that are there that are part of the bakery and I get to see what it is before we open it and how it's going to go behind the scenes and also afterwards when we close it. I personally have one thing that I do every day, every every week for the bakery and that is to make the sandwich sour bread. I have started

065getting really into it. Um, so yeah, it's I make six loaves of bread every week and they are usually always sold out. I would say that kind of speaks for itself. Um, and actually the banana bread that you have on your tables, my Google and I actually made it today. So, I hope you like it. Yeah, it's what I'm going to eat after the board. Well, I hope you enjoy it. And um, yeah, there are different things that the program offers where I'm so happy and I personally we help out after school. It's not just bakery. We also um we cater other things after school. For example, last week the um teacher of the year nominations. That's where we also helped out. Sometimes we stay longer after school and um we help out at Bunger

066Hill made like for the grandparents breakfast. I was there and we made a lot of muffins. 1,000. No. It took us some time, but we we made it. And um there's going to be another thing soon. And I also we had the the surf safe nominated. I'm so sorry. The surf safe certification that we recently had which is valid for the next five years. So I am officially certified and um I originally have a job. I know what I'm going to do after I graduate. But having this class really made me question whether I made the right choice because I have started to love every single bit of it. I love Miss McClinto and Miss Nvin. They are the best teachers and the kids in the class, they're amazing and I am very very happy

067to be part of My name is Caleb Braver and I have been in the baking and pastry practice since I was a freshman. And when I first came into the school, I was really quiet and I kept to myselves, kept to myself. And over the years of being in the class, it's taught me communication skills. It's helped me, you know, talk to people that I would have been maybe able to talk to before. It's helping me be a leader and I'm just more open now. Obviously, I'm a manager for the bakery now. So, I get to help the I get to help the underassman now. So, I see people that were like me when I was a freshman and I want to help them get out of their shell. Um, to talk about our teachers,

068Miss Nin is probably the best teacher I could ever ask for. Not only is she just great at what she does in teaching, but outside of school, she's always there. If you need someone to listen to, she'll always be there to help you with your problems. Um, I'm to the point where after school, I stay for about 40 minutes and just help her clean up the bakery. Um, Miss McClin, she never lets you talk down yourself. Like, if you're having a bad day, she'll sit you down for a couple minutes and just help you calm down. She'll tell you that, you know, just look at the bright side. Um, this class, not only does it just teach you cooking, but I think it just helps you with skills that you're going to need after you

069graduate. When I came in, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do like after high school. But now I'm going to go to culinary school after I graduate. And um, I'd love to open my own bakery one day. And I think it just helps you with so many things. That's fantastic. Hi, I'm John Stra. I'm a manager at the Sweet Apple Cafe. We specialize in a lot of c after school catering. We love to help people out. It's not only for us as students, but more for just the community. We love to always try to open up possibilities to other people. Um, we currently have our foundations one, two, and advanced, which I'm hoping currently we get another one so completers can take an additional one so we can also help um some of our

070upcoming foundations class just strive and you know get more to the point of where the program can, you know, keep on and just Um you find be the best they can be. Yes. Very successful. Find their passion how culinary can really expand their life. Um when I was a freshman I wasn't necessarily all into it. I saw it more as oh I, you know, got free food and it wouldn't um as I went on, I got more into the programs. I found a real interest in it. I hope to one day go to college for it. Um, I really enjoy everything Miss Nama does. She's a great teacher. She opens many opportunities to you. She not only works with you, but like Caleb said, she will talk to you. She will make sure you know

071what you're doing, and if you mess up, there's no there's no bashing. She's always straightforward to you. She's kind. She's respectful. And she will always help you in any sort of way she can. Um, Miss McClintto, I had her my freshman year. when she came in, we were in the LGI room for half of the year. Uh during that, we would do things such as cooking pancakes or little flat stones and we did blow the fuses a few times. Um but she was always open-minded us. She always encouraged us to do better. There wasn't a time where she ever could would just sit down and just try to put herself down. She always tried to look to the positive for people. She is amazing in general. She always does all she can for everybody else.

072She puts herself forward and tries to make all the negative go away and bring out the positive and negative everybody. With this program, I've really opened up to not only myself, but being able to talk to other people. I was very shy as a freshman. I kind of would just sit back and let other people do it and just kind of watch growing. I learned that when you would take action and just try to get into it, it took me a lot farther being currently our deli manager. Um, it's opened a lot. I currently make certain kind different kinds of sauces like we make a homemade chipotle sauce or homemade spicy mayo and other sorts like that. We have now introduced new sandwiches like the Mcccleinto special and a nomin specialized for them. Um, but

073no, we've really enjoyed doing everything we do. Everything's a blessing and we hope to continue and just help everybody else improve. Do you think that you could explore a superintendent special? I'm just curious. It would have to have bacon though. It would have to have bacon. Have bacon. I'm thinking a little bit more grand, Dr. Sax, and I'm wondering who's going to be on the the Top Chef, the next Top Chef, or or even Hell's Kitchen or or some of those other cooking and baking shows that that are out there. I have have this vision that we're going to have somebody from Brookley County Schools there one day. Yes, I do, too. Josh, as long as they don't say raw. Josh, being a being a manager though, I'm curious. What have you what what have

074you learned as maybe the most complicated thing about the ch most challenging thing being a manager? Because you know one of the impressive things that that I I've heard is is that you all are operating in a true simulated workplace environment which is really the keystone of career technical education um and what makes it very special in West Virginia and what makes it very special in Berkeley County that that simulated workplace environment where you're the manager. What what would you say is the the biggest challenge that that you have faced that you've learned you know how you you know how you lead? I would say the biggest one is trying to get other people and encouraging them to go as far as possible as they can. Not just seeing their testing their limits to see

075how far they can go. Making sure they can be the best they can without leaving out anything. If something happens, make sure they get back up. make sure they can improve and make sure they can see that good in them. Spoken like a good leader. That's fantastic. Great job. Thank you guys. Thank you. Is the junior be back next year is the kind of the overall manager. I think I remember that the day I was up there. I read a whole Yes. Good evening. I'm Mava Mars. I am the general manager for the Sweet Apple Cafe. It is very nice to see you all tonight. So, all of these guys and lady up here are I consider them my friends. I've gotten to know them throughout this year. I have been here since I'm a

076freshman and I've been with Miss Norman since a freshman as well. So, I've been with her all four years. I actually do not take her class anymore. I completed it last year. I just took all the classes because I loved it so much. So, I over booked myself with it last year, but that's when I was like, "Hey, because now I earn the manager title of general manager." I worked up for it. I started as a media manager and then worked up to the hospitality manager and now I'm the general, but I've always been kind of like a general junior. I didn't have the title, but I did the work. So, I do um I do pretty much I just to shorten it everything. I do I I bake, I cook, I know how to

077use all like the industrial equipment that we use. I I'm also a barista. I do all the coffee. I can make sandwiches. I can run the actual like hot station where we serve real meals. I open and mainly close the bakery as well. I sort money. I start grocery shopping. I also make menus. I make menus of the week. I helped choose coffee menus. I do a lot of the things of actually starting and opening the bakery towards running it. So, I take Miss Nman's job a lot and she lets me do it. She wants me to do it. So, I prefer to help her in anything I possibly can. But a little bit about me. I, as I said, I am Isa Va Marx. That is who I am. You guys can call me

078Bea. That's what most people call me. Um, I am of Spanish origin. And I also I come from not so rich past or like not a good environment, but that's okay cuz I am adopted. I am adopted by my grandparents and I will say I have had a pretty good childhood with them. They raised me pretty well. I joined this class as a freshman and I was very excited because where I was I did not have the option to bake or I did not have the option to cook. I didn't have the money or financially stay well enough to do any of that. So I joined the class and I was very excited. But I was worried it was going to be like a home where you didn't really do anything. You just wrote notes

