Board of Education Reconvened Statutory Meeting and Special Meeting

001I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The agenda. So move. Second. Second. And when we will be reconvening statutory board meeting to approve the levy rates for 2026. Is there a motion to um entertain the superintendent's recommendations to approve those levy rates? So second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. I have a um motion to adjurnn. I'll get it out in a minute. Second. All in favor? I appreciate. You will now call Mr. But do you want to say anything? You made it official. I would like to call the regular board of education uh special meeting to order. And I have a motion to um accept the agenda. Approve the agenda.

002So second all in favorose opposing you won't honor it special education update Mr. Gill if you want to switch the items are you the children's literacy initiative we read Dr. Green and Amber A. Um, I'm Dr. Diana Green and the last time we were here was in the winter and it was really cold and I thought it would be warmer, but it feels almost like it did when we were here the last time. Sorry about that. Yeah. Um, and Amber Hayes was with me. We actually were supposed to have three people at last presentation, but there was a snowstorm in Chicago and so Erica Holmes wear is here with us today. Um it's indeed an honor and a pleasure to be back in Berkeley County. We're here to share the uh report of the literacy

003instructional review that we did in um late January. Like that was last year, but it it was still this year. And so again, just a little bit about children's lit initiative. Our vision is that we empower school leaders and teachers to transform instruction so that all children can become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. And it all starts with looking at what you're doing in your classrooms. And we again had the great pleasure to be here earlier this year and uh talk to many of your leaders, your teachers and other individuals who impact instruction. Um we are an organization where our expertise is to ensure that our partners are able to select highquality books and materials that they are able to provide highquality literacy instruction to meet all the students needs in your classrooms. We also

004look to um sometimes provide intervention to guide school leaders and teachers uh for enhancing and sustaining children reading outcomes. I did not come in February by myself and I'm a slide ahead of myself so don't move this slide but um our our entire team was not able to be here who were part of the um learning walks and looking at instruction but they were so impressed by your students. Your students in every single one of the schools were so well behaved. um they engaged with us. If we asked them a question, they openly uh spoke to us as well as it is very clear that your educators and leaders care about the students in Berkeley County Schools. So, I just wanted to make sure you knew that. Um if we can go to the next

005slide. Here are the three key levers that have to be present to ensure that core instruction can lead to student learning. Student engagement, effective in teaching, and rigorous content. Dr. Richard Elmore says to improve student learning, you can raise the level of the content that students are taught. You can increase the skill and knowledge that teachers bring to the teaching of that content. and you can increase the levels of student active learning of that content and the and according to him that's it. I'm gonna throw a little bit something else in there. I also believe a children's literacy initiative that families do play a vital role. You can have all of that, but you also need to help their families come along with every student's literacy journey. Next slide. Here's the team that came to

006Berkeley County for the evaluation. Uh Erica Holmes, our chief program officer, Mary Liss, senior director, Amber Hayes, associate director, Matt Megan, associate director of leadership, and Anna Weiss, um our um new name, I always forget, partner, um implementation manager. Uh we were so excited about being here for 4 days that um it was a great opportunity for us to learn as much as we could about Berkeley County. We were also present for your first weather day of the year. And so we school didn't start till after 10:00 a.m. So on that very last day that I was here um we were only able to meet with the administrators and we weren't able to uh go through all classrooms. Next slide. Here were the things that happened when we were here evaluating and reviewing instructional practices

007and curriculum. We collaborated with school and district leaders. On the very first day, we met with all principles. Uh Dr. Saxs had a principal meeting and we were able to actually get their perspective. what did they think were the strengths of their um literacy instruction and what were areas of possible refinement and growth. And so we were able to examine current literacy curriculum implementation and instructional practices. We focused on 10 elementary, intermediate, and middle schools. So we were able to visit all 10 of those schools. We were leveraging a range of data sources as well to plan strategic next steps for literacy growth across the district. We were able to um look at student work. We were able to look at uh I read data to give a full picture. We wanted to talk to

008teachers. So we had focus groups for educators. We talked to your um tisses. We talked to your aims. Uh I think they're called Ames. Ames. Uh and so we got a very full picture about literacy instruction in Berkeley County. Next slide. So whenever we are a part of a partnership, we have goals that we hope to attain. And once we were uh kneedeep in information, it became apparent that uh there needs to be a vision for high quality literacy. What does that vision what should it look like? Um and to do that, we had to look at school policies, instructional practices, and did they align to high expectation pedigogy? We reviewed and update um looking at the instructional playbook scopes and sequence and curriculum to ensure alignment with rigorous standards. And second um prioritize evidence-based

009literacy instruction that is ing grounded in researchbased literacy practices uh with the national reading panel as well as the science of reading. Um, we know that West Virginia has policy at the state level as it relates to the science of reading. And so our goal was to ensure are are the practices and the materials is all of that in alignment with those state policies. And so I'm going to ask uh Erica Holmes to come forward. She's going to talk about the methodology what we our way of work through through our visit here that we had in late January. Thank you so much Dr. Green. Uh we really focus on our robust data collection uh opportunities and uh we really observed classrooms uh as Dr. Dr. Green mentioned focus groups and interviews with multiple stakeholders who

010engage in the work with you all. Uh artifacts such as student work, I ready data, multiple other data sources as well as teacher certification and tenure review and additional data dives that were offered to us from um your leaders and educators uh in the building. Next slide. Thank you. And so, uh, our approach is to ensure that all of these, uh, levers are aligned with rigorous instruction, grade level standards, um, and ensuring that we're able to identify both the strengths and areas of opportunity that exist across the district, uh, level, and to really be thinking about systems and structures that support the um, strengths that exist as well as systems and structures that might need to be revised or edited to produce greater results. And so, uh, a little bit about what we saw. We

011conducted learning walks where we got the opportunity to go into classrooms and see teachers engaging with children in instruction to see the material that children were engaging with and the um work that they were producing from uh those lessons. And we also got the opportunity to really think about um the context with the school leaders for them to provide any additional context that was needed to help tell the story of teaching and learning within the building. And so here are some things that we learned. Uh as Dr. Green mentioned, there was high student engagement and it was evident in every single classroom, even for the uh long-term subs that were in the classrooms. Uh there was significant um instruction that was being offered to students and opportunities that existed. And while it was inconsistent, uh

012elementary children had an opportunity to engage in shared reading and many literacy activities, which is really exciting to see for your long-term subs who were in the building. And there were promising gains in K12 phonics and decoding uh instruction as well. And some of the opportunities that we noticed that were in uh instruction were the middle school students were not necessarily progressing and on track uh like we saw in some of the the younger grades. Um and phological awareness continues to be a opportunity for growth and development across the the district. Additionally, some of the long-term subs really needed more support in moving students beyond uh the the instruction that they were offering to produce better results. There was also limited exposure to complex texts that were um on grade level appropriate and aligned to

013standards as well as um an opportunity for discussion about those texts that they're engaging within classrooms. Thank you. And so for teachers, some of the strengths that we saw were um there was a great stage that was set for deeper academic engagement because we didn't see any behavioral challenges, any behavioral difficulties. We're like, "Oh, this is the groundwork for a lot of great work that um is uh opportunity exists. There were also many printrich environments where um in every classroom was beautiful uh with so many um opportunities for children to engage in the text around them on the walls and things of that nature that was really exciting to be able to see and there was some evidence of small group instruction uh that was present. teachers were out here trying, they're working hard, right?

014And so it was really exciting to uh see some of the opportunities that existed in teacher practice was um the consistency in being able to see literacy uh research based literacy practices in classrooms. Um and it really limited students uh success in some areas that we saw. Additionally, there were uh foundational um literacy gaps as well as textbased discussion and rigorous instruction opportunities that were really linked to staggering student success in the classroom. So, higher order thinking questions, opportunities for children to engage um with the the rigorous work of the standards. Um there were opportunities that existed there. The next slide. Before you go to the next slide, can we can we go back to that? Yeah. because I think it would be helpful as you think about the opportunities in teacher practice um teachers

015are not consistently using researchbased literacy instruction. Can you give the board some examples of what you would hope to see that was lacking and also I know that we had had a little bit of a debrief about the maybe maybe you hit this later and if you do then hold off but the the core the instructional materials that we've purchased for them. Yes. And the usage there around there. I think we need to have a real conversation about that just so the board is aware, but if you had that later, that's fine. No, I think that this is actually a great opportunity to discuss and I appreciate you bringing that into the conversation. Um, we actually when we were looking at some of the standards that uh teachers were teaching in the classroom, the materials

016didn't necessarily align to the standard that teachers were teaching toward. And so when we asked uh more questions, we actually found out that teachers have curricular materials that they actually aren't using. Um, and there's an opportunity to investigate why and whether or not those uh materials are researchbased um and whether or not they would support students meeting the the rigor of the standards that exist in classrooms. And so, as we mentioned earlier with Dr. Elmore's text, um teachers have the opportunity to really engage children in rigorous um lessons and rigorous standards. If the materials don't support them in being able to do that, we can provide all of the coaching in the world for teachers and all the support in the world, but the materials have to really meet the expectations of the standard. Did

017that did that seem to be in like one specific area like the elementary versus the middle versus the high or is it equal across the board? Across the board. Okay. Did you have anything to add? And um we were able to go into some classrooms and actually unfortunately saw the curriculum materials on a shelf still packaged. Um still packaged, not opened. And so there was some inconsistencies even of actually implementing the curriculum that was purchased. Um as well as the supplementary materials. So when you supplement, being able to supplement on grade level means that you have to have a true understanding of what the rigor of the standards are asking. And so seeing a lot of students working on worksheets um worksheets that don't necessarily align with the grade level that we were in the

018classroom observing. And so it varies um from building to building. It also varies from grade level to grade level. One area that was prevalent with the lower grade uh the lower grade level material was middle school. Um, we also saw that it was more most prevalent in middle school, but we also saw it in intermediate. Um, sprinkles within the elementary buildings, but I would say the upper grades were more prevalent when it came to the lack of complex text. Um, reading text that could have in in a seventh grade class that could have been a fourth or fifth grade um, level and being able to engage with that doesn't really get you to the level of depth that you would hope to see. Um, and yeah, so it's it definitely sprinkles through, but one of

019the things that definitely stood out with our team was seeing the curricular materials packaged. It's like, oh, this is so beautiful to see and it was, you know, to have all these materials where some places don't. Yeah. A particular which curriculum for middle school is middle school. Middle school is study, but the books that we saw were I believe. Yeah. And then Scholastic for the elementary. Well, the Scholastic I Yeah, I can buy that one. Well, we understand why. Yes. Yes. No, I we don't want to buy it anymore. No, no, I could buy the argument that it's still sitting on the shelf. I came too. And I and I do want to add to that that the leaders expressed to us that they felt that the professional development was highly lacking. Okay. Especially at

020the middle school. You get your one day, you got a new book. They felt nothing came behind it. When teachers struggle, there was no one there to provide that provide that support. And then we heard very clearly from the elementary, they don't like Scholastic. And so that's why it's sitting on the shop. Well, there's so much that goes into that last um answer and we didn't get the material in a timely manner and then school was starting and there was enough just they were not shy this year. Yeah, I guess my um question concern is um I know we had a student scores, test scores and many middle school students are behind one or two grade levels. So that could possibly explain why you saw seventh graders working on because that's that's the level that

021they were at and they're trying to get them up to seventh grade whereas if they presented them with seventh grade work they would be completely lost. Yeah, that's a definitely a challenge that I myself made when I was a or an error that I myself made when I was a teacher. And and when you're first engaging children in grade level work, it feels like you're swimming in sand the first time that you're engaging in it. But it's like riding a bike, right? The more opportunities that they get to engage with complex and challenging and rigorous text, they'll rise to the occasion, but you have to set the bar for them. Yeah. And and there are also other interventions that go into play, but tier one instruction has to be in place across the board. And

022then you have tier two and tier three that can supplement for those children who aren't necessarily on grade level. There also um uh research based strategies that you can use in tier one instruction to support children who need to bring along um who might have difficulties with the text initially. But you have to give children the opportunity to surprise you. Thank you. Sure. Any additional questions about I I think that you know one of the things that as we as we dig deeper into that that concept of providing grade level instruction and the exposure to that content if we never expose them to it then they're never going to be they're never going to be able to show their proficiency in in the first place. But it's almost a philosophical shift in the pedagogy. Yeah.

023in that that um we have to be able to raise the expectation of what our students can accomplish because if we love them to death, then then sometimes uh we're going to miss the mark. And so I do think that and what Mr. Wright was was referencing is exactly right. Um but I think that one of the things that from what I heard from you all um is that we need to have a philosophical shift in in our expectation for learning in the classroom and what we uh believe that our students can accomplish. Yeah. So and give them the opportunities to continue to try and again one day they're going to surprise you. Yeah. And it's not about working harder. It's not really it's it's it's really about making sure that we're providing the the

024learning experiences our students need to to have and being exposed to the right materials. It's true. The children are already working hard. When we look at some of their learning examples, the work was complete, right? They were engaged. They were on track in the classroom. And so imagine what they would be able to do with opportunities to engage with grade level text. Any additional questions before we Yeah. But you're already you're not done already. No, I'm I love the discussion. You all are experts in your your context and your district and so we just hope to add shape and color to you know what you probably already know. Um I think that I did Oh. Oh, for the leaders also. Um the my team could not stop talking about how incredible the leadership team and

025the leaders were here who are um excited for support, excited to learn, are hungry and thirsty for the coaching and development. Um and they've really created supportive environments for teachers where they feel valued and the teacher the children are engaged in the the work that the teachers are offering. And so there's really an opportunity here to um you know to a a good stage and a good frame to build from. Um, also there are many awesome systems of structure that exist here where uh teachers said that they have uh structured prep time in their schedule that they have opportunities to collaborate for small group instruction and targeted interventions and that doesn't exist every place. And so there's really a recipe for um some greatness uh here as well as principles understanding that their school communities

026really embrace feedback. They were asking for feedback along the walk and along the journey, sharing their context, sharing their insights, asking questions. Hey, what do you think about this? I want to try this thing. what do you think about this? Um, and so my team was incredibly excited to experience experience that from your leaders. Um, opportunities uh that existed in leadership practices um were um the opportunity for leaders to take off their administrative hat and to put on their instructional leadership hat, right? Which means that they have to spend the bulk of their time in classrooms. and we have to clear everything else off of their plate that doesn't support them spending the bulk of their time in classrooms having discussions with teachers about the text that they're teaching and the standards that they're engaging

027in, being able to engage in the professional development that their teachers engage in. Um, and and really being able to engage in this course and communicate what the vision for excellent literacy instruction is so that they breathe, eat, sleep it throughout um their buildings and their their engagements. Um and additionally there was an uneven monitoring of feedback for uh instruction that teachers were getting in terms of how often teachers get feedback on instruction. Um yeah for the most part and then there was also um inconsistent instructional support and follow through on different initiatives. And so uh there might be a training and then they try something but do I go into classrooms? Do I see if you're trying to implement that strategy that we just learned about that professional development? what is the through line

028from the vision and the concept all the way to the the students. And what we actually love to say is when we go into classrooms and we see um children engaging in a certain way, if we want to see children do something different, then what is the teacher doing or saying to ensure that the children do something different? Well, if we want the teacher to engage differently, then I as the leader have to do something differently for my teachers to engage differently. And so the through line is all the way down to the the students. And so they also mentioned um a lack of targeted support for um LTSE uh classrooms being coaching and professional development for for those staff. Does does that um the happen leader practice? I know that that one of the

029groups that you all you know had as a as a stakeholder group were the Ames and specifically thinking about the targeted support for the long-term substitutes which is the role that Ames are in. um as well as I think even from some of the district level support folks that we've had this year was sort of a a shift in year because of the structure of staff and we're trying to provide a structure that more supports that that um long-term investment in professional support so it's not the one time but what what would you attribute the the lack of the targeted support even though we have some of those positions in place what what was your sense from your conversations in that regard. Yeah, I'll start and then I'll I'll have uh Amber add. But for

030us, it starts from everyone being clear about this is the vision. This is how we're getting there. This is your role. This is your responsibility in here. The systems and structures that exist to do that and ensuring that there's cohesion across every district, every single school. We're all aiming towards the same things. And all of our goals are aligned from the district goals to the my leadership goals at my or my goals at my school are aligned to the district goals and my teacher goals are aligned to the the the school um goals that are aligned to the district goals. So in addition to that actually on that same in that same vein um not fully being utilized um in the way that allows them to be able to be instructional support. They felt as

031though there was a lot of moments where they were thrown into things last minute or, you know, we have this this this professional learning day coming up and finding out about it, you know, a little bit later, but not necessarily being utilized in the way that they were intended to. Um, but again, it comes with clearing your role and being very clear from the top that this is what the expectation is. This is the approach that we're going to take to be able to then impart um or not in part impacts the learning that students are having. And you'll actually see some not on this next slide, but you'll see some quotes that we've kind of gathered from some of our um focus groups just to be able to see and actually in their language

032and in their words, they did not hold back. Um they were very open and honest during each of the focus groups, which we appreciate. Um the honesty and transparency is the first step in being able to impart change. And so they were frustrated with the way that they felt as though that they were living out the work that they the role that they were in. Are you referring to the teacher? The the very one and it's very tempting when you have additional folks in your building as the school leader. you're like, "Oh, I have this additional set of hands who can help and support with with these things." And sometimes an all debt all hands on deck mentality, but sometimes without the clear roles, responsibilities, and the things that we're working towards um and and

033our clear lane that we need to stay in, it can kind of convolute um what we're working towards together. And and before you know it, you have um scope grief where the scope of my work begins to creep into other areas that don't impact children and aren't my primary um responsibility here at the campus. Well, I think that starts from the principal level on down. I mean, when they're overwhelmed with other things that they need to do but yet work with their teachers to ensure that they're doing what they are supposed to do and then everyone feels a lack of support. Yeah, absolutely. Um, you remind me of a leader that I was coaching at 8 hours of Louisiana and we're about to do learning walks in her classroom and she said, "Oh my," she

034got a call on her walk. say, "Oh my god, there's a raccoon in the parking lot and I have to go take care of this raccoon." It's like, "Yes, that is a fire." Right? But do you have to be the person that puts that out or is there someone on your team that can support you with that thing? And there are a number of different fires that come up for a school leader in any building, right? And so their first line is, I have this problem that I have to solve, but the question is, you know, how are you allocating your time, your money, and your people to all work towards a common mission and vision, and who else can I delegate to take care of that? because I'm now focused on children and instruction.

