Dickenson County School Board PRESENT

DICKENSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD Regular School Board Meeting November 23, 2015 5 p.m. – Dickenson County School Board

PRESENT: John Skeen, Chairman; Susan Mullins, Vice-Chairman; Rocky Barton; 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 November Regular Meeting to order and noted that all Board Members were present. Also present are our Division Superintendent, Haydee Robin- son, and Clerk, Reba McCowan. At this time we will have our Pledge of Allegiance and then a Moment of Silence. Please be seated.

Board Members we have an Agenda to approve. If there are no revisions, we need a motion to accept the Agenda as presented.

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

Chairman, John Skeen—The Agenda is adopted as presented.

GOOD NEWS FROM OUR SCHOOLS:

Chairman, John Skeen—The first item on our Agenda is Good News From Our Schools. Mrs. Robinson:

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Skeen and Board Members we are doing something a little bit different today. I have invited all of our administrators to attend and as the 1st Semester is ending, I wanted them to have the opportunity to share some of the good things that are happening in our schools. We do this at each of our principals’ meetings, and it is quite moving at times and funny at others. But it really gives us a sense of how much is going on in our buildings and what good things are going on with our children and our staff. You can see all of our principals here, so I am going to ask Ms. Willis to come to the front and speak to our Board, please.

Ms. Sherry Willis—I am just going to talk to you a little bit about what is going on in No- vember at Ervinton Elementary School. It has been a busy month for us. First off is Veter- ans’ Day where we had our traditional Veterans’ Day ceremony. We had eight veterans and two of their wives that came to our celebration. It was a simple ceremony, but it was very moving. Every one of our children took part. Our Pre-K and Kindergarten children sang a song. Our 1st Grade children led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Our 2nd and 3rd Grade children held up sentence strips announcing all of the things that we are allowed to do in this

country because of these brave men and women that served our country like going to church, going to college, owning a home and those kinds of things. Our 4th Grade students had special hand-made cards for the veterans. Our 5th Grade students read poems that explained Veterans’ Day and the importance and significance of it. Then everyone in the entire schools gave them a standing ovation. We invited them over to our cafeteria for coffee and donuts. We had a poster in the cafeteria that had been signed by the faculty, staff and students. We also had a display of portraits of the students and faculty family members in all different branches of the service. It was a very simple ceremony, but it was very moving and very touching.

Also, Ervinton Elementary School has been going through a review. Our State person was with us last week. She seemed very impressed by Ervinton Elementary School and what she saw. We went to the 2nd Grade and learned about Egypt, and we were talking about the Nile River and when it spills its banks and leaves the silt. They talked about Virginia and where we lived and what we used for fertilize for our gardens. She seemed very surprised how the children were rattling off the answers. She said that she didn’t remember learning that until she was in upper elementary or high school. I know that out of that classroom, two of the children had questions, and one boy said that he thought there were going to be visitors in the class today. He was so engaged that he didn’t even know they were there. Another child asked why those people left because they weren’t finished yet. (Ha, Ha!) They wanted them to stay a little longer

We also visited a 3rd Grade class where they were talking about author’s purpose which they study all year long. They were talking about whether the author was trying to persuade, in- form or to simply entertain us. They were talking about inferences which are very hard for 3rd Graders. They have to look for the hints because it isn’t written in black and white.

We will have Parents’ Day tomorrow. We already know that 100 parents are showing up so we expect a huge crowd.

After school tomorrow, we are decking the halls (please don’t tell the fire marshal) to celebrate Christmas. If you stand still very long, you may get decked out too. We are having a very busy time, and I was just so proud of my students and my teachers when the visiting committee came. My heart was just about ready to burst. I could not have been prouder. I see that every day, but you never know when you have people come in how the children are going to behave or react. But they didn’t even notice us. They were simply doing what they do every day, and I was extremely proud of them. Thank you.

Superintendent Robinson—Thank you, Ms. Willis. Any questions? Mr. Deel and Mr. Neece are here if they would like to come to the front.

Mr. Dennis Deel—I’m not as good as Sherry. I had to write mine down because I know I would forget. When I received the email from Mrs. Robinson, I wasn’t sure how far back I needed to go. So I included several things.

For the month of November we started out with our non-perishable items collection. I think the thing that got me the most was the gentleman came over to the school, and when he walked in and saw the stack and said that he had to go get a bigger truck. So he came back a couple of days later with a bigger truck.

Superintendent Robinson—It was amazing.

Mr. Dennis Deel—We are trying to implement something in our school called PIS—Positive Influence for our School. The cafeteria is our focal point right now. We are not trying to get it under control but trying to manage it a bit better.

Ms. Sutherland is our new Guidance Counselor, and she is working on a back pack program with United Way.

We are also working closely with the Masonic Lodge this year who are trying to help me get coats for our needy children.

We are looking at the end of the year what would be a good perfect attendance incentive. We have not quite gotten it figured out yet, but we have a couple of ideas.

Also, we have one young man at our school who was diagnosed with bone cancer. So we have been taking up money for him throughout the year.

Classroom observations—Mr. Neece and I have been in each classroom at least once and some multiple times.

2nd Grade was building sugar cube pyramids. Kindergarten took white t-shirts and made In- dian shirts by attaching beads to them. They did this for Parents Day.

Typically we walk around the rooms to see that the teacher is on task. The kids are working hard, and everyone is up doing their job.

4th Grade built tooth pick bridges. 5th Grade was dissecting seeds and doing leaf collections. That is pretty much the observed instructional part.

The status of my student learning based on the information provided from our first bench mark tests gave us several things for us to celebrate. As a matter of fact, our 2nd Grade really stood out. We are definitely proud of what they did.

Our teachers are all using the CIP model as their main lesson plan or as a supplement to what they are doing. That is obvious from our bench mark scores.

Also, I think this would be a good time to say thank you for considering Ms. Holly Fleming and Ms. Jennifer Rose moving into my school. I think the particular grade level that Holly was placed in was very, very needy. I am hoping that we will be able to pick up that group this year.

Lastly, our special activities—at the beginning of November we had our day time fall folly. This past Friday was our Parents’ Day, and we fed 761 parents and students. I thought that was a good turnout. Surprisingly, I knew most of those folks. I guess it is because I am from over there, too. Also, earlier in the year I had a church group come up from North Carolina. They brought with them a shoe box sized tote which was worth approximately $25 for each student in the school. I thought it was amazing that they would do that. The boxes had things like toothpaste, tooth brushes, socks and anything they thought the kids could use. They also had pencils and paper and stuff like that as well.

We started something new this year called Star Student at the school. Each week on Friday morning I identify those students who have done something without being told such as picking up trash or helping another student carry their books to their room. One thing that stood out in my mind is one girl got sick on a field trip and another little girl helped her get to the nurse’s station. Mr. Neece was trying to help one of the Special Ed. Kids get on the bus and another student helped him get on.

Also on Friday I received a call from Julia Manners whose husband owns a building at the Donna Kenny plant. She called and said that they were from New York, and her husband is down here frequently. She asked if they could set up a pen pal correspondence with our 1st or 2nd Graders. If we do that, could we also send them Christmas presents? I said most definitely, and we are going to get that started.

Of course, we had our Veterans Day Program on November 11th. We had four or five folks that came down there and got to shake all of my kids’ hands. Seeing those gentlemen there in uniform meant everything to those kids. Some of the questions they had were pretty good as well.

AEP came by the school on November 19th and read to the 1st Graders. And of course, we had our Open House on November 10th. I didn’t know how much time to take, but I wanted to let you know what was going on.

