Much of the first two and half hours of Thursday’s Calhoun County board of education meeting was on discussion of the state Dept. of Education’s new school evaluation tool, “Balanced Scorecard.”
The new system, which was released publicly earlier in the day by the State, replaces the “A Through F School Grading System” that has been used to evaluate and compare schools from throughout West Virginia.
County superintendent of schools Kelli Whytsell explained and discussed the new system, and principals Charles Thomas (Arnoldsburg), Amy Nicholas (Pleasant Hill), and Anita Stephenson (CM/HS) talked about bright spots and about areas that needed more focus at their respective schools (see graphics and separate story on Page 10).
In other matters, the superintendent recognized Kaitlyn Toney for her success in the “Energy and Power” program at CM/HS.
After Toney explained the program and the projects that she has completed and is currently working on, program advisor Tambree Yoak reported that Toney had finished in the top 10 percent of students in the country.
Toney also read a statement from student council president Destiney Murphy concerning work by the council, including a successfully sponsored blood drive at the school.
Chief operational offi-cer for administrative services/attendance Mi-chael Fitzwater reported that he and the superin-tendent have been working with the sheriff and the county commission on the PRO-Officer grant that will fund a full-time deputy sheriff at CM/HS.
Fitzwater said that the paving of the Pleasant Hill School parking lot and construction of new sidewalks has been de-layed, because a 3-ton crane will be needed to lift a HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) unit in place at a later date, and could possibly cause damage.
He reported that three estimates had been obtained for maintenance in other areas The lowest included pothole repairs at all three schools ($2,250), and sealing, Arnoldsburg ($7,851), CM/HS rear lot ($6,301), front lot ($5,224), and road and loop ($2,440).
The estimate from Affordable Asphalt Main-tenance Corp. of Mineral Wells was accepted.
Fitzwater also reported on homecoming activities. Because of an event already scheduled on Friday, the homecoming parade will be held in Grantsville on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27. Students from all three schools will be bussed to town, and buses will leave after the parade to take children home.
On Friday, Sept. 28, buses will take AES and PHS students to West Fork Park, Arnoldsburg, for Heritage Day at the Molasses Festival.
In working to comply with the School Access Safety Act, Fitzwater said that plans are being made to provide safe access to CM/HS and PHS.
At CM/HS, there are plans to move the secre-tary and administration to the front of the school, exchanging areas with the school-based health center.
At Pleasant Hill, the changes will be more extreme, with three options being studied.
Arnoldsburg already has a safe access en-trance.
Jeannie Bennett, COO of student services, said that the after-school pro-gram is averaging 40 students at each of the schools. She also said that an event, tentatively called Fall Community Festival, will be hosted at CM/HS on Oct. 20.
Horst Motz, board representative to Calhoun-Gilmer Career Center, reported that Jonathan McCormick is in charge of the Pro-Start food service lab. McCormick’s leadership of the Net-working Technology lab is now in the hands of Annaliza Marks. The Adult Education position has yet to be filled.
Motz said that he would like to see more students enrolled at the center. Two of the suggestions offered were introducing students to the career center’s programs at an earlier age, and informing the public of classes available to adults in the community.
The Calhoun County School Levy, to be voted on at the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 6, was discussed.
Whytsell said that the registration deadline to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 16.
The superintendent re-ported that total enroll-ment was down by 61 students, with much of that decline being the difference in 2018’s 86 graduates being replaced by only 43 students in pre-school classes.
Items approved under new business included the following:
–Student transfers: parent Andrew Caldwell, 1st grader, Calhoun to Ritchie; parent Christy Lane, 3rd grader; parent Kristen McKown, pre-k; parent Seldon Tanner, pre-k, Calhoun to Clay.
–Home school request: parent Hillary Taylor, 7th grader; parent Cynthia Boggs, 5th grader.
–Proclamation of W.Va. School Service Per-sonnel Day, Sept. 21.
–Memorandum of Understanding Between WDBMOV Career Con-nections and Community Resources, Inc.
–Contracts: Sharon Pitts, academic support; Karen Kirby, adminis-tration PLC support.