035I think um and don't think this won't I promise I won't um all that sounds good. Yeah. Uh but when actuality and when you get into that school level it's just it's real life and it's real life and sometimes it doesn't work out that way for sure and it takes practice just like we're expecting children to engage right they have to have the opportunity to engage one of the activities that we love to do with school leaders is let's take a look at your calendar and how you have spent your time first of all what matters most to you what is your primary focus and they're going to say always student achievement, right? And supporting children in classrooms. Now, let's take a look at your schedule. Let's check next or highlight all of the activities

036that you have done that have improved instruction. And it's an eyeopening experience for a lot of leaders, right? But that's the initial conversation that supports them with beginning to think, well, how can I spend more time in classrooms? And that could be the top of my 30 minutes every day. I visit these two teachers and these two teachers on Wednesday, right? There are clear small baby steps that you can take that can build on one another that should be your practice also because it has to start with myself. I have to say I have to do something different and you have to also believe while I'm resource constrained I do have everything that I need at my disposal. I have a phenomenal team. I have phenomenal leaders here who can support me in this work

037and and how and I don't have to figure it all out myself either. Let's come to the table and talk about what hurdles we have in our way and how we're going to work to overcome them. I would also add we lean into what's comfortable and what's familiar, right? And so if in most cases as a school leader, you don't always come from the background of the school that you are leading. And so you lean into what's comfortable. And sometimes what's comfortable and what feels safe are those administrative duties versus the instructional duties. Um we heard in our in some of our intakes, we always start off the learning walk with just like a let's sit down from your from the seat that you sit in. tell us about the school, you know, tell us

038about some of the areas that are um strengths and highlights that you were very feel passionate about in some of those areas that are a little bit thorny. Um and we had some leaders like openly say, you know, I was a this teacher and so going into this, I mean, I'm hoping that you can tell me what it is that we're supposed to be looking for. And so it comes also not necessarily in malice but also there is a world in which professional development and training doesn't stop just at the teacher level because if we expect leaders to provide professional learning professional development without the context or without the expertise it kind of creates this cycle and so the support that they need is also something that needs to be considered in order to be

039able to then trickle down and become that instructional leader. Um, so I just wanted to name that as well. But yes, it's it it's always of a balancing of the skills of how to be instructional versus how to also make sure that the building continues to stay functioning. Question. Yeah, we are we organized you visit a third of your schools about how it be in the school visiting. Yeah, that was one of my questions. Which they were um all they were all title one schools um because that was the funding source that we had for this work. So it it was all all title one schools but we can provide you the list of schools actually report the actual report. My my followup question is you uh we're we're you visited three levels and I

040sometimes wonder if we're so fragmented in our levels that we don't we fail to see the whole picture of the student we're focused on a grade as opposed to a a development over time. And did did you notice that in our you know the the conversation between primary and intermediate students have to adapt to a new school uh when when they transition from the primary school to the intermediate you have a lot of experience visiting a lot of schools. West Virginia ranks last. You're seeing other school systems which are functioning at a higher level. I I I know we can't go into that. That'll take all day. But the transition that we have in the waiver structure, did you see any pluses or minuses in that? I'll start saying one of the things I think

041is incredibly important as a district who serves uh you know, elementary, middle, you know, and and intermediate schools. I think that uh one of my favorite activities to do is let's take a look at the A standard, right? And how the standard progresses from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade and have every single educator in the building engage in network because I have to know if I'm a middle school teacher, I have to know where they have been and I have to know where I'm taking them and I also have to know where they're going to go. Right. And so so often we see as you mentioned fragmented professional development where I don't really get to connect with the middle school teacher. not only get to connect, if I'm a middle school teacher, I'll

042get to connect with the high school teachers, right? And think about learning on a holistic level, um, but we're operating, we should be operating under one common mission and one common vision for literacy instruction. Um, and the systems and structures really have to be built to support us being able to communicate with one another around where we are and where we're going and what that's supposed to look like and what the expectations are. because I I think that um what we're seeing is happening is children are transitioning and they're getting to the next grade level, that next um uh hurdle, and they're they're not prepared or they're not ready, right? So, I feel a um I feel challenged in feeling like I have to get them caught up and then also get get them prepared

043to to send them off. And so, yes, we we do see that. Um but I I'll let Amber speak a little bit more to what you know she saw. I would say that again it comes with the variance in school leadership and the variance of the school community itself. Um we were able to see a couple of schools that were actually leaders and so while we may have seen the glorious elementary building and had conversation with that leader around you know where do your students go and then go to the next level with the intermediate level and potentially not see the same experience. And so it it varies, but I again it's about common understanding and common language. And so really being very clear on here's the expectation and everyone having an understanding of what

044grade level looks like in their building, but also what grade level looks like where they're coming from or where so that they can have that that same experience because sometimes it is a little disheartening to see, wow, this is this is great. This is some amazing instruction. The students are so engaged. they're getting some very high level code responsive and then you go to the building that you know that they're going into when you have the vision of like oh my goodness I don't know if they're going to get this same experience when they come here because of the instruction that's being provided and so really being clear and setting the stage with leadership and getting that that development and being able to build their contextual knowledge or their conceptual knowledge both of their the

045content will really help them to be able to support their teachers so that there isn't a varied experience because what you don't want is for what what naturally somehow happens, right? Is that as they continue bless you to to grow throughout school, students begin to have a different group um relationship with learning and with school experiences, but it starts with the culture and it starts with what we're engaging them in. And so being able to make sure that that is a clear standard and that the support is at the top so that everyone has a learning experience that is allowing them to think critically to engage and learn about new things, new concepts and know that the next year is going to just build on and not take away. Um and so it's not consistent

046everywhere. Again, we saw a sampling of schools. Um but that can happen as they get older. You get different types of personalities. They um grow into different spaces. But then it's also a matter of how they're engaging with the learnings that they're doing. We have to see them with the expertise that they come in with and being able to add on to that and that's how you get the engagement that you that you would desire. It was a very um it was just very because we saw different buildings, but to be able to see a fear and see where we know kiddos were going was a little bit disheartening in some spaces because we know that they were coming in with such a very strong um experience from their previous school. Do you feel that

047um these schools that they might have been going to that had newer uncertified teachers in there played a bigger part of how that the expectations that always play a part. Um, well, we have a lot. We had an opportunity to f to have a focus group as well with not a lot of them joining, but with a sampling of long-term subs as well because we felt as though their experience and their lived experience that they're having as educators was very important to be able to get a holistic picture of how things were going. Um, but I would say it still comes with inspecting what we expect. And so we're expecting something and this is what we're saying that this is the curriculum we're using and this is the way that we're following these standards. But

048then we don't go in and actually inspect to see if it's happening. That is where you get it. So the schools where you see leaders really going in and being present and giving feedback that can actually drive change in their instruction a little bit more specifically. You'll see you'll see that, right? But if you see it where there may not be getting as much feedback, where there may not be as much content specific feedback, you're going to see that that variance. Um I think we also need to own though uh based upon you know our conversations and what you found is that there was also a lack of um expectation given as to what our I know that Dr. Green and we've talked about our non-negotiables in the classroom, but we never really articulated this

049is what we expect in the first grade classroom, the second grade classroom, third grade class. Now, we've had programs that we said, "Hey, we want you to meet XYZ, but we've never really talked about of the of the standards and of the core adoptions or the supplemental adoptions, what the what the expectation is so that our leaders can monitor it." Yeah. Um, and I think that that's one of the things that we have to do a better job around is defining those expectations and those look for so that we know what we're in. We could say, you know, you have to inspect what you expect, but if we don't, if we haven't clearly articulated what we're going to inspecting, yeah, then it's not really fair to the teacher either. So, which means that starts with

050Dr. Sachs. Dr. Sax. No, we had this. Yeah, we exactly right that you have to share the vision because it was evident from your school leaders that they felt like there was no vision that there was no direction for them. um we understand about the playbook, but they were not bought into the playbook and so some of them well this is what we're doing and it didn't m well you know your feeder they they're doing something different and so the the connective tissue we've talked a lot about student teacher and principal district office also plays a big role in this and insuring that the district office is the connective tissue helping that communication transfer from one school to like primary to intermediate to middle school and then on to high school. And I think that

051based upon your all's feedback to me um and the the Well, don't don't go anywhere now. Wait a second. But that's also where I think a large source of the frustration at the school level has been has been with the district uh level of support and um guidance. Um and that I don't think is anything new for this board. It's been a it's been a challenge where um we clearly saw that there were definitely um there was some good work being done but it was very siloed and very fragmented and that affects the the communication and the expectation our schools and so um like I said it's not a surprise but we also know that's something we have to focus on and work work toward. Thank you Dr. She enjoyed that a lot. Well, the

052next slide, we were able to gather some um we think that it's important to elevate stakeholder voice in in this experience. And so, we did gather some quotes that folks had offered through some of the um focus interviews and the focus groups and things of that nature. Um and so I'll read this one. I've truly never had a training on what a reading group should look like. We've heard for years, we're going to get somebody in here to show you. We can watch these videos. When you're watching videos, you're watching kids that are perfectly behaved and they're not doing anything wrong. Okay. And it's just that um the four kids that are in front of you. And so, uh it I think that that speaks to what you were speaking about in terms of we

053we don't know what's expected um of us necessarily. Now, these comments are from this county. They're from your your people. Yeah. I'm glad to read them. Yeah. It's hard to get lesson plans done. They'll say, "Well, we have PD on it." Um, yeah, you just told us some things for an hour and then expected us to be perfect at it. And so, I think that that comes with the followrough, right? The things that I learned, what's the one thing that we're expected to do in classrooms, am I going into classrooms and monitoring that thing and giving teachers feedback on the thing that we just learned in the professional development? And then on the next quote, it says, "Our big struggle is around needing better PD for our role. A lot of us know that we

054might um what we might do in classrooms, but our case loads is just a wide range. People I'm beating my head off a brick wall with I'm not sure how to get them to move. And that's from one of the Ames um stakeholders who are really craving tell me what my role and responsibility is because that's what I want to do to support student success. I think that's the Ames are working sometimes. I think they as you said they don't feel like they're being um we have structured PLC's where they look at data and standard mastery or choose a standard and then have it out of the pre-EST and then follow up and that's built into the schedule. Next quote is um there's so much going on at my school every day. even when we're

055scheduled for observations or to talk about our observations or talking about just walkthroughs or anything like that, they don't normally happen. And when they do, it's very rushed or it's like, oh, hey, so whatever. Sometimes it feels like school admin don't really want to upset anyone. And so, um, that feeling of not wanting to give direct feedback, not wanting to push, people are hungry for it. They want to improve. They want to get better. Um and so the next um when I had an I already diagnostic I asked the teacher about how they started and how they progressed or if they regress I don't necessarily have access to that and so access to data and information to be able to monitor student progress and monitor student learning and just to note that's from an aid

056that's from someone who would be in class supporting important for them to be able to have access to that data to support children. I feel that the PD we received has not been relevant. we were taught that and then given maybe 45 minutes at the end, very little implementation or seeing what it should look like in real time. And the thing that I would offer about uh practicing PD, I'm a strong prop, we're strong proponents of it. When we're learning some sort of targeted skill, we have to get up and practice with one another and there's the opportunity to get feedback in that session because you have to know what I expect to see from you when I'm coming to classrooms and you had to have practiced it for me to have been able to

057give you feedback even in a in a role play. have a I'm a retired teacher and I I hear our business schools and the teachers are doing what they call scaffolding students in all their levels building and and I I mean I can remember having students but it seems like you and we've seen the results we have students two and three years behind and how can you efficiently teach what I call a one room schoolhouse. You know, back when the one teachers in eight grades and we're going back I I think it's regressive and with with your attention and the level of focus in your travels do you see other systems that just say we're only going to allow this compression and we're not going to have these lower levels and whatever. I don't know

058how you do it. Yeah, I was actually, you remind me of the case in Berkeley, California, um that we were coaching in and there was a seventh grade classroom and she had I had never seen this many kids in one classroom. I mean like they were they were packed in there pretty tight and she was supposed to teach a text that we had discussed together um and you know created the question things together and I was supposed to monitor her and give her feedback on her lesson and she said I just can't teach the steps. is too challenging. And so I said, "Well, I planned it with you. I'll teach you. I I'll teach it for you." Right? And she said, "Um, first let me tell you the children uh who have an IEP." I

059said, "Nope, don't tell me anything because I'm going to engage with every single child as if I know that they can engage with sex." And I promise you, the first 20 25 minutes of that lesson, like I said, it felt like I was swimming in sand. I'm my armpit started itching. I started sweating. I'm like, "Oh my god, you know, I'm going to pass out here." By the time we left that lesson, I had to peel the children's exit ticket out of their fingers. And I said, "Sweetheart, I promise you, I'm going to give you feedback on this thing." And when we walked out into the room, she said uh into the the hallway, she said, "There was a group of students who've been in my classroom and they've never said one word this entire

060year. They had not said one word." And I could not get them to put their hand down in that lesson. Right? There's so many things that we make assumptions about for our children when we don't even create the opportunities for them to do those things and it's well it's it's big-hearted right we love our kids we want them to experience success we don't want to make them feel bad a number you name the litany of reasons that we engage in that way but as Dr. s it's a mindset shift. It's a pedigogy shift. I have to believe something different for me to behave and engage differently and then my children will follow suit, right? And so, um I I love telling that story because I shocked myself, right? I was like, "Oh my god, I

061can't believe." But I gave them feedback. I I stayed there an additional two hours giving every single 40 something kids feedback on their exit ticket and I made sure that they got it before I left because it was that important to them and it mattered to me. Children will show up if you do. And I I have a question and you might not be able to answer this, but uh do you think we are too quick to place children under an IEP without giving them the opportunity to actually show us what they can do? And that not only comes from school systems, from parents that as a child, as a parent of a child who has an IEP, um I'm going to be very vulnerable in saying that that's quite a possibility, right? I wouldn't

062know without I think that each case is very different and you have to investigate each and every single case. um when there isn't strong tier one instruction, we make a lot of assumptions about the children when it's actually ourselves and our own practices that impact children's learning. And so if I saw excellent tier one instruction and then I saw challenges that would raise some flags for me, I would be hesitant um to begin an IEP process on a child that I don't have a classroom, doesn't have elementary instruction. Yeah. getting free way of answering your question. I love it. Well, and we we also recognize that that's something we need to help support more of that than strong year one instruction. Yeah. Um and and I think it's not and it's not just the responsibility

