Board of Education Regular Meeting 4/7/25

001Have a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Uh, next on the agenda is operation recognition. Unfortunately, the recipient is not here yet. So, what we will do is add that on to a future board agenda. So, next on the agenda is Presidential Awards for Excellent Mathematics and Science Teaching Recognition, Shelby Glover, Superintendent Spaxs, and board members. Um, exemplary teachers not only know their content and deliver instruction effectively, but they are creative in finding ways to involve their students in meaningful learning experiences. These words echo the essence of Renee Haynes's competence as an educator. She is always seeking new methods to enhance learning opportunities for her students. In the five years that I have been at Martinsburg High School, Mrs. Haynes has been named the finalist

002for teacher of the year for Berkeley County, the West Virginia environmental teacher of the year and now has been awarded the presidential award for excellence in mathematics and science teaching. And these are only highlights of her illustrious career. Mrs. Haynes has been a dedicated biology teacher at Martinsburg High School for over 17 years. Many excellent teachers are well-rounded in their school involvement. They sponsor clubs, coach chaperoons, serve on committees. All this in addition to completing their primary duties as instructors. But what makes Renee Haynes stand out even among such competent teachers? In short, it is her commitment to serving students who push the boundaries of academic excellence, exploiting her own passion for science. She works consistently on her lessons to make sure that they are engaging, current and scientific understanding, and innovative and learning methodologies.

003Her keen organizational skills allow her to streamline her teaching efforts and maximize her time available to oversee student learning. She seems to have boundless energy and enthusiasm for science education of not only MHS students, but also those in the community. Renee is dedicated to the science education and competency of not only all students in her classroom, but to all students in our community and state. Her past work as adviser of the Science National Honor Society and the coordinator of the Traveling Science Show brought engaging science lessons and discovery opportunities to students who may not have had the exposure to science education otherwise. She inspires our students to instill the spark of scientific inquiry to a new generation of scientists. She builds community connections which highlight MHS students expertise in their content knowledge and inspires relationships

004between younger emerging leaders in STEM. Mrs. Haynes is most inspiring at MHS due to her high academic standards for all students. In a time when mediocrity is sometimes mistaken for serious achievement where student success is defined as passing a course. Regardless of the learning attained, Renee expects her students to learn biological concepts at an exceptional level. She challenges, encourages, and supports them. In the end, her students have the satisfaction of knowing that they met that challenge and exceeded their own expectations. She is not only well-loved and respected by her students at Martinsburg High School, but the same sentiment is felt by the teachers and administrators here. Her co-workers described her as one of the hardest working, most caring people they know and that she teaches with her whole heart. One more co-orker said she is

005always growing her craft, pushing herself, her students, and her co-workers. Finally, the last said, describing Mrs. Haynes is hard to put into a couple of words. She is an intelligent, caring educator who sparks the flames of inquiry for her students and her thumb, it will burn their entire lives. Mrs. Hayne's most recent award that I get to award tonight, the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, is the nation's highest honor for K12 teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. The award recognizes educators who have demonstrated outstanding teaching excellence, fostering student achievement, and inspiring the love of learning. Recipients receive a citation signed by the president of the United States, a $10,000 award, and the opportunity to attend a ceremony in Washington DC where they can connect with

006other top educators. I cannot imagine a teacher more deserving than Mrs. Renee Haynes. Congratulations. President Long board members and Dr. Saxs, thank you for having me here tonight in recognition of the presidential award I received in January. The process to apply was strenuous, requiring a complete analysis of my teaching methodologies and their effectiveness. a reflection on my professional development and evidence of my participation in extracurricular activities. It was also awkward because who wants to watch a 30 minute video of yourself teaching. Um the wait for the announcement of awardees was the longest in presidential award history just shy of four years from the time I was announced as a state finalist in 2021 to the time the White House announced the final awardees in January of this year. So, I've had plenty of time to

007think about what this award means to me. In a nutshell, I would say it means that I must be doing something right. And I needed that reminder because even if I'm doing something right, the message I so often receive is that I'm not doing enough. I am passionate about the success of my students, about guiding them towards a happy and healthy and productive future. But I feel I fall short every day of meeting the expectations placed on me. I'm sorry. I feel the burden of increased class sizes, constant schedule changes, increased paperwork, decreased technology support and availability, supply funding that isn't keeping up with inflation. And through these increased demands, I wonder how much longer can I keep doing this? How much longer can teachers keep taking all that is piled on our shoulders before

008we collapse? I urge you in every decision that you make to consider the message that teachers here in Berkeley County Schools are receiving because I know I'm not the only one that feel as if I'm not enough. Be open with your communication. Involve teachers in decision making. Encourage and provide time for collaboration and professional development in meaningful ways. Take seriously the complaints and concerns of staff members. There is a room full of dedicated professionals here tonight speaking passionate please about changes the district is making. Hear them. Acknowledge them. Let them know that they are valued and appreciated and considered in the decisions that impact our teachers and students. Each person that's here tonight is here because they care. We wouldn't be in this profession if we didn't. And when the load gets heavy, when we're

009feeling not enough, we need reminders that what we're doing is enough. So, I'd like to close with some thank yous to my tribe, to my support system, my BB's, um Melissa, Trina, Aaron, and Katie for helping me problem solve, for collaborating on projects, for giving a hand up when I need it. to my science crew, Trina, Casey, Jim, and Kyle, for bouncing lesson ideas around, planning fun field trips, and for making me laugh every single day. And lastly, to my husband and daughters, David, Chelsea, and Kaylee, for putting up with my shenanigans, but also encouraging me every step of the way. Thank you. You've always been enough. I don't want anybody in this room to think they're not enough. I always felt that way about myself. I was never enough. So, I know how that

010is. But everybody in here is enough. We have hard decisions to make. Nobody on this board wants to make those decisions. But there's a time when you have to make hard decisions. That's what we didn't run for the $160 a board meeting. And I ran because I wasn't enough. But I thought I could do more. And you are enough. And everybody in here is enough. You can ask us on Facebook. You can do anything on social media you want. But we have decisions to make, too. And they are not always pleasant. So, in saying that, I'm sorry that this might ruin your award time, but you are enough and I congratulate you because you deserve that and much more. So much more. Thank you. Job well done. This is the superintendent point of excellence that

011we would like to present to you today. Thank you. Thank you. want to go back to operation recognition. Our honor is here tonight and um who does number one? Okay. All right. Um thank you uh board members. I'd like to welcome Mr. Thomas and his guests if is he Mr. Thomas we're just shifting people around [Music] in there rocking back and forth. Uh Mr. Thomas, actually, if you will stand um right here with me. Okay, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to stand with you. I'm Superintendent Ryan S. Nice to meet you, sir. Nice to meet you. It's a pleasure. Um so board members and uh guests, it is my honor um to explain why we are here and that is to present Mr. Thomas with his high school diploma after he forewent

012graduation in order to serve our country during the Vietnam War. Uh we are presenting you today, Mr. Thomas, with the Martinsburg High School diploma. And I would first like to ask assistant principal, Mrs. Glover of Martinsburg High School to say a few words. How you doing, sister? Haven't heard that since I was what, 16? Melissa Thomas, at Martinsburg High School, we are incredibly proud to award a high school diploma to one of our brave Vietnam veterans. This moment marks not only the completion of your educational journey, but also honors the sacrifice and dedication you made for our country. It is a privilege to recognize your perseverance and to welcome you into the proud tradition of our Bulldog School alumni. Your achievement serves as a reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the importance

013of never giving giving up on one's goals no matter the obstacles. Congratulations. Mr. Thomas, we have a few more things here. Hang on one second. Sorry. So, at this time, I would like to have our the cadetses of our J our Junior ROC program present Mr. promise with a certificate and a flag. You do that. Get one when I die, too. Getting this one early. Mean I'm getting ready to go away. On behalf of the Berkeley County Air Force Junior ROC program, we would like to present you with this certificate of appreciation for everything that you've done. We would also like to present you with this folded American flag as a token to your dedication to service. Thank you, sir. Let me just tell you one thing here. This goes right here for a second.

014Now, we want to make sure this is official. All right. And so, uh, whenever I graduate, um, a high school graduate, there's a few things that I have to say. And that is by the authority vested in me as superintendent of the great county of Berkeley County Schools and by the authority given to me by the Western Union Department of Education, I have one last assignment for you, sir, before I can confer your graduation upon you. Okay. Can you please move your tassel to the right? Oh, that's good. And now you are a graduate. Congratulations, sir. Um, the state made this possible with policy 4355 in 2021. I believe Mr. Murphy, a Vietnam veteran himself, um, helped me and we put made this for this is in policy in place. Uh my grandfather also served

015in Vietnam. So it mean a lot to me and Mr. Murphy. So um on behalf of the board and myself, congratulations and congratulations for being a Barnesburg graduate. Thank you very much. By the way, the mortgage is you haven't looked this happy since you went. You're right. I want to go into that. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Thank you. Oh, a picture. I don't take good pictures. Glad I got a hat on. I want gray hat. sit on that side. Just scooch in a little bit more. Perfect. Thank you. I go to college. I don't have a speech. Thank all of y'all. God bless y'all. on the football field. Now, if we can have Mr. Hatter um school high school assistant principal present that AC work this evening. Uh good evening, Dr. Saxs, President Vong, and

016members of the board. My name is Jason Hader. I'm an assistant principal at Edgesville High School. I'm here to present Sarah Offett Roberts as our caring educator. Sarah Offett Roberts is in her ninth year at Edgesville High School where she serves as a dedicated social studies teacher and alum of Hedgesville High. Sarah's deep rooted connection to the school drives her unwavering commitment to its success. Sarah is a fantastic teacher. She's an inspiration for her students. Her unwavering support extends far beyond the classroom as she passionately champions their extracurricular endeavors, pouring her heart into helping them excel in lacrosse and other activities. She dedicates countless hours to the school social studies fair and selflessly takes on the role of co-sponsor for the National Honor Society. As a testament for her commitment and love for education in

017her 11th grade contemporary studies and honors classes, she ignites a spark of curiosity, encouraging her students to think deeply and uh reflect critically with her exceptional guidance in AP US history where my daughter's in that class so I can attest to this uh firsthand. Uh she constantly pushes her students to expand their horizon and engage with the material on a profound level. Sarah is truly an all-star, shining brightly both in and out of the classroom, being a mark on the on the hearts and minds of all who are fortunate enough uh to learn from her. Sarah, you're welcome. uh Roberts, I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do within your school, but also within the community. You uh very much in embody the the ability to see the kids as not

018just kids, but as part of a community as a whole and I love that you're growing up the next generation with us. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you very much. Hedgesville is absolutely my home and I can't wait to continue teaching. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Every single day for our students like superintendent point of excellence. Thank you. Will be there. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is citizens form. Uh individuals uh that speak will have three minutes. Um please do not reference any student or um other coworker by names. Um I hope no I shouldn't have to say this, but I know you don't use profanity, but sometimes that happens because people's tempers get high. Um, so the first on the uh agenda

019is uh Vanessa Stone. Hi, good evening. Thank you for letting me have the opportunity to speak today. And I hope this opens a dialogue that can continue that um improves our student outcomes and considers all stakeholders involved in our best educational practices. As I mentioned, my name is Vanessa Stone. I am a registered voter. I vote in every election, including our local elections. I reach out to those who are representing our needs and our concerns. and I hope you will listen carefully to everything that everyone has here to say today. I'm a mother of five children, some of who have attended Berkeley County Schools and who are actively attending Berkeley County Schools. I'm the mother of gifted children, some of whom are twice exceptional students. I'm also the parent advocate and the vice president of

020the West Virginia Association of Gifted and Talented. Our organization is the only organization in the state of West Virginia that provides any professional development for gifted education for in the state. So that's both our general education teachers and our gifted teachers. The district does not provide any professional development in this area. Um we also welcome and want parents to have the same access to information. We welcome our board members and our superintendent, our principles to join our meetings and be active participants with us. Um, policy 2419 provides gifted education services for grades 1 through nine and exceptional gifted for grades 9 through 12. While gifted IEPs are not protected by IDA, they are protected by state statute. This district has previously been reprimanded for non-compliance issues for creating s creating services based on staff and

021convenience as opposed to student need. Gifted shoot students should comprise at least 3% of our student population if not closer to 5% when we consider the policy definitions with regard to disability and historically underrepresented groups. Best practices in gifted education seek to find and identify the strengths in students as opposed to prohibit access to this specialized uh education. Gifted education is necessary for students who are working far beyond grade level standards in one content area or more. These students will fail to learn important study habits and never be challenged if they only encounter grade level content that they have long mastered. Policy 2419 allows for grade acceleration, single subject acceleration, and curriculum compacting for these learners. Gifted education requires intensive differentiation as students in the same gifted cohort may be as many as six grade

022levels apart in reading readiness. It is not uncommon to have identified sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at college reading and writing readiness. the reduction in force letters that teachers have received in various positions. I'll I'll allow you to finish your sentence. Your three minutes is up. I'm sorry. I would like to instead of finishing my sentence say that I would like to continue to address the board in a further dialogue um because I did reach out to all board members and no one responded except for Mr. Wright to my concerns. So I think Thank you, Mr. I responded to you. I did not get a direct response. I got a response from Mr. Saxs, but thank you. Next on your agenda is Jude Stone. Hi, I'm Jude Stone. I'm a senior at Spring High

023School. As my mother was just speaking, uh I was a I received service via gifted program uh from second grade through 8ighth grade. And I've become very concerned over the past few weeks uh because uh I've learned that has been proposed and it's intended to uh massively reduce the size of the Giza program in terms of positions uh teaching positions and that's just a big mistake is all I can say. Uh when I was in the gifted program before high school, um I have to say most of the time at school, it was very very boring for me. I hated school except for those few times a week when I could go to a gifted classroom, receive gifted uh education uh because they were actually teaching me on an appropriate level. Um, and if positions

024are removed to the degree that's being discussed, um, it will severely negatively impact all gifted students and that would just be a massive mistake. And your interest should be in improving the educations of everybody in the county. And this would not do that. It would worsen them. So, thank you. All righty. Well, good evening board members, Dr. Sa, staff, and neighbors. My name is Matt Mullenax. I'm a member of the Martinsburg High School band, Bulldog Band boosters. I'm joined by another boost member, Mr. Scott Campbell. And our band director, Miss Casey Adams, is in the audience with us. We want to thank the board personally for our new band room as part of the Martinsburg High Fine Arts uh edition bond project, and we appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. We're here seeking the board's

025assistance to finding a resolution to an anticipated facility issue in our soon to be completed band room. Specifically, we are seeking individual instrument storage lockers to store roughly $550,000 worth of county and personal student instruments in a space which will be utilized by many outside groups um in the evening and uh outside of uh school typical school programs. Our need calls for swift action. In the summer of 21, our band stood at 31 members. Next school year, we expect to have 162, which is over 500% increase. And we're going to be the second largest band in the state. To the booster's understanding of West Virginia policy 6,200609.05, which outlines planning of school facilities, lockable instrument shelving is required for all West Virginia high school classrooms. Um, instrument lockers have been provided in other county projects,

026um, as was the case with South Middle School's band construction. We believe from the plans provided to our director that their inclusion in the construction plans has been inadvertently overlooked. Secure instrument storage is as important as hood ranges and gas hookups in a chemistry lab in so far as they're essential for education and they're not common to all classrooms. So folks, the current quote that we have for band lockers is roughly $50,000. While this equipment should be included in the bond project through a teleathon style fundraiser by MHS band students, the students themselves, they've raised $21,000. Unfortunately, this leaves us about $29,000 remaining. We respectfully request the board consider possible means of allocating funds to close the gap. Timewise, the best scenario would be placing an order for the lockers by June so they could

027be delivered and installed prior to the new band opening in August. Mr. Molax and I are able to formally provide the request in writing on behalf of the boosters if needed and Mrs. Adams is available to provide details on the band, the locker quotes and specifications. Thank you for your time and consideration. I was with them. Sorry. She's with the band. That's a good one. That was a good one. My name is Merkel. I am a seventh grade student at Martinsburg South Middle School and I'm in the gifted program and I have been since second grade. And um I would like to enjoy that last year gifted for my teachers and my peers. And they really enjoy that gifted program because it provides us with more challenging um subjects and like um ways that we

028can be higher than we usually are in these regular classes. And I think it can provide new students who can be tested for these gifted classes to help them even get higher. And um I've heard about um the board trying to reduce the amount of gifted teachers in the county by a lot and that pro that could cause a lot of problems for those teachers because there's a lot of schools in Bura County. There's a lot of gifted kids and those little amount of teachers could be stressed out or not be able to handle all those kids and those different levels of curriculum that those kids require and that level of intelligence that they all different levels of intelligence that each of these students have. And I once heard this quote from a man named

029Bert Lance in the 1970s. He once said, "If something is not broken, do not fix it." If there's nothing wrong with the gives it program, why are we trying to move forward and trying to fix it and change things if nothing is really wrong with it right now? I think it would also cause problems for many different students because these challenges that they're having in these gifted classes are helping them to improve and pursue their dreams of becoming that higher place, those better jobs. If we get rid of this gifted pro, if we reduce this gifted program, they won't have that many those challenges to help them increase their intelligence or be better than they they are or want to be. Um also they're these kids these students are going to have less time with

030these gifted teachers which can also affect different things like their um their time with the teachers can um okay uh you got this. Yeah, you got it. You got it. The um stress on these teachers will really impact them because if these teachers are trying to take so many different kids levels into one, it could make one level of students lower or one level of students too much of a difficulty to get higher. For example, sixth grade gift students may not understand the certain different um curriculum of an eighth grade gifted student and vice and different verses because these these younger students need more these gifted programs to help them get to that higher level. They may be at a higher level but these gifted gifted classes and gifted teachers help them to be even

031higher than they already are. And that's why I think we should not reduce or take away gifting but make it better. Thank you. Good evening. I am Amanda Allen. First and foremost, I've been trying to wrap my head around how the removal of the TIS positions in addition to numerous other positions throughout the county can be beneficial to our students. Amid your discussions about the budget and how to proceed moving forward, you have done nothing more than to turn the educational system into a business venture. Losing sight of the main group of individuals your decisions are affecting our students. More and more exceptional educators leave our county and sometimes the educational field altogether due to the hopeless feeling they are given from the callous decisions being made. And yes, they are callous decisions. Out of

032the excessive number of transfer or RIT letters that were distributed, many of the recipients did not see their fate on the horizon. In addition, the recipients were not given clear answers as to how jobs might be restructured. Instead, they were told to apply for anything that might be available. After 17 years dedicated to this county, I will need to take whatever job is left to ensure I have a job. No matter which way you look at our current situation, our students are as far down on the agenda as possible. Second, returning specifically to the TIS position. So, I will address what you, Dr. Saxs, told me in an email response. You said, "Many school systems have found that combining technology integration with curriculum and instructional coaching provides more comprehensive support for teachers. The new district

