By Randy Mitchell COVID-19, school finances and federal programs were discussed Monday at the regular meeting of Allen School Board.

During administrative reports, Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said while a lot of schools have been scrambling to get Chromebooks, Allen is in good shape as they had already purchased them previously. He also spoke about the financial situation, which is bleak, but has a silver lining, for this year at least.

“Just to kind of give you the financial of where we’re at right now, there hasn’t been a lot of talk in superintendent meetings, which surprises me, about the finances because everybody’s talking about COVID right now,” Hiatt said. “But I think people are going to wake up, I mean, it’s estimated that

$197,000 in state aid is where the (Allen School) district is going to be cut. That’s just an estimate, I think it’s going to be more. I’m projecting more in the $225,000 range that we’re going to be cut.”

Hiatt indicated that one thing that Allen Schools did was hold onto money granted to the system via the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), and also didn’t have to buy a slew of Chromebooks like other schools did, which was a big help.

“So we’re going to be able to fill $150,000 of that hole with the CARES Act money, out of the $225,000 that I’m projecting,” Hiatt said. “Our local revenues, we’re projecting are going to be up a little bit.”

Hiatt indicated that, even though the system will still be in the hole a bit, measures taken previously will help get through the year.

“It’s all bad news, but I feel like we’re in a good position and this year we’re going to be fine,” Hiatt said. “I worry more about next year. That’s why I kind of want to already plan for next year, but nobody wants to talk about next year right now, because there’re a lot of unknowns.”

Hiatt indicated Allen Schools needs to continue being tight with finances.

“Our carry over is healthy,” he said. “Carry over is supposed to be there to get you through the lean years, but I’d like to not rely on carry over to get us through, so we’re going to look at every avenue we can to save, without it hurting the kids.”

Hiatt also spoke about grants and donation from the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations.

“Speaking of money, the Chickasaws were very generous, and I’m very thankful to the Chickasaw Nation,” he said. “We applied for a grant, and they awarded us 70% of what we asked (for), which is $105,000 that we can use for COVID expenses. The COVID expenses can be anything like cleaning supplies,

technology, anything that can be used for distance learning, like the software that we’re pumping out to our virtual kids. So this is going to help us a lot.”

Hiatt spoke of water fountains.

“One of the things on there, and we already got the order in, they’re on back order, what’s the fancy word, retro fit, these water fountains where a kid can take their water bottle and stick it under and it fills it up, they don’t have to touch anything,” Hiatt said. “So, through the Chickasaw grant, we were able to get seven water fountains fixed for that. So I’m very thankful to the Chickasaw Nation for that.”

Hiatt said the Chickasaw Nation also donated hand sanitizer to the schools, as did the Choctaw Nation.

“The Choctaw Nation has been very generous and donated some hand sanitizer, that kind of stuff,” he said. “They also donated $1,800 to put in our accounts, they brought us masks, so they’ve been helpful. Water, I’m thankful for all the moms and dads, businesses, individuals that have been donating water to us. Boy, we go through it fast. I didn’t know how fast we were going through it.”

Hiatt addressed the board concerning COVID-19.

“I do want to say, we completed day 17 today with no cases,” Hiatt said. “We have not had a case, we had a scare last week. We had a parent who thought they had it, but it turned out they didn’t. So we had sent the daughter home, now the daughter’s back. So we’re back to zero cases.”

Hiatt said Allen Schools is working hard to keep the kids distanced, which is hard, but they are doing their best.

“But our goal all along is, if we do have that positive case, is that we maybe only have to send two or three kids home,” Hiatt said. “We don’t want to send the whole school home like other schools have had to do. So that’s always been our goal, seating charts and tracking and all that. I’d like to think that’s done at a lot of schools. If we have a positive case, I can’t honestly tell you how involved the health department gets, because they (health department officials) tell me that they’ll come in and they’ll guide us, but I’ve had other superintendents that have had to shut down saying, ‘They didn’t give me that choice.’ They just showed up at schools and went down seating charts and said, ‘That kid goes home, that person goes home ...’ So, with all that being said, that’s what’s frustrating for me and other administrators, is we don’t know.”

Other Reports

Also addressing the board on administrative reports was High School Principal Chris Grimm. Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue was absent.

Grimm spoke to the board about the number of virtual students, FFA programs shows, along with how the first few weeks of school went.

Grimm said he was excited about the Oklahoma Career Tech FFA Meats Processing Pilot program, coming soon to Allen High School.

“Where are we going to put that,” Board Vice President Jami Rinehart asked.

“Well, that’s the big question,” Grimm replied. “He (agriculture teacher Johnathan Walden) thinks he can squeeze it all inside the building. So, nothing will be outside.”

Like in an empty classroom, is that what he’s thinking,” Hiatt asked.

