Board of Education Meeting 4/21/25

001I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Have a motion to approve the agenda. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I motion cars. Recognitions. Miss Leading us with a recognition. Champion of education. Has Oh. Oh. Mr. I thought Mrs. Troman was going to have a stroke back there. Good evening. We're going to take a few minutes to recognize and celebrate a very special individual. My name is Kevin Frankauser and I'm a school counselor at Headville High School. This is my 19th year as a high school counselor and over the years there's been a few people who have had a major impact on shaping me into the school counselor I am today. I

002can name names like Mark Norris, Joanie Greenberg, Ron Lions, but one in particular has not only been a mentor to me, but also to the many folks here this evening. School counselors, teachers, administrators, friends, and co-workers throughout Berkeley County are here to recognize and celebrate as a champion of education, Christy Heaton. Christy is retiring after 35 years of service to Berkeley County Schools. It's hard to put into words the impact Christie has had has made not only on Berkeley County students but on me personally. Christy has always supported me throughout my career, encouraging me, giving me opportunities, and just being there for me. I thought I was pretty special, but when I look around this room and spend time talking to many of Christy's co-workers, I've learned that she has made many of you feel

003just as special. That's just who Christy Heaton is. She cares about what she does and the folks she works with. My first few years as a school counselor, Christy and I shared lunch duty in the cafeteria. During that time, we would talk and I learned a lot about her. I learned she was from Logan County and is a diehard WBU fan. In fact, she was a WVU cheerleader. I learned a lot about her husband and her many Tony Heaton stories. Don't worry, Tony. Must be very positive. I also heard about her mom and her dad and the impact they made on her. I learned about her nieces and how much she loves them. I learned she started out as a teacher at Hedgeville High School, teaching English and French before becoming a high school counselor.

004In fact, I would hear stories of cartwheels in the classroom. Now, she never wore the same outfit twice. These lunch duty talks were also where I learned that you can order a mustard sandwich from Subway. But most importantly, I learned that she was a passionate school counselor who cared deeply about her students and co-workers. Christie made every effort to do the right thing for kids when making the many decisions that a school counselor that that a school counselor has to make each day. Chrissy was an excellent role model for me and I always appreciated how she took the time to show me the ropes of the school counselor. She always welcomed me in her office to ask questions. It was hard to see Chrissy leave HHS and go to the board office, but she was

005the perfect lady for the job. In this role, Christy has been a champion for our school counseling programs and our school counselors across Berkeley County. No one knows the amount of time and effort she puts into her job. All Berkeley County school counselors know they have the support of Christy Keaton. We know she will do all that she can to support us as counselors. She advocates for us and helps us build the strong comprehensive school counseling programs that Berkeley County Schools possess. She has truly been an asset to our school system. It's hard to know the impact that she has had on Berkeley County students, but believe me, she had made an impact. To this day, I run into former students of Miss Heaton. Every one of them have had glowing remarks of how much

006they loved having Miss Heaton as either a teacher or a counselor. No matter the direction these students were heading, the common theme has been how she made them feel. They felt like she cared about them. I know she did. In her current role, Christy has made every effort to ensure Berkeley County schools are are meeting or exceeding state standards. Her attention to to detail and organization skills are second to none. Our program studies, dual enrollment opportunities, graduation requirements, and much more have all been closely reviewed and kept to state expectations by Christie. Christy, the work you have done for Hedgeville High School is appreciated. The work you have done for schools, for school counselors is appreciated. The work you have done for all of Bley County schools is appreciated. Christie, know that you have been

007an important contributor to the success of our school system. Know that you have made a a lasting impression on many students, teachers, and counselors. Know that you will be missed as you enter retirement to enjoy time with your family. Thank you from all of us for being the caring, intelligent, tough, loving county lady that you are. You're truly appreciated and you truly are a champion of education. Thank you. That's okay. You better stop though. I got I need to think of [Music] it. And Tony and I were talking on the way here. He said, "And now I know why you were doing it." Walk down memory lane and he was saying, "You know, it's really odd that um you know, you started in Logan County and your first year was 89 90 and then you

008came here in 90 91. We went through the whole thing." And he's like, "Now, when did you do you remember when you started move from coun um teacher to counselor? I I couldn't remember. I don't know. It's hard to tell. But um honestly, I mean, I don't know what to say except I mean, I I don't know why I didn't see it." Like a few things going on. Few things going on. Um, and Amanda kept saying we kept saying, "Oh, everybody's here. You're so special." And she's like, "I don't know. I don't understand it." Um, she makes sense. She is too. But, um, honestly, these guys are the reason I do this is because, look at them. They showed up. I love them so much. And we just I just, it's been a pleasure to

009be able to to support them and to advocate for them. And thank you all for letting me do that. I really appreciate it. So, I'm I'm not happy about Christie. I know Dr. Sax has a few words, but I'm sure everybody on this um has a few words, but you know, I've worked with you for 35 of those 35 years and Mr. Franker totally is beyond more that we could add to that. I remember when you came into the central office and he's right, you were the person for the job. So, you never let up. Even after I became a board member, I would call you and ask you about explain to me how this affects students and what the counselor does and how it all goes together. And you were able to explain a

010certain all to me and so much more. And I knew I could always count on you, whatever it was, even just being a good friend. So, I appreciate you so much. You're going to be so missed. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna miss it. I'm going to tell you. Well, and I I must say, you know, I'm never short on words. And, you know, while my my stent as superintendent has been short, and the opportunity to work alongside you has also been short, it has truly been enriched. Um, and it's very easy to see the foundation of excellence that you have laid with all of our counseling staff, our support staff, our educators in Berkeley County. And I know that our students and generations of families are impacted

011because of the work that you have done um to improve the lives of all of our our students and our employees. So on behalf of the board of education and myself, thank you so much for your contributions, the work, um, and we wish you all the best in this next chapter. You so much. No, I don't want to retire. Well, I tried to refuse it. That happened. Once the board is finished with all the recommendations, they'll come in the photos as well. Hey, I know. movement of Amanda is coming. I'm like in here. Hey, guess are these laid out in any particular order? Is that like I think it's Next on the agenda coordinator will provide an overs. My sister shirts on as well. So each makes their own shirt and they design my paper.

012So, good evening everyone. Good evening, President Long, board members, Dr. Saxs, Central Office, staff, family, and friends that have come out to support us. I talk so much, you think, for those of you that know me, you'd think I wouldn't get nervous doing this, but I'm Karen Greenfield. I'm the librarian at Spring Mills Middle School. Um, I'm one of the coordinators um for the school librarians in the county and one of my other jobs is I also coordinate the middle school battle the books. And so with that, we want to thank you for our opportunity to come out tonight. We brought Orchard View Intermediate and Muscleman Middle, who are our county champions. And since I know, right? April is National Library Month. We thought this would be a fitting celebration to recognize our champions. Over

013the course of the last eight weeks, these students read 10 books as part of a team, dividing up the reading list among the members. Each middle and intermediate school team for they form teams and then they compete against one another at their own school level. Then the top two teams that score the most points avoid advance on to the county battle of the books. Um the middle school we meet at South and have a pretty full day there and the intermediate school meets at no point. Thank you. Um each team consists of three to five students. Um, and it requires some the kids to come up with a strategy to ensure that they can be wellversed in all the content of the different books that they're reading. The questions can be a little tricky. I

014think the kids will agree with this because sometimes the books are similar in content or plot so that they really have to read them and know little nuances about the stories at both the school and county levels. The 12 teams are brought together to compete in like a quiz style format. I think something where between kind of like Jeopardy um where they're asked a typical question kind of they usually start out in which book does something happen? My standard like practice question with kids is in which book does a spider become friends with a pig to save his life? I put you on the spot last night. So, Evie White, in case you're ever on quiz show again. So, they get five points for knowing the title and then two additional points for knowing the

015author's name. Um I have tonight um Cassie Barry with me from Orchard View and Harry Beth Bearcloth over here and they're going to actually introduce their students to you and then we have little medals that you're going to get while you're here this evening. Awesome. You want to go first? I love your shirt. Thank you. the kids design their names and all may come up. I also have the superintendent's call of access. Absolutely. So my name is Cassie Barry. I'm the librarian at Orchard View Intermediate School. And this is Kelly Johnson. She is our title one teacher at Orchard View. And together we coached these students and I'm very proud to introduce them to you. Um, we had two teams that went into the competition and they we let them pick their teams. We ended

016up with a fourth grade team and a fifth grade team and it was actually our fourth grade team who won. This is the first time Orchard View has ever won Battle of the Books. So, this is big bragging rights for our school. Um, so we have three of the five members of the team here tonight to introduce to you guys and it did go to a tiebreaker for the first time ever. Really intense. I think you've been doing this like since 2018. Does that sound right? It's been a while. So, on our team um present here tonight, we have Mr. Dare Cheek. Good job. I have Miss Sammy. High five. There we go. Congratulations, too. Be quiet. And then not team captain team captain and then not here tonight is Jace Shamer and Gemma Yoners.

017Thank you very much. And you provide that to them as well. And I would also like to for our coaches um I would like to give you all a point as well. So thank you for everything that you do for our students. Congratulations. And then Miss Fairpl. And I should add that Muscle Man has beat out Spring Mills. The last two years we've gone head to head. So I told you, Miss Fairclaw, this is I might be a bad sport, but this may be the last year I'll Good evening. I'm Miss Farlo. I'm the library at Middle School with Miss Sah, our administrator. Um before I call my team up, this was a huge year in our building for battle. Um second year that I've done it and I had 30 students participate. Wow. So

018I had um six teams of four members and two teams of three. And we did have two teams go to the county. And the team that I'm calling up, I'm so proud of these students. So so proud of them because they're not just readers. They are athletes. They are student leaders in our building. Um, even at the county level, some of them, they really worked hard. Um, and in the final two rounds of our final battle, they didn't miss a single question. Not a single one. So, they worked really hard and I'm super proud of them. So, team captain is Anique Forsight. Thank you Miller which was actually on our team last year also. and a cute little story and I don't think I even told you this that day when they announced who was

019going to the final battle. We we take a break for lunch before they have that final one. And I was like, "Okay, girls, listen. Doesn't matter what happens. I'm so proud of you. You work so hard." You know, I'm like giving them a little pep talk and they're like, "Oh, we got it." They were literally during lunch. They were studying during lunch. So, they were determined. So, I'm really Well, thank you for what you do, coaching our kids and inspiring them every single day. Thank you. Thank you. Super. So much to say. athletics wrestling state champion coach Anthony Reudo. Yep. We'll introduce Kaylee Hall who earned a state title for the girls state wrestling of Spring Mills. Um, we had the pleasure of having Kaylee all this year and uh, one of the best wrestlers

020I've ever seen and um, the things that she accomplished this year, just just amazing. Um, having that type of work ethic, I'd never seen I mean, we haven't had a lot of girls wrestling, but this woman was special. And, uh, finished the year, winning nationals a couple weeks ago. um in West Virginia most of the year only getting out of she only got out of the first period just one time. So it was that you know you didn't have to do a lot of coaching when she was wrestling. It was more just sit back and watch and hope the other one doesn't get hurt but um won a state title for us this year. Um we took her to uh Beast East, one of the biggest tournaments in the country. Never got out of the

021first period in that tournament. um second at power aid, second at Fargo. Um finished year ranked number three in the country. Wow. Um just a special athlete. Work ethic is just incredible. I I mean I just didn't expect it. Um we were happy that you know her mother called and wanted wanted to be a part of the program and um it was just I mean it was a highlight of the season. just, you know, the mom was, you know, took care of the team. Every every event we went to, I mean, couldn't have been a better, you know, wrestler, teammate, mom combination. Um, it was really special. You know, I have a daughter that wrestles. My daughter looks up to her. Um, the girls wrestling, we had nine or 10 girls in the room the

022other day. I mean, she's just wherever she goes, she just blossoms, you know, the surroundings. and um I couldn't be more proud to have to be her coach. Um and just everything she does is just it's incredible. So, congratulations. She wants to be a commentator in college. So, 3s nine years. Wow. Great. Say she's a senior. She's here. Yes. And what are your plans in the fall? Um, I'm going to Presbyterian College as in South Carolina. Wrestling. Yeah. Yes. Great. You're great. Well, congratulations. We're all very proud of you both on the field, on the mat, and off the field. Thank you. Oh, absolutely. Yes. On behalf of the board of education, I want to congratulate you. This is the superintendent's point of excellence. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. Athletics boys basketball state

023champion. They're coming right in. They're right on. Oh, they're right. person. We don't need to introduce your team. So, let me I'll help you. Uh we are so proud of our uh boys basketball team from Spring Mills. And so, coach, if you wouldn't mind, would you mind introducing our players? Absolutely. Uh again, everyone is Spring Mills boys basketball team. Uh, we have coach Evson right here. We have coach speak coach H back there. We have Jason here. We have Max. We have uh Case Shipley. We got CT. We got What's your name? We got Mark. Speak up. Leland. Quaz. Loco. Loca, Robert, Robert, and Zane. So, thank you for having and um on behalf of the board of education and myself, we each have we have for each of you the superintendent's point of excellence

024for uh our our athletes as well as our coaches. So congratulations and I'll go ahead and maybe we can break this way and I'll I'll pass it out to you. Yeah, go that way and then make a big circle. We'll meet you back at the holidays. Watch. Congratulations. Congratulations. work. Let's say competition. Good evening, members of the board and superintendent. My name is Rachel Dvers. I'm the technology integration specialist at Martinsburg North Middle. I'm excited to share a creative and collaborative project that took place in Miss Kiker's eighth grade West Virginia studies class as part of the explore the new manufacturing graphic design contest. Our students were paired with Rockhole in Jefferson County. Through virtual meetings with Rockwell's public affairs manager, Mr. Paul Espinosa, our students gained insight into modern manufacturing. They researched real case