033academic specialists will continue the work of helping teachers leverage technology in the classroom, but they will also provide targeted content support. First, how is the description that you gave not in accordance with the TIS? What what the TIS are already doing? We know the technology component and can and do tailor what we know to fit the targeted content areas. Second, why were the current academic coaches not given transfer letters in addition to TIS so that the new positions you are proposing could be vied for fairly by all individuals affected. Once again, decisions were made with no foresight. Board members, I will end with these thoughts. You each were elected individually and thus each of you should have your own perspectives and voices for this county. I fear based on the lack of emails or calls

034I received after my email to all of you that few of you are willing to speak up about what is occurring. Dr. Sax is new to this county. None of you are. Our county is the most unique one in the state and the decisions made should not be based on best practices elsewhere in our state. The decisions made should be tailored to our unique needs and as I've already stated to our students here in Berkeley County. Stop telling educators and staff that we are valued through lip service and start valuing us through your actions. And if what I am saying continues to fall on deaf ears since I am an educator voicing my concerns, then listen to me as a parent of two students who is repeatedly questioning why I should allow my children to

035stay in a broken system. Hello, my name is Audrey Sansel and I'm a junior at Faith Christian Academy and I was in the gifted program from 2 to 8th grade and I find it extremely disheartening that we are taking funding away from the gifted teachers and we need to continue to educate the leaders, the future leaders and we um as a whole just need to understand that these students that are coming up from a young age that are like already bored in classes need to be enriched further in their education. And if we're just feeding them like the regular things that they already do know and that they can't become the leaders that they are capable of being. And if we don't have these leaders, then who's going to continue to push forward with our

036new technology and with the funding and with continuing arts and different types of things like that. And I'd like to say that my teacher, Mrs. Evers, when I was at South Middle School, pushed me to become the person who I am today and someone who would be able to speak about something like this because she really encouraged me as a person to be able to want to learn more and want to continue to go to school because I really didn't feel pushed in school until I began taking this program. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Veronica Elm. I've been a permanent long-term substitute teacher here in Berkeley County for the past eight years. I recently discovered that the state of West Virginia has put up a web page entitled Report Woke Teachers. This page

037became active on Wednesday, March 25th. It was created by Delegate Tom Willis, a Republican from Berkeley County. Mr. Willis states that SB 474 signifies freedom from tyranny in the classroom. He alleges that woke teachers are responsible for the tyranny and he urges people to report such teachers and anyone else who doesn't follow the West Virginia bill. I have looked at the page report work reportwoke teachers.com and the criteria listed to report teachers is explained in detail. However, there is nothing there that speaks to the consequences teachers may face once they have been reported. When, not if, a Berkeley County teacher has been reported to this web page, what exactly happens? Has the board decided how it will handle reported complaints? Will the offending teacher be fired? Will the teacher be put on administrative leave with

038pay without pay? Will there even be an investigation to see if the alleged complaints are indeed true? The anti-Dei bill, Mr. Willis's verbal attack on teachers and the creation of this web page makes for a very hostile environment for current and future teachers in Berkeley County and the state of West Virginia. West Virginia needs to retain and recruit teachers, not drive them away. Good evening. I'm here tonight to express my deep concern on behalf of myself and my fellow technology integration specialists about the future of our positions. It's impossible to convey everything in three minutes. So, I ask you to revisit the emails that I sent you last month, which included data about how TISS directly impact teaching and learning. Thank you to Dr. Saxs and Miss Long for your response. I've yet to hear

039from the rest of you, but I hope that the information I provided was impactful. I'm not only advocating for our role tonight, but I'm also speaking about the process by which this change is unfolding. We've been told our positions have been dissolved and that we must apply for new ones. TSS or content specialist positions. Yet, we have no job description, no timeline, and no idea how many tech jobs will actually exist. I was told I could start applying on April 1st. Now, I'm hearing it will be late May. As a result, many TISS are applying for jobs they don't want just to stay employed. Some are looking out of county, meaning that the instructional expertise that they they have will be lost. And if new tech jobs do become posted, some of us already will

040be gone or we will have to leave newly filled teaching positions vacant in June rather than April when fewer quality candidates will be available to fill those positions. Let's be clear, replacing a full-time inbuilding TIS with a traveling TSS is not the same. TSS staff will fix devices. TIS staff build and shape instruction. This year alone, I've supported teachers in the following tech integrated lessons, creating Spanish podcasts using GarageBand, augmented reality business pitches and economics, iMovie book trailers, interactive Canva maps for World War I, geometry AI chatbot reviews, and dozen more. Dozens more. I've also created over 30 original tech lessons for all 610 North Middle School students, conducted over 20 professional development sessions, implemented Apple accessibility tools for every special education teacher and EL teacher, and responded to over 700 tech help requests this

041year by myself. And while I sat in this meeting tonight, I was still working on tomorrow's Tech Tuesday newsletter for staff. And when my mother died in January, I came to school that day to enroll seven iPads for new students and send out the weekly newsletter. This isn't just a job for me. And right now, I don't even know if I'll have one next year. The tisses deserve better than confusion, mixed messages, and silence. If you're going to make changes, then lead. Be transparent. Communicate to us. Don't hide major decisions behind vague timelines and unanswered questions. We are real people with real families, real bills, and real dedication. But we now we need real answers. Not in May or June, but now. Please lead with transparency and respect. We deserve at least that much. [Music]

042Hello, my name is Rosie Basil. I go to Martinsburg South Middle. Um, I'm here to talk about the gifted program and how I think that what we're doing, what you guys are doing with trying to um, cut positions. You shouldn't be doing that. Um I've been in gifted for this is my seventh year. I started in first grade. Um here some ways the um the front room has affected me is um so in gifted I was able to explore things that I wouldn't have been able to get access to in regular classes. Um, with this teacher student ratio, um, teachers are able to, um, get to know students better and help them improve. Not only have I gotten diverse opportunities, um, I've also learned many life lessons that I value today and will value for

043a long time to come. Um, I've met people who are on the same level as me and today those people are my closest friends. Um there are many ways that taking this away will affect future students. Um once again there will be less skill level opportunities and having all three grade levels together which I've heard um it'll be harder to find a medium for difficulty diff yeah yeah sorry um for teaching like for example sixth and seventh graders won't be able to get things that eighth graders get and just finding a medium for that would be really difficult. Um the program helps by giving students with more developed skills um than their peers can receive challenging and engaging learning. Um the gifted program also helps with the development of skills. Um the program can provide

044a safe space for likeminded kids to connect and socialize which can give a sense of community and share shared Thanks. Um, that's all I have. Thank you for um letting me speak. Any Oh, well that's that's crossed out and it just says Here we go. Cory. Thank you. Good evening board members, staff, um parents, students. I'm here tonight to address my concerns for the loss of staff throughout our county. It's a time where we are continuing to grow. How does it make sense to cut staff? These cuts will harm our students. In particular, I'm here to address cuts to social workers as well as special education staff. As I have learned this evening by listening to other um to other people speak, um our um social worker at Eagle School um was also blindsided um

045with a letter um saying her position was being reduced. Um I wear I work at Eagle um school where quite often we have students who struggle to maintain appropriate behavior in the classroom due to traumas they have faced, lack of support or positive role models in the home or other mental health concerns. Mrs. Cardwell is a critical member of our student support team, helping students to deescalate and then re-enter the classroom with their peers in a kind and caring way. students find a safe space to talk about hard things going on in their lives. And she creates a calming space for students become more emotionally regulated. She's helped students who struggle with anxiety, anger, and feelings of out of control in their environment. Students at Eagle School present unique challenges for teachers and staff and

046need more than one teacher um um with 20 other students in the classroom who also need that same support or care um and facing their own challenges. Teachers today are faced with challenges that we weren't seeing 20 or even 10 years ago. And we are already wearing so many hats. We're not trained to be therapists, social workers, nurses, etc. But that's what we are finding ourselves facing today. The loss of Miss Cardwell and other social workers throughout our schools will harm students. Um, I'm also deeply concerned that the loss of special education aids is not not only at the pre-K level, but also the possibility of cutting other vital special ed educ wide range of needs and who are able to enter the program before they turn three will harm students. Providing for staff lunch

047breaks and student hygiene breaks will place staff out of ratio for a significant portion of the day, which is an accident waiting to happen. There is a reason that daycarees separate young children by age and having children who are three and have special needs have significantly more needs than their classmates who will be turning five sometime in the school year. reducing staff and prek will harm students. Um, I do have some letters. I left them back at my seat, but I have some letters from parents that I'd like to pass along to you. Thank you, man. If you can give those to Miss Manuel on the back, make sure the board gets those. Thank you. Hello, my name is Caitlyn Buy. Um, I'm a pre-K teacher. Um, I'm going to start reading a letter that

048you are all emailed yesterday, but we have not heard any response from any of you. Um, we wrote this letter to inform you of the strong concern we have regarding the impending decision to cut teaching assistance from our universal prek classrooms. The prek program is unique when compared to the K through2 education system. We service an evenly split mixture of special education students aged 3 to 5 and typical peers aged four to five together in the classroom every day with student totals averaging between 15 and 20 in each class. While some students are occasionally pulled out to receive services such as speech, occupational, and physical therapies, every child is in our general prek classroom for at least 97% of their school time. We acknowledge the fact that you may be unaware of the complex student

049dynamics of our classrooms. Since your own experiences may not have ever included the prek setting, we would like to take the opportunity to illustrate our classrooms to give you a better understanding of the immense impact cutting an aid would have for our students, specifically with regards to student safety and the quality of classroom education. Special education inclusion in the pre-K setting encompasses a diverse group of students that includes children with developmental delays, medically fragile children, children with hearing and vision impairments, children with various speech impairments and delays, and children on the autism spectrum. These children are identified in their IEPs as developmentally delayed for the purposes of appropriate eligibility, but that does not negate the fact that they still exhibit more specific disabilities and higher levels of need than the label of developmental delay may

050imply. In addition to this, children may begin attending prek as early as 2 years and 8 months since they enter our classrooms when West Virginia birth to three can no longer service them. Even though chronological ages of these children are roughly three to five years, their mental ages according to their brain development may be much lower, resulting in behaviors and performance level levels that are more typical of even younger children. Proper servicing of these children looks different in every classroom according to their IEP goals and services. But it is our responsibility to provide these children with a highquality education that aligns with both their IEP and with our state learning standards and policy. And the next person will be consuming. The next person Bane, are you Kayie Bane? Yes. Thank you for allowing me your

051time to speak. I'm also a pre-K teacher and I'll be finishing the letter. While special education students in our room may pose more elevated levels of need due to their delays is it is also important to include the needs of typical prek students. Developmentally young children ages four to five lack social and emotional skills such as how to regulate their emotions, share and take turns, problem solve, communicate effectively, and build rel uh build friendships. Our peer students require constant guidance and support through the school day to learn how to appropriately interact with their classmates, teachers, school staff, and the school environment. Our daily schedules include a balance of structured and unstructured learning times, which can lead to various situations arising as children navigate social conflicts and interactions. Considering the needs of both of typical and

052special education prek students when combined into one classroom presents a level of necessary adult supervision and engagement that would be difficult to maintain with only two staff members in the classroom rather than three. As professional educators, we are committed to providing our students with a safe and caring environment that supports them in all aspects of their development while being sensitive to their individual needs. Unfortunately, this high educational standard to which we hold ourselves were suffer with the removal of a teaching assistant. A day in our classrooms can bring many challenges. Students may become dis disregulated resulting in injury to themselves or others, meltdowns, unsafe behavior such as destruction or elopment, and or refusal to transition. This can cause other children to be I'm sorry. There are times when multiple children need to need direct one-on-one

053support simultaneously while the rest of the class also requires a leader for the next part of our day. Currently in our classrooms, we have two staff members who can assist students personally while one person can lead the rest of the class. If one person is removed, it will cause difficulty and effectively managing the needs of the class as individuals and as a whole. Thank you. And I'll let the next person speak. Good evening. Thank you for this time to speak to the board. Um, my name is Amanda Robinson. I'm also a pre-K teacher and I would like to continue our letter. Transition transitions through the school day can be problematic times as well as with young students. Some children may be unwilling to transition for various reasons. With three adults in the classroom, one is

054able to stay behind with the child while the rest of the class can move along to the next part of the day with the other two staff members. If a third adult is not available to provide this support, it begs the question of how will we transition our class to the playground or to the restroom when not all children are willing to go. Transitions like these are unavoidable are an unavoidable element in our classrooms as we have policymandated components of our day that must be fulfilled along with the requirements of having two adults always present with our children. Berkeley County PreK has classrooms among various school locations and this is a concern across the board for larger sites such as Marlo and and to our silo programs such as Jared'stown and Burk Street. For us

055to continue to provide an exceptional holistic education for our students, we must have the resources to allow the child to receive the individual support without restricting other students learning opportunities. This is only attainable by having three educators in the classroom. In addition to our student safety and education suffering as a result of losing this third adult, there is also the point of staff coverage that must be considered. It's no secret that the field of education is currently understaffed in both full-time and substitute positions. There are currently 27 prek jobs on the hotline because we have uncertified teachers. There are days in our classrooms when one team member is absent. And it's not very often that these positions are filled by a substitute. When someone is missing from a team of three, at least two people

056to fulfill daily duties, which is workable but not ideal. Those days are spent in an exhausting survival mode, attempting to keep everyone safe while also balancing day-to-day situations like toileting accidents and escalated behaviors. When someone is missing from a team of two, it leaves one person to fulfill the daily duties alone, which is not only unsafe, but also illegal in the prek setting. According to our state's policy 2525, it is unfair to assume that there would be someone available to cover these positions in our schools as our classrooms are housed in buildings that are often short staffed across the board already. The only option for prepaid classrooms when this problem staffing problem arises would be to shut down the classroom until both positions can be filled, thus causing compliance issues with both service minutes outlined

057in our students IEPs and weekly instructional minutes outlined in policy. Thank you. Hello, I'm Katie wear and I'm going to be finishing up our letter. Um, although we as educators are not directly involved in the business logistics of our county's education system, we are aware that funding and budgets are always considered when making decisions. However, this letter demonstrates that there are many other factors that hold just as much, if not more, weight than money. Yes, this this decision would positively impact the budget, but at the expense of the education and safety of our youngest learners. We all wear many hats in the education field, teachers, parents, grandparents, friends, and more. It is our hope that you would view this decision through the lenses of those roles rather than as a simple business decision. put our

058students needs first, as we do every day in our classrooms. They deserve to come to a safe and caring environment every day. They deserve the opportunity to learn and grow without restrictions that are sometimes out of our control. PreK is a vital program in our county that will be extremely impacted by the removal of a teaching assistant. We ask that you fully consider the ramifications that our students will experience if our classrooms lose this support this support sorry and determine another route to preserve the county budget. Matters outlined above affect every prek classroom in our county. We request the meeting with Dr. Saxs, senior staff, and members of the board to further discuss our concerns regarding the needs of our students and the future of prek. We recognize that the entire county prek team cannot

059peacefully attend such a meeting. Therefore, we propose to select six teachers from various sites to represent us. Sincerely, 95 preK educators, 95 preK staff members, teachers and assistants signed this letter. Thank you. Zach, President Long, board members. Um, of course you've heard a lot about gifted today. We've done tonight. I want to thank those that have been here to support the gifted program. Um, so I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. So my name is Don Cedars. I am a 26-year veteran teacher at Berkeley County Schools. I have spent those 26 years teaching gifted education at Hedgesville Middle School the entire time. I have written letters to all of you. Some of which of you you responded, some have not. Um, and I've spoken with some individuals from the board office and

060so I wanted to put a face um to the name or yeah, face to name. I'll share with you some of what I do at Hville Middle School. I teach five classes of gifted education, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Um, I have a copy of my curriculum to you can see that each grade level is very, very different. I also plan, write, and conduct IEP meetings and complete other special education paperwork, always within timeline. I lead the math field day team. I'm assistant coach for our cross country team, and I'm a co-sponsor of the of our FCM. I am also certified to teach math and reading, which I'm always willing to do if it affords me the opportunity to stay at Hedgesville Middle School. As you can see, Hedgesville Middle is my community, and I

061will always be there for my students. However, this is becoming more difficult as we continue to be asked or asked to do more and more. So, yes, I am here for my job, but more importantly, I'm here for each and every Cedar's kid, some of which are here with me tonight. Um, I'm here to advocate for them because they deserve they deserve it. I feel that some of the potential changes and decisions are detrimental to my gifted students and to their education. These are our future leaders, doctors, educators, engineers, and so much more. Don't they have the right for the best education possible? Our county's vision statement is to inspire and empower all learners, preparing them for limitless opportunities. I think we all truly want that because Hedgesville Middle is my home. I want to

062continue to give back to my community and give my students those limitless opportunities with their education and beyond. I hope we can all see the value of that. Thank you for your time. said that it doesn't want to make the job of teacher any harder. However, that's exactly what's happening by taking away our school-based tests. This board values technology in the classroom. A year ago, you were approved to replace whiteboards and projectors with smart TVs, and you also renewed iPads and um Chromebooks for the one to one initiative. This evening, you will hear proposals for textbooks. Ask yourself, how many textbooks will we get? Or is this a digital package that you'll be approving? I currently have 30 textbooks for 150 students, but each student has an iPad. 150 iPads versus 30 textbooks. It is

063evident that most of my lessons are supposed to be technology- based as per your decisions. If you take away our school-based tests, what will I do when that technology fails? When a student cannot access their assignment or a student actually disabled something on their technology so that they wouldn't have to complete their assignments. Am I supposed to stop learning in my classroom to troubleshoot the technology issue, put in a work order and wait days? Is that student just not supposed to complete assignments while waiting? Am I supposed to have two lessons plans, one digital and one paperbased? Am I expected to work more? Just some just something else this board has added on top of everything else our state government has already added to a teacher's workload. Could we just keep a school-based technology person

064in each secondary building? Their title doesn't make a difference. Doesn't matter if they're a TIS, a TSS, a mask, a maskeeteer. Teachers and students need direct access to supports without bureaucracy if we're going to continue to be technology heavy in heavy in secondary schools. These positions in secondary schools were not funded with COVID money. Changing their titles, making them itinerate, giving them larger contracts, increasing their pay by 7.5% is not saving money and only makes my job as a teacher more difficult. This board is considering spending money to redo a boardroom instead of hosting board meetings inside school auditoriums because of the difficulties with technology. Yet, we are not acknowledging how many technology problems we have in the classroom by taking away our direct support. Please keep a tiss or whatever you want to call