Ms. Lavada Muncy—First let me apologize, but Ms. Vanover is sick today. She wanted to be here, but we had scheduled our professional development video series for today. It is normally on Tuesdays, but we had a conflict with tomorrows date. She did it this afternoon and was busy with teachers all afternoon.

We participated in a food drive for the Dickenson County Food Bank. Our students collected over 1,000 nonperishable food items. One classroom had 140 items.

Our school participated in Operation Christmas Child, and the students themselves brought in donations of $.50 apiece. That was enough to buy enough materials to fill 16 boxes which is pretty good.

In this season of altruism the 2nd Graders will be going to sing for the residents at Heritage Hall on December 15th. If you are in the mood for a little concert, go there and listen to them sing.

Today our gifted students performed a Thanksgiving skit. They have been working on it for about a month, and it was pretty good. They did it three times today. We broke it into three different groupings so that all of our students could see it. It was the ―ABCs of Thanksgiv- ing‖. They had made cards to hold up with each letter and what it represented in relation to a particular concept in relation to the ABCs.

We are working on the professional development series with Ervinton Elementary School. We are working on active participation which relates back to our study that was done with Carol Compton last year. Thank you.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Whitner:

Mr. John Whitner—There are a few things that I want to stress. Ridgeview Middle School is all about opportunities and options. I focus on Encore where they go to P.E. and keyboard- ing as they usually do, and they have options such as Spanish, Agriculture, Technology and Art that they would not normally be able to get. We are seeing some really good results from that.

Several of the students are looking forward to Agriculture next semester. Mr. Compton is working it out so that we can offer another semester in Introduction to Technology. We are trying to give our students the opportunity to do that.

As far as instruction, Ms. Muncy mentioned Anita Archer. We have several good teachers. Some of them are very familiar with Anita Archer and the instruction technique. I am ob- serving those in the classroom and we are talking about the different opportunities and how we can include those in other classrooms. I can tell you that being in the classrooms and my excellent administration staff being there also, we had some very good instruction going on. We are always looking for ways to improve. We have been looking at our SMRI and CIP data that is coming in and had some very good meetings with my math and reading teachers here lately, and we are looking forward to the results here soon with the civics and sciences. We will have a better idea of where we are.

There are a lot of great things going on. Just to piggyback on some things that are going on, we also participated in the food drive with over 1,000 items. Donna Mooney has been doing this a little while longer and said that she was very pleased with the results. Also, there was $1,000 that the Homecoming Court helped raise several weeks ago which will go to the food bank also. So we are very proud of our students and appreciate Mrs. Stanley’s work with the Homecoming court and Donna Mooney’s work with the food bank.

―Pennies for Patients‖ has been going on. I talked to Ms. Hay this morning, and she said that $1,096 had been raised. Mr. Compton also allowed the high school to participate with that.

We have a coat drive going on with the Masonic Lodge helping with that. Ms. Farmer said that we had over 30 coats so far. Those are things that we are excited to do in order to help the community.

There are a couple of things that you might not know about. With our IE time Intervention Enrichment. When we finished the SMI-SRI data we had a lot of upset students and that is because their scores were not as high as they needed to be in order to get into the Enrichment classes. I think we had some teachers consoling some students. You might think that is not a good thing because they are sad. They wanted to get into the Enrichment courses. They wanted the opportunity to be able to do it. They were working hard, and we think a lot of them the next 9-weeks will be able to participate. I thought that was a testament to the fact that we are providing Enrichment courses—everything from Arts and Crafts, 3-D Printing, Robotics and a wide variety of things to be offered 30 minutes every day, and they want in. They worked hard to try to pass those tests, and we think they will do better on the next round of testing. In case you don’t know we starting in October with club meetings. This is another example of our whole package of opportunities. Twice a month on a Friday they get to participate in a club. It doesn’t matter if they are in the Intervention or Enrichment. Eve- rybody gets to go to a club. We finished our 4th club meeting last Friday, and one of the bene- fits is that attendance is a little better when there is club day because they want to be there. (Ha, Ha!) You can ask Mr. D. B. O’Quinn who has 89 people in his hunting club. Mr. Page is offering an aerobics activity this 9-weeks. There are a lot of things being offered to these students that hopefully will motivate them to come to school. I could keep going on like there are 48 people in Arts and Crafts, and I even have a chess club going. It is all about opportunity, and we like to see kids coming in excited. Teachers seem to be excited. They had a little bit of bounce in their step this morning, and I expect even better tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your support for Ridgeview Middle School. I am excited, and we have wonderful staff members and administrative staff who are making good things happen.

Superintendent Robinson—I would also like to recognize Mrs. Laura Stanley as part of the administrative staff at Ridgeview Middle School.

Mr. John Whitner—She needs a purple heart. She is working with 6th Graders, and I can tell you that is where the battle lines are drawn. There are a lot of challenges, but the 6th Grade is on the front line. (Ha, Ha!)

Superintendent Robinson—Are there any other comments? Mr. Compton—Ridgeview High School:

Mr. Rodney Compton—I will be as brief as I can. Ridgeview High School is a very busy place. I will start with this last weekend. It is about 3:30 pm, and we drive in over 150 students from Wise County, Russell County and Scott County for the Skills USA Fall Rally. I understand that we have been hosting that thing for around 40 years. (Ha, Ha!) The students come in, have some meetings, in-services with the State Police and many others who relate to Skills USA. They have dinner after that and a dance at the end.

Just before that was over we had some excitement in the gym with basketball. This is the first year that we have done this. We had all of the teams there, all of the cheerleaders there to let them kind of see what is coming up in the winter basketball season. We have high hopes for the winter basketball season. We had a good crowd for that, also. Ridgeview is so big that we had Skills USA in one part of the building and you had the basketball kids in the other part of the building. It wasn’t even crowded except for one little hallway.

On Saturday we had a girls’ basketball Jamboree. There were six teams that came in and played pretty much all Saturday.

Then last night we had our first theater production which was the first in a long time. It was one of Edger Allen Poe’s tales. The drama and theater department put that on for the public last night. We had 75-100 parents who came to that. It went really well. Today they performed for the high school students, and tomorrow they will perform for the middle school students. I’m not much of a theater person but Poe was a different character. (Ha, Ha!)

Last week we had a blood drive, and I have a letter from the lady who was doing the blood drive. I have a letter from her, and I get excited about this. She says:

―Congratulations on a record-breaking blood drive. Ridgeview High School sur- passed all expectations. We collected 89 units of blood with 102 participants. Some of them had a cold or something and couldn’t give blood, but 89 did.‖

We had a little advantage because some of the middle school teachers came over and helped us, also. We had two trucks there, and next time she plans to bring three trucks.

Also last week our Beta Club, National Honor Society and some other clubs participated in the Shoeboxes for Kids. I think someone else mentioned this about our local churches coming in to help. In our cafeteria about 6 p.m. they met and began to pack these shoeboxes for the children in different countries. They told me that in that evening’s work we packed 432 shoeboxes. I saw on a film about these little children getting these shoeboxes with the excitement on their faces. It was pretty impressive.

Some of you mentioned Veterans’ Day. Mr. Baker took charge of that, and we had some of the veterans come back. I saw one man who was 90 years old, and he spoke to our students. Mr. Graham was standing beside me, and I told him when he gets to be 90 years old you don’t have to worry about being politically correct. They say what is on their minds. He did a very good job, and I told him that there were very few WWII Veterans around anymore. He was able to tell some stories of what he went through. You kind of forget about all of those things until you start listening to these guys being 18 years old and going through what they did. I’m not sure they make them like that anymore. It was really a good program. Our students put it on, and our Glee Club sang three or four songs. The middle school students came and joined us, and it was a really good morning.