079or stuff about it. But it turned out to be that you actually worked and I got tired and I was like, why do you work so much in here? But I ended up to love it. And I used to be very shy. So I was always shy. I never talked. I never said anything. I was scared to talk to people like this. I would come up and you wouldn't hear anything from me. But here I am talking in front of you guys. And but back then I was very I'm new to this and I'm excited to start my new life. So, ever since she made me very a very happy young lady, she introduced me to all these new things. I do so many. I run catering events. I start them. I talk to the

080actual people who the event is for. I email and I schedule actual dates. I schedule what the food's going to be, who needs any allergens or gluten-free. I always I'm a very big person on allergies and like gluten-free things like that. I always make sure those are okay. But due just doing those things and starting out, she got me to being starting sophomore year, I was very certain of doing this class. I used to want to be a nurse. I changed into being a baker. I wanted to become a top tier pastry chef, but I continued that till this year. And then I ended up financially wise deciding that I had I was going to result in nursing, which was my first job choice anyway. So, I'm gonna continue with nursing, but I actually already

081have my business. I have my own personal bakery business that I started on my own. All because Miss Almond inspired me. She told me all these things I have to do, what I learned like money, how to save, how to set things aside, how to put things into the actual business, how much work it's going to be, what to expect. There's going to be some downs, but that's okay. And then you just work on higher. Again, that's what I do. My business name is now called Tiny Temptations. It used to be Baos Bakery, but I'm working on it. So, I changed the name and I will be resolving to like donuts, coffee, cake box, and cookies and hopefully bringing it up forward from there. But, I just want mainly smaller things right now since I

082am going to excuse me be a nurse. So, that's going to take a lot of time. So, it probably won't be started up that as fast as I would like it to, but I definitely am looking into it very much. Um, this class though, I will be honest, changed my life a lot. I met so many cool people. They all became friends. I still talk to a few seniors that or past seniors that have graduated and I see them around sometimes and sometimes like we'll just be like, "Oh my gosh, how are you guys?" Like it's so nice because those people became such important things in my life that I didn't realize how much I matured from being such an immature little freshman or I just wanted to have fun. I thought this was going

083to be nice. But now I get to run things. I love being a leader. I love showing how much I care. I'm a very big person of caring. I love helping people. I love showing all these new freshmen, as Josh pointed out, like they don't know what they're doing most of the time. And people just come to me because they know I have the answer for most of the things. Well, pretty much all the things that if I don't know, I just go to Miss Nman. If she doesn't know, then we just don't do it. So, but I love it. I love the class. The people there make it worthwhile. Miss Nman is my best friend and I'm pretty confident I can say I'm probably her best friend too right now. But she and I

084got very close. We talk late outside of school, during school, and then I help her with everything. I stay after school for her or I come in early in the mornings and when I could be sleeping, but I want to help. I want to be a part of what the school has offered and what they and Mr. Pack has done for our class. He gave us all these new things when we started out as such a little just prep tables. We had a prep table in front of the main office and I remember seeing it a few times in my freshman year. We didn't have all the fridges and the warmers that we have now or the storage compartments. We only had a table. So, we only started with a table and a plastic shelf

085that was um it was just like a shelf stable so you could have like cupcakes or muffins and cookies in it. And that's just what we had. And I remember seeing that. I remember helping with it. But when they first moved up into our prep room, which is mouthful, we have our new bakery. It was that was where we used to hold our bakery room. Um, we had the first time I went in there, it was two table or no, excuse me, two fridges, one small, one large, and then there were just tables on the side and then on one side of the room there was a cashier. It was just a table, a chair, and the cash register on top. We didn't really have like an iPad to do the card payments. It's only

086cash. And on the other side of the room there would be like one warmer and we had food all over in it. The lights we had hung up lights like fairy lights and it was so nice and that's where we also stored all of our other things because we didn't have that much space. And I remember seeing all the kids who ran it. They were so happy. They loved doing it. And just them being that happy and me walking into that room seeing all the things because I was carrying in a tray of food. I was told to take something in there to prepare the day for our bakery day for the teachers and staff. That was when it hit me and I was like, we actually do this to help and make staff days

087just so that they can come and want to be at work. And then they love the students. Well, and I can tell you, you know, every time every time I'm at Muscleman and I get to talk to staff, they are so proud of the program that you and your fellow students and the educators have built there. Um, it is part it's a sense of Apple Appleman pride. Um, and let me just say you are a breath of fresh air. you are you and you know to to to talk about the opportunities that you've been provided because of this current technical education program speaks volumes as to why we um continue to invest in workforce development programs. It's for students just like just like you that just spoke today. Um it's it's an investment in our

088students so that they are prepared when you walk across that graduation stage being um career ready and even college ready as well because as as you you alluded to you're you're not only do you have a passion for culinary but you have a desire to go into nursing and so you know our goal is is to make sure that when you walk across that stage you can do whatever you want um because you have the skill set to do so and you have found your passion and it's clear you have found your passion. I'm so proud of you and what your uh fellow students have have accomplished there. So, thank you so much. You're very welcome. I want to say this, too. Um I am so amazed by what you all do the day we

089were up there and saw the uh cafe and the meals that you prepare and I I honestly could not work there. I'd weigh a ton. It it is topnotch. Uh, I mean the food is wonderful and I applaud you all for everything you do. It's it really makes me proud. I I am, you know, CTE, we kind of used to put it on the back burner some, but it it is out front and I can see all of you running your own business or managing your business. Um, I think you're going to do great things. If I may, I'm Scott. um Hfield High School just two students. Uh the the Mr. Van Dy is um yes is out um the substitute is here and um if those two students would come up and just say

090a couple things I would appreciate it. Thank you. My name is Casey and I am the supporter of the Hesville FFA chapter. And my name is Riley Lamb and I currently serve as the chapter secretary. And we are here to talk to you today about the heart of the Agon and FFA program. A program that goes way far beyond the classroom. And we're not just learning about agriculture, we're living it. Um we're breathing it. We're using it to make a real difference in our community. Our program is built on the idea of service. We plant gardens for fresh produce that we donate to numerous organizations. Once a month, our chapter goes out and does community service for one of the organizations. And it's not just about the physical work. It's about the connections we make.

091We partner with local organizations donating our donating our time and our resources to support their missions. As well as giving to the community, we raise the animals at the egg building to learn more about animal science as well as process their meat to earn the money for the trips and contests that we do. Throughout the school year, we plant wild flowers, sunflowers, and help pollinate our bees. We then start the extraction process and after we extract, we start drawing the honey to sell. Earning this money helps us be able to go on trips and everything that we need for the contest that we take part in. The future of the A and the FFA program rely on new students. We also rely on our older students to help teach the new students coming in. Around

092scheduling time, we go and we talk to the Hedesville Middle School 8th graders about the A program and then a little bit about FFA. Once they are in the A program, we talk more about the FFA program and the benefit that has. We really rely on the older students to take in and teach all of the new students and explain our A and FFA programs. I would just like to add that like I'm very thankful that we have an ad program at Hedgesville because my freshman year I was I didn't think that that's where I would end up and I'm very thankful that I did because I have learned more than it's just like the class on the schedule. It's like you're not just learning how to take care of an animal or like work

093on crops and stuff like that. you're learning the leadership skills, public speaking, because I can promise you I would not be up here right now. And um without our teachers, Van Dy, and we're so thankful to have Natasha to be able to help us because in all honesty, I can speak for myself and any other person that we would not be here if it wasn't for our amazing teachers and everything that they've taught us. Well, on top of what Casey said, I can tell you right now that if I would have walked into my freshman year and I wouldn't have took a, I would not be the person I am today. Um, I never thought I'd be here talking in front of anybody. I have really bad social anxiety and don't like talking, but I

094was pushed to do speaking contests and those really helped me. And Tosh push pushes us to do our best and so did I. And if Tosh wouldn't have stepped up when Nan had to step out, we would not be here today and where we are. So we would like to thank Tosh for stepping up for us. And who who do all of you extract the honey from the Yes, that took part in our act classes. I remember when he said he was going to start that, Mr. and Wow. And you've started a garden. Yeah, they have a special Is it on Thursday? When is the planting? Friday. How many pounds did you all How many pounds of potatoes did you all plant? Too many. Oh, wow. Wow. That's wonderful. So, what happens on Friday? We're

