001like to call this regular board of education meeting to order welcome everyone on this uh special evening it's nice to have so many people with us tonight if i could have miss jackie long lead us in the pledge of allegiance please to fly the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under all of liberty and justice for all can i have a motion to approve the agenda second any discussion all those in favor motion carries unanimously i'd just like to note uh that uh mr beckwith is joining us virtually as is dr murphy this evening and our next item is the teacher of the year and i will turn that over to miss elaine bobo thank you dr gilpin welcome to spring mills high school and thank you
002for joining us for the 2022-23 teacher of the year recognition ceremony and reception we appreciate that you have joined us tonight as we honor the work of our finalists and name the berkeley county schools teacher of the year i'm pleased to be with you this evening my name is elaine bobo as we celebrate the finalists and honor the recipient of teacher of the year i would like to thank and introduce our board of education who recognize and value the importance of having excellent teachers in our classrooms dr darren gilpin is our president mr todd beckwith he's on via zoom he's our vice president miss jackie long mr michael martin and mr pat murphy thank you all very much and thank you for your flexibility this evening i also like to recognize our superintendent dr patrick
003murphy who is also with us via zoom tonight and another very important guest and i'm going to ask her to stand because this is miss beth lyons and she is our 21 22 teacher of the year thank you beth to our five finalists the educational passion that each of you share with the children of berkeley county schools is evident in your selection as a finalist being honored as a teacher of the year is a great accomplishment as a professional educator and i know that all of you are well qualified for this honor thank you for giving so much of yourselves to berkeley county schools the teacher of the year application process is not an easy one it is designed for self-reflection and peer evaluation credit is given to the 23 nominees listed on the back
004of your program that accepted their school nomination and completed the application process the 23 names are listed on the back of your program if any of these nominees are with us would you please stand okay will we certainly thank you go ahead stand up yay thank you for being here to be named a finalist among this impressive list truly speaks volumes for the dedication to our students and personal achievement sought by all berkeley county schools educators and finalists i would like to tell you about the selection process for teacher of the year for the past 52 years berkeley county schools has participated in the west virginia teacher of the year competition each of our 32 faculty teams conducts a secret ballot nomination of candidates for the honor of berkeley county teacher of the year the
005number of nominations from each school is dependent upon the number of faculty members in that school nominees must then complete an application packet including required criteria such as teaching philosophy a biographical sketch community involvement and professional activities the five finalists are then interviewed by a selection committee the combined interview and written criteria scores determine the berkeley county schools teacher of the year once selected our teacher of the year will compete against the other 54 counties of west virginia for the state teacher of the year and be announced at the governor's reception in charleston this coming september a selection panel used a point system to select the five finalists at this time i invite beverly hoffmaster a west virginia teacher of the year of 1992 a k2 instructional specialist and coordinator of the berkeley county schools
006teacher of the year program to introduce our judges good evening it is a distinguished pleasure to be here tonight to introduce our wonderful panel of judges for this year our first judge when i call him will you please stand is beth lyons the berkeley county current teacher of the year and first grade teacher at hedgesville elementary school mrs dottie pannell the 2010-2011 berkeley county teacher of the year and an academic coach at a peckin elementary school ernie dotson who is a retired educator and served as the teacher of the year county program coordinator for over 30 years and does a wonderful job still assisting us with that one of our judges could not be here this evening janna stinson was the 2018 2019 berkeley county teacher of the year and she is doing her duty
007as national honor society advisor at hedgesville high school this evening so she regrets not being here this evening thank you wonderful panel of judges selecting the berkeley county teacher of the year is not an easy task and we certainly want to commend the judge's efforts in selecting our teacher of the year thank you for sharing your time and your talents and to for the organization and to implement this process we have additional guests in the audience tonight at this time with all former berkeley county schools teachers of the year please stand to be recognized thank you all for supporting us this evening beth bev thank you for everything you do with your group now i would like to introduce to you miss beth lyons i have come to know beth as both a respected and
008beloved teacher of hedgesville elementary school she is described as a go-to educator by her peers and a bundle of educational energy to her students as a leader on the first grade team at hedgesville elementary she is always studying and reading new research to grow as an educator the strategies that she implements in her classroom will benefit all learners and team members she is an avid reader and can often be found in the library which correlates this to her passion for learning in her classroom she engages students by getting to know them their siblings their interests and maybe even their pets as a teacher she continually balances the art of teaching with the science of teaching she has been teaching first grade at hedgesville elementary school for 16 years and berkeley county schools teacher for 32
009years 29 of them in first grade so she is indeed truly special beth thank you i'm truly honored to have been chosen to represent berkeley county schools as the 2021-2022 teacher of the year it is so hard to believe that an entire year has gone by as i was named teacher of the year in may of 2021 we were concluding what i can honestly say was one of the hardest years of teaching in my 31 year career i was a brick and click first grade teacher spending half my day teaching children to read virtually and the other half teaching students to read in the physical classroom while my partner kelsey murphy did the same for math my first grade teammates melanie cox and amy snyder did the same with their brick and class i felt
010like i was on a dream team and we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we could not have done what we did without each other speaking for myself and my colleagues i can say without hesitation that i learned as much if not more than my students that year we learn to present information virtually as well as physically while ensuring social distancing and safety measures all the while trying to build relationships with our students both online and in person to paraphrase maya angelou i have learned that students can forget what you said students can forget the lesson but students will never forget the way you made them feel as the school year began in august of 2021 we knew that we would need to recognize the needs of our students academically while also being
011aware of the emotional toll isolation and time out of the classroom may have caused children develop so many skills in kindergarten as robert fulgum wrote all i really need to know i learned in kindergarten share play fair don't hit people clean up your own mess say you're sorry since most of our students missed out on the full kindergarten experience we worked on these things too as guidelines evolved and changed we kept adapting and growing to meet the needs of our students we as teachers also leaned on each other and learned from each other while we shared ideas and best practices to ensure learning for all our students building relationships with our students always be a critical component of education when our students feel loved nurtured and safe then they have the ability to learn and