We did some pink outs this year for Breast Cancer Awareness. For volleyball and basketball we released some balloons. This day and age we need to emphasis to people that you need to

give back. During the football game the cheerleaders had their pink sashes in front and did a little dance and presentation on the field. The music kind of cut out on them the first night, but we got it going right by the second game.

Those are some things that we try to do for our community. Now, we also have had some competitions already. It has been a while that I can remember, but we sent some students out for the DECA competition. It was the first time that they have competed in a while, and they did a really good job. I had Mr. Robinson give me some of the places, and we took 2nd Place in Restaurant and Food Management, 3rd Place in Finance, 2nd Place in Quick Serve Restau- rant Management, 2nd Place in Human Resource Management, 2nd Place in Food Marketing, 3rd Place in Sports Entertainment Marketing, 3rd Place in Hospitality and Tourism and 2nd Place in Job Interview. We didn’t take a big group this time, but we did pretty well. I think someone said that Lee High had around 90 participants. But the students we took did very well. We didn’t get any 1st but we will take care of that. I think we will make great gains in that.

You probably already heard about this, but I have to tell you one more time because I am so proud of them. The Sigma Zeta Math and Science Competition at UVA Wise. This year, of course, we competed with the big schools. We took a group over there and took three 1st Places. We had a 1st Place in Math out of 60 students, and remember you take your top students over there. We also had a 1st Place in the Science division. I’m sure you already heard about this because it happened October.

About a month ago we had a Renaissance Fair. The Art Department, Drama Department, History Department, and English Department get into character and try to give the students an idea what it was like during the Renaissance Era. It helps the students with their SOLs and cross curriculums.

Also, I wanted to mention that our Theater Team placed 3rd in the conference this year. You have to remember that this is the first year that we have had theater. Some of the schools you compete with have lots of money, and they are established. I think you are going to see that in another year or two you will see us moving up in that. I think Central High School has won it the last couple of years, and they are in our district now. They are well established.

In January we are going to have a publication called the Wolf Pack Post newspaper. They wanted to start it this semester, but I told them to wait because we had so much going on. This will be newspaper quality material. We hopefully are going to put it in some of the businesses and sell it for a small fee. We will try to tell them what is going on at Ridgeview and promote the school. This will also give the kids some journalism experience. Miranda McCoy wrote for the Star a couple of years, and she is pretty well versed in how to go about this.

The Band Concert will be on December 10th. You are welcome to come to that.

Basketball season—we will have a benefit game tomorrow night and the regular season will start after the Thanksgiving break.

I think that is sufficient and tells you some of the things that are going on. (Applause!)

Superintendent Robinson—My thanks to all of the principals and assistants for being here. I wanted you to kind of get a flavor of the things that we sometimes hear during the principals’ meetings. Thank you very much for your time, and for coming here today. Thank you, Mr. Skeen.

Mr. Rocky Barton—I just wanted to say to all of our administrators that we appreciate all of the things that are going on.

Mr. Rodney Compton—I’m sorry, but I forgot one thing. (Ha, Ha!) Mr. Kennedy in the welding department is doing great things. I brought a couple of pieces which are the first projects from our welding department. This is a sheep shed made out of medal and what happens is this building gets filled up all you do is hook your tractor to it and pull it to another location. Then you don’t have to do all of the spreading out. This is kind of what it looks like.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What did you call that?

Mr. Rodney Compton—A sheep shed. You have to be really careful how you say that. (Ha, Ha!) One more thing. When you go into our lobby, you will see some benches that the carpentry class made. This vocational bunch can do about anything.

Superintendent Robinson—They are beautiful!

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Do you want to mention the first game and the three teams that are going to play?

Mr. Rodney Compton—Tuesday night we are going to have our first basketball game. Our girls and our boys are going to play Grundy the first game. For the finale Mountain Mission is going to play Huntington Prep, and they play some pretty impressive basketball. They were up here this afternoon practicing. If you want to see some good basketball, it would be a good one for you to see. The only thing that I am a little concerned about is last week Hun- tington Prep beat Mountain Mission by 30 points. So if Mountain Mission doesn’t satisfy you, I think Huntington Prep might do it.

Superintendent Robinson—What day is that, Mr. Compton?

Mr. Rodney Compton—It is the 1st, on a Tuesday night.

Superintendent Robinson—Are you finished, Mr. Compton?

Mr. Rodney Compton—Yes, I finally am.

Mr. Rocky Barton—We love to hear the Good News from Our Schools. I was at Excite Night, and it really was exciting. It is a Ridgeview tradition that I think everybody is going to really like. I have been so busy lately that I haven’t gotten to go. I hear a lot about the schools, and I wonder if there could be like a master schedule from the middle school and the high school where people could know about the things going on. I missed so much because I didn’t know about it going on. One thing that is kind of stuck in my mind, I guess this would be for the Ridgeview principals was a recent Letter to the Editor in the Dickenson Star before election had claims that our staff had to buy supplies such as printer supplies, dry erasers and markers. I just wondered if that was true and have they been asked to do that, and if they have been, can they be reimbursed? Either one or both of you can answer.

Mr. Rodney Compton—I can answer for my part. When we first went to Ridgeview High School, of course, we had a lot of new technology. You need to have markers and erasers for that. When we got started, I guess we hadn’t really thought about it. They came and asked me for these dry erase markers and erasers. I called Mrs. Robinson and told her that this was going to be pretty expensive. I asked her if there was anything that we could do. I think she called Mr. Mooney and during our conversation I told her that Mr. Whitner would be needing them also. She got Mr. Carpenter or someone to buy them for the school system. The other thing is we bought 25 printers that are color printers. The problem is color printers run out of ink. About three weeks ago, someone sat down and said my black ink in my color printer has run out. In a matter of two or three days three or four other printers had run out of ink. I asked how much to buy just the black ink, and Gavin said about $83. I got to thinking that we don’t have that kind of money. I think for the year we received for instruction about $4,000. Because we are doing the CPI and all of these things it just takes a lot of copies. Back to the printer. That is just the black. If the color runs out, I don’t know how much that would cost, because I haven’t priced that yet. So I said send your copies to the copy machine, because we don’t have enough money to replace those ink cartridges in the color printers. What happens right now is, if they run out of ink, I haven’t replaced them.

Ms. Phyllis Mullins—I would like to elaborate on that. I particularly asked about those col- or printers, and I was told that you just can’t replace the black. You have to replace all of it, and it is about $300-$400 per printer. I guess mine will set there until it dry rots because there is no way that I can do that.