095Are we planting the potatoes? We're meeting with Meals on Wheels and the Rescue Mission who are two organizations that we donate to and we give them a show of like everything that we have planted for them, the high tunnels that we have planted and all the bridges that are going to get such wonderful. I was so excited that I thought that there was some tilling going on and I was going to get to drive the tractor. Well, Dr. Dr. Woods and I we have a bet on on driving the tractor. I'm ready. I'm ready. We need all the help. Don't worry. There's plenty of work. Well, I want to say um I am so impressed by um all of our a programs across the county, but you know, at Hedgesville um what Mr. Van has

096been able to create and um and of course, thank you for stepping up um in absence. But students um these agriculture programs are your programs and the the vitality of them is based upon um the work that you put into the programs to make them successful. Um, and you know, I think about um, not to be a little cliche here, but I think about the FFA creed um, when you all were speaking and about the work that you all are putting in. And the last verse of the FFA creed says that I believe that American agriculture can and will hold up to the best traditions of our national life. And you all are you all are doing that with what it is that you provide to the community. Um, the the the branding that you

097put on for for Hedgesville. Um, but and then of course what you all are expanding. I think that we're getting ready to have a a farmers market build. Is that right? Is that Yeah. And I know that that's been something that uh Mr. Pac is is is supporting uh through his budget. Um and so I'm just so excited for you all um to continue to expand what it is that we have at Hedgesville. And of course being able to have middle school a programs now in in the district is something that's very exciting. And I want to thank the board um each of you all for supporting CTE growth um in Berkeley County Schools. And I think that we're just at the tip of the iceberg as to what we can what we can expand

098to to offer our students. So thank you all so much for being here today. You know, lastly, I'll say this, Mr. Murphy and I was telling Vanden's area, but what he does and what you all do is amazing also. all and and I remember last year that you made that comment that you didn't that wasn't your cup of tea to go into that and look where you are now. Never say never. Thank you all. Very impressive question. Couple years ago we had an issue of block scheduling and 45 minutes. Um, we're able and we uh made modifications. So when it was Spring Mills to continue Mr. B's program and then we allowed Hedgeville to go to I think it's the block schedule. So are we are we working through those issues with the school schedules?

099There is no issues. It's all resolved. Um pedes of the baking and pastry is 90 minutes as well. Um, and I think they like it as you once again it gives them more time to do what they want to do. Uh, Mr. But was allowed to continue with his traditional schedule and you know, we made it work for everybody. And as this program expands to other areas, but we're going to be able to allow the instructors same flexibility in the middle school. It's a rotation. I'm not truly a, you know, not middle school. um schedule expert but in middle school it's a six or nine week rotation so those students u that's why the greenhouse that is going to be at those two places uh will have heat they'll have water so I mean it's

100going to be a continuous year round so um I believe those people are individuals are hired but obviously you want to make sure that student understands the beginning cycle of plants and the and the harvest side of plants whether it be a flower or whether it be a vegetable. Um and that's one of the reasons, you know, we want to do, you know, the chicken coop. Um once again, the whole science process of of learning. So, and will the green houses be in the superior area or where is our family? Um at Mountain Ridge, we don't have a um we don't have a fence schedule. Uh just as the green houses at Hedgesville High School aren't really in a secured area, they are lockable. And now ladies, you ever had any problems with I think

101for the most part people respected the efforts of those students and because they're seasonally. We do we do anticip we do anticipate the one itself probably needing a fence of some sort though. Um, but we're we're working with um we are working with housing with the housing authority to potentially look at having an agreement there. Um Hedgesville had a copperhead something that was before your old foundation. We'll leave it at that. On that tone with middle school are they going to have FFA programs in NRCT middle schools? Yes. There will be regular FFA. I know Mr. Van D is real even though he's not going to have a Hedgesville there's not he's looking forward to that someday and I know our age high schools will be looking forward to having those feeders into the program

102as opposed to trying to encourage that freshman year. I'm so excited that the other schools are asking as well and hopefully we'll be able to grow that each year. Sorry. Um, with more like of the completed programs, I know some some high schools don't have certain programs. Is there a goal to have a completed program for each category in each high school? What we've done, we've not increased CTE staff in years. This next year is our first year that we actually are going to be increasing a teacher at Educ High School. So, we've rebranded a lot of our teachers as business some of our business classes in uh interest have have declined. That's where we've been able to have those teachers go and become certified in hospitality and tourism. Um so that's where our growth

103has been with Mr. um at Ed High School that teachers retiring so that's our opportunity to go into the building maintenance operation class or offer that those classes. Um partly it's because of space but however you know I'm looking forward to the day when we have a CTV center. I mean, that's truly going to be our way, but we got to move CTE4. There's only so much we can do within our high schools. We need a look forward to that because I have a feeling that we're closer to that than what we're where we were, you know, a year ago or two years ago. I think we're we're getting closer. We uh Ron's a great learning facility, but remember that was built in 1970 and our students need more opportunities and um that's where uh

104I hope we continue to look at because there's not enough students that are getting our opportunities in our high school to go to have a career uh going to a career learning center. I had I had a chance to tour this recommend um the facilities um upgrade this year and with the building maintenance um program is done for this week for the cafe doing all the underground plumbing. That was a lot. It's it's phenomenal. This this coming year um that instructor will be having we worked it out with transportation. They'll be having a bus with a tag along work trailer and they'll be working closely um with Mr. Tyson uh to address issues in Mil Creek Intermediate and Muswood Middle. It's again on those basic needs that we can help once again hands-on learning those

105students going in they're they are in a 90 minute schedule as well. So that's going to be exciting and interesting. Well, to piggyback on that, um they're that they're also doing a project for the uh library at Muscleman um with the circulation circulation desk. But but in line with m what Mr. Martin is referencing Martinsburg High School, Mr. Pac uh and I have worked out the budget to be able to do what they've done at Muscleman's Cafe at Martinsburg as well. So that's in the that's in the works as well. Yes. Yeah. If you remember, it's such a traditional family consumer science. We need to move away from that. Thank you, Dr. Sax. A lot going on with CTE. I'm sorry. I said a lot going on. It is uh the state has revamped a

106lot of the funding because it used to go to a lot of tech centers. Now it's rolling into counties more so and that's what has allowed the inerson change to a little bit help once again our school be what they need to do. Yeah. And I appreciate that and I appreciate all these folks our students coming out tonight. Thank you. Gosh giving up your Monday evening. Thank you. And thank you to our schools. Thanks Mr. Pack and thank to thank thank you to all of you for giving up your time and spending time with us. So it's very much appreciated. Great job, guys. Congratulations. [Music] All right. Good evening everyone. Are we ready to proceed? Yes, we're ready. All right. Sir, Headsville Early Learning Academy. Uh it's a similar update that I keep bringing every

107week. They're still laying concrete block and setting doors and that's a process, but it is uh it's moving along uh on schedule still. And you might remember, of course, we're reworking that one corner. We're still waiting for some final approval from First Energy before we can actually work on that corner, but they've been able to proceed as normal with everything else except for that one corner. I'll have better updates for you in the next time. You know, you can't see. One was flying there the other day and you think, "No, there's not much going on there." But there's more going on there than you can see from the road. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the walls are to the height. You wouldn't expect it. I'll be honest. You sit there and think you're gonna

108be able to really watch it, bro. And it Yeah, that's why I feel like it's so odd. Yeah. I feel like every week I just say the same thing like, "Hey, we're laying concrete rock." So, but we still are. And if you if you go to visit the bear a center at heville the high school that's a good place to view your kind of elevated look down and check it check it out from that vantage point. Think about that. Yeah I didn't um the next project is Tomahawk Intermediate. That one is moving along really nicely. Um you can see all the brick work on the exterior is almost complete. Um the interior is to this the stage where all of the uh interior framing is finished and they're running the HVAC, the electrical, the plumbing,

