The Calhoun County Board of Education met Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. at the Calhoun Board of Education office. Members in attendance were Hortz Motz, Tammy Yoak, Jenna Jett, Jimmy Gregrory and Mitchell Morgan by phone.
Following the acceptance of prior minutes, Kelli Whytsell moved to the recognition of students and faculty. Bryant Yoak, son of Alex and Heather Yoak, was recognized for his verbal commitment to play base ball for West Virginia University. He was unable to attend, so the board will honor him at a later time.
New faculty was recognized including Amanda White who was hired to teach Chemistry and General Science at Calhoun Middle High School. When Mrs. White was asked if she had anything she’d like to say she replied “I want to do as much as I can to make Calhoun shine in the field of science, every single moment I’m thinking what can I do on my lessons. God’s hand has been on all of this.”
Deborah Toppings was recognized for teaching in a new field. She will now teach in Multi-Categorical Special Education at Calhoun Middle High School. She told the BOE that she is excited to get started at teaching in her new field.
Also recognized was
- Debra McClain, Social Studies Teacher at CMHS
- Crystal Jarvis – Custodian at AES
- Michele Goad – Multi- Classified Aid II/Supervisory Aide/Bus Aide/SHCP – AES
- Whitley Cottrell – Multi- Classified Aid II/Supervisory Aide/Bus Aide/SHCP – AES
- Terry Marks – Custodian III, All locations AES, PHE, CMHS floater
Superintendent Kelli Whytsell announced that after this evening School Board meeting Calhoun Schools would be fully staffed.
Board member Hortz Motz gave a report on Calhoun Gilmer Career Center saying that the Career center had the reorganization of the administration Counsel meeting where Kelli Whytsell was elected president and Mrs. Louder was made vice President. Each of the Board members were given a copy of the Calhoun Gilmer Career Center handbook with their annual school calendar of activities attached.
One of the issues that concerned Mr. Motz was that previously awarded $25,000 grant had been reduced to $2,500, which he described as a ”downer” for the center. Certain projects continue to move forward which is the SBA roofing project and HVAC at the center. Their summer programs went well and there are new plans with Gilmer County to begin meat processing. Mr. Motz stated that there’s a lot of things going on at the Calhoun Gilmer Career Center including a Health Network Instructor.
Kelli Whtysell gave her Superintendents report:
They have now began accepting a restricted short term substitute waiver which means that a person with an Associates degree can substitute teach for less than 10 days in a position. This allowance will help them fill the gaps of not having enough subs.
Mr. Jeremy Johnson, Summer School administrator sent a wrap-up report to the board stating:
We had a great summer at Summer School this year. Students were exposed to many opportunities throughout the summer. Outdoor adventures, drama, REX academy, STEM work, field trips, summer camps at the Career Center, water day and other exciting opportunities were had by our students. Additionally, many middle and high school students had the opportunity to regain credits they lost last year due to academic issues. From my experience as the administrator of Summer School, students had a wonderful time learning, and by being exposed to many exciting opportunities. On average 47.22 middle high school students, and 42.59 elementary students attended daily. During the summer camps 311 students had the opportunity to attend. There were 83 credits recovered during this time. Additionally there were 54 students who attended the Hovatter Zoo trip, and 58 students who went to Columbus, Ohio for the COSI field trip. This summer was a very rewarding experience for me, and I know our students had a great time. A special thank you goes out to Mr. Charles Thomas as the director of Summer School, the site coordinators Laura Webb, John Frail and Kris Phares and all of the teacher, bus driver/custodians, cooks and summer Work Force students who did so much work to make this summer successful.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jeremy Johnson, Summer School Administrator
A video was also included in this presentation that was created by Lexi Gregory.
Mrs. Whtysell announced that there will be a Back to school bash, Tuesday, August 16, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. where students can receive school supplies, visit with vendors, involve themselves with activities, food, and have a good time. There are usually 300-400 students who attend and are provided all the supplies that they need. The school realizes that this is a hard time for families and the school received grants to provide the materials.
Both elementary schools will have Open Houses on Monday, August 15th, but the Calhoun Middle High School’s open house will coincide with the Back to School bash. She encouraged the board members to attend and help start the new school year.
Michael Fitzwater informed the board that a new bus route had been added. Bus #15, will be driven by Eric Starcher, who is returning to Calhoun after haven driven for Wood county. The bus will be going from Creston, straight in to the school and alleviate the over crowding of busses on the northern end of the county.
Welcome back letter from Mrs. Whytsell advised the board that Calhoun Schools had made 268,517 meals for students, driven 244,466 miles traveled by buses. A lot of meals and miles. We think we’re a small county students don’t have advantages but they often have more because we strive to meet their needs. A new school store experience at the Calhoun Middle High School will be available this year offering personal hygiene products and clothes to students in need. It will be run by Student services and the community and school. They are trying to meet all the needs of students and believe that they’ll know these needs through one on one conversations.
They have currently gotten the school Freezer in place, a roof on the the front of middle high school and new sidewalks at Pleasant Hill which will be completed if the rain continues to hold off. There is a paving project later and the sidewalk needed to be finished so there wasnt a gap. The Middle High School also needs to have work on the loading dock.
The school recently received a cops grant which added new cameras and an intercom that 911 can actually see if theres a recorded incident in our school. This project will be done after school starts, tying all three schools in together. Previously there was no consistency and now all three will have the same type of program.
School Board Member acknowledgements:
I personally believe that we have the best faculty, staff in the state – Jimmy Gregory.
Jenna Jett – I’m excited about the back to school bash, the kids get excited and it lights a fire, wish all of you all the very best year.
Tammy Yoak – I’m so glad we have old and new faces, it takes real special people to be in education that can devote your lives, I hope you become long term residents of Calhoun county, I love hearing about all the new things, its’ nice to be in the black so we can do stuff for the kids.
Hortz Motz – I’m glad to see everyone and people from my hometown (Amanda White). I’m grateful for all the new things and good things especially at the career center that we can provide a trade education.
Mitch Morgan – I want to welcome all the new ones aboard, we’ll have a great school year
Superintendent Kelli Whytsell informed the board of the need to vote for the County to run a levy on the fall ballot to help meet the extra needs of the schools. We can provide the basics with our budget but we want to offer the best to all of the students. The Board agreed in favor of running the levy.