065it in each secondary classroom. Not just the high schools, but each middle school needs to have somebody that's dedicated there to help with that technology aspect. Otherwise, it's there's going to be a big hang up if something goes wrong. Thank you for your time. I am one of your prekat teachers. I have children in my classroom who are three years old, children who are non-verbal, children in diapers, children who cannot follow basic safety instructions and would be entirely dependent on adults in any emergency. My classroom is considered a general education classroom and is slated to have only one teaching assessment next year. Two adults cannot teach our prek curriculum to this range of individual needs. Two adults cannot complete the IEP servicing and documentation required by the state of West Virginia. Two adults cannot keep

066these children safe. I know you have tough decisions to make. Please make sure you fully understand what is happening in prek and don't inadvertently put child safety and IEP compliance at risk. Thank you for your care and I invite you to come visit our classroom. Dr. Saxs, esteemed board members, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kimberly Nelson, longtime teacher of gifted students. Uh, my children are the products of Berkeley County Schools. My youngest is an environmental field scientist and my oldest is a family physician here in the county. I'm a former president of the West Virginia Association of Gifted and Talented and I'm now on the advocacy committee. I'm here to advocate for innovative ways to use teachers of gifted in addition to my pull out times where I work intensely and at a

067very fast rate with these students. I have the pleasure and honor to co-e with third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers. And I can really kick up the curriculum in the moment according to the abilities of the students. This includes general education students who absolutely love the challenge and their teachers who absolutely love to see their growth. The teachers have said they all grow too. I wish to advocate for schoolwide enrichment models and look to make Berkeley County known as the place where maximum talent development happens. Our county is growing like gang busters and we don't even have a major university. With careful thought as to how to best leverage our existing talent, we can create learning opportunities so that students fulfill their potential. Three of my former students have spoken to you already. I'm so

068proud. And whether they go on to trade school here or off to university, I want them coming back back to Berkeley County. So, let's think big. Thank you. for your comments. Next on the agenda is monitoring items. Mr. Fton um actually um we have Mr. Beckman and uh I think is still out in the Dr. Pton is out in the lobby. He'll be coming in provide an overview of the materials considered for the adoption of the of study in Berkeley County Schools and this will just sort of give you also our process so that you'll sir. Sorry, my my phone is a little bit delayed. Oh, you're good. Hello, Dr. Saxs, President Long, and members of the board. and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of both of our elementary and

069secondary social studies instructional resource review committees. I have with me Miss Amber Beckman who worked with our elementary committee as well as several of our social studies teachers who served as members of one of the selection committees and they're also here to speak tonight about the materials they selected and helped answer any questions that the board may have about the process or the materials. So tonight I want to inform the board on the adoption process, the materials that were selected and also the cost of those materials. So we followed uh county policy ifa as well as state policy 2445 in selecting these materials. So each school had to select a representative to be a member of the instructional resource review committee, what we call the IRRC. And then each member attended four meetings to share

070and discuss the vendor options. Uh each member also attended several virtual textbook uh presentations with the prospective vendors. I know for secondary we had about 12 different virtual sessions that our teachers had to attend. Um and they were open to uh teachers at all of the schools, not just the members of the committee. Um the IRRC narrowed the selections down to three and then completed a final vote for staff at each school. And then the members also shared uh their selections with our with our district leadership. Uh the IRC also um uh completed I'm sorry, let me start over. The IRC also looked at the uh completed uh instructional review materials that the state did for us and then we also conducted our own uh uh instructional review as well. And the materials this year

071are selected for a five-year cycle. So what we select will start next year and then it will continue for five years. So things that we wanted our committee to to take into consideration is how well the materials align to our state social studies standards is in a policy that they have to be at least 80% aligned to our to our state uh standards. Uh how available the supplemental materials are. Um, every textbook vendor has different supplementary materials, whether it be a workbook or a resource document. So, all of those were provided to our committees for them to review as well. And then how engaging and how compatible the online platform is for our students. We need a we need a program that will be compatible with both schooly and clever. And these are the members

072of our instructional resource committee, and I can't I can't thank them enough for all the hard work that they've done um to make to make this a success. I know that they took into consideration um what the student needs are also what's going to be best for for the county in terms of finance and then also um what's going to work for the schools as well. So I'm going to turn it over at this time to Miss Beckman and she's going to talk about the elementary go on to the next slide that this is a little difficult to see. Um but throughout this uh process with K through five, there were only three options of selections that met the 80% criteria for the state of West Virginia as far as meeting 80% of our standards.

073So of those we had studies weekly, we had teacher created materials and there was another that was called journeys and that program was only available for K through four. Each one was a little bit different as far as the alignment with the standards. Um, studies weekly met 100% of the standards in K through two and did not for three through five because they had um alignment with some other states. So, some of our fifth grade standards uh were being taught in third grade according to their curriculum and there was just some mix up with that. And then with teacher created materials, it was um 100% alignment 4K through five. But you can see here that 80% of our primary schools selected the same vendor, which was studies weekly. And I'm not sure if our representatives

074are going to be sharing with you, but studies weekly comes, it's like a newspaper that they get each week. And that newspaper can be cut up and adjusted. They can do all kinds of different activities with that, which is is unique. There is also an online platform that um accompanies that don't go there yet. I'm gonna let those talk about that. But um the intermediate schools, the teacher creative materials and I'm not sure if Beth plan to go into all the different components. Excellent. So I'm going to let them step up. We're going to start with Kayla will come up and share application. Good afternoon. hiring status. Um so the K2 um like Amber said is the studies weekly that most of the schools um really preferred. Um she did mention that they come with

075a weekly reader. It's almost like a newspaper for each student. Um I do teach kindergarten, so I'm always looking for something enticing for my students that they can take home, show their parents or their guardians. And my team as a whole believe that that was really enticing to all of us. Um the teacher edition is very user friendly. Um it has ready lessons for teachers that you can just pick up the curriculum and be able to read it. So if you had a substitute in your classroom, they would be able to take over and do it that way. Um the technology aspect of it is very user friendly. We were able to play with the student technology and the teacher version and they were both really fun to play with actually. Um, each weekly lesson

076has a virtual field trip, which excites me as a kindergarten teacher because taking 22 children anywhere is a lot of fun. Um, and then Amber also talked about the printables and the consumables that the students have and being in a K2 classroom having something that is hands-on for the students to see and write on color on glue and also those weekly breeders have a lot of inclusion, a lot of um I can't think of the word that I want to use representation of all different types of people, all different types of places and I feel like it's appropriate for our K2 friends. So, Rosemont Elementary was going to share with us the intermediate. Can I can I ask a question just for clar clarification on the studies weekly? Do we know um is there any

077integration with um the um lever? No. Um not not schooly because we don't have schooly at that level. The seesaw seesaw is there is there is there any integration with seesaw so that uh parents can see the the worksheets or the printables if if let's say the teacher doesn't have a a structure in the classroom where they're sending those things home in a folder or something like that that they can see it through seesaw. Do we know it is not through Seesaw. It is through Clever. So there is integration there. So students can pull up something on their iPads if you're wanting them to annotate or do different um activities within you could screenshot and upload that to Seesaw. We we had uh talked about that a little bit in the kindergarten group that we

078would be able to screenshot it and either write or draw on the actual page to utilize Seesaw because I know at Rosemont we use Class Dojo to communicate with parents. Um, and that's what we would do that if we wanted to share that at home. Um, but it is possible to do it on Seesaw. There's just a couple of workarounds that we have. But we do have the printables so that that we can share that with families when they have their folder, the student folder that's go going home either on a daily basis or on a weekly basis. We u my team talked about doing a weekly basis with that and using our classroom aids and kind of our rotations and kind of make it like a close reading aspect and all of that to

079go home as well. Very nice. One thing I did not mention just so that you all are aware um K through five social studies and K2 it's integrated into their ELA block. So they studies weekly does an excellent job of aligning some of our ELA standards also so that we're hitting that non-fiction text that we continue to talk about that we need more non-fiction, we need more non-fiction and and this does a beautiful job of that. And so they can align things that they're teaching and reading with this resource and and have all-encompassing. Um and we've not had anything for the last eight years and I believe it's been a long time. Um, and our 35 folks have to give a grade of social studies and they've really been just hipping from here, there, and

080everywhere to try to cover the standards. So, this is this is exciting for them. I think that will share with you now. Good evening. Um, like Amber said, first of all, I want to thank you for considering a social studies uh curriculum for adoption. Um, it has been many years since our district has had a social studies curriculum for grades K through five. And I know that many teachers within our county are really excited about this new adoption. Um the intermediate schools for Berkeley County have chosen teacher created materials. Uh teacher created materials is a comprehensive curriculum for grades three through five and is 100% fully aligned with West Virginia's state standards. Uh, this means that it also includes a component dedicated to helping students learn about the history of West Virginia as it applies

081to our country's history. Uh teacher created materials provides interdisciplinary learning for students in that it in integrates literacy and uses the best practices of the science of reading to help build reading comprehension while also teaching students about civics, economics, different people groups and their impact on the land and the development of our country and much more. Students will use ELA skills to further their understanding of social studies through rigorous tasks such as project based learning activities, comparing events and people, identifying cause and effect uh relationships, analyzing text and write and even writing pieces. Um they will also have the opportunity to engage with differentiated content readers that are included within the curriculum. Um each reader comes with its own lesson plans, can be assigned and assessed access digitally through the Clever app and Schooly. Um

082and it can be integrated with ELA. Uh these content readers use primary sources such as maps, documents like the Declaration of Independence and speeches to engage students with history and help them to build their uh background knowledge. An exciting feature about those primary sources is that it replicas of actual documents that are included with the curriculum. Um, each teacher's kit is going to have one of those and it allows students to be able to experience what those documents really look like and help them make connections between historical events and the present. In addition to the content readers, future m uh created materials also provides I civic readers that pair both fiction and non-fiction text so that students can engage with literacy stories about people and events and history and civics while at the same time

083gaining a deeper understanding of the themes and topics that are presented. In addition to that, teacher creative materials also includes plays in the forms form of reader theater that allows every student to have a meaningful role as they step into the shoes of historical people. So they get to act out um events in history. Um, for teachers, they will discover that teacher created materials is not only editable, but it is also customizable, allowing them to differentiate and to pick and choose activities to meet the needs of their students. They can even choose to complete project-based learning activities that allow students to gain a deeper understanding of social studies themes. The curriculum includes a teacher management guide that can be integrated with our clever platform as well as schooly helping them to make uh lesson planning

084and teaching easier for teachers. So overall um teachers are going to find that teacher created materials provides all the resources that they need to teach grade level standards. Thank you. Any questions about A5 options? Then we do have um sample boxes for third, fourth, and fifth grade of the teacher created materials in the front lobby of the board office. There are also online links that you can access so that you can peruse everything that that you may want to see. I guess that was my question. How would the public be able to view these online or are they available in the lobby? They can do either. So that we do have them um online now. There is and there's a form for comments. So if there were concerns prior to you all voting whether um

085to accept the recommendations of of our teachers, we can provide you with that feedback first. How long? Yeah, it's it's the last slide. We'll we'll go over that. We'll have to the 21st. We'll be back on Oh, yeah. No, I had a question. No, no, I started my question. Oh, I'm sorry. Um um previously you mentioned how it's been a while since this happened. Do you know how long it has been or I believe it's been eight years but it may have been longer. Um actually I'm sure it has been because when I was the principal at Berkeley Heights uh there were no options. We when we when social studies was la last adopted there were no options available for K through five that met the 80% criteria of the state. So we Berkeley County

086decided to create their own and so they took the standards and they found resources for every standard which we had hyperlinks to and different things but many of those things are no longer accessible something that was available 10 years ago. That website may not be working now. So what teachers have been having to do is really just pull from each other and anywhere they can to get the resources that they need. So that I'm I'm really excited about um having materials that are are good and user friendly for for our teachers and that are very engaging for our kids. Good options. Yes, sir. I think one of the ladies uh alluded to this wrote down last night, how will we acknowledge the achievement of non-caucasian United States hero citizens this era of e executive orders?

087I'm sorry. Can that's a question. The diversity, equity, inclusion. Yes. Fascination. Yes. I'm worried about our teachers trying to do the right thing. And somebody talked about the woke police force. Yes. Oh, the in the woke some Yes, I did hear that. I woke up at 10 this morning. But at any rate, the what's your I I'm I'm concerned that we are going to avoid exposing our children to worthwhile American citizens. And I think that if you would take a gander, especially through the fifth grade box, I I you would find that we are covering it's very diverse from Native Americans to black Americans to Harriet Tubman that we that everybody is really incorporated and that was one of the options that uh the Journeys the Inquire ed was the company that we did not

088select. They did not create a fifth grade program because they did not want to cover the civil rights. It was too controversial. Um we do have standards that require that we cover civil rights in the fifth grade and and it is covered through teacher creative materials and the teacher created materials they are it was created by people in West Virginia. Teachers here in West Virginia and I think that if you they it does a nice job. But please take a moment if you can stop in the board office and look at the hand materials and then if you don't have that opportunity, please look online, reach out if you have questions or concerns um and we'll be happy to address that. Anything else? Not yet. Not yet. No, this the materials will be up for

089board approval at the first board meeting. That's it. No, we have secondary part. I'm sorry. So, the estimated cost that this is for um access to the digital platform, every student getting their own little it's it's a newspaper and sometimes they're multiple pages and sometimes they're just a few um but they get that every week so that they can have a thematic unit with the primary. Um, and it does include training for our teachers that can be done virtually or can be done on-site just depending upon with the size of our district. It's hard to get some of these smaller companies to have enough people to come in and provide training for all of our teachers because we want to include our EPAs as well because they're part of that instructional piece. So, it is

090$190,333 for the K2 piece. And then I do think I have next is the immediate cost. Um so this is including student workbooks, teachers manuals, online platform and training for five years. Remember those have those readers. They do have a student workbook and they do have a teachers manual. It looks it's set up a little bit differently. And this is on the high end. I did um when I was getting the quote from them, it would be closer to 210,000 for the 35 materials. I overestimated on some of our student population on our numbers. I thought our third grade was getting bigger than it was. So these are the selections for the secondary. The secondary is a little bit of a challenge because for each grade we had to look at multiple vendors. Like for

091instance, scallop paid for eighth grade is only offering eighth grade West Virginia history in in West Virginia. So not every vendor had an offering for every content area or grade level. So we had to look at each one individually for each of the grade levels or content areas. So those are the vendors that we selected. Those are all at least 80% aligned to our to our state curriculum. And for the most part, it was unanimous with the exception of sixth grade. Uh Sgage was the winner for us. But we had a couple of other vendors that got a vote as well. Seventh grade wed being Syngage, but thanks to the hard work of our committee that realized that the materials that the the vendors were pushing out to us were not aligned to our state

092curriculum because they were they were aligned to the standards that are still in play now and next year the new social study standards are going to come out from the from the state department of education. So, thank you to our to our committee for catching that. And then we had to reach out to the vendors and let them know that that what they were providing us wasn't going to pass that 80% alignment. So, they were able to get us uh books that had more geography, which now make it uh 80% aligned. So, and then I I believe our sociology and our economics were also in high school were also not unanimous, but everything else was unanimous among the six middle schools and the four high schools. So, at this point, I'm gonna turn it over

093to to Kelsey Ducy, Miss Ducy from North Middle School, and she's going to talk about our selections for middle school. Hi. Now, I'm here to talk about our middle school selections, which really excited about them. Um, so, as Dr. Font said, for sixth and seventh grade, we went with Sgage uh for both um for kind of some of the similar reasons, but some a little different. Um both of these uh options for our um grade levels um offer strong visual aids which can be very impactful within the classroom. Um they had primary source analysis which is a crucial skill within the social studies um department. Um they aligned best with our new standards um particularly seventh grade because they are seeing a a pretty decent overhaul of some of their standards kind of realigning. Um,

094also the online resources that came with these uh particular um this vendor um was very navigable but from both an adult standpoint as well as our students because obviously if it's not easy for our students it's not going to work very well. Um, and when we look at these, we have to look at several things. Functionality in the classroom, um, as well as student engagement, critical thinking, as well as how does it integrate with our current technology like capabilities because, you know, we have all this technology, we want to use it. Um, and with that being said, they had the best online platforms as well as they come with critical thinking paper like notebooks. Um, which obviously critical thinking skills is something we never want to slack on because it's important in our life. Um

095the eighth grade choice was Gallaghate this year. Um which um is different for us because um we have been with Claremont Press for at least my uh nine years of being in 8th grade. Um so it is we are very excited. It's very different. Um it is set up as a um more like a workbook the textbook is and then it is paired with an online clickbook. Um, and it is a much more modern online format than we currently have access to. So, it is nice for us to be joining our other grade levels and having like a true like online platform um that we can utilize. All of these vendors offered really amazing lesson suggestions, extensions, and differentiation ideas, which we thought would be really excellent for new teachers coming into the field that

096are looking for, you know, guidance those first couple of years that they're here, you know, figuring out exactly what they want to do. Um, and overall that's kind of why we looked at it. Project ideas, lessons, how could we differentiate this for both the high higher level students as well as students who may need a little more um, scaffolding and help. Um, but overall, we're happy with our decisions and as Dr. Pon said, they most of them were unanimous and I think that they'll serve our students very well. Uh, to discuss the high school selections, I have Mr. James Batisales from from Muscleman High School. Good evening, Dr. Saxs, esteemed members of the board. Pleasure to meet you all. Some of you have met before in the past and some of you are new faces

097to me. But um my uh my name is Jim Bouse. I've been at Mosland High School for over 20 years now. And I also had the um the privilege of being a part of last adoption. So I had a little bit of um experience on what to look for. uh what was working was not working with the last adoption compared to this one. So I felt really well prepared going into this next one and um I sat through a lot of sales pitches a lot. Okay, many many days you know as soon as school ended on Zoom listening to really uh great sales pitches by all these companies. This time I knew what to look for as opposed to the first time which is my first um foray into this. And so what I want

098to start with is I want to sort of mirror what my colleague said about the send gave materials and their choices for the lower levels. We felt that their uh program was very well suited for some of our electives. And so uh our faculty chose it for uh psychology, geography and things of that nature. And being that it's based in NGO, there's a lot of resources available. In addition to that, the online platform was very thorough. And so I'm not going to, you know, basically rehash what she just said. I just want to sort of concur that we had also agreed that that program was very good in some of its areas. What I'd like to move on is to discuss some of our choices that we've been working with in the past, which is

