1 Dickenson County School

DICKENSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD September 24, 2014--Regular School Board Meeting 5:00 p.m. – Dickenson County School Board

PRESENT: John Skeen, Chairman; Rocky Barton, Vice-Chairman; Susan Mullins; Shanghai Nickles; Donald Raines; Reba McCowan, Clerk; and Haydee Robinson, Su- perintendent.

ROLL CALL AND MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY CHAIRMAN, JOHN SKEEN:

Chairman, John Skeen—called the meeting to order and noted that all Board Members were present along with our Division Superintendent, Haydee Robinson and Clerk, Reba McCowan. At this time I would like to ask Mr. Rocky Barton if he will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then a Moment of Silence. Please be seated.

You have the Agenda before you with no revisions, and I will need a motion to approve the Agenda.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Made the motion to approve the Agenda. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

GOOD NEWS FROM OUR SCHOOLS:

Chairman, John Skeen—We are now ready for Good News From our Schools. Mrs. Rob- inson:

Superintendent Robinson—Good afternoon Board Members and Mr. Chair. Good News from Our Schools comes this month from Clintwood High School. We are recognizing Eliz- abeth Mullins who went to the South Carolina Governors School of Agriculture in Clemson. She was awarded a leadership award and was one of seven. So, congratulations to Elizabeth Mullins, her family and Mrs. Wilder who is our FFA Agriculture sponsor. I shared the pictures and article with you, and I wanted to recognize her. That concludes our Good News.

Chairman, John Skeen—Is that all the Good News that we have?

Superintendent Robinson—That is it for right now.

PUBLIC COMMENTS:

Chairman, John Skeen—That brings us to Public Comments. Mr. Nickles would you please read the Guidelines. (So Read)

Is there anyone here this evening representing the DEA?

1 Ms. Pam Fields—Yes. I am a teacher at Sandlick Elementary School. I am the Interim DEA President. At the end of last school year our President, Mrs. Barton, resigned. We be- gan taking nominations at the end of last school year, and it did not pan out. So we are currently taking nominations and trying to get reorganized to get things back on track. We have a couple of reps who stepped down, and we are trying to get everything back on track. We are also planning a Fall Rally sometime in late October. Thank you.

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you. Our next speaker is April Quesenberry.

Ms. April Quesenberry—Thank you all for inviting me to be here, Chairman of the Board, Board Members and Mrs. Robinson. Upward Bound at Southwest Virginia Community Col- lege has served Haysi High School for over 17 years. I know that with the new school being built there are a lot of organizations who would like to serve the students of Dickenson Coun- ty. UVA Wise has an Upward Bound program as well, and they have always served the other schools in Dickenson County where this Upward Bound program has served Haysi High School. I do not foresee any reason why both Upward Bounds as well as Mountain Empire with their Talent Search Program could be in your school. So my proposal is to help clarify what may be confusing for the students could be an issue of what Upward Bound am I in and what do I want to do. So I thought that we could be the Upward Bound Robotics Program. The last time I stood before you was with Mr. Neece, Mr. Chris Owens and Mr. David Ow- ens before they went to the state competition. I think we have a very strong Robotics Pro- gram. That is just my thoughts. Anything that you all would have to share or any input to make a better choice for the students you would need to compare what UVA has and what we have. We all have the same ideas in mind and that is to serve the students at Clintwood and Haysi to help them get to college. That is the bottom line for our Federal Grant. The packets that I have given each of you have some facts about Haysi. We have invested about $4.5 million in the tri-county grant which Haysi is in. In the packets as well we‘ve got some newsletters that we put out. We put out one every week as well as our academic monthly newsletter. My handbook is in here; my business card is in here as well as all of the facts.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—This one has a credit card in it!

Ms. April Quesenberry—Does it? We are all going out to eat! Thank you. Please let me know if you have any questions. I would be glad to come back and be put on the Agenda where we could have some dialogue about this, or please feel free to call or email me. We usually recruit for the upcoming year in February. I know you all have a lot on your plate, but if I could know something around that time, I would appreciate it. We have a six-week summer program. Mr. Neece drives the bus and picks up the students at Haysi and drives the students to the college and brings them back in the evenings. We serve them breakfast and lunch while they are there. The students do get a stipend for being with us weekly during the academic year and meeting with us during the summer program. We just really want to be in the new school and most of all to be loyal to the students that we have and would like to see them through their high school graduation and into college. We would like to be able to help them with all of that because Wise is limited on the number of students they can serve, and we are as well.

2 Superintendent Robinson—When do you have to start recruiting for the summer? I‘m sor- ry, you said that already! Thank you.

Mr. Donald Raines—How many did you serve last year?

Ms. April Quesenberry—We had 25, and I could serve a lot more.

Mr. Donald Raines—Are you limited to 25?

Ms. April Quesenberry—No. I could do less, and I could do more. The grant that Haysi is with also has Council High School and Honaker High School. This year we recruited the least amount of students at Haysi High School. We just wanted to bring this to you to see if this was an idea that you wanted to proceed with and have the Robotics Program continue to be involved with this program at Southwest Virginia Community College.

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Don Hill.

Mr. Don Hill—Mr. Chair and Board Members, my name is Don Hill from Clinchco. Last month the School Board voted unanimously to select the Upper Backbone Site on which to build the proposed elementary school. In my opinion that vote was unanimously wrong. It is important to understand that the engineers could only select from a population of very inade- quate sites. Each and every one was located in the Haysi area based on only one factor, the least cost of excavation. Why did the School Board not ask the engineers to consider factors other than excavation costs such as other sites, other costs and far and away the most important factor, the impact on students from both the education and future safety viewpoint? Due diligence is sorely missing in this decision. The decision to locate this school at the Up- per Backbone Site is the beginning of a colossal mistake on several levels. It is quite stun- ning that the vote was unanimous despite the existence of compelling evidence supporting its location at the Clinchco site now owned by the IDA. This decision can and must be reversed quickly before further damage is done. The most important decision factor to consider is the location‘s impact on the students. The data that I have previously provided still remains un- challenged and shows the significant number of students, around 150, that would likely be placed in harm‘s way by transporting those students further than necessary to the Haysi site. That well-grounded data was totally ignored by each and every member of the School Board. It was summarily dismissed as evidenced by the unanimous vote. I would like the School Board to explain its decision to the parents and children who are impacted by it. Make no mistake about it, regardless of the vote, the Upper Backbone Site is neither the best site nor is it the only site that is available for building the school. Again it was chosen by the inade- quate population of sites in only the Haysi area and furthermore, it was chosen to the exclu- sion of a far more superior site that would cost less and would much better serve a significantly greater number of students with regard to safety and education. Moreover, it was chosen without regard to the additional cost that will surely be born in the form of a large tax increase at some time in the future by the taxpayers of Dickenson County. In previous meetings I have spoken to you about the economies of scale and the economies of size as it per- tains to combining Ervinton and Sandlick Elementary School at the Clinchco site. When small rural schools are combined research exits that shows a cost savings of 49-51%. The

3 building at Ervinton Elementary School is approximately 77 years old, and it would not be prudent to leave those students in that building. We have before us now a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a school at Clinchco not particularly because of the cost savings alone, which are substantial, but because it will provide a state-of-the-art building with a superior educational environment for a significantly greater number of students. Furthermore, it will substantially reduce the transportation costs. It is a travesty to even consider leaving the children at the Ervinton Elementary School building who need to be served the same way that is proposed to serve the children at the location that has been selected. This county cannot afford to build a new school at Ervinton Elementary School. The children along with those at Clinchco now attending Sandlick have an equal right to be transported as safely as possible to school and to receive an equal quality of education in a state-of-the-art school building. For the well-being of the students and the taxpayers of Dickenson County the School Board should consider halting this project that hasn‘t started on the Backbone Ridge Site. I would like to ask you to do something the psychiatrists call introspection, looking within. I will ask the Members of the Board to very carefully look at the decision that has been made, to have an open mind and to identify and consider this decision‘s long-term ef- fects. It will affect students and taxpayers for a half century or more into the future. It is absolutely critical that the correct decision is made. Decisions always have consequences. I implore each of you to retroactively review the reason for this monumental decision you in- dividually have made. If you find those reasons to be student centered then more than likely you will have made the correct decision. However, if not, then let your conscience govern you accordingly. Thank you for your time.

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you. Our next speaker is Jarvis Deel.

Mr. Jarvis Deel—Mr. Chair and Board Members, my name is Jarvis Deel. I tend to ramble, and I am not the speaker that Mr. Hill is. I have gone over his survey and really, he gave the Sandlick District 1% more than I did on his survey. He favored the Sandlick District more. As he said, the 77 year old building at Ervinton will have to be thought about further down the line because it is in bad shape right now. I don‘t know if any of you have heard, but they have killed several snakes in the school the last few weeks. One of the Board of Supervisors brought to my attention the cost that would be saved by having the school at Clinchco. It would also provide a better education for our kids than what is happening on Backbone Ridge. You already had your school bus run up there which would make it easier on the bus drivers. I just think it is altogether a better idea myself. Thank you all.

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Chairman, John Skeen—That brings us to the Consent Agenda. We have minutes to approve from August 27.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

4 Chairman, John Skeen—Do I hear a motion to approve the Minutes.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I would like to make a motion that we approve the minutes. Mr. Donald Raines seconded the motion. All votes aye.

APPROVAL OF MONTHLY BILLS:

Chairman, John Skeen—The next item is to approve the Monthly Bills for August and Sep- tember.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Chair, you have an addition in your packet with the monthly bills. These have been added since Friday when you received your monthly packets and are highlighted. Also on the back page we have a list of the six bills that have been added since the packets were prepared. Are there any questions or comments about our bills?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Do you anticipate needing the services of Teresa Lyons in the future?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, I do anticipate seeing that as a need.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—How many days are we using her now?

