Allen Public Schools hired a new high school head football coach Monday during the regular meeting of the board of education.

The board hired Chad Elerick and Tiffany Elerick for the next school year. Chad will teach English and be the school’s head football coach and baseball coach.

Tiffany Elerick, Chad’s wife, was hired as a special education teacher and is also qualified in counseling, business education and is elementary certified. She is currently a counselor at Edmond Memorial.

They have two daughters that will be in 9th grade next year. In the past, Chad Elerick has coached football at Stroud, Geary, Woodward and Pawnee. He also played baseball, including at the college level.

Additionally, for fiscal year 2025, the board hired back Superintendent Jeff Hiatt; Athletic Director and Junior High/High School Principal Steve Butcher; Elementary Principal Amy Mayhue; District Treasurer Brenda Robertson; and District Encumbrance Clerk and Activity Fund Custodian Lisa Cundiff.

Jimmy Wilson and Steve Butcher will help assist junior high baseball this school year.

Action items

Under action items, the board approved the fiscal year 2025 school calendar.

“School will begin a week later next year on August 12, 2024,” Hiatt said. “We will get out the same week as this year on May 9, 2025. This will follow the PTC schedule and the other schools in our county.”

The also board approved this year’s prom being held at Horton’s Ranch in Lula on Saturday, April 13th.

“Jackie Horton is allowing our school to use her venue and we are grateful to her and her husband,” Hiatt said.

Administrative Reports

During administrative reports, Hiatt spoke about an assessment by the Oklahoma School Security Institute (OSSI). The OSSI goes to school sites and walks the campus during school and writes a report on what the school system is doing correctly and improvements that are needed for school security.

“We have put a big emphasis on improving school safety from adding a school resource officer, to adding cameras, fixing doors and entryways, etc.,” Hiatt said.

Hiatt received an email from Keith Stewart, regional representative at OSSI, in which he expressed how impressed he was with Allen Schools.

“Thank you for allowing me to tour your campus,” Stewart said. “I must say for a small school and community your district is quite impressive in every way. I never expected to see such security measures in a small school because I usually don’t. You should be proud of what you and your staff have accomplished. Schools across the state could learn a few things from your district and community. Attached is the completed report. If you have any questions or I can assist in anyway feel free to reach out.”

Steve Butcher

Butcher updated the board on the goings on at the junior high and high school, and began speaking about illness, which has been plaguing the school system.

“We are battling widespread illness at the junior and senior high school,” Butcher said. “We had 34 absences just this morning, with more going home through the day.”

Butcher said the basketball teams both won their District Tournaments. First round of Regional Basketball begins here Thursday at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., with the early regional games. Allen plays the late games at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

“I spoke with Travis Graham today regarding the use of equipment and Allen students in the Pontotoc Vo-Tech heavy equipment training program,” Butcher said. “He believes they will be able to provide electronic surveying, earth moving equipment, and a new state of the art leveling machine we can use on our football field, baseball field, and softball field. Whether we complete a new baseball field out there [south of town] or not, this equipment can improve the condition of the land.”

Butcher said they have completed the first steps in determining the academic growth in the junior high and high school. Data collection for ACT test scores (both practice and actual) are continuing as planned.

“It has been somewhat challenging to get complete testing data for all students,” Butcher said. “That said, we have accumulated three sets of data; a full practice ACT test and two full regular ACT (SAT) tests.”

Not every student has been included in the full regular tests. A cohesive, searchable database for the test scores is in progress, Butcher said.

Butcher said the results of the tests have been as expected following the full ACT practice test. Having only a few months of additional instruction, most of the scores have remained steady.

“The exception is math scores which seemed to tick higher, broadly speaking,” Butcher said. “The math classes in the High School have been focused on ACT style instruction and the test results seem to indicate this has been successful. Keep in mind this is a longterm plan and results are not expected to be dramatically different from test period to test period. A gradual increase is expected.”

Amy Mayhue Mayhue said it’s Kindness Week in the elementary with dress up days, lessons focusing on kindness,

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