099the HMH program. And when I went into this, one of the things I was looking for was um during the first adoption, online platforms were somewhat rudimentary and they were also um somewhat sparse in the types of supplementary materials that they were willing to offer. And so that's what I went into this looking for. We're now one to one, every kid has a device. How can these kids get access to whatever it is that they need get access to? And one of the selling points was every one of these book companies is integrated into schooly. All right. When we did this last time, we fumbled with passwords, getting teachers access to them, getting students access to them, access to them. Now we have basically through our learning management system the ability to access all of

100these programs pretty easily and then we can integrate it into schooly and you know if they can't get it on the online platform, we teachers can put it on schooly for them. So it works very seamlessly but you know back and forth. Okay. So HMH was our main baseline choice for things like contemporary studies, US history and um I want to say there was another one about what was gate. One of the things that they did all of these companies this year was they really focused on their sales pitch towards the online materials. the books are fairly, you know, complimentary and work with the online platforms, but you can tell that that's that's their perspective. We're here to sell this online platform and to show you how it goes well with our books. And um

101what I am seeing with some of these companies, for example, HMH, which was one of our choices, is they had an app every student could download knowledge and it was not requiring the internet. They can download materials to the app, take it home with them if they need to go work. didn't require online access during COVID. You recall we struggled with hotspots. We struggled with everybody trying to get access to the internet so they can access just schooly, let alone their online classes. I'm not suggesting something like that's going to happen again, but the convenience of being able to have access to your classwork um on an app and you don't need the internet. It's called HMHo. I thought it was a plus compared to what they had offered in the past. uh as I

102said integrated into schooly they have a partnership with the history channel which of course has a good reputation uh they're uh they have a news literacy program that combines uh primary sources with uh their online platform they have uh standard like all these programs now have standard like uh support for dyslexia they have support for like IEPs uh scaffolding they have um uh like text speech programs. So, kids who have a wide diverse range of like needs, these online platforms are providing them more so in a way than I've seen in the past. I thought that was a plus moving in the right direction. Um, HMH's selling point is that kids aren't teenagers anymore. They're screenagers and so that's where they directed their focus. Uh, the setup is similar to um the adoption which HMH

103is our current. Can I can I stop you there for a second? Can you explain um I get I get the analogy of screenagers, but can you explain how they're be because our students are screenagers? Um how do how does HFH um structure it so that we're not abusing and what I mean by that is is that the that it's all screen time as opposed to other enrichment type activities. Are they able to are they able to make sure that because that may be One of their first things is that we also want to make sure we're not doing too much of it. Yeah. Is there a time is there a time? I I was assuming I'm interpreting you correctly here. A lot of these companies have incorporated sort of like um online programs on

104the apps that they offer and they do that sort of thing. There actually are uh like review type exercises the kids can do and it will channel them into like you know you have a kid who's like seriously involved in enrichment and he is acing everything. It's kind of like the old um college test where if it answered so many questions it would give you more challenging responses and then if you uh didn't do so well it would offer more supports. And they've somehow integrated some of their online review materials onto these apps that follow that format. And that's not just HMH. That's also like a wide variety of them. I I ap I ap sorry that's a good explanation but I don't think what I'm I think what my concern is is um or

105what my question really is is is there guidance as to um making sure that students are not spending their entire class period when they're using their core content of the social studies selection on a device. So you know screen time so to speak. Yeah. There's more and more studies uh to be to be fair, there are more and more studies coming out that says so much screen time leads to issues. Yes. Behavioral issues, uh, inability to make actual connections between things and being able to cognitively think um, futurewise, what does my what if I do this now, what are my what will be the consequences for for the future because everything is so instantaneous on the computer, right? So, what does that look like for being less techy and more booky? Well, forgive me. I

106did not mean to imply like they're going to be in front of a screen like like you know I could step out of the building especially when we have an educator who very eloquently said tonight that there are issues that you know with technology and how do we help because heaven forbid you know we don't have all the money in the world and can't do every single thing the way everybody wants. What do we do? Everything is accessible and can be downloaded put into paper form. Okay. They also offer traditional workbooks at the request of like the faculties of the board and that that's something we've we've discussed as well in terms of providing traditional like pen and paper materials. No, what I didn't mean was that it's not a fulltime you're in front of

107a screen type because you know where my next question is going to go Dr. Font because I you got it the last time we did we went through all the the materials. So, we're ordering a classroom set for every teacher who teaches either that grade level or that content area so that they have physical textbooks. Middle school has also requested workbooks as well, physical workbooks. So, um it's it the online platform is not meant to replace instruction. It's meant to be a tool that that students can use. So they could they can when they're in the middle of a discussion, they can pop on and they can watch a video that might be related to the civil rights movement or they can go on and they can read a document that might be related to

108World War II. And it's sort of supposed to be integrated into the into the into the classroom itself. So they'll still have that physical textbook, they'll still have those physical workbooks, but they also have the online platform. It also makes it easier for them to do their work at home because we're not paying for a textbook for every student. So they'll have online access while they're at home as well. Now we will provide is the work is the workbook individual for that specific child for that specific year. So there therefore when they leave they're taking that workbook with them and then we're going to get get they write inside they write in it. So it's a consumable. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and that consumable is part

109of the adoption. It's part of the adoption contract. We'll get we can we'll either take inventory of it now or it so it used to be until this year it used to be when you did the fiveyear cont well it used to be a six-year contract. Now it's a 5-year contract. It used to be that for that entire five years, you would get the workbooks, but now it's we we reorder them each year, which is actually probably a good thing. It'll save us money because we we sometimes have a surplus at the end of year, year three, year four, so we can move those textbooks around to the buildings that might need them based on population. So, it probably will save us money in the long run that we're not we're not buying five years

110worth of textbooks and we're not using all of them. My big concern especially after hearing again reiteration from from um at le you know a couple of folks is this evening is that there's more and more being expected and yet the resources for ability to to support that expectation is um being eliminated or being reduced in some capacity. So, I'm trying to I'm I'm I am concerned that we aren't we as as a board yes I I approved and I voted for yes for onetoone devices and to a point that is a great thing. Not every household has the ability to to to buy a computer, right? Um but my g my my my concern is that we are not addressing the issues as it relates to their brain. their brain is ever developing and

111are we doing a good job in doing a mixture instead of just continually pushing kids faces into a screen that's yes that's all I say I can tell you from my personal experience I mean a good professional in a classroom would have in my opinion a diverse and differentiated approach to whatever subject they teach in my opinion it would be fairly lazy as a teacher to just open up a screen and say here do that every single say I wouldn't like be in support of that sort of thing. So, forgive me if I give a No, that's totally fine. I'm just I'm just making sure you know we're all on the same page. That's all. Yes, ma'am. I I can attest to that. Here's my set of seizures. I can't I visited his class yesterday

112and he was unbelievably engaging. In case you can't tell, he looks fine. I think I was going to say, can I feel free, you know, uh I'm happy. I don't see many people. I don't get many visits, so happy to come on in anytime. There were a couple of features to this program that I really liked that the other companies were not talking about. One of them was over the last couple of years. Um, my building level principles have talked about increasing literacy skills. And so, uh, HMH has a a sort of a builtin program that they're debuting called Writable and it's encouraging them to convey their thoughts based on the material. And one of the features about writable that I thought was interesting is that I don't know if anybody has spoken any of

113you about the fight against AI. Have you heard any information on that? The textbook companies have sort of brought that to mind. Writable has got now no system is perfect in when dealing with AI and students desire to use it rather than their brain. Um, the online platform has a counter AI like it has the ability to check against like more common AIs to see if students borrowed it and then tried to put it. So, we've got an AI check for that. AI checkers are not perfect, but I'm not hearing this sort of discussion from the other companies. A desire to try to regulate in some way the use of AI. Uh, let's see what else do they have here. They also have um you know they have that AI detector built into it. Uh

114interactive Supreme Court cases for civics and also virtual field trips. So they basically have what we have now for HMH and they have sort of increased what's now going to be available on the online platform. Another selling point I did like when they said when you log into their online platform all of the modules are there. One of their selling points was that history is an ongoing and developing process. And even though the book might stop at chapter 21, our online modules will start will pick up through chapter 22 wherever, you know, we're going to incorporate new and current events and have it available even if it's not in the print edition. So I thought that desire to stay on top of things was, you know, an important step in addition to the increased literacy,

115in addition to um some of the partnerships that they have. Do they provide the supplements to those extra one extra chapters that they put in? Everything is downloadable. So if I log into like the last module on their website, they'll have everything there and I can click on PowerPoint, click on guided reading, I can click on vocabulary exercises, supplementary videos, that sort of thing. Okay. The second thing that um because we now have a lot of electives and um so I had to use the resources of my department. some of my AP teachers that have been there for a while. I relied on their expertise to make the choices that they made and um uh Pearson has been for the most part a very popular company with regards to our AP program and that was

116because their online platform which features the my lab resources was something that we had used in the past and we've been very happy with it aligns with the AP curriculum and it also provides anything from powerpoints to test banks to uh again movies uh like interview accounts. There's a diverse group of like video materials in addition to your standard curriculum items. And um they have been sort of like the the staple recommended by AP that we've, you know, we've used in the past. We've actually used two companies in the past, but the one most consistently has been Pearson. And um I have felt that their online component has been useful both from the student point of view and from the teacher point of view. what we've used in the past. Uh the other one that

117uh we adopted is the SAS program which is the McGrder American government. I've taught this one for years. Pearson and Sabas used to be one company but they split. Pearson went and focused purely on AP. Savis went and decided to just like create its own company and it took the McGrder's American government materials with them. And I have worked with that stuff for a number of years. Actually, this would be our third adoption of that company for that particular book. So, you know, I was here whenever we didn't have any of the online type of stuff, just the book itself and workbooks that were floating around at the time. But the saw online materials, uh, you know, they they are as comparable to here. Where's a stapler when you need one, right? Okay. Okay. Well,

118anyway, uh, Sawis has had a fairly elaborate online platform for a while. Their book has been solid. you've used it in the past. It contains um all the same things that I mentioned with H.M.H. that's become standard practice. So, if I need to download a worksheet, if I need to download uh vocabulary, if I need to download videos or I can link to them, all of that stuff is there and it's it's become standardized across a lot of these particular uh companies. So, I felt it was a solid choice based on past experience in addition to the fact that they have improved their online component. Do you have any further questions? I'll try to answer them. Not an expert on this. They threw a lot of material at me and I'm trying to make the

119best of it. Yes, sir. Um, two questions. The U grand total and I know we haven't gotten this slide yet, but at 1.4 and we've talked about consumable workbooks here. Will we have to be buying workbooks every year in the budget planning whatever the grand total potentially? Okay. But but the bulk of that is for the the textbook and the the online platform access. I mean the textbooks we do classroom sets of 30 not 25. So we do classroom sets of 30. Plus we also have to buy extra books for transitional school and summer school as well. And you see the the the number of courses that we offer that we have to have classroom sets for at each of the each of the four high schools and the and the and the three six

120middle schools. So that you know the textbooks at$100 to $200 a pop. That's where the cost is. So but but my question is we talked about consumable workbooks. So we will each year have to be buying consumable workbooks. Not for high school, for for for middle school potentially, you may have to buy some additional workbooks from time to time. Well, but the but the majority of the of the workbooks are built into the into that cost. Exactly. So, if we have a 5-year adoption, the only reason we have to purchase more is if we increase in population. Okay. You see what I'm saying? So, it's built into that price. Okay. And this my second question is uh we have a lot of students doing dual credit at Blue Ridge Community College and Shepard, I believe.

121Will they be a uh part of this process or will they be using books from the college? Books from the college. So they So you've factored in a number of nonparticipating students in this. Yeah, that's a high number. I It's really hard to gauge because I'm I'm basing it on on this year's numbers, but we don't know who's going to be enrolled in say the sociology classes next year. So, I try to give a little bit of a high number so that way we don't we don't um the finance doesn't like to be surprised. So, he he's watching you from over your shoulder. Sure. This is This is Sonia Sh. She is wonderful teacher from Hesville High School and she also served on the committee. I'm going to turn it over to her. Um I

122just wanted to be here to um support um James and Mr. Cton. Um we um we did have a number of options and it is really hard to keep them all straight and we are blessed to have a lot of options. Um the online services that they do provide um really are very very at this point very downloadable. So um so what we call consumables you know we are able to make copies um and either post them um or print them out um and use them. Um and they have given um those online platforms have given us a lot of flexibility within our classroom um to meet the needs of our students. You know, all of our students, they get tired of reading on a screen. Um some days when I say pull out the

123textbook, they're like, "Oh, great. I can do that." You know, um so that's always really helpful. Um the one thing I wanted to mention about the cost is that US history um we elected this year of to get the same textbook. It is a comprehensive US history textbook. So it covers early American history and later American history and that would be your 10th and 11th grade um social studies requirements. It is the same textbook. Um so while it looks like a really big number compared to the other subjects um we have a number of teachers who teach both US1 and US2. They only need one set of textbooks. Um and and and that um actually decreased the cost overall because we don't have two line items this time. We only have one. So do you

124have any further questions? I just had a question. Since we haven't um chosen a social studies textbooks for eight or 10 years, high school and middle. Yes. Okay. Just K. We're on a sevenyear cycle. We were supplementing the bridge between those years that we didn't have accurate materials for that would have that was at the inter. So Amber I'm sorry Mrs. Beckman the question was is how how did we bridge the gap where we didn't have materials for the last eight or 10 years for the elementary grade levels bridge the gap. That's been a challenge. That's what I was saying that with K2 it's a little easier because you're not giving a grade and so they could look at the content standards and find uh a book or a story that would align um with

125their ELA potentially. That's what we had hoped that they were doing. We've been doing a lot of work the last couple of years looking at science and social studies and coming up with um lesson plans that do integrate the ELA with the science and or the social studies. that teachers spent at our last um EL day, every K5 teacher created a lesson plans for us to upload. So, they have a plethora of those there, but it really has been just filling teacher paint teacher a lot of things that um I don't feel have been in the best interest of our students and it it's been I mean Beth and I was just getting ready to should I say that we've been paying for it out of our own pocket. It's not right. Um, we have

126been pulling our resources with one another. You buy this one, I'll buy this one. We'll put it together. We'll make our own curriculum. You know, following the standards, but we've been paying for social studies out of our pocket for the last year. I will I'll also add that um when I saw the teacher created materials was on the adopt was on the adoption list and was the the high high selection I was really excited. Yes. Um I've had a very good relationship with teacher created materials and the support as well as the um the the training um and the embedded support that they provide once adoption occurs. Um it's a it's a very very good resource that has really been around um you know strongly over the last decade. Um so I was excited to

127see that as a as a possible I think our teachers are really excited about it. Um looking at it and pulling the resources I've taught some of the lessons out of there already and my students love it. So um we're excited to use it next year. Yes. I think it will be a huge a huge relief for for our K5 folks to have something tangible and not having to reinvent the D has one. David goes David goes first because usually he takes mine. So I usually try to wait till the whole thing's done before. We do still have like three more slides. More slides. No. Um the um I did have um just three questions. One was Did any of you have just for anybody? Were there any features or things that you didn't like?

128I earned, oh, we like this, we like that, but are there any concerns or things that um could be challenging or that you just really just didn't like? Well, for the K5, the one company that did not cover the Civil War and also included nothing with West Virginia. That was a concern. Um, in K2, the studies weekly that was selected, I there was honestly nothing that I didn't personally like. I think it's very interactive. I think the professional development will be great. Um, Kayla, was there anything that stood out to you that was a negative or from your staff that you heard? Um, not with studies weekly particularly. I do know that the Inquir and one was strictly online and I know that the K2 community did not want strictly online. Nobody wanted to that

129but honestly otherwise no. I think that the two options um the studies weekly we did like I mentioned previously that didn't align with our standards specifically like some of the what in West Virginia some of our third grade standards were taught in fifth grade in their material. So we would have had to been trying to mismatch all of break things apart and align it to the standard and move it to the right grade level. Then the readability would have been not aligned. it would have been written on a fifth grade level instead of the third grade level for a third grade students. So that was I think one of the reasons that they did not go that way for third three through five. Okay. And teachers didn't want to go even though they said like

130some of the um topics would be available like in fifth grade or for fifth grade they'd be available in the sixth grade. They make them accessible for us. Nobody wanted to go digging around. You don't want to have to they've done enough of that. your time where you could be spending it. Sure. Okay. And another is I know was mentioned about having physical papers. Yes. But currently or well I I say currently do any of you I'm saying at your school? You may one of your co-workers have issues with um being told not to print so much because of the cost? Because what my concern is is that um say I'm I'm teaching a class and I want to print all these things for my students, right? Then my administration's like, "Yeah, you're that it's

131all right there. They have the the student workbook is right there for them. The every student gets a workbook and every student will get from K2 will get one of those weekly news. I keep calling it a newspaper. I wish I would have brought one with me so I could show you what it looks like." Um, so there is no issue for us now. Potential issues or problems in the future is what I'm trying to Yeah, Mr. Right. I'll tell you, I had not heard that as a concern. However, the other day I was having a conversation. I think it was in our um faculty meetings and there had been some concern expressed over um I guess reaching certain printing budgets. And so when we dug a little bit deeper, what we we learned was

132it wasn't a paper issue. it was the ink or the toner. And so I think that's something that we're we're taking a look at in the in the budget to make sure that schools have that that resource that should not be that should not be a limiting resource for for staff. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't and we don't want it all worksheets either Mr. I mean there has to be a back of everything. Yes. Engagement engagement with the worksheets. And one more. Oh yes. Um I teach at Hedesville High School. I have never been told not to make a copy. Um, you know, our students education is is a priority. Um, our our administration asks us to be judicious in our copies. So, we don't download every single thing. Um, but

133I do make sure that I have paper copies of certain things because I want them to be able to write on them. Um, and then sometimes we do annotations when they are online. Um, so we try to create a good balance um, instead of just printing everything out. So, that has never been a concern in my school. Just want to make sure. Um, and one other question is going along the lines with four. Hey, I said I keep mine at the end. I try not to blur things out. So, another one is going along the lines of uh, yeah, along the lines of what um, Mr. Murphy was talking about because I was looking online at some of the uh, grade levels and things. So on the sixth grade for US history, I was wondering

134how this will be taught considering uh the climate from our state and federal government because one section said where students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the origins, struggles, and achievements of marginalized communities that sought equality in the United States. How do you teach that here in West Virginia? Can I see? Oh, I have I have I am a sixth grade teacher at Spring. This is Miss Jacqueline Sanchez from Spring. Um, so I would love to speak to that. So that is if it is a part of our standards, we must teach our standards, point blank. Right. Like those are our standards. Right. Right. Um, we have a very um diverse student population at Springville Middle School. And so it's great to start the year in all of us speaking about our differences,

135what we bring to the table, what our family lives are like, what are our cultures like. So then when we move throughout the school year, our students are more of a community and they're able to understand the struggles and our differences and how they make us stronger together. Um, and those are how we facilitate these conversations and we teach in our classes um, for this because I understand that, right? It is It's yeah, it's a little trying, but those are our standards. And I think we have to be able to as educators, we have to stand by like this is how I know I've taught my students what I know I need to teach them, right? So, it is what it is. We still have to teach it. Yeah. I just I just You have

136our bags, we've got your bags, right? That's kind of like that we have to we have to do this as a community, right? To educate our children for the future. Um they they need to have it. And if it's there and that's what the state says I need to teach, well then that's what I need to teach. And and the state just redid the standards for social separation and that is still in there. So we are buying textbooks that are aligned with the standards as they're currently written. So um so what next? So materials will be and Mr. Martin has one. Okay. So sorry the the only question I have is do any of the materials that we are purchasing are they because Spanish speakers are a large number of our of of our ELLL

137students do we have any of these materials coming to us in in that Spanish platform? Well the plat the platform will be available but we what we've done embedded in that cost is we have ordered um Spanish uh textbooks for the companies that offer them. Okay. And and I guess that and I'm specifically asking um for all grade levels K through K through 12 secondary most of the textbook vendors have theirs off that younger grade levels K through two we really work with EL students on mastering English. So it is a lot of communication. I don't know why my lights on. Communication uh with with students at that young age where if you're teaching bus um we want them to know bus in English. So they're showing the picture. They're they get a lot of

138support from from their teachers and the EL teachers in in the primary grades. As far as our third through fifth, there are resources available in the online platform in Spanish. We did not order Spanish books. We have so many different languages to be honest. Nearly impossible for us to accommodate every language. Three through five wouldn't want them to. We do. Oh, absolutely. We absolutely it's it's a little more challenging for a fluent Spanish speaker in fifth grade to come in and know no English and to be given a a social studies book and say here go with it. Um primary it's just it's a little it's a little easier because they're they're all learning some of those things together. Um you know in regards to physics or geography I have a completely different question I

139will ask you later because it has nothing to do with curriculum but does go in with ELLL learners. Um I just want to thank the committee for how long this the process it takes and just how long many meetings with the different vendors and it's not long enough. I don't like it compressed. It it's we find out in February what our options are and it's like we don't have much time. State used to support us a lot more. They used to have a caravan that would take place up here in the panhandle. So all of the the counties and now instead it's these virtual caravans that take place at, you know, at 3:00 every day for like a month. their danger. That was different from yours. We just had them all join us one time.