025studies and considered how Rockwool's materials made a difference globally. To bring their learning to life, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Miss Ker to teach students how to use Canva to design a compelling poster that would advertise Rockwool's products as the coolest thing made in West Virginia. We are incredibly proud to share that the poster created by three of Miss students was chosen by a committee of nine Rock Wool executives as the best design from North Middle. These students were honored at a special event on March 31st at the Holiday Inn. Tonight we have one representative from that group, Miss Ariel Daniels. She was the design coordinator for her group. Also um who were not able to be with us tonight was Manuel Zavala and Sakaria Raleigh who were the project managers and research

026specialists on their group team. We're also proud of their hard work, creativity, and teamwork. And a huge thank you to all 80 of Miss Kiker's students who participated and to Miss Ker herself for embracing the collaboration and bringing real world application of manufacturing into her classroom. So, we're very proud of them. You said 80 students. Yeah. All of her students broke up into groups. They all participated in the contest and their group was chosen as the winner. Wow. And we are still able to cover the standards for eighth grade West Virginia studies because of economics and industry. We just kind of put it all together. Oh, that's bad. Yeah, it was awesome. So, what can you tell me about rock school? We told you. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Did you enjoy Did you enjoy getting

027to to visit? Yes. Um the main one I think I enjoyed was probably the music one. Since I'm a musician myself, I play instruments. So they worked on the Royal Academy of Music Rock all day. So they got to see different studies throughout the different places throughout the world where their insulation was used. if you want to explain to them what the insulation does in some of these places. That was so cool. I'm pretty sure the music one it was yeah the sound so like if they were being loud or whatever it wouldn't cause too much to other places. And then another one was the school there was they were like were near airports so the airplanes or whatever um wouldn't affect their learning. Oh I was in Atlanta. Yeah. Awesome. And what musical instrument

028do you play? I'm playing you. Multi is your favorite? Probably violin. Oh wow. Very good. That's my favorite, too, but I've never picked one up. Well, Ariel, on behalf of the board of education, um, I would like to present you and your teammates with the superintendent's point of excellence. And I would also like to present Miss Kyler and Miss Ders also for your extra hard work in preparing these students, giving this opportunity also at a point. So, thank you for what you do. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thanks. How old is your dream? I'm four months today. Wow. Oh, I need to give you two more. I'm sorry. Can I give you two more videos for the kids? Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. How are you all doing today? This is the um artifact

029recognition and I would appreciate you being on here and telling us a little bit about what occurred. All right. So, uh my name is Glenn Simpson. I am assistant principal athletic director at Spring Hills High School and uh it is my pleasure to introduce Miss Mindy Seismore and uh give her an opportunity to speak to you about her work of art. Thank you video. I don't know if we have the video. Okay, cool. So, let me talk for a minute and then we'll watch the video. Um I am an ambassador for Artifact. This was something I applied for this year. Um, it's kind of complicated, so I'll try and break it down quickly, but at the base of it, it's a student art competition and, um, there's a list of unsung heroes. It's about 150

030people from history that have done incredible things, but aren't often recognized for their work. So, students choose from that list, and they make an artwork about that person. So, as an ambassador, um, this is sponsored by the Milk and Education Foundation. Um it was a pretty competitive uh fellowship. So I was really excited to be part of it. Um my job was to get kids to complete this project. So um there really like three parts to the fellowship. The first part was professional development. So I got to jump on a Zoom meeting with the other 34 um ambassadors and each month we got to hear from an amazing art educator across the country and it was awesome just hearing from really amazing art teachers. So that was really cool. The second part was getting kids

031to complete the project. And in the video, you'll see um some of their artwork and some of the pictures of them working on the artwork. So, that's really cool. And then the last part of it um is a capstone project. Each of us had to do a different capstone project. We had to take the students artwork and connect to the community in some way. So, for my capstone project, each year I teach my kids how to knit. This year, I wanted to do like a knitting interview. So, I taught all the kids how to knit and then they went home and talked to a parent or a friend or a teacher and they had a really cool conversation about heroes and I had them record that. So, you'll hear a few of the recordings in

032the video as well. Um, but the student told their partner about the unsung hero they chose to make artwork about and then um their partner, which most most kids chose their parents, so it's really cool to hear that, but their partner told them somebody in their life they would consider a hero. So these interviews were really really special. I had so much fun grading them. It was 125 to 10 minute interviews. So it was a lot of grading, but um it was so worth it. So if it's okay, we'll watch the video and you guys will see here just a few clips from the video. I want to make sure my kids love me like I love my mom. Tornado, but I'm scared of the wind. Yeah. And um Eugenie Clark. That doesn't have anything

033to do with tornadoes, but the way that she researched something and put her mind to it. Whenever I research tornadoes, I get a lot less scared because you learn the science behind it. Absolutely. And when you learn the science behind it, you can actually get really intrigued. For her, it was her family and girls. So my grandmother adopted people from the villages. Oh wow. like young girls who in if they stayed there they would have probably given them off to get married at very young ages teenage brides like she would adopt them. So house always had I would call them foreigners. They were not family but she wanted to make sure that women were educated. Girls were educated. So she'll take them in and she'll make sure they go to school. So when she passed

034away we open a scholarship in her honor really. And we pay for girls to go to school. My dad was my hero. He worked in the coal mines to take care of us. But yet he had time to guide us in the right way. And that's why I grew up to be the person I am today. It's because of my dad. Later in the future, I plan to help out my town too with my parents town which is Mexico cuz like um all the struggles they go to like I feel like that shouldn't be happening, you know, and I just like want to do the same. Oh, that's really nice. Well, I chose my mom to be my hero because um being a single mom's tough and she raised me and my brother and took

035care of us while working a job. So, yeah, I understand that that's hero status. Yeah. To me, my mom raised me until I was like 10. There you go. By herself. Uh she used to work at this really fancy hotel in DC when we were kids and we would go there for Christmas parties and like she she just knew everyone like she was such a social she's still social. Yeah. She was showing me some of her old stuff like from when she worked at the hotel some letters from senators that they left her like thank you Miss Muika you're so kind. God bless you from like different senators and they're like on different little napkins or letters but I thought it was interesting that she kept them. I um she taught me so much. Um

036I feel like a lot of my kindness that I have towards older people are uh comes from her. Um and she she was just I honestly Kalia I became pregnant with you while she was literally on her deathbed and I didn't want to tell her that I was pregnant because I didn't want her to feel like she was going to miss out on you. So, um, if I had one wish in this world, I wish that you would have gotten the meter. Yeah, it was such a cool project. Grateful for all parents and community members who took the time to sit down with the kids because it can be hard to connect with teenagers and get them put away their to have a meaningful conversation. So, being able to facilitate that was really awesome and

037I thank you guys for having me here today. Thank you. Before you leave though, I was inspired by your uh video and your presentation and the work you did. And so, I would like to be able to um if if you would indulge me board, I would like to mention another unsung hero. Sure. I would love that. Um and that's you Mrs. izable because what we have what I want to make sure that we recognize is that as a an ambassador you were one of 34 fellows across the country that were chosen to do this work. You by you stepping out of the zone and uh reaching for more um had a major positive impact on these students and their families. And so I just want to say thank you to you because you you

038may not recognize uh the impact you have made but I promise you that you have made a tremendous impact on each one of the students and the students because of the ambassador program that you were a part of to enrich their family's life also. So I want to thank you for what you do for our students at Spring Hills and here in Berkeley County and congratulations. I appreciate that. Um this Friday 6 to 8 and this artwork will be displayed. There will be some QR codes if you want to listen to more interviews. So, I'm really excited to meet some of the people I got to listen to as well. So, thank you. That means a lot. I appreciate it. You don't realize what you brought out in these kids. It was so fun. just

039from listening to that because as you said to get kids to put their phones down and their electronics and just spill what's in them. Yeah. Wow. of conversation that took place between generations. Amazing. It surprised me. I think like you know everyone has somebody in their life that they want to praise and lift up and so like hearing the parents like get to talk about that word you know they talk to a lot of different types you know teachers and friends and cousins and things like that but getting to hear them talk about these people was really cool. I told my husband when I was grading it was like a Hallmark movie because I was laughing and crying you know mess um but it was really really cool to to hear this conversation. So thank

040you guys. I really appreciate it. And hopefully I'll see some of you on Friday. Maybe I also have the superintendent's coin. So, Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It's 6 to 8. Sorry about it. Thank Mr. Ker extinguished service award. Nice to meet each here tonight. He's got a group of people with him. to President Long, members of the board, Superintendent Sax, I am very pleased uh to be here tonight to present Sam Gibbons with this service award for his exceptional dedication and hard work at the transportation department. Sam's unwavering commitment to excellence, meticulous attention to detail, and willingness to exceed expectations have been instrumental in maintaining the cleanliness, safety, and welcoming atmosphere of our facilities. Sam's contributions extend beyond ensuring hallways are gleaming and promptly responding to

041work orders and employee need. His ability to foster a positive work environment has been a key factor in our department's success. His reliability, professionalism, and friendly demeanor have left a lasting impression on all who interact with him. We extend our sincere gratitude for Sam's invaluable contributions and present this service award as a token of our appreciation. Sam, thank you for your dedication and excellent work. legacy to follow on that front row there involved in this system. So I know that you got the genes to good work for us and a good work ethic and so appreciate it. Thank you very much, President. Um his his mom told me tonight that within that road there's 75 years of experience schools. One other thing that we also did not indicate, but Sam is also one of our

042service personal of the year finalist in Ber County. So congratulations on that. Thank you again. like superintendent point of thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Not only you make us proud, but I know you make Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. Now, we're going to make our way to the printer. Five minutes. five minutes. We will recess for five minutes and be back in here. You just take a little break at that January. Okay, citizens forum and we have citizens form late hall. As you heard, my name is Leighton Hall. I'm a current gifted education student at Spring Spring Middle School. I have been in the gifted education program since the second grade and this is my first year with Mrs. Vanessa Stone. I will admit I

043was incredibly nervous when I was first introduced to Mrs. Stone's class. But after a couple of weeks, I knew I had a teacher who would work with me not only to grow my strengths but would also challenge me with my weaknesses. I believe she should be the main example as to why we need gift education teachers. If a student excels at math, not only should we work to find ways to challenge them in math, but we need to find ways to challenge them to grow their ELA skills. This what gifted education is here for, to work with students who excel in our need of challenges so they aren't constantly born in school. If we work against gifted education, we are either forcing gifted educations to be born in school, which can cause incredibly gifted students

044to average out with C's or even misbehave. Alternatively, the parents can pay thousands of dollars each year to send their child to a gift a private gifted and talented school which can be anywhere from 1 to 5 hours away from our Berkeley County. It is critical that students are challenged in school in order for them to enhance their knowledge and possible interests. Gifted education classrooms are given even more freedom when it comes to students creativity. We should allow students to expand on their abilities in order to make them interested in learning. I am aware that certain standards have to be met, but we can meet the standards while also giving students the ability to use their interest in learning. Some students may be passionate about dance or theater, but there are also students who are

045interested in math, um, history, and philosophy. As a current gifted education student, I can tell you how much gifted education has affected me, especially as I've gotten older and realized the importance of students being able to be challenged inside and outside the classroom. A gifted education teacher of mine taught our class about the basics of philosophy. And most if not all the students in that class talked about and research about philosophy for months after that just one class. Just in one gifted education class, the teacher was able to open up students minds into not only philosophy but critical thinking and collaborative thinking. In summary, gifted education is incredibly important to the for gifted students. But we need to grow it, not dismiss it. We also need to find ways to make gifted education better not

046only for the current students but for the gifted students of the future who deserve the ability to be challenged in school. Thank you. And what school? Thank you. Our next is our monitoring items and we have a factory set presentations. Um, first let's go on the agenda on the elementary faculty senates and that will [Music] be whatever order you like. I have elementary. I have a presentation. Good evening everybody. My name is Kelsey Strellik and I am the faculty senate president at Marlo Elementary School. I'm here tonight to share insights and feedback from a recent meeting with my fellow primary school faculty senate presidents and Dr. Saxs. On April 2nd, eight out of our 14 primary school faculty senate presidents met to discuss both areas of success and ongoing concerns within our schools. The first

047success shared was um Kinder Camp. Many schools shared positive experiences with Kinder Camp. Um this helps incoming kindergarten students transition smoothly from either being at home or from prek into kindergarten. Based on the feedback that we all received, we know that parents appreciate this um chance to meet teachers and understand the school's expectations. This success led to a conversation about possibly offering similar summer transition opportunities for other students in in other grades, upper grades, middle school, primary, such as STEM camps or horse camps or things like that. Our second success was focused on MacBooks and Apple integration. everyone was in 100% agreeance that we're all very grateful for the year- round access to the MacBooks. I know there was a situation last year um that everyone is very thankful that we have had continuous access

048to that. Um this supports collaboration and instructional planning year round. Some schools expressed interest in learning how other schools use their Apple tools and I shared a personal experience from Marl Elementary. We have formed something called an IT team. That's not trademarked, so don't go sharing that. Um, but our IT team leads professional development for our teachers, um, our assistants and people like that who are interested in learning specific skills. Um, and we put those presentations together either after school or before school and our principal uses the extended day funds to to to pay us for that. Um we also discussed about um Apple distinguished schools and the criteria for becoming an Apple distinguished school and hopes that other schools will um hopefully you know investigate that and take the plunge as well. Our third