063of the teacher. It's it's the it's the all the cogs in the wheel to support that. That's the district level leadership. That's the school leadership. as the classroom the classroom teacher and I've had so many teachers who would look at a kiddos's IEP on like the recommendations and the things that a kid need like oh this is just good teaching you're right it is oh uh in the past we would take turns attending the instructional meetings because we grew this year they were like no we need you in building so none of us um go to the instructional meetings anymore which to me is a key a key piece of being able to hear exactly what principles are talking about. I know that we need to be in the building to support teachers, but there's

064a balance for us knowing those specific things that are happening so that we can better do our job. This is another Ames um uh stakeholder. And so I think our biggest struggle is not having books in these kids' hands. Put it on the shelf. No, I'm kidding. Uh we constantly hear people in the town saying we want kids reading great level text, but the curriculum we have provides us with one rich text that features reading. And yes, we can read that over and over, but it's not the same as children reading it for um uh children reading it or the children engaging in it or the children doing something with that text each day. Um, and so teachers want to engage children with rigorous grade level appropriate text and they want to ensure that they

065have access to it. It was pretty difficult for us to be able to see whether the text that were sitting on those shelves uh were were um research based and met the level of the standards because they just didn't have them and so we didn't have access to them. Uh they cut the supports that we had and spreading them then but this is not going away. The need is just growing. The need is not going away. um our numbers might not look high but for us they are some of the schools have a lot more support for their EL students than we do and then I sit on a TLC meeting which is where they discuss the I Ready data and so that's a board office member sometimes an academic coach for the county our

066principles and then the teachers rotate through and we discuss their data in ways that we can help improve and support it. So, we've heard a lot about what we saw, what we heard, um what we were able to look at. And so, we took that information, those data points to be able to identify some priority areas, which we like to call them big rocks. Um and so, one of the first big rocks that came from the preponderance of information that we received was that targeted professional development is necessary. And so we identified that as being rock number one with a goal of building teacher and principal capacity in evidence-based literacy instruction and leadership. Um you might have the report in front of you but the full report um when we you see solution number six

067we kind of go a little bit more in depth within the report around what that means but that could look like implementing job embedded professional development uh coaching cycles and leadership training for the principal question and this is to Dr. sense. Hit me with it. I can do people go to the mountain top and come back with a stone tablet. How has professional development developed in Michigan? Well, I think that it has been um somewhat reactionary and not not proactive. Um and um again I go back to the whole reason that I wanted to be able to restructure um the instructional side, the instructional and leadership side of Berkeley County Schools because we had, you know, several different departments that were sort of all doing their own thing in professional development and it wasn't really

068aligned under our strategic plan and and what our needs assessment was. And so what we're trying to accomplish now is through our needs assessment um this is part of our needs assessment um is identifying what we need to work on and then to be proactive in developing a very comprehensive um uh uh training plan or professional development plan for teachers, teacher leaders, um school leaders and then I think the other missing mark has been our district leaders. Um I don't know that our district leaders and when I talk about district leaders, I'm not talking about just, you know, um executive directors or directors. I'm also talking about folks like our Ames because many times those folks have come either straight from the school or straight from the classroom and they they have to have capacity

069in being able to provide high quality professional development because sometimes that's a little bit different than the instruction you provide in the classroom. How do you support adult learners? How do you support um the process of embedded professional development? And so we we have really not done a a strong job at that. And I also think that sometimes what we've what I have noticed is that what we've fallen into is that when we we plan it, it's really really good, but then when you when you have those speed bumps, it either stops or there's not adjustments made to um improve it. And I think we have to be I think we have to become a little bit more um flexible and respond to some of our our folks when there when there is a challenge.

070Literally I was I was in a meeting today and we were talking about the implementation of a of a plan for actually it was for um um our our um uh credit recovery and we had tried a plan but we had had some hiccups and so we just evacuated it. We didn't we still knew we had an issue with credit recovery, but when we tried the first attempt to fix it, it it fell short. So instead of going back and saying, "Well, why did it fall short?" We just sort of stopped and unfort Well, within the past two years, yes. And instead of the folks that needed to be in the know that it wasn't working and making a decision, it just sort of fell apart. And so, um, so it's been fragmented and it

071needs to be much more cohesive. And that's one of the reasons why I'm I' I've structured things in in some of this restructuring so we can have a focus on really making sure that the professional development that is again for all of these different levels um from the from literally from the board office to the classroom is um strong is methodical and it's rooted in um our specific goals and our strategic plan. I can remember as a youngster somehow the school got castor oil so we all lined up and got a dose of castor oil and I just remember the taste of castor oil but but I'm just sitting there and listening we customize the professional development for the schools with the dips I I don't mean negatively. So yeah, we're not making everyone take

072test. We attempted this year under the under the structure we had to tier our schools based upon their assessment results um and any other you know whether it be assessment results, attendance, what have you. So we had tier one, tier two and tier three schools. So our tier three schools received much more intensive support. Um I think where probably where we need to improve upon that is that we had intensive support but we didn't have um I would say targeted professional development for those schools and that's part of what I think we need to shift for for next year. Um and I think what you'll also find from uh the folks of CLI is part of this initial work that they're doing. They're working with district leadership to help identify the um uh the means

073and the ways in which we could provide this the architecture, the structure behind what it is that we're going to establish and how we're going to support it through professional development um and monitoring. So that's a good question that I appreciate it. minus the cat school. So the second big rock that we identified um was enhancing data use and communication. While there is data, we know that they're using IRA, we know that they're using Excel um and looking at state assessment data, actually being able taking that data and making it actionable. And so the within this big rock, the goal would be to be a to make that data actionable for teachers and leaders to be able to actually drive instruction so that you don't have teachers in focus groups saying, "Well, I have all

074these kids in front of me and I really don't know what it is that I'm supposed to do with them." Well, maybe the data says that they shouldn't be in the same group. And being able to actually use that to make your decisions instructionally. And then the last one, big rock number three, is ethical resource allocation. And so when we talk about resources, we don't mean just the material, the curricular material. We also mean human resources. We have a we have tisses because that's an acronym that I follow this entire process and I can't unlearn it. Um that are ready and willing to jump in maybe not maybe not equitably, right? Maybe there is some schools that have more access or more frequent access to one versus another school does not um for whatever reason.

075And so being able to really ensure that both human resources as well as the tangible resources that are needed for students to be successful are spread across equitably in order for them to be able to have that. And so the goal would be to have specifically high need schools which is I mean we kind of focus in on that area receive the resources and the supports that they need to be able to close those literacy gaps. And to back to your comment around you're right everyone doesn't get cash for oil. Somebody gets castor oil, somebody gets general, a sleeve of a saltine, right? And it's tear, right? And that's the that's the goal is to be able to make sure that whatever that looks like, whatever that need is, that all of the needs are

076being met across and whether that be again I need to have these books or I need access to more of these materials or actually we need a person to come here being able to look at what that looks like across. And so for each of those big rocks, we really we decided to set out very clear actions that central office can do to be able to as strategies to implement um those rocks. And so big rock number one was targeted professional development. We talked about all of these organically. I'm not going to go through each one, but we know that that is really looking specifically at the scope of PD that is provided around literacy and content mastery. um being able to ensure that your coaching and modeling is happening and that to your coaching

077is the piece. We can give feedback. We can say I want you to do this, but if you don't tell me how to do it, is it going to actually get implemented? And so that's where the coaching piece comes in to be able to help actually take the feedback and implement it. Um creating um instructional leaders. And so when we say that again, we talked about principles wearing multiple hats, but if for whatever reason there is not the ability at the county level to have whole county professional development, well, we have structures in place, we have PC's, we have all these common planning times. How can we leverage the principles to be able to also be the ones who are implementing that professional development? um in being in classroom. We can't really again we can

078say this as many times but it's very hard to support teachers and see change in students if we're not in classrooms and actually being present and looking and observing instruction. Can I ask Dr. So how are we selecting our professional development? Well, I think it depends upon what what the professional development is. So, you know, well, what I mean is is that, you know, if we're talking about, for example, ELA, then, you know, it's going to be tied to this the the resources that we've already established. So, I should say what it should be. So, for example, you know, if Scholastic is our core adoption, then we should be providing professional development around how to use that resource. And then as we identify through our our our data our schoolbased data team instructional data teams

079um our own district uh data reflection that we have specific holes in the curriculum then um and gaps in in specific learning then we need to provide targeted professional development for our staff around that area. So as an example um in years past prior to my time we identified that one of the areas of weakness at the elementary level was um uh was phonics instruction. So there was an investment in UFly and so there has been you know training and support around how to implement EUFly. I don't know that there has been clear expectations as to the usage. Maybe there has I I can't speak to that right now. But um that's that's how we've targeted professional development as an example. Um if if we see that teachers are provide are struggling around providing um

080uh instructional strategies or support mechanisms for um our L students, then we're going to provide uh training and support for teachers who have L students. um you know so I think it it becomes part part of the process of identifying what professional development we're going to offer comes from I think um intentional um uh data reflection but it's it's looking at the data that matters and sometimes I don't know that we're always looking at the at the at the right data and so we need to be able to have a focus on what data matters um to target the right types of professional development the other thing is it it's really important to need is that we get feedback from our teachers um and our principles or whomever it may be that we're trying to

081target constru professional development for as to what is it that they feel they need support in. And so it's taking a it's it's taking a holistic look at the different areas where we have to make those decisions. I also think it needs to be done in a timely manner after the fact when you started in a curriculum then we're going to do PD. Well, for example, with Scholastic, I think that what had happened with with that core adoption is that it was adopted what, six years ago, and there were clearly some issues with the roll out, but then what happened was the district has never invested back into making sure that our new teachers, I mean, you think about our over, you know, your teacher turnover rate at different schools, you know, it is. And

082so if we don't have the support mechanisms in to be able to provide the the embedded professional development teachers need for those resources, those resource allocations, then we really struggle. And so that, you know, as an example, you know, in the current structure we had, we had one math math person for K12 and we had one literacy and that was really only for elementary. And so again, I think that it was very difficult to triage or to support K12 professional development in just math as an example. Um, and that's one of the other things again, uh, Mr. Murphy had asked the question about, you know, do you provide the same level of support for every school? If you think about some of the restructuring conversations we've had, it's so that we have folks that can

083provide that tiered support for schools based upon the need. So those ELA and and math academic specialists are the content instructional experts that can go in and help a school implement those non-negotiable those expectations for grade level instruction. because if a teacher is still struggling in that area, then that that person is there as a coach to help coach them and to model instruction for what it would look like. So that kind of gives you a little bit of an idea of why there's a shift in the resources from for example TISS to academic coaches to be able to provide that that support. So yes, schools that are used to having that constant support, there's a there there's a difference in the resource allocation in order to address how we plan to tier our schools

084for support, both uh embedded support as well as professional development support. Something that you mentioned was data driven, right? So when we talk about implementation strategies for Big Rock 2, which is data used in communication, um aligning data with instructional strategies, we can't just look at the data and not necessarily have a toolkit or yeah, a toolkit to be able to support what growth in that data area. Um being able to support datadriven leadership. And so looking at what that development looks like so that it's not just again looking at numbers but understanding what those numbers mean as it relates to how instruction works within classrooms. Um and one big recommendation again I I've said it already but leveraging these PLC opportunities because that is not that is a gift I will name that been

085in a lot of school districts where there is no shared time and it's not a part of the bill schedule. So to be able to see that schools have this time that's already sacred or that's already in place. How are we leveraging that to look at data? How are we leveraging principles to be able to lead those PLC's effectively both for professional development and data dives? Um some were doing that and some weren't. And so making sure that that is a constant across all buildings, but they have to be trained and they have to be developed in order to do that. Dr. sex. Oh, good. So, we expanded the principal's contract last year. Are you doing professional development during the summer hours that they're under contract? So, that's part of that's actually part of our

086our planning right now. Um, and I mean obviously part of the part of the summer is is taken up in staffing and and those sort of things. But yes, we are hoping to have a um several different opportunities for principal principal uh capacity building. Yes, sir. Okay. As part of my as part of my budget request there we don't know about yet on big rock number two kind of a little bit. Did you guys come across model schools at all in any of your I did not um have any conversation with the principles. I mean I was going to say I'm putting Dr. Green in the site that model schools was me. Okay. And what was the question? Oh, just like did you first like did you interact on them? I guess followup would be

087um going forward going forward what would be like the best path collaborating with them because obviously we made a big investment with them. So that PD with principles already um how could you I guess at this point yeah collab collaborate with you I guess is my question. There are times when Ryan and I work together, when someone asks something and I just say, "Ryan, you need to answer that." She gets a look, too. Do you know how many times I've seen that look? I love it. I I don't think it's our place to make that. I I have an opinion, but I think that should come from Dr. S. Yeah. And I would be happy to I'd be h I'm working through that a little bit. I would say that you know when I was

088looking at this uh and some of the the big rocks actually um make sure I'm at the right the right section here um the pre the principal led instructional development the job the job invented principal coaching with expert mentors as an example you know I think that the year one of the model schools contract where they were individually with schools and they were able to do I would say those mentor walks with those individual principles I think was much more impactful for our principles And that was obviously a much bigger contract this the last this past year. I think that uh where we've done the cohort model it has been much less effective in in the feedback from principles. Now, not all principles may agree with me there, but I think that because the cohorts

089were not all um grades fan centered and I also think that some of what they were focusing on, what model schools has been focusing on has not been where the big rocks that we're seeing problems with literacy with uh grade level standards. They they focused on engagement. They focused on teacher conversations for feedback in those walkthroughs. But I don't know that the professional development in this in that mentoring has gotten to the I want to say the rigor or the the level that it needs to occur in order to see what I would call instructional change. I think you're seeing maybe a change in in how we um we conduct our walks and what we're looking for in the classroom from a high level, but getting into the the real nuts and bolts of are

090we are our teachers teaching the the grade level standards. Are our teachers using the resources that we've invested in as a district? I don't know that that has really occurred. And I I also think that because some of that been because I think of the cohort model this year. Um, and I also think that that one of the things that were are being craved is that type of support also occurring so that our teachers know what's going on. Our teachers understand what it is that our our principles are looking for. And I don't know that that has been effective. We haven't effectively supported that for our teachers. And so I think that whatever we do uh whether it be with model schools or or any other partner would be that I would like I would

091like to see us focus on several different things and and depending upon what the resources are we do that. I think we have to be able to support teacher level teacher teacher level um uh support in understanding what it is that we're looking for and and and them being able to flesh out like exactly um where the where their strengths are in the school and where their weaknesses are around instruction so that there's ownership. And I don't think you can do that with schoolwide. I think you have teacher leaders that help help facilitate that and then they're able to share that with their colleagues and then I also think that we have to be able to to to coach up the people that are coaching you our internal staff that are that we have our

092as our academic specialists. I think we have to find a way to make sure that we have um supported their efforts in being able to go out and and and support our schools. Um because I I don't think we can afford to have a a part a consultant or a partner go out to all these schools to provide that support. We have to be able to make sure that the just like what you know model school said this before you know we're trying to work ourselves out of a job with our our principles. I think that there have probably been some opportunity that we have to be able to take a reflective look at. Um I don't know if I top the circles there but that's I mean I think there's definitely some areas for

093improvement that we need to work on. One of the uh concerns I heard from parent principles that particular issue was that um the focus they they kept focusing on principles principles principles but they the principles thought it needed to come down to the level learning was the teachers and they haven't gone there. That's what I hope and I and I think that is if if we were to continue with that support mechanism that I I would like actually like to see us move down to the teacher leadership level and I think go a little smaller and and let's see if we can't have some pockets of success with it before we would ever make it larger scale. I'm sorry this has turned into a board perspective if you want to share but I definitely understand

094what so my perspective is that model schools is very broad in their focus with principles it's it's it's almost it's just leadership and What we observed and what we've heard from your educators uh the aims the tisses is that it now needs to be more strategically focused to starting with the vision where what are the expectations and now they also need that same level of content support. One of those administrators told me, you know, I don't know what scaffolding is and so how do you want me to go to lead this PLC? And I, you know, said, well, if you've not been provided professional development, then you're right. How can I expect you to do that? and they felt so I mean it was very clear model school was sitting there they they weren't saying

