The Allen School Board voted at Monday’s regular meeting to join a lawsuit against the state board of education.

The matter was discussed in action items and listed as, “Motion, discussion and vote to authorize or not to authorize the school district’s attorney, in consultation with the Superintendent of Schools, to initiate legal action against the Oklahoma State Board of Education (“Board”) to address the equalization of funding as set forth in the Board’s Resolution approved at the Board’s special meeting on March 25, 2021.”

Allen Schools Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said the state board met to try and settle a lawsuit which was filed against the board by Epic Charter Schools, and the state board basically agreed to give Epic access to local taxes. Epic has never had access to local taxes previously, Hiatt said.

“Basically, every school I know has joined this lawsuit to sue (the state board),” Hiatt said. “We’re just one of like 500 schools that will be a part of that.”

On March 25, the state board voted to change how property tax dollars are distributed among schools. It voted to distribute property tax dollars equally among public and charter schools, including virtual schools like Epic.

Charter schools do not receive money for facilities, and charter school officials have said that they’ve been chronically under-funded.

However, the schools are able to operate with less oversight than public schools, and don’t have to offer the same services, such as transporting students to and from a physical school building. Charter schools may also follow their own curriculum and hiring policies.

Action Items

In other action items, the board approved the official results from the Pontotoc County Election Board for the annual school election held Feb. 12.

Frankie Bell joined the board in October after Jeff Maloy retired, filling the vacant seat (Office Number One). In February, Bell ran unopposed for the seat.

The board discussed taking possible action regarding the annual reorganization of the Allen Board of Education, but kept the board as is.

The board also approved rescinding the approval of an incorrectly listed consent agenda item from the March 8 meeting.

The item listed was the Building Fund Encumbrances, numbers 46 – 53. It was corrected to list Building Fund Encumbrances numbers 59 – 60.

Executive Session

The board entered into executive session to discuss rehiring certified staff subject to reassignment as needed. The following certified non-temporary staff were rehired:

Linda Baber, Kaci Johnson, Jan Rutherford, Ronna Clark, Stacy Laden, Greg Sanders, Lesli Costner, Lindsey Laxton, Sue Sanders, Georgia Gray, Greg Mills, Melissa Sells, Jessy Harris, Julie Mills, Zach Sullivan, Kristy Hiatt, Lisa Peay, Terra Wainscott, Joni Hill, Allie Plunk, Jonathan Walden, Alexis Huffman, Cheryl Rowsey and LeeAnna Williams.

The board also accepted the resignation of Julie Knighten, Family Consumer Science Teacher, who is retiring, Hiatt said.

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda which included The 2020 - 2021 Purchase Orders and Encumbrances: General Fund, numbers 202 through 211 ($74,417.20); Building Fund, numbers 61 through 64 ($9,660); and the Child Nutrition Fund, numbers 45 through 47 ($16,377).

The consent agenda also included the Treasurer’s report; the Activity Fund report; Temporary Appropriations for the fiscal year 2020-2021: General Fund, $4,500,000; Building Fund, $300,000; and Child Nutrition Fund, $565,000; and an FFA overnight trip for state convention and state interscholastic meet in Oklahoma City and Stillwater.