–Volunteers (county): Heather Allen, Jackie Allen, Crystal Arnold, Stacey Arnold, Angela Bailey, Lorie Bailey, Bessie Basnett, Jeff Basnett, Teresa Basnett, Warren Basnett, Amy Bennett, Johnny Blosser, Paula Boggs, Natasha Boggs, Brian Brenneman, Crystal Brenneman, Julie Brenneman, Jennifer Fox Chancey,
Kelly Church, Brenda Clawson, Katherine Col-lins, Marjorie Collins, Crystal Conley, Mikaela Cogar, Cathy Craddock, Felicia Cronin, Alicia Cunningham, Brittney Cunningham, Eden Cunningham, Melissa Cunningham, Sarah Cunningham, Tanya Cunningham, Cathrine Curry, Kendra Curry, Lora Davis, Shannon Davis, Melanie Degen, Crystal Dennis,
Melissa Dennison, Brenda Dickey, Crystal Dye, Alyssa Falls, Erica Falls, Shawna Falls, Sheila Falls, Alicia Flinn, Larry Francis, Amanda Frederick, Sare Fulks, Myra Garrett, Michelle Goad, Brittany Greathouse, Rebecca Greathouse, Lelia Gre-gory, Amber Grogg, Kara Groves, TaLonne Gungle, Cathy Hall,
Roger Hall, Sheila Hall, Beth Harris, Jessica Harris, Jamie Helmic, Dawn Helmick, Pauline Helmick, Amanda Hicks, Sailah Hill, Ashley Hol-bert, Kathryn Holbert, Kim Holcomb, Tracie Hosey, Jennifer Hoskins, Robin Hudson, Geraldine Hupp, Jenna Jett, Betty Jones, Debbie Jones, Jerry Jones, William Keener, Jr., Kim Keesler,
Amanda Kerby, Me-lissa King, Paula King, Robert King, Tracy King, Alisha Laughlin, Kristen Sanchez-Lonczynski, Marsha Lovejoy, Brandy Lupardus, Chasity Mace, Lisa Marks, Stacy Marks, Tina Marks, Debra McClain, Amber Mc-Cullough, Natasha Mc-Cumbers, Lindsay Mc-Henry, Holly McKown, Julie McKown, Connie Metheney,
Tara Metz, Nicholas Millette, Stephanie Morris, Seana Miller, Jennifer Morris, Tiffany Morris, Jen Mounts, Kristen Mur-phy, Jennifer Nettles, Shannon Newcomb, Travis Nicholas, Twila Nicholas, Lula Norman, Brittany Parsons, Holly Parsons, Christine Periso, Kyerstan Perkins, Samantha Poling, Ashley Pridemore,
Maggie Probasco, Deirdre Purdy, Tracy Quick, Eve Parsons Reed, Alphonso Richards, Angel Richards, Britney Rich-ards, Ronda Rose, Amy Rush, Brandi Sampson, Elizabeth Sampson, Judy Sampson, Stacy Sampson, Nancy Schoolcraft, Sheila Schoolcraft, Teresa Self, Robin Shamblin, Linda Shock, Carla Sidwell, Te-resa Siers, Gail Sillaman,
Miranda Siwicki, Debra Smith, Joyce Smith, Alexandria Snider, Jessica Snodgress, Linda Staton, Brandi Starcher, Kara Starcher, Jennifer Starcher, Melissa Starcher, Kellie Stevens, Loretta Stevens, Mitchell Stevens, Shelly Stevens, Shelly Stewart, Elizabeth Stirling, J. Neil Stump,
Trish Summers, Re-becca Swisher, Fred Tanner, Lynda Tanner, Tabitha Taylor, Courtney Templon, Sherry Thomas, Brandon Tingler, Holly Tingler, Jody Tingler, Raymond Wagoner, Angie Walls, Geoff Wayne, Nancy Weekley, James Welch, Cheri White,
Sherri Alderman White, Sabrina Whytsell, Sue Williams, April Wilson, Betty Wilson, Homer Wilson, Rebecca Wilson, Roberta Wilson, Amber Wright, Debbie Yeager, Donna Yoak, Jennifer Yoak, Kelli Zwoll.
Personnel items ap-p
roved included the following:
–Resignations: profes-sionals, Chastity Bunch, assistant principal, CM/HS; Heidi Bottenfield, elementary teacher, AES; Paul Miller, social studies teacher, CM/HS; extra-curricular, Jeremy Johnson, CMS boys basketball coach.
–Employment:
Professional, Mary Grace Gainer, English teacher; Brittney Carter, guidance counselor; Ka-trina Frederick-Howes, special education teacher, .5 AES, .5 CM/HS; Lauren Clarkson, gifted teacher, county, pending approval of permit); Jennifer Mc-Cumbers, substitute nurse; Virginia Stewart, .5 speech language patholo-gist, itinerant; Karen Kirby, mentor for new administration, county; Gina Cano-Stump, mentor for new teachers, CM/HS; Tammey Webb, mentor for new teachers, AES.
Service: Monica Heiney, multi-classified paraprofessional/super-visory aide/bus, CM/HS; Jeffrey Brannon, bus operator, Rt. 12; Darlene Ulderich, Charles Hamm, substitute cooks, pending background checks; Dar-lene Ulderich, Charles Hinzman, substitute custo-dians, pending back-ground checks; Frank Bever, Greg Hawkins, alternate bus operators, career center run.
Homeless-McKinney Vento: Tambree Yoak, Rick Kinder, Emily Rame-zan, lunch tutor teachers.
–After-School: Chris-tina Jones, Donna School-craft, alternate cooks, CM/HS; Shaylah Wilson, Macy Schoolcraft, Kaitlyn Toney, high school student assistants, AES, PHS, CM/HS.
–Extra-curricular, coaches: Joe Marks, assistant CMS football, pending certification; Jim Brown, $1 assistant CMS football; Katie Hamm, CMS cheerleading coach.
At 8 p.m., prior to service personnel hearing, expulsion hearing review of case 2017-18-06, and termination of contract per service substitute county policy, the board went into executive session.
Next meeting of the board will be on Monday, Oct. 15, 5:30 p.m., in the Mt. Zion board office.