140A lot of time great people. But just the another point, I I'm glad we're doing textbooks in the classroom online. Um those portals and dashboards for students um and the print materials and the PD per stack. Uh but my question is with the costwise um is there ticks with the estimate of like of like percentage of like student population growth based I baked that into it. Yeah. So if if if LA last year had 137 I went ahead and added 150 160. So I tried to add that 10 15%. Or probably about 5 to 10% just in case. So the final cost will be okay. Michael, I really don't because I've learned in my years of textbook adoption is they don't keep track and I can order whatever we need. I've never been home. So,

141whatever we really hard to gauge how many students might be taking US history this year versus last year. So, it's it's it's a guessing game at this point. So the numbers will change a little bit between now and June when it starts when the schedule is completed at the second. Thank you. So the next steps for for our committee um materials are accessible right now. Physical materials of of of all of these um selections are at the BCS central office in the lobby. There is a form there with a QR code that that people can scan and they can leave comments about the material. The digital access is also available for all the materials as well under the teaching and learning uh uh link on the Berkeley County Schools website and then instructional materials adoption.

142And that same form, the link to that same form is also there for people to make comments. For some of the secondary materials, some of the some of the vendors are a little uneasy putting their information out there in digital form. So for some of the links it might just be to go and you see sort of a generic overview of what the of what the program is in order to see the the actual textbook itself. You have to come to the to the central office and then we will provide any feedback that we receive on the comment form to the board on Monday, April 21st. We'll send you guys anything that um that comes through and then we're asking for the board to vote um on on these materials on April 21st. Thank you.

143Thank you. Um I I wanted to share also I want to make sure I'm saying your name right, sir. Is it Valdis? Bulisace and Italian. So, I wanted to share also with the board because it's been on one of our budget priorities that I learned that you are you have taught the we the people curriculum. Is that right? A long time ago. A long time ago. That's when I had an educator that has some experience with that. Okay. So, um, we may be wanting to pick your brain a little bit more in the future also on that. Always takes student teachers. Love that. Oh, yeah. I've got a really good like teacher education program that I've been running for the last six years. So, very grateful. No worries. We appreciate you doing your part. Did

144you have one? Yeah. One other question. One. Make my bullet count here. Okay. Uh we're going through the model schools activity. Is this the second or third year that we've been doing this second? And it's it's about trying to instill rigor in the uh in the process. Um and we had some speakers earlier about the rigor in our classrooms or lack thereof. Are these textbooks I I heard it earlier. Um do they do they challenge the uh the top students as well as the average? It gives you the opportunity too. It really gives you lots of differentiation. Um like we said for the EL student also for uh the bright students there are acceleration activities that they could be provided. I think that I mean as a classroom teacher myself that that that's what I

145enjoyed the most was accelerating getting those kids that um see bored with a regular activity to come up with something that they wanted to work on and wanted to learn more about and providing that that opportunity to do so. But yes, it is embedded within both of the programs that we selected. I'm assuming that it was as well for and one of the limitations we have in our classrooms is we are not allowed to track students as such. Whereas in the old days you could take the the top of the top and put them in a isolated group. I'm not talking about the gifted but in a classroom and run with them but we also held other students back who may have been capable of doing a higher level work. Correct. because of their identification

146at a lower grade. And I think giving that flexibility um and allowing students I know that I extra credit is an opportunity to to excel or you know to continue your learning regardless of your ability levels if that's something that you're you're interested in. history was never my forte, but others that that I think that giving those kids the opportunity to learn about what they they love and and what inspires them is what's best. So, yes, thank you very much for appreciate it. You did a good job. Um before before you all leave though, I didn't want to make if you all want to leave, you're more than welcome, but I did want to make a statement based upon some of the comments that we had heard this evening. um before I asked Mr. Tyson

147to come up. So, if you want to leave, please feel free. I just didn't want you to think that we weren't going to acknowledge. I think um I I I wanted to if you'll if you'll bear with me. I just had a couple um notes that I just wanted to be able to to speak on. So, I really do want to thank everyone who spoke tonight um and those who have reached out over the past few weeks to share their thoughts and concerns uh both about the gifted program um the prek ecat program and staffing as well as our tests uh our our test uh staff members. I want you to know that I do hear you uh and your voices have absolutely been taken seriously. In fact, some of those voices have um initiated

148additional dialogue, which I really do appreciate you all taking part in. Regarding the gifted program, I've asked Mr. Dilly, our assistant superintendent, to um flesh out some of those additional concerns by both engaging with not just our principles, but also our gifted teachers. Um and so he has been been doing that. Um and he is making some recommendations to me, which I have not fully had a chance to sit down with him yet, to tweak. uh some of that some of that process and some of that restructuring we were looking at. Um through those conversations though we have received some thoughtful thoughtful suggestions to I think strengthen the plan uh and improve the plan and we're taking that feedback into account and we'll be continuing to refine our approach so that it better reflects the

149needs of our students and our schools. So I just want to reiterate that we hear you. Uh to be very clear however um I do think that there's been some misinformation and that is that we are not eliminating gifted programming for students in Berkeley County schools. Quite the opposite. Um we are we're not reducing services either. Every student who qualifies for gifted education will continue to receive those services. What we are evaluating and what we have been evaluating is how we allocate our staffing and our re resources to ensure that we're being as effective and efficient as possible while maintaining the quality that I know that our students deserve and that we all believe our students deserve. In terms of our prek ECAT staffing, I also want to acknowledge the passion as well as the

150professionalism in which people have been engaging my office as well as our board members and who have spoken out this evening. as someone who has experienced um prek programs not only here in Berkeley County uh but also in other parts of West Virginia as well as in Florida. Um I understand the challenges that come with supporting our youngest learners and this work is deeply personal to to me as well as uh our leadership as well and our board because this is not just a a responsibility. that truly is a calling in those classrooms and I I I appreciate what it is that you do in response to those concerns raised um and to ensure that while we're looking at the efficiency and the effectiveness of following policy 24/19 and 2525, I have reached out to

151the West Virginia Department of Education and requested technical assistance around these policies. This will help ensure that our staffing and our scheduling models are in full compliance with both policy 24/19 and 2525. I've also asked that teachers and ECATs have a chance to provide input through that process so that their firsthand knowledge can help guide our path forward in Berkeley County. at the um in addition I'd also like to share that some of the new support strategies that we are suggesting and that we're asking from for um uh guidance from the department of education will be how we use what what I have been proposing as is we have floating ECATs um as well as some newly created itenerate ECAT roles in some of our larger ECAT class or larger preK classroom areas um these

152efforts um oh I'm sorry also um how we can also look as we add additional and new transportation aids that we have transportation and classroom aids that will also help serve in the capacities of making sure that our classrooms are covered during certain portions of the day. These efforts are being designed to provide again additional flexibility and targeted support where it is needed most. I know that for some that these challenges may feel like business decisions that don't reflect the heart of education or the day-to-day needs that our students in our classrooms deserve. And I understand that concern. But I also want to be transparent that we have to make difficult decisions to ensure that our district is allocating resources in ways that support our learn long-term goals as a public school system. That includes

153delivering a world-class education, increasing compensation for our bene and benefits for our employees, much like the housing allowance that the board has approved in the past, and ensuring that we have staffing and support needed to meet the complex challenges um facing our schools today, not just in Berkeley County, but all across the state of West Virginia. To support these goals, I've already restructured at the district level. Uh and these restructuring proposals um actually reduce nine administrative positions in direct in district leadership which will yield over $1 million in cost savings for Berkeley County Schools. In total, we've realized one and a half million in savings from reductions to overall district level staffing, not just schoolbased. These are not schoolbased positions of where we're saving the money. At the same time, we are investing more money

154to supporting staffing for the growing needs of our of our of what our school district is over what was allocated last year. And so, I don't say these things to to to be able to say, "Hey, look what we're doing, but it's to share the transparency that we are making uh major major considerations of restructuring that will reallocate resources that were once at the district level into our classrooms. We're also trying to approach these decisions with both compassion and our financial strategy. We are listening. The board is listening. I am listening. And we are trying to act because I, our district leadership and this board, I truly believe um believe in our mission to serve students well and to support educators and staff who serve them every day. I do want to thank you for

155taking the time to share your voice this evening. I know that it can get into the late hour and that the time that you've given to make sure that you've advocated on behalf of your classroom, your students and schools is is commended. So, thank you so much. I just wanted to be able to provide a couple of those uh words in response. Thank you, Madam President. That concludes the instructional update this evening. Thank you. Oh, one other thing before you all leave. Um to sort of piggyback we'd be able to normally do this but as an elected board I just want to let you all know in the public know we are not a part of those discussions in terms of the positions. Not yet. Not yet. The reason is because some people may want

156to have a hearing. If we are privy to his plans or sitting in the back corner planning things with him, then we will be biased and you won't have an an equal chance to for us to hear you and make a clear decision. So that's why some of I've responded that way in some of the emails, but I just want to let you all know that we are not a part of those discussions yet until there is hearing. And that's why we are sort of cautious with what we say because we want to be fair. And you wouldn't want us to hear what his plans are, agree with his plans, and then you come before us and to try to say, "Hey, you shouldn't remove my position." And we've already made up our mind. I

157will say that we have a um just of of how things are going to go. Do we know down deep in the in the depths of it? As Mr. Wright said, no, we do not because we should not. And you know, I've answered as many emails as I possibly can without getting myself into a predicament of where if somebody wants a transfer hearing or a riff hearing that I have to confuse myself. Uh I think that's a misunderstanding that employees have. One of the things I'd love to I love about this board is we've taken the time to not just listen to you, but then we've asked questions. Dr. Saxs is right. We might have not answered every single one of you. We've answered I know I have answered a lot. And so if you

158have sent an email and I haven't responded, first my apologies to you that I haven't responded. I can stand up here and give you reasons to why I haven't responded, including my husband starting cancer treatments later this week. So, please understand this keeps us up at night. It keeps you up at night. It keeps us up at night. We want to respond to every single one of you. But there's a part of this where we have to say, "Okay, how much is too much?" Because we don't want to take away your rights to ask questions and to have a hearing. We don't want to take that away from you. And unfortunately, we are in a position where we know maybe about 5% of what Dr. Saxs and his team have been talking about. And he

159realizes that's as much as he can tell us. So, it is very, very hard for all of us, not just you. It is all of us. We see you. We hear you. We want the best for all of you and for all of our students in this county. one. Um, we're breaking the law here. Under citizens form, we're not supposed to have a conversation because it's not a formal issue on the agenda. And I just want but I want to just point out to you what we're trying to do here, talk to you. We are actually breaking the law. And um, and I I don't apologize for doing that. I'd like for you all to walk out here with some answers to your questions, but we can't get into a dialogue with you where we

160talk back and forth. So, I just wanted to point that out to you. I'm not saying I'm glad we're doing what we're doing, but it's gone by the law. And if a lawyer was sitting here, they'd be te they'd be wagging their finger at doing it. But thank you. And just finally, I I know that I didn't address the boosters. Uh, Mr. Tyson, if you hang out just a second, he and uh, Dr. Spoolie will meet with you before you leave to give you some guidance. So, thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, I'm getting your bond construction updates the U Hedesville Early Learning Academy. Um you can see what's going on here. the various wings uh they're progressing along with the foundation, the concrete slabs and the concrete block walls coming up out

161of the ground. Um but if you look at the next slide, we do have a uh a bit of a dilemma that we've come across at the Hedgesville Early Learning Academy. Um, when we were doing the original site plan, it was understood that the power lines that cut through there were a a 100T easement, but it's actually a 200T easement. And so part of the structures that are beneath the easement, not beneath the power line that but are within the easement, um, need to be changed. And so I listed those things. One, the major one is the corner of the building uh that's nearest the easement is going to need to be adjusted most likely. We're in correspondence with First Energy. Uh yes. So this is the original design and part of the 200t ement

162comes into this corner of the building right through here which fortunately is an outdoor storage uh area that we're going to propose. We move to the back of the building. As you can see this is the alternate drawing. Um, also within this easement on this corner of the building is the cooling tower and the generator. And so the proposal is to move those units to the back of the building so they're not within the easement. And then the rest of the space will be at an angled wall so that it is not within the ement. So that is the proposed change. Uh McKenley is still in correspondence with First Energy and I have Mr. Jeffris here in case you have any questions. He can probably provide more details if needed. But essentially, we've learned that

163the easement is much wider than was originally thought. And so these changes are going to have to be made in order for us to move forward with that section of the building. So far, it has not interrupted the progress of the work. uh they've been able to work on on all these other pieces and so construction has not halted. Um and hopefully all of this is uh sorted out as they approach that portion of the building. Um but also within the easement is uh some some of the landscaping that was proposed would have to be revised. Uh there cannot be any vertical structures whatsoever within the easement. Keep in mind that the easement does not mean beneath the power line. It's just the easement 100 foot from the center of the power line is is

164our easement that we're dealing with. So, we cannot have uh one part of the uh a curve and in the parent drop off road. Um there's there was like a a bit of a retaining wall, a guard rail that cannot be within the easement. So, we're going to redesign the way that that that's going to be configured. There was some signage and curbing uh within the easement that will be revised. Uh the storm drainage area was actually um pretty much beneath the power line. It cannot be. So, it's going to be moved. Uh currently, it's right here. It's going to be relocated over here outside of the ement. That's the storm drainage area. And then there are a couple lighting structures uh in the parking lot that also are going to be removed. So that

165is the uh bit of a dilemma that's gone on with Hedgesville Early Running Academy. Um it it's been in the works for the past few weeks uh in correspondence with First Energy and so um that's where we are. Why can't the storm drainage be under there? Uh it's currently near the there's a tower right here and we have learned that you cannot have anything within a 50 foot circle around that tower. Okay. And the storm drain currently installed is within that 50 foot circle. So it just has to be relocated. It also cannot be directly beneath the power lines because of any access that the power company might need for work or whatever. And so couple of reasons, but it's going to need to just be relocated over here. That 200 foot that we're taking

166off um does not affect the design of the building except to remove that storage unit. It it affects a couple of things. It does affect the storage unit to be moved to the back. Yeah. The cooling tower and the generator to also be relocated to the back. Um, and then it's going to require us to build these walls at an angle instead of your typical 90 degree angle. Okay, so it's essentially those three things of relocating a couple of items and then redesigning this at an angled wall. I wish I had a 3D image to show you that probably might help you understand a little better, but it will require an angle wall instead of a corner wall. What's that going to look like? I send you a 3D I do have an image that

167we can send you. Um I mean I know it's going to look like an angle but look like a Lego. Yeah. Well actually so I will say that the McKinley and if if Mr. Jeff could come up just so that he can answer some questions also possibly. Um they did present two different um resolutions to this. One had um sort of a stairstepped that kept in that in that you know to keep it out of the easement and the other was the angle. Can this one show you the stairst step version? Yeah, when we they can't see it from there though. See it probably, but if you look on what I shared, you might be able to see it. Yes, perhaps. And I will say that when we when we looked at the 3D rendering

168because we wanted to be able to see what it would look like in person. Um, it was not nearly as attractive as just the the slanted wall. So, that was why we and and the slanted wall actually saved a little bit more square footage from the loss. I want to say there was a loss about was it 76? 769 square ft less uh by changing this configuration. Yeah, Mr. Jeffers, the the major concern here is the electrostatic field around the lines. Am I correct? I think it's a culmination of several things. Um the uh if they ever have to work on the line, right? You know, that's that's the primary concern is being able to have the amount of space they need to be able to work on online. I I can remember story time,

169excuse me. I can remember making hay in a field, the power lines going over it, and I remember the farmer when he dropped his rake rake for hay got zapped. Now, he was underneath of it. And so you have to, you know, depending on the climate and everything else, safety wise, you have to have some distance away from these lines, right? And that's because the field of around the wires. Okay. So, we're doing this out of safety for our our students as well. Yes. Right. Okay. Definitely. Yeah. I just would like to see us reading. Well, I can send that to you. Um or yeah, we're not asking for any kind of there's no budget approval or anything like that. We're just wanted to keep you updated and so we can we'll definitely share that