Superintendent Robinson—We use her two days a week. She is working in all three elementary schools when she comes—Sandlick, Ervinton and Clintwood Elementary Schools.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Is she making some headway at Ervinton Elementary School?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What services does she provide that Family Preservation cannot?

Mrs. Denechia Edwards—Intensive behavioral support. She is working with our teachers providing them with training so that when she leaves us, our teachers will be capable of doing behavior plans that she is working with them on. So when she goes in, she is training our teachers and staff. She has had two trainings the last two months. She is also training the administrators and behavior committee. Her goal is for us to become self-sufficient so that we can do this on our own and won‘t need her services except through consultation, but at this point, she is very much needed. Family Preservation is a lot cheaper, but they are medically related and ours is educationally related. They are two very different services.

Chairman, John Skeen—Are there any other comments or questions?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I would like to make a motion to approve the bills as presented. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

School Operating Fund – September 24, 2014 – Bills Check Nos. 872581 through 872716 ------$ 349,605.76

School Operating Fund – September 24, 2014 – Payroll Check Nos. 380845 through 381107------$1,777,651.35 (12 Month Employees)

SCHOOL ACTIVITY FUND:

Chairman, John Skeen—The School Activity Fund is in your packet. Are there any comments or questions?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Does each school send this in?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, and Mr. Carpenter gets it ready for the Board.

APPROVAL OF FIELD TRIPS:

Chairman John Skeen—Our next Item is the Approval of Field Trips. Do you have any questions?

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Chair and Board Members there are several trips in Sep- tember. The red trips are out-of-state trips, and I would like to call your attention to two of those in April of 2015 specifically the Clintwood High School Seniors will be going to Washington D.C. and New York. Haysi High School will also be going to New York but not at the same time. You have in your packets their itinerary and their schedule of events. Al- so, Clintwood High School has a national convention in Louisville. So we ask the Board‘s approval on each of these trips.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I just have one question. Are seniors making up their money on their own?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, they are having several fundraisers. You will also notice that the trips are limited to three days out of school.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion to approve these trips. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Clintwood High School Aug. 29th – Bullitt Park – Big Stone Gap - Band Sept. 11th – 12th – Dickenson Co. Ag Site – Clintwood, VA – FFA Sept. 12th – Bays Mountain Planetarium – Kingsport, TN Sept. 15th – Dickenson Center for Ed. & Research – Clintwood, VA Sept. 19th – Dairee-Barn – Clintwood, VA – Perfect Attendance Sept. 20th – Clintwood Shooting Range – Clintwood, VA – FFA Oct. 7th – Barter Theatre – Abingdon, VA Oct. 15th – Bland County, VA – FFA

6 April 15th – 19th – Washington, DC, New York, New Jersey – Senior Trip

 Clintwood Elementary School Sept. 11th – Dickenson Co. Ag Site – Clintwood, VA – 4th Grade

 Ervinton Elementary School Sept. 11th – Dickenson Co. Ag Site – Clintwood, VA – 4th Grade Sept. 12th – Kim‘s Crazy Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch – Castlewood, VA – Pre K – K Sept. 18th – Lonesome Pine Airport – Wise, VA – 1st Grade Sept. 19th – Lonesome Pine Airport – Wise, VA – 7th – 8th Grade Sept. 25th – Breaks Park – Breaks, VA – Ground Water Festival Sept. 26th – Dickenson Center for Ed. & Research – Clintwood, VA Oct. 16th – Portal 31 Exhibition Mine – Lynch, KY – 6th – 8th Grade Oct. 19th – Cinema City – Asia Café – Norton, VA – 2nd – 3rd Grade

 Dickenson County Career Center Sept. 10th – Food City – Clintwood, VA – Food Service Sept. 15th – 19th – Sandlick Elementary School – Birchleaf, VA – Masonry

 Haysi High School Sept. 2nd – Southwest VA Higher Ed. Center – Abingdon, VA Sept. 6th – Southwest VA Community College – Richlands, VA Sept. 15th – Dickenson Center for Ed. & Research – Clintwood, VA Sept. 17th – Norton Cinema – Norton, VA – 12th Grade Oct. 4th – Haysi‘s Autumn Festival Parade – Haysi, VA – Band Oct. 11th – McChesney Band Festival – Big Stone Gap, VA – Band Oct. 14th – Barter Theatre – Abingdon, VA – 11th – 12th Grade April 21st – 26th – New York City, NY – Senior Trip

 Longs Fork Elementary School Sept. 25th – Breaks Park – Breaks, VA – Ground Water Festival Sept. 26th – Dickenson Center for Ed. & Research – Clintwood, VA Oct. 6th – Creation Kingdom Zoo – Gate City, VA – 5th Grade

 Sandlick Elementary School Sept. 11th – Dickenson Co. Ag Site – Clintwood, VA – 4th Grade Sept. 25th – Breaks Park – Breaks, VA – Ground Water Festival Sept. 26th – Dickenson Center for Ed. & Research – Clintwood, VA Oct. 7th – Barter Theatre – Abingdon, VA – 6th Grade Oct. 17th – Barter Theatre – Abingdon, VA – 7th Grade

INFORMATION FOR THE BOARD:

Chairman, John Skeen—The next Item is Information for the Board, Mrs. Robinson.

7 Superintendent Robinson—Thank you. Mr. Setser is here, and he has our banners ready. There are two schools that we would like to recognize, and we challenge all of our schools to keep up these great attendance percentages for the rest of our school year. All of our schools had a 95% plus in attendance percentages in August. We would like to congratulate all of our schools, administrators and all of our committees who work so hard on this attendance. Mr. Setser:

Mr. Mike Setser—Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board, as you look at your packet, you can see that the Division at the end of August has 2,256 students. As Mrs. Robinson mentioned, the attendance rate at each school was quite well considering that August was a longer August than months passed by a couple of days because we started earlier. For the month of August the Division had an attendance Rate of 96.46%. If you will turn to the second page, you can actually see a comparison of the last five years to this year. Four of our schools performed better this August than they did last August which is good. As Mrs. Rob- inson stated, we encourage our schools to continue their good work. We also encourage the two schools who get their banner tonight to keep them. (Ha, Ha) It is up to the other five schools to take them away. With that said, at this time I would like to ask Mr. Mullins to step up and help me get the banners to these two schools. We will start with the elementary school/middle school banner. For the month of August this banner goes to Sandlick Elemen- tary School with a percentage of 97.23% which is the highest in the county. Mr. Neece will you please stand. (Applause!) If you will please stand behind it, I will ask Mrs. Edwards to please take a photo. Please put this where all the students can see and protect it. At the high school level (while Mr. Neece is rolling up his banner) with the highest percentage rate is Haysi High School with 96.64%. Mr. Dewayne Edwards is here and would you please stand. (Applause!)

Mr. Dewayne Edwards—I would like to thank the Board for hiring someone as special as Ms. Wampler is. She has done an excellent job and a lot of the success is attributed to her. I would like to thank you all and especially Ms. Wampler.

Mr. Mike Setser—Mr. Chair, that is all I have unless you have comments or questions.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Mike, how is the kindergarten? Do they still have the same numbers at Sandlick or did we lose any?

Mr. Mike Setser—We have lost very few if any. I don‘t know about September because I haven‘t run the numbers yet.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Are we looking at reworking those three classes?

Superintendent Robinson—We have spoken with Ms. Willis, and we continue to monitor those numbers. Right now I believe their numbers are about 22 which is higher than we would like. We are well within the guidelines that the state has given us. I understand from Ms. Willis that there are aides in the classroom who will assist with that. The pupil/teacher ratio at Clintwood Elementary School is about 19 or 20 so we are very similar in that situation. So we will continue to monitor that situation.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Did we get any kids from Buchanan County that needed any help?

Mr. Mike Setser—A couple, yes.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Thank you, Mike, I was just trying to find out.

PROJECTED 5TH GRADE ENROLLMENT AT CLINTWOOD ELEMENTARY FOR THE 2015-2016 SCHOOL YEAR AND DISCUSSION OF OPTIONS:

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Skeen, behind the bills in your packet is a modified Old Business regarding the Projected 5th Grade Enrollment at Clintwood Elementary School for the 2015-2016 school year and the discussion of options. To summarize the discussion regarding this topic: please look with me at the last page. What we have done is to summarize August, and we have projected the next five years of students in the Clintwood area. I would like to begin this discussion by saying that this is a wonderful problem to have. We will have more students than we can accommodate so that is a wonderful issue.

 If you will look at 2015-2016 for the students in the Clintwood area in Pre-K-5th Grade we are projecting 549 students with 28 classrooms,  If you will look at 2016-2017 we are projecting 553 students with 28 classrooms.  If you will look at 2017-2018 we are projecting 547 students with 28 classrooms.

This projected student enrollment includes these assumptions:

1. We have projected no gain or loss over a 5-year period. We don‘t know how to guesstimate that appropriately. We hope that we will gain more students and hope that we don‘t lose many. 2. The class size tor Pre-K to meet the current mandates is 18 students per class, and right now we have 3 Pre-K classrooms. 3. Our target class size for K-3 is 19 students 4. Our target class size for 4th-5th Grade is 20 students

With the projected Pre-K-5th Grade enrollment in the Clintwood area, 28 classrooms will be needed to accommodate students. That does not include the extra programs that we have such as art or music when they are returned or any special needs classrooms. That is just the actual homeroom classes. Clintwood Elementary School currently has 25 classrooms for student use at this time. One of the classrooms is for the medically fragile and severely handicapped children which gives us a total of 26.

Longs Fork Elementary School has 25 full-size classrooms for student use and 4 additional small classrooms. We even looked to see if we could make those classrooms bigger—the 4 small classrooms—and they are next to a bathroom so we do not have that option. Two of the classrooms now are computer labs for a total of 27 classrooms.

Chairman, John Skeen—How much smaller are these than a regular classroom?