049success was our two-hour delay teacher prep days. Um everyone was in agreeance that they really appreciated this planning time that was built into the two-hour delay days. um especially to focus on that one specific task of working on the report cards. The only concern that was brought up is that they wish this would be maybe the the last day of the nine weeks instead of the day before report cards go home just to give teachers more time to work on the report cards rather than having them do the very next day. The next success shared was the Seesaw app that primary schools use. Um, Seesaw is a valuable communication tool that allows teachers to connect with families and share students work in an online portfolio. It is seen as an effective and age appropriate tool

050more so than Schooly, especially for our young students. Our first concern that was shared was school nutrition. While everyone agreed that lunch has significantly improved recently, breakfast remained a really big concern due to the high volume of the prepackaged foods that we are providing to our students on a daily basis. Um, we also agreed that the end of the universal free meals raises equity concerns, especially for our students who don't qualify for assistance but still face food insecurity. We can all agree that a hungry child cannot be expected to focus on learning. Our next concern was interventionists. Cuts to interventionists due to title one funding loss significantly impacts early learning. Without this support, teachers must take on additional responsibilities, making it harder to deliver their targeted and intensive interventions. Early intervention is critical for long-term

051success. Our next concern was student resiliency. We're seeing more and more that students struggle struggle with perseverance and grit. We believe that the district should prioritize initiatives that would promote growth mindset and resilience in students, helping them work through challenges rather than give up when something is difficult. Our fourth concern was discipline and special education. Discipline remains a growing concern at the primary level. Behavior issues are often met with rewards over consequences. Inadequate staffing and resources in special education especially contribute to this challenge. Properly staffed and supported classrooms will lead to a better behaved child and learning outcomes. Our next concern was full-time counselors and administrative support specifically student assistance facil facilitators. Many small schools operate with only one administrator and most often a part-time counselor. As mental health needs rise, the lack of full-time

052counseling and consistent administrative presence is deeply concerning. When principles are pulled away for meetings, schools are often left without any leadership or anyone to handle the situations that occur. Our final concern was support staff. And I know this is kind of a hot topic. Um, due to the recent pre-K ECATs, reducing to one per classroom while allowing a floating support ECAT raises serious concerns and serious safety issues among both our students, staff, and parents. We ask whether IEPs and individual student needs were considered before these decisions were made as required by policy 24/19. And as you can see on there, policy states that the provision of additional support staff is determined based on the student need as well as their IEP. Overall, we are proud of the progress being made in our schools and throughout

053the county and we appreciate the opportunity to share both of our successes and concerns. Thank you for your time um and your attention and I would like to answer any questions. Questions from the board. Well, why don't we leave to the end? I think some of the the topics might overlap so you guys can all join in. Thank you. We can do that. Canfield, Amber Butler, and we don't have any slides, but to sum up And we also the six of us met and we had service personnel but they have had their time to shine. Um also discussed that since our discussions last year improvements have been made but as with everything in education there's always still room for improvement and we have some genuine concerns. So the implementation of the behavior matrix has created

054consistency across the district and in the classroom. Teachers are more supported to apply early interventions to nuisance behaviors with consistent consequences. However, there is a funnel neck of students who have severe behaviors and the need for more in-depth supports. Our county does utilize the cares academy and works along with project aare but many times students are turned away due to lack of space in the program or budgeted funding being not being fully expend expanded expended. Um we also have a the new hire teachers and long subs are supported by inbuilding mentors and county level academic mentors. Veteran teachers are compensated for their hours in their um for their hours they put in supporting and developing these colleagues not just co-workers. While those just beginning their careers have consistent contact that attempts to make the first

055year manageable and attempts to slow the rate of burnout. These positions however are funded through grant money, meaning that the positions and the values well valuable support they provide fall into question every spring. Schools are supposed to be a place of safety and security. Unfortunately, for too many of our staff, their positions and livelihoods are put into question annually. We have lost far too many educators to other professions due to their positions being cut in May, only to post the same position in August and search for qualified applicants the week before students return to the buildings. Classroom teachers are fully utilizing the recently installed new line boards for whole class instruction, and our students one-to-one devices continue to be a critical tool for daily instruction. Support for the usage of these tech tools and their

056implementation to enhance our instruction is being pulled from buildings by cutting the TIS position and rolling those duties into academic specialists. Classroom teachers simply do not have the time to troubleshoot all of the issues that arise in a day and district staff become overwhelmed with their requests for fixes. An effort was made to schedule collaboration time for the unified arts special educa unified arts and special education disciplines during continuing development days. However, several of those dates were cancelled last minute and educators remained in their home schools for the late additions of statemandated trainings. While our daily instruction is differentiated for our students, unfortunately, professional development required by the county is commonly blanketed items that leave many missing out on valuable planning minutes while sitting in sessions that do not apply to their specialty. These sessions

057are also frequently structured as a oneanddone presentation. timely follow-up support and time to prepare instruction to effectively implement new strategies and curriculums for both essential and lacking. Our students are losing supports at both ends of the achievement spectrum with several buildings losing title one funding, prek aids being cut, and interventionist positions being reduced. The significant population that needs early and intense instruction in the basic building blocks of reading and math understanding are required to be handled in a triage manner with the with only the most severe receiving those services and those with minor gaps in understanding falling farther behind because there is no space for them in those small groups. At the other end of the spectrum, plans and letters were sent out to reduce the number of gifted program teachers from 9 to four.

058The idea was set forward with little to no understanding of how the vital roles these educators play within their home schools. How can we expect maximum growth from students since the county did push all educators to set a personal goal of 150% growth for all the students at the beginning of this year but then only provide the minimum amount of required staff to help them achieve it. There is an understanding that this decision was based on the number of positions being over formula for the number of identified students which raises another area of concern. Student need and eligibility is far too heavily based on IR diagnostic scores. These are a singular point in time standardized screenbased assessment that is then interpreted as a key identifier on whether or not a student will receive specific services.

059The diagnostics are two separate hour-long assessments that are in are in addition to students interacting with the same platform and questioning for a minimum of an hour and a half each week. Our professional experience as teachers is not taken into account when recognizing areas needs or exceptionality. The result of which is students not receiving appropriate identifications, ratios being offset, and positions being reduced because the need that is evident to the professional working with the students isn't reflected on paper reports. The focus on I Ready also does not take into account the other forms of assessment and time constraints to plan and implement meaningful instruction. In the month of May, students in third grade will be assessed depending on building scheduling over 11 days for approximately 7 hours. How many students that you personally know are

060going to put their best effort in for the entire duration of testing, let alone with the innumerable life factors that these children struggle with on a daily basis. In summary, we need our professional experience to be trusted. We need our time to manage it all. And we need our instructional teammates. Hello. How are you? How are you? I'm well, thanks very much. Um, I thank you, President U. Miss Long and the elected board and Superintendent Saxs and my former fourth grade teacher. Why do you proud? Um we know that so I hope anyway um I am faculty senate president um elected person to speak with uh you from Mountain Ridge Muscleman South Pedigville and I teach at Spring Mills Middle School. So Spring Mill has been represented well tonight. So um so together with Dr.

061Saxs and the deputy directors Dr. Alonso, Dr. Skoolie, Mr. Dilly, Mr. branch and Miss Cleverner and Mr. Molenex and Mr. Tyson and the faculty senate presidents. We all met on March 31st 4 p.m. here. Um and we had collectively agreed that or Mr. Dr. Sachs asked us what we agreed on, what was, you know, what could we praise and we all felt that the safety in our schools had increased. And we've all felt very good about that with the resource officers um implementation of different uh films on the uh windows and just just overall we felt safer. We also like the the use of our MacBooks and our iPads. Um and but with six different middle schools and all over the county, there is some distinct differences as well. Um we all had in common

062that uh THC vaping is on the rise within the middle school. Uh we think that there sometimes the uh consequence or the discipline is not fitting the the vaping. um that we need to have some more disciplinary measures and support programs for these students. Um we also talked about the chronic attendance within the county. Um students need to be held more accountable, come to school, but you know, parents need to be held accountable as well. um even though that you know our truency officers are overloaded and they're out doing what they can you know what can we do collectively as a as a community to get these kids uh one thing that we do see or especially I have seen kids that have um when the court isn't getting involved and they are forced back

063into the the building they don't transition well back into the so that is a concern Should there there be a um like a transition program, a re-entry plan for these students um returning to school? So we did talk about student accountability um programs something that we can come up with collectively again um and we were all concerned about the restructuring of the TIS operators and or the TIS technology um integration um specialist sorry totally couldn't think of it um we were concerned about our gifted programs you know and I think the bottom line here no No one likes restructuring. No one likes to see people losing their jobs because we want to retain good people overall. Correct? You know, we want our people, we love these people. We want them in our buildings and we

064want to make sure that we are taken care of because these people do take care of us. Um, and we do really depend on them. So, we we were concerned about that. We're also concerned about the substitutes and retention of our teachers still today. Um we are burned out covering classes. Um how can we get more subs involved? Um we talked about you know doing a floating type sub per school. I'd love for that to happen but that person will be working every single day. Um so we are really hopeful that some of the restructuring personnel um is going to work. We are very very hopeful for that. Um the schools that had individual concerns that was basically what we all collectively did. I think there was two major uh schools that have concern. Hedgesville

065Middle School and Spring Mills Middle School. Hedgesville Middle School is really concerned about their building and I think everybody is aware that that building is extremely old and it's overcrowded and Miss McDonald gave an example of that building of Burr science room was 58 degrees where her co-workers room was like 78 degrees where she was wearing a coat and cannot do 21st century uh science experiments. with her students. So, we do know and we know that the board can't just magically snap their fingers and have a new building, even though that they would love that, but they're overcrowded, right? Um, but in turn, Spring Hills Middle School were overcrowded. And when I started really digging in the figures um of the student enrollment, which I knew this middle school was the largest middle school in

066the state of West Virginia, um we have over 4,000 student or about 4,000 students that enter one way and it go out one way. So campus drive and the traffic issue um and the overcrowding of the classrooms are is a problem. Um so that's one the north end and I know we can't really stop the developers unless there's impact fees to help us out. Um but that is a major issue and I'm really really afraid because I see it every morning. um that we're going to have an accident. Um traffic backs out to Route 11 and down Hammond's Mills and the buses can't get in. Uh we see a lot of traffic that do not have West Virginia's uh license plates. Um, and we've had the u safety director come down for our parent pickup.

067And we did a whole patch and parents do not like to uh follow that pattern all the time other than when they start blowing the horns at each other. Um, and I I just don't want to see any happen to one of our students. Um, in the morning we have a lot of parents that just drop off and the kids run across the street. They run through the parking lots um near Mrs. I almost hit a kid myself when she dropped her cell phone in the middle and I'm trying to park, you know, so it's um it is very scary. So, I don't know what the plan is. Um I know that our other middle schools are down in enrollment. Hedgeville and us are extremely high. Uh we were hoping that some resolution could come

068to that with some redistricting. We know Route 11 is getting wider, which is great. Um but I'm not sure if that's going to be the answer to get the traffic flowing. And even with the renew road of PTOIC, um Miss Amber can tell you it's a traffic nightmare as well. Um because we have primary trying to come in, we have people trying to get up into BTOI and it's a gridlock. Um so I was hoping that we you know some of the resolutions will be thought about is redistricting um an alternate route formed through Dupont possibly uh to help alleviate traffic um and or some type of verification of students actually living in our school districts. Um I do feel that that is some some parents feel that it's more convenient than it is to

069um go to school in their school district. So, and I know there's an issue going on where um our principal now is not accepting transfers because we calculated just today we have I think she said 16 to 18 students that would be transferring in and that's just staff pe staff um that for Berkeley County that's a half a classroom for us. So, um, and I I know that's a difficult decision to make as a principal to say to a fellow person, you know, your student can't come here. Um, and we really do don't want to do that. You know, we want those students here. So, but, um, that is it. I'm really sorry I rambled mostly. Um, I do would like to say one thing, um, about Berkeley County planning. I don't know how who

070represents us at um when the builders are produc or going to the planning commission um and asking you know can our schools handle five more developments or six more developments or seven more developments um I don't know but I do feel that maybe we do need representation there we have it doesn't matter it doesn't matter it's not in code so we just need impact fees That's what I think. I mean, to be blunt about it. Yeah. We don't want you to. It's very hard. We've we've we're in a good working relationship now and good communication with the planning commission. Um, and there are a lot of things that are even out of their hands because it's code and they don't make the code. Well, well, sad part about it. We got a lot of people

071that are doing things that should not be that don't ask the experts, right? Yes. So, all right. And you you have hit the nail on the head over and over and over with that statement. Yes. And we will say those till the end. Yeah. Thank you very much for your time. Um, good evening. I am Laura Cochran. I'm the faculty senate president um of Hedgesville. Um, and these are our talking points that we either discussed in the meeting with um, Dr. stats and the deputy superintendent or that um the faculty senate presidents and the high schools discussed afterwards to come up with a concise presentation for you this evening. Um we had seven concerns. The first is revamping the credit recovery. The program currently uses Kexus and um transitional schools to make it more rigorous

072to align with our standards. Um as classroom teachers we are repeatedly told about our rigor to make sure that we are fulfilling this and then when students fail they go into connect program and they complete an entire semester in three weeks. Um so currently what this means is we have behavior problems happening inside of our classrooms. Uh we have students that will sit for an entire nine weeks because they know if they fail then they go into this connects program and complete it. Um and we are now allowing even ninth graders to complete this which is just setting a precedent a pattern for them that as they are getting um further and further along that they can do less work and still graduate. Um possible recommendations that we had were implementations of things such as