012grow meeting our students where they are was absolutely essential we knew there would be gaps in learning so we rolled up our sleeves cleaned up our classrooms and welcomed our students back into our schools and our hearts we figured out what our students knew and what they still needed to do and we met them in those places sometimes the learning sounded loud sometimes it looked messy but there was also laughter and love and maybe some tears as we established routines and students understood procedures and expectations you could begin to feel the magic that happens in a classroom when students are learning discovering and growing today i look around my classroom as i am sure that all these wonderful educators who are sharing this stage and teachers throughout our county do as well and i marvel
013at what they have learned and how our students have grown i can honestly say that i'm confident that their learning is apparent to all but most importantly they are aware of themselves as learners they are confident in what they have learned and they can see themselves as students readers mathematicians writers scientists artists and musicians what happens within the walls of a school can forever change the students and the teachers when we let the magic and joy that comes from learning and growing together happen thank you again for allowing me to represent berkeley county schools as a teacher of the year thank you beth thank you for sharing your experiences with us this evening and for serving as a mentor to many who will follow in your footsteps tonight in addition to thanking you and giving
014our appreciation for your representation as teacher of the year we would like to honor you as a champion for education it presents you with our traditional gold apple thank you so much it is now time to meet the finalists for this year's berkeley county schools teacher of the year each of our announcers will be introduced by their principal i ask that the finalists go to the banner across the stage you'll find a blue x on the floor if you'll stand there and a member of our board of education will be there to present you with a plaque and for and to be photographed please wait until your principal also is able to join you for a picture okay miss lidora wakpora who's the interim principal at spring mills middle school will introduce michelle adams and
015dr darren gilpin will present our plaque good evening my name is lidora walpar and i am the interim principal of the spring mills middle school patriots tonight i have the honor to introduce mrs adams as the 2022 teacher of the year finalist mrs adams has been an educator in berkeley county for the last 30 years and for the last 18 years she has been a patriot since the school opened in mrs adams became a nationally board certified teacher 15 years ago and is currently teaching sixth grade sixth grade science at spring mills middle her leadership stands far beyond the classroom and is recognized within the county the state and even nationally in the classroom she conducts exciting adventurous lessons with her students and models how to appreciate the world through science for example for earth
016day her and her students clean the campus grounds collecting bags of trash to ensure our school continues to look beautiful she is an active participant in various roles and committees within berkeley county mrs adams is the sixth grade team leader and she has been for the last five years she is a member of the school leadership team she tutors students after school she also serves as a school-based mentor helping new teachers navigate through the most essential first years of their educational careers she has been an act she has been active on various county committees such as the superintendent and that advisory council and curriculum mapping beyond berkeley county mrs adams has also earned recognition in the state and nationally she has won the presidential award of excellence in math and science the arch cole west
017virginia teacher achievement award the national association of geoscience teachers the outstanding earth science teacher of west virginia award and the west virginia ic white award for excellence in earth science but most importantly mrs adams is simply a wonderful kind-hearted person beyond all the accolades i first met mrs adams when i started as an administrator at spring mills three years ago she was one of the first people to introduce themselves to me and i could tell she genuinely wanted to get to know me i learned that we both love to travel the world and she lives a very healthy and active lifestyle one day she invited me to a yoga class at a local gym i could tell she was excited that her administrator came to work out with her we both had so much fun
018and she made me feel so welcome and that kind gesture meant a lot to me mrs adams is truly remarkable and genuinely committed to spring mills middle and the community she is always smiling and giving her best she is part of the school's heartbeat and helps make the school a place that i and many others are proud to say we are patriots congratulations mrs adams we are very proud of you and you are truly impressive you would represent the county well as teacher of the year congratulations that's okay sorry that was my logistical error we've only changed this 16 times today so our principals are going to wait till the very end to take a picture okay guys that way you're not running back and forth across the stage so paul tyson is our principal
019tom hawk intermediate and he's going to introduce misty ansari and dr gilpin is still on stage to present a plaque good evening i'm ty tyson principal at tomahawk intermediate school it's my honor to introduce to you tonight uh misty ansari uh misty has been with berkeley county schools for 13 years as an educator seven of those years have been at tomahawk intermediate three years she's spent teaching third grade and the last four years she has been teaching fifth grade which is her current position some other areas where she is serving and or has been or is currently helping out in our school besides just teaching she's on the ela curriculum mapping team i think she might have received an email one day from me that suggested she'd be on there and of course she said
020yes uh she's involved with our robotics and stem club there's this outdoor learning intuitive i believe it's called that students are participating in because of mrs ansari where they spend some time you know learning lessons of course in the classroom but also they go down to back creek which is right near our school and so just really neat projects that takes place in these programs that she's a part of she was the science fair coordinator she's a member of our leadership team or has been on the pbis team a cooperating teacher for shepherd student teachers and one of those student teachers was just hired as one of our teachers at tomahawk and also misty stepped up and really helped us out whenever we were in that world of brick and click and she was one
021of our clique teachers i think and we had a quick teacher that we added at the very last minute and so mrs ansari came along and mentored that teacher that particular teacher now decided she's going to get into education and she is one of the perm subs in our building so as you can see she she makes a tremendous difference in our school speaking of making a difference over the past few years we have been awarded uh through grant funding that misty has written grants for a total of thirteen thousand dollars and this thirteen thousand dollars has going to science technology and robotics related instructional activities she's currently working on another grant for our school that i think is around ten thousand dollars and i keep receiving text messages from her about hey what's our
022high-end number and things like that but uh but anyway that one is for gardening rhythm and art so as you can see um she's very much into the project-based hands-on type of learning and it's happening in her classroom for example um well first of all she just does an excellent job of motivating and encouraging students to be just actively engaged in their learning and to think critically and the learning is fun i know i've walked past your classroom for this one particular lesson and i see the kids working in teams working in groups and they're huddled around their desk where they're creating this like thing made out of paper and it kind of looks like a roller coaster because it is a roller coaster it's called a geometric paper roller coaster and in this one
023lesson experience students discover concepts such as that you might have to look some of these up potential inner kinetic energy force motion newton's three laws of physics or motion math science creativity and of course social skills just to name a few so that's just like one lesson of a project-based type of environment that mrs ansari you know provides for our students she is just doing everything she can to maximize the learning for her students and to make it interesting to make it engaging and she's not afraid to try new styles of pedagogy if it's not working she's going to figure out what it takes to make it work so that students are engaged in their learning so in conclusion i've got three thoughts why is she deserving of this award she shows great teaching inside