Superintendent Robinson—If you look at a regular classroom, it is half of that or less. To accommodate students and programs for the 2015-2016 school year and in the future, classrooms will need to be added to both schools.

Included in your packet is a building description and repairs needed for Clintwood Elemen- tary School and Longs Fork Elementary School in the next 1-5 years and the projected costs of repairs. Also included is a cost projection of adding 3-4 classrooms to the mezzanine area at Clintwood Elementary School to meet the 28 classrooms needed for student use.

At Longs Fork Elementary School we do not have the space inside the school to add additional classrooms. If the Board were to choose Longs Fork Elementary School, we would have to look at either outside classroom units or some other option. We do not have space inside the actual school to build classrooms as we do at Clintwood Elementary School.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—In the projections we would only need 28 for two years and then 27.

Superintendent Robinson—That‘s correct. One thing to note in those projections, Mrs. Mullins, is that if you look at our Kindergarten numbers, we are 79 across the board for all 5 years. If you look at our 3rd Grade, we have 90 students. In the 4th Grade we have 85 students. It will depend on the number of Kindergarten students that we get. It may fluctuate from year to year.

Are there any questions or comments from the Board regarding any of the information? This has been on the Agenda several times.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—What is the year that most people move their children to home schooling?

Mrs. Denechia Edwards—It is a variety. It is more at the elementary school. There are not as many at the high school level because of the accreditation issue. They start as early as Kindergarten.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—The roof at Clintwood Elementary School is in bad shape and needs to be repaired right now.

Superintendent Robinson—The roof at Clintwood Elementary School does need repair and has needed it for the last three years or as long as we have been together as a Board. Mr. Mooney and his maintenance crew are constantly there.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Do they have garbage cans out anywhere at Longs Fork Elementary?

Superintendent Robinson—They do not, but part of that roof will need to be repaired. The thing about Longs Fork Elementary School is that not only the roof will need to be repaired in places but the HVAC and cooling system will need to be replaced. It has been very diffi-

10 cult to find the parts needed to repair it. That is one of the issues there. The other issue at Longs Fork is the water line will need to be repaired within the next 1-3 years.

Mr. Donald Raines—What about the entrance to the gym at Clintwood Elementary School? How much space is in that entrance way?

Superintendent Robinson—I don‘t know. Is it in this information Mr. Mooney?

Mr. Burl Mooney—I don‘t think that information is in there.

Mr. Donald Raines—You won‘t be selling tickets so that part can be removed.

Superintendent Robinson—We can certainly get those measurements for you, Mr. Raines.

Mr. Donald Raines—I just think the entrance would be easier for restructuring than the mezzanine for teachers and students.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—My concern would be that if you had a lot of people in the gym, and you had a fire how would you get people out?

Mr. Donald Raines—You would have to make provisions for that. If it is large enough, you could soundproof it.

Superintendent Robinson—The other concern is we would have to have those doors locked, and I don‘t know if that would be allowed by the fire marshal.

Mr. Donald Raines—Anything that we do will have to be approved by them.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—The other thing would be securing the building. I believe that Longs Fork would be easier to secure because they would be coming in through the front. At Clintwood you have the gym and other doors. It is a madhouse when parents come.

Superintendent Robinson—It has been somewhat better, Mrs. Mullins, because through your approval and the security grants we have secured the building. Mr. Setser may want to speak to that, but there are additional cameras. All of the doors are locked, and there is only one entrance and they have to be buzzed in. So there is a camera and someone allows you to come in.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What I am saying is that if an intruder were to get into the building, there are no doors into each classroom. They are open. Several more kids would be in dan- ger, but at Longs Fork they can lock the classroom doors.

Superintendent Robinson—I see what you are saying. One of the things, and Mr. Setser you may want to respond to this, when the elementary school responds to a lockdown, they lock the doors in the hallway—the doors that go into the pods. Their students know what they need to do. Any kind of lockdown situation is not perfect.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—The cameras can be moved, right?

Superintendent Robinson—Correct.

Mr. Mike Setser—Each elementary school, Clintwood, Sandlick and Ervinton, has a two- door access system that personnel can enter with their key fobs. They have to be buzzed in. A locked door doesn‘t mean anything if someone wants to get in; they are going to get in one way or another. But each school does have two systems. With the new grant, if we get it, we will have two more systems at each of these schools. As far as the gym and the pickup, it is organized. There is a time they can come and pick up the children, and teachers are in super- vision at that time. You are right as far as someone getting into Clintwood Elementary or in one of the pods; they could access the entire half of that building.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—At Longs Fork you really have two gym options there that are available for recess. If you only have one gym, you can have only one recess at a time. The cafeteria use to be the gym.

Mr. Donald Raines—Have you compared the square footage of both buildings?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, Sir. That is in the building description. The gross square footage for Clintwood Elementary School is 87,550 and at Longs Fork Elementary/Middle School it is 58,952.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—How much of that is the gym, though?

Superintendent Robinson—The gym is 8,217 square feet. The library is 1,936 of those. All of that is included in your building description. We have also included in the building description the repairs that will need to be done at each building. Of course, as Mrs. Mullins has mentioned, replacing the roof at Clintwood Elementary School is the number one priority. We also have a roof repair which is not that amount at Longs Fork and the HVAC system.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—That doesn‘t need to be done now, does it?

Superintendent Robinson—I don‘t know. Let me check.

Mr. Burl Mooney—It needs to be done now, or we will be caught in the same situation as Clintwood Elementary School that we have been trying for the last three or four years to keep up with.

Superintendent Robinson—We are not in the same situation at Longs Fork that we are at Clintwood Elementary, but we are getting very close. We are there.

12 Mr. Burl Mooney—We are keeping the holes patched, so to speak, at Longs Fork depending on the materials that we have on hand. Every time it rains we have to sweep it off and patch it. This is at both places.

Mr. Donald Raines—Which school has the most leaks, Mr. Mooney?

Mr. Burl Mooney—Both places have leaks in various locations but mostly around the roof curves where they come into your air conditioning units and around the edges where the roofing shrinks the older it gets. The older the building gets, the roof starts to shrink, and we have to put another strip of roofing on it. We are able to stay ahead of it. If one comes up we take care of it.

Mr. Rocky Barton—Are the units on the roof over there?

Mr. Burl Mooney—Not at Longs Fork but at Clintwood Elementary, but it still has to be patched. The older the roof the more dry rotting and cracking.

Superintendent Robinson—Longs Fork‘s roof was replaced in 1988. It is a good problem to have. We have more children, and in the Clintwood area it will be the largest elementary school. Whichever school that the Board looks at where they would like to have their elementary school, there will be work that will need to be done. There will be more at Clint- wood because of building new classrooms or at Longs Fork by adding additional classrooms.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—At Clintwood we would have to build three new rooms and at Longs Fork one.

Superintendent Robinson—What we are looking at is we need 28 classrooms and Clint- wood Elementary School has 25 classrooms, so we are looking at adding 3 additional classrooms. That we thought about in the mezzanine area is adding two on each side. One of the concerns that I think we had is do we need to have some of our other programs there in order to reduce the noise and what else can we do for a noise barrier there. At Longs Fork Elemen- tary/Middle School it has 25 classrooms and two of the classrooms are computer labs for a total of 27 classrooms. So at both schools we are going to need 3 classrooms according to our projection of students.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Say that again. You have 25 at Clintwood and 27 at Longs Fork.

Superintendent Robinson—At Longs Fork Elementary School we have 25 full-size classrooms for students. Two of the classrooms in addition to the 25 are computer labs and 4 small classrooms.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Could the four small classrooms be made into two?

Superintendent Robinson—No, the four additional small classrooms are located next to the restrooms and to remove the wall between the restrooms would require a lot of remodeling.

13 Mrs. Susan Mullins—Could you use the four small classrooms to make four computer labs?

Superintendent Robinson—That may be an option. I don‘t know, Mrs. Mullins. I do know if we have Pre-K-5th Grade we are going to test 3, 4, and 5.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What about at Clintwood Elementary?

Superintendent Robinson—At Clintwood Elementary we have 25 classrooms in addition to a large computer lab. We have a main lab at Clintwood Elementary School and another small lab which is a storage room.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Is that counted in the 25 rooms or not?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—At Longs Fork we have 25 classrooms for student use that we can actually have homerooms. At Clintwood Elementary we have the same amount.

Chairman, John Skeen—Is that room at Clintwood Elementary for handicapped students?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes. I think if you look at Clintwood Elementary School, they have 26 standard size classrooms. One of those classrooms is for the special education classroom which leaves 25. In addition to that they have a main lab which can accommodate about 40 students and a smaller lab which they call a storage room. At Longs Fork they have 25 standard size classrooms for students use and two smaller size classrooms.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What are they being used for now?

Superintendent Robinson—At Clintwood Elementary School? Oh, at Longs Fork one is a computer lab, and I think that Mr. Frazier is using the other as an office right now then there is an occupational and physical therapy room. They are small classrooms which are used for the smaller programs such as special education.

Mr. Rocky Barton—My question is do these repairs have to be done before the school year next year? If so, where is the money going to come from? Which school is ready to move into right now? It hasn‘t been so long ago that at Sandlick we had students in the concession stand that is 6 X 10. If you have locker rooms and concession stands, you can put them about anywhere. I don‘t mean to be smart, but that is where we are. It is a good thing to have that many kids, but at Sandlick we have all of the extra kids from Russell County right now. We are out of the roof with kids, but that is a good thing.

Superintendent Robinson—It is a good thing. I guess, Mr. Barton, what hurts me is that I don‘t want any child anywhere in a locker room or concession stand. I think one of the things that has made it more difficult at Sandlick is we did not have any other options. In the Clintwood area we do have options. You are correct, but the repairs are at both places. We can accommodate some students in one or the other, but we don‘t have to put them in concession stands, and we don‘t want to put them in locker rooms. That is a good problem to

14 have, but I don‘t want any students in concession stands at Sandlick either, but we have options here.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I just hate to think about us hiring people to help us with behavior issues because the more kids you have together the more behavior issues you will have. Walls become more and more valuable. The more problems you have the more valuable it is to have walls and not pods.