109all of that. So uh also this project very much on schedule and will complete on July 30th. Boy, they're really moving fast. They really are. This one is moving along very nicely. How many classrooms? That's five more classrooms. It's in a replica of the five that was completed. That's the reason why they're able to move fast. They've got it. They've got it. Yeah, they've already done it once. Also, all the materials were on site because um they ordered it whenever they ordered for 10 classrooms. So, it was already staged and on site. Remember, we had that big hick up with the HVAC. So, we won't have any of those issues with this one because everything's already there. So, it's moving along very nicely. I'm assuming red lines that were done with the other one, they

110were just able to implement that into the plans. Yes. Awesome. Um the next one is the Martinsburg High School. this one the exterior if you've driven past there the exterior brick veneer and block is complete and the um on the interior they're to the stage where I try to get a picture where you can see insulation that's going in in the walls all the a lot of the um electric is complete in certain portions uh but it's also in progress because of the other um you know like the auditorium the uh current band room that's turning into a choir room so a lot of that behind the scenes kind of work is happening as as much as possible so that whenever we hit uh June 2nd I believe they'll be able to have this uh

111band room portion complete and move into the uh places where students are inhaling so they can get that wrapped up. Uh the dilemma of course is the auditorium because of the extensive amount of extra renovation that that part will um not be finished in August. It will take a couple months later but everything else will wrap up uh at the start of school. the instrument lockers. What's the word? The lockers are um they are in the we're in the process of working with the company to get the uh like the exact drawings so that we can place them throughout the band room. Uh we already took care of moving there were a couple outlets that had to be removed so that they can fit in the proper space and a couple other things like that.

112All that has been dealt with and we're basically ready for the company to send us the kind of drawings and we're and uh matter of fact they're going to put you know blocking in the walls where the lockers are going to be installed. So the band room will have the lockers once this project is complete. One one thing that bothers me about the whole thing is that we have people out raising money for something that we put a bond out for to provide. And it it disturbs me because I know they that band just won some award at the one of the parades and but that program is growing and they need uniforms and they're going to have to bump children out of the band because they don't have a uniform. I mean the the

113band raises money uh the boosters and they they had to raise money for part of this thing because of some administrative decree not yours I don't or anyone sitting in this room but I I think that it's wrong that we're going to take part of the money they going to use for uniforms to expand their van for next year. We had a bunch of the kids here earlier and I think that Just like every brick there was paid for that bond. I think every every locker should be paid for by this county and not force the band boosters to go out to raise money for the uh for the thing and they use the money for their uniforms or for more instruments for those children so that band can grow naturally and not be restricted

114because of limited funds for a uniform. That's just my theory. But I knew that at one point those lockers were in the budget from what I understand. Mr. Mr. Murphy, um I just wanted to share with you uh my intent was actually for us to pay for that even though when they had come and spoken with us is that they um had raised money. Um my intent was just for us to pay for the totality of that and not to have them match money or anything like that. So no, I I appreciate and respect that because it wasn't your problem that I understand created that and I just I'm that relieves me and I'm hoping they're watching this show and they're ready to order some more uniforms. Well, I I am actually I was surprised

115when I heard that they had to do booster money to put lockers in the band room and that was something this board didn't know. Yeah, I can tell you that that's been resolved. Yeah. So that's been I know a lot about Thank you, Dr. Thank you for supporting it and thank you for telling us about it. Absolutely. Um hey, look at this. Springville's press boxes stairs. Look at that. And uh I've been talking about these stairs since February, but they are installed. They're being used just in time for a sectional tournament that's happening this week. And it's not pencled in that those are real honest to goodness stairs. Those are real. That is a real photograph of actual stairs. So, this is the last time that I'm presenting the Spring Mills Crest boxes because this

116project is complete. Now, they're not movable stairs, are they? They're not that is over. You're going down. They're fastened in place. Okay. Awesome. Um, next one. And those are very good looking stairs, by the way. Yes, they are. Yeah. Uh, next one is just a celebration here for the groundbreaking ceremony. That was so fun. I'm glad that for those of you who could be a part of that, it was it was fantastic to see our Jerry Stan and Inwood student representatives shoveling some dirt. And I still don't quite have the construction schedule, but that should be coming out soon. I probably will have that available at the next meeting, but the completion state is still the same, July 30th of 2026, so that uh we can occupy that school uh next year. Sounds great. There

117was that one student that was really going at it with that at the groundbreaking. I'm telling you, he just he went at it. It was good. He shove it to the one thing. There wasn't anything left. That was great. Um the this is my last slide. Coming up this summer are some uh rather extensive HVAC renovations. Uh, one of those is Burke Street, which the entire school is receiving a a an HVAC system, which means all of the ceilings in every single classroom in every single hallway are being removed, the drop ceilings, and in order to install the new upgraded HVAC system. Also, the restrooms are being upgraded uh in the school as part of the bond project. and all of the windows are being replaced as a part of the general energy savings contract.

118So, major renovation. Um, some of the work has already begun. Uh, we did some work, well, we CMTA did some work over spring break to try to get a truck start on things because this thing has to be ready come August, right? So, uh, some work has already been done. They're actually starting to do some work in the evenings. Uh we uh CMTA is in the process of demolishing the old boiler system so that all those components are removed and ready to go once we hit June 2nd. Um I've mentioned all this because here drum roll because I I need I need the board's grace on this. Yeah, we need some some grace. So, uh, we are proposing that the last day for students be Friday, May 23rd, right before Memorial Day, um, which is

119on Monday, May 26th, which is three days early, which is three days early. And the reason that we are proposing this is if students last day is on that Friday and this only applies to Burk Street, then that will give teachers um Tuesday and Wednesday to pack up their classroom because everything has to go. And so it has to be boxed up and teachers need the time in their rooms to do that so that we can move in our maintenance crew on Thursday and Friday and move the boxes to storage so that come Monday, June 2nd, CMTA is ready to roll in there all out, all hands on deck contractors getting this project started. Um so we're seeking your grace tonight uh to um allow students last day at Burke Street to be May 23rd.

120When is the last day for students? The 26th supposed to be the 29th is so this would be three days early. Yeah. So they're off Memorial Day Monday and then we would basically be saying Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday students will not report. Friday is the last day for teachers and so um it would give them those four days to get those to box up because it's the whole I mean all the classrooms, every space is being renovated. So, it's kind of an exceptional uh deal that's going on, which is why we're And then we also want to be able to compensate the staff um when it's completed to get their room set back when it's time to move back in. Yeah. They're going to need some extra time in order to move everything. We we would

121pay them for that back in. Where where what are they going to do with everything that they're packing up? Some of it is going to be stored in a location where we can cover it with plastic. Okay. other items are going to be moved out into an a C container that's being purged up. Okay. I just want and locked in and that Yeah. So, it's a combination of those type things. Will this impact the 180 days of instruction or anything like that or um we might have permission. That's what I'm saying. Do we need state? We don't we don't believe we do. We have because of the acred instructional time. Okay. We will double check that though. That's the only only concern I think I would have. We haven't gotten a lot of improve recruiting

122instructional time. So, we'll get back to you. Would be nice to check that out. It's not for the whole school system. Is for this one. I I would I would like to think that there would be some level of grace that if we needed to get permission, they would have provided. Usually the department of ed um is uh that they they work with schools especially when there's construction renovations. Sometimes um I know I had a a situation where we had a school that was not completed in time for when school started and so the students that were delayed and they started their school year for three day for three weeks and and they and they worked with us but um but we will double check everything and we will cross our tees and dot our

123eyes. All right. So want to keep you updated on that one specifically. Uh Tom Hawk also is receiving a um in most of the school HVAC renovation. However, it essentially impacts the hallways because there um it's a a pipe system and all the piping needs replaced and all of that is located in the hallways. So, there are a few classrooms, but it's not to the extent of Burke Street. So, there it's not necessary to um you know, shut down the school or whatever, but um anyway, Tomahawk total HBAC replacement also this summer. Um and then additional HVAC upgrades. These are separate from the bond projects and those are the ones that um we presented to you probably in February. Uh but those the the gymnasiums and the Martinsburg High School 13 classrooms which are pretty

