Hancock County students performed an important service for residents in the past few months by completing their income tax returns for free. It is estimated the student tax preparers saved thousands of dollars for those who got their taxes done by members of the Future Business Leaders of America and in one instance a resident received $12,000.00 in returns after not filing taxes for several years.

The Community Service project was just one of the initiatives undertaken by the Future Business Leaders of America who recently attended a leadership conference held at Camp Dawson in Kingwood, WV and brought home the following honors.

Weir High students who placed 1st in their categories: Arwen Denunzio – Personal Finance; Abbigail Hunt, Introduction to Event Planning; Andrew Manteau, Website Design; Kayla Mazon, Business Communications; and Savvy Swidowski, Digital Animation; The groups sponsor was Candice Olson.

Oak Glen FBLA State Winners included Darrick Bowersox – 1st Place Introduction to Business Concepts; Jessica Fields and Saige Rawson, 1st Place Community Service Project; Jessica Fields, 2nd place, Introduction to FBLA; Tryston Easton, 2nd Place, Introduction to Information Technology; and Madison Baird, 4th place, Introduction to Business Concepts. The groups sponsor was Tina Viakley.

In other business the Board:

**Approved a leave of absence for Jenna Simon;

**Assigned Gavin Schaffer as countywide substitute teacher;

**Assigned Melissa McCartney as the countywide school psychologist;

**Accepted the resignation of Kim Trushel as assistant cheerleading coach at Weir Middle:

**Approved Rhonda Stipec as an unpaid volunteer assistant softball coach;

**Approved a leave of absence for Lori Sokac, LPN/Aide at Weirton Elementary;

**Approved an unpaid leave of absence for Andrea Mercer, bus operator;

**Transferred Alysa Hitt to Cook II, Oak Glen Middle;

**Approved Kimberly Robinson as a substitute aide

**Approved an overnight trip for Oak Glen & Weir High ECCAT CAT qualifying students to Spring Conference for Educators;

**Approved Oak Glen Softball Teams to travel to Bridgeport for a tournament;

**Approved Oak Glen Girls’ Tennis to compete in in WV Region I AA/AAA Regional Tournament.