games the players would take on early this week.

“That’s what we need right now, we need (to be) pressed right now,” Wellington said. “Our boys are rated 13^th right now and our girls are rated 20^th . Hopefully, we can stay that high or higher because playoffs pairings will be better.”

Board President Robert Hammonds asked Wellington when playoff begin.

“It’s usually Valentine’s weekend, or the next weekend,” Wellington said. “Pairings will come out a couple of weeks before that. Pairings are pretty close to getting here. So, our boys had a number one ranking this last week from one coach, I’ll bet it was coach Hurt from Vanoss, because he wants to get us up there where they won’t catch us until late in the playoffs. And we feel the same way.”

No cell phone use during class

Wellington said on his first day back from Christmas break, he addressed an issue with cell phones. He said there will be no cell phone use during class by students or teachers.

“I told the kids if we catch them (cell phones) out in the classroom, the first time, the teacher will take them and give them back to them at the end of class,” Wellington said. “The second time it’s taken from them, they will bring it to my offi ce and the student will have to get it from my offi ce at the end of the day. If it’s taken again, the parents will have to come get it.”

Wellington said these actions will help to keep students from using cell phones during classes. He said what they do with their phones during breaks, he’s not really concerned about that.

“During class time, (phones) are not allowed to be out,” Wellington said. “And teachers are in the same boat, they’ve been told that, too.”

Program concerning social media

Wellington reminded the board about an upcoming program concerning the trouble people can get into using social media. The program will be presented by Ada police and is not yet scheduled.

“I got a call from the Family Crisis Center the other day,” Wellington said. “They want to come out and do a teen date violence program. And, with some things that I’ve been aware of lately, that’s probably a good thing, too. Our kids truly don’t understand sometimes how serious of trouble that they can get themselves into with some of this stuff.”

Track

“We went out a survey on track that we talked about last month,” Wellington said, “here’s the results of that. In the high school, the boys, 26 out of 76 said they would like to participate in track. Girls was 13 out of 57. So 39 out of 94. With the junior high, there was a little bit more participation, especially from the boys ... 19 said yes, 24 said no. With the girls, there was a lot less ... there was eight that wanted too and 24 that didn’t.”

Wellington said there will be no problem with reinstatement.

“I checked,” Wellington said. “You have to pay entry fees to the association at the beginning of the year for your sports --baseball, basketball, all of it -- and went I sent in the papers this year, I went ahead and paid the track entry, just in case we had some (students who were interested).”

Baseball Field

Wellington said a man from Eckroat Seed in Oklahoma City was scheduled to visit Allen Monday, but, for an unknown reason, didn’t show.

“They have what’s called a championship-blend rye grass, which is the best that I’ve ever used,” Wellington said. “It doesn’t clump. That’s what most professional teams use on their parks. I talked to him the other day, he said as long as the solid temperature is at least 41 degrees, we’d have no problem with it growing. The solid temperature right now is 49 to 51 degrees, so no problem.”

Wellington said he worked on the fi eld some last week by dragging some of the old grass off and working it up. He said if it was going to be dry enough Tuesday, he was going to get back to it.”

He said once the seed is planted, it should only take a week to 10 days to come up, weather permitting.

Consent agenda

The board also discussed and approved the consent agenda which included the fi scal year 2019 purchase orders and encumbrances: general fund, $8,007; building fund, $4,980; and the child nutrition fund, $2,500.

Executive session

There were no action items on the agenda and the board entered into executive session to discuss personnel issues. Upon returning, the board voted to hire a new special education teacher for the high school, Alexis Huffman.