170with you. I can send that to you. You can see what that's going on. Mr. Martin, moving the what is it? The generator, right? Generator and cooling towers. Yeah, it was located here. Is it? And so we're going to move it to the back. Is there any concern like noise if it's directly connected to a classroom? That is a great question. We had that same question whenever was proposed and move it to this location. So, I think are we going to are we going to insulate this floor or do something different on that? Yeah, we're looking into doing some enhanced insulation there. Okay. But there's no windows on that side of the building. Um windows would be on this on this side right here. So, this this side doesn't have any any windows. So there's

171some there's some discussion right now with the team on what's what's the best solution for that. I'm only concerned like moving it from there to there. Any other questions on that uh dilemma? Anything else for Mr. Jeffers? All right. Thank you. Um, so moving on then. Next project. Completion date still about the same. I think it's still the same, right? We still as of now. As of now, yeah, we're still on schedule. Okay. Oh, that is the completion date, right? Thank you. That's December 10. Okay. I don't want any ambiguity. Um, all right. So, next project, Tomahawk Intermediate. This project is also on schedule. The concrete slabs been poured. The steel structure system is currently in progress. Actually, they are already installing some of the roof decking. Um, so still on schedule to be complete

172July 30th. Next project, the Martinsburg band room addition. Um, this project, most of it is still on schedule. The band room uh will be complete prior to the school year starting. the um the the choir room which is going to move to the current band room will also be complete and the dance room that will move to the choir room also will be complete. Uh so all those items will be finished prior to the start of the school year. However, the auditorium as I brought up before a lot of the uh plaster and the ceiling area had to be removed as you can see from this picture. This is the upper level. All that plaster is being removed um because we had to have access to the electrical wiring and different things. Um so the

173auditorium schedule is not going to be finished by the start of this school year. Uh we're still trying to figure out what that uh date is going to be and the contractor is trying to work on a schedule. Uh and once I know, once they know, they tell me, I will let you know. So the only piece of of this project that's going to be delayed is the auditorium. Um, you can see the exterior brick veneer and whatnot is being installed. I just want I just want to reiterate the reason that that we had to do this to the board was that we under the original plan, we thought we could abandon the older lighting fixtures and leave them where they were. And the fire marshall said when we got into it, "No, you have

174to remove those." as well. Yes, those lighting fixtures are like several hundred lbs and they're like I mean they're like monster I mean they're just monstrous and so the only way to get them out is to remove them from the is actually remove the plaster ceiling. So um that was the reason that we encountered this and one of the things is that we're looking at is instead of going back and doing drywall we'll be able to do um um sort of like they're like a cloud they're like a cloud. It looks I mean honestly that's what a lot of auditoriums go to. Um and so I I actually think it might end up having a more modern updated look in the long run. So um but that was the reason that we're that's the reason

175we're encountering the problem and the delay uh in the project a little bit. It looks good. I was over there last week um doing something else with one of the staff and Yeah. The other thing is you see at the bottom there on the on the bottom corner um there is a change order that you're going to see later on that that I I think this is now is a good time to talk about it but um the older building yeah so the old the old portion of the building the brick had a design feature where every so many feet uh a block of brick was outset you can see it in this picture here we can see the different lines so when so yeah yeah and so when uh I had inquired during one

176of our construction meetings, were we going to have that same design on this new addition that is going to literally be on the side of the building? Um, it was not. It was just going to have a squared edge and and I felt like it needed to complement the existing structure. And so that's I think it's like $1,800. But that's the that's the difference of them doing that that change. And so I just I wanted to share with you that I felt like that was important for the long-term aesthetics of the building is to have that little outside of the brick to match the existing match. Yes, Miss uh believe I'd like to ask Miss Adams a quick question. Um the Good Times choir director a couple one or two ago. What was Do you

177ever heard major concern about over the stage the suspension system for the lights and pulleys and everything or were you there then? Um I was there then. The only thing I know is that it didn't work. Yeah, that's where I was. It does work. That was a concern. It didn't work. Yeah. And it was a It was It was a danger. I I just Every time I get a chance, you know, this is Make sure that suspension system over top of those kids on the stage is designed properly because what's up there now? Does it have new rigging in the plan? Okay. Well, it'll it'll be up there. I'm just just I'm just letting Katie safety safety talking over my shoulder here. I hear right now. Make sure to make sure. Yeah, absolutely. Uh the

178next project, Spin Mills press box. The project will essentially be complete this week for the stairs and uh approximately four weeks on the stairs unfortunately. So um yeah, that's where we are on the spring press. Next project is the Mountain Ridge Primary School. The bid opening question. Is there anything temporarily that can be used? Uh, it's possible that we could use a temporary scaffolding that has like railing and steps. So, I'm going to look into that and I'll keep you updated as I know more. Why is that? Well, I think the way you said it made us all sit there and think people were going to climb the scaffolding instead of actually climb, you know, like I'm checking into some options. I know what I mean in my mind. Mr. Yeah. Mountain Primary School. The

179bid opening was supposed to be I think maybe May, not May, March 26, but it was bumped one week. Um, and you can see the reasons why there that I've listed. Um, the project was originally designed to be completed June 30th of 2026, but we've extended it one month to July 30th of 2026. And I know it doesn't seem like that gives much time to move in furniture and get that place ready for the opening of school, but Mckenley has assured us that as they progress through the wings, then we'll be able to fall in right behind them with the furniture. So, there is a plan to schedule that and get this project done for the opening of the 2026 school year. Um, McK and I want I want to reiterate that the reason that

180that was extended was going through the bid process there were the contractors um were at was asking for that. They felt like that they needed that in their schedule. Yeah. They want to knowipation. I just want to make sure that the extension was a recommendation that was presented and that's why we that's why we did that. Yes. And the plan is uh for them to meet. Mckenley is meeting tomorrow with the contractor and then I will present this um well I'm supposing I'll present at the 21st board meeting unless I can do it earlier. Yeah. So, but but to update the board, we did get the bid has been opened and we have been um we were very pleased with the number of contractors that bid on the project. Um I think we had is

181it was it I think we had seven. We had seven we had seven that actually submitted a bid and um most of them were very tight in how close they were. So that means there weren't any major outliers which is a good thing. Um and it came in under our projected uh cost of what where we felt like expenses were now uh pretty significantly actually. And so um we feel really really good about um what we plan to bring you. McKenley is going through and making sure that they're vetting everything with the the the lowest bidder to make sure that they're um able to make sure that they understand all the scopes of the pro the scope of the project. But I do hope to bring that on the 21st and then we'll have conversations

182and give you an update on when we'll have a groundbreaking ceremony. So one another question. Um Oh yes. Have cost of the tariffs been considered at all? Cost of what? Tariffs. Um I don't figured in I literally just had a conversation with our our architects and um uh with Mr. Delator earlier today um and I asked that same question. They do not anticipate right now any um inflation as long but the longer the tariff debate goes on then the more likely that we will see some escalating costs there there have been I have seen some information where there are some they're already seeing a little bit of this of a stealing price but I think that's more of like a market response um that's not actually due to the actual tariff yet so I think

183it's one of those things that we're going to keep a really close eye on um to see how it shakes out. I think, you know, if if this discussion on tariffs goes beyond the next 3 to 6 months, we're probably going to see some increases. Um if if it's able to be um addressed and in a more timely fashion, then we're better we're better situated to not see such an impact. Okay. Uh my last slide is Spring Hills High School. One of the bond projects was to replace the turf field and that project is complete. So, there's some pictures of the new uh Spring Mills High School turf. Looks good. And that's all I have for you. All good. Thank you. While Well, obviously we you're going to stick around because we have some action

184items. All right. Thank you. Okay. Consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda presented? Same way. Second. Second. Second. I have I I have one thing that we need to go over and review um as it relates to the school use um school property use. There is a line item uh specifically regarding the use of mountain uh I'm going to say mountain uh I'm sorry what Mil Creek sorry Mil Creek Intermediate the dates um we believe is a oopsie um just not quite sure what exactly the date is supposed to be for beginning and ending um so we need to get clarity on that so I would had corresponded with Jess she had provided two different options as far as um motions for amending that. It is either we accept the

185the motion as it is written with the staff going back and for getting clarity from the group or we remove that line item al together. Um and then they would have to come back and ask for our permission or for approval next next board meeting. Um, specifically, if you're looking for it, it is the March 19th, 2025 in progress South Brookley Youth Football Association at Mil Creek Intermediate. Um, it is on page three. It has March 17th as beginning and ending on March 17. But yet, they are saying that they wanted to use the field for Monday through Friday, 5 to 9, and Saturdays and Sundays 10 to 7. So, something something's off somewhere along the way. Need to know what that specifically is. Well, um I I think we need to pull it because

186we can't answer that. I don't know what um it's already passed as well. It has already passed. The March 17th has already passed. The original thought is they might have put it in retroactively, but when I saw the description, it doesn't make sense that it would be correct. Could this have been a mistake by the school when they entered it into this? So, it's the organization. The organization is the one that puts it in for the request. I thought that when it got here, it's put into a document form form now and I believe the word. Okay. Thanks. Are we going to pull that item? That's what I was suggesting. We can either pull it or move ahead with the agreement that'll happen. My inclination is to pull it just because we're not clear on

187the dates. Yeah. I don't know what I have no idea what they mean, but it's already in progress. So, might not necessarily be in progress. They might have they might have clicked the wrong start date. It could be April 17th for all we know. I will say that there are times that we have to do that like with athletics where let's say they qualify for something and so they have to put it in. So we we we um we approve it retroactively, I guess. So there we've done in the past if we need to, but I don't think there's necessarily any problem. The problem is is that I want to make sure that we stay in compliance and I don't know how long they need it for. You mean with our policy of six months?

188We just don't know what the end date is. So there's no because there's no end date because we don't have a start date. Uh we we haven't confirmed the start date. They have no idea what the end date is and our policy states that they can only request to use the school property for six months. Yeah. Well, they can, as far as I know, we we especially out outdoors, aren't they able to utilize it throughout the summer? Couple board meetings ago, it should go into the next school year. Well, then that then we're going to need to have another conversation because there are several in here that start this year and go into the next school year. They're allowed to do it over summer for things like the blue sock should throughout the summer. I

189I agree with that, but it shouldn't go in starting the beginning of the next school year. What I'm saying? You mean like August 18th into August 18th? There's one October 6. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's one that's October 6 that goes into something that we agreed upon as a board. Well, I mean, look at policy. So, this might have to be added to policy if that's what you want to change it to. I'm holding up that right now. Give me a second. If we scratch that item, but they're practicing Monday through Friday, would that we'd say you can't practice then at that point if we take it off this? I think it's I think that what I would like to say is that that I as a super I have the authority to allow them to

190do it until the board formally approves it. I if they meet if they met all the other criteria until the board can formally approve the meeting. Yeah. I'm just making it as a suggestion, but if you're not comfortable, can we can can we make it so that you know pending, you know, we approve it pending confirmation of the end date being within the next six months of the approval date. Yeah. Yeah, we could do that and that would and then I could go back and I could come back and I could um update the recommendation at the next board meeting. Yeah. To be to be more concise. Jackie question. Um, I don't see anything in policy quickly, but that's something something we discussed. We discussed it's not in policy and I think that's what I

191was trying to point out last time is the only the only time period that it actually says is six months. It doesn't specify school year. Well, I think that needs to be specified, but that's just my opinion. Well, is is that something that we can discuss during a work session or something upcoming since it's a policy item? My only concern about this is and when we approve things like that versus um about insurance coverage and if their child gets hurt and something like that and then we've just given a verbal um they have to provide they have to provide certificate of insurance when they go to request this. All that I know all that I know. And I'm just telling you it's not we haven't board approved it. I do think that the potential resolution

192to the situation tonight which is to we could even vote on that one separately but um it would be to approve it pending the finalization so that they everything is covered at that point but that I'll bring you back an updated an updated um recommendation at the next one. Okay. So perhaps what we'll do is I'd like I'd like to amend that item to say that um it would be no more than six months and that I'll um that I'll be bringing an updated um item at the next meeting to clarify the dates. Well, sounds good. I agree with that, but just remember once we start that, we're going to have to do that for every mistake that comes through like that. I mean, we pulled one at the last meeting or the meeting before

193that because we didn't have accurate information. Uh that I will say that that is a good point and I want to make sure that we do not um have um a pattern. So what I will do is I will make sure that we have another review process in place to make sure that we're catching that before it gets to the board the board item in the future. Okay. I think it's a that's a reasonable expectation for us to address. So now what are we doing with this? Uh, I'm I'm I'm going to I'm I'm amending I'm going to I'm going to state that I've asked Jess to amend that item. Um, and I'm going to ask the board for approval, but we're amending that item to say no more than six months and that uh

194the superintendent will be bringing back at a future board meeting the the accurate dates of of of rental and use. Yeah. May the next board meeting do that once a month? I'm sorry. Do we only do this once a month or every meeting? Okay. At the next board meeting. Okay. Can I have a second? Second motion. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, we're on um action item. Discussion of possible action of county file. I am dual credit policy. Miss Clinter is on virtual. Miss Clintner is on virtual. I don't think we received any um comments. Um Miss Clinter, you want to speak to this please? Yes. Good evening. Um Christy Heaton initiated uh the dual credit policy and it's just to get in line with uh the template and um the vague wording that

195uh we had for our dual credit classes. So a dual credit course is defined as a course that provides students with both high school and college credit. Um this can be completed at the college school or online. However, most importantly, such a class must meet both the content standards for secondary course offerings and the college course requirements. Um these courses will be on their college transcript as well as their high school transcript. And I wanted to also mention that failure to earn a credit and dual credit course necessary to um earn equivalent high school credit can result in the student not meeting graduation requirements. So um our high schools have very good working relationships with Blue Ridge Shepard and WVU to ensure that our students get the credits they need to graduate. So basically we

196just cleaned up the the language on this um so everybody was very clear um on the expectations for the dual credit courses. Does anybody have any questions have any questions? No I don't think so. raise your hand. He he moves and question. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. 9.2 9.2 two. We're on discussion of possible adoption of the Berkeley County JBH ownation instruction guidelines. 9.2 9.2. Good evening, President Long, board members. Um, tonight I'm here uh to present two policies for adoption. Um, the first is Burke County policy JBH, homebound hospitalization instruction guidelines. Um this is an update to a previous policy. Uh the um if you look through the policy, you see a lot of lot of red in there. Uh but the majority of that is um clarification and removing

197some um some language that that could be uh confusing. Uh such as, you know, we added home homebound hospitalization. Um we made sure that that was consistent throughout the uh entire process. We clarified that there is one homebound coordinator for regular ed, one homebound coordinator for special ed. And uh the major change to this policy is found um in sections one and two with eligibility. Um, and what we did was reference uh, West Virginia policy 2510 in terms of eligibility, which is pretty much the same as what we had in there previously, but we're hoping for some updates uh, in terms of eligibility from the state. Uh right now, uh the the major thing that causes some hang-ups and a lot of school systems, but particularly B County, is that uh homebound paperwork has to

198be signed off on by either a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. And a lot of our students are on month-long wait lists to see a psychiatrist or even a medical doctor. So, they're seeing a um you know, a nurse practitioner or a psychologist or a therapist in the meantime, but we can't get get them on to to homebound um educational services. So, we're working with our legislators to hopefully get that policy updated or get the code updated, which was in update state policy. Um, unfortunately I haven't seen any movement in that area during this legislative session, but um, if that were to happen, since we have reference the policy and our policy, we wouldn't have to go back and and update that, you know, if there were changes made there. So, um, those were the

199changes. There were no comments, public comments for this policy. Be glad to answer any questions you may have regarding policy JBH. question. Um, on page 10, we have strengths on the pregnancy. Yes. [Music] Uh, am I missing something somewhere else? Well, there um so that was a recommendation from our legal council and I think you know with the the eligibility requirements being that you know a doctor signs off on it. Um, we didn't want to paint ourselves. And there there was another section in there too about, you know, not allowing homebound for, you know, a family member being on um or having medical issues or whatnot or not being able to to work. Um, so we I think this just clarifies and simplifies uh the process so that you know if if a doctor signs

200off on homebound services regardless of what those may be um then and it's considered medical necessity, right? Yeah. I remember many years ago we had a lady who worked with the young mothers. Yeah. And we stopped it and um I'm just worried. Um, I I I don't know how we deal how we help the young ladies get their high school education, finish their their their work. But, uh, I don't hold down as a safety valve that relieves pressure for some students who can't cope with school. And I'm just sitting there thinking, are we telling young ladies, don't bring your you have to go back to school with your baby or attend school and we don't have daycare and whatever else. What's the normal practice we do with young ladies who have a child? We try

201to keep them in school. Yeah. I will say that our schools are already working with um with students who may be in that situation. Um but we do have our outside school environment which is homebound without a medical doctor's um recommendation that would come through our SAT through our student assistance team. So if there's a student who's in a situation where they just cannot attend school um that allows us some flexibility to work with those students um you know in a still remaining within our policy but working with some of those extenduating circumstances that students may run into. I actually think it shores it up, Mr. Murphy. Pardon me. I think it actually shores up the way that we're wording it now. It shores up a lot of um nuances that can occur within pregnancy

202but also within postpartum. Um where before you know if if you were it it was very much encouraged pregnancy you know just because you were pregnant doesn't mean that you have a pass. This one at least if you're pregnant while it you can still go to school you still have that option if there's something that's there that's concerning whether it's psychological or if it's medical there is a doctor that is overseeing your care and recommends that they're they have the ability to stay home. I think there's this opens the door for more more than just medical complications. It's from a psych from the psychiatric piece too. I just don't it helps. What I don't want to see happen is we we fall back to the era if you're pregnant you have to drop out. No,

203I actually a long way from that. But I I just want to make sure we stay a long way from that. I just I actually think this actually helps the woman instead of it hindering the woman. um it gives her more avenues to to actually be able to pursue the education that that she wants, right? Um you know, at a time that's very delicate. Okay. Thank you. Additional questions for Mr. Branch. Dr. Branch. I move the policy. Second. Second. All in favor? I policy. Um thank you, Madam Chair. I have a stack. Could we move this down so we can get some of these notific? Well, I'm going to let him do um You have the whole stack on this next policy. Yes. God, please. He has a whole stack on the next one. Mr.