024and outside of the classroom with varied learning opportunities she has a persistent positive approach to the profession with high expectations and finally she has a desire to take herself and tomahawk intermediate school to the next level in teaching and learning so congratulations mrs ansari thank you i will mention that document was um presenting that plaque on behalf of todd beckwith who couldn't be with us this evening so alicia rigelman is up next she is the principal of muscleman high school and she's going to introduce melissa burton and our board member jackie long will be presenting our plaque tonight i have the pleasure of introducing miss melissa burton as one of your top five finalists for the berkeley county teacher of the year ms burton is an art photography and media arts teacher at musselman high
025school as well as an adjunct teacher for berkeley county virtual schools with 19 years of experience she is a national board certified teacher she holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography and digital imaging from shepherd university and a master's of tea a master of arts in teaching from marshall university she is also the chair of our creatives department and a sponsor for the national art honor society ms burton's goal as a professional educator is to give students the power of creativity and creative thinking and she utilizes to help that is with her lessons on studio lighting miss burton students are tasked with reading photographs with the critic's eye and creating a script to determine what the artist did to get a certain look for the photo her students are taught the key roles
026in a studio to help them recreate the images on their own her work has led to a popular social media presence where throughout our berkeley county community she has many requests for her students to take photographs including our very own pre-k students as well of our as well as our athletes as a result many of our students have become entrepreneurs and started their own photography businesses outside of the classroom ms burton finds many opportunities for her students to showcase their talents in addition to painting several murals for musselman high school as well as throughout berkeley county her students have participated in several competitions such as the youth art exhibit which she spearheads and makes sure that everything is set up for that and the congressional art competition one of her students had their work displayed
027at the united states capital recently she has she has several students that are getting ready to travel to charleston west virginia for creating the new sword for the west virginia golden horseshoe competition she is always embracing opportunities for our students to gain exposure inside and outside of our building as well as throughout the state of west virginia but most importantly miss burton's passion and encouragement has created a safe space for her students where they are able to express themselves through creative outlets while unlocking hidden potentials i can't begin to imagine the lives she has touched at musselman high school please join me in congratulating miss melissa burton to introduce laura cochran we have our principal from hedgesville high school mr ron lyons with the plaque presented by board member michael martin good evening i'm ron
028lyons principal of hedgesville high school first off it is truly an honor at some at some point in my career i have known every one of these people on this stage and they are all wonderful and very deserving i also happen to know last year's teacher of the year slightly so i have the honor tonight of introducing a very very special person in miss laura cochran and she is hedgesville high school's teacher extraordinaire and a wonderful choice for berkeley county teacher of the year finalist laura is the parent of two daughters wonderful daughters jalen and keandra and laura holds a bachelor's degree in a master's degree from shepard university laura has been in berkeley county schools for the past 16 years she came to hedgesville high school six years ago from north middle school where
029she spent her first 10 years as an eighth grade english language arts teacher in her time in berkeley county school she has served in numerous roles at a county level including curriculum development and also uh most recently she is serving on a review committee for for books and we appreciate all of that in her time at hhs laura has taught a number of english courses and she currently teaches 11th grade english and 12th grade advanced placement literature and composition laura is our faculty senate president a position she has held for the past four years speaking volumes about how well respected she is among her peers laura serves as the junior class advisor and is in charge of organizing prom which occurs on saturday of this week laura has a busy week laura serves as our
030diversity club named project unity sponsor and as she has served as our dance team sponsor as well as our a.c.t s.a.t coordinator and in her spare time finds time to tutor english students after school every week her days don't consist of 24 hours many more hours laura's passion for students and teachers to experience success is well it's unmatched i've seen how much energy laura puts into making sure her students are learning her classes are engaging interactive fun and challenging the students have fun in a very safe environment where they are not afraid to express their ideas laura does the same for new teachers coming into our building always trying to share tips and techniques to help them to be successful just as she does her students she is a mentor to any and all of
031the teachers in our building just as she is to our students a parent said of her son um she described miss cochran in this way fun that her son described miss cochran this way fun but tough the same student said the reason for his marked growth in sat scores was due to the skills he learned in miss cochran's classes with that growth that student became a promise scholar and the parent says thanks for the 19 400 dollars that you helped him earn ms cochran's commitment to her students and her colleagues make hedgesville high school better every day and they also make her an outstanding choice to represent berkeley county schools as the teacher of the year congratulations laura [Applause] and we have a return of paul tyson from tomahawk intermediate school must be some crazy
032stuff going out there tomahawk i'm telling you he's going to introduce beth otto and our plaque is going to be presented by board member mr pat murphy good evening again i'm proud to represent tomahawk intermediate school and forty percent of the uh candidates up here i got that right half a meter forty percent hey all right so we have beth ada uh mrs otto has been with berkeley county schools for 12 years most of those at tomahawk intermediate school for five years she was a fifth grade teacher and then uh we had one of those weird scenarios where we lost a fifth grade teacher we could and so but we gained a fourth grade teacher so she moved to fourth grade and i don't think she was planning to stay in there but she's been
033there for two years and i think she likes it over there that's her current position is teaching fourth grade which is nice for us because she knows what fourth graders are going to need for fifth grade right so it's working out great um some of the things that she has been involved with at our school is team leader a mentor faculty senate president ela adoption committee social studies fair coordinator lsic member student council advisor kilt team and she also is cooperating teacher for the shepherd student teachers and i think you had mrs henrik right did you ever miss oh never mind i thought maybe one of her has moved on hey um one thing that mrs otto does that really is beneficial to our school is through the student council she has the uh the
034the students they do this uh these penny wars and it's it's really a neat project that uh allows the students to basically do an activity that promotes competition friendly competition among all of the grade levels and every single kid in the building becomes a part of this project but they're kind of wars and students bring in uh pennies lots of them and you should see me going to the bank because um they bring in pennies and nickels and dimes and there's a way they keep track of this these things but imagine this this year we raised close to two thousand dollars in coins and so what do we do with these funds uh first of all like i said it's a fun activity for the kids to participate in that that she has implemented we've