Superintendent Robinson—We have often talked here that if we had walls at Clintwood Elementary it would be a great thing.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Which one works the best for busing? Are they both about the same as far as safety issues?

Superintendent Robinson—I will let Mr. Mooney answer that.

Mr. Burl Mooney—I think that both are workable. There is going to have to be some ex- pansion at Longs Fork to handle all of the buses out there. The decision is up to you all, and I will do what has to be done.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—How many buses will have to be there at one time for pickup?

Mr. Burl Mooney—We can stagger them. At the initial pickup at Longs Fork in the afternoon I think there are six. I am just guessing because I don‘t have those numbers with me. There are maybe five or six at Clintwood High School and the biggest number is at Clint- wood Elementary.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Can we do something creative like have parents pick up their kids first and have the buses come five or ten minutes later?

Superintendent Robinson—We have a lot of complaints with that. We tried to do that at Sandlick with their buses. That created a lot of confusion, and I think that they worked it out so that the buses go through and then the parents come. Whichever school you choose, just like at Sandlick, there is an issue in the mornings. We all know the issues with parking, with parents and buses. That is one thing that whichever school the Board chooses to use that will be a huge issue with more complaints from parents about traffic or where to park. I think, Mr. Nickles, as a Board it will be one of the issues that you will have to look at. Where will that problem be minimized along with all of the other things that will have to be considered?

Mr. Donald Raines—This is a bad word that is going to come out of my mouth right now, but I am going to say it. Have you evaluated the possibility of portable classrooms? How does the cost there compare to going in and remodeling a building? What I am saying is that we have very nice buildings at both locations and to go in and start building something that hasn‘t been designed doesn‘t seem feasible to me, and also, enrollments change. Where we have it good right now we might not have it good five years from now.

15 Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Raines, we talked as a Board about modular classrooms. The guidance I felt we were getting from the Board was that having students out in a modular classroom was something that the Board wasn‘t in favor of. When you have students outside the school building, there are safety issues, weather issues and students coming back and forth. There are a lot of issues.

Mr. Donald Raines—That is what I said, but at the same time it seems more feasible to do something like that.

Superintendent Robinson—We can look at the modular classrooms. Again, the things that we heard were the safety issues, students traveling back and forth and the weather. For me, mostly, it is the safety issue for students to be in a modular unit and not in the school setting.

Mr. Donald Raines—Years ago we did a lot of this. I can‘t recall any safety issue being in- fringed upon, but at the same time I know it is not the best to have students in another building. It seems more positive to me than to go in and start trying to create something in a gymnasium or something of that nature. You have a well-designed gymnasium, and it will make it look different. I don‘t think it will be as good instructionally.

Superintendent Robinson—The gymnasium there will continue to be used by the students. Of course, with the Ridgeview Middle School gym and the high school gym will probably not be used to the extent that they are now. How well do we noise buffer that area? That will be a consideration.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—If you go to Longs Fork Elementary and put outside buildings, where are you going to put the kids when it comes time for recess? They are very limited there.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—They use to have outside buildings right beside the building so it wouldn‘t interfere with outside activities. It was right outside the library.

Superintendent Robinson—I started there. What do they have there now?

Mr. Burl Mooney—What Mr. Raines was talking about building the rooms at Clintwood Elementary School our maintenance staff was going to do those. The cost on that would be a lot less.

Superintendent Robinson—One of the things that we were looking at in the mezzanine area was to look at the air conditioning units from Clinchco and from each of those schools to use in that building. There are pros and cons. It is a great problem that does not have an easy solution. If we have students outside the building that is going to be an issue of safety. The times we live in could be a problem with someone coming in there. The question is where do we best accommodate these students?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Have we explored the option of putting them at Ridgeview?

16 Superintendent Robinson—We have explored that option, but we do not have the classroom space there. Ridgeview was built for the 6th-8th Grades.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Can‘t you guys throw up four more classrooms up there? How hard would that be? (Ha, Ha!)

Superintendent Robinson—It would take more than three classrooms because we have how many 5th Grade students at Sandlick and Clintwood? It would be more than that.

Superintendent Robinson—Are there other questions or comments that we have not clari- fied? It is one of those situations where we don‘t have all of the answers.

Mr. Donald Raines—I think that you presented it well.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What will happen to the school that is no longer occupied?

Superintendent Robinson—I think that would be what would happen to the Career Center, Ervinton and Haysi. They would belong to the school until we turned it over to the county.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Then what would the county do? Will they tear them down or use them as a community center?

Mr. Scott Mullins—I don‘t know. If there is a plan, it has not been shared.

Superintendent Robinson—Are there other questions or comments?

Mr. Donald Raines—Is that just for discussion tonight?

Superintendent Robinson—We were to have a decision last month, and I asked the Board to table it because we weren‘t quite ready with the student enrollment. I wanted to have more information for the Board so that they could make an informed decision. If at all possible, for planning purposes and our maintenance and all of the other things that we have to do to get ready for 2015-2016, we would love to have a decision now from the Board so we can move forward.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Could we start off in the building that is most likely to accommodate our needs and see what happens to the population? If we decide, is it written in stone?

Superintendent Robinson—In 2015-2016 we are going to have 549 students in the Clint- wood area, and we need 28 classrooms to accommodate those children. That is the best projection, and that is using this year‘s Pre-K-4 numbers.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Is there a possibility that when we open Ridgeview there will be some extra capital outlay to afford to put a roof on?

17 Superintendent Robinson—It is very difficult for us to project budgets. I don‘t know what our budget will be. It would be very difficult for me to even look at that for any repairs.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—So if we don‘t have any money for repairs, how do we fix a roof?

Superintendent Robinson—That is a very good question. What we are trying to do is whatever we do, we will need extra classrooms. We are trying to plan what we budget this year so that we can buy modular units and/or fix or remodel the classrooms. The option that we looked at here appears to be building classrooms in the mezzanine. That seems to be the most cost efficient.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Except you will have to replace the roof which is $600,000 plus build the other classrooms.

Superintendent Robinson—That is correct. Just to give a broad view, if you look at Longs Fork, unfortunately, that building also has a lot of repairs that will also have to be addressed and then buy the modular classrooms. The roof does not have to be replaced right now, but the HVAC continues to be an everyday problem.

Chairman, John Skeen—What is the life expectancy of an HVAC, Mr. Mooney?

Mr. Burl Mooney—I could not say. The parts to repair it are getting obsolete. That is the problem. It would be hard to estimate how long it will last. It was less than 10 years at the Clinchco Elementary School and the high school.

Chairman, John Skeen—How much longer will the unit last at Clintwood Elementary School before we have to spend any money on it?

Superintendent Robinson—The HVAC is estimated to be 28 years old at Longs Fork, and the HVAC at Clintwood Elementary is less than 10 years old. Mr. Raines said that it was less than five years old at Clintwood Elementary School.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Just looking at the immediate cost I would like to make a motion that we choose Longs Fork. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. Mrs. Susan Mullins, Mr. Rocky Barton and Mr. Shanghai Nickles voted yes. Mr. John Skeen and Mr. Donald Raines voted no.

Superintendent Robinson—Do I take that to mean Longs Fork passed?

Chairman, John Skeen—Yes.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Maybe we could revisit it if we find money for the roof.

Superintendent Robinson—Mrs. Mullins, I think that if the Board chose Longs Fork, there are going to be things that need to be started immediately there. There will be a point where we can‘t look back on that decision. Are there any other questions or comments on that?

APPROVAL OF ADDITIONAL COST FOR EMPLOYEES NOT COMPLETING HEALTH SCREENING:

Superintendent Robinson—As I think you have seen through the information we gave you at the last meeting the Board asked us to have an Insurance Committee meeting which we did on September 16. Mr. Raines and I think Mr. Skeen were there as members of that committee. The recommendation was that for those individuals who choose not to participate in our Health Screening and are part of our health insurance:

 Employee Only—instead of paying $25 a month, as they do now, would pay $50 a month  Employee Plus 1 Child—instead of paying $30 a month, as they do now, would pay $60 a month  Family—if neither one participates it would be $100 or if only one participates it would be $75

We would ask the Board‘s consideration on this proposal. Are there any questions or comments?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I think that is a lot of money. How many people do you have not par- ticipating?

Superintendent Robinson—We really don‘t know at this point.

Mr. John Carpenter—Mrs. Mullins, to partially answer your question. There are 585 employees, retirees and spouses who are eligible for these health screenings. The discussion in the Insurance Committee meeting was that we would hope to have 85-90% of them participate in it. You would be looking at 500 + employees hopefully who would complete the screenings and have no change in their health premiums. Obviously, we would love to have 100% complete the screenings, and nobody would have their health insurance premiums change, but we know that is probably not going to happen.

Superintendent Robinson—I think the purpose of the Health Screening, and we discussed this as a Board and also at the Insurance Committee meeting, is to help our employees be healthier. A visit to the emergency room is four visits to the doctor or more. Our employees may not know that they have a serious illness until it flares up, and it is easily something that could have been taken care of if found sooner. The division pays a significant amount of insurance for our employees, and we are trying to improve the health of our employees because our insurance is claims driven. It depends on how many people get seriously sick. If we have 25-30 people, God forbid, who have serious illnesses then our insurance is going to go up. What we are trying to do and what the research has shown is if we can get people into a doctor or a nurse practitioner and they find the issue or problem, then it is dealt with, and then later on it doesn‘t become the $400,000-$900,000 medical bill. So we are not in any way recommending to the Board that this is a money issue or for the county to make money for the school division. It is not. It is simply to improve the quality of health for our em-

19 ployees, and it is to keep the cost of our insurance down for our employees, and to help our employees be healthier. Certainly we are not saying that an employee has to do this. It is their choice. Also, as many of you know and we have talked about it, that when it is coded correctly the Affordable Health Care Act will pay for these screenings. So there is no charge for our employees to get this screening.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I agree with you. It is just that I think that doubling their premium is extreme. I think they should pay more but maybe not double.