124much in the CTE wing that will be connected into the existing geothermal system. Um I think that's all I have for you. Questions? Thank you, Mr. Tyson. All right. Welcome. Next on the agenda is I need approval for the consent agenda as presented. So move second. Can I have a second? Second. I wish to divide a motion and that would be I'd like to separately vote on item 7.10. Break it down. Sure. So um we have a motion to a vote on item 7.10. 10 separately. So, can I have a motion to approve the m all the agenda with the exception of 7.10? So, move second. Second. Motion. Well, the question that you would just need to table it to a a future board meeting. Well, it really he just separated it. So, it's going

125to there's not a motion on that right now. We'll decide that we all in favor of criminal consent agenda as amended with a removal of 710. I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Now to vote on item 7.10 10 of the consent [Music] agend that's very confusing, Mr. Murphy. I'm not sure what you're saying. Well, I think we have a motion before you to pass 7.10. and I wish to speak against the motion. Yeah. Yes. All right. Go ahead. Okay. We have here the uh equity and inclusion policy that was in existence. We've had a federal and a state mandate to cease uh this policy. Um, I I am personally feeling that what we're saying by eliminating this policy that we are trying to not acknowledge that Burke County is the most diverse county in West Virginia.

126We have 70% of our students are white, 10% are multi-racial, 10% are black, 9% are Hispanic, and 1% are Asian American. And I feel that we when you look at this policy, what it tried to do, it's saying that instead of saying we're going to try to have equity in our classrooms, we may be going back to the old classrooms of where you had the teacher's pen. One of the most important things that a teacher can establish in a classroom is fairness. And I just believe that we are sitting there saying that we are going to whitewash our student population and not acknowledge the existence of children with a diverse background. I think that we this is the first step to banning certain books in our libraries, changing the menu that you can't have certain

127types of food in the on the menu, acknowledging the differences that this country was founded upon. I am concerned that u our children who are Muslim will be sitting here and not acknowledging their religious things that they have to leave Ramadan how to eat during the day those sort of things. I'm personally, and this may offend some, I'm personally voting against this cult culture that's being developed in this country. I know that the legislature passed this bill in the Senate and didn't follow the procedural rules. They're questioned, but I just believe that we have we have to embrace all amongst us. I don't see in this policy where there are quotants or any unequal things quite the opposite we are trying to establish in this policy a sense of equality in the classroom equality that

128recognizes differences and I just believe that this is the wrong way to go we will now practice exclusion if we're saying we're not going to include to have inclusion. And I just believe that this is the wrong message to go out and spend in our community with such a large minority population. I I believe that this policy is a it's promoting hatred and it's it's telling our employees to not embrace all the children be in their in their groups. I I there are heroes of all types that I think that we are sitting there encouraging people to only recognize a certain population. I've heard of books about colon pal being removed from libraries and and West Point. I've heard all kinds of reactions to this trying to fall into compliance. And I just cannot be

129a part of such a hatred. And if it jeopardizes my sitting on this board, so be it. There are I am a history strong believer in history and I've seen other countries read about me who have embraced this mentality and it led to very very bad things. Burning books, making identifying people who aren't accepted wear certain kinds of patches in their clothing. And I'm afraid of what this direction of this country is going. And I am objecting to this. I know I'm going thin ice because you have to comply with the law. But I think one somebody has to stand up and speak up to say enough is enough. We have to love each other, not sit there and try to create division, wedges, whatever you want to call it. And I'm just sitting here.

130I'm saying I'll do the wrong thing by doing the right thing and voting no this policy. This is damnable direction for this country to be going in. And I and I am want to sit here as one member of this board and say nothing. We're doing the wrong thing in this country by just not acknowledging the differences between us and amongst us and sitting here trying to bring it together. I know one thing. When we want to have an outstanding football team, we sit there and brace everyone who can win. And we need to do the same thing in our classrooms and in our communities and school and everything else. Don't create wedges. And I look at this policy as saying I have to whitewash everybody in my classroom. And that is not what it's

131for you. You have to embrace everybody in your classroom and create a sense of equity. And this policy is taking one of those words and taking it out of the policy. Quality and equity in education. And we're sitting here saying, "No, we're going to stop having equity in our classrooms." And that's wrong. And I have recipient. How do we um you said suggesting that we go against the executive order? Is that what you're suggesting? I'm suggesting that we raise our objection to the executive order. That's what my vote is saying. So I guess the vote is that uh we go ahead. You say go ahead. I I was just going to ask what what is your motion though? Yeah. What's your motion? I actually I think there is a motion. I just want to do

132a procedural. There's a motion on the floor. So, right now there's debate and so unless there's an amendment. Well, that's what I'm seeking. Is it is he looking for an amendment to to the current motion that's on the floor? I I think that Mr. uh I I I think I heard the suggesting of tableing tableling item 7 10. Yes. All right. This tableing 7.10. I'll go even further. I I move to postpone it indefinitely. Action on this motion. That means we can never vote. I think we need to vote on it some way. Okay. I'll move to I move to table I move to table the motion for later meeting. Can I have a second? Can Can you Can we define the meeting for your motion? Um I'll let I'll let staff you you all

133need to work to council. Okay. It's the deadline is July 11. Okay. I'll move to postpone it to July 11. Which time whenever the board meeting is before July 11. Does anybody know? July 7th. First first Monday. It's seventh. The seventh. Yeah. The 7th. Uh table it to the 7th. Yes. That will give everyone time to figure out what we're doing. Is that the motion? Is that your motion? Motion. My motion is to table it to July 7th in order to give staff to deal with counsel 7th. I'm going I'm not going to I'm gonna vote to keep this. Uh can I have a second? Second. All in favor? I have a comment. Um I I I went back and forth a little bit with with um Miss Croy today. Um and the concerns that

134that she expressed um is that we're in direct conflict with the OCR's February 14th memo. Um, a a second issue is that with the restructuring, um, we've eliminated the diversity, equity, inclusion department. I apologize. I'm just wanting to make sure that Robert's rules is followed here. I do apologize. So, that there is a motion to table seconded and it's not debatable. It's not debatable. Okay. I apologize. Okay. We I apologize. I know we've always debated before, so apologies. We I just You haven't debated uh a sec a table of motion. This is never followed that before. I'm just making it clear. We've never followed that before to bring it to bring it out in this in this capacity now. It's kind of I'm trying to say I don't remember us ever when we have tabled

135motions, but I don't remember us debating tabled motions. I'm I'm the struggle that I have is legality issues. Uh if you can give me a bait when we did that if the motion let me just clarify if the motion to to table is if it fails then debate is open right I guess my question is how can anybody vote on it if they don't know the legality issues of tableabling it okay we can legally table it because we haven't till the 11th right that I okay and we have the opportunity of getting sued no between now and then no no we don't because it doesn't go it doesn't go into effect until the Okay. You're talking about a federal a federal Yeah. If the federal one's that that one's still in in court, correct? And

136and we've already seen the the Supreme Court vote six to three against an issue that was considered under a DEI philosophy. I am not debating I am not debating. Please understand DEI definitions. I'm not debating that. May I also clarify if if the so that we can effectively debate it. If the table dies, nothing says that you can't bring back the table motion. Okay. So fine. I'm just Yeah, I I personally would like to let you speak. Well, she can speak to me in terms of whether we Yes or Nate, but just to table it is not really Okay. I I don't want to shut you. Yeah. Yeah. No, if you just if you withdraw your motion. Okay. I'll I'll withdraw my motion. So that and this what le board allow her to have her

137say and then we'll go back to the motion and I am not arguing for or against okay never mind the policy but I I want to let you have your say I appreciate that. Um Mr. Murphy because I know there's been a couple Dr. Murphy's thrown in their ads for the last few weeks. No offense. Um I I'm just are my only concern in delaying this is we're we're delaying the inevitable. um we have to comply with federal and state. We've been given a directive whether we agree with it or not. That is a directive. I I can I can honestly say as a individual when I first ran irrespective of what I said during campaigning, irrespective of what I've said since then, I feel that I can absolutely honestly take a look at this