035done this for several years now but what we've done is she's used these funds to construct an outdoor learning classroom for tomahawk intermediate school so now after a few years later of doing these penny wars we have raised enough money that we have a concrete slab patio area we have furniture fiberglass type of picnic tables they have umbrellas and also a dry erase board on the wall that's near the school so that classes can get out there and meet so it benefits the whole school and it's just a really fun way to uh to experience and and to help the kids learn so mrs ida of course has headed that up and this year the funding went to adding books to our school book vending machine and then the next thought is mrs otto just
036does a fantastic job of motivating her students to find excitement and engagement in the world around them through literature she utilizes novels to help students develop connections to other learning opportunities pursuit of reading literature concepts debate and critical thinking writing and stem opportunities can come from reading these novels i know that i was in her class not too long ago and students had just read or were in the process of reading a book called the city of ember and in this novel the students were reflecting on why the city did not have a flashlight and so what the students were doing i saw at their desk they had a toilet paper uh the cardboard part of the toilet paper um batteries wire and a light bulb and it was up to them to figure out
037how to make a flashlight out of these uh you know project-based type of learning again like i mentioned earlier so these are the types of things that you see happening with our students in mrs arder's class she frequently provides a creative approach to learning where students make connections to literature science the world around them and more and so i'm going to conclude this speech the same way i concluded my previous one why is she deserving of this award i've got three for you she has a creative approach to teaching that allows for engaging learning opportunities she provides a dedication to be involved with the overall success of tomahawk intermediate school and she consistently brings an attitude of professionalism and high expectations so congratulations [Applause] i know you will agree with me that these are just
038phenomenal teachers of berkeley county schools and they are representative of many many many great educators across the district so thank you all five of you it's awesome to hear so much great great work that you're doing in schools thank you very much it's now my distinct honor to introduce the superintendent of berkeley county schools dr patrick murphy who's joining us virtually and if you would like to share a few words all right well thank you miss bobo evidently uh the video is not going to come up but that's fine um i did want to share with the folks there uh first congratulations to our finalists we are very proud of you um and you are outstanding representatives of the teachers across the district it's evident from hearing from your principals about your dedication and your
039commitment and really your positive energy that you've made a difference in the lives of children so thank you so much for that i also want to take the opportunity to recognize your families because your families play a pivotal role in what happens in your classroom each and every day they're there to support you they're there in the evening to listen and they also hear about your successes when you have them so thank you family members you give us your best and miss bobo and miss hofmaster i will say thank you it looks lovely here on the camera and you've done a nice job in honoring our teachers this evening so i'll turn it back to you and we'll hear from dr gilpin about who our finalist is thank you dr murphy so now let's see
040we're about uh about 40 or 50 minutes into this so now it's time um to learn our teacher of the year and i'll let dr gilpin take his place on the stage i will ask our finalists if you will stick around for some group pictures and then i want to invite everyone to join us out in the cafeteria the cardinal cafe which is the family consumer science class here at springville high school has prepared some [Music] refreshments for us this evening so okay normally this is a superintendent job so i feel pretty special right now okay so our winner is michelle adams so as i indicated we are going to take some pictures but there are some refreshments available out in the cafeteria i did also want to thank again um bev hofmaster and and
041her super uh committee i want to thank our judges um i want to thank all those who were nominated by their peers the list that appears on the back of our program i also want to thank phoebe brent tyler hahn lewis molonex and linda and leah daniel for helping out this evening and of course our friends at the cardinal cafe so we're going to take a break and we will start to move back into the auditorium for the remainder of the board of education meeting around 6 30 with a start time of 6 45 okay so thank you very much congratulations michelle and we're going to take lots of pictures let me come up there and i'll orchestrate welcome everyone we will resume our meeting for those of you who weren't with us earlier you
042missed a good uh teacher of the year ceremony we had a great uh great five candidates and a wonderful teacher of the year that we're very proud of our next item of business are recognitions and the first are student recognitions miss ann lasky math coordinator will come forward to present math field day all right good evening dr gilbin members of the board and dr murphy and the senior staff i'm here tonight to recognize some of our best and brightest mathematicians in berkeley county schools oops so i want to first start by recognizing mason garrett so i'm going to ask mason to come up here all right mason is a sophomore from spring mills high school on april 23rd mason competed at the west virginia state math field day at west virginia university he competed among
04380 students in grades 10 through 12. mason placed 18th at mathfield day qualifying trim for arnold which is the american region's mathematics league representing west virginia this june at penn state so mason has competed at math field day since fourth grade so i want to tell you his uh stats i'm going to say it so in fourth grade when he was first eligible to compete mason placed fourth at the county competition since then he is placed first at the county math field day in grades five six seven eight and nine and most recently was the top winner for grades 10 through 12. at the regional level mason has placed first in the region's region at grades five six and seven and this past year for grades ten through twelve during his eighth and ninth grade
044years there was no regional competitions due to covet 19. at the state level mason has placed twelfth and grade five fifth for the grade six and tenth in grade seven again no state competition in grades eight and nine due to covid but i'm sure if there was a competition mason would have done exceptionally well so i asked his current math teacher rose wolferi about mason and she said mason garrett is the first sophomore to take wvu college algebra and college trade class at spring mills high school he completed the first semester course math 126 college algebra with a 99.8 percent average he is on track to repeat that average for the second semester course math 128 called trigonometry he's not only a great student academically but he's also an excellent peer tutor he has the
045ability to explain the concepts taught in these classes in such a way that his classmates understand him easily he has a dry sense of humor that keeps everyone on their toes in addition to being so gifted in math he is also involved in spring rolls high school bands fca math field day math honor society academic challenge team and other extracurricular activities mason is a joy to have in class he is personable and just around all around good guy so we want to congratulate mason for all his mathematical accomplishments and we are proud of you and know that your future is bright and can't wait to see what success will be for grades 11 and 12 at math field day events so this is mason congratulations thank you thank you for joining us tonight you have
046family with you this evening yes actually is his mother this is miss carrie garrett and she actually teaches math for us in berkeley county schools at spring mills high school so it's in the genes well thank you [Applause] all right so now i'd actually like to recognize our county math olympiad grade level winners in march i spoke to you about the math olympiad program for students and shared some contest problems this is an international problem solving contest for students in grades four to eight that our students participate in once a month from november to march students complete a five problem solving contest schools send their results to me and recognize we recognize students yearly at school at the county level tonight i'd like to introduce you to our 2022 grade level county winners and when