204P, who where's there right there? We want to I think we want to move something contract out to now. Yeah. So, I presented JG, you know, in our previous uh Wait, hold on. Hold on. Time out. We're We're gonna skip you for a second for a second. Sorry. Sorry about that. Yeah, Mr. Tyson's coming up. We're moving something on the agenda to discuss the mowing contract. We didn't get all that. Jackie, we just want to be respectful of our of our friends time. So, do you want me to present all of my Just the mowing? Yeah, just the mowing just both right now. Yeah. Go on. I got you. All right. So, the mowing contract that I'm presenting is a renewal. Uh three years ago, Made in the Shade was the uh apparent low bidder

205for our mowing contract. Uh we've renewed them twice, and this is to renew Made in the Shade to continue that contract for year three. Um, currently it was proposed, I think they received a letter for that mowing contract to go through July 1st of this year, 2025. Um, based on previous purchase orders of our mowing, from starting right now until July 1, it's approximately $150,000. So, I'm asking for approval for made in the shade to continue that contract through July 1. So it's 150,000. It's approximately 150,000 for the mowing contract if we pay it from from now the mowing from now until July 1st of this year of this year. And then we advertised for bid um a new mowing contract. However, that would not start until July 1st. And I haven't had a chance

206for that bid opening to be all sorted out. So I wasn't prepared to present that tonight. So this is just the renewal of the previous ming contract with made in the shape just until July June 30th which would just be until July 1st June 30th until June 30th technically. Yes, that's correct. And I uh it's my understanding that we're doing this because last when we renewed the contract and originally we renewed it we got the contract in April. Yeah. It typically, yes, it was in April and it was basically for the entire voting season, but this time it stopping at July 1. Okay. Or June 30th. June 30th. Can I have questions for Mr. President? Can I have a motion to accept the move? You look like you have a question, Mr. Second. Okay. All

207in favor? Oppos? Motion carries. All right. Thanks. You want me to stay or ask more action items or I think we're go back into our cycle. Yeah. Okay. Now, Dr. range. Do we need to do the I'm back. All right. So the second uh policy that I am presenting for adoption tonight is policy JG. Um you know at the work session um you know we discussed this um that evening um you know West Virginia policy 4373 was updated last July. Uh since policy JG models 4373, we needed to update our policy as well. So um we have done that. We've run it through the uh the discipline committee. Uh there was one change that was suggested by them. Um and we made that that change regarding the open forum. I pointed that out last time.

208Uh the major changes to JG uh from our previous version uh are the inclusion of the levels level one, two, three and four of um of discipline infractions as well as a change to the level four where a a threat to of mass violence or gun violence in a school is now considered a felony offense under the policy. even if students are not charged with a felony. So that expedites things on our end so that we don't have to wait for law enforcement to um to charge a student for for making a threat. You know, if a student makes a threat and we're going to discipline them for that, then um then that would automatically be a level four. So those are the two major changes to the discipline part of uh of JGGG. Okay,

209I run through these real fast I took time to read just the uh the thing here. Well, page 35. What line? 35. Uh it's my p my copy is only it's down in consequences. Just a quick question. doesn't have numbers. I don't mind. No, does it. Okay. Okay. It's a voluntary weekend detention and it's an interpretation from May 12th from the state superintendent. My question is we've had in the past we used to have Saturday school for disciplinary problems. Um was that mandatory back then? Now it's only voluntary. I so I was a high school assistant principal when we had Saturday school. Um I do not believe that that was mandated by by the board or by policy at that point. No, I meant was the student mandated to attend or was it voluntary? It

210was never voluntary. That was their discipline consequence. Yeah. So, you know, you may have a student that um you know, same for like an after school detention. If if they can't get a ride, well, then an alternative may be to to make that an in school suspension instead. So, I know there was strong feeling that it worked however it worked back in the day and there's been a lot of complaints that it has not been able to be done. Okay. But I just want to point out it is a possibility. It is. Yes. Um, uh, on page 41 up at the top, I just want to reiterate to the board that the county board is solely responsible for this one. And so, uh, I don't know how we wanted to do that because they don't

211know the things, but I've heard teachers complain to me about vandalism in the school and everything. And I'm just wondering what is being done to those students if they're caught. Um, and um, so I can answer that. Yes. A little bit. I didn't bring the discipline matrix with me. I should have but um we do have the discipline matrix that was established by our discipline committee which included um administrators, teachers, service personnel, um members of the community and parents. And I think I pointed out before, you know, our um we want to thank Mrs. Wright. She's stuck with us the entire time. But um other than that, most of our community members that have um kind of petered out at this point. So um but they were involved in the beginning when we were establishing

212this. And so, uh, for secondary schools, it can be a combination or either or, um, an out of school suspension or, um, you know, reconciliation, you know, where they pay for the replacement part or for whatever labor may be involved. Um, we had vandalism at a school at an intermediate school just a few weeks ago. Um and the uh the principal you know was initially going to do you know reconciliation um the parent refused so it became a suspension for the student. So that so those students are being held responsible. I know a lot of the vandalism occurs in the restrooms where we don't have cameras and it's very difficult to prove was working with a principal that had um you know some recurring vandalism in in restrooms where you know she's pulling the the

213my hall pass or the e-haul pass data interviewing students and just trying to narrow down you know is there certain student that's in there every time that this is happening. But uh those are a little more difficult. Okay. Um we have a lot of verbiage but then at the end of these sections we have the like on page 10. Okay. I do have the numbers here two line 244 if students have an idea or or 504 are they literally precluded from these consequences? No. Um, so a student that has an IEP or a 504 plan um will still be suspended if if that's the, you know, in the discipline matrix. But what happens is is after 10 days of suspension, you have to hold a manifestation um hearing meeting. So it you know that would

214involve the the parents and bas basically the IEP committee and David if I'm saying something wrong help me out but um and they would look at the actions and determine if that's a manifestation of the student's disability. Um if it is then we shouldn't be suspending them. We should be adjusting the IEP and putting in interventions. Um I would say for the most part that you know but if it's not then the student would have the same consequences. Are pre kindergarten students included in this matrix process? So they are not they have their own policy uh state policy which addresses discipline within within that and um they are more interventions and and reformative type discipline. I think in the new if that passed new disciplinary action by the legislature they're included in the new policy

215prek. I'm not I'm not aware of that. Yeah. It's in there. Yeah. That and that was my last question. Uh will we be revisiting this? Are you watching what the Senator Grady's bill is doing and will it have an impact upon the SC? So, I do know that it that it passed, but I have not read through that bill yet. It's in that it's in that discipline bill. Yeah. The pre You're right. Thank you for your patience. Okay. Um, I move the uh I move it if there are any more questions. Um, I have a second to second. All in favor of approving JG I believe I motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Board Mucker possible action on transportation comprehensive efficiency study. President Long, members of the board, Superintendent Sachs. Um I'm here tonight uh to

216talk about uh a transportation efficiency study that we're um we're launching this month. Um we had put out a bid for it. Um it it is a lot of information. Um we had four companies uh put in a bid for it. Uh we evaluated all four. Um went through the entire process. And what I'm here tonight for is seeking your approval of that contract. Even though it has over the $100,000 mark, uh Dr. Saxs wanted full transparency in this to to note what we're doing with what this efficiency study um is supposed to do. So with me tonight, I have Derek Graham and Jenko from Edelog Advisory Group. They're going they're going to be the ones to perform the final. This company has been doing this for many, many, many years. Um, they're experts at

217what they do. Um, and what we wanted to do, I know, as transportation director, I feel like we do a good job. However, are there places we can do better? So, what what we intend to do is flush out some of the things that maybe we can do better, but recognize what we are doing good and improve upon that. Um, so we really want to move forward. We are the largest fleet in West Virginia. Pretty soon we're going to have the largest student population. So, are we doing the right things? Um, and if we're not, we need to change course and do the right things. Um, so, you know, based on that, do you have any questions for us? Can you tell me what the landscape assessment is? The that is the overall picture of

218our overall picture of transportation. Yes. They're they're going to take a look at every single operation process we do that we're a part of. We're looking at um saving saving money but also optimizing other you know are we spending our money correctly? Are we spending it in areas that we should or should we move those and and and focus on other groups? I'd like to uh al I'm sure he'll they'll tell us that uh are some of our runs efficiently as efficient as they can be and that's one big part of the study because are our routes optimized and then could we somehow with that efficiency uh get rid of some of our travel? No offense to our city travel because they to us but well what what areas can we shore up? What areas

219can we do better. There's one there's one and I'm really excited about this is the recommendations for policy because if you know West Virginia um we get handcuffed by policy. So are there recommendations that we can go to our legislators and and try to change because there are some things in our policy that really limit what we can do as a yellow school bus service. Um and that's why you do have to contract out because there are some things that we're not allowed to do. Okay. So, can we go to legislators and get that changed? Is there other policy that maybe we can look at? Also, that's what this is going to flush out to us. Questions for do we I know we just had one say, Dr. Saxs, talking about redistricting. Do do they

220they will they would use the redistricting, you know, as part of the recommendations. they would be able to look at our redistricting proposals to be able to compare with how we're currently, you know, staffing um and uh routing. I also wanted to share that I need to find it here. I apologize. Um it's been a long night. You fellas have got to be tired, right? We're just happy to be here. You know, I thank you for sticking it out with us, you know, the long haul. Spencer flew in from Montana. Oh. So maybe we're a little bit more on Montana time right moment. I really wanted to emphasize I I want to make sure I overemphasize the fact that part of this is going to be really it's going to be really important to get

221stakeholder uh perceptions of our current transportation um successes but also our current transportation challenges. And in order to do that, um, uh, Dr. Skoolie, uh, Mr. Kacer, and I don't know if I'm missing anybody, really sat down to come up with a comprehensive list of what those stakeholder groups are. So that's principles, that's, uh, I think is there is there a student group, too, or is this We're working on that as well. So, we're working on student groups. You have the student perceptions. That's great. Um, but but families is so important. And so, we're going to have a special we've already identified the date. Um, and we're going to be having our schools invite families. Sure. Um on Tuesday, April 22nd from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Muscleman High School, Edelog will be, you

222know, leading that session to facilitate open conversations to gather insights both positive and again constructive about um our famil family's experiences with our current transportation services. And um and so I think it's going to be important that we have representatives of families who regularly ride the bus, families who maybe even new to the area and families with students who are have students enrolled in multiple schools is going to be really important to get their perceptions um to help help us uh tackle this. So are we only having a one location? Um that is the that is the current plan. Um the I think the reason is is because we want to be able to invite um what I would say are representative groups of families from each school. So we're going to be tasking each

223school with identifying families that that are in their school that can serve as their school's feeder pattern uh representatives. So having it at one site I think is is sufficient. But Mr. Martin, I have a quick question. Um you post on the website one of our neighboring counties that they saved 500,000 on the conservative side in savings. Um in your experience and like pre um premeating discussions um for our side of the district what could you see our savings being um after potentially yeah for the efficiency study I that I was going to say that's going to be hard to answer. Well, typically experience as much as we would love to share those initial numbers with you guys um because our research really only started this week and because we don't want to jump to

224any conclusions. I know he's from Montana, remember? Um but yeah, I mean hopefully that makes a bit of sense. I mean, as much as we'd love to share projections with that, a lot of it um information discovery occurs during this study because whenever we jump into a transportation system, a huge part of it is getting oriented. Right now, we're just trying to information gather as much as we can from an analyzing your transportation data to actually being here to assess the real site and take on these interviews with stakeholders that are important. Um, but we don't really like to jump to preemptive conclusions before the study's over because that can sometimes uh get us bogged down, especially if we, you know, discover something later that might actually say, "Oh, well, these savings might not be

225more realistic, but these might be more realistic." Um, so assessing options is a huge part of it. But, um, you know, usually these studies will take sometimes months, but we're focusing to try to get it done within the time frame you guys ask for. So, even more important that, uh, we get down to the, uh, analysis and then provide you guys the answers within a month. Yeah. because I I work I work with consultants all day and if we don't get the ROI we're in big trouble. So just want to make sure with the price tag we get the ROI that yes I I I will say that while they're not comfortable um saying at this point I wouldn't I wouldn't expect them to say well here's what we expect you to save. We did

226have a sit down where I shared with them the fact that on the 87 and a half% reimbursement we get from the state on our transportation expenses. We're we're the only we're we're one of the few, if not the only county in West Virginia on a year-to-year basis where we're exceeding the cap on that reimbursement by about $5 million. So, I had shared with them that of the other 55 counties, I would like to see us get within the the without exceeding the cap. So, I want to be the biggest success story that they have uh when it comes to saving money, but we're also spending a million dollars in prek transportation cost. And I I say that not because um because that's a problem that I think that they can solve. I do think

227that they're going to be a part of the solution in uh what I do believe is uh overserving um students in in in in those certain areas. Now, it doesn't mean that it's not it's not wonderful that we've been able to do it, but when we're looking at how ways to be more efficient with our budget and to be able to, you know, leverage uh dollars for staff compensation and getting more money in the classroom, uh we have to take a look at that. And so the office of special education um um and even the department of education with their assistance even with the prek staffing they're going to be able to offer some additional technical assistance to make sure that we can rein in what I think is those those overserved areas um when

228you so it's a multiaceted approach it's the efficiency of routing and the structure we have within transportation it's the practices that we employ in identifying students for transportation that is going to really I think uh bring our our transportation costs to a much more manageable position. in your all's experience. Um I'm not asking for a number of how much every place you guys have helped save money, but would you say that um a small percentage, a middle of the road percentage or a large percentage of the clients you have you have served have saved significant costs? I would say a mid amount because sometimes we present the cost savings and there's a policy or a decision that's made by the board that they decide not to go with it even though there had to be

229cost savings. Um other times we have been able to show there are indeed very lost cow savings and they've been able to go on and implement it as well. Um it really does come down to the individual district and you know to our point we are focused on trying to put money back in the classroom and saving money as well. okay, for school districts, but it really it cannot come at the expense of having an equitable outcome for all students. And sometimes that is really what can make the ultimate decision is yeah, you can save a ton of money on this, but what happens if it leads to a worse outcome for students as a whole? Um, one of those things that, you know, you know, free markets and school districts can sometimes be at

230odds with each other. Um, yeah. Well, it's definitely not what it wants. It's a balancing act. I think I think I think the other thing is that you know when we think about an efficiency study that the we're determining are we efficient and if we are in certain areas then then those are things that are good to hear. Those are things that we say hey we're doing this right. Right. But these are the areas but what we also hope to say is that there's some areas where we we know we can improve. Let's flush those out and let's be able to focus our future work on on that. Even if there might be some hard decisions to make then we have to decide whether or not we want to tackle them or not. True. Sometimes

231a district needs to rebuild its transportation from the ground up, but the vast majority of the time the school district is already doing things that are wonderful. And we want to highlight those things and emphasize that because you tearing down a system and replacing with something that might work is usually way more risky than building on the success that's already there. Highlighting those constraints where they exist and then trying to work to address that because sometimes even just cutting around the edges a little bit can yield massive savings rather than trying to do a massive overhaul. Um, but that that's part of the information discussion. You're not going to re recommend that we move 100% of our fleet to electric. Oh, yeah. Well, it'll be hydrogen in the future. We're on the same page here.

232Hydrogen's the future on all the cars. You know, we you can't even you can't sign up for a grant anymore for electric buses. Yeah. We have used in the past Edelog for scheduling. Now, we don't use that that anymore, do we? Well, we use Edgelog software. This is a This is a total different branch. I know that. But yeah, we use Edgelock software. Are they not the same? No, this is the advisory group. They're the same company. But we don't work in the software side. We're in the consulting side, transportation. But I just was wondering if if we even use that. Yes, we do. So like you like see our routes and time that way. Yes. And that's that's a real big that's it's a breadand butter part of our software as well is that

233with our consulting side we have that advantage to where we can jump into the runs and routes software side the map and we can access it much more quickly than say an outside firm has to bring all that data into their own system if that even exists. Um and often times these tools are you know there for the districts to use but um even the most well staffed and most capable districts need help and resources sometimes. So yeah, we try to stay, I guess, uh, able to change tack when we need to. So hopefully that answers your question. Yes, it would. Any other questions? Um, can I have a motion to approve the um transportation comprehensive efficiency study at a cost of $89,950? $850. It says $950 here. $89,850. Or is it 900? $89,950 is

234what my table. And then there's the one that says $850. Yeah, I think ours is updated. It's It's 850. I thought it was an extra hundred bucks. Second. All in favor? I motion carries. Thank you. Thank [Music] change orders. Yes, I've been keeping a running list for you on the change orders that have occurred and starting with the um Heisville Early Learning Academy. Um the one change order that I'm presenting tonight is the additional concrete around the playground. Uh you might remember at a previous board meeting you approved the playground and we kind of downsized the playground to fit it within the budget. But that would result in upsizing the perimeter of concrete that goes around that playground so that there are no grassy areas and strictly concrete and the play surface. So in order

235to I think about centering the image so you can kind of see uh there's concrete that goes around the perimeter of the playground also along the fence that's at the end of the U shape. Um [Music] 35,260.74 cents for this additional concrete. That is the request. You want to do these one at a time kind of thing. How do you How do you want me to just keep on going? Yeah, just keep all right. So that's the first one. The next one is Martinsburg High School, which I pointed out in one of the previous pictures on the screen, and that is to make sure that the brick corners match the existing. That's $1,451 for that change. The next one, Spring Mills High School press boxes. There were some lentils above some HVAC vents that were

236not included in the plans. We obviously have to have lentils to support the load. That is the price of the lentils at the spring mills press box. Um the next two items that relate to the spring mills press box are additional requests. If you so think it's necessary, we can approve it. That would be paving uh a lane, a connecting lane from the one press box to the other and then extending that lane out to the existing um parking area of Spring Mills Middle. It would basically make a nice walking path for uh guests and spectators that come to the facility uh and connect the two press boxes. That's 32,727. The other part of this paving would be to expand the parking. Currently, I don't know if you've been and noticed at Spring Mills Middle

237School, uh during the day, these press boxes back up behind Spring Mills Middle School, um there are multiple faculty and staff vehicles that are parked in the grass because there is not enough parking. So if we expand the parking for the press boxes, um it would accommodate two things. The parking of the faculty and staff during the day, spectators during the uh uh baseball and softball events. Can I can I just add some additional context on this one? So the reason absolutely I asked for the original connecting lane was it was a it was supposed to be a stone between the two um what do we call them? Press box. Press boxes. And then it was going to be a gravel drive up to the up to the um the lane here along the middle

238school. And I I was just worried, you know, those are the kind of things that get potholes, get muddy, and because it was it's not a well-defined road to be honest with you. Um I can see coaches and parents driving down there and in the grass and it's just, you know, and so I thought, let's let's try to see what it would cost to asphalt between the two and the road up here. And then we also saw where there are so many people parking on the grass during the daytime because of lack of parking. That that's why I got the cost estimate and that's why I wanted to share it with you all is is that there's the option to do the paving connecting lane and then there's the additional 28 spots that we could