“Well, I think the freezer would have to go out in the shop area somewhere,” Grimm said. “You know, we gotta make sure we have the electricity to be able to handle that. But in time, this could lead into certifications for the kids. Kind of like what they would get at the tech center, where they could go straight to work at local processors. Which, you know, there’s all kinds of grants out there, or has been since the spring for these mom and pop operations. Because if anybody’s tried to get any kind of animal in to have it processed, you know, they’re saying they’re a year out. And I don’t know what they’re going to do when it comes deer season.”

Grimm said it’s a good opportunity for students. He said there only 10 or 12 schools for the pilot program, so Allen Schools is one of the first ones to participate.

Grimm touched on something Hiatt mentioned previously concerning teachers being stressed due to all the changes from the pandemic, but things at the school are starting to gel.

“He’s right, they have been stressed, but they have kind of taken it in stride,” Grimm said. “This being the third, fourth week of school, everyone seems to be a little more relaxed this week. I don’t know if it’s just because they had a shorter week last week or what, but everybody seems to have kind of found their happy spot, as happy a happy spot as they can find right now, considering all the circumstances. I haven’t heard many complaints from the kids. It’s like Mr. Hiatt said, they’re just glad to be at school. And attendance has been really good.”

Grimm knocked on wood before saying, “I shouldn’t say it out loud, but discipline hasn’t been a major issue.”

“You ruined it,” Hiatt said as board members laughed.

“It’s different, but it’s a better different,” Grimm said.

Discussion Items

In discussion items, Allen Schools Federal Programs Director Mary Pat Sappenfield spoke about Title 1 -- the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Title 1 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

Sappenfield spoke to inform the board, parents and community members of the federal program.

“Title 1 funding is based upon a calculation of students that are enrolled in the school who receive a free, or a reduced meal rate,” Sappenfield said. “And that count is taken each fall -- October, November, some time in there -- and so we use that percentage, we use that number until we take a count again. We’re still operating off of last year’s number, which for the elementary site, which is pre-k through eighth, is 80%. The high school site, which is 9 ^th through 12 ^th is 73%.”

Sappenfield said the system has heard that the percentages might be going up a bit this year.

“The majority of these funds that are coming down on schools have been used to support some programs that have been in place for a long time here at Allen,” she said. “Our pre-k program and the elementary computer lab, and the personnel in there. These funds that come in, we have to spend in certain ways. It’s not as if we receive funds, then we can do just whatever we choose, it’s based on the guidelines from Title 1.”

Sappenfield said Allen Schools spends the money first, then files for reimbursement. She said as the majority of Title 1 funds for Allen are used to support the pre-k program, where there are two early childhood certified teachers and two early childhood paraprofessionals.

“But once again, this year Allen Schools is partnering with Big 5, and Big 5 is providing half of the support for personnel in that program, and then Title 1 will take (care of) the other half of that,” Sappenfield said.

She said Title 1 also helps with purchasing equipment in the elementary computer lab such as new equipment and upgrades.

“Any online, web-based programs that we might need, the paraprofessional who is in that lab who assists students with supplemental instruction and reading, math and language arts is also supported by Title 1,” Sappenfield said. “There are also some other salaries that are supported by Title 1.”

And, due to the pandemic, some Title 1 funds are being used for new issues.

“Also this year, we were using Title 1 funds to partially support a virtual learning paraprofessional who assists the teachers with the students that are doing virtual at this time in reading math and language arts,” Sappenfield said. “There are some requirements for these special funds as Mr. Hiatt had mentioned, there are some things also that we had to set aside certain monies for, just a requirement of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act. And one of those is to support parent and family engagement. And so maybe you’ve heard in times past we might have a parent night, or we had some specific activities planned, and of course we try to base that on some components from literacy, and just opportunities to communicate and just build relationships with families.”

Sappenfield said Allen Elementary uses Title 1 funds in a schoolwide plan versus targeted assistance.

“A targeted assistance plan is going to identify students that are in need of intervention, and provides supplemental instruction just to those students that are identified,” Sappenfield said. “But in a schoolwide plan, it operates from the practice that when a high percentage of students in that school come from impoverished families, their conditions not only affect, of course their family, but it affects all, all who work and who are in their surroundings. So we find it is most advantageous for it to be a schoolwide program. Then, students who are identified at greatest risk for failure to learn, then, we set some things in place to help them even more.”

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda which included the fiscal year 2020-2021 purchase orders and encumbrances: General fund numbers 122 through 144 ( $26,228.18 ); building fund numbers 33 through 41 ( $17,913.94 ); and child nutrition fund numbers 31 through 37 ( $158,440.94). Also included the consent agenda was the treasurer’s report, activity fund report, opening an activity account for Chromebook insurance; contract with Ronny Potts, school psychologist for testing fiscal year 2021; estimate of needs for the year ending June 30, 2021; and fundraisers for fiscal year 2021 (Elementary, Football, Senior Class and Library).

Action Items

There were no action items on the agenda.

Executive Session

The board entered into executive session, and, upon returning, voted to accept contracts of all employees that are less than 11 months (all teachers and support), and also voted to continue with Dayne Parker serving as a lay coach for basketball