Mr. John Whitner—In my case we came in with a limited budget. So when we met with our faculty, I asked them to be very frugal. We were originally quoted with about $350 price for the colored printers. We have these nice printers, and I was under the understanding that if you run out of one, you have to replace all of them. I don’t recall telling anybody they had to pay for it, but what I did share with many faculty members was that we were going to get some Columbus Phipps money. If you do have to take anything out of your pockets, you keep those receipts and we will see what we can do. I did stress that I don’t see how we could afford $350 per printer for a cartridge. I did encourage using the copy machines. Since then, fortunately, one of my proactive teachers found a place where you can get the ink cartridges for less than $100 which has been exciting. Apparently, that is possible, and we use some of the Columbus Phipps money for some of those things. I had the teachers put in requests for whatever supplies they needed. We have used a couple of those, and we have

been able to replace the ink in one printer on the 2nd Floor copying room. I am getting old, and the last six months have been really bad on my memory so I don’t remember telling anybody to go out and buy anything. But that could be understood because we didn’t have the money to buy those things. My biggest stress is we have a little money and will try to supply what we can. We did put counters on the copy machine, but any time they need copies we get them. I just continue to stress that we have to be very conscious about what funds we have and how we use them. I want to commend again Mrs. Stanley and Ms. Farmer for the homecoming drive where we were able to contribute $1,000 toward the food bank. The rest of the money was to go toward supplies. We appreciate the money that you all have donated to us. We had the Energy Expo and will have a beauty pageant coming up in the near future now that the lights in the theater are working. But you know it is hard times, and we are trying to be very frugal and careful. The faculty has been very good to work with, and they have put in their requests once we knew how much the Columbus Phipps money came through. Does that answer your question? One other thing the Choir will be performing the same night the band will be performing on December 10th. So you get double the bang for your buck.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—While we are talking about the printer supplies, how about the science labs. I have heard that there are no supplies for the science lab. Is that accurate?

Mr. Rodney Compton—We have a budget for the science labs. They may have sent in a request and haven’t gotten them yet.

Superintendent Robinson—I think what you might be thinking about is the science labs in the middle school. There is a budget for that, and we are trying to work through that, but also the science teachers in the middle school have requested to go and talk to Mr. Owens about borrowing science supplies. I understand that it had been scheduled.

Mr. Rodney Compton—We have given some things that we aren’t using.

Superintendent Robinson—Just being so close together they are working through that. This is the first year that there have been science labs in any of our middle schools, and that is just one of those things that we are working through.

Mr. John Whitner—Also, some of them didn’t take advantage of the Columbus Phipps money.

Chairman, John Skeen—Hearing from these principals and assistant principals, I think it is the best presentation that I have heard since I have been on this board. It did me good to hear the good news coming from each of our schools, and I appreciate the hard work of the principals and assistant principals. Again, it just gives me a good feeling.

Superintendent Robinson—We thought this would be a good way to celebrate Thanksgiv- ing because we do have a lot to be thankful for. Just the fact that our administrators are here and they want to share. By the way we get quite lengthy at principals meetings, too.

One thing that I do want to mention is if we have teachers who have had to purchase supplies themselves, we want to look at some kind of reimbursement. I know Mr. Compton that Mrs. Sykes and I have talked, and she teaches Creative Writing, and we were going to purchase her black ink from the Gifted and Talented funds. That was what I was aware of, and I think that you and I spoke about that. Any other questions or comments?

Mr. Donald Raines—Is there any money in the technology department to purchase ink for the printers and so forth?

Superintendent Robinson—Help me if I am incorrect, but the money in the technology department now is mostly going to testing. Ridgeview has purchased five laptops, one for each floor. That may have to come from another budget.

Mr. Donald Raines—That probably needs to be addressed in the new budget?

Superintendent Robinson—Schools receive instructional funds in December for the rest of the year. That will be something that they can certainly use for that. Thank you Mr. Skeen for your comments.

PUBLIC COMMENTS:

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you. We are ready for Public Comments. Mr. Tiller:

Mr. Shawn Tiller—Once again, thank you all for allowing us to speak. We have a little good news from us since we are on that theme. We had another successful meeting last month, which makes three in a row after our August organizational meeting. We had a special election for the one officer position, president elect. That will be the individual who will be succeeding me in July when I am on my way out. The president-elect will be Allison Mullins. We have multiple reps from all schools who have been attending. One thing that we are going to and building on from the letter last time would be that we have a DEA Communication contact to improve communications with the School Board Members. What that will do is they will get in touch with you to discuss the letter first if they haven’t already. One of our year-long goals is to improve communication with the DEA and the School Board. Right now with the board coming up, but if you guys would like to talk with me, I will be your communication partner for the next couple of months. You probably won’t hear from anyone, but if you want to talk, I will be available. That is all I have for the night. Thank you.

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you.

CONSENT AGENDA:

Chairman, John Skeen—Thank you. That moves us to our Consent Agenda.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Chairman, John Skeen—The minutes to be approved are from our Regular Meeting on Oc- tober 28th and a special called meeting on November 17th.

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

APPROVAL OF BILLS:

Chairman, John Skeen—Next we have approval of Monthly Bills. You can look over those, and see if there is any discussion or questions.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Are there any additions, Mrs. McCowan?

Superintendent Robinson—There is one we would like to add. We just received this from Advanced Auto Parts: a CTE Local Construction Replacement of Lifts for approval. This will come from local CTE funds. The bill is for $3,670. We ask the Board’s approval as you approve the other bills.

Chairman, John Skeen—What does that mean, Replacement of Lifts?

Mrs. Denechia Edwards—They initially sent us the wrong lifts from construction funds, and we had to get them replaced. In order to get the lift that we needed with the extension to service large vehicles, we had to add an additional fee that was not a part of the contract. So we had to pay that out of our CTE funds in order to do that.

Mr. Donald Raines—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 – November 23, 2015 – Bills Check Nos. 874304 through 874415 ------$ 243,968.42

School Operating Fund – November 24, 2015 – Payroll Check Nos. 384469 through 384736 ------$1,831,299.32

SCHOOL ACTIVITY FUND:

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

APPROVAL OF FIELD TRIPS:

Chairman, John Skeen—There are several Field Trips to approve. I believe three of them.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Are there any out of town trips that we haven’t approved so far?

Superintendent Robinson—No.

Chairman, John Skeen—The trips outlined in red. Are those trips that we have already approved? What about the trip requested by Shelly Molinary? Was it approved?

Superintendent Robinson—Yes, it was a short trip, and I just sent an email to the Board asking if there were any concerns to let me know. We did not hear anything, so yes, Sir, the trip was approved.

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

Approved:  Ridgeview High School November 5th – Flanagan WPT – Haysi, VA – 9th – 11th Grade November 7th – Lebanon High School – Lebanon, VA – 10th – 12th Grade November 12 – MECC – Big Stone Gap, VA – 9th – 12th Grade Norton Theater – Norton, VA – 9th – 12th Grade November 13th – Giles High School – 8th – 12th Grade November 18th – 24th – Clinchco Town Hall – 11th Grade November 19th – DCER – Clintwood, VA – 9th – PG Grade November 20th – DCER – Clintwood, VA – 9th – PG Grade UVA @ Wise – Wise, VA – 10th – 12th Grade

 Ridgeview Middle School November 20th – DCER – Clintwood, VA – 6th – 8th Grade November 20th & 21st – Morehead State University – Morehead, KY – 8th Grade

 Ervinton Elementary School November 11th – DCER – Clintwood, VA – 3rd – 4th Grade

 Sandlick Elementary School October 13th – Grundy Community Center – Grundy, VA – 3rd Grade November 20th – DCER – Clintwood, VA - K – 5th Grade

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS FOR THE BOARD:

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

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Setser is not with us this evening, and he has asked us to do the student attendance and enrollment for October. The October student enrollment is 2,201 with a total division student attendance percentage of 93.25%. We would like to recognize Clintwood Elementary School with the highest student attendance of 94.53%. Ms. Muncy if you would stand, I know you have a lot to do with this, you and your staff. Congratulations to Clintwood Elementary School. I am sure that Mr. Setser will be delivering the banner. (Applause!) The total number of students in Pre-School division wide is 116 students.

Mr. Donald Raines—While we have the principals here, what initiative do you have to improve upon attendance?

Superintendent Robinson—Ms. Muncy would you like to comment on that?