Superintendent Robinson—We did talk about at the last meeting of having one figure of $60. The think about doubling is that if our goal is to get as people screened so that they can be healthier, then if it is only $10 so I would pay $35, I may not be as eager to get the screening. I may be the very one that would have an $800,000-$900,000 medical bill. I may be the one that says ―I‘ll pay the $10‖. I‘m not going to do that. The amount is to share with our employees that it is important to our division. We have wonderful benefits. As a matter of fact, Mr. Modina said that very few plans have a $300 deductible. We try to keep the benefits that we have, but we are all going to have to work together. To answer your question, it does seem extreme, but many people will do that and perhaps it will save their life.

Mr. Rocky Barton—Are the screenings going to be done at the school?

Superintendent Robinson—No. We tried to have them at the school, and we were not very successful with that. Mr. Modina recommended that they go to a nurse practitioner or to a doctor. The reason is that we found we had very low participation in health screenings, but also when you just get a piece of paper, you just look at it and throw it away. But when you go to a nurse practitioner there is a relationship there.

Mr. Donald Raines—It is also a very private thing between the employee and the doctor.

Superintendent Robinson—That was one of the things that we also heard. It is private and it is the relationship because the doctor will say that you have to do something about your blood pressure. Then you are bound to listen, but when you just see it on paper you just say ―well‖.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Are you going to give them time to do this?

Superintendent Robinson—What we have said is that by January 31, 2015. Our employees have known about this for three months. As a matter of fact, today Mr. Carpenter told me that 28 of our employees have already gotten their screenings. But we have given our employees until January 31, 2015.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—I know that a dime is a dime and a dollar is a dollar, but an ounce of prevention gives them incentive to go for the screening. They should do it anyway. I know I do.

Chairman, John Skeen—Is there any further discussion? Do I hear a motion?

Mr. Rocky Barton—I make a motion to approve the cost of the health screening. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

THOMPSON AND LITTON UPDATE ON THE DESIGN PLANS AND PROGRESS OF RT. 637: RIDGEVIEW:

Superintendent Robinson—At this time, I would like to welcome Mr. Eric Price who will address the Board. Mr. Price is with Thompson and Litton and he is going to be updating the design plan and the progress of Rt. 637. That is the road that will go to Ridgeview High School/Middle School. So, Mr. Price, welcome.

Mr. Eric Price—Thank you Mrs. Robinson and Members of the Board. I appreciate the opportunity to come and give you an update on the 637 project. As you know, Thompson and Litton is working with the Board of Supervisors to design and ultimately get the road constructed to the school. I want to give you an update and an overview of what the project en- tails. I know you have heard things—what it is and what it isn‘t. Starting with the intersection at Rt. 83 and Rt. 637—the Four Way intersection—the improvements that we will have there are: The left hand turn lane as you are proceeding from Clintwood turning left to the school will be lengthened from 250 feet where it is now to 400 feet. There will be a 200 foot taper from where you start into that then 200 feet to store left hand turns. That is the improvement there. From Fremont there will be a 200 foot right turn lane that will turning onto Rt. 637. Those are the planned improvements on Rt. 83 to Rt. 637.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—That will almost be down to the curve.

Mr. Eric Price—It will be a pretty good way down through there, but to handle the volume of traffic anticipated making that left hand turn that is the best thing that you can do. There is sufficient pavement there now, so it will just be striking the lines.

The intersection at the school entrance—the plan for that is a roundabout or a traffic circle that will be constructed right at the intersection as it is today. So if you were traveling from Rt. 83 you would enter the traffic circle, make three quarters of a turn and proceed in. There will be no stopping. The traffic circle would be just a yield only as you proceed in to make that left turn. Coming from Rose Ridge would just be a right hand turn. You can follow the same train of thought as you leave. Going towards Rt. 83 you would make a right hand turn. Proceeding out to Rose Ridge you would go around the circle. The through traffic would proceed around the circle.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—If you weren‘t going to the school, you wouldn‘t go into the circle?

Mr. Eric Price—You would drive around the circle. You have to go through the circle. That is the traffic control. You would just bare to the right and go through. It is a single lane. There won‘t be two lanes. If you are making a left land turn you would continue around the circle as opposed to going out to Rose Ridge. So that is the design for the intersection at the school entrance.

The improvements between the two intersections—there are four curves before you turn out to Hill Ridge; there will be a widening and straightening of the road. All of the existing guard rail, as you are aware most of the guard rail now you could probably not ride a bicycle by it, will be replaced up to current standards. The entire route in addition to the widening will be milled and overlaid from Rt. 83 to the school intersection.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—What happens when you go out to Hill Ridge?

Mr. Eric Price—There is no improvement there. It will remain the same. That is basically the project in a nutshell.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—The reason that I was asking is that when the bus comes from Hill Ridge, they take up both lanes to get around.

Mr. Eric Price—That curve is one of the curves that will be straightened and widened so that will help with the sight distance and the traffic flow in that area.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—So the odds of us getting a traffic light at the Four Way are zero?

Mr. Eric Price—Yes. Safety—safety, of course, is paramount. I want to report to you that all of the improvements along Rt. 637 have been modeled to safely pass two school buses. As a matter of fact, they took a city bus which is larger than a school bus, and all of the improvements on Rt. 637 safely passed those two buses.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Let me ask you this. I hate to interrupt, but will there be any improvement to the road coming from the school toward the radio station?

Mr. Eric Price—No, all of the plans are for the intersection at the school to Rt. 83. The thought of that is that 90% of the numbers will follow that route.

Superintendent Robinson—That is correct. VDOT may do something, Mr. Nickles. But since this is a county project, this is the main focus.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—I know that they have a hard time getting across the ridge. They knock down mailboxes. I know they knocked down mine and my neighbors up there.

Mr. Eric Price—I know what you are saying, but this project doesn‘t address those issues. The intersection or roundabout has been modeled to have the highest level of service for handling the additional flow of traffic. The level of service is how well an intersection ac- commodates traffic. It has been modeled that this roundabout is the most effective means of handling this traffic flow. I know that there may be controversy of getting used to a roundabout, but it does prove that it has the highest level of service. One thing that we are planning through a public hearing is an education awareness to properly navigate a roundabout. That will be through a public education web site or newspaper. The current schedule that we have we are anticipating to advertise the project for construction by the end of December. If that

22 holds true, that would give us a six month window to complete construction for the August opening of the Ridgeview School. That also puts construction right in the middle of winter. There are issues that we are aware of that may delay construction. One thing that we will most definitely do is in the construction contract documents is insure that the Rt. 83 intersection is the first item that is addressed. That is the very first thing that must be done, and it is also the simplest. It is just a matter of prestriking, if we can get more people aware of the traffic pattern at Rt. 83. The second thing that we can insure is that the roundabout is constructed before the school opens. Again, that give numerous things. I am sure that the bus drivers will want to practice a few times before school. You are going to have traffic for football and various things, and we want to get that intersection in operation as quickly as possible. So priority one is the Rt. 83 intersection and priority two will be the intersection at the school. Then obviously the work in between will remain. If there is any work that remains after school opens, we will maintain safe traffic flow through the area and restrict construction times to any times that buses or parents are not delivering students to school so that we can maintain that it is a safe area for students and buses. That is basically the project in a nutshell. I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—So there will be a single lane going from the intersection to 83?

Mr. Eric Price—If you are leaving school, it will be four lanes, two coming in and two going out. Approximately 100 feet before you get to the roundabout that will converge into one lane. That is VDOT requirement that you can‘t have two lanes turning into a single lane roundabout. You will turn right if you are going to Rt. 83 and that traffic will just flow. If you are going to Rose Ridge you will travel around the intersection. Coming into the school it will be a single lane merging into two lanes.

Superintendent Robinson—We do plan to have meetings with VDOT, and there is a letter that is being prepared to send to VDOT regarding some kind of caution light or something at the Four Way, and Leman if you don‘t mind just helping me here. If we can‘t have a light at the Four Way, we will need some kind of flashing lights or a caution light or something during school hours. It would be similar to what they have at Copper Creek that would have the traffic slow down during school hours. I know that several of us have gotten tickets through there. They could flash from say 7:30 a.m.-8:30 a.m. and sometime around 3 p.m. or something to accommodate that traffic.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Maybe we could get someone to direct traffic. I know that they do that down here.

Superintendent Robinson—We have spoken to Mr. Moore, the County Administrator, and he understands that we are going to have to have something at the beginning so that people will realize that the speed limits have changed here. We have to slow down, and here is the consequence of it. That intersection and I know Mr. Price will agree with me is a huge concern. We have not discussed stopping traffic to let them come through.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I don‘t think it is a matter of getting tickets. I just want them to slow down and not kill each other.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Kendrick is there anything that we failed to mention or any discussion from the Board?

Mr. Leman Kendrick—I think you pretty well covered it.

Mr. Eric Price—The plan stays with VDOT right now. We are about at the 70% mark. We submitted our plans to VDOT, and once they go over those, they will turn us loose to have a public hearing. We have to have a public hearing for two reasons. We are acquiring property which this project will require for additional right of way. They are also requiring a public hearing because of the roundabout addition. It is new so they want the public involvement on it. So that has to take place, and we will advertise that for 30 days, and we hold a public hearing. It will continue open for 10 days for public comment, and then it is closed. Once that is closed then the county would proceed to purchase right of way. They cannot do that until the public hearing and the 10 days are closed. The right of way must be acquired before the construction project can be advertised. That is why we are looking at the best case sce- nario of starting work in December. Those are basically the remaining steps. The 60% plans that we submitted will have very few changes due to the VDOT comments, and at that point they will be ready next month. The critical steps then will be the acquisition of property.