095anything like in a vacuum it was just very clear model schools has just been focused on leadership now that leadership has to go from not just the principal because this was an assistant principal who spoke to me that they need support because and we have I will tell you we have done and and Lewis and and I'm sorry, Mr. Mullenax and Mrs. Putner, they agree that we and that's actually something that we've we've started putting together a plan for is that we have not been coaching up our assistant principles in instructional leadership and we we are really missing the mark there. I mean, it's like there's a huge gap. But that person's leading a PLC. So that's a little scary because it's been delegated. Yeah, it's been delegated. you need this PLC and I'm sure

096when we spoke to those educators they were like well this really doesn't even address what I'm facing in my classroom and so it's all about you first have to start with the vision what are the expectations and then you can't give people expectations if you don't give them the support to rest and engage very much like what um Erica said that we have to let students practice administrators are no different. Adults need to practice be and then believe it or not they will rise to the occasion. I have a question. So I'm going to go down this rabbit hole. Sorry. If you have an assistant principal who's telling you that they have no idea what's the applicants, but they're not raising their hand and telling their superiors or whoever delegated them to be the PLC

097leader for that day. What does that tell us about safe places for our staff to go to raise their hand and say, "I don't know what to do." Well, I do want to say so I'm asking principal what is there? Okay. So, she did not say this privately to me, but my question becomes how many of our staff are scared to say that I'm asking question. I'm saying I'm ask I don't think it has a lot to do with being scared. Scared of Okay. Ask a question. No. No. Vulnerability. Being vulnerable. Being able to say, "I don't know this part." or being able to go to their superior and go, I was never taught this, so I don't feel comfortable doing this. I think that the what I would say is that I mean, I

098personally have not found any of our our staff from my interactions in this since since July to not feel comfortable by saying here's what here's what I don't know. I think that because we haven't focused because we haven't focused on these things, right? they haven't known or needed to feel like they need to know what this was about because they've never had conversations around it. And I'll give you an example. If if you if you've been if you've been a a non-core teacher, agree with that. And yeah, if you've been a non-core teacher and you haven't had the this type of professional development in the past and you become an administrator because of your work ethic and your um you know what for whatever reason and you've never had that, I I'll give you an

099example. I was a CTE teacher. I was an ACT teacher. you know, when it came to learning about these things, I I mean, I will tell you that I I it was because of the professional development and the coaching that I had throughout my career, it was never anything that I got from college or university. Just telling you that's so Oh, it was Oh, listen. Did you see that? She just took ownership and I took ownership. But but I but what I'm saying is that I think that there is there okay to be vulnerable. I think that we have safe places to say, "Hey, I need help in this." And they have also I I have to commend them. They they have been um very receptive. Okay. So when we make a suggestion, they're like,

100"Yeah, well yeah, okay, we'll try that." Okay. Now, I do think that that sometimes they get overwhelmed because of all that they have on their plates and to say, "Well, I have to do this now or learn this." But it's because we're trying to shift that mindset from school principal to school instructional leader. No, I I agree with what power said there. If you've been in an environment where you feel vulnerable with the expression weakness, then you're going to be reluctant to ask for help because it'll reflect upon your evaluation. And so there's a lot of people between Dr. Saxs and assistant principles. And so the relationship that he tries to establish, he must instill in his subordinates at this level that to ask a question or to express a weakness is not a weakness.

101That's you have to address the problem. You have to acknowledge the problem in order to address the problem. Well, the thing is that's that's true. But I think a lot of cases sometimes depend on the person, some people, regardless of if you tell them that or not, they won't do that. on my job, y'all come to me and ask me a question. They are not point at my boss. They don't let the boss to know I don't know this. And I do the same thing. I'm like, maybe I should know this. Let me ask my coworker. And they give the answer. Okay, I'm good. But I won't bring it up to my boss that I don't know. So, it all depends on the person. Some people are scared. Some people are exactly what Miss Power

102said. So, it can vary. It does. I guess the the other thing is too if we are aware and maybe maybe it's through this that we're becoming aware and that's totally fine. um if we are becoming aware either before or after that someone has not gone through ED that would help them help facilitate their understanding and ability we asking them to lead it I'm just putting that out there but they were well I think that that they we want to help facilitate conversations and I think that you know you know uh It's about this continuous growth mindset. I think that and and it's also about saying well here's here is where our resources are allocated. This is this is what we have to to from our human capital to our our curriculum capital that this

103is what we have and we need to be able to to plan how we're going to utilize it the best way possible and that's supporting people that are in their current roles in the best way we can. So I think that this some context around the comment was about as I came to Mr. that they feel like the district leadership is not providing them okay the right professional development. Okay. And that was just an example. Um I to give you to give you history. A couple of years ago the board had had asked principles in our county to to give us an un unvarnished look into their life as a principal. and they were very candid with what they with what they told us. Um, it was totally anonymous which was wonderful. Um, but I

104think it's from that that we are trying to like remove the rosecolored lenses from our own eyes to see what really is happening because we want to the only way that we can effectually make lives better for our staff is if we totally understand it and then we can help make good decisions with, you know, Dr. Sachs, of course, this is, you know, his first year with us, so he's he's done a lot of changes already and continues to make them, which is not not bad. It's good. I do agree with what said. Some individuals will never go to their administrator and say, I don't know this, or can you help me? But then somebody else might go to that administrator and say, did you know that? And then it's that administrator then goes to

105them. I' I've had this told to me and the administrator says, "Why do you tell me that?" Well, you know, they they don't want that an individual or the administrator to know that they don't know. But there's no harm in that. However, so I don't fault any of them for that. I'm not either. And sometimes you don't know what you don't know. Yeah. That's an opportunity, right? When you're you're in a space um where you're having discussion after going into a classroom, where you're having discussion to give insight and something sparks like, "Oh, wait. I actually don't know that, but I've been doing this." There's also a world when we think about literacy where our undergraduate programs do not always push the science of reading. And so, I thought I was going to change the

106world. my first student teaching. I went in and had first graders, 28 of them, looking at me. I had some that never went to kindergarten. I had some that were well above grade level. I was teaching some how to read and some how to even identify a letter. Well, I didn't I wasn't prepared to do that. I thought I was going to change the world. I had to get a masters in reading in order to do that. And so, everybody number one does not have the time, the desire, the finances, the capacity, whatever the case is to do that. And so when we that's how we kind of ended up at Big Rock number one is because we heard this trend. Sorry that says three, but one was targeted professional development. We heard a constant

107trend of wanting to know more. It wasn't just at the teacher level. It wasn't just at the principal level. It was at the the aim statist there was a level in which the way that learning happens and the way that teaching is done changes over time. I'm not a math person. That's why I'm with literacy. But new math is a is a is a is a something, right? Like I learned it this way, so I'm going to teach it that way. Well, that's not the way that they're going to be assessed on it. Same thing happens with literacy. We see the research constantly changing around the science of how students learn, how they acquire this knowledge, and how they apply it. And if no one is teaching the teachers how to do that, it's not

108even their own fault, right? And so that's where that big rock came from is it was a resounding we need this. We want to know more. And so until we are able to give them that even down to what scaffolding what scaffolding is we can't expect anything different. Um what I will say is that our focus groups and even our one-on-one conversations were very fruitful. Um they did not hold back. So it doesn't seem as though as as a stranger they weren't afraid to tell us anything. So, I can't imagine how it would be any different when they're, you know, in their individual spaces to be able to speak up about what they enjoy, but also to be able to vocalize what they need. And so, we really use that to ground the recommendations and

109the support that we're providing or that we're we're pro providing with I'll show you the next step after this. Um so big rock number three we talked about uh again resources making sure that it's not just um addressing the disparities in the actual resource distribution but one thing that I want to name and I'm going to name again because it came up a lot curriculum the the HQI high quality instructional materials is something that is going to need to be a big priority um scholastic while it has been in place is we know not being utilized consistently Um, we also know that supplemental um, space uh, curriculum such as Hegy and Ugly had to be put in place because Scholastic was not covering things and instructing as it relates to the rigor and standards. And

110so if you want to see change, not only do you have to provide professional development, you have to give tools. And so this is going to be a very big one that uh, is a strategy to be able to make sure that you're seeing that. What did we change? years. What? Um, five or six years. Oh, yeah. We're up for adoption. No, we're we have one more year and then adoption for 2017. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Next year is um driver's ed and health and then the following is um but we're doing some Dr. Saxow allowed us to do some piloting here. So, we're gonna make sure we've got we're trying to get ahead of the curve. I was going to say I don't like having to wait 2 years to to change this out.

111That's kind of stupid. One of the things we can celebrate is that um we do Dr. Sax is asking a majority of us to take the letters training. We had we had 60 people take it the first time group one and we have over 50 people sign up for the second you know group two that'll be going through. It's very very eye openening and it shares with you a lot of the reasons why some of us and I'll say this our teachers select and why we selected Scholastic in the first place. Um, but honestly I was going to say it's not it's not helping our teachers. It is that lack of knowledge. And so once you gain that knowledge, once you know better, you do better. Right. So there there you go. I'm learning myself

112in that. And so when we're looking at these new curriculums, we truly are looking at even today I met with one of the companies to say, "Show me where this is at. How do you develop this? Tell me about the graphics. What are they?" You you're educated on what you can ask for. So I think we are at a good place right now as long as our teachers get educated and if we get those individuals in to make the next selection for the next series I think we'll have some we'll adopt something that will be very very beneficial and what feels really incredible about that is the work that you're embarking on now right because this is laying the groundwork for being able to adopt that exceptional uh curriculum that is research based and high

113quality um I'm not too we don't like hearing what you And it's us. I was trying to wait. Okay. I don't want to uh to to leave this part out. Um after we've kind of gone through we've done the same review of findings with the district team. And so one of the things that we engaged in was a sidebyside action planning. What could this look like or starting the process? And so we looked at a couple of different things. Again, the goal is sustainability. The goal was change. And so we looked at the Noster model for change management. Um, and reflected on, and I'll show you all what that is on the next slide. Um, we also engaged in a what we call a shot analysis or you may have heard it as a SWAT

114analysis where you really just take a a look at strengths, hurdles, opportunities, and threats that there are as it relates to actually seeing the change that you've desired to see for each of those big rocks. And then we just co-created a theory of action for each one. And where we left off was being able to take all of those pieces and start thinking about what the action is that or what actions it's not just one. The actions that are necessary, the stakeholders that are necessary, the timeline that's necessary, and the resources to be able to see the change that you want. So when I talk about the Nostra model, this is a model that supports complex change. And so we looked at this. You'll see it says vision, uh, consensus, skills, incentives, resources, and the

115action plan equals success. When any of those pieces are missing, it leads to the things that you see on the edge. You'll have confusion, you'll have sabotage, anxiety, resistance. And so, we use this to really look at where we were as it relates to um, literacy and what we're seeing in classrooms. So, if you're seeing frustration, there's resources missing, right? if you're seeing that there is um I don't know my words believe in me but you you get the point right and so we used this to be able to really look at where we where where things were as it relates to from the seat that we sit in and so then for each then we went through and each group this is a lot I'm not reading any of this to you you have

116the slides in front of you but wanted to again with the lens of those three big rocks really have a critical lens or and reflect on current successes What are some of those weaknesses or hurdles? What are opportunities that we can leverage to see success and what are the threats that could potentially hinder being able to see change as it relates to those? And so the next few slides you'll be able to review is directly what the team says. If you notice that it's a different color, the next group that filtered in, they changed the color so that we can see it was something that they added in addition to. And so we co-created this, went through this process alongside the team. And then we were able to on the last SL or the next

117slide start to create based on the the shot analysis we did based on the reflections on the NASA model some theories of action that we wanted to see for each one and I'm actually I will read this. So for targeted professional development um the theory of action that was co-created with it. We empower our leaders to deepen their instructional literacy knowledge and leadership skills by leveraging existing systems and structures to provide robust relevant and empowering professional development. Then teachers will develop deep content knowledge leading to rigorous engaging in grade level instruction that is meaningful and connected to students lived experiences so that students demonstrate growth, achieve proficiency and take ownership of their learning. This is what we want to be true for professional development. And we did the same thing for data communication and equitable

118resource allocation. And from that point, the team then took that and started to create what they want a goal to be and the rationale for the goals for each of those big runs and started to really brain dump around what actions needed to happen granular high level um for each of these in order for these theories of action to actually be the so that we see um and that's where we have that's where we've been spending the last what few maybe few weeks. We've had a couple of calls together where we really went through this work um side by side. We've given critical feedback on some of the pieces that they brought to us. We've done some very good sharing and reflecting and so super excited about where the team is going to take it

119from there. I did the fastest that I could. I hope that you for your time and I didn't mean to rush. No, no, no problem. Could be here too. That's what Dr. Well, I I just I appreciate something you you put in. You went quickly through it, but under weaknesses and hurdles, you put in there buy in. There we go again. Lack of follow through focus will change next year. That's one of the thing problems we're going to be facing and we're trying to change this ship is the people are constantly getting into one thing and then next year it's another agreement and I've heard it time and again the principles come down agreement. Well, what I would say is that we're not changing anything that we have started this year. we're we're just expanding

120it and providing more intentionality behind um some of the structures that we've implemented, some of the expectations that we've established. And I think that we're going to, you know, through the work that we're going to be doing over the over the next several months leading up to the next school year is we'll be um clearly defining um not only the things that we've expected this past year, but the additional the additional supports and structures as well. So, I don't think that there's any um proverbial throwing the baby out with the bath water and starting over on anything. I think we're just going to um add to the support that we've been and the structures that we've tried to implement. And I honestly think that um what this board has allowed uh my team and I

121um under over the last seven months to be able to do um is a step in the right direction. I think that the restructuring of our resources and our people in order to to most um effectively benefit what's going on in the classroom is also a piece of that pie. Um so I hear you and I think that we have to be conscientious of that as well. Okay, you uh touched on my question. So my question is after this presentation and seen the reports, does this change any of your restructuring plans? I don't want can't tell the plan. No, I can't tell. Right. Well, and I think there's some things I I can share. Um I think that what you are seeing from my restructuring plans are reflective because I met with them on the

122report probably what a month and a half ago. Um and so it it's all led into the why of my restructuring to support it. Yes. I wanted to make sure you all had an opportunity to hear this also. um as we think of as you all continue to consider the the restructuring proposal that will be shared with you during the employee hearings and those sort of things. Okay. Thank you. Other questions? Thank you all. Thank you. And I would just like to add one more thing just as a a context. You know, it's I think and I have said this time and time again throughout my transition is is that it's really important for us to whether whatever group I'm with, it's really important for us to hear the the the good things and that

123are going on, but it's even more important to hear the things that are hard to hear sometimes. And you know, I will tell you that uh the folks that are sitting in the room here, the people that are online, our principles, our teachers, they have been relentless in working hard for our students. And so sometimes it's hard to hear where we've missed the mark, but it's also important that we hear where we're missing the mark so we know what we need to focus on. Just as um Dr. Green, who you know is uh one of her her exceptional qualities is that she's a straight shooter and um it's something I've always respected about her. So even as we get feedback, she's never afraid to shoot me straight and tell me the things that are hard

124to hear because it's it's the area we know we need to focus on. So I I want to thank Dr. and her team. But I do it in a nice way. You do what you love. You do. You do. Yes. Yes. It was funny. We sat down and as we were going over some of the planning and you know, I think the role was reversed and she said, "Ryan, you must be really enjoying this telling me what I need to do or not." Said, "No, thank you." Next on the agenda, special education update, Mr. Just want to start off by saying thank you for hearing us a lot. Appreciate the opportunity to speak to you a little bit. Uh we're going to kind of jump into this uh kind of little different. Your presentation has

125a lot of information on all the slides and that was done intentionally due to the fact I know you all do your homework. you all have you all want to have questions to ask and to be able to ask my team myself that's why we put all that information in so we will not be reading off slides so but what I am going to tell you is that we did put this presentation together and uh and this is what the goals I have for you tonight is to have basic procedures or knowledge that you need around SAT which is the student assistance team evaluation eligibility and what the IEP looks like and how it's structured and the roles and responsibilities of the people who actually set around that table the coordinators the psychologists school-based staff

126parents and uh especially service providers all right so the first topic I want to bring in is child fund and that is a federal mandate that um comes in through IDA and our own West Virginia policy plan 419. So that is we're actually looking for students that may have disabilities so we can help structure supports for them so they can thrive in our own back in our own schools. So that is our goal is to even get out into private schools looking for all those special ed students that may need help or we can uh help identify. So that's why we work so closely with birth three as well. So I'm going to uh start off with um referral. Who can refer? Well, it can be a parent, it can be a medical provider, it