Ms. Lavada Muncy—Each school does different things. At our school we award students for six-week attendance because we are on six-week report cards. We reward students for perfect attendance for six-weeks. We also do individual attendance awards. We do things like popcorn parties and ice cream parties. In December there will be a mid-year party for all of the students up to this point who have perfect attendance, and they will get to eat with Mrs. Vanover—Lunch with the Principal. At the end of the year we usually have a larger incentive such as a bicycle.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Neece, would you like to comment?

Mr. Jesse Neece—Mostly it is the same type of thing. Last year at Sandlick we had 15 students with perfect attendance, and we rewarded them with several different things such as free passes and money. This year Mr. Deel and I talked about buying several different things for them. We have had lunch with the principal, movie night and very similar things.

Superintendent Robinson—Ms. Willis, would you like to comment?

Ms. Sherry Willis—We did much the same thing with the parties. On Awards Day they are acknowledged with medallions. We give larger prizes and also announce their name over the intercom and things like that.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Whitner and Mrs. Stanley?

Mr. John Whitner—I think Mrs. Stanley did most of this.

Mrs. Laura Stanley—For the first part of the year we have had a very difficult time with attendance simply because of bus schedules and different things. I think the teachers are now working on field trips. But we have not really been able to do anything or recognize them because we want to make sure they are correct.

Mr. John Whitner—Everything is so new, too, as you can imagine. I would like to point out that we just barely got beaten by Clintwood Elementary School. (Ha, Ha!)

Superintendent Robinson—I saw that, Sir. So whatever you are doing seems to be working because you have won it once or twice!

Mr. John Whitner—We do have a 6th Grade award trip coming up pretty soon. Even with the attendance being better on Club Day, every day is a new day at Ridgeview.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Compton, is there anything that you would like to add?

Mr. Rodney Compton—We have an exemption policy and at the end of the year we give them certificates of perfect attendance. In the past we have asked businesses to donate money and have a drawing for the cash or gift or whatever. Last year we had some pizza parties. In high school in all honesty, when the student turns 18 years old, it kills our attendance. They feel like they are on their own.

Mr. Donald Raines—My whole point in asking the question was that if you have 8-10% of your students out at a given time, then learning activities are going to suffer. I think that if you can think of activities that will promote better attendance it would be great. Some of the attendance is pretty good, but some are lacking. I think if we can promote better attendance, the learning activities will improve.

Chairman, John Skeen—This is an on-going thing.

Superintendent Robinson—It is, and I think each school has an attendance committee that works on attendance. It just depends on the year, and Mr. Setser could respond to that because he is always very concerned with attendance.

Ms. Sherry Willis—Even with the activities that we have in such a small school as Ervinton Elementary School, if one or two children are absent, the attendance percentage drops. To- day I think we had 25 out, and most of them were sick.

Mr. Donald Raines—The reasons may be legitimate, and I am not picking on anybody. I’m just saying that the better we can do, the better our learning activities are going to be. I appreciate everything that you folks are trying to do to promote attendance. Of course, the School Board is trying to promote it, too, with the banners, etc.

Ms. Sherry Willis—Kindergarten students tend to miss a lot. We are doing a lot with mes- sages and so on to let the children know what is going on. They tend to attend better if certain things are going on at school.

Superintendent Robinson—Thank you.

Mrs. Laura Stanley—May I say something. One thing that we looked at regarding attendance was the criteria for Perfect Excellent and Outstanding attendance because some of the time you have those little groups that are missed. You have kids who are there every single day and check out for orthodontist appointments. A lot of parents try to schedule those first thing in the morning or at the end of the day so that their child can be there. But the checkouts total up to one absence even if the child has been there every single day. They may have left with only 30 minutes left of school, but those kids are cut out of the awards. I think that is one thing that you may want to consider. We have had some issues with that, and I think all of the schools have.

Superintendent Robinson—Am I correct, Mrs. Stanley, that so many checkouts constitute an absence?

Mrs. Laura Stanley—Yes; eight, with any combination of checkouts and tardies. A lot of parents are conscious of this and try to make sure that their child is there for the majority of the day, and it is a shame that they are penalized for a 30-minute checkout for an orthodontist appointment.

Superintendent Robinson—Thank you. Item No. 2 on Informational Items for the Board is the 2016 School Board Orientation Program which is planned for Thursday, January 7th from 5-7 p.m. for all Board Members including newly elected School Board members, but Mr. Raines and Mr. Skeen you are welcome to come back. During this orientation the following topics will be discussed:

1. Discussion of Dickenson County Policy 2. Discussion of Roles and Responsibilities of the Board Members 3. Discussion of the Budget: Current and Proposed Budget Development 4. Getting to know the Central Office Directors and Administrators 5. Discussion of Hiring Practices, Freedom of Information Act and Legal Issues

So please put this on your calendar.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Don’t we have to organize or advertise that or how does it work?

Mr. Scott Mullins—It will be after the New Year and we only have to advertise it if we have more than two. You can do it without having an organizational meeting. It is more a discussion of how the School Board works rather than doing School Board business. It is more to understand the basics of what is going to be happening during the next two or three months. I don’t know if we had any new Board Members attend the VSBA Conference. It is just a rudimentary understanding of what the school Board budget looks like, what the Freedom of Information Act allows you to do and the basics.

Superintendent Robinson—It is to get acquainted with our directors and the jobs they do and all of the different things that they are involved with. That will be on January 7th from 5- 7 p.m. Any other questions or comments?

The only other update I have, and I would like to request a short recess after this. Just an update on the odor at Ridgeview High School. We had an issue the week before, and they thought it had been repaired. Then we had the same issue on Monday. They did some reme- diation there, and they finally did repair and install vent guards. Mr. Compton, am I correct that there has been no odor from that for a week today?

Mr. Rodney Compton—Yes, you are correct.

Superintendent Robinson—We feel that that problem has been resolved, and we just want to thank all of our staff and everyone who was vital in dealing with that issue. Our construction people and everyone was on stand-by trying to find possible solutions. Students were taken to other areas in the building. Mr. Compton stated that we have other areas that we can move children to so we are very thankful for that. The problem has now been resolved, and

every day we call them or they call us to make sure that we do not have that smell again. We can check that one off and wait for the next one to appear. Any questions or comments about that one?

Mr. Chair, I would just like to ask for a short recess.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we take a 10 minutes recess. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

NEW BUSINESS:

Chairman, John Skeen—We are ready for New Business. Mrs. Robinson:

USING SCHOOLS AS EMERGENCY SHELTERS:

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Chair and Board Members our first item is Using Schools as Emergency Shelters, and Mrs. Mullins requested this item be added to the Agenda. Mrs. Mullins:

Mrs. Susan Mullins—This is just an informational item because I am not sure this Board is aware that Dickenson County has an Emergency Services Coordinator, and his name is Rich- ard Thacker. In the event the county could be in an emergency crisis such as lack of electricity, really cold weather and heaters not working, etc. He has asked what a crisis is. When he decides there is a crisis and requires an emergency shelter the Department of Social Services as in every county in the State is required to open a shelter. Historically, we have used the Baptist Church, but at one point we didn’t. I don’t know if the pastor wouldn’t sign the agreement or for whatever reason. So then we started using Clintwood Elementary School which worked out better because there are actually shower facilities there. With Ridgeview opening, it is my understanding that it was set up to be a shelter type facility. It would have natural gas and would continue to work no matter what. I don’t know the first thing about operating gas appliances, so I am going to need some help from the school division such as who is going to let me in, who I am going to wake up in the middle of the night because this doesn’t always happen at 2 p.m. It happens in the worst weather possible, and you have to get out in the snow and ice. I don’t know where to turn on the lights. It is a new facility, and I am going to need someone to hold my hand through all of that at least one time.