138picture that is happening uh politically and say we are swinging our pendulum from left to right to left to right and the people that get lost are the people in the middle and that's our teachers, that's our staff, that's our students. We have policies in place that address issues of being treated equitably regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, etc. We we do not have the DEI office. Um if this so board if this board so inclined, we can develop a different policy that addresses some of the issues that are that are raised as concerns. My question then becomes to what extent are we ending up hurting or harming our students and staff because our county our county does things different than some other counties in the United States. our definitions for these buzzwords. I'll

139call them buzzwords at this point because you hear you hear the word and somebody's buzzing about something whether it's right or wrong. The definitions are inconsistent across businesses, schools, higher ed, it just doesn't matter. You're you're not always going to find the same definition. and maybe we need to rethink this, but not at the expense of keeping a policy that we've been directed to get rid of. That's my stance. And I apologize that that I caused confusion in the Robert's rules of order. Um I I I did not mean to that. My concern is we are we are potentially going toward a cliff of sorts where that we don't necessarily need to do because we have other policies in place. We have IDA. We have we have the civil liberties um or civil rights uh

140laws that are in in place. We have those um there. We are not excluding anybody. There is I I can't imagine any of our teachers, any of our staff excluding anybody. I'm just I'm cautious that are we doing this as a I like the words diversity, equity, and inclusion or are we doing this? I'm trying to figure out why why why this hill on this one are we dying on when we've got other policies that fulfill it. That's my that's my We can always say we can always say this. We will work to facilitate doing what the governor wants and then just ignore it like like you just said you didn't ignore it. Let me finish. I apologize. What I was going to say is we could say hey we'll facilitate it and ignore it

141just like we have our current administration ignoring the Supreme Court. We'll just say hey we're taking our time to facilitate it. Now, I understand the policy and I have I have three pages of notes on on the problem with with the bill itself and just the ambiguity of the bill. That's that's the problem we're going to run into. And I'm not disagreeing. So, so the the issue with with going along with it is we could still run a battle of it just by our teachers doing their jobs. And that's that's going to be a that is going to have more of our teachers leaving because they don't they will not know how to educate our children because certain children you can't you can't do we won't want won't our staff here our administration here at

142the central office won't be able to do PDS in terms of teaching about the differences in different cultures because that's part of the bill the bill you cannot you bill the way it's written we couldn't teach oh in Saudi Arabia these you doing this is disrespectful because that's that's that's part of how the bill is written. It's so weird that it could get a teacher in trouble for certain things. So, so we may need that's why I'm saying table it because we may need some more time to discuss it, debate it, maybe have some people come in and present or whatever to say, hey, look, this is this is some things you all may run into problems with. that. Now, in terms of the federal, there are certain counties that are ignoring it because it

143is so ambiguous. Now, we have our state law, which is a little more clear, but it is still could cause issues that I that I have found. I'm not I'm not going to say what I need to say, what I want to say until unless I have to. I can wait till another meeting for that. My my we have until July 11th. If we if this that gives the board time the um the um central office time Dr. Sachs time to uh and if we have to have a meet some meetings all along in between that to discuss this then uh that gives everyone time to um ensure that we're doing the right thing and still be in compliance. How many foyer requests have we received regarding us complying with the Morsy executive order and

144federal directives? Nothing. Nothing that I'm aware of. Okay. Um I I'm I'm of the understanding there that there are foyer requests based on what I received from Miss Freud. I mean I'm reading it. We will what we will do is to ensure that we are accurate. We will we will double check our we will double check our records and we can follow. Okay. Okay. And and and like Miss M said we have already gotten rid of the office inclusion but even in our mission statement and our belief statements there are things right there that go out of the law um just because of the way it's written. So it's it's a lot of things may need to be changed or that and maybe we can rework our policy u because right now the policy has

145more that position to be there which it has been for over 40 years um in in part of the policy I should say. Um well maybe we can reword some different things because it's now there's not we don't the policy says we're supposed to have that position. We reworked it so we don't have it which even the reorder is sort of against our policy. So, we have to re redo the policy, but maybe there's a way we can rewrite rewrite it in a way that is still and that's as much in compliance as possible without my my worry is that by going exactly with what the state policy says, we're still going to be legally in trouble. And that's where I'm wondering how can we how can we provide the stability that our staff and

146our students need but also comply with that. That's that that is my that is my desire. And and my my opinion is let them sue us. Let them tell them let them tell our community. That's not my opinion. No no I'm saying this is mine. My opinion is let them sue us. Let I want to see in written legal documents what okay is it diversity you're have a problem with it is equity you have a problem with it is inclusion you have a problem with it and and here's here's another problem there are more cases of police officers in this state having child pornography on their computers and getting arrested for it or beating to death in prison than there are in in terms of DEI in this state our state senator in this area

147couldn't come up with one example of DEI in our higher state school system and I think that shows a credit to our school system but we've seen in other states some extremes take place and it's a slippery slope. I think there is there is concern that's why I'm saying I think in some cases we've swung our pendulum so far left and so far right that what gets lost is the people that are in the middle. I understand. I want it swung for Berkeley County Schools. I don't care what they do. Um, agreed. Anywhere else, Berkeley County School. I want something concrete that our our staff, the people out in the schools, uh, everyone in the field know exactly what they're doing, what they can say, what they can do. Uh, a concise information. If it

148takes to July 7th to get that, so be it. will we will still be in compliance. I think there's the ability what we're um what's I think there's the ability to remove and then do later. But I I understand what you're saying. I don't think we went anywhere with this. We haven't swung anywhere. Uh but right now we're swinging. Uh I meant from a from a country perspective. Mr. Mr. Murphy in introduced the idea the this this idea of a of a cult piece and I am addressing that part that there are things where we we as a country have swung our pendulum so much that we're they're forgetting in my opinion the students and the teachers. I think it's more I mean it's it's a it's a state issue too. You got to think

149also that I'm not saying cult or anything like that. My thing is it's hard for me to believe that teachers or staff in this state would I mean just just think about we all go to the schoolboard meetings right there are you mean the school the school board association meetings so 55 counties five board members a piece so 275 there are six that look like do you really think we're going to have a problem with diversity inclusion with six board members in the entire states or uh what 1% of our teachers being persons of color of any race. It to imagine teachers teaching hateful things against their own race in West Virginia is absurd. You can maybe define one out of the thousands of teachers in our state, but that's that's not going to happen.

150This this state is is is one of the least diverse states in the nation. I can understand something happening in California or New York or wherever else you want to say. This is West Virginia. I've lived here all my life. I've seen it all. I mean, I've been headed when I was one. There were less than 10 people in that school that look like me my freshman year. It come on. It's it's not happening. The opposite may be happening, which is continuing to happen. Every time there's some type of progress by people of color, there's a major push back. Every single time, it doesn't fail. It's it's US history. It's American history. We can get we can move forward and get progress, but we can't keep having can't have progress when every time there's a

151move forward, the wheels of the bus are are shot to pieces while everybody else moves forward a little bit further and then then you're trying to walk to catch up. I I I want to say again what um that I think I want to be clear. I want something concrete uh that people in the field realize what they can do and what they can't do. I don't want um staff, teachers, service personnel to be fearful of what they can do or they can't do. So that uh we need to to do our homework by July 7th and come up with something that this board can vote on. Is there was there a second? You need a motion. I'll make a motion to pay this till July. Yes. Can I have a second? Wait, wait, I

152got a quick question. Sorry. No, I think you're going the same place I'm filming. It's about the date. Is that is it possible? I mean, does that mean we can't have meetings in between? I'm talking. No, I said we can have we we need to have a consistent vote to comply or whatever we're going to do by July 7th. What we do along that way, we can have special meetings, whatever. Should we do it in June? So, we have like like the second meeting in June. Can we have at the second meeting in June? Yeah, because like implementation have to be July 11th. That's five days before. So, you're really only giving them what? A few days before implementation or whatever. Is that is that what you're saying? You want to give them what? June

15316. June 16th. June 16th. Two months. Okay. That's a month and a half. That's six months. So, that's six weeks to decide conversations. That's good. That's good. Sounds reasonable. And then it would give the staff enough time to figure out what that after that vote implementation changing instead of scrambling. Mr. Murphy, June 16th, can I have a second to June 16th? All in favor of that that the policy and um be tabled to that date be tabled until that date. and and looking at and investigating all investigating all avenues of of where we are headed with this. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. Mr. Tyson. All right. Good evening again. Okay. I'm presenting to you tonight for an action item, the resing of the Spring Mills High School track. This is not a bond project.