073a one credit one credit recovery allowed during the school year um summer school going back to um paying for that going back to having a night school instead of having us all done during the school day. um a a consequence for the action. Um uh drawbacks of course is going to be a possible lower graduation rate. However, with anything that we have going on, you know, once it's implemented and once students realize that there is this going on, they're more likely to then um fulfill our requirements that we have for them instead of doing what they're doing now. Um our second thing um as always you hear teacher retention. Um, currently we do have a lot of resources that we spend getting into new teachers that we love coming into this county because we need

074these positions filled, but then they leave and they go across the borders where they're making more money. Um, so we would like to look for ways that we are um possible bonuses for teachers that are already here. So for increments of service, you know, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, you know, thank you for staying. Thank you for investing in our kids and not going across the county lines and going, you know, 30 minutes to make $20,000 more. Um, possible recommendations that we had for looking for some ways to put service towards teachers, increasing housing bonuses, which then came out in the last superintendent um newsletter. Um, so thank you for already implementing something to look into that. Um, third thing was bond money. Um although we all love our sports and we

075you know these fantastic turf fields that we have um we would like to request that this money goes to more um specific updates. We heard the new middle school middle school is falling down. Let's just be honest. Sorry I'm not talking about high schools but you know they need that building. It'd be nice to see that the next bond. Um and high schools are science classrooms um need to be updated. Um I can speak for Hville High School. You know it was you know created 50 years ago. It can't house 30 students. um and do appropriate um science experiments that they need for that. So updating those things to make it um more um beneficial to our current population. Possible recommendations we have was surveying teachers to see what inside of our schools that we

076see um that are going on, not just what administrator sees when they walk around with their wants because you know it's a different set of eyes. Our fourth thing was overcrowding and new building uh builds throughout Bergen County which we just heard about you know other schools of impact. You we have a lot of growth going on. We know it's coming. Uh possible recommendations. Of course, you we've talked for years about a second um high school in the south end. In our meeting with um Dr. Saxs, we talked about opening up a technical high school um which would also help alleviate with some of these students that are not doing well in school that we're putting in this Nexus program in order to try to push them through graduation. if they have an alternative um

077place, which I know you over there, James Ramsey. James Ramsey is fantastic, but they only take so many slots per school for each thing, and they're taking the best of the best. Um, so they're not taking some of these students that are failing these classes and going to connect us. Um, you know, they're taking, you know, our our brightest. They're the ones that are wanting to be there already, but don't realize. Um, so by doing this, we have some, you know, options for nontraditional students outside the classrooms. And then when they graduate, they'll also have certification which would be helpful in our community. Of course, a drawback potentially is a time frame. You know, what are we looking at? Um, but it's something nice to look forward to in the future to know that this

078is something that's going to come down the pipeline. Um, our fifth thing was our professional learning learning days are not always conducive to teacher needs. Um, currently we kind of had a one-sizefits-all model. Um, we give you the example for um, English. you know, we uh were going to Melman High School and um the science of reading is what we spent several professional development days on and that is teaching phonetics and um teaching students how to um sound out words, which sounds fantastic. I teach 12th grade seniors. Spending 20 minutes on a phonetic lesson for one word is not feasible. They're not going to be interested. and I cannot get through a novel. I have to stop every time there's a word they don't know how to pronounce in order to put a 20-minut um

079lesson at place for them. So, possible recommendations, we're putting the professional learning days back in the hands of teachers um at their schools, which would be nice because every school in the district can talk to them. We all have different clients that we're working with. So, what we need for um ourselves and our students are going to vary. So, it would be nice to have that back in in the schools. Um the sixth thing are the um phases and rifts that we have going on in the county. Um you know currently um it's kind of been an unknown changes as to the staffing and phases that we implemented which um I would like to commend Dr. saxs um answered all the hard questions that we had um right off the bat. what is happening when

080we sat in the meetings and it was fantastic and I could go back to my staff and say okay this is rumor this is true this is a maybe um but then that was you know there's only two of us from faculty senate in that meeting so there's only two of us to go back to two different schools so then we still have all these other schools out there that hearing these rumors um so it would just be nice if potentially you know going forward if we would kind of have an idea as to what's going on because I'm we're all guessing the next phase is going to be in the schools So, as as we're hitting that, we would also like um a place of table when um we're coming up with these things

081that are phasing out or phasing in um to help look at the bigger picture because perhaps there's something that we see that our administration does not see potentially. Um and then the last thing that we have are classroom sizes. Um currently through sixth grade, there's a mandatory cap of 25 or you're paid for the additional students. Seventh grade and up does not have that. Um so we tend to get an overload uh which causes behavior issues. Uh lack of hands-on labs and activities. Um assignments are not able to be graded in a timely manner. Um and once again I will use my classroom as an example. One year I had classes of 36. Um next year you know I have classes of 25. Um, but I teach and I'm very blessed to be able to

082teach a dual enrollment class um, at the high school level so they can graduate and have college credit for that. But when I have 30 kids in there and I'm grading essays, the one that they're working on now is 10 to 12 pages. So if you think about that, you know, I'm reading a novel and trying to get back to them with edits and to do that in a timely manner. Um, and I'm teaching six classes and I'm teaching 30 in all of these classes or 36 in these classes and I'm also grading their stuff and trying to do activities with them and then not taking it home and spending all that extra time um away from my kids in order to get that back in a timely manner. Um, it's little frustration. So, possible

083solutions um we were asking for seventh grade and up uh also have cap room size as you 25 uh or extra pay. additional planning built into schedule for grading purposes. Uh removal of behavior issues to allow more teaching of more students instead of behavior management. Um and I know that's an ongoing and I know there are certain laws that are in place for you different levels. Um but if you are dealing with even one behavior in a classroom of 30, you've lost 29 students. Um so if we can look at other resources for that, it would be great beneficial. Thank you so much for your time this evening. I appreciate being asked to be here and presenting this to you. And I think Jessica's gonna Good evening. We also met with Dr. Saxs and I

084think we will get the truth and what what are main concerns that are going on with us right now with service after drivers and aids. Um with the traffic issues we we know it's been voiced and we know that it's being looked into. Um, we had a lot of requests about Pike Style with the kids, the parents coming in sooner, and we still have people going through our hoops with their special needs during our unloading time and our pickup time. And these these aren't children that need to be dropped off at their front door. They're parents who do not want to get in the drop off line. Um, it's impossible for the principal be out there the whole time we're doing what we're doing. I don't know what the solution is. I really don't. But

085eventually somebody's going to get hit. And the problem is some of these people that drive through there, there's no speed limit involved and they're zing through there. Nobody in their normal mind would go that fast to do the school buses. We have our aids block the crosswalks. They've always been hit twice. And it's that's just something and I know it's ongoing. I know everybody's looking into it, but that's our concern with that is we don't want to see someone get hurt. Um, and the thing with everybody knows how the traffic is. I feel for people with Spring Mills and South End, it's the same way. And at this point in the game, we have what, five weeks of school. There's no driver that should be in the middle of their run and be asking back

086to school pick up the first week of school, first two weeks of school. That's understandable. And you're looking at high schools, middle schools, there's no reason for the children not to be on those buses when we leave. and having us come back when you're out in the middle of that traffic. You just blew that whole day because everything's behind. You have people calling know where he is, she is. We'll get there, but they're not very understanding when it comes to that because they had an appointment. We're making them late. Sort of, you know, have your child get on the bus. Okay. Um, as far as our aids in our classrooms, their main concern are the safety of the kids. And I know they used to have CTI B uh CPT training, but our aids are

087confused because we know it is no hands on unless they're going to do arm theirel, harm somebody else. But the minute you touch them, you'll leave them. CVS is involved. So you're off anywhere from 3 months to a year, depends on how they get to it. So they they want training in what they are exactly supposed to do. And even the bus drivers, they want more training on what's pertinent to what we're doing. We had active shooting training today. We had it a long time ago and they came in and talked to us in the auditorium and just told us what they would do. World wheels. We can't hide in a closet. We can't do anything. So they actually fired blanks into a bus so people would hear what that sounded like because best of

088my knowledge, nobody has ever heard a gunshot from the inside the bus. That was something people have been asking for because like I said, we're on four wheels. What do what are we supposed to do? And the two youngers make presentation were very good. And they're very honest. They said they walk on your bus and they pull a gun. We don't know what to do. It's going to depend on the situation. But they gave you ways to look at it and said you didn't understand this because you know they gave us four they gave us four scenarios of of history and out of all four there was only one person that got shot. That's because he would not allow the man to relive two of whom was. He told him he would shoot him if

089he didn't and he wouldn't and he shot but that was the only time. like 90% of your drivers would do the same thing. If you come on my bus and say you're going to you're not. So, but that's what happens. Um they're very adamant about we want training that pertains to them. Even with the bus, we we need some kind of deescalation training to know what our aids are supposed to do. And even with the regular bus, I heard that before. Special mates. We when there's something where a child has a very bad memory, I don't think most of them do it on purpose. I think it builds up because they build up, things have been going bad and they just explode. That driver, that aid, they need to know exactly how to fix a

090situation or calm it down to get other help. We never be able to restrain a child bus. There's not enough room and it would just be horrible. So, and we can't be put in that position. If you're in full size bus, you really we we have to call the police if we have an issue if there's fight. But the problem is if you don't step in and somebody gets hurt, they're coming after you because you didn't keep them from getting hurt. But if you get in there and you touch one of them, then you're in trouble again. So, we have to walk a very fine line with that. They're just asking for training. That's just what they need. I mean, if teachers in a classroom, she doesn't want to know have training on something that

091we do on our bus because she's never going to do that. And same thing for us. Some I've been watching done. Pathogen been given for 24 years now. Girl still wears bib overalls for this video. I think I think that was being shown when I was in there. I'm sure I'm sure she might not have fell on the bus. But anyway, um that's the biggest things that they have going on. the the aids just their their thing is safety and they um they want to be protected. Now that's the other thing. We've had several aids and teachers have been sent to emergency room and that shouldn't happen. Child should never injure anybody but there again you have adults injured that were sent to emergency room. I don't know the actual situation, but your initial reaction

092would be to protect yourself, but you ain't. So, we we have to figure out with these children that have issues with that. I know in some cases they're being cut to they're only going half a day. Okay? So, if I be the teacher, I know I can go to school half a day. that that doesn't seem fair to me. Um I don't know what the answer to that is, but there's no employee that should fear. I've had them talk to me where they've had broken glasses, black eyes, poor old clothes, and everything else. That shouldn't happen. I know we deal with a lot of different kids and they all have issues. But right or wrong, we we have to figure out some way to maintain um in classrooms and buses because your your age should

093not have to deal with that on a on a daily basis. They don't want to go to school and worry they're going to have to go get checked out emergency because, you know, Debbiey's having a bad day. So that's what they really want help with. They want training and they want to be taken serious. They don't want to be they don't want to be put in a position to where they feel they're going to be injured. And none of us should go to work and feel that way. I mean, if you're a correction officer, understood, but none of us are. Um, that's really the biggest things we have right now. What about the custodians cooks? Didn't really have too much from them. Seem to be okay at the moment. That's about all that I have

094right now. Thank you. Thank you. from the person I should remember you and your mom walking down here always several of you several levels talked about professional development and uh I remember we had at one time we had a professional development board in the county. I guess that's no longer around council thing. It more that more so focuses on where funding is spent, reimbursements for individuals to go to conferences and attend events. That's not the way it's intended being set up. What's is the problem just basically top down? Everybody, I use the example, everybody takes a dose of castor oil. What's what's what's the problem? Yes, ma'am. I think the problem is that it's not differentiated. Like, I teach art. I I should never sit in a math training all day when I could be,

095you know, planning lessons or grading one of the 900 papers that I have to grade. Um, so I think it just needs to be differentiated where to match people's needs. And it can even be differentiated based on experience as well. Like if you're in your first through third year, maybe you need to go to this type of training. But if you're beyond that, you can go do something different to actually make better use of your time. And I think the other part of it is sometimes we do have professional development that staff finds relevant, but it's so much information thrown at you through you out the whole day, but there's no time to actually, you know, plan to use the information you're receiving or to implement it or to try it out for yourself before

096you would give it to your students. So I think part of it is differentiation and time to actually use the material that's being taught. Do you think that um the PD should be school-based and maybe presented let allow the school to determine what their school needs or um and I'm going back to the old days. I ask you this, but I'll ask you also. I remember years ago when all the art teachers went here and the math teachers went here and the language arts teachers went here so on and so forth and I seem to get more from that could be wrong but back with a word I also ask about do you think it should be allow the schools to come up with their own PD well we we have been doing that this

097year um but it seems like the the specialist teachers anyway like art gym library. We only got to meet a handful of times because the last few like today even the last few ED days we haven't been able to meet because we've been required to stay at our home schools to attend trainings there. So I I think sometimes it might be more beneficial to let the schools determine what they need and then if there is something countywide like that, just give the principles a heads up so that they know that, you know, your unified arts teachers are going to be out of the building because they're attending other trainings during this time. So you might not want to have anything that your whole staff would need during that time. I think it does need to

098be both. I mean, I think it's it's relevant to school and it's relevant to the content which you're teaching. So I agree with that, but when it's also both, it would be nice like you said, veteran teachers versus first year teachers, you know, you you need something for both. You need the the differentiation, you need the enrichment. Um because I don't know if I could sit through another training to be quite honest like eight hours of the lovely lady that comes in and talks to us about things that we're already doing. Um it's just you know you end up becoming that bad kid in class behavior problem that's sitting on your iPad playing a game instead of you know mentoring the new teacher because I don't believe in one minute that you be I have

