The Calhoun County board of education met on Tuesday, Apr. 16.
After approval of minutes of meetings held on Mar. 11 and Mar. 14, the board adjourned, and reconvened the Mar. 11 meeting to approve the 2019-2020 levy rates.
After reconvening the Apr. 16 meeting, several students were recognized:
-CM/HS eighth graders Joshua Hixon and Ian Persinger won Golden Horseshoes for their efforts in West Virginia history studies.
–Amelia Cain, also an eighth grader, placed second for her entry in the statewide Young Writer’s contest (the story is re-printed inside this issue).
–Mackenzie Wright, fourth grade student at Pleasant Hill School, was the winner of a T-shirt design contest for Teen Interest Day at CM/HS, as were CCHS seniors Levi Gregory and Trevor Carder. Monetary awards were given by Minnie Hamilton Health System.
Among items approved under personnel were the retirement of Tambree Yoak, a teacher at CM/HS, and the resignations of CM/HS teacher Sarah Lane and varsity basket-ball coach Danny Bunch.
Tyson Price, COO of Curriculum and Instruc-tion, discussed Math 4Life, which is a West Virginia initiative that is a comprehensive and intensive statewide effort to improve student math-ematics performance throughout the state over the next five years.
The program provided a $10,000 start-up grant, and Price said that an additional $32,000 had been announced the day of the board meeting.
According to the Math4Life website, West Virginia Dept of Edu-cation “seeks to work with counties and schools to institute best practices, challenging pedagogy, and student engagement strategies to improve students’ mathematics achievement.”
The counties will use the state standards to select their instructional materials and to imple-ment math programs, technology supports, and community engagement practices to market their local Math4Life initia-tives, and will include “a more powerful focus to support achievement of the West Virginia College and Career-Readiness Standards for Mathematics by all learners.
The pledge for students is: “I pledge to approach math with an open mind. I will celebrate my mistakes as opportunities to grow. I will be confident and work hard to understand math and won’t give up.”
Under delegations, CCHS student council president Destiney Mur-phy spoke about the activities that her organi-zation was involved with, and CMS teacher Scott Clarkson talked about educational opportunities for high school students and community members, and asked for a survey to be made to see if there was interest for a train tour to the West Coast.
Summer school for county students will be held June 17-July 26 at Arnoldsburg Elementary School, with a camping/outdoor theme. Kick-off will be held on Saturday, June 15.
Among new business items approved were:
–Home school re-quest by parent Kristen Sanchez-Lonczynski for a first grader.
–Contract for W.Va. Cardiac Project.
–Summer sports camps will be held June 10-28.
Other personnel items approved included:
–Termination of con-tract, Charles Hamm, sub-stitute cook.
–Probationary con-tracts:
Professionals: Kelsey Jett, Morgan Allen, Brittney Carter, Lauren Clarkson, Scott Clarkson, Jared Fitzwater, Mary Gainer, TaLonne Gungle, Joshua Johnson, Amanda Lamb, Dwanetta Martin, Kelsey Norris, Emily Ramezan, Jennifer Sang, Virginia Stewart, Lori Taylor.
Service: Jeffrey Bran-non, Kenneth Dawson, Sheila Hall, Greg Haw-kins, Lisa Hawkins, Michele Hipp, Charles O’Neal, Johnny Stull, Stacey Wagoner.
–Continuing contracts:
Professionals, Amy Cottrell, Cathy Craddock, Katelyn Hardway, Leigha McIntyre-Smith, Deborah Toppings.
Service: Donna Hall, Vicki Jones, Cindy Knight, Sierra McCormick, Kristy Toney.
–Employment:
Summer School: Jenni-fer Walsh, teacher K-6.
Service: Heather Cum-mings, multi-classified paraprofessional/para-professional early child-hood classroom assistant teacher, PHS; Stacey Wagoner, multi-classified aide II/supervisory aide/bus (specialized health care procedures), itinerant-AES/PHS;
Joseph Taylor, bus operator; Sierra McCor-mick, multi-classified aide II/supervisory aide (SHCP), itinerant-AES/PHS; Adeanna Davis, multi-classified sanitation plant operator/custodian III, PHS; Shyrick School-craft, multi-classified sanitation plant operator/custodian III, CM/HS.
–Transportation re-quest: COSI, Columbus, Ohio, Kelsey Jett, May 3, one bus.
The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, May 13, 5:30 p.m., at the Mt. Zion board office (board work session, 4:30 p.m.)
