Votes at a glance: Kanawha County Board approves personnel, purchases, construction and design contracts

The Kanawha County Board of Education on March 20 approved multiple routine and capital items, including personnel actions, payment of bills, curriculum purchases, a network firewall purchase, a Sissonville High partial roof replacement and a contract for architectural design of a new elementary school.

The board approved the revised personnel agenda for March 20, 2025, and the consent items covering payment of bills for February 2025 and related budget supplements and out-of-state travel requests. The board voted to convey specified parcels of land (parcel IDs cited in enclosure) to the Town of Pratt as recommended by the superintendent’s office.

The board approved the social studies textbook adoption for secondary grades and a West Virginia Head Start pre-K curriculum bundle purchase from Teaching Strategies LLC for $346,168.10. The board also approved a three-year network firewall purchase through Advantage Technology for $229,507.88 (FortiGate hardware and FortiCare/FortiGuard protections), a partial roof replacement contract for Sissonville High School with Mecklenburg Roofing and Sheet Metal of WV for $1,000,034.11, and design services with ZMM Architects and Engineers for a new Eastern Kanawha County Elementary Center totaling $1,659,745. The board approved the purchase of two ABV robotic welder systems from Airgas USA LLC for $214,240 to support CTE programming.

Votes were recorded by roll call as reflected in the meeting minutes. Early agenda items were decided with a 4-0 tally among in-person members; later votes recorded after a trustee joined remotely were recorded 5-0. Where shown in the record, motions were moved by Mrs. Kate White and seconded by other board members; Mrs. Lewis conducted roll calls.

The actions are summarized below (motion text taken from the meeting transcript).