The other issue is being close to town. The reason we always used Clintwood Elementary School is because it was on the same electrical line that the hospital is. It is my understanding that if the electricity goes off it is the top priority for power to the hospital to stay on. So we picked Clintwood Elementary School because logically it would be one of the first places to get power back. The thing about being close to town, we would have access to food. At Ridgeview whether it would be possible or not possible to have the staff come in and cook the food. Social Services can reimburse for the cost of food, but I don’t know about the la- bor. This form is very complicated. It is way above my head. So if we are going to use Ridgeview, I am going to need some help filling out the form.

I am not sure that this Board is aware that we were using schools for this shelter. If you want to choose whether you want us to continue to use Clintwood Elementary School or Ridgeview, you can. You or the Superintendent can decide, but I think that Ridgeview was kind of established for this event so it makes the most sense for it to be Ridgeview.

Superintendent Robinson—It was designed for that.

Mr. Scott Mullins—It has the water tower, the emergency generator so that the gas will continue to flow. One thing to work into your thinking, a few weeks ago after our last Board meeting, I met with the Emergency Services Provider. We had a very productive meeting. One of those discussions was that we would create what would be equivalent to an emergency facility cheat sheet. We sort of worked that into Mr. Setser’s emergency planning proce- dures. To the extent that the Board is going to want to bring Ridgeview into the emergency shelter, I think one of the things that we could do is to get him to put this all in one package. So that if we had an emergency, who would declare that? Then there would be contact people with their cell phone numbers and direct lines of communication that we could put together what would be equivalent to a cheat sheet.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—It needs to be a little more organized because what has happened in the past they would call me, I would go down to Clintwood Elementary School and wake Burl up in the middle of the night, he goes and lets me in, we take some cots and blankets and pillows, but the times that we have had to set up shelter, we went over to Food City and bought some food and the church cooked a meal. Those are the things that we are going to be lacking if we go to Ridgeview or maybe not if there is some kind of coordinated effort.

Superintendent Robinson—I wonder if the Department of Social Services, Mr. Thacker and our staff could meet and discuss those issues.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Just speaking for me, yes, we would!

Mr. Donald Raines—We are talking about other schools, too, and transportation.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Mr. Mooney provides transportation. He takes a bus that has chains on it from Haysi High School to whatever facility. The Sheriff’s office has six Humvees or type of vehicles somewhere that will go in the snow or whatever condition. It just needs to be a county-wide effort which should probably be done by Mr. Thacker.

Superintendent Robinson—The thing that I thought about is if we are looking at 2009 everything was shut down. At that point we may have to bring people in and cook, which we did. If it is an overnight thing, they can come here to Food City and take it to Ridgeview.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Last year I had to set up two shelters during the coldest of times. I didn’t even bother the school division. I paid for rooms at Sleep Inn who gave us rooms for $29.95 which is cheaper than me trying to manage a shelter if there is 1-4 families. But if it is going to be 5-10 days we can’t afford it.

Superintendent Robinson—Would you contact Mr. Thacker and see when he would like to meet, and I will get our staff here such as Mr. Mooney, Mr. Doug Rose and Mrs. Compton.

Mr. Scott Mullins—Is the American Red Cross a player, also?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—They are players, but they don’t care as long as I complete this form and give it to them as to how we make it work. Probably Scott and the engineers need to be involved.

Mr. Scott Mullins—If the emergency is local you could probably continue to use the elementary school, but if it is county wide you could use Ridgeview which would have more to offer. My point is, do you have to pick one?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I could pick more, but it would be easier for me. If I call my staff and tell them there is an emergency, they would know where to go and there would be no confu- sion.

Mr. Scott Mullins—Ridgeview was intended to be that so they have the generators, gas and water.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—My thoughts are if I can handle it without going into a school, I will. We don’t have the money for that. It comes out of local money.

Superintendent Robinson—The survey wants us to identify point of contact to authorize use of facilities.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—That is only one issue, and Burl has to meet me and let me into the facility.

Superintendent Robinson—Let’s have a meeting with Mr. Thacker. I am going to ask for assistance in doing a lot of these things so it will be accurate.

Mr. Scott Mullins—We will see if we can get that. Another thing is a plan in the not too distant future to get us that custodian there to get you help with opening up the school and how to turn things on and off.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Even the Human Resource Officer would be a person who could be used because they would probably be called out in an emergency situation anyway.

Superintendent Robinson—I’ll ask Mrs. Compton. There is a kitchen prep so she can help us complete that.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I want you to understand that I want no part of that. I want someone who knows what they are doing so that nothing is destroyed because I have no knowledge of gas appliances.

Superintendent Robinson—So if you will contact Mr. Thacker, we will go from there. We will complete what we can here of this form and have it ready for the meeting. How about that?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—That will be fine. We will probably need the Board of Supervisors involved, too, so they will know where these Humvees are, how to access those and how much money to set aside in case there is an emergency.

Mr. Scott Mullins—And we need to revisit what we were building on a couple of weeks ago about emergency issues. Whatever the emergency, we need to know that these are our contact people.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—For one example, we ran out of blankets and the nursing home provided us with some blankets. Then they laundered all of the stuff that we used and gave it back to us. There are people willing to help. We just need to put the parts of the puzzle together.

Mr. Scott Mullins—In all seriousness, now is the time to do that.

Superintendent Robinson—Thank you, Mrs. Mullins.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Does that need a vote?

Mr. Rocky Barton—I make the motion that Ridgeview High/Middle School be designated as our emergency shelter and for the Division Superintendent to work with all the county representatives to do whatever is necessary to implement that. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

PRESENTATION OF THE 2014-2015 SOL TESTS FOR DICKENSON COUNTY:

Superintendent Robinson—The presentation is going to be behind you. This is a discussion/informational agenda item for the School Board. The presentation is going to include:

 Where are we now? Where do we need to be? What is the plan to get there?  Student achievement of our students as compared to students in Region VII, and compared to state passing averages  Areas of Celebration  Areas of Improvements  Reflections  Action Plan

I think this is what has perhaps started a lot of discussion.

See Attachment: 2014-2015 SOL Tests Results

APPROVAL OF DISPOSAL SURPLUS ITEMS AT HHS, CHS AND LFES:

Superintendent Robinson—Our last item, on the Agenda is the Approval of Disposal Sur- plus Items at Haysi High School, Clintwood High School and Longs Fork Elementary School. Mr. Mullins:

Mr. Scott Mullins—Basically, this is about an issue raised two or three meetings ago. How are we going to winterize our school buildings that we are no longer using? We talked with David Moore, the County Administrator, and had discussions with the Board of Supervisors. We are working with them, and I think the Resolution that I presented for your vote had two things—one is substantive about what you want to do and the other is legal which is what I need to have in order to do it. Just so you understand the mechanism, once you declare something to be surplus property that you are not using or have no future use for, you declare it to be surplus. Then we do a deed to the Board of Supervisors. Unlike us, the Board of Su- pervisors can do things like make charitable donations, put it on the market and they have a lot more flexibility. We are basically a branch of government that is charged with educating children, and their responsibilities are much broader.