154This is just a weed. Uh the Spring Wheels High School track is not like some of our other tracks that are a uh like a structural spray type of system. It's a more of a full pore system designed to last 30 years. So it is a very high quality track. However, uh every 10 years the the wear layer is supposed to be resurfaced. And it's uh I believe we're in year 13 of that track. And you can see some wear, you can see some delamination if you've uh walked on it. And there's a couple repairs that need done, but um essentially it's it's due for a resurface. We advertised this track uh with an RFP and however the uh the best pricing is going to be coming out of a uh cooperative purchasing contract with

155AG Sports Services. This is the same company who is resurfacing um the Musleman High School track uh and the Martinsburg High School track of different systems but same company. So if you so desire to approve this uh the total price to resurface the Spring Mills track so that it'll be good for another 10 years essentially is 255,000. Will this be coming out of the contingencies? This become an out. This is not a bond project or anything. It's coming out of the general maintenance fund. A part of the all the projects that we're taking care of through our maintenance department. This would come out of that fund. She asked the same question I asked. How much how much is in that fund? We keep taking money out of that fund. Where not? We'll have to ask

156Mr. But yeah, I would like them to know what we have in that fund. I mean, essentially, we budgeted for our maintenance needs starting July 1.5 million. So this would be a part of that. It would come out of that 1.5 million. Is there a way as we do go throughout the year and stuff that we're when you give us the the information that's coming out of the general maintenance fund that you can give us some level of balance, you know, where it started than where with this where it would technically end. I know you've got some other stuff that will come out of the other stuff that's going to come out of it, but these are the uh the 1.5 million are the projects that we have specifically budgeted. uh the principles um send

157in their budget request and then we prioritize and analyze and figure out what is the best option for those and so this was included as a part of that 1.5 million. Okay. Mr. But does provide us once a month all the funds and how much we've spent up to date. So is that in there? I don't think it's that's what I was I don't know if there's a specific line item for that or for all of the projects that we are planning to do with that 1.5 million. Um but I mean I can provide we can we can definitely try to provide you a breakdown of what was budgeted for those types of capital agreements and where we are in the budget. Sometimes the meetings run from one week to the next to the next

158and you don't remember which meeting it was to where we got those materials. So that instead of us having that he did give us a balance at one time I mean a couple months ago but I don't remember what it look I thought he said 1.3 not sure it's 1.5 that's good that's good I'll go with that did you say um it's reached its 10 year or it's about to it's beyond this is year 13. And typically this type system is resurfaced every 10 years. It's designed to last 30 years with the base that was installed and this is just the wear there is a resurfacing. So we're in year 13 should have been done at 10 years supposedly. So we've got some Well, we got some extra life. We got a little extra life

159out of it and u it's you know just it's just time. I have uh we have questions for Mr. Cousins. Yes. Yes ma'am. I noticed in your comments from the superintendent's recommendation that the same company will be in in June doing Muslin and Martinsburg. That's correct. So this by take going ahead and giving approval of this will allow them to be planning to do all three. Yeah, they will mobilize and do all three within that same month starting in uh June. Oh, good. I'll move that we approve it. U we have a motion. Uh second all in favor motion carries. Thank you. Personnel actions. Members of the board and superintendent sax. The personal actions dated from Monday May 5th 2025 are as follows. We have three coaching appointments, one removal of a coach and seven

160coaching resignations. We have two resignations of extra duty contracts and we have three additional healthcare appointments. Um, beginning on line 18, we have two unpaid leave of absences for your consideration. For professional personnel, we have 13 professional appointments including seven who have gone through an alternative certification program. On line 33, we have a rescend of an appointment for a BCBA. We have two change of assignments for next school year. We have one policy 5000 hired for the 2526 school year and we rescended one policy 5000 of a gifted teacher. Um they'll be staying in their position at tomahawk. Um we have six professional resignations. We have seven transfers for the 2526 school year. Uh on line 51 we have a transfer with a renewal of a probationary contract for the 2526 school year. Beginning on

161line 52, we have nine professional staff who have been removed from the transfer list and assigned a position for the 2526 school year. On line 56, um, as part of that, we do have a correction. That employes new location for next school year should be Musman Middle School, not Mountain Ridge Middle School. Um, on line 61, we are issuing an administrative probationary contract for the 2526 school year. That staff member was inadvertently left off last Wednesday when we did um, renewals. For service actions, we have one new service personnel appointment. We have one change of assignment of service personnel. On line 65, we have the ratification of an unpaid suspension for your consideration. That employee is Larissa Riddenau. We have four service resignations and two retirements of service personnel. We have one transfer of service

162personnel employee beginning on line 73. We have three service personnel who have been removed from the transfer list and assigned a new position and two service personnel who have been removed from the transfer list and remain in their current position. Uh on line 78, we rescended the transfer of uh an employee so she could remain in her current position um as part of being removed from the transfer list. Uh we have one new appointment of a substitute nurse that is pending Western Department of Approval. Uh we have nine new appointments of substitute service personnel and we have resended the uh removal of two substitute aids. They remain on the sublist and we have four resignations of substitute service personnel. For professional substitute teachers, we have five appointments of professional day-to-day substitutes. Uh, one resend of

163an appointment of a substitute teacher and three resignations of substitutes for a total of 101 professional service and substitute personnel actions tonight for your consideration with Superintendent Sax's recommendation. You've heard Mr. Kowski's presentation and he have the approval of superintendent. Can I have a motion? So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I have a couple questions. Um, you need to be faster, Mr. Well, we have to wait for that part. Let's see. Um, on line 37, you said teachers going to be remaining at Tom Hall, but it also says and assigned schools. That's going to So, they're going to be So, they that person is an itinerant gifted teacher. So, as part of that, the the same schools that they were servicing, they're going to continue to be servicing as part of the plan. Okay.

164And um line 38 and 39, we had a speaker earlier uh speak about the loss of teachers at Martinsburg High. Do you have any idea um how we're going to do give more staff that we have seen this repeatedly? Um um I'd like to just chime in. I don't have the full details to share with you right now, but Mrs. Clutchner has messaged me and says that um that um she has a solution for that situation. Um now I know that obviously we have a you know a staffing challenge across the board, but I think the one that that was specifically related to is that she's she's already identified a solution and she's working with Mr. um Sherman to resolve that and then so she'll be reaching back out to um the individual who spoke

165this evening about that concern. Um but I think that to but I'll let Mr. Camelowski further elaborate on some things that we're doing to try to address the broader scope of challenges. Well, I just one other question that relates to this too. Um, and I'm not sure if they've um they probably have Yeah. submitted their reasons why they're leaving. Not just them, but others that have left the school. Um, you mean individuals? Yes. Like the We have not gotten those particular ones back. I will say that typically when they leave Martinsburg High School, it's not because they're upset specifically with the building itself. Um, the feedback I get about Mr. Sherman and the staff is is overwhelmingly positive. Um, I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. Yeah. No. And and I I just I think the

166reasons that people leave typically are are very similar that, you know, they leave for financial gain typically or they're or they're crossing state lines to go work somewhere else. Um, I I do know that Trent is one principal that I trust to fill his staff. Um, and he is willing to dip into the international pool if we want to go that route again. Um, he did do a couple interviews already. Uh we did kind of pump the brakes on that a little bit just to make sure some some things with funding with that. Um but he is willing to dip into the international pool in order to get teachers there that are certified. Um as a matter of fact, I mean he wants me to make offers to two math teachers. Um, so I don't

