Tucker County BOE receives good news on many fronts

By Beth Christian Broschart

The Parsons Advocate

PARSONS – Tucker County Board Members received nothing but good news at their meeting Monday evening. Jonathan Hicks, facilities director for Tucker County Schools, presented a facilities update; Kim Lipscomb, special education director for Tucker County Schools, updated the board on the Special Education Monitoring; and Jay Hamric, principal at Tucker County High School spoke about School Digger.

Hicks told the BOE he had already received the information from the School Building Authority about the $2.5 million project to provide HVAC at Tucker County High School. He said he will need to put out an advertisement for architectural services.

“Once we get that, we will send whoever is interested in providing those services the information,” Hicks said. “We will then take the responses, or statement of qualifications, they send us. We will have a panel that consists of me, Dr. Campbell, Dave Lambert, Jay Hamric and a board member. We will evaluate those responses to decide which firm we want to go with. Joyce Vanguilder from the SBA will also be on the panel.”

Hicks said he was also sharing a structural report on the roof at Davis/Thomas Elementary Middle School.

“Lambert Consulting, with McKinley, did a complete structural check on the roof at DTEMS,” Hicks said. “If you look at the last page, he gave us recommendations if we do replace the roof, of things we need to look into. For example, the overhangs, different supports that were inside the building.”

Hicks said the consultant said the roof was in good condition and free of obvious design defects. “That is what we were hopeful for,” Hicks said. “We have some leaks that we are repairing and we know we need to replace the roof. I believe that roof was put in 1992.”

Kim Lipscomb, special education director for Tucker County Schools, told board members the county is on a three-year cohort rotation.

“When I took this position, I knew we would be monitored in 2015-16, so that has been my focus,” Lipscomb said. “I wanted to make sure we tried to do well on that.”

Lipscomb said she wanted to thank four people – Jay Hamric, Mrs. Lambert at DTEMS, Mrs. Brusack at TVEMS and Pam, her secretary.

“Without them, I would not have been able to pull off what is in this folder,” Lipscomb said. “They are the key components to the success we had with the report.”

Lipscomb said she randomly submitted 15 student files and sent them the teacher certifications as well as other required information, prior to their visit. She said the 2015-16 Compliance Monitoring Report through the West Virginia Department of Education found the county is in compliance is all areas.

“During the debriefing, they were very positive about what they saw,” Lipscomb said. “Co-teaching, of course, is in its early stages and they were able to hone in on that. That is a huge step with Tucker Valley going in the right direction.”

Lipscomb said her focus now will not only to remain in compliance, but to go into more improvement and going into more quality.

Dr. Eddie Campbell, superintendent of Tucker County Schools, said he was pleased to see the report.

“If you knew where we were prior to Kim’s arrival into this position, for me to look at this and see every area in compliance, we haven’t even been close before,” Campbell said. “Before Kim, we would receive reports of non-compliance and scores in the 50s. For us to be able to demonstrate this level of success in the time that Kim has been in this position, is a true testament of her leadership of the special education department in our schools. I am extremely proud of the work she has done.”

Campbell said Lipscomb takes a lot of heat from the special education department because she demands a lot from our special education teachers and school administrators.

“She has to in order to get these results,” Campbell said. “She has plodded through this and found us tremendous success. I am very confident as she moves into and focuses more on academic success and less on compliance we will continue to see results like this. I think we will also see academic success with our special education students.”

Campbell said the foundation had to be laid to see success. “I think Kim has laid that foundation and I want to publicly thank her for getting us to this point.”

Hamric updated the Board about on School Digger. He said every year he checks the website because it compares assessments with other high schools across the state.

“As you can see, we faired pretty well,” Hamric said. “We are 22nd in the state in a total of 116 high schools across the state. That puts us in the top 20 percent of those in the state. Schools in the top five percent are large AAA schools.”

Hamric said he was proud of the students and staff.

“We are consistently scoring in the top 20 or 25 percent in the last few years,” Hamric said. “I just like to present you with that data just to see where we are going and where we are trending.”

Hamric said the State Board of Education approved TCHS as a STEM Innovation Zone School.

“We will be getting a significant amount of wavers and grant money for that,” Hamric said. “We are ticked about that.”

Also during Monday’s meeting, BOE members approved the resignation of Rachelle Thorne, 7-8 math teacher at TVEMS, effective Jan. 15; and the retirement of Cynthia Goughnour, Title 1 teacher TVEMS, effective June 30. The board offered a big thank you to Goughnour for her many years of service.

Also approved for employment by the Board were Emilee Amaro as substitute teacher, Jessica Menear as substitute teacher pending background check and certification, and Howard Hipp as substitute custodian.

BOE members approved hiring Goughnour as a substitute teacher for 2016-17; hired Michele Godfrey, Delta Parks, Roxcella Owens and Kelley Wolfe as ticket takers; and Kimberly Stiles to operate the clock/scoreboard.

Board members voted to cancel the Jan. 4 meeting, and their next regular meeting is slated for 4:30 p.m. Jan. 19.