047i call their name i ask them to come up front here so i can introduce them to you guys and read a statement from their teacher so let's start with fourth grade we have chloe yoder from eagle school intermediate please stand right here all right and so chloe's teacher is mr brian hot and mr hot says chloe is a leader in eagle school intermediate she is a strong-willed kind student who is always eager to learn as much as possible these are only a few of her major strengths others include she is quick-witted highly participatory learns rapidly enjoys challenges has advanced vocabulary and knowledge is intellectually curious is investigative and inquisitive as deep and well-thought-out questions and has many interests accordingly she placed seventh at matt field day first in her math madness competition and she
048of course the county's highest score in the mathematics competition overall she is an amazing talented young lady and mathematician she is the definition of a model student so congratulations chloe all right from fifth grade also from eagle school intermediate we have jackson painter all right jackson's teacher is miss rachel yates and rachel has said jackson is a hard-working and dedicated student he is always looking for ways to improve himself jackson does not give up and constantly perseveres when solving problems he uses his mistakes as learning opportunities to make himself and his classmates better mathematicians he is quick at solving problems resourceful and enthusiastic about his math abilities jackson placed third at matt field day eleventh at the original field day and was a leader for our math madness team we are very proud of jackson
049his work ethic and his leadership skills i would like to add that jackson had a perfect score this year earning all answering all 25 questions correctly so congratulations jackson all right our sixth grade winner is from south middle school adrian penna and adrian's teacher is cindy evarts and miss everest says adrian is one of my favorite math students he enjoys challenge challenges and has an abundance of perseverance the way he approaches a problem is often quite unique and he makes interesting connections between math ideas adrian is also great about helping other students in his group and never makes others feel they are less adequate congratulations at the seventh grade level we had a three-way tie for winners so our first seventh grade winner is cohen cook from hedgesville middle school his teacher ms whitford has
050said cohen is highly motivated and strives for excellence no matter the task his math awareness and mental math skills are the highest levels i have seen for his age he is easily able to relate mathematical concepts across different content areas which allows him to dive deeper into fundamentals he is a kind but also very competitive and wants to always always be his best his classmates refer to him as the human calculator and sometimes it refers to him as the and sometimes asking for computation questions before they even reach for their calculator because they have the utmost faith in him i can't see wait to see what cohen accomplishes in the future with his outstanding mathematical ability congratulations also from seventh grade from mountain ridge intermediate we have angie ortiz ortiz all right mr smith has
051said she is a wonderful student and a great friend to her peers not only is she a wizard with math and all her other academics she is also in jazz band where she plays both the flute and trombone she can't wait till she is in high school so she can play volleyball for the appleman for now she enjoys playing for the rec league through the summer i'm constantly staring pull out a book to read congratulations angie and good luck in the future [Applause] and our final seventh grade winner is michelle mckinnon mullen from spring mills middle school she's right here she's right here all right her teacher miss slonaker has said mckenna mullen is a pleasure to have in class she plans on going into sports psychology and will be able to accomplish this with
052the higher level thinking skills that she has developed mckenna enjoys working in algebra and extending her knowledge she also loves to work in lab stations where she brainstorms and makes comparisons this student strives for excellence and has a great deal of family support the perseverance and integrity mckenna has demonstrated in problem solving will enable her the choice of her career and to be well-rounded successful man and member of society thank you mckenna for being a true model and team player and our final student is from eighth grade from hedgesville middle samantha mallow her teacher mr wilt says i am confident that sam will always be one of my great one of my greatest students of all time she sees math problems differently than her peers and she welcomes a good challenge there is hardly any
053problem that she that could stump her she will always find a way to solve it sam is also a great teacher to her classmates when they ask her for help they learn a lot from her if every single student was like sam being a teacher would be way too easy all right also i want to add that sam placed first in berkeley county schools math field day first at regional math field day and just recently competed with at state math field at wvu so congratulations to you all right and then uh just something for the students when we're done recognitions we're going to do pictures so don't run off and so i just want to congratulate all these remarkable group of mathematicians and we're proud of all their accomplishments thank you we can have all
054the award winners and their families please stand thank you our next recognition will be presented by uh aaron this guy amaviska it's easy to say the lights in my a teacher at north middle school introduce uh an art student so short hi everyone how's everyone doing tonight well my name is um aaron amavista otherwise mrs a as you struggled with um i am the art teacher at martinsburg north middle school and i have been granted the opportunity to introduce mr caleb pedersen where are you oh you're right there snuck up on me little ninja he's a seventh grade student at our school and caleb took it upon himself without me even knowing to enter his artwork in a national art competition so every year the national museum of the marine corps holds its annual student
055art competition because excuse me the competition is broken into several age groups all the way from kindergarten to high school it is open to both public private and home school students and this year's theme was honor courage and commitment the artwork was judged by educators museum professionals and combat artists and again this is a national competition caleb here entered his artwork and placed second in the nation in his age group um all the artwork like i said was judged by professionals and when we asked caleb who is as you can see a man of very few words when we asked him why he created or why he entered his art he basically said he's created art for years and he wanted to see how he would do in the competition that's his that's his reason
056he just wanted to see how he would do um his ultimate motivation was he wanted soldiers to be proud of his work and he his goal of the artwork was to represent remembrance respect and appreciation for military sacrifices caleb hopes that this priest brings comfort to family members who have ultimately lost someone and to the soldiers who have lost their brothers and sisters in combat the cool thing about art is its ability to provide a platform to talk about and shed light on important topics caleb recognized this even at his young age and he took the opportunity on his own accord and entered his artwork to be shared with a nation that is a huge step by the way one artist to another it's scary to share your work let alone entering it in a
057competition to be judged um basically i just wanted to take this opportunity to recognize this young man because through his artistic achievement he has made his school his community and his nation extremely proud so thank you caleb and he has his artwork and here's the art piece we're extremely proud congratulations caleb thank you for joining us you have uh friends and family with you this evening thanks for joining us our next recognition is a caring educator award and dr ron branch principal at mountain ridge middle will come forward to introduce that recipient good evening tonight it's my honor to introduce you to crystal hutton crystal is a teacher at mountain ridge middle school in tonight's ace award winner in the past several times i've referred to crystal as a miracle worker you would honestly be
