Allen School Board accepts firing of IT/assistant coach
The Allen Board of Education voted Monday to accept the employment termination of Dylan Batungbacal, IT director and line coach for the football team at Allen School District.
The board entered into executive session at its regular monthly meeting to discuss the termination. Because executive session is a private meeting in an otherwise open venue, no mention of what was discussed was made public.
Batungbacal was fired by Superintendent Jeff Hiatt on September 23rd. Hiatt said due to confidentiality laws, he could not discuss why Batungbacal’s employment was terminated.
When asked last week, Allen Police Chief Brett Edens said there is an active investigation of Batungbacal, but he could not discuss the matter at this time because it is early in the investigation.
Administrative Reports
Hiatt spoke to the board during administrative reports. He said he wanted to brag about staff and teachers at the schools.
“We’re having a positive year, everyone’s working hard serving our kids,” Hiatt said. “This is a service job, and we get to serve our community. You know, sometimes those that are hard to please are sometimes critical, and I think our teachers do a good job of tuning some of that out, focusing on the kids and being positive.”
Hiatt spoke about enrollment, which is down from previous years. He provided the board with a paper listing how many students have attended each year.
He said there are 449 students this year, which is down 24 students from last year.
“That is concerning,” he said. “I’m not freaking out about it or anything, but it is concerning because that’s going to be a decrease in state aid. Another thing to add is, we’re down 24 kids from October of last year, but we’re actually down 32 kids from where we ended in May.”
Hiatt said it’s troublesome because the state changed a law last year. He said, used to be, a school could use a high number from the current year or the two years previous, but now it is only either the current year or the prior year.
Hiatt said the school is okay this year as it can use last year’s enrollment of 473 for state aid, but next year, if the enrollment isn’t up, then a low of 449 could be the mark.
Hiatt said the matter becomes a problem when the funding is based on less students, but the school still has to pay the same number of staff, etc.
Action Items
The board voted to accept the resignation of Brooke Baber from the board and declare seat number 2 vacant.
The board then voted to appoint Mario Gonzalez to the vacant school seat and administer the oath of office.
The board approved a resolution calling for the annual school board election. Seat to be filled at the election is office number 3, and seat 2, unexpired term.
A vote to approve Indian Education Program Policies and Procedures for fiscal year 2023 was tabled.
The board voted to approve OSSBA Board Policy DPB.
Also, after executive session, the board voted to amend the contracts of Crystal Bear, Becky Dyer and Juanita Riddle -- all support staff employees.
Consent Agenda
The board approved the consent agenda, which included the minutes of the September 12 Regular Meeting; the fiscal year 20222023 Purchase Orders and Encumbrances: General Fund numbers 208 through 231 ($55,235.33); Sinking Fund number 2 ($2,100); Treasurer’s report; Activity Fund report; a contract with Dr. Mark Jones for IT fiscal year 2023; fundraisers (Horticulture, Archery, FFA/Baseball, Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball, Class of 2026, Class of 2025, Class of 2024, Class of 2023).
Mario Gonzalez attends the Allen Board of Education Monday evening. Gonzalez was voted to seat number 2 of the board to replace Brooke Baber, who resigned. Photo by Randy Mitchell