127can be a professional, it can be anyone can refer. Now, a far more request is going to be asked for, but we don't always have to evaluate and that's something that the SAT team uh goes into Kelly. Yes. Good evening. So, as Mr. Dilly was talking about the student assistance team, this is the school level team that starts looking at the needs of those students. It is based on data and I think our previous presentation ties into this a lot. You had mentioned are we overreering? We talk about the data. Are we making database decisions? The data teams at each school level that's reviewing the information. They're a great source of information for the student assistance team as they're considering the needs a student may have. um all the people that can be on the

128team that participate. We want the parents, policy doesn't require it in West Virginia, but we want parents to be involved in those decisions. Admin, teachers, school counselors, referral agents in the building, school psychologists are all part of that to really add to the conversation and to make that decision. you were talking about is this a student that needs to be referred for special education or are there more strategies and things that we can implement in order to help the student before ideally a SAT team isn't the pathway to special education. It's hopefully a preventative. It's hopefully our last step to find a strategy or an intervention that is going to help that student. The last thing that we really want to do is identify a student with a disability. We want to make sure we've

129given them every opportunity to thrive before we get to that decision. But we know that sometimes we do get there. So if we do, Friday, you can go ahead to the next slide. We're looking at the evaluation processes that take place. And a lot of the people involved in that evaluation once SAT has decided that's where we have to go. Our psychologist coordinators, our school-based teams, they all have roles in completing the assessment, gathering the assessment. Initial assessments take 80 days and I'll talk a little bit about timelines um in a couple more slides, but that initial process is an 80-day process in West Virginia. Next slide. How many days did you say? 80. 80. And that's from the time we get permission from the parent and so we sit down at that eligibility committee

130meeting. That's just not for that evaluation. It's also the meeting to discuss the outcomes and next steps. But you you can start providing interventions before the end of those 80 days. Is that correct? You can. So like for example, you if you have a child that's going through the process and but I mean could you implement um preferential sement? Obviously you could you could do something like that or but you probably couldn't do extended time or reduce. You could even try some of those as interventions through the SAP process because a lot of those are good teaching techniques. If I know that I have a kiddo in my class that just needs a little extra time as a good instructor, I'm going to give them a little extra time, figure out how to work with

131them. But those should be done through SAT and documented if we're doing them before the actual eligibility process takes place. Well, the reason I ask is from the perspective of a parent, you know, 80 days is a long time. You feel like your child needs help. And so I think that making sure what what so if we are to implement those types of different strategies to help the student through this the SAT process. How do we what protocols we have in place to communicate effectively with parents that those things are being attempted and tried so that it's not at the 80day mark you know you're meeting with the parent saying well we tried this and it didn't work or you know so that the parent feels included. Do we have steps in place to keep

132the parents um up to date on where we are in the process? So I would say it's not consistent across each school. So I would different schools handle it in different ways. Once they start the sack process, we're required to advise the parents of the results of that sack. A lot of times I'm hoping that we have to give something called in a prior written notice that tells them what was discussed. We encourage schools to put what it is we're going to try. We're not ready to make the evaluation based on data because we're seeing progress. We're going to continue intervention and do this. I think that ongoing communication it it isn't consistent in terms of the process. The requirements are every time SAP meets to review that data, they do have to send a

133prior written notice home. again hopefully updating that information but I I would not say that there's a consistent process for that communication. I think that's one thing that we lack the communication with uh parents in between when the process started and because all I hear is you know it takes 80 days or it takes this long time but that's a lot of time when a parent doesn't actually know what's going on in the process. Now maybe that that's just not something that I've been made aware of. Maybe the schools are doing data locking. I don't I don't know, but I think that's something that we maybe need to make sure that we're a little bit more consistent on. And many schools invite the parents to the SAP meeting. That's something that's allowed. Yeah, I hear

134that all the time, but many of them don't show, but I guess we're I'm going to piggyback a little bit on what Miss Long is saying um and ask a different a different question and maybe this would help. Um, are parents providing any level of assessment to the SAT team? Many PA I think I know what you're asking me. Many parents if they have had um outside support for their student, if they've gone out and had medical evaluations, yes, they Okay, then I need I didn't understand what you're asking. That's okay. Are there any documents that we have that we give to the parent that says, can you evaluate your child on what this what your child does at home when doing any assignments that the teacher assigns for for homework or activities at home

135for um maybe it's on winter days, you know, where we're we're doing at home at home learning um or when they're doing they're learning a new activity with the family um or or independent Because it's not just learning that happens in the school. Learning does happen at home too. Just different different ways, different aspects. Do we have an evaluation or a questionnaire that goes home with parents so that they can feel empowered of I'm providing an evaluation for my child that will contribute to this process. So a couple years ago um we collaborated with teaching and learning and worked on establishing a parent questionnaire that is part of the SAT process that the teams can we've we've trained the SAT team members on the parent questionnaire the I should say the SAT chairs so whoever's

136leading that we did some training on that a couple years ago there is a parent questionnaire at that point in the process if they choose to use that and then also So once a referral is made, once the team decides we do need to refer for special education, there's another parent information um collection that happens and it does talk about a lot of things at home as well. I think that that might be something that we want to think about. This is, you know, because I think the parent input is so important is that we make that part of what we want to make sure we send home. You know, we want to expect that. But I'm also thinking about, you know, other certain services or assessments that have to be done like the or

137I think I'm thinking is another one that that does require the parents um input on what the child is experiencing to determine whether or not they're going to be identified with autism or or what have you. So there's other mechanisms that I know we utilize, but for other learning disabilities that we may be, you know, trying to go through the process on, I do think it's important we be consistent in that expectation. So there's screeners. A lot of times some of the psychologists when they're joining the um student assistance team, they will get permission to do a screener. So it's not necessarily a full evaluation, but they start with some screening pieces to determine the needs. Are we seeing some of the things that are needed for um that gives the idea that there may

138be some additional um issues or concerns that we should maybe refer for that gets parent input as well as once you make the referral depending on what the referral question is depending on what we think the concern is then there are also other types of parent information gathering as well. I think the the the snag I see in this and I'm coming at it from a parent's perspective is I'm losing control of my kid my kid. I don't have control over like behaviors. It could be behaviors. It could be their learning. It could be the way that they're identified. The way it could be any number of things. It could be all of those things. Um when when you have a child who you're sitting there going, I want to help them desperately and I

139know that there's an issue going on and I want them to get evaluated. You almost feel like you're out of control. And sometimes the best way to help bring parents into it and bring them along for the ride if you want if you want to say it that way is to invite them into the process. And I think that I've heard a lot from parents that said, "I don't feel like I'm invited. Yeah, I go to SAT meetings. Yeah, I go to IEP meetings, but I'm told how bad my kid is. I'm told how horrible they are they're doing in school, and I'm not being I'm not being asked. I'm being told. And I think that's the part that I think if we started this this process out where to to your point, there's this

140asking, there's this contribution, this buying in. We just talked about that in in our last presentation. If there's no buy in, you're going to it's going to be hard. It's going to be like pulling teeth and it's going to be this continuous fight and almost like there's this your side against my side and it there is no side except for for the child. And we know that and I think deep down the the parents hear that. But in that moment when you've got a child who they're having to talk about all the ugly, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, it's it's not the best. um you're you're sitting there going, I'm I love my child and I can't I can't this is hard to hear. Sure. So, how do we figure that

141that part out? We would say all of us would say the first time a parent hears that there's a concern should not have been at that SAP meeting. They should have been collaborating all the way along with the teacher, the messages, the the classroom communication daily when the concerns start, the school administration, because much of these processes, really almost all of them, these are at the classroom school level. So, as we're building, that is where these things occur. And hopefully from from our perspective and what I'm hearing you say is the parent should have known way before we even got to that first SAP meeting where they were being invited in. And it's that ongoing communication piece. And when you build as a teacher I the first call I ever made was something good. It

142wasn't and I was a BD middle school teacher. It was not about a behavior. The the first communications I had from go I taught two doors down from Mr. Murphy. The first conversation I've ever had was about something positive. And I it's that relationship building and that communication that helps us get to the point where then when I do have to say something hard to hear like we were talking about earlier, they know that I'm all in with their kid. I'm invested. And so if I'm saying this, it's because I want you to work with me to to get on top of this issue. And I think that's the communication that helps us avoid parents feeling like that. Do we have a a standard this and you might not be able to answer this, this

143is more geared towards Dr. Saxs. Do we have a standard um procedure for our staff that they uh need to follow to provide that level of communication um to parents? You mean through the SAT process? No, not through the SAT before we ever even get to the SAT like I don't think that we have well we have some processes like on attendance that um we you know of an expectation of meaningful communication and contact. I don't think that we actually I know that we have not set any kind of district level expectation on you know communicating with parents on a on a regular basis or you know so many times a quarter or a semester. Um I think that is a I do think that that is a um a very valuable um expectation because

144of of the importance of home to school communication. Um but that is not something we have tackled since I've been here yet. Okay. But you know I do know that parents and teachers communicate with Yeah. Sure. But you know they there are many that do. Yeah. I think majority of them do because that's how they know that some of the problems that are happening in school are attributed to homes. Um, and if people are listening, I don't mean that in a negative way, but you know, some there are some issues at the home that when those children come to school, you know, they act out behavior wise and that you're trying. I think that we do a really good job of um, you know, well, I shouldn't say that because I I'm assuming I should

145say that I I I think that we probably do a I don't know. So, I don't want to say that this is what's going on. I think there's a trend in uh public schools that at the elementary level, you have much better communication with families around the progress of their child than when you get into middle school and high school because it just there's just so many more things going on middle school and high school level with behaviors in and class. so that their parents are relying on the report card that comes home and really they're not getting any kind of communication from the middle school or high school level until it's a real problem. Um, and I think that as a public school organization, we can always find ways to communicate better around the

146progress of our students, but it's about time. It's about the time that it takes to be able to do that, to make it meaningful. Um and I think that that's where um you know some of the resources and technology that we have with uh parent parenttoclass communication systems that we can have in place that um if can make that more streamlined but it just unfortunately has not been an area where we have taken a good focus on but I do think that it's going to be part of what we're going to have to take a look at from a strategic from a strategic action standpoint of improving um the relationships that schools have with families is to be able to inform them more in a more meaningful way around the progress of their children. I

147think though also if we would hear something different probably from the school as far as that uh communication with parents occurs. I think there's a lot more sometimes than you think there actually that's my thing is they earlier sheep the ages are three to 21 how do we identify children even as young as 2 years 10 months I understand can come in I remember talking to the physical therapist anybody it's just by a doctor's recommendation by parents because we don't have classroom teachers with three year olds brought into how do they get in so for preschool students which is what you would be talking about those referrals come from West Virginia birth to three a lot of these children have been involved since birth with burn to three and we also may have a medical

148prof or give us a referral or telear parent. I think you need to have your child evaluated. Um, it could be the parent. We are required by policy to put information in doctor's offices, housing complexes, things like that. So, we're required under that federal child crime law that um, Mr. Dilly was talking about to do somewhat of a community outreach to make them aware and then our responsibility is to determine if those children do in fact have a disability once they're they're brought to us. Then we go through screening and evaluation processes. Is the 80day um range is that because that is that like a federal standard? Is that a is that it just takes us that long because we're underst staffed in that area or like I I don't know what what the reasoning

149is for a I am getting to that slide in you don't mind I'll do them all at the same time right there. Okay. Thank you. So once an evaluation is completed and um we're ready to present that evaluation an eligibility committee is formed for that student. And when we review that full evaluation that's been completed, we have to determine does the student based on that evaluation have a recognized disability? Um does it affect their educational performance and do they require and this is often one of the most important pieces of this kind of threeprong process. Do they require specialized instruction to make progress? So, in types of eligibility meetings, the initial eligibility is an 80-day process, idea, which is the federal law, which we're required to find our way underneath of that, does allow for

150states, it's 60 days or you can establish your timeline within reason. So, West Virginia, for as as long as I've been teaching, about 24 years now, um West Virginia set that at 80 days. And if you're considering another area of eligibility, then you also get 80 days to do that evaluation. If you think I'm not sure that this student's specific learning disability that we identified 3 years ago is still their primary area that's impacting them, then you can do an evaluation because you think now you've recognized signs of, and I'm making up this scenario, but now you've recognized signs that the student may have autism and that may be impacting them more than the learning disability that they have. So, if you're changing their eligibility completely or considering it, you get 80 days to go

151through that process. It doesn't always take 80 days, but it can take up to 80 days. If you're doing an out of cycle reevaluation for some reason, you're not looking to change the eligibility, but something has come up that you think you need to look a little deeper into something going on, you get 60 days to complete an out of cycle evaluation. And then um re-evaluations happen every 3 years. So those are the timelines with those as of March. Did you I'm sorry. I was just going to say the three years is that is that federal standard trienal to do a trienal every three years? Yes. So could you have um an 80day and a 60-day back back to back? In theory, yes. I don't know why you would. It doesn't A lot of times

152once you do an evaluation, say a kid has um an IQ test performed, doing one within a very short amount of time after that, your results aren't always quite as reliable because they've just had an assessment. So you definitely would use a different test. So there's something called a whisk that we do IQ. There's a Woodcock Johnson um IQ test you could do. you would definitely want to use a different measure. But the more frequently you do it when you're doing those standard evaluations, the less reliable they become because a student kind of becomes exposed to that testing and starts to give them a little advantage. Not intentionally, but it just happens. So far this year, we've done 1934 um evaluations and eligibility meetings out of the Office of Special Education. So, we're um hopping

153when it comes to eligibilities throughout the year. What does that equate to like per day for you guys? Like, well, if you think you have 180 school days um where kids are I don't know how many of you are in or on staff that and and participating in leading. So, I apologize, but so typically and Michelle's going to talk a little bit about coordinators and coordinator responsibilities and the numbers that the coordinators um work with. So there's as we go through the process, we'll talk a little bit more about what that looks like and who's doing what, but it does keep you pretty busy because there's a lot of collaboration that goes into even just one meeting. a lot of the different specialists that are involved in report presentations. You want the parents there. You

154want the gened teachers, special ed teachers, the psychologist. If that student needs any kind of additional related service, occupational therapy, speech services, all of those people have to their schedules have to align and sort of like getting the planets aligned sometimes. It's really challenging with so many schools and different areas of need. But these are some of the people who might be in those meetings and um we kind of went through and gave you an idea of what each person's case load might look like if they're one of those specialists. You have he contracted some of these. We do. And I mean I see the vision person have to have 6500 minutes a month. So that is an average of what they're looking at in terms of services for a student. So there's vision services

155and orientation and mobility in the area of of visual impairments. I mean does each student I guess they have a group 25 students that all of them are getting that time. That's average. It's not it's not exact. You might have some that have a lot and some that have consult. So that's just average in terms of the amount of service. That's 100 hours a month. Is that 6,49 minutes per student? That's that can't be right. 25 students, right? It was an average between the two that we have um off of ours. We tracked that number and basically what it did took It's like their case. It's their case load of men. Yes. My goodness. That's all. It's case load. When when do they sleep? So with I mean with like psychologists with you about sorry

156um average 80 to 100 um case per contracted psychologist uh that is our inhouse is what I used that number when I was looking that up. Um that's in general about what they do every year. That's a year's worth of work. It's all just one person. Well, no, we have multiple. We have multiple, but that's one person. That's one person's set of evaluations. They may do 80 to 100 evaluations and the top B's usually about 100. That's what our one psychologist who she just she's been. She just goes through that's report. We should have revers where he works. Uh he works with the um he does not work with boss special ed but he does work with people service people. So the psychologist the next um slide talks about the psychologist role what they do

157in those evaluations. They work very closely with the families as well. So once we get to the point of the evaluation, they are talking with the family. They are gathering information from the family. They also present the evaluation results in the meetings. They help support the eligibility decision. In West Virginia, the decision is the teams. The entire eligibility committee has to agree on the area of eligibility. In some states or some areas, it's solely this at the psychologist's discretion. what um a student is going to be identified as. West Virginia's policy requires the entire eligibility committee to review the results and make that decision as a committee. They also explain what the students strengths are. So hopefully when you get that evaluation, this if the students eligible, it's leading you into the data you need