058astounded at the work that she is able to accomplish with her students crystal takes students who need somebody to care about them and she changes their lives she really does her passion and her care and love for her students is evident in their accomplishments both socially and academically at mountain ridge middle school and their time there and crystal is one of those people that you want to have working for you it doesn't matter what's going on personally or professionally she always has a smile on her face she's always willing to pitch in and help wherever she can recently and we had a teacher whose husband would drive her to school and pick her up at the end of the day and when that was no longer a possibility crystal helped head up a group of
059teachers from mountain gave this teacher a ride every morning and every afternoon crystal made sure that she had everything she needed at home and even personally along with her family mowed their yard for them so you know that's the kind of heart that we have uh working for us at mountain ridge middle school and crystal is the perfect example of what a caring educator should be crystal [Applause] tonight crystal you're being presented with a plaque as berkeley county schools emblem on the back on the front it says a caring educator crystal hutton may 2022. do you want to say anything [Applause] crystal congratulations and thank you so much for all that you do at berkeley county schools and at mountain ridge we really appreciate it um you're welcome to take this opportunity that concludes our
060recognitions if you want to uh sneak out at this time you're welcome too you're welcome to also stay our next item is citizens forum citizens forum is a time for the public to desiring to address the board on any topic at a regular meeting uh citizens forum will be held with each speaker allowed two minutes any derogatory comments profanity inappropriate comments and or referencing an employee or student by name will result in a muted microphone and removal from the zoom meeting our first speaker is amber stoke good evening board members i'm here just to shed some light on an issue that i have had i've been with berkeley county schools for 25 plus years in the previous 10 to 12 years i have did the mock accident and prom promise for martinsburg high school every
061year it's been a fight and i'm being told um this year that i have to take a half a day of my time my sick time my personal time in order to be the liaison on may 13th for the prom promise mock accident i've been working on this project since the end of february takes a lot of community support a lot of phone calls a lot of planning to put something like this together and i need to be there on friday afternoon may 13 which would have to relieve me from my regular afternoon duties of being on a special needs bus and i'm just really upset that i've given my life to this county i've given my life to children of this county i know what an impact the mock accident and prom promise has
062on the students in martinsburg high school i've had students come back to me and say thanks because of what you did last friday i didn't get in a vehicle and drink and drive after prom um we have a the fire department comes we have i have speakers that come in and speak to the children then we go outside and we do a whole mock accident two vehicles are busted up in the front parking lot mr ryan the drama teacher he has his drama students dressed and and prepares them we have um that i have no one wants to do anything for free everybody wants i would hope christian moscow good evening board thanks for giving me some time to speak with y'all today uh doing some thinking and uh correspondence with the governor's office i
063want to throw you all a lifeline i'm sure you guys can use them on everything going on this school year uh we have 12 openings and zero subs for our bus drivers at last check a couple weeks back and the governor's office said that we can actually use the national guard with cdl licensed drivers to help fill this vacancies we get new drivers hired on to make those patches to give these drivers some relief that are doubling routes just something to think about the governor's office just said all the board has to do is put in a request drivers can wear a uniform of the day is civvies like i have a blue jeans a t-shirt blend in it's a good recruiting tech that kids ask you know hey what's your job during the day
064oh what's an army national guard air force national guard they could talk about too it's a win-win for the school and a win-win for the national guard as well for for recruitment down the road i also want to know the status of the book review from the bluest eye that was uh pulled from the shelves to be reviewed back in february it's been three months more books have been found another book called impulse by ellen hopkins which depicts sexual connotations attempted suicide and self-mutilation isn't all our high school libraries um i've already talked with principal principal riegelmann in muslin high where my kid goes she's going to look into it because that library also doubles as the inward library and there's some rules and things you got to play around there too but uh the
065list is growing and it's it's a concern to some parents just want to let you guys know that but uh that's all i have for you i want to take up too much time he's all got a busy night and probably want to get home and prop your feet up and relax for once thanks for the time rebecca dunmeyer uh coming for this board has been no picnic for me but issues needed to be addressed leadership ideas trickle down the chain of command national education association is extremely partisan and donates 97 percent of its political contribution to the left's agenda any age president miss pringle calls herself the social justice warrior and strongly promotes critical race theory believes in white fragility and white privilege they go against their own mission statement delegates defeated a resolution
066to make student learning the priority of the association they worked against school choice and went on strike against a small school choice option for children with special needs in west virginia nea is aligned with the sexuality information and education council of the united states which endorses abortion masturbation use of sexually explicit materials reproductive education and planned parenthood i wonder if its members know that nea gives a big chunk of their dues to kill babies what good are the programs and millions of dollars you discuss if our kids minds are all messed up how about paying teachers a decent salary to teach how about supporting them with a reasonable disciplinary policy how about getting out of politics and back to academics how about being upfront with parents on all issues how about getting back to real
067education and out of the pocket of the nea's destructive anti-god social engineering and deliberate assault on education how about getting off man's plan and getting back on god's plan ron hurst good evening board members tonight i just wanted to come here and offer some suggestions if the past two years and this primary election season hasn't taught us all something it's that we all in this community need to just improve our communication especially when it comes to our schools and i just wanted to offer some suggestions for that regarding parents parents should increase their calling their emailing and they should better familiarize themselves with communication apps that the schools already offer and join up with some of the school committees that we already have in existence suggestions for the board of education start a combined social
068media presence as time allows continue and increase personal visits to the schools continue and increase face-to-face meetings with groups of school staff and just let parents back into the schools again so that they can offer more direct help to the schools that's all i have for tonight thank you anybody virtually our next item is the consent agenda tonight we're going to pool item 8.8 payment of the bills and approval of invoices and vote on that separately contained in the consent agenda are the minutes of the work session and regular meeting held on april 25th no chaperone requests no student transfer requests two curricular and extracurricular trip requests no past volunteers no use of school property we have the budget supplements and transfers we have the renewal of the blackboard annual contract we have review and
069comment bc file gbac administrators assignment restrictions cut for the comment period may 3rd through the 16th we also have review and comment bc file iha marking system with the comment period from may 3rd to may 16th i have a motion to accept the consent agenda a second second any discussion just that the i want to point out that the marking system will be impacting grades one and two it will be changing the grading profile and i want to i've talked to people and there seemed to be some in favor of it i was just concerned because it's being changed from the a through f grades to other types of marks and i'm going to call it to the attention of the employees and the parents of first and second grade all those in favor of