167know if you or the administration has thought about keeping track. Um, um, maybe teachers that are leaving due to legislative action or inaction in terms of like because they haven't figured out PIA yet. Um, because we've heard that was a big complaint in terms of yes, you gave us a little raise, but PIA basically got a pay cut, so why not leave? if you've had a lot of that's what I heard in some of the meetings I attended with with PIA and I didn't know if we it would be interesting to see if any of that was put on any of the ex reviews that way we could go to the legislature and say look what you've done to us you know well a lot of those employees don't fill out interview so don't if

168they do I think if we could start uh then I do keep I keep them in a binder um and I separate them by year so I do have those uh I I I know a couple years ago we compiled some data. Yeah. For you all. If I can go through that and do that again. Yeah. I didn't know like coming up if if we have more. We've seen resignations several meetings if there were any related this latest session and just well we were waiting but it didn't happen. So could we ask did we can we actually create another question on future exit surveys that we send out? So maybe that could be something you know just in case. Just maybe we can think about that. rating system because of these things. And here's the

169top reason, here's the second reason, because there's sometimes several different reasons why they're leaving. I would like for us just to start um especially when we get into this the um climate here when we're um people submitting their resignations because they've somewhere else. um if we could start uh documenting the reasons um so that you can present it to the board to give us a viewpoint of what it actually is. Yeah, if I get the reason on theation, I keep a spreadsheet of everything. Um, you know, on the professional side as to why if we get if we get a reason in the resignation letter on my spreadsheet, I denote if they're going somewhere else and where they're going, okay, to try to keep track of that. Not sometimes they just say, you know, they're

170resigning their position effective, you know, whatever date, and they don't necessarily give us a reason um, you know, or where they're going. Uh and I traditionally have not pride and and you know said hey are you leave it up for somebody else. Um but we are looking at I we're creating a new exit survey that'll be electronic. Uh that you know Dr. Sax has asked we share with him before we push out to people. So once we have that I'll I'll send that to him and maybe we can if you all want to see that we can get you guys that. I would also like to know Mrs. Clutner's rationale or recommendation for how maybe she's going to Yeah. Actually, I I messaged her and said that um I needed to meet with her to

171hear what those ideas are and then I was going to make sure I've emailed the board to provide you all an update based upon that speaker's concerns. Any other questions? Yes, Delta Insurance employees. I I have mixed feelings about this because they're a captured audience. But I understand that uh in the course of discussing with them their packages they have shared with their employees how much PEIA is going to go up. So, do you all know right now um like a family plan or individual plan how much the uh insurance would be going up for the employees? I don't know if they put the plan book out. Okay. So, the plan I mean so the plan book is out. I mean open enrollment is now. Um, so Debbie would have those numbers to be able

172to next the next meeting. Could we just get a summary? You don't have to tell us, but I I heard from one employee it's going to be about $500 be pocket. And I want to make I don't want to I don't want that to be a hard number until we see the numbers. Well, it's going to be different for that one employee. But I'm I'm talking about the different trends. How much will our employees be paying next year that they're not paying this year? Should we be asking percentage instead of necessary amounts? Because again to their point it is different. But is percentage a better way of looking at it versus I don't know. Yeah. I think what we could do is I I think I know what you all are asking and so I

173know I'm I feel confident that we can present something to you all that gives you some context uh behind what our employees might be facing. And so um Mr. Camelowski and the benefits folks, we can get together and maybe for the next meeting's operations update. Um we uh can make sure we provide I provide you a summary of those um those changes that our employees are going to see. Yeah, because it is different from I mean like he's saying 500. Someone told me that she and her husband she has her spouse on there went from 149 to 350. That's a huge jump. Yeah. The spousal search charge that they added a lot of people hard you know because before if your spouse didn't work the system you didn't have to stay or pay the spousal

174search. Now that you know they've tacked that on. So that was that was a major increase for people. Now and this is my um naivveness about this. It isn't paid by like how often do our teachers get paid by by weekly? Get paid yes. or monthly. By weekly bi-weekly and choice comes out once a month. Comes out once a month. And that was going to be my next question. How much is that per month? It's or it's taken out once a month. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um we are kind of off the subject of approve the personnel actions and we have a motion and a second. Do we have a second? Can I have a Can I have approval or disapproval? You already lost. Okay. So I Mercy Parish, Mr. Board announcements. Yes, I have

175one. Um, on May the 18th, um, at 3:00 at Musman Hospital is the Make sure I have it ready. Yes, at 3:00 the Balora service. Uh, so Sunday, May 18th at 3:00 at Musman High. Uh the keynote speaker for that will be Principal Charity Ballard from Winchester. Nice. And since it's open to all students, all seniors that'll be graduating. So it's not one particular church that's doing this. It's the Berkeley County Ministerial Association. So So if they're your local churches, don't have to have your individual thing. You can all come together as a community and support our students. So we have a board meeting on the 17th or 16th or something. Uh it is um I was going to say you could remind us but that say yeah day before um superintendent announcements. Um thank

176you madam president and board members. Um it is a busy it was a busy week last week and it's a busy week this week as we celebrate some amazing people across our school district. This week is teacher appreciation week and we want to thank all of our educators for their hard work and dedication and um you know u answering the call to providing the best education possible for all of our students. Teacher Appreciation Week is May 5th through the 9th. And so we want to invite all of our uh families and community members to thank um our educators in Berkeley County for the wonderful work that they do every single day. And someone apparently agrees with um um we're gonna go with that. That's right. Um we also have coming up um on Wednesday is

177school nurse appreciation day. So, uh, thank you to all of our nurses for taking care of our students and our staff. Um, they do an amazing job and we are so appreciative of the work that they do in our schools. Um, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that that on Friday is um, school communicators day. So, our communications department here in Berkeley County Schools does a fantastic job. Miss Tropman, you do a fantastic job. And I hope that I have shown you just how important you are. I know you have. I know you have. Um my name. Yeah. Yeah. So I I for some reason I did not annunciate it correctly since July. And she didn't tell me she didn't tell me I was saying her name wrong until in my defense like three

178weeks ago. Oh. Um, but when he said to me, I said, "Why did you tell me?" Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Um, but again, um, the the the entire communications team here does a fantastic job. You know, you look at our social media, you look at our web pages, you look at our um our our messages going out to families. And I think today was a a a great testament to um their responsiveness. You know, we had a situation at Musleman Middle School. Um and I've sent a a message out to all of our families, but it was a team effort um from our district administr administrative staff that uh responded to um the staff at Musleman Middle, the staff at at Mil Creek Intermediate, uh the staff at Muscleman High School. they all came

179together um and um and I also want to thank our families because we said please don't rush and try to pick up your kids because that creates other logistical issues and everybody was just so accommodating but again none of that would have been possible if our communications team wasn't on their game and so thank you to thank you to everybody and thank you to our communications team. Um, our graduation dates um are here as a reminder. May 22nd, Spring Mills, May 27th, Martinsburg. May 28th, Hedgesville, and May 29th, excuse me, Muscleman. I emailed you this. [Music] Um, and then of course our last day of school, school's out for summer on May 29th. Um, and we have uh on Wednesday all of our summer learning uh adventures uh available through Berkeley County Schools, our enrichment

180camps, um our CTE middle school camp, um as well as some of our other programming that's available for students. There's just a a a plethora of exciting things are going to be available, some of which we've actually found sponsors for. And so we're really excited about that, which helps offset some of our costs. Um but uh we are really excited about making those available for families. So be checking um our websites and our social media for those opportunities on May 7th because just because school's out for summer does not mean that learning can't still take place or shouldn't still take place. Um we have our next regular board meeting May 19th um right here at the district at the central office here on Winchester Avenue. Please note that there is a time a change uh

181for the public budget hearing at 5:45. Um I want to once again I want to thank each of the board members for um the long hours you put in last week um and uh your continued support of our district team and what we're trying to accomplish in closing out a a very good school year. So Madam President, members, that concludes my update. With that, could I have a motion to adjourn? Certainly. Second. Second. All in favor?