158to make decisions for that student's um IEP. They are able to answer questions and then they collaborate. what should be we should what should we be working toward for that student and that takes us into the IEP itself. Okay. So once a student's found special education we have to write an IEP. So within 30 days of an eligibility decision we have to make sure we write the IEP. um we don't always take more time to write the IEP. We often and most often combine that IEP meeting with the eligibility meeting um because we don't want to be bringing the parents in multiple times throughout throughout the year. Also, we already have that team all together. So, it makes most sense to to make those decisions as well. So who writes the IP? Well, special education

159teacher or a case manager uh that is assigned will write the IP and case loads are uh created at the school level and there are some varying numbers in case loads when you look at different teachers. So for example, a teacher that primarily serves specific learning disability may write up to 20 IEPs a year, give or take. Whereas a student serving primarily, sorry, a parent parent a teacher serving students primarily with autism may write up to 12. And a lot of that variability is down to the needs. Okay? a lot more often a lot more involved in writing a for a student with autism than there is for a student with specific learning disability because you often are looking at functional needs, behavioral needs, there's extra documentation such as behavior intervention plans. So although the

160case loads don't always seem equal, um the workload is most difficult. So a special education teacher will gather information from general education teachers, related service providers, evaluations and assessments and also parents and create a draft. The IEP that is written prior to the meeting really important to note that that is a draft. We use that as a starting point to start that conversation in the IEP meeting and be prepared to talk about the students needs. How long does it typically take a staff member to write an IEP? And I know that that can that can vary greatly. I I I understand. I'm I'm looking for a ballpark. That's great. A lot of factors come into play. How many IEPs you've written, the the needs of the student. I would say as a teacher it took

161me an hour to two hours depending upon um if I knew the kid already, if I didn't know the student, if we did additional evaluations moving into it, but it took me about full a full week to do your whole case load. And if you if you were compiling all the if you said you had 20 20 IEPs times two hours just because I'm I over I over budget. Okay. Um that's like a 40hour week right there. If you just did solid IEPs all week, no instruction, no teaching, no classroom planning, no no other meetings, no data looking and and trying to figure out where the students are. It's literally just writing and it depends on the knowledge of the teacher and case manager because we do have teachers who um are not educators and

162probably have never seen an IEP until they came into the classroom. So, well, so that takes that takes them um much longer, multiple hours with a lot of support from a lot of different people. So, that be my question. How much training does someone get in order to learn how to write an advocate? Our and I'll talk about Oh, yeah. I mean, they can talk about it, but the coordinators do a lot of training and we have some coordinators over here. Our Ames people have assisted with trainings as far as IEPs. They even have trainings in the evenings for teachers who want to come um to learn. And then we have um at the beginning of the year in the summer large trainings, but I mean you all may want to talk about what kind

163of trainings you do on a regular basis as far as writing IEDs. Yeah. So at the beginning of every year, I would always meet with each of my schools that I had and I would go over step by step of what to do and like what that looks like um and walk them through that. Um, I've created resources for them as well that they could use um to follow. And then my teachers always knew that if they needed help with something, I would go meet with them on their planning or before school or after school and walk them through how to write an IEP. Um, and I've done that frequently throughout the year. And that's in addition to new new teachers that start that are afraid. They've never experienced it before too. We would midyear

164go ahead and provide that training as well. And we used to have um we still have inschool mentors and it's also for special education teachers. However, um we have less and less experienced special education teachers who can help the new teachers um or perm subs right here. So it is a collaborative effort among many of us and I offer that's also one of the things that the speech therapists end up helping with. We write like 50 a year. So we're doing one a week. So we don't forget between your, you know, oh, I haven't written no one in two or three months or I did it at the beginning of the year, got trained, but then I don't have to write one until December and so and we're often in the buildings and so we

165provide a lot of support to those new teachers who are coming and just saying like what do I do here? Show me, you know, just that uh text support almost for having right. We also have a seat committee which is student education assistance scheme and that's involving representation from all our school buildings with administrators because let's face it a lot of the time the administrator in charge of special education in the school building is running IT meetings they are chair chairing the meeting and that allows them to what the se committee does is monitor compliance with the statewide checklist of what's supposed to be in an IEP. But it's a good training tool for an administrator because they get to read a bunch of IEPs and evaluate them based on the tools that our coordinators

166evaluate the market and it just allows them to know this is what should be here this is what shouldn't they provide that feedback to teachers prior to the meeting and also during the I I looked ahead you have classroom teachers will follow the IEP how many IEPs students that a classroom teacher have and is there a point of saturation where they they're unable to do all these variations so and teach effectively at the same time. So a classroom teacher shouldn't have more than 33%. They call it an integrated classroom in policy and in integrated classrooms 30%. You should not have more than 30% special education students in that classroom. And then for a co-op classroom um no more than 50% of the students in that class should um be receiving services in that area of

167content. And that's where there's two teachers. There's special education teacher and a general education teacher. They're taught classroom. in a co talk, but it's the special ed teacher there all day or do they move for whatever time is designated for that subject? So, it just depends. And there are different models. Some districts in Jefferson County, we had the teacher follow a cohort of students who needed that support years ago. Um, and there's pros and cons to both approaches. Now, in a lot of our schools, it just depends on the subject matter that that student needs support. The administration looks at the IEPs, how they're written for support, and then when they design their schedule, they arrange the co-eing to be placed where the student need is. So in a class of 25, the 30% we'd

168only have what, seven students. I I'd have to get my calculator. I'm I'm not all that strong. That's not right. 78. you want to stand like seven, eight more standards. You want to stay under that. Okay. I'm just wondering about the impact upon the other students because I know that's my last question. Um and this came up in another meeting, but um do you all I know we have the idea spare no expense that with a school system you have to have a balanced budget. Do you do you all have the pressure? I hope I'm going to preface this and say can I have to pay out of my own pocket in some pressure if I did not have a balanced budget and my wife does not want to take our income to service the

169public school system other than her taxes. But do you all have a conscientious awareness of what you're putting on this paper and what the cost will be or do you just say forget the cost, we do what we for the job? Those budget items go through me. So I'm very conscientious of any expenditures that we have even to the point that we have to look at making sure that the aid is warranted in any classroom that it may need. We have to look at needs first before you know we have to meet the needs of the child. But we honestly look at anything that we buy for the child according to their their disability and anything that we would want or need for in the classroom. So all that runs through squeeze the world out.

170My wife would say that. Yes. Okay. So once we have a draft I we we move into a meeting, right? And the people or the roles you see on the board now aren't always involved in every single IP meeting. who is involved in every single IP meeting is a general education teacher, special education teacher, an administrator or facilitator that chairs the meeting and of course the parent must be invited. when a student reaches 14 or if they're they're 13 when their IEL will be turning 14 within the IEP year for that um they must be invited to the IEP meeting as well and that's because we are discussing um postsecary options life beyond high school at those times some of the other roles that may be invited would be related service providers so students have

171occupational therapy speech physical therapy needs, vision needs, things we've talked about already. Those service providers are responsible for that section of the IEP and will be invited to the meeting. Psychologists, again, Mr. Ango went over what their role is, but they will be invited to a meeting if it involves eligibility and they have to interpret testing results, the testing they have provided. coordinators. Again, they monitor evaluation timelines and are at most all meetings involving eligibility. They may also be included in meetings that have advocates involved um and those are occurring more and more in recent times. Special education administrators such as ourselves would be involved if there's legal representation or something like that. So when we present the IEP we obviously go through the whole document but some of the main areas that we present

172are on the slide now. So present levels of performance that is a narrative description of where the student currently is in regards to their area of need such as ELA, math, behavior, functional skills. The idea of that present level is that it articulates a gap between where they are and what the general education standard is. And from that we create meaningful and ambitious annual goals. So where do we want this student to be within a year's time based on the present level information uh from the goals that dictates services and supports and accommodations? Yeah, services are specialized instruction that we provide and sometimes the the accommodations that we provide in in general education. So accommodation is a a support we provide in the general education environment. All right. There's a common myth that when you're

173special education, you are in a different environment. Special education students are often in general education may stay there the whole time or may be called out for extra intervention from a special education teacher specialized instruction. Progress marching I talk about on the next slide. So I'm going over that the transition plan that is when we start talking about post high school we look at student interests preferences their strengths their weaknesses and we deise goals for employment hopes independent living and education. And the point of those goals is not for us to be evaluated on whether they reach them or not, but we want to tailor their educational plan to what they want to do after high school. So when they get to high school and they're taking classes for credit, we tailor those courses they

174take based on their interest, preferences, and needs and the goals they have throughout the high school with the hope that we increase graduation rates and attendance and self-determination skills. Once the IEP has been presented and the IEP team has agreed, this is an open conversation between all parties. that draft comes to the meeting can be added to changed throughout the whole meeting we have to implement the IEP and we are required to meet that IEP minute for minute as it is written so we're saying we're giving 150 minutes specialized instruction in a special education environment we have to give that exact minutes no more no less right if we say we are going to give extended time in their general educ ation math instruction. We have to prove that we've given that extended time the

175in the general education environment. So that take precedence over the say the class of 25 you have eight and you say you're going to do this this for these eight students without the other that would be a teacher decision at that point. However, if the one of those eight students that you're referencing has that in their IEP, it must be different. When you give extended time, do you have to reconvene the IP team to u change the IEP to extend the time? If it's not already on the Yeah. Yeah. Something that student requires consistently in order to be successful, then it would need to be um identified on the IEP. But we recommend specificity, not just say that generally, but what does the student really need? Do they need extra time for a particular type

176of assignment? Do they need extra what do they really need? So that we're not just over applying some of these things and creating greater strain on the instructional structure of the classroom, but really what does that student need? And so we really encourage um real specificity and what does it mean for that student to receive that service. Thank you. Progress monitoring. So part of the IEP dictates when we provide the progress reports. Most often that is quarterly when uh grade reports go out at the end of a quarter. And that progress report lists the IEP goals and states whether progress is being made, progress is not being made or if they're maintaining the progress that they've already made. Who else are there? Excuse me. Who fails for that? the special education teacher in charge of

177our student and they pull from all their data sources. They know the student, they should be able to provide the the progress report. Um, but it's more than just providing a progress report, it's what we do with that information. So, if we see that there is insufficient progress, our recommendation would be well, let's hold an IEP team meeting and discuss this. How can we best support the student from here? IEPs are updated every year, but it's a misconception to say that we do one IEP meeting a year, right? If we see a problem or if the parent sees a problem, everyone has the right to call an IEP meeting and to address those issues at any point. So, as I just stated, the IEP is reviewed and updated annually, but again, it just has to

178be updated within 3 65 days of previous IEP. We could hold five meetings in a year if if we had to, right? And all those decisions, it's based on student need. What does the student need to succeed in the classroom? If they're not succeeding, let's hold a meeting and discuss that. And as we already mentioned, a full reevaluation goes at least every three years. Um but again that's as warranted as well. So if we need to hold a re-evaluation earlier than that we can and it would reset that 3ear clock on that on that date. Thank you very much. So, I'm now going to talk about our coordinators and um different states, different districts in West Virginia have people and staff who um do things similar to our coordinators. They call them specialists, they call

179them um supervisors sometimes. They all look different. Um, but typically they work out of the office of special ed. At this point we have four elementary coordinators and four secondary coordinators and then we have a coordinator Lisa Wright who does compliance and transition and things like that. So, I'm just going to talk about what a coordinator I'm going to break it up into elementary and secondary and what kind of things they do. Um and some of the numbers you all we were talking about numbers um I'm going to give you some numbers of things that they do and it is and I was a coordinator for um many years prior to what I did so I know what it looks like but initially um just to start out there is daily collaboration um and this

180collaboration is between the coordinators and office of special ed administration um collaboration between administrators, between teachers, case managers, between related service, our secretaries at our office. Um collaboration between different coordinators because we have some coordinators who are new, some who are a little bit um more seasoned and that collaboration is very important. There's excuse me, questions bounce off each other all the time. When I first started, I remember we were at Rymer Center and I was literally facing one of our um coordinators who had been there for a very long time and she has since retired, but I know sometimes she just wanted to go under the desk because I would be and one more thing and one more thing. But it's um it's great to be able to collaborate and learn off of each

181other. weekly. There's collaboration again with school administrators, with case managers, with related service, um with nurses, with different service providers, and then weekly, daily, sometimes hourly, the coordinators have um collaboration with parents and um sometimes advocates who talk. So there's a lot a lot of collaboration going on on a regular basis. I'm going to be talking about elementary giving you some numbers. Think about that 1,934 eligibilities that our office has done um through March at this point for elementary. our four elementary coordinators. Our um coordinators have between 550 and 700 students per coordinator. So what that means is they will be in their eligibility meetings. They will be in some of their IDP meetings. So again, five between 550 and 700 students per each one of our coordinators. Um, and what they do with IEPs,

182IEPs are written. They may or may not be in the meeting. If it's just an annual meeting, they're not going to be in it. But IEPs are turned into them. They review the IEPs. They check the IEPs. They um use sticky notes or whatever, if there are corrections, turn them back into the teacher manager, and then sometimes provide training. um sometimes say, "Great, you got it. Collect them back up." As far as eligibility meetings from our elementary coordinators, each coordinator has had between 200 and 250 eligibility meetings per year per coordinator. um they have to follow timelines that uh Kelly talked about, that Sam talked about, those 80 days, those 30 days if the IEP is not written. Um they participate in all these meetings and your typical eligibility meeting uh typically lasts between 30

183and 40 minutes. They also for every one of those meetings um produce meeting notices, distribute them to they need um to distribute them to with help from our secretaries of course um still on elementary coordinators. So in addition to all of those IEPs and eligibilities that I had said that they participate in, they additionally participate in between 25 and 30 complex IEPs. And when I say complex IEPs, I mean IEPs where perhaps an administrator called up and said, "I think this one's going to be difficult. Can you please come?" Or there's an advocate that's going to be in this meeting. Can you please come? So that is 25 to 30 in addition to their um 200 to 250. Some of the duties also that they do train staff. You heard some of the things that

184they do as far as training staff throughout the year. They assist with writing IEPs again fix errors, help with the online system. um sometimes go into the classroom, give strategies for the teachers who are having some difficulty maybe behaviorally or even if um there's academic skill they're really having a hard time trying to get through to a student, they will do that as well. Uh we also have bimonthly coordinator meetings in our office and all of the coordinators participate in those bimonthly. Um, additionally, we also have staffing meetings which start in November. I think this year we had four separate staffing meetings which are typically all day long. We're looking at every single student, every single program, how many teachers, how many um aids, what those students needs are um when we are looking at

185staffing. So, those are just some of the other duties that um happen. a big part of their thing is compliance. So they're again they're looking at policy, they're looking at timelines to make sure that they are following all of this. So now I'm going to go into what secondary coordinators do. And again, we have four secondary coordinators and that would be middle school and high school. Each one of our coordinators at the secondary level have between 675 and 925 students per coordinator. So what that means is between 675 and 925 IEPs are going to come across that coordinator's desk every year because every year an IEP we have to have a new IEP. So at some point during the year, all of those IEPs will be coming across the coordinator's desk at the secondary level

186and they need to again check the IEP for compliance. Make sure that what is written is correct, dates are correct, timelines and things like that. Um each coordinator has approximately 45 special education teachers that they are interacting with. um throughout their schools. For for elementary, let me go back to elementary. Our coordinators have approximately five schools per coordinator. At the secondary level, they have three schools. Um some of those coordinators have some other duties, but because there are so many students, they each have around three, but they do have around 45 special education teachers. Um, let's see. They typically do between 225 and 325 eligibility meetings per coordinator. And again, they have to not just be in that meeting, they have to manage that meeting, schedule that meeting at the beginning of the year. They

187meet with all of their teachers because they know what eligibilities as far as um rehabs are going to be happening for the year. they schedule with all of their teachers and um make those schedules and they need to make sure that admin is invited, case managers at the ele or at the secondary level they can't forget the facilitators and counselors because of the PEP plans. Um psychologists, advocates, nurses and again meeting notices and things like that are required for each one of those meetings. Secondary also um they they as all of our coordinators follow the 80-day timeline. They coordinate with many different personnel um for these meetings and just for the students in general. Additionally, they do Wyatt which is achievement testing for many of the students and student observations. The elementary coordinators also do

188achievement tests and observations when needed for um functional behavior assessments, achievement test for when they're being um it's a new referral and they're testing whether it be for gifted or for something special ed. Um and then they attend all of the eligibility reval meetings which will typically last um close to 60 minutes. Some of the other duties that our coordinators do is they will meet with all of their staff in August. As I said, they schedule meetings that they know they can schedule ahead of time. They compile and provide case managers with notebooks. Um, and these notebooks are a step by step in what needs to be done. If you are a case manager, these are all the things you need to do. These are all the things you need to do for an IEP.