099lots of novels on my iPad as I sit here. um hear it with me everywhere. Uh but no, I mean I I but it it would be nice to have that differentiation because I will some of the best conversations we've had were last year when Tony had the English teachers come together and part of it was just what are you doing at your school? What are you doing at school and we got into 12th grade, 11th grade, 10th grade and it was so nice to pick each other's brains because you don't know what's going on otherwise. So yes, it is nice to come together as a whole, but being at your home school where you also have things that you were working on there is also nice. Then you can have um you whoever is

100you great at this Canva teaching Canva lessons, people that need it, and then people that are working on curriculum that work on curriculum. So then you can have the different things that are going on. But the one size fits all 6 through 12 is just is not where it is. Oh, sorry. I was say I understand too it's a pendulum swing because if you're in any county, you're in education long enough, you see just a series of corrections over and over because at what one point in time, each building did select our own PD and we used our teacher leaders and depending on what the trades were in your building, whether you had your IT team up or you had a writing team up or you had that building really focused on that. Then there

101was the well your building's getting this and this was missing that. So, in order that everybody's on the same page, everybody and then an overcorrection blanketed to everybody's going to do this countywide. Um, I think in order to be the most successful, it needs to be a blend of both. Like, hey, this is the topic. All of our buildings are counting on this day here. Like, find your teacher leaders in this building that specialize in this. These are the like top three things we need as a whole, but beyond that, do what's working for you. And I I just wanted to share that um meeting with each of the faculty senate chair uh faculty senate chairs from our schools. This was a reoccurring theme um that we were hearing, but I think it was also

102something that was um it was qualitative feedback for us from that we have been able to add to the superintendent stakeholder survey that went out that talked about the quality of PD and where the gaps were um the frustrations with PD. Um, we've also had, you know, um, uh, the board, you all just heard from the children's literacy initiative, uh, some of their feedback. And so, I think that all of the strategic planning that we're moving in toward next year is to have that appropriate blend of of not just school-based, but district uh, districtwide that is differentiated um, and being able to support um, for example, Ames and teacher leaders. Um I was just sharing with the um board member um power here that you know the you the skills u for example you know

103is being structured to where we have teacher leaders that are facilitating these things and then teachers are able to select what they need based upon their own you know their own reflective practice and we need to be able to have more of that um throughout the school year even uh where Um uh there's different models that we can that we you know you can look at like the unconference which is really where you sort of do it do it in reverse but you're able to specialize in what is it that you actually want to go to and um uh what you're able to actually flesh out are the best practices from colleagues that are in the school district. But not only are you develop developing strengthening your skill set, you're networking and sharing best practice

104as well as being able to provide time for implementation. You know, time to be able to actually go back and plan how you're going to put it to practice. Um, and then of course something that's very important to me is that anything that is differentiated or districtwide. Um so the balance is is that we also followed up with with support in our schools when um um to to ensure effective implementation or if there is something that's struggling that there's embedded support to be able to help in uh in coaching those sort of things. So I def that has definitely fallen on um uh listening ears and our team here at the district office is taking taking that in and um it's actually part of our strategic planning process right now and trying to establish a

105strong foundation for next year. So and and we'll be working with stakeholders in that plan too. So Dr. Dr. Alfonso's office, uh, you know, is putting together different different plans of support and we're going to need expert advice from teachers, from principles, um, and coaches and those sort of things in order to be able to plan those things effectively. I was I was impressed by some of the comments you all made in your presentations that you're watching what we're doing and listening to the debates. for example, the budget has to be balanced and uh I don't have that with me, but we're over pointing about 200 some employees. That means we pay everything, their salary, the benefits, their retirement that we as an employer versus what the state does. And uh some of the some

106of the anxiety the law requires us for example in order to be in a position to move people we have to notify people by the first of April give you your letters and it's not that we think you're going to be moved but we have to have a certain number of people in position that they have to be moved otherwise we can have a person here and the students needs over here. The board, I don't know if you all realize the significance, the board last year gave a $1,250 bonus for your housing arms, added to the $1,000. And we we had before us not to do that this year, this coming year. Now, we could have told you every day of the week and twice on the weekends, you're not going to get that $1,250.

107And we said, "What will that do to this system if we do that?" The morale the morale when you when you don't get that check in November, what'll happen? So, the board said we've got to continue that. Not increase it, but continue it. And that's one of the motivating reasons, driving reasons that we're trying to cut back on those positions that are above the formula so that we can maintain that pay rate or that bonus. It gets into your pockets. Yeah. We we have over 200 per centers. A lot of them are doing great jobs, but they're the people that you have to re as they come in. We have to retrain and everybody else is sitting there being retrained with the newbies. And that's and that doesn't sit well with you. But I I

108want to emphasize to you that that $1,250 is not going to be an additional amount of money. It's we want to maintain what we're giving you right now. Well, I also want to reiterate, Pat, not to cut you off that um because before we forget it, that um we didn't cut any budget to we didn't put people on transfer so we could um pour our budget online or give a raise. So, that I want to be sure that we're um that that word doesn't get out there where we cut positions and we transferred people so continue the um housing limits. That's definitely not true. So proceed. I just want to make sure that's clear because that's important. I I'll let the other board members jump in here. I wanted to ask actually a question about

109discipline because I've heard it from a few of you. Discipline is a thing including transportation. Heard you loud and clear. I don't know how in the world any bus driver can sit so focused on the road maintaining the road and also have eyes in the back of your head that don't exist and get all the kids from point A to point B safely. Hats off to you guys. Hats off to you guys. Um the one um comment I just want to circle back to because I want to make sure I understood it correctly. Um Kelsey I believe right? I got it right. Um, you had said in regarding discipline that there is regarding the the the discipline policy, there are still I did I hear you right saying that there were still some some students

110who were making poor choices but getting rewarded for it instead of disciplined. Am I they hear that? And I I apologize if that's not the exact words. I'm never good at the exact words. That was my understanding the way that I took it. they might they might understand that correctly. That's how it was shared that students are being taken from the classroom if they're making a disruptive behavior or whatever the situation is. Um and maybe for instance going to the principal's office and then it's they come back with like lollipop or a bag of Cheetos and it's like how did that happen? Right? Like you know where was the consequence? like you just disrupted my 25 students and now they're coming in with a bag of Cheetos and the rest of the kids I just

111have to spend 10 minutes refocusing them to get them back on track. Well, I'd be interested to know where that was from. That's what it is. It's calling it a deescalation and calling it a success. Yeah, because it's PDIS. But but that actually it's not something that we can control. But that is a personnel issue for Dr. could look into that is some yeah I was getting ready to say that is something where I would say hey Dr. facts. Um, can you look into that please? Um, because I I cannot even imagine. Uh, I yeah, I can't even imagine. Um, but then on the next front with that, there was the issue of um, vaping within the middle schools and there was a desire for increased I'm I'm assuming increased punishment or it's not sometimes

112the consequence doesn't fit the crime basically. Sorry. consequence. Let's use that word instead of the key word. Um so I guess the question is do is that something that should be revisited by the discipline committee? We actually talked about this at length. Um one of the things that we were you know talking about is the current disciplinary measures for vaping or THC have included in school and out of school suspension. But what we're not seeing is any type of um you know um other measures like tobacco required tobacco tobacco or vaping cessation programming um or increasing the consequences for the repeat offenders um and possibly taking a look at how can we perhaps involve law enforcement um we hold parents accountable and that was what we said that's exactly your pockets. That was the other

113thing we talked about was involving parents. So, Dr. Branch was was there and we talked specifically about um taking a look at revising the matrix to include some of those things. We actually even talked about the matrix for because right now K through five has the same discipline matrix and that is a separating the matrix for primary intermediate to change some of those interventions because again maybe we need to have more stringent uh interventions behavior interventions for intermediate kids compared to primary kids and maybe there's some things that we've been implementing for primary that are more intermediate based and so we want to be able to differentiate the two. So we talked about reconvening the discipline committee to be able to do just that as well. So I think we I think you know the

114big thing is is that um there's there's always room for improvement and getting this kind of feedback helps us make decisions on how we want to potentially tweak something that it appears has been working very well um because it's bringing consistency. That was one of the things we heard about consistency across our schools. Unfortunately we're consistently not being able to address the bing as well as we would like to. Well, I better work. Yeah. But I think it's also um it's their age too and they are experimenting and the only one place that they're going to experiment is at school with their friends. Um but I mean literally, you know, you can discipline a child for the vape and the very next day they're back, they still have one on, you know, we're not giving

115them. They're parents. So the parent does have to be account. They're getting them somehow. I shouldn't say the parent, but they are getting them somehow. But to what extent I guess in my head where I sit there and go, how are parents being held accountable for awareness? Well, I have seen children they when they're with their parents. Well, that's so um when parents think it's so okay and nicine is actually worse than nicotine. Yeah. So I I do think our consequences need to be more severe. Um and then the only other thing I I really would you know and this is more aimed at Dr. Saxs is especially when we're going through this transportation uh review and and look see how do we equip our our bus drivers and our um aids because that's a

116classroom on wheels and how do we help them? Um, so cuz that's and and I is it an accurate I guess this this would be more of a question for HR. Is it accurate statement to say that if a child has to be put into a restraint automatically that staff members because they put hands on the on the student they're on leave? What I would say is that I think that there are sometimes um uh situations that um are mischaracterized as to why someone may want to leave. Okay. And so it's I understand where Miss Slo was saying that the the perception is is that you touch a child, you're going to go on leave. So that's what people are thinking, right? And so I think that um that would not that is not um

117standard operating procedure. Um if there if if a child had to be restrained or or something like that on the school bus for whatever reason, let's say there was a fight or there was a um an unruly child or whatever and and the bus driver or the aid would have to intervene um and and reports made, hey, we we had to do this with this child, what have you. um unless there's a a report made that something happened or we're investigating that and we see that that they would have done something inappropriate um or an inappropriate restraint or something that would require us to contact CBS. The law requires that if if there is suspected child abuse, not if you don't not that you're the judge of the jury, but if there is suspected child

118abuse, you have to call the hotline. And if they uh pick it up and they want to investigate, then we have to put them on leave. And that investigation can take a while. If they choose to investigate and we try to expedite it as quickly as possible. But if they don't pick it up, then we determine it was any violation of our policy. And if there wasn't any violation of our policy and it was it was appropriate, then then we move on. I think that where they're coming from is that we need to make sure we do a better job of training the staff as to what is per policy when it comes to um having to um prevent or restrain a child to protect the child and other children. Um and and I I

119I hear that loud and clear. We need to do a better job there. I think we need to do a a better job in being able to provide not to shift from bus drivers or bus aids, but to our ECATs and making sure that they are receiving um instruction or or professional development on how to support the teacher in the classroom with instructional strategies um especially if they're going to be transitioning potentially from the bus to the classroom with with the new um possibility of them working in the classroom. Oh yeah, we haven't discussed that. I I I know. I'm just saying with that as a possibility, we would want to make sure if we were to post positions that would be like a bus/teer classroom aid. Yes, we would want to make sure they

120have both. But but those but a bus/teer classroom aid is really there for extra support, not necessarily instruction. Okay. Like a ECAD. And I'm concerned that we have ECADs that need some additional um support throughout the year as well. Well, when I when I mentioned the aids, I was also directing that towards classroom aids. Oh, yes. I got that too. Yeah, it was classrooms also that are asking for I see you. I see us bus. So I mean I also think that um the cameras have helped immensely because principal can go back and do the cameras and see exactly what happened. But that didn't happen. So, um, and we actually, um, in our organization teach our, um, aids and bus drivers to talk to cameras and how to talk to them so that we're explaining

121step by step what we're doing and why we're doing it. Like, if you're doing something, tell them to put their hands up and talk out loud. Yes. Because their hands are visible at all times. So, if I'm talking to you, you can't go home and tell, "Mom, I hit you upside the head because my hands are in the air." So, yeah. It's unfortunate that you have to even think that way. True. Yeah. I I'm being I mean that's that's horrible that we have to think that way. But I know I know. Um other questions? I don't think I have any other questions. Sorry. Or statements. Well, no, I do. Um let's see. [Music] Um I heard some things and I think I saw one of the um presentations about the PDS being early dismissal early

122dismissal or I mean then two delay throughout the year they plus and minus on both. So I'm trying to see which one that the majority of staff feel would be most beneficial. I I've heard the pros and cons, but some I would like to do what's best for the most amount of people when we're making those type of decisions. So, I think that could have been on my presentation, but I think it was yours as well. You too. So, from my perspective, I was just thinking about um both sides, like what's best for students and what's best for staff because students, it's proven they're they have better aptitude to do things in the morning. So, when they have that two-hour delay, they come in and they're just like supercharged, ready to go. they're going to

123hit the ground running. Versus if they come in, they have their morning of, you know, reading, math, things like that, and they leave for that 2-hour early dismissal, they can have that opportunity to take their energy out, you know, once they get home instead of kind of in the classroom causing more disruption, more behavior issues, things like that. And then from a staff perspective, if you are in the middle of doing something on a two-hour delay day, when the kids get there, that's the end of it. You don't have that choice. Whereas, if it's a two-hour early dismissal, if it's 3:45 and and you want to stay and finish working on something, you have that option at that point versus in the morning, like they're coming, ready or not, here they come. So, I personally

124think the 2-hour early dismissals are better just because students are going to perform better being in school in the morning and then getting out early versus coming in late and having to kind of go through the rest of their day. And here on the very far side of high school, the two-hour dismissal is also better because at the senior level, we've got co-op. They're not coming in for a delay when they have to leave anyways for their co-op. So, you've got attendance that just takes a dive on those days for us. Thank you. on transportation department. When we take the student home and the parents not there, we have to bring them back and give them back to the teachers or the schools and then they have to set in there and if there's a