Superintendent Robinson—We don‘t have a date on the public hearing?

Mr. Eric Price—No, not yet.

Superintendent Robinson—As soon as you do, let me know so that I can make our Board aware of that. Thank you Eric.

UPDATE OF THE SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT: RIDGEVIEW HIGH SCHOOL AND RIDGEVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL:

Superintendent Robinson—For an update on the school construction project, we are pleased to have Mr. Holbrook and Mr. Burge with us. Included in your packet are recent pictures and also a scheduling and budget update. So I am going to ask both of them if they will come and lead us through this. I also sent the most recent pictures of the school to you a week or two ago. Welcome, gentlemen, and I‘m glad you are here today.

Mr. Tim Burge—Thank you all for inviting us again. I guess I will kind of go through the same process that I did last month by going through the different areas of the school and giv- ing you an update on it.

High School—the casework is almost complete, and I think what is left is the media center and maybe one classroom. The flooring on the 3rd floor is very close to being completed. Cafeteria—the contractor has been installing the track for the floating wall. That should be up real soon now. They are trying to get it in before the flooring goes in which we will be starting in a couple of weeks, the terrazzo. There is some continued work in the kitchen such as hookups and things there. The energy recovery units on the roof are cooling the building.

24 They have started on the high school end, so basically the rest of the building and the gym are cooling. Painting is ongoing on the 2nd and 3rd floor. The ceiling grid is in the media center now. They are getting ready to install the panels possible this week. The data cable has been pulled in the high school end, and they are starting down in the gym area now. Most all of the lights are installed now.

Middle School—We had a whole lot happening in there this month. All of the walls on all three floors are installed now. The stone is almost completed except for a little band that is kind of between the middle school and the auditorium. They will be bringing in the curtain wall sometime next week. The roof is on, and they are only doing trim out work now.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Do you have any excess roofing that you could donate? (Ha, Ha!)

Mr. Tim Burge—Probably not.

Gym and Auditorium—The first coat of prime paint is in progress. The basketball goals have been hung, some blue, some gray, and some silver. They are getting the roof ready for the conditioned air. The dry wall ceilings in the locker rooms are being finished now. They will be starting the flooring in the shower area sometime this week. The duct rough-in in the auditorium has been started. They have finished two sides of the exterior brick on the auditorium. Spray foam insulation is in progress on the other two sides. The lights are all hung in the middle school gym. The roof has been painted in the middle school gym.

Athletic Fields—Where a lot of change has happened this month is in the athletic fields. The brick is completed on the home field house. The brick will be completed for the press box on the baseball field by the end of the week. The inside block in the girls‘ field house is in progress. Power to the field houses has been turned on. The pump is running for the sprinkler system for watering the grass. Bermuda grass was installed last week on the practice field. Bluegrass for the other practice fields will be installed this week. Sprinklers on the baseball and practice fields have been installed. They are already watering the grass that was put down last week. The asphalt is down on the running track. In a few weeks they will be putting the rubber coating down on that. They hit rock so those had to be drilled with special drills, and they got that completed today, and they will be setting the light poles Friday. The stone base is down on the rear entrance and getting it ready for paving. The drill field which is outside the band room is pretty much to rough grade right now, and I don‘t think they have put the top soil on it yet. The stone that goes underneath the turf on the football field is almost complete, probably 75% complete. They should start turf sometime next week on the football field. The tennis court posts have been set. They set the sleeves for the tennis court nets. They are getting the stone installed and getting it ready for asphalt as well. Hopefully, they will be paving the back entrance lot next week.

Site—Next week they intend to blast over at the waste water treatment plant next week so that we can get the grade for the waste water treatment plant. The patios are poured at the cafeteria and at the gym area. They have started the sidewalks out to the ball fields. They poured about 120 ft. of that today, and they are wide sidewalks. They are working on the parking lot at the football field. It is down to the fine grade so they can put the stone on it,

25 and I‘m sure they will pave it at the same time they do the back entrance. They were installing the top soil in the zones between the football field and track on the ends. They have been working on that yesterday and today

Drafting, Art and Band—They are hanging dry wall in there. They are installing the duct- work. The windows are installed. There is one wall where the glass is supposed to be here by the end of the week. It was damaged in shipment so they didn‘t have the glass to put into the building. So a lot of things are changing and happening this week. I noticed a lot of big lifts leaving so that is telling me that people are getting out of the building.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—What is the size of the Fieldhouse? Do you have any idea?

Mr. Tim Burge—I don‘t know right off.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Are the scoreboards ready to be put up?

Mr. Tim Burge—The floors are poured and the poles are set.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Will we be talking about some contracts with the people who will be doing that?

Mr. Scott Mullins—Yes. I have the contracts.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Way to go!

Superintendent Robinson—Are we on schedule?

Mr. Gary Holbrook—Right now through the last update I received we were two weeks ahead of schedule. They have used about 61% of the contract time. Financially they are about 81%. A lot of that is stored materials. As far as the budget you can look at the report and see quite a few changes. With a year left to go we thought it was a good time to sit down and go through the budget, where we were spending the money and where we weren‘t spending as much as we thought. We will look at our forecast according to what we have been spending. Considering the fairly large number on the construction line, those are not actual changes, and the contract has not been modified. There is only about $17,000 difference there. It is stuff that we know about, and some of them we don‘t even have pricing on yet. The items we do have pricing on we are reviewing. We are about 98% on the FF&E contents to go out to the four low bidders or the four selected. We are trying to get that moving and falling right in behind the other, equipment, forks, spoons, plates and all of the appliances. That is the main thing that we are trying to get furnished right now. We met with the security contractor of Branch about the camera locations. Those are with the architect right now. He is working on the batting cage as well. He is checking clearances and everything.

26 Mr. Shanghai Nickles—That is very important for the girls‘ softball or the boys‘ baseball because we don‘t want anyone in the gym. If you don‘t have that for the kids, you are putting them a half year behind everybody else especially in the girls‘ sports.

Mr. Gary Holbrook—Mr. Price mentioned about the road going to the radio station, there where the low point is and the water kind of shoots across and freezes in the winter. We are adding an additional pipe for that.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—That was going to be one of my questions to Eric. Will there be some kind of flashing light in that area out there at the back entrance?

Mr. Gary Holbrook—It is my understanding that it won‘t be open very much. It will be gated and possibly used at football games or other sports.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—That is the reason I asked about the flashing light for the football games. I know we talked about something to do on Rt. 83, but there also needs to be something done on the ridge because you are coming out of one curve from Rose Ridge, my area. You are going to need something flashing out there to remind people because that can be In- dy 500.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I‘m not sure that 90% of the traffic will be from the Four Way. A lot of people will be coming over the railroad tracks at Clinchco and down Rose Ridge. There will be a lot of traffic coming that way, and I‘m not sure that the back entrance will be locked all the time. I don‘t think that we have decided that yet.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—If we don‘t have it unlocked for sporting events or a track event where you have 30 schools up there at one time, there will be a lot of traffic and backed up down to Fremont shaking hands. (Ha, Ha!) That is just something I was worried about with the flashing light. I think the people who live up there would welcome it to start with.

Mr. Gary Holbrook—They do travel at a good pace through there.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Yes, they do.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Is the speed limit up there not 35?

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Yes, but we have lawn mowers up there that do that. (Ha, Ha!) There was a State Trooper who wrote 17 tickets there one morning, and the ones he wrote tickets to were over 50 mph. All of them were thrown out of court. Go talk to Trooper Belcher, and he will tell you the whole story because he was the one who did it. That access road there is a concern of mine. It will be open I‘m sure because there are going to be times where there are a bunch of people up there. Eric will take care of it because he is a good guy.

Superintendent Robinson—Are there any other questions for Mr. Burge or Mr. Holbrook? Thank you both. Mr. Skeen, could we take a short break, please.

27 Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we take a 20 minute break. Mr. Shanghai Nick- les seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Chairman, John Skeen—Okay, we are back in session and ready for new business.

REQUEST TO POST FOR TRANSFERS TO RIDGEVIEW HIGH SCHOOL/RIDGEVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL AND SUPPORT STAFF AND FALL HEAD COACHING POSITIONS:

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Chairman, we are ready for Item I. Request to Post for Transfers to Ridgeview High School/Ridgeview Middle School for Professional and Support Staff and Fall Head Coaching Positions. We are recommending that the School Board approve to post for professional, support and heal coach positions for Fall Sports for Ridgeview High School and Ridgeview Middle School. We have prepared a form to be emailed to all our full-time employees. Full-time employees who wish to transfer are requested to completed the form and rank their preferences of schools and department such as English, Sci- ence, Social Studies, Custodial, Cafeteria, etc. And return it to Mr. Mark Mullins, Personnel Director, by Wednesday, October 1, 2014. A Committee comprised of Mr. Rodney Compton, Mr. John Whitner, Mrs. Robinson and members of the central office administrative staff will review the forms and recommend the instructional staff and the support staff for Ridgeview to the Division Superintendent and the School Board.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Will we need more maintenance people up there. In the spring we will have to start mowing grass.

Mr. Gary Holbrook—The grass will be mowed by a contractor until it is turned over to you all.

Superintendent Robinson—Mrs. Mullins, we now have a number of custodial staff in each of the schools that we are closing. We are going to evaluate that to see if we need more or less.

Staff placements will be finalized and announced by the end of January, 2015, or earlier if possible. All placement decisions will be made based on the following criteria:

 Needs of students  Needs of the school division  Teacher endorsements  Preferences

State members interested in head coach position for Fall Sports—football, volleyball, golf, cheerleading, cross county, and wrestling—will write a letter of interest to Mr. Rodney Compton. A committee comprised of Mr. Compton, Mr. Whitner and administrative staff will review the letters of interest and recommend head coaches for fall sports to the School Board.