189So, it's a real um good guide for our teachers. Let's see. They um schedule full days in the buildings. And again, they have three different schools. So, many times throughout the year, they will schedule a full day. A lot of our our um coordinators, both elementary and secondary, will say, "Wednesday. I'm at Spring Mills Middle School. Fridays I'm at um Martinsburg High School. So they know that the case managers, the administration, any staff who need to talk with them, they are there or if there are questions. And um again, they monitor the IEP completion. A lot of times they have to go and chase after people to get the IEPs if they if they haven't turned them in or if they turned it in and there's a sticky note, you need to change this and

190they turn it back to the teacher case manager and then they don't get it back. So, especially at the end of the year, there's a lot of um going from school to school looking for things. Um, and there's manifestation meetings which have to do with discipline and behavior that they do attend as well as which I think I said meetings when there are advocates involved. So, um, uh, it's it's a pretty daunting task. There's a lot there's some pretty high numbers. It's doable. We're all here sitting here and um well and I also want to if you'll allow me the um prek coordinators are also involved because we had a prek presentation planned previously. I didn't don't want them to seem to be oversighted in this conversation and so I asked David if I could

191add in a sheet that deals with the prepaid port. So while she's passing that I will email this any questions talk about this real quick. Oh, okay. So, I just get out of my way. Fight going on right now. Address the um roles that they play because it does look a little bit different. Every preK student that's identified with special needs often requires at least two full um evaluations within a one to threeyear period depending on when they enter the program. They work with for three of those meetings are in the evening. They um there's two of them. So they split the county. They work collaboratively with admin. You can see the list. I won't read it but I I felt it was really important to include this work while we also talked about the

192other coordinators. I collaborate with them daily. We have weekly meetings but I I just wanted to share this piece and again I'll email it so that you can add it to anything electronically. How many pre-corders? Preorders. Two. We have two. So there's there's nine. There's eight. There's eight at the But there's four elementary, five or four secondary. There was one transitional and then two at the pre-K level. Yes. Correct. Oh, I was just if there were any questions. I have a question. Okay. We lead the state in autistic identification. I think over 400 or 40 or something and I asked Mr. B to get it out. I didn't bring my sheet but it was I think about $20,000 according to the coding process. Why why do we and I think we're maybe a hundred above

193Canala County. That's I don't have it on list. So what what I have found and prior to being in administration, I was the autism and behavior um coordinator and throughout the years um as I've looked at the students who are transfer, we have a lot of students transferring in. Um I think we have pretty good programming. Um we have had some parents say we moved here because what's going on over in this county is not acceptable. Um now that's not all but um we the standards and assessments that we are using are the gold standard if you will that Kennedy Kger W down in Morgantown W behavioral health here because Kelly and I met with them at one point. Um, one of those is the We are using the same tools that everyone else is

194using. Um, I don't know if it's because we have a lot of people moving in. Um, and the levels of course of autism that we have are very very different. The spectrum is very very wide and we have some of our students who are eligible for autism who are almost in gened all day long. There are others who are in special education all day long. So, I think that there's a lot of different reasons for why we have so many. I think we have had parents come in and say, "My child has been diagnosed by their pediatrician, they have autism, they need an IEP." And we will look and we will assess and if they do not need an IEP for educational reasons, we will not give them an IEP. So, um I don't know

195that it's over identification of autism because as I said, we use a very standard um assessment tool that other hospitals are using pretty reput reputable hospitals. Um do you have it is it is I've been around the state a little bit more than the different districts. This is by Florida the biggest population uh percentage wise of seeing students with autism. Um I I like Michelle said um or Miss To said we have uh we have a lot of people just coming because our housing is a little cheaper here. We've got good programming. Uh we are known for our programs in the state. So that that all kind of adds to it as well. I think well I think what we've understood over the years that many families move here because of uh stricter regulations on

196special needs and what we can give them for services and especially how we service many of our students. Um we because we are a larger county we have classrooms that are specifically for autism. A lot of the very small counties have a multiat um with autism. So there's a lot of different categories of eligibility in that particular classroom. And although it is doable sometimes, especially when you have more involved children with autism, it works a lot better when you're working with them in a smaller group and then give them the opportunity to be out in the genet environment to be with their peers. How many teachers are the subs trained as autistic teachers? Um, I can give you intermediate because I was just looking at this of all of the intermediate schools. I was looking

197for an advocate. Um, we have four, was it four or three? Three or four certified autism teachers in all of our intermediate autism programs. And we have a lot at the intermediate level. So, um, not all of our teachers, many of our teachers are not certified in autism. It's one of the harder ones for us to recruit. Absolutely. Yes. Does that put more on? We spend a lot more time. I was a coordinator for 15 years before I moved into administration. And we the the pendulum has swung, if you will, and we do spend a lot more time in classrooms supporting, observing, making suggestions at that level than maybe in previous years where we focused more on compliance and some of those pieces. We do spend a lot of time helping support classrooms and making

198suggestions. Of the prek exits we've just done recently and we're still working on them. Um I want to say 53 of those students are entering kindergarten with the eligibility of autism and we have done full evaluations for those students. Many of them are non-verbal to my understanding as well. Wow. And the legislature just I think the governor just signed the discipline bill today. Yes. Yes, sir. But will these children be basically exempt from anything that I don't think Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say it depends on if it's a manifestation of their disability. That's what we have to go by when we're looking in at any behavior. Is it a part of their what causes them to do it? Is it their disability or is it something above and beyond? And

199that all has to be taken in consideration when we're looking at that. I think we need to do a lot of planning and collaboration as well among the different departments to determine exactly what all that will look like and how we implement all of those things to provide support to the teachers, the student. So I think it'll take all of us working interdep departmentally to make those decisions. Dr. Sachs. I I didn't follow the lady up, but I attended a meeting the other day at the Stlefield Institute and one of the presenters, Michael mentioned her name, but she had done a and talk to you. Actually, I think he he called her. She's probably listening to our presentation. Okay. Well, I I just was wondering the title of her project was data versus testing to

200secure services for K12 students. Could you summarize her concern? Uh her concern was that um in eligibility of the child she was focusing on uh was that I believe his IEP is written around reading and ELA and uh but he was also having weaknesses in math. But according to the data that they were collecting when they would do the testing for evaluation, he was not he was above the a the average of where we were supposed to where we would have been identified. So therefore that math score although his scores were low he was not meeting those special ed needs due to that eligibility criteria. That's what I remember from that. Yeah. I I just I was just I mean I'll I'll get I'll give her a call, but I was just wondering so the

201test that she's referring to. Yes. And I actually she said she had been looking for this testing uh data information uh for probably eight 10 years stuff like that. Um I was glad to find it with about 10 minutes and send it to her right after that presentation. So thank you. Thank you all of you. We appreciate your attendance tonight and the information that you've given us all. Mr. [Music] Good evening. I'm gonna present to you the uh Mountain Ridge Primary School. And before I uh present all that, Brian's going to get a a video of it so you can kind of get an idea of a fly through of what the Mount East Primary looks like. Um some of the the furniture that you see in this fly through is more of a general

202representation. Unfortunately, she didn't do it, did she? She didn't quite get what we wanted. Oh, but uh but the school was accurate the way it looks. So there will be improvements to the furniture. Yeah, the furniture remember is going to be much improved. This is just a general representation. So we'll have you check this out first. I think it was a furniture that when we saw someone just before that was presented. It's probably Yes. Okay. [Music] This of course again office the front office spaces that sort of Yeah. [Music] Yeah. Those are display [Music] cases. Remember these are the monarchs. Martin primary monarchs. There's our [Music] electric that space just so you know that's right across from the cafeteria here. going to the gymnasium. It's just a half court half court gymnasium, but anything is

203necessary to go to the pool court since on this campus we already have the um and [Music] those going to take you to the elevation [Music] labor and other space and it's got a cool type of glass door system. [Music] Okay. is going to have the grade levels on the walls with the decoration. The classroom furniture here is another one. A lot more collaboration. [Music] Yeah, not as accurate. It's similar to what you saw at Tomahawk probably when you were there. There was a sink in the classroom. There's things in the classroom. Yes. Will it have seating that is um I guess diverse like bouncy balls and waffle that will be part of the We have not gone through the furniture um schedule yet, but that will be part of um the proposals that we're

204going to engage with two different furniture companies to sort of say, "Hey, here's our budget. Now you you impress us. Show us what you got. And so we've been working with Meteor and um School Specialty um around they're both on cooperative purchasing to give us proposals on how we can have people best equip the school um with uh with furniture. Okay. And it didn't also didn't include the playground, right? There was a concept to get that in there either unfortunately. But we'll be coming back to you with that information because the playground will be a separate item that we'll need to get purchased. So, we'll have some images and perhaps a rendering of that in a upcoming board meeting. Uh, so I give you a handout here of these are all the contractors that bid

205on this school. Uh, and of course uh you have can probably notice because I've sent you another handout that the apparent low base bid uh winner was Warner Construction. Uh the bid came in at for the base bid of $23,593,700. And the base bid, I call it the base bid because uh that would be a total of 24 classrooms um eight in each wing for kindergarten, first and second grade. So base bid 23,593,700 to Warner Construction. Warner Construction in case you uh need a reminder is also the company that is currently building the Hedgesville Early Learning Academy. And so some additional items to mention uh there's an alternate that uh we've put on this bid. Alternate alternate number one was to make sure that our HVAC controls were the same system that we have throughout

206the entire district. It made sense for us. That was important to have the same controls that we had in all the other schools. So, that was alternate number one. Uh, came in at $0, by the way. So, hopefully you'll prove alternate number one. And then alternate number two is for additional classrooms. And the additional classrooms would be um two on each wing for a total of six. So, if you decide tonight that you think we should add uh six additional classrooms for a total of 30 classrooms at Matri Primary School, then that would be an additional cost of 1,383,200. What What will the um excuse me, what will the um what will that put the um capacity? Uh I'm going to give you that information here shortly as you are contemplating that decision. Okay. U

207there are a few other items that need to be addressed this before I get the finger. Well, I like I like to keep you guessing a little bit. The uh the local water department uh unfortunately has determined that um they are still determining the water pressure in this area and so it's right at the borderline of not quite good enough. So we're still waiting on the final results for the uh the water pressure issue on this end of the county. And if it's not quite where it should be, then we may have to add like a water pump or something like that in order to make sure that that this school building is up to code. So and the pressure the pressure is more about water suppression. It's more about the water suppression system, not

208like you know and operating the school on a general everyday basis. But if there was an emergency and a fire suppression type of situation too. Yes. And so and and one of the things that so it's not only maybe a pump but it's also the size of the sto water storage tanks that they may have to be able to place whether they be above ground below ground those sort of things. So that is probably something that could come as a change order just because we didn't want that water the water issue to hold up the construction process. So and it's listed uh on this pricing sheet to give you an estimated uh cost if this were to be a problem. What what what did he allocate for that? I think it was like Yeah, it's

209basically down here somewhere. I don't remember where. No, that's something different. I think you put it in the contingency itself. Yeah, I think it must be in the I think it's built in. I don't see it specifically listed, but it is included like you said probably within the contingency. What do you expect that cost might be? We have to I think I think he told me it was 75,000 the contingency and I and I reading the cover letter from Kendley the bid came in at 5.3 million under what we had budgeted. Yes. Oh yes, that's correct. Well, wait a second. Yeah. Well, that there that that's a little bit that is a reset four million. One one narrative could argue that. However, um I want to be very transparent that I'm not in agreement with

210what that number is because in December, uh Mr. Buts and I sat down with Mckenley to to scope out the rest of the projects that are available in the bond. And uh based upon that conversation in December and their analysis of where certain bids might be coming in, we actually moved and I want to make sure I say this correctly. I apologize. Um we um we moved about we moved $9.5 million to the falling waters project in order to cover the falling waters project which lowered what we thought mountain ridge may cost. So it actually actually based upon our reallocation of some resources back in December for the remaining projects, this project is actually about 4 million over from where we had where we had changed the budget back in December. So it's still based

211upon where current numbers are coming in at and where the budget had originally been planned for Mountain Ridge is still significantly less. Um I know that they're saying it's about $5 million less than what that's deceptive. it. Yeah. So, I think that there were some numbers were going back and forth in the planning process. So, I just want to share that in order that in order to be able to do mountain to do falling waters, we needed the additional $9 million based upon the the change in scope on falling water. So, um however, I'm going to say that I'm going to say that that um in my conversation with Mr. Buts and my analysis, I'm still very comfortable. I think that it's still a win what this what this came in at. Um, but I

212think there was some confusion as to what was remaining and what we would end up having to have for this project compared to what we needed Falling Waters to come in at. And and we're still working through that Falling Waters project, but with Mountain Ridge, we are slightly over we are over budget from what we were hoping it would be at. Um, but it is within the scope of what policy 6200 required from SBA. So, um, and in fact, I even had a conversation with Mr. Buts over the alternate two, which the additional classrooms. We agree that that's that's something the board should seriously consider because it it's needed. Um, but it it will change what how much we're going to have to come up with for Waters. This school will replace Nwood and Jared

213and Jared. Yes. Now, can you give me the capacity? But I also have some more things to share with you. So, Mr. Tyson, can you give her the capacity? Wait, time out. Time out. Time out. Michael and I are on the same page. This is replacing and Jared's town and we were aware of Inwood. We did not. It is replacing Jared's Town. Yeah. Jared Town and Inwood. So Jared'stown will also become well we don't know what's going to happen with Jared'stown but Jared's that facility but Jared'stown and Inwood are both combined into uh Mountain Ridge Primary. Yes. I don't remember that part of the planning when we were doing all that. I remember Inwood. I remember us talking specifically about Inwood. I'll say Jerry sounds well aware though like they Oh, I'm sure they are.

214I just in in all the realm of sure everything there's a there have been a lot there have been definitely a lot of things in this but like so um yeah so this is so like for example what is it what we're going to do with that property Jartown we have yet to through my transition uh and in talking with senior staff there has been no decision made exactly on what will happen with Jaredtown yet and so that'll be something the board will have to determine I I agree Just for two of you, I I remember Mr. Stevens taking a lot of interest in this particular school because his wife worked at Jared Stam and he was kind of I mean I'm not saying anything negative. I'm just saying he was he was very particularly

215interested in this school because Inwood and Cher were going to be They're they're close. They're very close proximity Jaredtown in and Jaredtown obviously had Oh, did you go to Jared Town? Oh, okay. I mean, obviously it has some logistical ADA, you know, issues with multiple floors that um and I'm not sure how the decision was is that Inwood would be the site for the prek compared to Jared's County, for example. I'm not sure how that evolved. I think Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's on the main You two youngsters didn't realize that. I'm telling you that you know what you know what there are things that others on this board have have not remembered about the the whole bond process. So I'm I'm gonna say that this is where we fell down and falling waters as an

216example though will um that's a Marlo embedded. Thank you. Yeah. So just just for context there. Yeah. I remember that and also to alleviate theics. It will definitely alleviate because that's just that's just consolidating the primary because there's still a need for that intermediate. That's why that school will be close to a thousand students which is driving that cost up obviously. Now you can proceed. Proceed. Okay. So I had a few other items I just want to make sure I shared with you. One of course was the water issue. Second one is there is currently a traffic impact study that's happening for the Route 51 or Jaredtown Road. And it's likely that we are going to need to put a turning lane. Hey Brian, can you scroll down to the map so that he can

217he can highlight that to the board? Yeah. Just keep on going. Keep going south. Keep going. Yeah. Once you see Route 51, it's likely that we're going to need a turning lane similar to what's in front of Mountain Ridge Intermediate right now. And so there is Mountain Ridge Intermediate. And actually, can he touch the screen? Scroll down and then to the left. Down a little. That's good. And then go to the left a little bit. There you go. Thank you. That's that's perfect. Okay. So right now here is Mountain Ridge Intermediate. Here is Route 51 Dartown Road. There's currently a turning lane into the Mountain Ridge um intermediate middle school, but it'll have to be extended on further down so that we can have a a turning lane into a new entrance that would also

218accommodate and improve Mountain Ridge Intermediate traffic flow. And if you keep on going middle school, uh also to the middle school and then it will connect all the way to the primary school. Um so there's a lot of road improvement that would need to happen because of that. So you'll see one of the line items on there was the a mention of that. That that's what it's referring to, but the turning lane would have to be on this on the highway. Yeah. On route 51. And we don't know what that's going to cost yet because they're still doing that study. But that would be something we need to add. Um, well, we could either subcontract it ourselves or add it as a an addendum to the contract with the contractor, but I want to emphasize

219this road will uh and and there was significant conversations with transportation um and their their analysis of how many buses are going to be stacked. But we're adding, if you'll look there, we're also adding parent parking lanes so that parents can start off to the off to the right hand side. There'll be a place where parents can line up when they're doing drop off or pick up pick up. Um, and this road will also be built to be able to handle the capacity um for a future high school. So that this road will handle the future capacity of the high school. You'll you'll have theoretically the property that we own for the high school will be in the behind. This will be the road and the improvements will be made to handle that. Okay, perfect.