125lot of them they could potentially have to set in a classroom with their teacher and their teacher wouldn't get as much done. So, so you transportation prefers the delay rather than the early dismissal. I know like our school is very small. Marlo's very small. So, our kitchen staff has to work double time on delay days because they have to not only prep the breakfast, but they're also prepping our prek because as soon as our kids come, prek eats breakfast and maybe 10 minutes later they're eating lunch. And we offer we have to offer breakfast. a very fast turn around. Wait, wait, wait. What? So, when the kids come in, they are they have to have breakfast. It's required that they get served breakfast. So, the service staff has to prepare breakfast and then turn around

126and start serving lunch. Our third our our school anyway, we come in from 10:25 to 10:45 and then 10:45 is like our tardy and then our third grade lunch starts at 11 o'clock. And we try and tell them like listen you're gonna get lunch but I mean some of them they want both and they're if you're going to eat it that's fine but it's just really rapid turnaround as well. It's a lot of wasted food. I was going to say how much you so it's just really I mean we have two staff members working in the morning in the kitchen. Um so they're trying to do all of the meals at once. Um so that's just really really difficult. Well, maybe that's um part one of the prepackaged breakfast. Yeah. And those are the days

127they get like the the cereal cup something or the cereal bars like very simple. But it's it's hard. I agree with what with what everybody said about I know primary schools was overwhelmingly in support of the early releases rather than the delay. Okay. Thank you. Um I did have a couple others. These may be more for administration, but if anybody has answered, that's that's fine. Um, because there was talk about I think M. Cochran talked about the bonuses for years of service, but aren't we isn't it true we're not allowed to get bonuses or is there a sneaky way because Right. There would have to be a workound. That's something that we've talked about in just finding something. Yeah. Okay. I didn't because I didn't think that we could actually That is true that there's

128nothing in there's no provision in code that will would allow actually I think if you were to talk to some they would actually say that it's illegal for public schools in West Virginia to give a bonus we have to stay within a certain percentage of what the state requirements are but there but we've clearly done things that are additional incentives that apply to allies and so I think that and I've seen also where some school districts not necessarily in West Virginia but they'll to longevity pay. So like once you hit like a 10 year milestone then you get the pay table is actually reflected in the change. Well we did that for I can't I remember was it 16 years or 20 years for professional there was a change in the pay table. That would

129be you mean for Berkeley or state? State. Oh that maybe I don't I remember and Mr. Right. You could even if you if the board eventually gets to the point where the budget won't allow to keep doing that I think it was 1250 you said over and over again. You could even think of that in terms of instead of having the original housing allowance I think it goes from like zero to eight years and then nine to this and then beyond that's like just one lump sum of a thousand. You could even think of it as like breaking down those into smaller segments to kind of promote people to stay that are just getting their foot in the door. Maybe if you did 0 to three for 800 and then you know four to six

130or something like that smaller increments where the budget can still handle it. Um but it would kind of encourage people to stay a little bit more as well. I think I think it's a good idea. The only thing that I'm thinking is with first year teachers because they're so low on the pay scale anyway that you might want almost incentive to give them more in the beginning because they really wouldn't be able to afford especially around here to be even able to live on that. So this might allow them to have versus somebody that's been there 20 years. So but I understand your point. Um but something else um does anybody know why the road from Spring Mills through Dupont was closed off? We uh well do you remember that conversation? It was open years

131ago. So we we actually we've actually we've actually been exploring that over the last couple weeks. We've um we sent um Dean Olac and Ty Tyson and Dr. schoolie have been assessing that and we do not own um I believe it's the county commission owns the the property there but we are looking at exploring whether or not we we could um use that as a secondary uh exit uh especially with the construction of the warehouse or the is it the metal facility and possibly expand what what's the what's the road that goes out to the is that Dupont is expanding the the road and the and the intersection of Dupont and um uh 11 what is it 111 11 yes because I think that one of the issues was it the old went through we

132actually had a bad accident there one time the old road actually went through the townhouse property that was being built so they closed off the road it was part of that property so we have we think that we can go up along the tennis courts there and do something, but we're we're working to see what that would look like and can we get some inter agency agreements and those sort of things. So we are exploring as another option and it might be that it's like a one way like you know especially for like the kids like the high school releases that they will not go out toward the light they would go out toward Dupont so we're exploring all those well I I suggest too like there should not be um left turns um like

133when k people drop off at the at the um spring mills middle they come down and they drop off And traffic's backed up, but someone's going to be nice and let these people out and then you know you have people. We talked about a roundabout there. Yeah. Well, yes, we did. That roundabout going to get stuck. That might be it. Well, I think we wrap thisart. I'm sorry you're so quiet some but you have a great question. Thank you. I have one actually or um just looking at pipe side. I do I drive by that a lot. So I do see it's a concern for dropped off. So, I want to see if we can look talk to the sheriff's department. See if we couple days a week, we have a deputy down there. He'd

134like to ship the reserves to sit there. Um, but with Dr. Sax being your first year, um, I'm glad he sat down with everyone and there's an open dialogue, open door. So, I'm glad to hear that for his his first year here. So, and there's never an open door, please let us know. There's always one open door policy as a board. But thank you for all the um not suggestions, concerns that you guys raised tonight. Um we like to see I know myself as a board member um where I'm not down there every single day. So with the actual concerns every single day that you guys are going through um I appreciate it for my my point of my vantage point and um administration being um held accountable. That's why we're here and for you

135guys to um enjoy your jobs, enjoy your careers, and obviously um create the best products we can in Berkeley County. Thank you all for your presentation. One more question. It's not a question, but um we uh I think we passed the calendar for next year. Yes, sir. And some of your questions are calendared questions. So I don't want you to think we're ignoring the question. It's just that we've already committed. But uh we should check and find out when we have the open hearings on the calendar because anyway, we have to have so many hearings. Yeah, I know I said but but to give you an idea for next year's calendar 27 approved 26 you did include a drafted I I just don't want you guys to think it didn't get it did we just

136got to wiggle in that aster 28 and they do have wiggle and and the associations do have representatives on the calendar committee. So, uh you need to find out who your reps are so you get in early. But there are two questions you had on the calendar. May I say one? Um I just wanted to say thank you to all of the faculty senate representatives that came and met with the our team. Um I know not we didn't get everyone that was able to make it but those of you that came I felt like the dialogue was rich and um it was very appreciated by my team and I uh to give us some insight as to where um you know each of you all felt that we were were doing a good job but

137at the same token as I said before sometimes we have to hear the hard things and that's the only way we know how to focus on getting better. So I really do appreciate that and I appreciate your all's commitment to being a part of the process. It was very fulfilling for me and very much appreciated. So, thank you and I look forward to working with you all again. I think I actually had someone who who made a suggestion that perhaps I could meet with the faculty senate representatives maybe twice a year or something like that and I would definitely be open to that. So, um I think I think when we work together and we can find common ground on solutions, that's the best way we can move forward as a school district as well.

138So, thank you. Thank you to to everyone um that was part of that process. Oh, no. And with this uh and I'm sure that other board members going to back me up on this, but I did have a lot of correspondents telling me how much they have the individuals appreciated Dr. Saxs meeting with them. It's the first time that's happened for a long time. So, as part of the board, I I appreciate that, too. I think it opened up dialogue and answered questions that as you all said there were such rumors out there that um kept getting worse and worse and worse and then now I think there's more understanding of where what's going on and I like the fact that they brought forth not just the concerns and stuff but there were solutions also

139offered hearing that from you guys understanding what you guys are experiencing and seeing the creativity that you guys are trying to figure out how to work that problem very much appreciated. We need that. We need that. We need to hear from what you guys see as a possible solution. Thanks again. Thank you construction project. Good evening everyone. Can I have your construction updates for you? The um Headville Early Learning Academy basically it's the same update I gave you last time. They are moving along with the uh block walls coming up and installing the uh the door frames and they are in the process of reworking the corner that's impacted uh by the easement. So, as I'll give you updates on that Tomahawk Intermediate, the all of the steel structural support system is complete. All of

140the exterior steel stud framing is complete. It essentially is a closed end. Uh, this picture is slightly off because the walls are now there and the window, you can see the window openings. All that has happened since uh I last took these photos. And the roof is complete uh with the the decking system. Still on Skip. Who is the contractor for Hall? Myers Buildings. Myers. Uh the Martinsburg Dand room edition. The um masonry exterior that says interior. Those are complete. But what I wanted to say is the exterior, if you've driven past there, it looks like it's almost finished with the the uh block and brick veneer and all of the uh HVAC duct work is essentially complete on the interior. The roofing system is finished and the upper auditorium demolition is essentially complete with

141removing all that old plaster. Remember the balcony has already been removed underneath the balcony that is. And now all the upper part is essentially uh also removed. Yeah, the instruments storage. Uh yes, we had actually had a meeting today about the instruments and having uh lockers for those and McKenley is working on some details to make sure that we're not going to put the lockers in a way that impacts any egress or um impacts any uh receptacles, simple things like that. So they're working on a plan in conjunction with the company that Martinsburg High School had got a quote from so they can u better accommodate the instruments. So we'll have more updates on that uh once they come back with the plan. We are trying to work on a solution. We are absolutely working

142on a solution to get lockers for the instruments. Okay. And I I don't want to go into details why it wasn't included, but u I'd also like to know if there were any more surprises like that was one Martensburg if you're aware of it at Martinsburg anywhere projects. Um I'm not I mean nothing's come to I think what we can do uh Mr. Murphy I think will be appropriate is that when we have our next uh facilities meeting on each one with the architect and the the contractor we could ask the architect if there were any u value engineering prior to even going to bid that we just want we just want to know what those cuts were in the planning process just so we have an ongoing inventory of what those things were and

143we could make sure we cross reference to make sure nothing's in code that is required perhaps the board did not make that decision but we got but yes we are coming up with a solution for that and I'll have an update for you probably next morning thank you uh the spring mills press boxes are going to finish up this week including the stairs I received confirmation from the contractor this morning that the fabrication of the stair systems is complete and the installation is going to take place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. And of course, everything else on that project is finished. So, by the end of this week, that project will be uh check that off the list. And they're are they have they done the the grading work for the road like

144where they're going to just do reg? Yeah, they started that grading work and it will also finish up this week. And I haven't heard an update as to when they will do the the parking area, but the all the grading around the press boxes and the they're going to do like a gravel connecting lane. All that will wrap up also this week. And then the last thing was just a summary of Mountain Ridge Primary School. Of course, we know that uh you approved the 24 classrooms with Warner Construction join that project. And right now, all of the uh submittals have been um sent to the school building authority. And so we're waiting on final confirmation from the school building authority uh so that we can determine the construction schedule. So u that should be coming

145out soon and the project completion date will be next July of 2026 and that's it with the completion date at this point like like concrete will be good for the whole year. Yes. Right. As of right now, we'll be good to open that school in August 26. Is there any concerns of like like soil remediation remediation of like the outboard orchard? Uh that's already figured into the contract to to include that. And remember um whenever the two football fields, Muscleman and Hendrisville, whenever those were converted to the artificial turf, all of that soil was called to that site. So it is currently staged on site. So, uh, all all that is already figured into the schedule. Yes, it is good. And it's all there ready for, uh, for this school. While we're on that topic

146of Mount Primary, um, we do need to determine a groundbreaking ceremony date. I message each of you all. It sounded like um from you all that the 30th was probably the best date. I think I remember correctly. Right. You might have said the 29th first. I think you all said the 29th. The 30th. Yeah, the 29th wasn't going to end up working, but the 30th Wednesday the 30th, which is next Wednesday, is what we would be looking at. Um, I do think that the SBA staff said that the 29th worked better for them, but unfortunately there's just too many there's too many commitments that the other board members have. And um, so I think either Wednesday or Thursday would work. Um, and we would like to be able to involve some of the students from

147uh, the two schools that will be joining um, into Mountain Ridge Primary. Um, so I think probably like a a 12:30 time frame. um on the 30th is is a suggestion, but if there's another time that works better for the board, then we could absolutely entertain that. Um on the 30th, the 30th or May 1st another time, we can sure early morning or after. Um we could do the special meeting at 5:00 on the 30th. That's the That's the right people that work. I mean, we could do like I could do at 9:00 a.m. probably or something like that, I would imagine. probably want to get too much earlier. I did 7:30 ribbon cutting. So, um 9 a.m. I can't do 9:30. I can't do midday. Would you be able to I can do 9

148or is that Carl or Justin? Is that a problem? You think 9:00? Probably the earliest you get over the kids. They're just getting married. I'm just brainstorming. Do you think I can make I can make whatever work. We can do 10 a.m. if that would be better. How about 10 a.m.? Yeah, that's good. Does 10 a.m. work for you all? I don't know. would be okay. Carla, do you think 10 a.m. would be okay? Well, and I retired, so whatever works for them. No, because here's for for me, you've got 2:30 we're I have to leave work on the on Monday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday. you got me leaving work at 4:30 and then I'm going to be out for at least an hour for this. So, it's like that week is a horrible week

149to have all this stuff. Tor you you're still a busy week. Yeah, it's a busy one. It's a busy one. I mean, today is going to have to be Okay. How do we get you there? I told you I said if I walk into the office I mean I can I can get called up next week and I'm gone. I know Thursday is meeting on Thursday. Okay. So 10 a.m. on Wednesday the 30th. Okay. Is that okay? Perfect. And please don't forget your construction. It's in the back of my car. Okay. Good. Just want to make sure has not left bars as I will. If you forget if you forget we'll have an expert at Mountain Ridge. We will be at Mountain Ridge and we'll give you some directions once we find out where Sully