So what you have in front of you is a Resolution that basically says that we are going to declare the high school, meaning the main building and the annex, as surplus. But we are going to retain the athletic field and the properties that are commonly known as the agriculture building and the building housing the Historical Society. I am sure that all of you basically know the properties that we are talking about. These are basically areas that we are agreeing to hang on to for now. That is always subject to debate, discussion or change. That is the Clintwood properties. The Longs Fork Elementary School properties are in their entirety. The Haysi properties are just the school property that is above the road. The property be- tween the road and the river is part of the arrangement with the Corps of Engineers that we have to remediate. That Resolution is written on paper not stone. We have the capacity to change it. We can do this now and more later or we can do it all tonight. I thought it would be a starting point for us to talk about where we are and what we want to do.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Okay. Why do we want to keep the Agriculture Building and the Baseball Field?

Superintendent Robinson—The only reason that I looked at recommending to the Board that we keep the Field House and the Stadium is when you look at parceling thinks off like that is the Field House is full of awards and things like that that will still have to be placed somewhere. The thought was to keep it now, especially through the winter months. The Lit- tle League is using those. It was just a recommendation to the Board for your consideration. I would certainly ask that you try to keep the Field House and the Agriculture Building which contains some tools and things stored there. The House is being rented next to the Agricul- ture Building and we do get something from that. Of course, the Historical Society and then the technology. All of that area contains things that we have not had time to work through.

Mr. Donald Raines—Is there an urgency that you do that right now?

Superintendent Robinson—The only thing that I think is an urgency to do at least for the buildings, Mr. Raines, is so that we cannot be responsible as a school division to heat and for the utilities for those buildings. I think that is an urgency that we see on our budget. Trying to keep those buildings warm, utilities on them, trying to keep the water from freezing; and all of those kinds of things; it would just be a drain on our budget, and we are trying to min- imize that.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—Would that include the concession stand next to the tennis courts? It is a large concession stand that belongs to the division. It has bathrooms and everything. If we are not going to use it, we don’t want it to freeze up and the pipes break.

Superintendent Robinson—We talked about meeting with the county to go through especially Clintwood High School and see about winterizing. We have already done some winterizing because the temperatures this weekend were so cold. So we have done partial winterizing there. That is the biggest drain there such as the bathrooms in the field house and all of that.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I thought the town was interested in the Field House and the ball fields. We can’t give it to them, but could the county give it to them?

Mr. Scott Mullins—I will just say, you can basically do anything that you want to do with the surplus, but being a surplus can be a two-step process. You could do this tonight, and if you directed her to go forward and talk to the county or town or whatever you want to do. We could come back in the December meeting with another surplus Resolution. I guess I am saying that you don’t have to skin the entire cat tonight. The things that we are not comfort- able doing we can certainly explore it and bring it back.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I think the one thing the town wanted to do was to make it a shrine with the trophies, plaques and all of that. So it makes more sense to me to let them take it.

Superintendent Robinson—Right now, it will be given to the county before it is given to the town. Just in discussions with the county administrator and so on, they are assuming all of this property, too. So it is kind of what are they going to do? How are they going to heat it? We were just trying to find a balance as Mr. Mullins said. We will certainly take the direction of the board. There has just been a balance of what we have tried to do with the properties and how to proceed forward.

Mr. Rocky Barton—What does this do with demolition? I am talking about trying to include it in our Corps of Engineers demolition budget of the main high school building at Haysi and the main building at Clintwood and Ervinton now, too?

Mrs. Susan Mullins—What about Ervinton High School?

Mr. Scott Mullins—Ervinton High School is part of the deal with the Corps of Engineers. It has to be demolished. There was a hope that we would have enough money in the budget to look at the demolition of Ervinton which we know we have to do, and the demolition of

Clinchco which we know we have to do. Then try to incorporate some economies of scale to get a large entity to come in and say if you are going to do Ervinton, what would you charge us to do both Ervinton and Clinchco? It might by at Haysi and it might be at Clintwood, but those other things if they aren’t in the Corps of Engineers’ contract, it is beyond our decision- making process on the demolition issue.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I thought we had some kind of deal worked out with a coal company for Ervinton. Where does that stand?

Mr. Scott Mullins—We had a deal with the coal company that is now in bankruptcy. Where it stands is not clear until the company comes out on the other side of bankruptcy. We are optimistic that the coal reserves are as such that they will continue to follow through. That would save us a tremendous amount of money.

Mr. Rocky Barton—Is there a time limit for the Corps of Engineers?

Mr. Scott Mullins—No.

Mr. Rocky Barton—That has been a common topic of discussion at Haysi—that Haysi High School would not be left there. I can see the day the lights go off that the windows will start going out and all kinds of things going on.

Mr. Donald Raines—That is why I asked about the urgency of doing this tonight. I don’t know whether we would be in a better position by doing this in December or not. I realize the amount of money that we are paying for a few laser printer cartridges.

Mr. Rocky Barton—This is the first time that we have talked about actually turning them over.

Mr. Scott Mullins—Let’s put it like this. If we had the money laying around, we being the school division, we would go up there and tear it down. We could do that because it is our property. But we don’t have that money and the Corps is not going to pay that money. That is probably the wild estimate that would be a $500,000-$600,000 demolition based on what Ervinton would be. You put it to the Board of Supervisors and then it is their decision. If they feel that there is some proper private use that comes in, fine. The thing, Rocky, that I want to say to make sure that we are communicating on this is it has always been our goal to use Ervinton and Clinchco as the economies of scale that are built into getting a contractor to come in and do more than one project. And hopefully, with enough money in the budget to where we can afford to do more than tear down Ervinton and Clinchco. If we can get a coal company to tear down Ervinton, we are still going to get paid. If we get that money, then we can come in and work with the county, and decide what facilities what need to be torn down.

Mr. Rocky Barton—So this Resolution wouldn’t finalize it?

Mr. Scott Mullins—No. There is still a lot to be done. To say it simply, what we are trying to do is shift the obligation for heating and cooling and maintenance and security from us to

them for these facilities that we know we can’t go back to. Beyond that we can’t really affect it anyway. If Food City or whomever came to Haysi and said they wanted to build a facility there, we couldn’t do it anyway because that is not in our job description to market real es- tate. We have to give it to the county, and they could.

Mr. Rocky Barton—Also in that Corps of Engineers’ budget, does that also include Sand- lick Elementary School?

Mr. Scott Mullins—Yes. Sandlick has its own budget as far as demolition is concerned, but obviously Sandlick cannot be impacted until you have a new school. It is a timing thing with Sandlick.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—I remember when Mayor Baker came and talked to us and said that he thought the town of Clintwood had more money to do something with this property than the county did. I talked to Mayor Baker, and he said he would like to have the Field House to make that a real nice community place. He talked about all of the things he could do with all of the fields up there. One of the most valuable pieces of property up there is up on the hill that connects to Dr. Ratliff’s place up there. That is a good piece of property.

Mr. Scott Mullins—Each of you know the relationship that we are blessed to have with the Board of Supervisors. If they came to us and said your budget time is coming up, and by the way, we need you to deed this property to us right now so that we can deed it to the town of Clintwood. We would be obligated to do that. I think what Mrs. Robinson said is that we are trying to achieve a balance of giving them what we know we have to get rid of, and letting these discussions go on with the Mayor and Board of Supervisors. With your community, Rocky, and the Board of Supervisors there must decide what you want to do. With your community it is all about money. There was never any money in the Corps of Engineers budget to tear down Haysi High School. It was to tear down those buildings that were in the flood plain. That has to be down from some other funds. As I said before, if we can work in economies of scale and get paid more for the demolition of Ervinton and Clinchco, the county can then come in and say well we have this money in and it didn’t take all of it, we would like to demolish some other facilities. They have the power to do that. I am not saying that the Corps money can be used for that. What I am saying is a long time ago we talked about lump sum contracts and all of your eyes glazed over. The big deal about a lump sum contract is that if we get Ervinton and Clinchco torn down by a coal company or someone else, we still get the lump sum. Once that lump sum is in the county coffer then the county can decide if it wants to demolish other facilities.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Barton, I think Longs Fork Elementary School is kind of in the same situation. Once it is turned over to the county and they don’t use it, it will just sit there or not be used. I think the county is going through those discussions about that.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Do you want us to adopt this Resolution?