28 I will need a motion Mr. Chair.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—By administrative staff, do you mean athletic director?

Superintendent Robinson—Possibly, yes. The central office has never been involved in the coaching positions. It has been more at the school level unless the Board asks us to do that. We would like to continue that process of having the school with Mr. Whitner and Mr. Compton and representatives from both schools to be on that committee. This is only for the fall sports.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Isn‘t the VHSL involved in forensics and one-act plays and things?

Superintendent Robinson—Those are spring activities, and we are only talking about the fall sports. The Board‘s guidance was that we would wait until the end of the fall season to name the head coaches for the winter season, and then we would wait until the end of the winter season to name the head coaches for the spring.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Okay. I just didn‘t know when it started and when it stopped.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I would like to make a motion that we post for transfers to Ridgeview High School/Ridgeview Middle School for professional and support staff and fall head coaching positions. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

2014-2015 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SCHOOL ACCREDITATION RE- PORT:

Superintendent Robinson—Item J. is the 2014-2015 Department of Education school accreditation report, and I would like to ask Mr. Mullins if he will come forward.

Mr. Mark Mullins—Thank you, Mrs. Robinson. Just to update you, we talked about the accreditation back in June or July. At that time the SOL results were preliminary. Just last week the Virginia Department of Education officially released the accreditation ratings, and we wanted to update the Board where our school fell. It is the same as what we shared with you back in June or July, but this time we do have some numbers from the state that will kind of help us see where we are. We would like to say that we have four schools that are fully accredited by the state. In order for a school to be fully accredited it must meet certain benchmarks on the SOL tests. They are 75% in English which is our reading and writing test, 70% in math, science or history, and high schools must also meet the graduation rate. In order to be fully accredited a school must meet each of those benchmarks. We had four this year: Clintwood Elementary School, Sandlick Elementary School, Clintwood High School and Haysi High School. That is what we thought back in the summer. We had two elementary schools that were accredited with warning: Ervinton Elementary School and Longs Fork Elementary/Middle School. Last year at this time we had three schools that were accredited with warning: Clintwood Elementary School came out of that status. So that is an improvement for our division. I would like to say that Ervinton Elementary School and Longs Fork Elementary School although they did not meet the benchmarks that were set by the State,

29 they both showed improvement in those areas from the previous year. It was just not enough improvement to meet those benchmarks.

What we really want to share with the Board and what we think brings a little more perspec- tive on this is: In the state there are 1,827 schools in Virginia. Sixty-eight percent of those are fully accredited or 1,246 schools. Thirty percent of the schools in the State of Virginia, 545 schools, are accredited with warning. That is a huge number of schools that are accredited with warning which is an increase. Last year there were roughly 400 schools in Virginia that were accredited with warning. That goes back to, as we have talked over the last two or three years, the changes in the SOL tests in English, math and science. The state is seeing the results of those changes. So while the State is going in one direction, we feel like we are going in another direction. Thirty percent of the schools, I think that is the largest, but I can‘t say that for certain. There are 132 school divisions across the state, and 110 of them have a least one school that is not fully accredited for the year. There is also, as we have talked through the years, a federal accountability measure, and there were four schools that did not meet this accountability measure: Ervinton Elementary School, Longs Fork Elementary School, Sandlick Elementary School and Clintwood Elementary School. They will remain in the School Improvement Status. But this is the first year that I can remember that the state has not shared the number of schools across the state that did not meet the federal requirements. That leads us to believe that there are a huge number of schools that did not meet those federal requirements. So Ervinton Elementary School and Longs Fork Elementary School will be required to go through an Academic Review Process. We got the information on that today, and we will be sharing it with our principals tomorrow. We will begin on that process. Sandlick Elementary School, Ervinton Elementary School, Longs Fork Elementary School and Clintwood Elementary School will go through the School Improvement Process, but the federal one is not that involved or as much detail as the state. We just wanted to update the Board where we stand. We talked about SOL scores for two months or more, and hopefully, we saw an improvement this past year, and hope to see that and even meet all of the benchmarks next year. But if not, please realize that we have a lot of other folks with us. I know I say that a lot, but it is a fact. Are there any questions?

Mr. Donald Raines—Are we doing any special initiatives in the two schools that were accredited with warning.

Mr. Mark Mullins—We have to go through an Academic Review Process that is directed by the Virginia Department of Education. We found out today that we will be sending a team to Wytheville early in October. They will come back and work with our administrator and our teachers on this process. We don‘t know exactly what they will ask us to do, but we did that last year with the three schools. We feel like it will help us. As far as any exact initiatives at this time, I am not aware of what they will ask us to do

Mr. Donald Raines—Working with the number of snow days and days missed I guess we did pretty well.

Mr. Mark Mullins—We feel like we did. We really saw improvement this past year. But you are right in that all of the snow days affect how we do. But that is something that all of

30 the schools in Southwest Virginia had to deal with. With 545 schools with a warning I‘m sure the State of Virginia hopes that number goes down. It is related to the SOL assessments, the rigor of those tests and the changes in the tests. Virginia is seeing that now. I know that we looked at Enrico County, and 28 schools had warnings.

Superintendent Robinson—We have talked at our last two principals‘ meetings about test scores and data and where our division is and where the needs of improvement are. Mrs. Colley has been working on individual school scores and sharing those with our principals. We can then look at the data and say this is an area of weakness. This week Mrs. Colley also met with our writing teachers in the 8th Grade because that was an area of huge concern. We are happy with our scores, but we know that there are areas that we have to improve on, and we are working diligently with our staff and principals to do that. There have been staff changes that have been made in some of the grade levels where we saw weaknesses. Our principals are very aware of that and are looking at the data.

Mr. Donald Raines—Some of the tests are changing, too.

Superintendent Robinson—The General Assembly has taken five SOL tests and here is the caveat to that, there has to be an alternate assessment. That is what our division and several of the divisions around us are working with. What is going to be the alternate assessment? They are not going to be given an SOL test as we are used to. As a division we have to provide an assessment locally for each of those tests. We are looking at different options such as Interactive Achievement to make certain that we continue testing in a way that the State tests because that is what we are accountable for. We want to make sure that we provide our students the same kind of testing county wide as they do in the state so that transition is easier. But there are five tests that will no longer be given, and they are all at the elementary level. Luckily we have a phone conference tomorrow with Interactive Achievement, but there are some school divisions that do not have Interactive Achievement and that will be an added expense. That is a mandate that is coming with no funding. There are just a lot of things that are happening regarding that. Next week we will have another principals‘ meeting, and we will talk more about scores and what they are really indicating.

Chairman, John Skeen—The Federal Government withdrew $2 million dealing with these guidelines.

Superintendent Robinson—It was a savings.

Chairman, John Skeen—When you subtract that much money across the State you will have consequences.

Superintendent Robinson—We will continue bringing the Board up to date on what the alternative assessment will look like.

Chairman, John Skeen—Do you foresee any teacher training with that?

31 Superintendent Robinson—To some degree, Mr. Skeen. We have used Interactive Achievement before, and I think our staff feels pretty comfortable with it. It is more working with our children and making sure that our assessment has the rigor.

Chairman, John Skeen—If there is teacher training; there will be an additional expense.

Superintendent Robinson—Absolutely.

Mrs. Debbie Colley—In most cases with science as an example, it is really hard even going back 10-15 years ago with the asset program we focused a lot on-hands in science in primary and middle grades. I think as a result of that, we have seen our science test scores really strong. The challenge for us will be that the hands-on science that makes it come alive for children as well as books. Ms. Deel was saying that she feels the Interactive Achievement part is pretty rigorous. I think we need to maintain what we are doing in spite of the fact that there are no more end of the year tests that are coming from the State. We want to keep it. We don‘t want to put science on the back burner just because they are not testing it any more. I think we have to keep up with what we have been doing generally speaking. I think we had pretty solid scores on the SOL tests so we don‘t want to do too much new stuff but keep up with what we have been doing.

Mr. Donald Raines—What about with the technology, could you have a child work on their own? Would that improve some things?

Mrs. Debbie Colley—I think there are a lot of those things in the resources we have available with the textbooks we‘ve purchased. There are a lot of things that go with that including technology-based resources that the kids have access to at school and at home. It is just a matter of them taking advantage of that and supporting teachers to continue to use that.

Mr. Donald Raines—Maybe you could stress that with students and parents. I think that would be important.

Mrs. Debbie Colley—We try.

Superintendent Robinson—We are very proud and pleased with the progress that we have made, but we also know that we have a long way to go. Our teachers, administrators and our central office staff are working very hard, and it is our focus to look and provide the best in- struction for our students so that our test scores will reflect that. Whether we like it or accept it the school divisions are rated on test scores. With the caliber of staff that we have there isn‘t any reason that I know of why Dickenson County cannot have the best test scores. We just have to get there, and we are well on our way. We want to thank Mark and Mrs. Colley who work very hard on that and Denechia with our special education students and all of our instructional staff.

Chairman, John Skeen—Mark, when we move into Ridgeview what will be our accreditation status?

32 Superintendent Robinson—That is a good question.

Mr. Mark Mullins—It will be conditionally accredited the first year because it is a new school. The next year our accreditation status will be based on that one year. Right now they will either give you that one year or a three year average. This has been very beneficial as they have changed the SOL tests. We will not have that for the middle school or the high school. It will be conditionally accredited the first year and then the scores will be based on that one year. The question that we are not sure about is the graduation rate for the high school because that is held back a year. We will have to find that out as we go along.

Superintendent Robinson—As you can see at Ridgeview High School and Ridgeview Mid- dle School the scores must be there that first year. Are there other questions or comments?