150but we'll give you more details. So, thank you very much. Sorry to interrupt your presentation. Is that the end? Okay, next on the agenda, consent. We go for the consent agenda. So move. Second. Second. And I have a correction. um on the first seven minutes and I I don't think u you made a mistake here Jessica but um but on the April 3rd Thursday H2 um and there Jim Bucks to have a coronary here but it says board comfortable reducing fund balance to about 1% and see how the request can work into that it was to reduce it by% not down one for sure. That's why he's worried that Jim Buds would have a corner here. So instead of saying two, it's by and I'm thinking 10 years down the road when we go back

151in a minute as a board took risks. That's why they're no longer with voting out the next election. Thanks, Pat. So with that correction, uh we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Uh action items. Discussion of possible action on virtual instruction program. Good evening, President Long board members and Dr. Seth. I'm Holly Branch. I work with the virtual program. Thanks for having me this evening. Um I am presenting to you the changes that are being suggested for policy IB regarding uh virtual instruction program and um this was um done over the last year and there are a lot of changes. So there's got a color version too. So a lot of red items and underlines. So the black is the original. So it really got um beefed up and

152amped up by the suggestion from the lawyer. So basically they looked at um our policy from 2020 and they asked us to be more specific with several um items and areas about how our program um works in Berkeley County. So um by doing that and coordinating like I said with the lawyers at BS and Rice um they had specific suggestions for us and I went through and uh basically rearranged based on their recommendation and to make better flow based on their recommendations and recategorizing some of the categories there. It was based off of um items they asked us to include and they asked us to really be more specific with uh questions that might come up about especi especially eligibility um and um attendance were two that they really wanted us to look at. Um

153those were the two biggest ones and then um they asked us also to add in the extracurricular activities element that was in there as well. So, um, pretty much went through that with them. Uh, two phases with that with the lawyers and this is what we questions for Mrs. Branch. No questions. Can I have a motion to accept the policy changes as presented? So, second. Second. All in favor? motion carries. All right. Thank you. Calendar. Good evening, President Wong and board members. My name is Sarah Wolf, assistant director prek. Our prek director, Dr. Funk could not be present tonight. So I'm here to present our pre 2526 prek calendar requirements for policy 2525 section 4. The prek core team has met and is re recommending this calendar for your review and approval. It mirrors all

154previous year's calendars. We begin on August 21st and 22nd with a staggered start and conclude on May 28th. Students are required to attend 48,000 minutes annually. For us, this is reflected in a six-h hour, 5day a week program, and it has embedded 11 additional professional development days for our teachers. Do you have any questions for me about our calendar? All of the R5 day though, correct? Yes. When did that change in? It was around 2016, I believe. Wasn't sure the doctor's office. I'm not quite sure when Berkeley County went to 5 days, but I know that's when it started to become an option. No questions. Can I have a motion to accept the pre ask like miring from our normal calendar like what like major differences are from our regular calendar just for I think

155this year we added one additional PD day because we do go over so many additional required hours that we decided to build an extra professional development day at the beginning of the year to give our There's a little bit more prep time. We have to take pictures of the children. We have to set up the environment. We have to label it. Questions? Do I have a motion? Accept prek calendar. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. I'm also going to be presenting the prek instructional materials adoption process. Let let me first say is this just a you are already using this yes materials right we are currently using the creative curriculum. Um this is the first time that we have had a choice. Um the state has in the past required only two

156options created curriculum or high school. Um and that started when policy 2525 became effective in 2012. So this is the first time that we've had the option to look at other vendors. Sorry. Fine. Um so I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the process and the materials that we chose. So previously we have like I said only had two options for prek curriculum. The creative curriculum high scope. The prek admin created committee consisting of two teachers. one teacher that teaches um both special needs children and are typically developing general education students and one that teaches uh special education students only. Kelly Durango and myself served as prek administration on the committee and then we had our county prek core team that was also part of the committee and they are the final

157decision makers on which um curriculum the county adopts. Yes. Yeah. I was going to ask the G versus the C teachers, which was the general GE GE. Yes, they have our general education students and our students with special needs and the SE teachers have only students with special needs. Are some of some of those in individuals have combined classes? Yes, the GE classrooms have those children with special needs and the general education students. what determines uh the severity of the level of the children that can go into their general ed. It's an IEP team decision. So the IEP team looks at the students needs um and then as a as a committee they make a decision on where the child will be placed. Okay. Any other questions? If something happens with a child, they're staffed

158in, they're given an IEP and everything, something traumatic happens in their life and they suddenly go off the deep end, their behavior, uh, do you have to go through the IEP process again or is that IEP just consistent and unflexible? So, we do have a behavior support process. We start with that. Um we try to put interventions in place. Those interventions don't work, then we bring in a BCBA who tries to do a um functional behavior assessment and write a formal behavior plan for that child. Um if the child has an IEP, they are part of that um intervention process. But if the severity they they were inter challenging us are we locked into the original or no at any time like you jump in above and we will be talking about this when we

159present um prek to the board as a monitoring item. We will get into those things but it's always fluid when you have an item. Well and I apologize because I got awful on this. That's okay. And then he follows me over the vice versa all the time. So we were talking about textbook adoption and we've got a whole IEP. So the placement is always always an IP decision and they will look at you know child levels. They'll look at the behaviors and it's always an IEP team where the child's placed. So we'll get back to the there's no fiscal note on this. We're just continuing to utilize the same curriculum we face. Well, there could be purchases that have to be made like in the absence of we've added students, so we have to purchase

160more material, right? No. Okay. There aren't any consumables in our curriculum. So, everything can be used over and over again because our by policy, our students can't do worksheets. They can't do workbooks. The only thing that we might have to look at down the road is there is an online subscription where teachers can do their lesson planning, get professional development, and it does run out every two years or so, but we should be good for the next year or two based on the purchases that we just made last August. Thank you. So, this is just instructional materials for staff. We have to legally adopt it. I know, but this is just staff instruction. It cares nothing for students. It is there. I can tell you when we get further in the presentation, I can give

161you some examples of what the materials are and might give you a better picture. I'll apologize. Just trying to figure out what we're talking I understand and I know prek is a different world. It's a little bit different to understand. So hopefully by the end of the presentation it'll be a little more clear for you. We can do some more questions. We get there. Sarah, have you ever presented to the board before? One time, but very briefly. You are very skilled at it. I mean, you were all you have to do is just look over at Mr. Murphy's binder with all Yeah. and hope it's for somebody else. So our process is a little bit different than the K12 adoption process where the core team is the final decision maker, but we did get some

162guidance on the state of how this would look because we haven't gone through this process before. So the preK4 team participated in a state webinar and we reviewed all the required processes. We selected our committee members to participate in virtual vendor showcases and we had one go to the inperson caravan in Morgan Town. We share the process and the information and all the um information about the vendors to all of our prek teachers. Um and we encouraged them to do their research into it and give us any feedback about the different options. The adoption committee then met and we narrowed the choices down to three vendors. The committee presented the information to the prek4 team about the three vendors and what the committee's final decision or recommendation was. The prek4 team agreed with the committee

163selection and completed the state instructional review form to ensure that the curriculum chosen met all necessary criteria. Go to the next slide. These were the vendors that registered for the state. There were seven um and they were considered and researched by the adoption. When considering which curriculum they to adopt, the committee looked at how well each aligned to our West Virginia prek standards and if they had an online component for lesson planning and additional resources. Another important consideration was the synthesis on developmentally appropriate practices project and play-based investigations that support the whole child. The committee really looked at how well each curriculum not only taught foundational academics, but social, emotional, physical, and creative development as well. So, the prek adoption team selected the creative curriculum for preschool for teaching strategies LLC. This is the curriculum

164that we've been using previously here in Berkeley County and also the most widely used uh curriculum for preschool in the United States and previously in West Virginia as well. So, as I said, there is a print and online component. The print edition features teaching guides for 20 different investigative units that young children find interesting. So, some examples are balls, trees, sand, pets. It includes a set of books for each unit with discussion cards that facilitate interactive readouts. There are also intentional teaching cards to make sure children are being taught critical literacy and math skills. The teacher said that they like this curriculum because it's flexible to meet children's interest and natural curiosities. So, for example, if the children find a grasshopper out on the playground and then everybody's now interested in bugs, the teacher has

165that flexibility to adapt her lesson plans for a study one in six. Um, the teachers also thought this curriculum was best at meeting children at various development levels. So, we do have three fours and five. So with its balanced approach with a focus on inquiry based learning, it is the most widely used curriculum for ages three to five in the country. It has shown to result in positive outcomes for both teachers and students. A recent independent study for MIR showed that the use of creative curriculum along with professional development increased teacher attention rates by 54%. The study also showed significant growth for students in all learning domains. that Berkeley County Schools have been implementing this curriculum for several years. All teachers have been trained from the company two years in a row on this curriculum

166and ongoing support is regularly provided from the company. Last August um as I said, we um purchased additional print and electronic kits to ensure that every classroom had a full set of materials and no additional purchases are needed at this time. So going back to your question, President Mo, about the materials. So in prek, everything has to be canceled. They have to have concrete objects, real life objects, deep meaningful experiences. So what this kit does if it gives teachers ideas on how to create those meaningful experiences for children and then it also does include the books which children can use. Thank you. Other questions? How do you um or is there a way to deal with students that are exception like they're basically first or second grade level understanding? Yes. So the additional teaching cards

167and the lesson plan session questions are level. So it will have what can a four-year-old do? What can a 5-year-old answer? What can a six-year-old do? And then it goes lower for our developmentally younger children as well. And then of course with our creative curriculum, it's set up in learning centers. So children kind of have the open-ended opportunity to challenge themselves in different areas. Any other questions? hearing none. I have a motion to approve the creative statements. Appreciate second. Mr. Murphy, all in favor? [Music] Thank you, Miss Wolf, for your patience. Mr. Yes, ms. Uh, good evening members of the board and superintendent Sachs. The personnel actions dated for Monday, April 21st, 2025 are as follows. Uh, we have one coaching resignation. We have two additional healthcare appointments. Uh, for professional personnel, we have three

168professional appointments. um including one teacher who is being hired tomorrow as a newly certified applicant through the alternative certification process. Congrats. Um yes, we have one professional change of assignment. We have three policy 5000 hires for the 2526 school year. Uh we have one professional resignation and we have eight transfers for the 2526 school year. Uh for service actions, we have one extra duty appointment and we have one change of assignment. We have two new appointments of substitute service personnel and one resignation. We have one substitute service personnel who has rem removed from the substitute list. Uh for professional substitute teachers, we have four appointments of professional day-to-day substitutes for a total of 29 coaching professional service and substitute personal actions tonight for your consideration with Superintendent Sax's recommendation. Questions for Mr. Pamosi? Um yes,

169I did. [Music] Um trying to ask this without being too specific. Um is there a reason why there were so many transfers out of one school in in one grade? So yeah. So what we did was we took that third grade and moved it to another school programmatically to make you know to try to get prek to two. That's why Bunker Hill. That was Bunker Hill Creek. Um you may see a few more of those um along the way. Some preks probably like there was there was one that was from a prek. It was the same thing. Um Hedgesville Hedgesville to Hedgesville. That'll be on the next one. Um they will be like half the year Hedgesville, half the year at um Hedgesville Early Learning Academy. So that yeah, that's why those people were were

170all moved um as long as they applied for the position uh through the priority vote, they were able to go into that position at Milreek automatically. Dr. S. Yes, sir. share with you the code being able to our you're referencing you're referencing Hang on uh code 182e-3A. Well, I I I would like to say yes, but I don't know what the coding section is, but it allows adjun and job share. Well, that's a great question. I actually just emailed you. I literally like two two minutes ago emailed you uh Mr. Camelowsk's assessment of that uh legislation and um his work with the Department of Education to figure out how we can leverage that and use it. But since Mr. Klowski is here, would you like to share with you with with the board? Yes. Um

171if you can preview what the legislation was saying, but then what the Department of Ed um gave us some insight on. So the the code section does address how you can use both um whether you're talking about what you would describe as like an out of field somebody who has um you know content knowledge but maybe is a retiree from another field or there's a separate policy that allows for like an adjunct professor to come in um and work with your kids. Excuse me. the the code section referring to the out of field people specifically refers to AP and honors courses. It does not refer to general ed curriculum which I would wager most of our schools are probably having certified people teach those courses to be quite honest with you. the separate policy 5202

172with the adjunk professors. Um in talking to Brad Fitcher of the state, he said that typically um that's used if like a college would shut down. So like when Albertson brought us close their doors a couple years ago um those teachers, those professors were were extended an offer um to come and teach, you know, in the public school system because they were no longer going to be employed at Brois. Um, essentially what Brad told me was for the first policy, the 18-2A that that you referenced, there's actually not a single county in West Virginia right now that's that's utilizing that because schools are putting their certified personnel with those AP and honors courses. Um, so I think I think you're what you're wanting to do makes a lot of sense and to be honest with

173you, I've long thought about, you know, how we can kind of utilize that. Um there would be potentially a couple barriers just with your master schedule. Um if you would have a part-time person, you know, that might be a little bit of a challenge to kind of to shoehorn them in there, so to speak. Um you know, along with some some things you'd have to work with them on the way to our class. I do think it's doable. I do think it's doable even in the master schedule if you have someone who's coming in to teach just maybe one period or two periods a day because they have an expertise. I think that the challenge though is also with the legislation is that if you have someone who's certified Yeah. Yeah. Even in the in

174the department then then you have to use and and I and our schools do. Um I I mean I haven't looked at all the master schedules to be able to determine if but I I would wager that they have their certified people working especially with those AP classes. I mean I can't imagine there's uncertified people working those. Well, we do have they won't get credit if they don't. Yeah. The kids won't get credit. Well, two two points. Um, I I talked to Dr. Saxs about it before, but then I was reinforced when I was at Hedgesville visiting the school there and the principal told me that they were going to lose a very good teacher to retirement and uh would like and they thought that he would like to teach but not be a full-time

