Allen High School Principal Chris Grimm and Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue were hired back Monday at the regular meeting of Allen School Board.

However, the school system will be opening up the head football position for next year, and will be looking for a new head coach.

Rob Green, head football coach for the past two seasons, will remain employed with Allen Schools, just not as head football coach.

Bus grant

Allen schools also received a bus grant, and, because the transportation bond passed Tuesday, the system will most likely be able to purchase an additional bus for a total of four -- three route buses and an activity bus.

Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said the grant comes from the Department of Environmental Quality to help replace aging buses.

“Basically, it’s a (cash) for clunkers (program),” Hiatt said. “If you’ve got a bus that’s old, that pollutes too much, they try to get you to get rid of it and they give you money to (help) purchase a new one.”

Hiatt said the school system’s oldest bus is a 2007 model which barely runs. He said the amount offered in the grant is more than what the system could get if they placed it for sale.

The grant -- $27,000 -- is 25% of what the system needs to purchase a new route bus.

Graduation and prom

Hiatt said graduation has been moved up to the Saturday before the last week of school instead of after.

Also on the agenda, in action items, was the superintendent’s recommendation to allow prom to be held off campus at Banks Valley Guest Ranch in Ada on April 19.

“We are not sure if we will get to have prom this year or not because of COVID,” Hiatt said.

However, Hiatt said prom is tentatively scheduled for April 19, which is off campus as students and sponsors want to do it at a nicer venue.

Other action items

The board approved action items, which included the superintendent’s recommendations regarding the fiscal year 2022 Allen Public Schools calendar.

“We are going 165 days just like this year,” Hiatt said. “The only big difference was we set graduation up the Saturday before the last week of school instead of after school is out.”

Also in action items was the superintendent’s recommendation to allow cheerleading to be competitive for fiscal year 2022. Since being approved, Cheer is moving back to competitive next year with Candice Wilson as the cheer coach, Hiatt said.

The board also adopted a policy -- DEFA-E1 and DEFA-R1 -- over sick leave sharing.

“If a staff member runs out of sick days due to some unforeseen circumstance, other staff members can donate sick days to them so they can continue to be paid,” Hiatt said. “The problem we have had is staff members having to quarantine multiple times from school because of COVID and have run out of days. We feel like it is not the staff members’ fault when the health department tells them they can not be at work. We had the policy in place, but it was lacking details. These are the details of who and how they can be used and how they are approved.”

The board also approved the following overnight trips:

A. Softball -- Broken Bow Festival March 15 -16.

B. Baseball -- Wright City Festival March 18- 19.

C. Powerlifting -- Regionals at Broken Bow March 4 - 5.

Consent agenda

The board approved the fiscal year 2020 - 2021 purchase orders and encumbrances, which included the general fund, numbers 191 through 197 ($5,635.32); building fund numbers 56 through 58 ($4,993.50); child nutrition fund numbers 42 and 43 ($90,000); and building bond fund number 8 ($9,900).

Also included was the Treasurer’s report, Activity Fund report and a fundraiser (Elementary and Yearbook).