By Randy Mitchell

Vaping, a newly implemented educational and behavioral program, and pets in storm shelters were discussed Monday at the regular meeting of Allen School Board.

Board President Jeff Maloy and Board Member Kelly Hurt were unable to attend.

Administrative

Reports

Administrative reports were delivered by Superintendent Jeff Hiatt, High School Principal Chris Grimm, and Elementary Principal Amy Mayhue.

Chris Grimm

Grimm spoke about problems with vaping. He referred to a Facebook Post made January 12^th on the Allen Police Department page. In the post, it said that the department is having issues with kids in possession of tobacco products and marijuana. The post also said the department will charge those in possession of such products and will not give any warnings.

The rest of the post was as follows: “This is becoming a serious situation and it will take everybody to get the situation under control. If anybody knows where the kids are getting these items please contact me it will be anonymous so the police department can put a stop to it. I know none of these kids are old enough to purchase them so someone is buying them for them whether it’s a friend, or heaven forbid a parent buying them and allowing their kids access to them.”

Grimm said he had to deal with students last week as far as vaping goes.

“I had a big week last week as far as acquiring vapes,” Grimm said, “which is not a good thing. So I’ve gotten four more vapes this last week out of the hands of the kids.”

Grimm said he hopes the fact that a new law requiring people to be 21 years old to purchase tobacco and vaping products will help somewhat.

“One student did make the statement on Friday that he thinks that it’s kind of slowing down already, because he said, ‘They raised the age, they can’t get it as easily, ‘” Grimm said. “I hope that is the case, but I would not bet the farm on it.”

Grimm said the matter is worrying due to the fact that there are more chemicals in vaping products than kids realize.

“There’s more to it than that, and they don’t realize it,” Grimm said. “We’re going to have to educate everybody, not just the kids. We need to start with the parents.”

Amy Mayhue

Mayhue said they had a wonderful Professional Day recently.

“We have all of our staff trained on PAX Good Behavior Game, which is our new rollout of behavior supports for our kiddos,” Mayhue said. “They (teachers) are really excited, they are pumped.”

PAX Good Behavior Game consists of instructional and behavioral health strategies used daily by teachers and students in the classroom. It’s a preventive approach which aims to improve classroom behavior and academics. For more information, visit www.goodbehaviorgame.org/.

Mayhue said the teachers have really taken to it.

“You hear, all the time I’m sitting in my offi ce, I hear them say, ‘Are you being PAX leaders right now,’ or ‘Are you doing what a PAX leader would do,’ and they’ve jumped right in,” Mayhue said. “And I told them at our faculty meeting last Wednesday, I said, ‘If you don’t get it all this semester, it’s okay. We’re going to roll it out in the fall, and what we’re really wanting from this is that common language, the common expectations of behavior, so that kids know when they walk into our school exactly what’s expected of them. And this program is set up to help kids learn how to self-care and self-regulate, which is what our kids are coming to school not being able to do. So we’re super excited about it. My kindergarten, even my little 3-year-olds, they will walk around and talk to you about being PAX leader.”

Mayhue said the Chickasaw Nation paid for the kits for the teachers.

“It was all free to us,” Mayhue said. “We just had to say, ‘We want to do it.’ And we were the inaugural school for Pontotoc County. I think we are going to benefit greatly from this program.”

Jeff Hiatt

Hiatt spoke highly of Jimmy Wilson.

“I want to brag on Jimmy a little bit,” Hiatt said. “Over the break, he came up here and he kept this campus clean. He did a good, thoroughly cleaning up, a spotless cleaning. When we came up from break, it was nice to come back to a clean campus that you could tell had had some work done on it.”

Action Items

The board approved all action items, except one, which dealt with allowing pets in the school system’s storm shelter during severe weather.

“What if they have a milk cow,” Board Vice President Frayne Black asked. “I mean, I’m just saying.”

The question was met with much laughter, but got the board discussing the matter.

“Realistically, if somebody showed up with one, and our policy says ‘pets,’ I mean, it’s just like everything else we deal with in this day and age, you let it down there and it kicks somebody in the head, some other patron who’s down there, who’s liable?”

Black also mentioned that pets could take up room that could be utilized by people.

Board secretary Brenda Robertson suggested maybe pets should be kept in a pet carrier.

“If we’re wondering how many people show up, and you start taking up room, you’re limited on space down there,” Black said, “If you start fi lling it up with pet taxies ...”

Hiatt said the school system has the fi nal say and administration can write the policy for rules concerning the storm shelter.

It was mentioned that the rules could stipulate the weight or the size of a pet.

“But the bad thing is, it’s almost like, and I hate to say the word, discriminating, but I mean, really, we’re saying, ‘It’s alright for you to bring your Chihuahua down here, but you can’t bring a Rottweiler because of size or whatever,” Black said.

There was discussion that the board could rule that no pets be allowed in the shelter, but Grimm asked about service animals.

There was mention that a lot of people call their pets service animals, so it was clarified that the rules could stipulate that a service animal must have paperwork proving it was a service animal.

In the end, Black thought it would be best to table the matter to a later date.

“That’s what I’m saying,” Black said. “Maybe on this one, we ought to hold off and table it, and find out a little bit more on what some other (school systems) do. I mean, I love my pets, but if I’m going to the storm shelter where there’s going to be a whole bunch of other people, I don’t want to put other people at risk.”

The board decided to table the matter to another date.

Consent agenda

The board approved the consent agenda which included the minutes of the December 12, 2019, regular meeting, and the fi scal year 2020 purchase orders and encumbrances: general fund numbers 222 through 224 - ($1,849.25); building fund numbers 34 through 43 ($33,075); child nutrition fund numbers 42 and 43 ($3,000); and building bond fund numbers 24 and 25 ($2,270).

The consent agenda also included the treasurer’s report; activity fund report; form 307 – supplemental appropriation to the general fund; and a fundraiser request: cheer (mini clinic and fan cloth).