by Kate Evans
Morgan County Schools Assistant Superintendent Jeromy Duelley gave a presentation on school attendance procedures at the August 20 school board meeting.
Duelley said Morgan County Schools’ chronic absenteeism rate was 22% last year, down from 28% from the 2022-2023 school year.
Berkeley Springs High School chronic absenteeism rate dropped from 30% to 25%, Warm Springs Middle School fell from 28% to 18%, Paw Paw High School- 36% to 16%, Pleasant View Elementary- 22% to 13% and Widmyer Elementary 32% to 27%.
Paw Paw Elementary rose slightly from 26% to 27%. Warm Springs Intermediate School remained the same both years at 19%.
Duelley explained that chronic absenteeism is being absent from school for any reason. Truancy occurs when students have 10 or more unexcused absences.
Schools continue to contact parents with three-day absence phone calls, five-day letters, do parent meetings and hold Student Assistance Team (SAT) meetings that include attendance. The Prevention Resource Officer may get involved, then it gets referred to the Prosecutor’s Office.
It is now West Virginia state law that students are only permitted to have 10 parent notes a year, Duelley said. The new 2024-2025 student calendar includes a QR code that parents can scan to submit a student excused absence note. It also encourages students to miss less than 10 days of school during the year.
This year’s goal is getting the chronic absenteeism rate down to less than 10%, Duelley said. Strategies include making attendance a priority, building positive relationships with students, increasing Tier I strategies, student attendance teams meeting regularly and following attendance procedures.
School board vice-president Laura Smith asked about vacations. Duelley said they call that educational leave and ask that parents let them know. It’s not held against students as they often have educational experiences with their parents on vacations.
Summer school update
School Superintendent David Banks reported on the summer school program that took place at Berkeley Springs High School, Paw Paw Schools, Pleasant View Elementary and Widmyer Elementary.
The Berkeley Springs High School summer school program had 19 students attend and two teachers. 21 credit hours were recovered, Banks said.
Paw Paw Schools summer school had three students attend with one teacher.
Pleasant View Elementary had five students attend and two teachers.
Widmyer Elementary had 10 students attend with three teachers and one coordinator.
Banks said that the elementary summer school schedule involved breakfast, read aloud, English language arts, math and Minds in Motion. Program materials used were I-Ready, Heggerty-a phonemic awareness literacy program, and UFLI-a University of Florida Literacy Institute literacy model that helps struggling student readers and assists teachers with literacy development.
“Foundational math strategies were taught to students to build automaticity, flexibility and fluency with numbers and operations,” Banks added.
A survey was also sent to summer school staff to collect feedback that could be used for planning next year, he said.
The previous summer school program was remediation and enrichment. This year with the state’s Third Grade Success Act requirements they initially targeted first grade students in the lowest quartile and didn’t have a great response, Banks said. It was a three-week program with several holidays. Next year they’re looking at a 4-5 week program.
Third graders need to be proficient to move forward, said school board president Aaron Close. Superintendent Banks said schools are required to let parents know that their child may be held back if they don’t meet proficiency requirements.
School board vice-president Laura Smith asked how many students they were reaching before with Camp MoCo. Banks said they needed parents to buy into summer school if their kids are struggling.
First day of school
Banks also reported that the school system had a great first day with students on Tuesday, August 20 and said that teachers and staff really appreciated the extra day on Monday, August 19 to prepare for the opening of school.
Schools were full of energy from staff and students on Tuesday. Banks said he went to three schools and was very impressed with the cleanliness of the buildings and the hard work of custodians and maintenance staff.
Board reports
Board member Chuck Bergen said he attended several Back-To-School nights and was impressed with the presentations.
Board member Justin Litten said that the Berkeley Springs High School Meet the Teams event was pretty cool. Not as many people came as they had wished.
Board vice-president Laura Smith said she attended the Back to School Bash and was grateful to Dawn Beal of Parks and Recreation for organizing the event.
School board member John Rowland said he attended the James Rumsey Technical Institute Back to School Night, which was great. He met some wonderful teachers and administrators. Rowland said their staff is very dedicated and highly competent.
Roof replacements
The school board also voted to request approval to move forward with getting estimates for roof replacements for Warm Springs Intermediate School and Warm Springs Middle School, as well as for Berkeley Springs High School’s Building A. Around half of the Building A roof needs replaced.
Close said they needed to amend the Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan to add the Berkeley Springs High School’s Building A roof replacement to an estimate. One estimate will be for the intermediate school and middle school roof replacements. The other estimate will be for the intermediate school, middle school and high school Building A roof replacements.
Superintendent Banks said the state liked school districts to pair roof replacements together.