070the consent agenda all right oppose motion carries unanimously uh i mentioned earlier that uh mr todd beckwith is joining us virtually this evening as is superintendent dr murphy and we'll now vote on uh the payment of the bills and approval of invoices me a promotion in a second any discussion all those in favor of the payment of the bills and approval of invoices aye opposed ocean carrier unanimously next item are the monitoring items tonight we have the annual p e i a open enrollment update from dr schooley good evening president gilbert member of the board in december we gave you a quick update of the benefits that we offered our employees and this is the annual open enrollment period for peia in the state of west virginia so i want to go over a few
071things that our employees are currently doing or we'll experience july 1 when the new plan year starts open enrollment is april 2nd through may 15th so we still have another week or so here for our employees to sign up or change benefits for this coming school year okay last week on the 27th we held a benefits fair in the administrative offices as you can see here we had over 160 of our employees attend this affair with sis 17 of our business partners and various vendors that have relationships with our employee benefits program that intended to provide their services to our employees for this coming school year one of the activities that we approved for this year was american fidelity american fidelity was approved as the 125 plan provider this allowed us to have a greater
072compliance and documentation that we provided our employees with the 125 information as well as 403 b information that's required by the federal government in the past we just sent an email now having them sign that they receive this provides us greater documentation if we were ever audited by the federal government on that american fidelity is also during this time providing our employees with a greater understanding of what their role is in the benefits program and help them understand what benefits are available to them to make sure that they're utilizing the benefits correctly and understand what they're being offered during this time period american fidelity if they so choose can offer additional benefits to our employees in december we reviewed the pia plan for the year with its premiums there were no changes in the premium
073cost that was approved in december by pea uh the state non-state employees that participate uh in the program the outside agencies that support the state uh did see a five percent increase there was a slight reduction actually for some of the medicare retirees for this coming plan year also an update from that review that we had in december the peia did put out a rfp for a new vendor for life insurance before we were going through minnesota life met life won that bid and actually the rates are slightly decreased for this coming year due to that bid that peia put out so that was the one change from this slide that we saw one of the big changes that our employees will see and will most likely be receiving new benefit cards is the pie
074prescription processing those claims will be going back to express syrup express script right now the company that does that for pi is cvs caremark so expressscript that did that years ago was coming back as the provider of the processing one of our supplemental benefits that we offer through pa mountaineer flex is the optional vision insurance so humana and imed will now be the provider that instead of metlife so in summary of our changes for this coming school year we are in our open enrollment period there's no changes to the employee rates unless they change a salary bracket as we know pia premiums are based upon an individual's salary there's a slight decrease in most life insurances premiums uh claims will be processed by express script as well as the change in mountaineer flex is there
075any questions on open enrollment at this time people did have the people who had a chance to opt out if they didn't want to have the sales pitch correct yes thank you thank you next item are the action items and the first is the bid approval for two-way radios mr eric kisecker executive director of transportation will come forward good evening dr gilbert members of the board i am here tonight for approval to purchase the two-way radio digital radio replacement bid the system we currently use to communicate with our drivers in schools during student transportation is an analog two-way system this system has been in place for approximately 25 years and it does not meet our current needs based on improvements in technology and equipment the new two-way digital radios will provide us with improvements in
076the following areas we will we will gain greater voice clarity greater overall range when communicating with bus operators and schools it will improve our response time and it will assist us in more timely decision making the purchase of two-way digital radios is a crucial step honoring our commitment to the safety of our bus operators and students with your approval from funds from transportation department budget for fiscal year 23 will be used to secure the bid of a hundred and ten thousand three hundred and seventy five dollars can i have a motion to accept the bid approval for two-way radios in the amount of 110 375 dollars to twr communications so a second second any discussion uh just a comment normally when we have a contract that we're going to approve it's included in our packet
077and in this case we just had a summary sheet i believe and it's a one-time purchase pardon me it's a one-time purchase okay but usually there are details that we have in our to review like in the next item we we do have that contract i i can provide that for you okay i just think we should have the language that we are actually voting upon and not as for a summary of it but i fully support it i realize that i is part of my responsibility i think i should be looking over things like that sure i can get that to you thank you they stay in the transportation department right yes well the funds will be um used for all the transportation department all bus drivers but we also included two radios per
078school because you know it's important for us to be able to communicate with them thank you all those in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously next item is approval for applied behavior analysis services contract mr dilley assistant superintendent of special education good evening dr gillen penn dr murphy and board members the office of special ed accepted bids on april 5th for board certified behavior analyst services the contract will initiate may 3rd and run through the school year 2022 with options renewed for the next three years the osce respectively recommends the following contracts to be approved recommendation adapted teaching and learning autism services at a rate of 75 dollars per hour i have a motion to accept the applied behavior analysis services contract a second second any discussion any idea how how much this contract will
079be we're only going to be using them like our currently we've been using this year and they have been utilized in some of our more extreme dairy areas uh hopefully some of the plans that we have for next year will eliminate some of the need for this service so this is just just in case but i mean do you have an idea what the top end of the figure is going to be on this because i know what the hourly rate is right at this point we just want to use them where our hot spots are is i hate to say that but without knowing exactly how many there's going to be and but i think our plans that we have that we expressed last week help eliminate a lot of this cost and will
080we be able to put the brakes on this if it's getting beyond i mean we have to balance a budget here yes yes sir have we used them before we've only used them this year our their new company uh a past employee that we've actually hired in he has created his own company and we've been using him here and there throughout the county this year so the cost for this year wasn't very much is what you're telling yes so we don't that and no comparison with the hiring system for next year all those in favor all right all right opposed motion carries unanimously thank you personnel actions dr schooley good evening president gilbert members of the board dr murphy the personal actions dated may 2nd 2022 are as follows we have one new coaching appointment