239add in that field there um for a total cost of $86,000 to the cost of the project if the board wanted to consider it. And what would fund would that come out of cont? It would it would come out of the bond funding. it would it would go over the contingency allowance. Um approximately 54,359 for that. So we could stay within we could stay within the contingency just to do the connecting lane and then expanding it would obviously take expanding the 28 parking spots for the middle school area would obviously it's really bad that we don't have enough parkings down there for the middle school. I mean, they're parked all over the They really are. That's the reason that that we're proposing solution. Can we just do the expanded parking above the connecting lane? We

240We could. And then and under the contract, it would just be gravel. It would be gravel down that lane from up by the school and then between the two sites. Could we do asphalt milling? So instead of it being actual asphalt between the two press boxes and it's not necessarily gravel, but it's more of a compacted asphalt millings that actually could save us money, but give us that ability to not have the potholes that you're envisioning. Except it doesn't last. It doesn't last, but I would sit there and and argue that we could probably get a couple of those cycles through and then revisit this later because that's a lot of money for all of it. I'd rather put all the money into the parking and a little bit into the the walkway versus none

241at all. Or I guess you could get a quote on see how much that is. I mean, if it's $10,000 or $12,000 or I'd rather spend the 32 to get it done right than keep going two or three times of that and then you could have had the connecting lane put in there. I just to me I just think the the critical part is is the parking. Yeah, that agreed. The connection is just a just a bonus. So it's like it's a nice thing, but parking is the most critical thing. Yes. To me. Yeah. I I I do I do agree with that. Especially with the staff. We have we have a lot of staff. We need to be we need to care for them. And there are a lot of them in the grass

242because there's just not room. Yeah. And then there's mud and everything else that can happen when there's rain. I just I' I'd prefer to do the the parking lot for the school, right? And custodians are having to deal with cleaning up and so um No, go ahead with Tomahawk if I mean the Tomahawk was um there was a a ceiling heater that where you exit the building, but now that exit is turned into a hallway. This was just to remove that heater and it was 18190 for that. So, [Music] um, what I'm hearing is, uh, that you all are in favor of approving everything except the connecting lane. And the other thing down at the bottom of that spreadsheet, you see each of the contingency allowances and each of the change orders to date, just

243to give you a reference. Um, so you kind of see where where we are on that. And then the very bottom line shows you the remaining unused balance for each of these specific projects. So I think that's kind of something in the attachment. Okay. It's in the attachment. Yeah. It's on a spreadsheet that I I have the highlighted portions are the previous approvals that you've done. I know that our I know that that a couple of our I mean we've got the the falling water school that's going to be the astronomical price. Um and I'd rather take a little bit more of that money and put it into put into that school and have it there. Yep. I I I know it's I know it's a a drop in the bucket, but I'd rather have

244a few drops in the bucket. Yeah. than nothing at all. My personal opinion, I don't know what anybody else thinks. I'd rather put it towards classrooms. Yeah. Well, let's have a vote. We're I'll move that we do all of the recommendations except for the connecting lane at the Spring Mills boxes. Second that, Mr. R. Second. Mhm. All in favor? I motion carries. All right. Thanks. Thank you, board members. Now we are uh discussion on the gym floors. Okay. Yes. So I presented the gym gymnasium uh refinishing of the floors and the sanding and um at a previous meeting, but there was a question. There was a uh a line a line item at the bottom of the invoice that mentioned the uh performance bond. that would be an additional I don't remember what it said,

245one and a half percent maybe or something like that. Um, but I I spoke with our uh purchasing department and pulled up the policy H200 and you can see what I put there. Um, that if if the purchasing director thought it was necessary that we have such a a performance bond, then they would certainly advise it and recommend it. But for these uh sanding and refinishing of the floors, um our purchasing director uh believes that is not necessary because uh they're going to complete the project, then they're going to send us an invoice and we're only going to pay them for each of those projects once we've looked at it and made sure that it is satisfactory. So because of that, um there is no recommended need for the performance bond for the gym for

246refinishing. Um, so that brings the total cost to the 217 uh 12 as was originally proposed for all of those schools listed. And where's the money coming from? Just because I'm This is the maintenance. Yeah, this is part of our yearly budget. I can't keep track of all where all the money is coming from. So that's why I apologize for asking. Yeah, I might have forgot to list that. It's there. It's there. Oh, it's okay. Well, it's under general operating, but that's how you're it's it's a general fund. Yeah. Okay. Questions for Mr. Tyson on the gym floors. Can you just confirm that if they approve it this this evening that all those floors will be done before school starts? Uh yes. Yeah, they um they are waiting for our schedule. I haven't sent them

247schedule yet. Waiting on to be approved. Said they'll start just as soon as school's up. That's correct. These will all be over the summer finish before school starts. So move. Second. All in favor? All right. Motion carries. Moving right along. Must high tennis courts. Uh yes, the muslin high tennis courts. You um you know that I previously proposed a post tension concrete system and you asked me to come back with an asphalt system. I also uh went ahead and did the geotechnical report on that location because I think some of us were concerned about the proximity to the quarry and different things like that and the geotech uh was done by Hillis KS and they confirmed that the quarry is not an issue. There was no concern with them on that. Uh they did some

248soil samples, some they dug dug some holes, they did some drilling on the court itself. And long story short, it was determined that if we're going to do this right, we should entirely remove the existing asphalt. Um fix the drainage. Right now, there's essentially no drainage system. So any water runs beneath the ports and compromises the underneath of the asphalt. So a drainage system needs to be installed to capture that water and send it and divert it so it's not pouring under the course. Um so if you remove all the asphalt uh you fix any soft spots on the subface and then repave and uh reine and paint the total with asphalt including pickle ball. uh courts. Uh pretty popular thing they so I asked them to give us a price on throwing pickle ball

249lines on this court as well. Uh comes in at 46,976.90 and that would be also replacing the fencing as was proposed with the post tension concrete uh project. You have two recommendations. One yes. The first recommendation was the one that I previously presented. which was extension concrete. So, I just kept that one on there for reference. Um, and then the second one is the asphalt. You ask me to get and this is through a cooperative purchasing contract with ASSE sports. What's the board's pleasure option one or two? Well, I had a question. Yes. Um, somebody in community asked, so I wanted to make sure I asked. Um, is there a reason, this might be a board question as well as your question. Does every school need to have their own tennis court and why can't

250they share? That's a great question at the same time. They're playing against each other. Not most of us not going to come in and share with Martin. I'd be happy to try to answer that question. Right. The I think that when we think about I think when we think about the programs across the district um and our schools that we we do try to be equitable in what we provide them um and obviously this is a facility we have Marcusburg for example their tennis courts are terrible you can't use them but they're but I think they're using um and then of course spring mills are in pretty good shape am I correct they're in good shape um Hedgesville good shape. In good shape. So, I think this is the, you know, in order to be

251equitable with all areas of the district. That's that's why we're taking a look at at this this one that is in pretty pretty significantly bad. Well, that and they also do use these for their physical education classes. So, it's not just for the tennis. There aren't any tennis courts over at the at the rec center though, right? No, I didn't think so. Yeah. So, um, what's the warranty on option one? They're all all the construction projects that are one year. You said that, right? I know we did. But we're asking the same It's also considered just a one-year construction warranty. Well, they don't give you much, Tom. Whether it's 700,000 or 400,000, the same warranty. Is there a longevity difference between the two surfaces? Yes. [Music] Jackie, I think I I sub I article PS

252and it's been a while since I've read it, but I believe it was like a 25 to 30 year warranty for the post warranty not you see warranty um what was expected and then the I don't know I think it's more like 10 to 15 I I if if you're if I'm I'm going to make a recommendation because I do see there's there's uh some concern. I think that being able to be equitable um is important. Uh but we also know that we have some additional costs that we're going to have to encourage as a district. Um and I think that with the tennis courts also getting under the asphalt, getting the spectator area for our families, that that's a win there as well. Um, so I I I personally see the benefit of being

253financially uh responsible and um getting this solved for our students, still getting a 10 or 15 year life expectancy out of the asphalt itself. Um, and knowing we have other projects we have to complete. Um, I I would encourage the board to look at option two. That's what that's my suggestion. I was looking at option two with the asphalt. Yeah, because we're still going to have we're still going to have a superior play surface. They're gonna have and it's going to have addressed the water runoff which I think has affected the current the current uh infrastructure. It's going to solve that problem which is part of the issue. Yeah, Mr. Morgan has a question. That was you answering my question. The this the pooling of the water under process will be solved. Yeah, because who's

254going to put that? This is going to solve that problem. Correct. The other piece of this is one of the bond projects is to install tennis lights at the muscle and tennis courts. Uh we have not done that project yet because you're waiting to see what's going to happen with these. But just so you know, I'll be coming back with a tennis light. Okay, that's one of the bond projects. But that's a bond project difference. Actually, that's actually in the bond. That is in the question to you. Yes, there will be there will be okay. Thank you. cable requirements for these lights. Are you going to factor those future needs for the uh tennis lights into this into the planning of this so that they Yes, absolutely. Okay. Okay. We have a motion um I

255made a recommendation. We have a recommendation to to go with option two at $46,976.90. Can I have a second? All in favor? I posted. Motion carried. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Thank you. We've already done the right. That's it. No, we're done. Okay. So, for right now, we got to do HR concrete in the center and the learning center. Hey, Ty. Yeah, he said that. It's been a long night. We did we did the concrete in the middle of the learning center. The learning center already, right? Yes. Okay. I'm sure that was on the previous approval that you did. Yeah. Okay. The only thing you did not approve was the connecting paving portion. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm just making sure the concrete for the playground area is taken care of. Thank you. Okay, I'd

256like to point out that the two bald men in the room are trying really hard to fight for a position at the podium. I wouldn't touch that line of I want you to know that Mr. Wright and I take offense to look I wasn't referring to you gentlemen. You guys are not um down down below. You guys have the option to sit and listen. Mr. It's good evening. Uh, members of the board, Superintendent Sax, the personnel actions dated for Monday, April 7th, 2025 are as follows. Uh, we have three coaching appointments and six coaching resignations. Uh, we have three additional healthcare appointments. Two of those are backdated to the beginning of the school year as these employees have been working in those roles since August. Um, beginning on 14th, we have three unpaid leave of

257absences for your consideration. Uh for professional personnel tonight we have three professional appointments. Um on line 20 we have a rescend of a change of assignment. That employee had their license renewed immediately following the last board meeting which is why we are rescending that. Um we have three professional mutual agreements. Uh we have two policy 5000 hires for the 2526 school year. We have nine professional recommendations. Those are at the end of this year June 30, 2025. We have two professional retirements and one transfer for the 2526 school year. U for service actions, we have five new service personnel appointments. Beginning on page four, line 43, uh we have five appointments of service personnel for midday assignments. Um we have one change of assignment and we have two mutual agreements of uh service personnel. On

258lines uh 51 and 52, we have two ratifications of unpaid suspensions. Um, line 51 is Deborah Bats. Uh, line 52 is Megan Rubble. On line 53, we have a ratification of an unpaid suspension and a termination for your consideration. That is for Caleb Clem. Uh, we have three service resignations and one resignation of a monthly assignment. We have two retirements of service personnel. Uh, we have one resend of a transfer as that employee has elected to stay in their current assignment. We have three individuals who have received an upgrade to their service personnel title. We have uh eight new appointments of substitute service personnel and four resignations. We rescended one appointment of substitute service personnel. Uh we have 17 substitute service personnel who have been removed from the substitute list and one resignation from the

259substitute list. Uh for professional substitute teachers, we have 16 appointments of professional day-to-day substitutes, three removals from the substitute list, and three resignation of substitutes for a total of 111 professional service and substitute personnel actions tonight for your consideration with Superintendent Sax's recommendation. I'd like to go in executive session to discuss line number nine. So move second. Second line. Second. All in favor? I opposed. We are in executive session at 10:55. I'm sorry. 11:35 something like that. Thank you, Madam President. Um, make recommendation. I'd like to recommend approval of 9.9 the uh recommendation for personnel actions. A motion. I would like to make a motion that we pull line nine to be separate is to be to be uh voted on separately. Yeah. Um how about we just we'll resend the original motion. Um there's

260a And there's a motion by Miss uh Powers to separate that. So that I'll withdraw my motion. Okay. Uh there's a motion on the floor to vote on line nine separately. I'd have a second to that. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. We will vote. So we will vote on the rest of the uh agenda minus line nine. And I have a motion to accept. So move. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Just just quickly, we voted to accept the retirement of Ben Hoffmaster 47 years. Yes. Uh I can remember Bev uh at Berkeley Heights. Wonderful lady over the years. Um she was the West Virginia teacher of the year. Um she was a principal. She's worked in the board office been a very she's she and Erin Dawson organized many science

261and social studies. Her contributions go far beyond her height and I say that respectfully. uh a wonderful wonderful lady that uh has has had influence a lot of people and she truly I remember she talked about the little engineer over the years and use it I think in her discussion at when she was being the teacher of the year candidate. We're we're going to we're we're losing an institution that that has made a big impact upon this school system. And I want to personally on behalf of the board thank all that Bev has done. And I'm sure that that favor that feeling is shared in this room. So Bev, if you're watching, you're still awake. We hope you can't go to sleep after those nice comments that we feel towards you. Thank you. Thank you.

262Now, did we vote on the def? You voted on everything with the exception line. Okay. Can I have a motion to accept line nine? So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I I I'm thinking about it. You think about it? I would like to make a note that I am abstaining from this vote because of not knowing all of the information that is needed in order to make a educated determination. I am withholding my vote. I abstain also for that same exact reason. I cannot make a vote that's constable to bill. That's all. Yeah. Thank you. Did the motion pass? Oh, the motion pass. Right up 30 and to abstain. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Next on the agenda is uh [Music] uh superintendent board announcements. Um for the sake of time, if we want to move

263your announcements to next Tuesday meeting, I can be quick. Okay, I can be quick. Just wait. Give me a few minutes, right? Okay. Yeah. Under board announcements, I just want to quickly share I had a wonderful experience last Saturday, I believe, where I went to the prom for special needs students and um I just learned so much. U first I want to compliment all of the students who attended. It was uh inspiring to see the excitement of our special needs students there. Uh I'd also like to I can't go without and you see a picture up here. They had uh students from the leadership classes I know at Musman and other schools 60 students. Um these students were there to support these children. And I noticed they all wore black. They did not want to

264be a distraction from the children that we were focused upon. So, um they were there and and and um they had a red carpet and watching those kids go down strutting sache, whatever the word is going down that that red carpet, uh they they were they were the king of the moment or the queens of the moment. We also had a beauty queen there. Uh I did not know. I think she was Miss Teen age. Miss Teen West Virginia. Miss Teen West Virginia. And you see her there on the right. And she uh it was just so many people giving to the success of this evening for these children. And I'd highly recommend you going to it. I learned that some of these students couldn't have flash. They couldn't have louder their their sensory sensitive

265and that I was only there in the evening. Mr. Lang was there as one of the organizers. I compliment him, but it was more than just two or three people. It was a community effort of the special ed community and beyond. And um if you get to go next year, uh you're going to walk away feeling so good about what is happening in the school system for these young people. And I thank Mr. Lang and all those who did that. Sorry. Real quickly, I attended last week the simulation of life or get a life simulation at Martinsburg High School. Um where the students have to buy a house and then purchase insurance and it was something else. It was really funny. So I appreciated Chad Thompson as instructor for inviting me because I had a

266great time. So and quickly uh anybody else? Thank you. Um thank you. Thank you, board members. Um, it continues to be busy, busy, busy all around Berkeley County Schools. First, I'd like to give special recognition to um our assistant principles because it is National Assistant Principal Week um this week. And so, we want to thank all of our fantastic APS for the work that they do. Um we have a just a wonderful bench of instructional leaders out there and they do an amazing job and we're very very proud of each and every single one of them. Um, this month is also counseling awareness month. Uh, so we want to give a shout out to our our counselors who um wear many hats and truly I think on a day-to-day basis wear capes uh because they're

267heroes and uh they support what our support our students, they support our staff and they just do a fantastic job. And so we want to make sure that we recognize the work that our counseling staff does every single day in and out of all of our schools. This month is also month of the military child. So, we'll be sharing some great ways that our schools celebrate the month of the military child throughout the month of April. It's also designed as the month uh to recognize and celebrate the unique experiences and sacrifices of military children and youth. Um and the Department of Defense encourages communities to acknowledge their resilience and their contributions. Um, so, uh, in order to show our appreciation districtwide, um, April 15th is Purple Update, a day to show support for military connected

268children. And, um, um, the Purple Up Day, I think, is a wonderful way to um, recognize this month as well. So, we want to thank all of our military families um, and especially our military children um, for the sacrifices that they make um, in service to our country. Uh reminder uh that next week, April 14th through the 18th, is Berkeley County Schools spring break. We want to wish all of our students and our staff and our families a safe uh and relaxing break uh from the the the daily grind of of school. Um and we hope that when you return um you are refreshed and rejuvenated to finish out the school year um um in a in a awesome way. Um our next regular board meeting will be April 21st, 2025 right here at the

269uh I'm sorry at 6 p.m. It will be at the central office at 1453 Winchester Avenue. Um that'll again our next regular board meeting April 21st, 2025 at 6 p.m. We'll also be meeting for a special board meeting on April 15th at 5:00 pm where we will it's a board workshop where we will be reviewing the IEP process and all that goes into making sure that those uh our families are well well informed but the work that our staff goes into preparing a high quality IEP and an IEP meeting. And we will also be having our debrief from the children's literacy initiative on their curriculum audit and some of our schools and the recommendations they have for us to move forward in improving uh learning outcomes for our students in our in our classrooms. Board

270members, that concludes my update. The meeting on the 15th is it? Uh I think it's uh I think five o'clock and that'll be at Winchester as well. Okay. On the 15th. That's Tuesday. We have to That's the statutory meeting that we have to have on the third Tuesday of April. So, we'll just combine each. You know, we used to do that 7:30 in the morning by virtual. Oh, really? I I will say this one though is I called it a workshop. It's actually going to be a special board meeting. So, I I stand corrected because there will be some items on there for them to approve as well. So, yeah. Um, I should go in executive session to discuss a legal update. So, move. Second. Second. All in favor? I. We're in executive session at

271um 11:47. And Madame President, I I do not anticipate that there'll be anything for us there. There will not be anything for us to vote on after executive session. So, we should we will be adjourning by midnight. Well, we'll be adjourning after executive session. Yes. Was Yeah. [Music] All right.