Roane County Schools

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1. This meeting may be joined remotely. The public can join by calling 1-304-553-7794 and entering the conference ID 557 137 682 or by joining on Microsoft Teams using this link.
2. Presentations
   1. Positively ChargedIt has been a long time waiting, but our safe schools entrances are finally finished at SES and RCHS. They now have a dedicated space for visitors right near the entrance. We will now see blueprints for the next ones in January so we can start on those projects.
   2. Public Participation
   3. Student Achievement
      • 1st 9 Weeks Grade Distribution Comparison
      A parent involvement survey was sent out last month and over 300 parents responded. This data will be shared at our next board meeting. Now that the first 9 weeks are over, grade cards have been sent out and we have pulled together some data. The data shows that it has not only been a challenging year for our distant learners, but it has also been a challenging year for our in-person learners also. There were higher failure rates for the first 9 weeks this year compared with last year and a lower percentage of A's and B's. It has also been a challenging school year for teachers. Our recent changes in standards of practice for teachers hope to address some of the issues. From the data, we have also discovered that that more than 2/3 of students this year and 4/5 of students last year, for the first 9 weeks scored an A or B in their courses yet every other measure we have, benchmarks, SAT, teacher feedback, ACT, etc. did not reflect this level of success showing in the academics of our students. Grades should reflect the knowledge that the student is gaining and if it is not, then we are setting up poor expectations. This is definitely something we have to address maybe when we return to a more "normal" school year. We hope to continue looking through the data to help find where our issues lie and how we can address them.
3. New Business for Consideration and Potential Action
   1. Update on BOE operations, distance learning, and support services
4. Consent Agenda - (Action)Motion by Gregory Boggs and seconded by Eileen Richardson to approve the following consent agenda as recommended by Richard Duncan, Superintendent. Motion carried. (7:35 pm)
   1. Approval of minutes of regular board meeting on November 19, 2020
   2. Financial
      1. Transfers/supplements to the budget
      2. Payments of bills as submitted; pre-approval to release checks not to exceed $20,000 prior to the next board meeting
      3. Financial Reports
         • Check Run
   3. Policies
      1. Second Reading
         1. Policy 450 - Student Co- and Extra-Curricular Activities (revised)
            • Proposed revision
         2. Policy 501 - Nondiscrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity (revised)
            • Proposed revision
         3. Policy 512 - Areas of Critical Need and Shortage (revised)
            • Proposed revision
   4. Contract(s) / Agreement(s) / Bid(s)
   5. Field trip(s)
   6. Volunteer(s)
   7. Student Transfer(s)
5. Personnel Consent Agenda - (Action)Motion by Daris Harper and seconded by James Minney to approve the following personnel items as recommended by Richard Duncan, Superintendent. Motion carried. (7:36 pm)
   1. Resignation(s)
      1. Gibson, Stephanie - Assistant Coach, Volleyball (Geary Elementary / Middle School), effective November 19, 2020
      2. DiLorenzo, Megan - Teacher / Special Education (Spencer Elementary School), effective January 27, 2021
   2. Retirement(s)
      1. Rucker, Janet - Custodian III (Roane County High School), effective November 23, 2020
   3. Leave of Absence(s)
      1. Cooper, Amanda - Teacher / 3rd Grade (Spencer Elementary School), effective December 14, 2020 to February 5, 2021, (partially paid, partially unpaid; WV Code 18A-2-2a)
6. Reports of Committees
7. Superintendent's RemarksDue to the executive order given by Governor Justice, athletics, including conditioning, have been suspended until January 11th. Mr. Dolan from WVSSAC is trying to persuade Governor Justice to allow conditioning to happen during this time. They are also hoping to start allowing Sunday practices for certain sports, in order to get all contests done in a reasonable fashion. According to the unofficial computations of state aid, we are down 118 students from last year to this year, but there has been a lot of speculation that the legislature would give us some sort of reprieve for the enrollment drop for this year only and freeze the funds from the previous year to remain this coming school year. If legislature does approve this freeze early in the legislative session, we should be able to follow the 2-year personnel plan that we adopted in the Spring for Professional Personnel. Service Personnel is a little trickier and we will be looking at that in January. If we get the freeze late in the session, we may still have to RIF and transfer personnel and rehire them when the freeze has been approved. The first Charter School Application in Monangalia and Preston counties was submitted and rejected. This will be interesting to watch unfold. Watching the county map, Roane County was red in infection rate yesterday and still red today, but gold overall. Our testing numbers are keeping us out of red overall. We will have to watch the map very closely as our numbers are increasing.
8. Adjournment
   1. Adjourn until the next regular meeting, on Thursday, December 17, 2020, at 6:00 pm at Roane County High SchoolMotion by Eileen Richardson and seconded by Gregory Boggs to approve. Motion carried. (7:48 pm)