Allen Elementary School teacher Stacy Laden was recently selected as “Allen Teacher of the Year.” The announcement was made during a special Allen School Board meeting Monday, April 13 ^th .

The meeting was considered special as it was held virtually through Zoom video conferencing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Laden was first selected as Teacher of the Year for the elementary school, while special education teacher Alexis Huffman was selected as Teacher of the Year for junior high/high school.

As Laden was selected overall, she will now be entered in a statewide competition.

The announcement was made by Jeff Hiatt, Allen Schools superintendent. Also attending the meeting were Jeff Maloy, board president; Jami Rinehart, board clerk; Robert Hammonds, board member; Kelly Hurt, board member; Brenda Roberts, board minutes clerk; Chris Grimm, junior high/high school principal; Amy Mayhue, elementary principal. Also attending was board v i c e - president Frayne Black. Black had chosen to retire from the board in March, and Ron Batey was due to be sworn in at Monday’s meeting, however, due to the pandemic, the election/appointment has been pushed back to June.

Mayhue spoke about Laden.

“She’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever been around,” Mayhue said. “She has been one of my biggest encouragers and she loves those kiddos more than anything on earth. And she gives and gives and gives for those kids. She is a great choice.”

Grimm spoke about Huffman.

“For a gal who hadn’t quite completed two years, I think this is a major accomplishment for her, and she was very excited,” Grimm said. “She’s our special ed person, so she deals with some pretty, at times, frustrating events and has really busted her hump to do what’s best for these kids. And (she) has, at times, had to set teachers straight and also give teachers some direction on helping these kids the best they can. And I just want you to know she was certainly excited about being nominated.”

Administrative Reports

Administrative reports were delivered by Hiatt, Grimm and Mayhue.

Hiatt began by praising a few school employees.

“I want to give a big shout out to our cafeteria staff,” Hiatt said. “Candice (Wilson), Lacy (Williams), Bonnie (Stephens) and Teri (McCarn) have been putting in their time. They’re up here putting meals together. They’re passing out five days’ worth of breakfasts and five days’ worth of lunch”

Hiatt said he spoke with them, asking if they felt comfortable going to work, and informed them that it was something that they didn’t have to do.

“They insisted,” Hiatt said, “they wanted to be up here. They’re doing everything right. They’re wearing gloves, masks, keeping their distance. They feel safe up here.”

Hiatt also spoke about Jimmy Wilson, maintenance supervisor.

“Jimmy’s up here every day,” Hiatt said. “I told Jimmy, ‘you don’t have to be here, you understand that?’ He says, ‘I know, I just want to be up here doing stuff.’ So he’s up here working, mowing the grass ... So I just wanted to brag on those five, because they’re up here, every time I’m up here, they’re all up here.”

Robertson said the cafeteria employees handed out 212 meals last week and were expecting to hand out 250 for this week.

“Yeah, it keeps growing Hiatt said. “And, talking to other superintendents, they told me that it would decrease over time, but they were wrong, obviously. Ours has increased. We started out with I think 90, and it’s grown to possibly up to 250 this week.”

Amy Mayhue

Mayhue spoke to the board about how the kids are learning from home.

“We dove right into the distance learning,” Mayhue said. “We have three options going for parents right now. I did one packet pickup day on April 6 th . I also have all their packets on the website where they can be printed at home, so just in case they couldn’t get to me, they could get to the packets through the website. The other was a virtual option. So those were our three options.”

Mayhue said it has been going really well.

“Parents were very welcoming to the whole idea,” Mayhue said. “I gave out 202 packets on Monday, April 6 ^th , out of 264 kits, so I’ll take that. The rest of them I think mostly are doing virtual. I’m kind of monitoring Education Galaxy. I can see that as an admin, and I also have admin for City Island, and I can see that activity. So, I know the kids are on it and they’re doing it at home, so that’s great. They’re trying to keep up with us. I have my teachers contacting the parents. I’ve told them, at least once a week to contact the parents, by email or by phone call, either one. That they just contact them and see how they’re doing and what we can do for them. I also did in addition to that part of our actual learning, I also did a Google classroom just for our gifted kids. Our gifted kids have a Google classroom that’s on engineering and STEM and coding, for them to get into. And only our gifted kids are allowed to get in there. LeeAnna Williams and I are monitoring that. Then, my wonderful special ed team is reaching out one on one to all of their kids to make sure that they have the routine that they need. They’re doing that through Messenger, they’re doing that through Zoom ...”

Mayhue said many teachers are going through classrooms and gathering up students’ personal items, which will be passed out April 20 ^th , the day of the last packet pickup. She said the packets passed out that day will get the students through the rest of the 2019-20 school year.

Chris Grimm

Grimm said the school was planning to hand out packets yesterday (April 15 th ) as there were not many pick-ups the week before.

“We only had about 117 pick up last Monday,” Grimm said. “I don’t know if they just didn’t get the message, or they’re not on the call out setup or what, but I have probably another 30 at least who’ve contacted us about wanting more packets for this next go around. We don’t have a set day yet for cleaning out lockers and that sort of thing. I’m probably going to do that the week after next. I just don’t want to mess with it at the same time we’re doing packets.”

Grimm spoke about graduation. “We’re obviously

“We’re obviously open to ideas as far as graduation,” Grimm said. “I’m like everybody else, I don’t want it to get too awful late, but I want to do something. And if our hands are still tied, before it gets too awful late, we’re open to anything to make something work for these kids.”

The board discussed several options concerning graduation and honoring seniors, however, it’s a wait and see type deal, as administrators are in a holding pattern due to the pandemic.

The board should know by the next meeting what the plan will be considering graduation and whether or not it will be held May 18 ^th as previously scheduled.

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda, which included the fiscal year 2019-2020 purchase orders and encumbrances: general fund numbers 247 through 252 ($6,532.26); building fund numbers 54 through 56 ($970); child nutrition fund number 45 ($15,000).

The agenda also included the treasurer’s report; activity fund report; and temporary appropriations for the fiscal year 2020-2021: general fund $4,500,000; building fund $300,000; and child nutrition fund $565,000.

Action Items

There was only one action item on the agenda, of which the board approved -- the revision of school board policy CVFA-P. Change “work week” from Saturday to Friday to Sunday to Saturday.

Executive Session

The board entered into executive session to discuss rehiring certified staff subject to reassignment as needed.

After returning from executive session, the board voted to continue the employment of all Allen Public Schools certified staff listed on the agenda. Those listed were:

Career teachers

1. Linda Baber

2. Ronna Clark

3. Lesli Costner

4. Georgia Gray

5. Jessy Harris

6. Joni Hill

7. Kaci Johnson

8. Tonia Kuehn

9. Stacy Laden

10. Lindsey Laxton

11. Story Maxwell

12. Greg Mills

13. Julie Mills

14. Lisa Peay

15. Allie Plunk

16. Cheryl Rowsey

17. Jan Rutherford

18. Greg Sanders

19. Sue Sanders

20. Melissa Sells

21. Zach Sullivan

22. Terra Wainscott

23. Jonathan Walden

24. LeeAnna Williams

Probationary/Temporary Teachers

1. Vannie Bailey

2. Jolene Bakken

3. Mike Edwards

4. Jared Green

5. Rob Green

6. Tina Henry

7. Kristy Hiatt

8. Alexis Huffman

9. Julie Knighten

10. Shania Morgan

11. Pam Sanders

12. Dottie Slabaugh

13. Kevin Slabaugh