081two resignation of coaches we have one extra duty assignment we have one military leave of absence unpaid being extended we have one new annual report appointment of the treasurer that's required under west virginia code eight new professional appointments for next school year we have a correction to appointment giving the date uh from a previous support agenda we have one change of assignment of professional personnel we follow that with seven uh policy 5000 actions six resignations of professional personnel and two retirements of professional personnel we have ten transfers of professional personnel and then we begin the service personnel information with one new appointment of the service personnel one a change of assignment two resignations of service personnel and two retirements we have one service personnel transfer four new uh substitute service personnel appointments and five new
082substitute teachers then we begin the annual uh renewal of contracts there are 16 administrative contracts for renewal on the probationary side we have four contracts of administrative continuing contract status professionals we have 270 probationary contracts on pages 5 through 12 and then on page 12 we have 110 professional continuing contracts to issue on pages 12 through 15. pages 15 we pick up with 203 service probationary contracts the next five pages and then on page 20 we have 37 service employees receiving and being recommended for continuing contracts for a total of 697 personnel actions with the superintendent's recommendation dated monday may the 2nd 2022 can i have a motion to accept the professional service coaching and substitute personnel actions dated monday may 2nd second any discussion um yes sir if we could get to the last
083page the summary i wanted to point something out could you go back to the first second page i'm sorry second page i thought the summaries at the end they're way up there all right while we're looking for that i got my certified list and just i was looking at different categories in our in our system it's not criticism or anything it's just observations first just for clarification probationary means that they have less than three years service correct within that classification yes yes sir so these are non-tenured probationary people and we have uh and then the uh continuing contract means they've reached the third year satisfactory and they're given tenure exactly okay i was looking at the number of middle school teachers we have just in the uh certified list we have 241 middle school teachers
084from brand new to 40-plus years in tonight's action we have 270 probationary people people with less than three years that's a large number of well they've been with us less than three years okay but but they could have more years of experience than that that that's a good point and i didn't i didn't recognize that but we're still we have a very new workforce with us in our high school we have 268 high school teachers on our certified list some of them are probably on this list as well and once again we have 270 people who are less than three years with us so i'm just trying to point out and and we and we have 287 special ed people on our certified list and uh and these numbers so i was i'm just trying
085to point out that in west virginia berkeley county has a lot of new people teaching and we have a lot of turnover which i know your department is very well aware of and uh and have to work diligently to try to keep these positions filled even though we can't get certified people so i'm just i just think that we as a board should be aware of these numbers that you're introducing tonight and that we have we lose a lot of people through resignations and it's no criticism of anyone it's just a fact that i thought we should be aware of by the way we do have 447 elementary people but if you add add some of these numbers here you can even get to that but these people are reaching the continuing contract 110 of
086them are reaching that finish their third year with us and are going to be granted tenure so it's just it's a fact that we don't we see all this movement that the big picture is we have a very low number of years of experience in berkeley county employees compared to the total workforce correct thank you all those in favor of the personnel actions all right opposed motion carries unanimously thank you everybody our next item is the board member elect participation in executive session [Music] this is an item placed on the agenda at the request of a board member thank you all those in favor i'm sorry um can i have a motion to accept this i move uh that the uh the motion before us for board members to uh elect before they're sworn in
087uh and they're certified be allowed if we have an executive session to be able to take part in a non-voting position on that role in that position the motion is before you on page two and there are notes there on page three about it is there a second second any other discussion well i i just want to say and i appreciate staff doing the background work on this on page three the certification process could take up until june the 9th if i'm reading this correctly so i thought it was faster than that but but according to the uh code uh it can take as long as up to 30 days after the primary election so if anybody has any questions it will not be that anyone who's elected on may the 10th on may the
08811th they cannot come in here it has to go through this certification process and i just want to make that clarify which is is exactly when well it depends on the actual certification process with the secretary of state and uh that's first initiated by your county council how will we know that well they they uh announce it it's certified any other discussion all those in favor opposed aye motion carries 3-2 next item is school board effectiveness another item placed on the agenda at the request of a school board member relating to faculty senate presentations yes mr president i move uh the motion that's found the top of page two of item number 10.5 do you need me to read it uh no that's okay okay that's my motion do i have a second second motion
089a second any other discussion [Music] all those in favor aye aye opposed i motion carries three to two thank you the next item is board announcements superintendent announcements all right well good evening uh school board members um i've got a couple things that i'd like to share with you and our audience this evening and the first is that this week is teacher appreciation week and i want to thank all of our teacher of the years who we honored this evening the nominees and our five finalists and then our teacher of the year but i want to recognize all our teachers across our school district i know there are many special events that are going on this week that your schools are sponsoring and i want to thank our families and our students and our administrators
090for sponsoring those events and recognizing the energy that our teachers bring to the classroom every day this is your week and enjoy it and we thank you for that we also uh have our school lunch hero day coming up here uh at the end of the week on friday and that's to our outstanding school lunch hero and nutritional staff who have just done a phenomenal job here over the last uh two and three years and uh providing meals to students but this is their special day i also want to do a shout out to tracy heck and her team who keep all the wheels running smoothly and they're supported by a wonderful staff and members of our district so enjoy school lunch hero day this friday we also want to recognize our school nurses and
091the role they play we have 32 registered nurses across 32 of our schools they do an outstanding job they bring a lot of experience in wealth and they try and keep all of us healthy and up and going we got notice last week that our school calendar was adopted so i want to thank tana burkhart for her help in getting that across the line along with dr schooley here's just some of the highlights of when school starts when we have our thanksgiving break also our holiday break and then when the last day of school is as of scheduled right now may the 30th so thank you and congratulations again and then we've got an upcoming board meeting the next upcoming board meeting is may the 16th uh and there is an executive session that starts
092at 6 pm and the regular meeting will then commence at 7 00 p.m so that's all the announcements i have for you this evening dr gilpin thank you can i have a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of discussion discussing uh personnel specifically the candidate for the superintendent position second all those in favor we will go into executive session at um we're going to go into executive session when we come out we're going to come out uh to to just simply adjourn don't anticipate any votes this evening okay thank you together cheers what's uh so we're going to come out of executive session at 8 24 do i have a motion to adjourn i have a motion in a second all those in favor we are adjourned