220That's where I was going. You just scroll back north. All right. So, you can see it's going to connect to the uh that was the back side of the intermediate school and then on further it will connect to the middle school. You can also see and there's enhancements to the middle school parking there too or or turning stuff as well and then improvement to uh additional lineup of traffic as it goes into the primary school which is going to sit behind the Mountain Ridge Middle School. Where were the high school supposed to be? On the hill. If you look at Yeah, probably over here to the left on top of this. It's a a hillside basically. I thought the road was going to circle come up there and then circle around in the back. Well,

221the road continues. If you could bring the screen this way, you'll [Music] see you'll see other way. You'll see. It'll connect back over to I think that's what you're trying. And where does our property line end there at the top? uh the property line. Let's see. There's a little bring this down. Oh, we can't go. There's a there's like a there's approximately I think it's a four or five acre parcel right here and then our property wraps around it. So, it goes probably another 50 yards maybe something like that. Something something. There's a total of 150 acres. Yeah. And this is on one portion of that 150 acres. Nice. Yes. If the DOH show does a a study, would there be a possibility of putting a light at Horn Solo potentially or at the That

222is a great question. I think that maybe not for this project, but if we at the high school, it's likely that that maybe become a roundabout or a lake. I think that that is possible. You know, that's gonna happen. All right. So that was my Georgetown Road information. Also, when the after everything was complete and they were about to meet with Warner Construction, they they discovered that there were a couple of water heaters missing and a backflow pretor. So that also is included uh in that listing of other items. And of course items that we will need to purchase are the furniture, the technology, smartboards or whatever we use, and of course the playground and playground equipment. And that's and those things are budgeted. And those are line items on that sheet that I gave

223you. What's it cost? The soft. Yes, the soft. All right. So our chat is up now right here. Oh, look at this. This is the projected enrollment for 2026. 358 students likely is what we'll open the school with. Um, not this August, but next August. The base bid of 24 classrooms will accommodate 508 students. If you choose to add the six additional classrooms, that'll bring the maximum enrollment to 648. I referred to the uh demographic study that was just completed in December by Preston Smith. I need to give a shout out to Brad Spanigle. He helped me to interpret the data. And the projected enrollment for this Map Ridge Primary School 2030 projected enrollment that's only like 5 years from now 391 and projected enrollment 2035 424. So hopefully those numbers kind of give you

224an idea of what of what we're looking at. And that is the projected enrollment. You know how we looked at you've looked at that study and there were three lines of enrollment projections. This this is the high line that that we uh that I put these numbers from. So, do you actually think we need this? No. I was gonna say I don't think I don't think Jim and I had that I don't think we had that conversation when we had that. He was just saying that if we needed to then then he would recommend it. But that clearly does not dictate that we need the I don't think so. A little wiggle which is nice. Yeah. For a change. Any other questions for Mr. Oh, I did want to point out what that was the

225page with the breakdown you have elementary that matters but you turn that in somewhere. I see what you're saying. Yeah, we can fix that before it's reviewed by SBA. This of course is an SBA as well. Thank you. I still you know you're approving the base and then also the alternate number one technically the HVAC controls. Um that's what that's so um pleasure is the base bid at 23,593 23,5937 $700 um and for alternate one which is the HVAC controls and we are not approving alternate two or what is your pleasure for how Hey, I mean, I was up riding Sul Spring Road today and I mean, I saw a lot of dirt moving for a subdivision. I'm just worried about these projected numbers by the Smith court, the Smith Group. Um there there's still

226a lot of development going on there. A lot of development, but not a lot of kids. I mean what we heard previously was younger people moving in and um retirees. Yeah. Retirees or those who have already gotten their their kids are out of school. Um I don't want to owe them. Yeah. I mean I I'm just I'm just worried about the reliability of the of the study and those numbers. It is easy to add on. The way that we've got it structured is it is easy to add on. So if in let's say five years there looks like we're going to be far exceeding that there can be a different conversation. I know that's only 5 years from now and that seems like a short amount of time but from what we're looking at with

227these studies I don't know how we justify okay so the building we the base will will cover 500 students we're at 358 now right how much is it affordable right now one like a one classroom 140,000 So we're getting every six classrooms around 200 somethingous six classrooms is a million breaking down by class to buy for example six portables or 230,000. So I like the longevity of what we're like I'm not like I'm thinking like 15 years I might not be able um that's a thin product. Yeah. just just try to like we're so against portables and we have an opportunity to build um six classrooms for the price of a portable each for structure. I think it's worth the investment. So I mean I'll move to approve alter you jump you jumped in there

228you're you want to add six question yes this longevity of just his like the historic factor of that we use our school buildings to the extent that we do now in this capacity of our schools now Um yeah, we don't know really what the numbers are going to be at this point, right? Just also one of the knowing the what's in the planning commission's hands right now. There's I should just have debate. Yeah, there's 200 if if we go if we go max right and do the alternate 200 extra that's 200 24 extra student extra student space that we're not occupying potentially that's a lot cooling that area that area if I could add another just not to complicate the discussion But, you know, the SBA looks at 80% utilization as being at 85 85

229at capacity. So, you're building something for 508 at um 358. I'm not sure what that percentage is, but you're probably getting pretty close to what the what the SBA would consider is full utilization. Um 431. Well, actually 432. 432 would be would be 85. Yeah. So um okay so you're you're about seven you're 75 or so students away from that but um if you think about the growth and also the Preston Smith study talked about um the district boundaries being changed for those schools. Nothing says that if the school is built larger that it doesn't affect how we want to move some of those boundary lines. also to maximize the utilization if we were to go over in you know if we were to add that on add those additional classrooms on. Um I think

230it also takes into account for potentially other special ed classrooms that we might want to add at some point. Um you know if we you know for that for that area it gives us greater flexibility to do those things. Um so I don't think there's any wrong answer here. Obviously $1.3 million in the grand scheme of things um to add classrooms I think is is absolutely a very good investment but if we save it it's going to be added to the the falling waters project or inwood or or what have you which is sorely needed and is over budget. That's my um concern is that those dollars could be definitely added to borrowing orders because we're going to need it and that's a need it now versus a possibly need it later. and it and

231we would be building to possibly need it. And I I struggle with the we need it now versus possibly need it in the future. I hear what you're saying and you're not you're not wrong. It's just it's hard to give a motion. Yeah. Somebody Well, he motioned it. I just one other thing. No, you can't have one other thing. Hello. We will have Jarrett Town there if we the building if we were to have a sudden growth spurt there in the Edwood area. We don't know what we're doing with that building yet. So, that needs to be a conversation. Well, but that's something that's a conversation that would definitely could be used for that if that occurred. But but you can't keep it keep it shut down forever and then decide you're going to open

232up the school. But I think that needs to be a conversation that we have sooner rather than later. Mr. Martin, I I think with the 140 students capacity when we build the building, I think we have a cushion here. I I just worried about the numbers being kind of low because I think growth would be greater than than what they're projecting. I mean, that's my worry. I just don't want what previously the board has done for um not looking at growth um in this county. I just don't want us to build another just 10 years. No, like we're kicking the cane down at this point. if we just don't build for growth, then that's what I'm worried about. And then to hear about our portables left and right. So, I'm just trying to get ahead

233of that now as we have a good opportunity to build um just more classrooms and actual one facility. But but the need for 1.3 million is a greater need for a Marlo school because we have to alleviate the the size of PTON. as well as consolidating two elementary schools because I just I just wanted to make sure we had a chance to debate your motion. The bottom line is we're we're going to have to redistric. Yeah, that is true. So, um we're looking at um the numbers the way the lines fall now. Um, you know, it's not a pleasant thing, but we're definitely going to have to be listed. So, do I have We have a motion and a second. All in favor of I'd like to just restate what the motion probably just intended

234to be. That is is that the board approved um Warner Construction um as the contractor for the new Mountain Ridge Primary with the base bid of 24 classrooms and and also accepting alternate one and alternate 2 for an additional cost of 1.383,200,000. One's,383,200. Thank you. Well, that's that's the motion. Motion. Yeah. Okay. All in favor of the motion say I. I motion has died. So, we'll have a a second motion to approve um Warner construction uh for the Mountain Ridge Primary School um the low bidder at bid price for 24 classrooms 23,593700 and for the HBAC alternate one and their costs which I just to be have a motion. Second. Second. All in favor? I posted motion carries. Okay. Now, um on to the uh summer HBAC project chamber. Uh yes. So, in I think

235it was January, I presented to you um essentially four projects for HBAC upgrades. That would be the Hedgesville Middle School gymnasium to become a condition space, Musman Middle School gymnasium, the same Hedgesville High School auxiliary gym, same. And then 10 classrooms at Martinsville High School. and it was approved at that board meeting for a total of $3 million for CMTA to do that work this summer. Since that time, three additional HVAC systems have failed at Martinsburg High School and they need replaced. So, there also were a couple of other factors that changed the price. Um those factors are the as CMTA listed the tagging of contractors already booked for summer increase of 10% in wages sheet metal piping material cost also went up and they mentioned general issues around tariffs that are hitting their suppliers

236and is causing pricing inflation. So, I'm coming tonight with a change order asking if we do this same project of course, but adding the three additional classrooms at Martinsburg for a total of 13 plus the additional pricing that they have mentioned here. Instead of $3 million, it would bring the total to 3,310,000. And that is essentially the change order request. I have a representative Eric Hasselwander from CMTA on this call in case he would happen to have any questions uh that he could probably address more specifically than I can. And um and and I also I also just want to add that when we had asked for approval of the 3 million. um that was giving CMTA the authorization to go ahead and start moving in that direction even though they knew that there they

237still had to do some bidding in order to refine what we were going to be able to do because of supply order. They were concerned supply chain issues. So, um I just want to I want to say that if the board was not to approve the additional we're still getting the 10 classrooms and those gyms, correct? Correct. Thank you. I have a motion to um accept the change order of $3,310 for the summer projects previously approved at Michael and the addition of the $3 million class. So, so yeah, the addition of three HBAC. Okay. Yeah, there were 10 classrooms that were either failing or almost and now there are three additional in that same wing. So that's $6 million still addition 310,000. It's an additional $310,000 which will include those additional three classrooms. Yes. So

238move second questions questions. Eric, Eric, are we going to be seeing change orders because of the tariffs on existing projects? Um, that's a great question. I I haven't seen on any of the bids that we received um except for one contractor who we who was not the lower bid. though um though they were nobody has included any um language in in their bids to include anything about um tariffs. So really, I think for the most part, contractually, I don't know that they have the opportunity to ask for more money in that case. And I think that's part of why the um the prices were already higher to begin with and why we're um asking for a little bit more money was was because I think they're trying to cover themselves for for that. Hey, and

239the supply chain issues, is that more involved around electrical components? Um it it is uh it is also for um things like rooftop units and larger HVAC equipment. So um I think the the supply chain issues uh that were kind of referenced were uh around the the fact that we've already ordered some of the equipment for this project. Um but then the the remaining equipment, some of the smaller fan coils and things that are are um lower lead time, we we still have to go ahead and order. And in that batch of that order that would um include the extra three classrooms. So in this kind of time constraint like now would be the time we need to go ahead and order those and we just need to know if we need to do it

240for 13 classrooms or or for 10. Will the high school be ready to run from August? Yes sir. Just thank you. We have a motion and a second. And I have um all in favor of the $3,310 300 3,310 [Music] 3,310,000 um for the change order. Uh say I I motion carries. Now um I had asked Mr. Dr. sex to give us a virtual. It's a rendition of baby um which would might show where the 200 ft is taken off like that. I just feel like yes I just share with you some copies there. So it was what I talked about at the last board meeting where we're dealing with uh an easement issue at the Hedgesville Early Learning Academy. I gave you a calc just so you can kind of see the the line

241of the easement that slices through that corner of the building and then the angled rendering to give you a better view of how that building will be slightly reconfigured to to not be within the easement. So just want to make sure you had a copy of that. That was just a followup from the last discussion that that previous board meeting. So where is the that's the 200 right here. So you you just don't see the the change in the building. Okay. That's the original building. Yeah, that's the original building showing you how that corner was impacted. Yeah. This is Oh, yes. Well, my concern is what what's it going to look like? That's the That's going to look exactly like that. Exactly like that. Okay. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Um the next thing on

242agenda is the uh property or request for the uh property that we're adding on to Primary School at [Music] $210,000 and need to go into executive session to discuss it. We've already discussed it. Well, um, if I can present just a summary of it, then if the board wants to discuss anything in executive session, I'm I'm willing to do that. Um, I obviously I'll make myself available. Um, but this is um 1.82 acres which sits directly behind Inwood Primary um right behind the playground. Um there's approximately I think I think there's 11 acres back there. Um that is slated for some development for I think some warehousing and some storage buildings. Um and so we have asked the owner for 1.82 acres um which would allow us to not have to wait for Mountain Ridge

243Primary to open up um in order to begin our work on the new Inwood Early Learning Academy. And um the the new Inwood Learning Academy was slated to not begin construction until Mountain Ridge opened up so that they could raise the building and build the new the new facility. Um that's obviously going to be, you know, two and a half years from now. And so what this allows us to do is to be able to um take advantage of the timeliness of where um costs are and and um being able to expend those bond dollars um uh in a quicker manner than having to delay. And it will also help us address the overcrowding of our schools by being able to open up these 12 prek classrooms much sooner. um because what this will allow

244us to do is be able to build the new building at the site while students are still attending the current Inwood Primary School. So again, this allows us to open up the new Inwood Early Learning Academy two years ahead schedule. Um and so I would encourage the board to consider the purchase of uh this 1.82 acres in the amount of $210,000. I have a motion um to allow Dr. s 202 purchase agreement with um regarding a 1.2 one one point one 1.82 acres um behind inwood primary at a cost of $210,000. So move second. Second. All in favor? I wish Dr. Good evening, President Long, members of the board, superhel action dated for today, Tuesday, April the 15, 2025, are as follows. They begin with two uh unpaid coaching appointments and one in appointment. Uh

245we have one resignation of a coach. Uh we have three new healthc care procedure appointments and the appointment of a 17 uh planning period purchase. Uh we have five new professional appointments and included in that on line 14 is the appointment of the remaining deputy superintendent of instruction leadership service with Dr. Matthew Woods and he's here with us this evening. Uh we have two new assignments of professional or change of assignments for professional personnel. uh one policy 5000 assignment two resignation of professional personnel uh one retirement of the professional personnel after nearly 32 years of experience. Moving to service side, we have one uh new appointment on the service side, two corrections of titles uh for previous board agendas, four new midday appointments, one service retirement of 26 years, and two new substitute teacher appointments

246and one rescending of appointment substitute teacher for a total of 30 professional service coaching substitute personnel actions dated for today, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 with the superintendent's recommendation. I have a motion to accept the personnel actions as presented. So move second. Second. All in favor? Just could you name the 32year 27? [Music] I do. Uh the professional retirement with 32 years of experience is Brenda Watersworth from Musleman High School science teacher. Uh and then on the service side Cindy G. Cynthia G. Cynthia G. Yes. Bus operator. Um I'd like to move that we actually go into executive session to discuss line 14. Second. All in favor? I will go into executive session. Well, [Music] let's remove and then vote on all the other personnel actions. I have a motion. So move. Second. All in favor?

247We will be back out. session at something 859 859 us session and we have one item on the table and that is to vote personal action lines 14. I move we accept line 14. I second. All in favor? Motion carries. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I