Mr. Scott Mullins—I want to make sure that you understand it. It is whatever you want to do after the explanation.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—The one piece of property that they have listed here that they have any kind of option on is the field House and the football field. I would like to give it to them so they can at least move that piece of property.

Mr. Scott Mullins—I hear what you are saying. The only thing that I can say in response is if they wanted it, it would be on the list tonight. If somebody from the county Board of Su- pervisors had the majority of votes that they were ready for that, it would be on there. That is the reality of it.

Superintendent Robinson—We may get that nod at the December meeting.

Mr. Scott Mullins—If you want us to tell them that this is what you are focused on dealing with, we can go back and do that. Or you guys can amend it to do that tonight. I am just here to explain what your options are. To me it is completely a Board decision. All I can say is if the county administrator wanted that property on the Resolution, it would be on there tonight. If you want to put that property on that Resolution tonight, it is a Board decision.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Why does he not want it yet?

Mr. Scott Mullins—I think there are other discussions that they need to have. I don’t know why. From my perspective, the only thing that I didn’t want is for us to be liable for those major buildings. If you guys want to have more discussion about the green areas and come back next month with something, I can do that.

Mr. Shanghai Nickles—I think that is what is floating around up here a little bit.

Mr. Scott Mullins—I just don’t want to go into December with a building that we are sup- posed to keep up.

Mr. Rocky Barton—What is wrong with just turning all of the water off to those buildings?

Mr. Scott Mullins—I am not sure, Rocky, if turning off all of the water winterizes it.

Superintendent Robinson—I think that is the main concern. Mr. Mooney and I talked about it several times. They are not even certain that they can winterize the building. We don’t want to turn over a building that the pumps have burst and leave a mess. If the county is looking to do something with those buildings, let them assume that responsibility.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—Can we say that we will do this tonight and come back in December with something to do about the green property as you call it?

Mr. Scott Mullins—You can certainly give us direction. It will be up to you guys if you want to give property to somebody who doesn’t want it. They are telling us that they are not ready to take that property yet. I am serious. We can amend this resolution and give them all of the Clintwood facility tonight. If that is what you guys want to do, it is your prerogative.

So we do this tonight, and then Mrs. Robinson and I will talk with the county officials and come back with some more focused information about the Clintwood green property. Those are all questions that the county is dealing with. These facilities are all very important to the Clintwood community. Business development is important to the Clintwood community. The next Board that comes onto the Board of Supervisors is going to have to make some hard decisions about what they want. That is probably why we are only doing the properties that we are doing.

Mr. Donald Raines—I make a motion that we approve the Resolution as presented by Mr. Mullins. Mrs. Susan Mullins seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Superintendent Robinson—Mr. Skeen, that ends our Open Session, Sir.

BOARD COMMENT:

Chairman, John Skeen—Okay. Does anyone have a comment?

Mr. Donald Raines—I do. I was very pleased with the presentation. It was very appropri- ate. I especially enjoyed the comments about the school activities for the Veterans, Parents Day, Food Bank donations, United Way comments, community involvement in general, Op- eration Christmas Child, the plays, the music, the things that are being done now at our schools—not only Ridgeview, but all of our schools. I also enjoyed the middle school options of technology and career activities and other educational activities. I thought they were excellent. I know the coat drives are very important because of the economy in Dickenson County right now. I think the enrichment courses that you have heard me comment about are so important. The Skills Conference that went on with Career and Technology Education, the involvement with the churches in the community to work on the shoeboxes, the DECCA involvement and the math competitions meant a lot to me. I am very pleased with the comments. I am also pleased with the presentation about our SOLs. Thank you.

Mr. Rocky Barton—Everything that we see from Ridgeview is positive. It just puts me beside myself to try to figure out the Letters to the Editor that call the insides of our school dark and gloomy. I just don’t understand people in that position that can make statements like that. I am sure there are kids that like their old school better, and it is their right to feel that way about it. But most of the students that you ask love the school and their parents love the school. I just can’t get over some of this negative stuff. Maybe time will change them. I hope so.

CLOSED SESSION:

Chairman, John Skeen—PURSUANT TO Section 2.2-3712, Paragraph A of the Code of Virginia, I make a motion to go into a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing: 1.) Em- ployment issues regarding retirement PURSUANT to VA Code 2.3711A (2) and 2.) employment issues relating to salary, resignation, FMLA request, request to receive/give additional sick days, consideration of candidates for Part Time aides and substitutes PURSUANT to VA Code 2.2-3711A (1) and to consult with legal counsel on these issues PURSUANT to

Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 (A) (7). 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 the motion. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye. Chairman John Skeen stated; we have been in closed session pursuant to Section 2.2-3712(a), Section (1) to discuss potential contracts and proprietary information. Pursuant to Section 2.2- 3712(d) of the Code of Virginia, he moved to certify that during the closed meeting just con- cluded the Dickenson County School Board discussed only matters lawfully exempt from the open meeting requirements under section 2.2-3711 of the Code of Virginia. Mr. Donald Raines, Mr. Rocky Barton, Mr. Shanghai Nickles, Mrs. Susan Mullins and Chairman John Skeen; all certified true.

BOARD ACTIONS:

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve the coaching recommendation for Ridgeview High School as presented. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved Coach:  Kent Grant, Assistant Softball  Chris Mullins, Assistant Softball  Dakota Stanley, Assistant Baseball  Russell Hull, Assistant Baseball

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

Approved:  Kimberly Boggs, Teacher, Ridgeview Middle School  Barry Hill, Bus Driver/Mechanic Helper, Clintwood Garage

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve the request to receive additional sick leave days for Aleasha Wampler as requested. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve the request to donate additional sick leave days from Glenda Wampler as requested. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

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

Retirement:  Brenda Davis, Bus Driver

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

Employment:  Dean Compton, Maintenance Helper

Mrs. Susan Mullins—I make a motion that we approve the request to advertise positions as presented. Mr. Rocky Barton seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Music Education Teacher-Vocal/Choral and Instrumental PK-12  Custodian(s) – Part-time  Attendance Clerk – Part-time

Mrs. Susan Mullins—made a motion to approve the substitutes as presented contingent upon meeting all requirements and background checks. Mr. Shanghai Nickles seconded the motion. All votes aye.

Approved:  Artrip, Tina – Teacher  Boyd, Jonathan – Teacher/Cook/Janitor/Bus Driver  Deel, Rhonda - Cook  Mason, Dustin – Teacher/Cook/Janitor  McCowan, Tiffany - Cook  Phillips, Larry – Teacher/Cook/Janitor/Bus Driver  Pigman, Denisha – Teacher  Robinson, Chris – Cook/Janitor  Rose, Avery – Bus Driver  Rose, Heather – Teacher  Rose, Tiara – Teacher  Vandyke, Mary – Volunteer  Vitatoe, Stephanie – Teacher

ADJOURNMENT:

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

Adjourned: 9:12 p.m. John Skeen ______CHAIRMAN

Approved: December 16, 2015 Reba McCowan ______CLERK