175teacher. So I thought about that and then after I got to thinking about some of these schools they just need a fraction of a teacher to reduce the class sizes or to cover a class. There's just that and this adjunct process would allow you to just hire the fragment teacher rather than having to hire a full-time person. Well, I do think though I will say I think that there's another way to look at this and that is possibly Dr. Murphy that when you have someone who's certified and they don't want to work. I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy. I'm sorry, Mr. Murphy. That might be um but I'm really stuck my foot in my mouth. Um is that I don't think anything will prevent us and and Mr. Kwowski or or Dr. to look at um is

176if we had a shortage of let's say uh let's say we have a person who's retiring in math for example and we know that we have some uncertified teachers in math but that person who's retired says you know what I wouldn't mind working you know doing two periods a day okay I don't think anything will prevent us though if we have a shortage of contracting with that person like through Epic on some sort of like uh like is as as a um as like a sort of a contractor, so to speak. Um that we wouldn't be it wouldn't even part-time. It's just that we're contracting with them for x amount of dollars for two periods a day. They come, but they're still certified. I don't think anything will prevent us from doing that. And I

177think we could explore that. Um can you hire a person for less than a half a day? I know you can't serve. Well, you can negotiate. Well, I mean, Epic can hire and we could work out any kind of contract hourly or otherwise service like we do nursing and almost be like a time sheet situation. Yeah. And we do have retirees like in special ed that come back and work for us after they retire. Now, it's more of a a quote unquote full-time basis. Correct. Um but we do have people that do come back to us even after they retire and we utilize them. Well, and there's actually um I was going to share this with the board here shortly when I do my updates, but there is a new piece of approved legislation that

178um allows for substitutes and critical area shortages that permits retired teachers. It's actually Senate Bill 282 that passed um and um I believe it's already been signed by the governor. I have to double check that. But it permits for retired teachers and bus operators to work an unlimited number of days as substitutes in critical shortage areas. So before it was capped at what 140 days I believe this the sun setting happened this year. Yeah. There's a waiver that they sign. Yeah. So the pro this renewed the teachers but it incorporated the bus operators to be able this retirement board started interpretating differently than had the previous two years and say you could do dayto-day substituting which now include day-to-day subbing for bus drivers. I I really like your idea about Epic. Yeah, me too. And

179the and I know one high school I don't want to mention it because I don't want to be little it's not the school's fault. they just don't have that many certified teachers in their math department. And I I just think that uh instead of trying to first if you can hire a full-time person to serve, yes, go that route. But if you can't find them and you can find people with the expertise but not the paperwork, um go that route as well. I I am I think we still have to have the paperwork. Yeah. Yeah. The sad thing is is that the general students would benefit from knowledgeable people too and often our general students are not given the best teachers uh because the best teachers would have to teach some of the more challenging

180classes and the u advanced classes. So I I just believe that u uh if you can get somebody for one or two periods, we already have the 17th pay, give up your planning time and you you can teach a class. So I'm just trying to find people who say, "Well, I don't want to work all day. I don't have the energy." They'll come in and give you a class and that would help us a lot. We can explore that. Yeah. But the epic I would be follow up on the epic sir. I will always follow up probably should well I delegate sometimes but I'll say we're working on a new exit survey that's going to be um more automated than the one in hopes of getting better feedback. So we're developing different questions. So, I

181mean, it's possible we could put a question on there that would say, you know, would you be interested in, you know, coming back x periods a day or what would your interest be in returning? Um, you know, not just on the substitute list, but through something like that. We we could figure out a way to word that. So, I've written down some notes. Um, you know, yeah, we'll continue looking into that because I agree. I mean, we need we need good people in front of our kids as often as we can get them. Well, if that's built into the master schedule, then person's actually going to be must be contracted for those couple hours and make sure that they're going to show up every day that they're like, "Okay, really every Friday I don't, you

182know, I don't want to work." Um, so, you know, it's they would have to they would still have to comply with what our needs were. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'd have to make sure and Epic's been really good about job descriptions, you know, working with us on what we want to put in there and how we want to word it. So, you know, we we would and it would give us some time to work on that. We just the first round of postings just came down. So, we have some time to, you know, to get that together as retirees would would start to roll in and hopefully we can maybe talk to a couple of Yeah, we can continue to look into that for sure. Yes, ma'am. Great. Now, where are we? Did I get a

183second? Second. All in favor? I Thank you. Thank you. And by the way, I meant to say the honorable Mr. Mur. Please don't. They'll put it to the vote and all [Music] Yeah. Next week we have all kinds of Yes. Um next week we have uh some hearings that are scheduled uh starting on Monday. Is that right? Monday. Monday at what? Um I'll tell you Monday at 4. We did push it to try to accommodate then we pushed it back to four. I'm sorry, four o'clock changes that I'll send the complete schedule out tomorrow morning. Okay. Because I know Pat and I there are need I know they need to know. Do we have the 28th and 20th and 30th going to be booked? Okay. The 30th is our special meeting. It's special. Oh, that's

184the budget. Yeah. Sorry. That's not hearings. We just hearings are Monday and Tuesday and Wednesdays are meeting at and the Tuesday starts at what time? We also have next week um on May 1st at 5:00 p.m. at Musleman High School. Our teacher is 5:00 p.m. 5:30. I'm sorry. At 5:30 next I'm sorry. Thursday, May 1st. Is next Thursday at 5:30 teacher? Two weeks. So, it's on May 1st. Oh, that's next week. Yes. Next week. Yeah, that's next week, right? What? What is May 1st? You get to 5:30 and you get corrected. What is May 1st? It is our teacher and service person of the year event announcing. We'll have our CO four finalist for teacher and our four finalist for service personnel. Where's our CS? We'll set them up. We'll set them up. Oh boy.

185Um but uh we are really excited because this year we have sponsors um that have partnered with us. So each finalist will be getting $500 Wow. of cash that they'll be able to use at their at their discretion. Um, and then each winner, um, the the teacher the teacher winner will receive $1,000 and the service personnel winner will also receive $1,000. Are we recognizing our new teacher that day, too? And then we have a a new teacher of the year uh program where we will announce the the new teacher in Berkeley County Schools of the year, and that person will also receive $1,000 thanks to um the sponsors that uh we've been working with. Carla has been um wonderful with that and uh so we'll be um are we calling it something specific? Is it

186our recognition event? Well, the theme is Oh, um it's a rockstar theme. It's a rockar theme. You also got invitations. I think they were at her desk last meeting or actually not lasting. It had a guitar on it and they were sitting get to pick up their walk up song and um I'll email it to you. I was going to say I didn't make sure you get it. I did get it. Who's the sponsor? Uh yes, United Bank. Um, Behind the Bank, um, Bulls Rice, um, Berkeley County Credit Union, and McKinley. Oh, that's wonderful. We've got several that Yeah. that have stepped up to the plate to support our teachers and employees. I don't remember anything. I'll get you one. Maybe Michael took all of them. still benefits. We will be and my team and

187I will be uh going out tomorrow for the prize patrol of our four teacher finals tomorrow. Everybody in our service. So where is this being held at Musleman High School? Musleman High School. So it's it's zone event this year as opposed to being attached to a board meeting. And we're going to have orurves and it's going to be very nice. Yes. Great. And then we have our board training on Saturday. So you got He's not going. I'm I'm going. And he's going. Are you going? I have all my Well, I got all my hours, but I I'm trying to be nicey nice with people right now. I'm glad, but I don't have enough time to do that. Well, it might I that might have to give honestly because I can't if you need to change

188those two down there total control. We already did. Thank you. Um, you don't have any. There was a link in your Yeah, I got it. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Um, so, uh, April 21st through the 25th is public school volunteer week. We want to thank all of our wonderful volunteers who give of their time. Uh pictured here is one of our education elevators. Um but there's also so many other ways to volunteer within our schools and we appreciate each and every single one of again our volunteers and so we want to celebrate you during this very special week. So thank you for for volunteering in our schools. Um school lunch hero day is on May 2nd. If we want to give a shout out once again to all of our cafeteria staff who serve

189thousands of meals each week with uh truly truly made with love. Um we'll be sharing our gratitude with them um on uh May 2nd and so uh we would ask that you do the same in your own local schools. Um, we also had our um, our Berkeley County Schools, I get this right, um, Department of Education school finance audit and there were no findings for FY for the Berkeley County Schools ending um, June 30th, 2024. So, I wanted to share that with the board. Um, we received notice of that. Um, also I have in my possession here, I'll pass it out for you all. I tried to take a a stab at um summarizing all of the uh important pieces of legislation that are education related. I know that you all get um information from

190Mr. Brown uh with the school board association, but um I wanted to let you know which ones I think are actually affecting Burke County schools. And um with some of within some of these things, we we're already starting to to have conversations around what we need to do. Uh but the obviously there's Senate Bill 199, which is the elementary behavior intervention and safety um bill and this is for prek incl preK through five. So I wanted to share that with you that we we're taking a look at that. We're going to be forming our teams to make sure we look at what we need to do. I will say that Berkeley County Schools is already ahead of the curve as it relates to um the partnerships of alternative learning centers um in our school district.

191But um again, we're going to take a look at um how that will impact us as well as to our specific apologies of JG as well as IGBH. Um the u other one that I wanted to share with you is House Bill 2354 uh the unsafe food additives and school meals. um with uh this this does impact some of our serving um uh choices, things uh like um certain jellos and those types of things. Um we don't think that this will have a huge impact, but we're already pretty pretty compliant, but there will be a few small changes that we'll be making and we're working with our food vendors to make sure that we're able to do that. Also wanted to make sure you're aware of House Bill 2513, which is training requirements for board

192of education members. This requires new members to complete orientation within 30 days of being sworn in and it increases the annual training requirements 12 hours per board member. So, I just wanted to uh make sure you all are aware of that. Um, House Bill 2516 is a repeal of outdated education statutes. Um, this includes certain textbook adoption processes, the innovation zones that were also in in legislation back from I think 200 I want to say it was like 2010 2011. Um, and then the big one that you probably heard about is House Bill 2548, the legislative oversight of the West Virginia Department of Education rule. Um, that requires the state superintendent to report annually on all district compliance with West Virginia Department of Education rules. And if a district fails to implement a required rule,

193a corrective action plan, and timeline be submitted. Um and it it also outlines that if there is persistent non-compliance, it may result in holding withholding of school aid uh funding formula, school aid funding. Um and of course uh we should monitor all these rules and prepare, you know, um processes, internal processes to make sure we can be compliant uh for this legislation. There's another one which is um the micro um um grid micro grid bill that um impacts um uh basically your our local levies. Um and this impacts both uh the county commissions, municipalities as well as uh school systems. Um we um are carefully analyzing this. Mr. Murphy and Miss Long and I met today um to speak with some of our county leaders um and some u legal folks to determine what the

194impact will be to us uh based upon this legislation. What it does and this bill was um introduced sort of late in the legislative session. I think it was within the last five days of when it needed to be introduced. And it basically takes uh the local tax um property tax and diverts it back to the state and then the state will reallocate it and distribute it in the way that they see fit. Under the the legislation, I think the local the local uh share would be at 30% of what they take. Um, and again, this only affects the local levy, not our excess levies. Um, and uh, we'll I'm going to prepare some additional information and share that with the board to make you completely a breast of um, where the information that we've

195received and and um, what is going to be important for us to to know going. Um, and then finally, our next regular board meeting is going to be May 5th, 2025. As I said, there are special meetings on Monday, Tuesday of next week and then of course Wednesday uh for our final overlook of the budget as well as LSIC presentations. I would also like to share that of those bills that I shared with you, the one bill that is not there is the House bill that affected um ECATs uh which was going to require an ECAT for every classroom. Um that was going to have to that was going to require us have to add 23 ECATs back into our our formula. Um it did not pass. it it died in the in the Senate.

196Um so that does impact the budget um by a it actually um decreases our liabilities by about a million dollars. And so I wanted to share with you that we're in a better we're in better shape because of that. Um and so there may be some things that based upon where we talked about that we may want to consider adding back in. Um and I'll be prepared to make those recommendations to the board on that. Awesome. So, that concludes my update. I'd be happy to answer any questions before we have that May 5th board. Uh May 5th is at 6 p.m. here. It's here. Uh yes, we're Yes. You can the number of say the rest of them throughout the year if not indefinitely are going to be here. The one person is going to

197get volunteer a month. That's going to be on that meeting. Okay. We'll notify him that it's here because I ran into his wife. We are down at the other board office. I'll let Becky know. Okay. Is there any way we can start a song? Reply. I I'm I I will say this much between of all of the different stuff that we're doing. I can tell you my office is probably not be too happy with me if I'm going to be leaving an hour early yet again the next week for the board meeting. I just keep it off here at 5:30. I can. Well, I I can leave. Yes. The short answer is Yeah. The short answer is yes. I can do that, but I'll be getting here by the skin of my teeth because of

198traffic. [Music] Apologies. I'm just Next week is going to be hard as I'll get out. Okay. Um, you finished. That concludes my update history. U can I have a motion to go into executive session under um section code 6-9A-4 to discuss um pending litigation? So move second. We are in executive session. Oh. All in favor? I to serious. He's serious. It's four to one. Five. Four to one. Four to one. I thought it was Will we be doing any Let me finish. Yeah. Let me finish what I was going to say. Are you Go ahead. Yeah, that's fine. Go ahead. Okay. will. No, I mean we will not be making any session. Sound.