ADVANCED DISTRICT ACCREDITATION:

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Chair our next Item is K. AdvancED District Accredita- tion. This is an informational item for the School Board. I would like to ask Mrs. Colley to come forward. Mr. Raines and Mr. Skeen you may remember this as SACS. Of course, the process has changed tremendously. Instead of school we are now going to be involved in district accreditation. The reason that I have asked Mrs. Colley to come and report this to the Board is because in April we are going to have a committee of educators from across the country who will come to Dickenson County. They are going to be visiting our schools and looking at our data. Then they are going to come back and report to you as a Board what the commendations and what they see as the recommendations to the school division. It is quite a process and several of our schools have already started working with that. That is the reason that I want you to keep April 2015 open.

Mr. Donald Raines—Who funds this process?

Superintendent Robinson—We do. The school division does.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Didn‘t we do this one time a few years ago?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, we did.

Mr. Donald Raines—How many days will they be here?

Superintendent Robinson—Three days.

Mrs. Debbie Colley—They will come in on Sunday night, and their final report out will be on Wednesday. They will be meeting with community stakeholders, Members of the School Board, parents, staff and students. It is a fairly intensive process and to answer your question the leader of the external review team cannot be from the State of Virginia. The other members of the team will likely be from the State of Virginia. They have to go through a very rigorous process in order to become a lead evaluator.

33 Mr. Donald Raines—Have you ever participated in one of these groups?

Mrs. Debbie Colley—I have. I went to Rock Ridge County last year, and there were three of us from Virginia, and there were two evaluators from outside the state. That is what I assume we will have as well. I am also going to be on a review team in November for Wythe County, and I assume it will be the same kind of thing. The one thing that I would say to add to what Mrs. Robinson said and I tried to give you a few notes in your handout which basically came from the information that we received from AdvancED.

I will now give you a little background. It is a very different process than it was the first time that I went through SACS reviews over the years. It is a much more streamlined process. It is not all of that narrative writing as Mr. Skeen, in the English Department, got saddled with all of that. There is not nearly as much of that. There is writing involved and self-reflection that schools have to do reviewing data and setting goals and that sort of thing. They work really hard to streamline the process and to make it compatible with the school improvement process that Virginia requires. So they will do a lot of what we have done with our school improvement process in both the federal and state but that will just be transferable. We hope that will make the process a little smoother. We honestly tried to get this pushed until next year. We felt that we would have a more accurate result of our internal process if we were already in our restructured state. They couldn‘t let us push it another six months. We begged and pleaded, but they wouldn‘t let us push it another six months.

So what we are going to try to do is sit down and look at the data in a way that will give us information of how we can best prepare to move into the new structure of K-5 elementary schools, a middle school and a high school by using the data that we get from all three com- munities for that purpose. We have begun that process. Sandlick has done all three sets of surveys. Clintwood and Ervinton Elementary have finished their surveys. Longs Fork and Clintwood High School have started. We will be getting that data in, and these guys will be my team along with other people that I grab along the way.

Mr. Donald Raines—Do they just come in and make recommendations?

Mrs. Debbie Colley—They consider this the beginning of the process. When you finish the review, they will have looked at all of the data and talked to people, they will make recommendations of things that you need to do. You are supposed to update that over the next several years before the next review process. The approach being that it is a continuous review and continuous improvement, but yes they will make some recommendations. The focus was always on improvement, and you hope that when you do your internal process that you are able to identify and address anything that they might see. But obviously there will be things that we can‘t because there will be classroom observations. The interesting thing about classroom observation is that you do not observe the teacher. You only observe the student. When you go into a classroom you only observe the students and only record what the students are doing. You are not evaluating the teacher; you are evaluating the learning environment. We will share more of that kind of stuff with you, but I hope that as time permits, we will give a brief update each month as we go through this process so that you all have an

34 idea when the team talks with you that you will be so knowledgeable that they won‘t know what to think about it! I appreciate your time.

Superintendent Robinson—Are there any other questions or comments regarding that process? Again, the team will be here in April. Hopefully, as Mrs. Colley said, we will be able to update you several times in meetings so that you will be very knowledgeable about it.

Mr. Donald Raines—You also talked about gain and retain in here. That is for the district?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes. The county received a district accreditation. I‘m not quite sure what year that was.

Mrs. Denechia Edwards—It was in 2008.

Superintendent Robinson—So we will be going through that process again. AdvancED does accredit districts if we meet the criteria for it.

Mrs. Debbie Colley—They no longer do it school by school which I think is a much better system of accreditation. But the schools, of course, are a big part of that.

Superintendent Robinson—Are there any other questions for Mrs. Colley or comments regarding that? That you, Mrs. Colley. I appreciate your help. Mr. Chair, that completes the Open Session of our meeting.

BOARD COMMENT:

Chairman, John Skeen—Does anyone on the Board wish to comment?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I think we are doing a really good job. I am proud of all of our schools. We have issues, but we always overcome them.

Chairman, John Skeen—There are always going to be problems and issues.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I would like to thank both of our high schools for their football game against each other. It was a great game and a heated rivalry. It was a huge crowd with people standing on the banks. Both bands played the National Anthem together, and it was excellent.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—How many people went through, Ms. Martin?

Ms. Karen Martin—Money wise it was about 3500 people, but there were several groups. County employees, of course, did not pay. We had Little League there that night.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I can remember over the years being at Clintwood‘s playoff games even in the ‗70s Clintwood‘s home side was on the visiting side. It was a different set of bleachers. I can never remember a bigger crowd than this one.

Mr. Donald Raines—It was really like a playoff game with standing room only.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I was afraid that someone was going to get tangled up in the kudzu and hang themselves.

Mr. Donald Raines—You know that happened one time! (Ha, Ha!) He was kind of in the flat out there, and he couldn‘t quite see well enough so he climbed up a little higher and the first thing you know a rock came off. It really hurt him.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I saw a guy climb up through there, and I wondered if he was really going to sit up there. Then the next time I looked there were 50 people up there.

Mr. Donald Raines—It is a good place to watch a game, but if there are people behind you, watch out for rocks!

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—We charge $5 for an entry fee. Don‘t most schools charge $6?

Ms. Karen Martin—Most of the districts around us are charging $6, but Cumberland chose to stay at $5.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—What will happen when we go to the Mountain District?

Ms. Karen Martin—I think they are at $6 now.

CLOSED SESSION:

Chairman, John Skeen—Is everyone through with the comments? PURSUANT TO Sec- tion 2.2-3712(a) of the Code of Virginia, I move that the Board go into Closed Session for the purpose of (1) Discussing students who are requesting early graduation for the School Year 2014-2015. Pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 (A) and Employment issues relating to employment, FMLA designations, hiring a Student Information System Analyst, part-time ISAEP instructor, substitute teachers, part-time aides and cook, coaches, and assistant principals for the Ridgeview High School/Middle School. PURSUANT to Virginia Code 2.2-3711 (A) and to consult with legal counsel on the above issues Pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3711 (A7). Mr. John Skeen made said motion. Mr. Donald Raines seconded the motion. All votes aye. We are now in Closed Session.

OUT OF CLOSED SESSION:

Chairman, John Skeen—I now entertain a motion to go out of Closed Session. Mrs. Susan Mullins made said motion, and Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye. PURSUANT to Section 2.2-3712(a) of the Code of Virginia I move to certify that during the Closed Session that just concluded the Dickenson County School Board discussed only mat- ters lawfully exempt from the Open Meeting requirements under Section 2.2-3711 of the

36 Code and identifies the motion to concluding the Closed Meeting. All votes aye. Each member certified.

BOARD ACTIONS:

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make the motion that we approve the early graduation requests for Student 2384 as requested contingent upon meeting the graduation requirements. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make the motion that we approve the coaching staff for Haysi High School as requested pending all required paperwork is completed. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Heather Owens, (Volunteer), Cheerleading, Haysi High School

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make the motion that we approve the FMLA requests as presented. Mr. Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Crystal Robinson, Cook, Sandlick Elementary School

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we accept the resignations as requested. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Sydney Compton, Part-time Aide, Sandlick Elementary School  Jade Crabtree, Part-time Aide, Sandlick Elementary School  Nancy Lee, Part-time Aide, Ervinton Elementary School

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make the motion that we approve the employment recommendations as presented. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Cynthia Kiser, Student Information System Analyst, Central Office/Technology Dept.  Dusti O‘Quinn, Part-time ISAEP Teacher, Dickenson County Career Center  Linda Fuller, Part-time Cook, Haysi High School  Teresa Sutherland, Part-time Cook, Haysi High School  Carly Tanee Hayes, Part-time Aide, Sandlick Elementary School

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve posting/advertising of positions as presented. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Secretary – Longs Fork Elementary/Middle School (Post)  Secretary (Advertise)

37  Part-time Aides (Advertise)  Special Education Teacher – Part-time (Advertise)

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve all substitutes pending the comple- tion of all necessary paperwork. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved: Teacher  Emily Artrip Tanner Charles Amanda Deel  Regina Edwards Emily Fleming Destiny Justice  Patricia Kiser Angela Large Hannah Mondrage  Gerina Owens Samantha Robinson Hollie Rose  Jeffrey Stanley Isaac Yates

Cook/Janitor  Tanner Charles Destiny Justice Patricia Kiser  Gerina Owens

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve advertising of positions as presented. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Advertise:  Part-time ISAEP (Individual Student Alternative Education Plan) Teacher  Part-time Cooks  Data Information Systems Analyst

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion to approve the Superintendent‘s recommendation for Assistant Principals at Ridgeview High School and Ridgeview Middle School. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Brian Baker, Ridgeview High School  Dwayne Edwards, Ridgeview High School  Tony Robinson, Ridgeview High School  Laura Deel-Stanley, Ridgeview Middle School  Karen Martin, Ridgeview Middle School

ADJOURNMENT:

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make the motion that we adjourn this meeting. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Adjourned: 9:37 p.m. John Skeen ______CHAIRMAN

38 Approved: October 20, 2014 Reba McCowan ______CLERK