After executive session at the Allen School Board meeting October 11^th , Allen Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Caruthers announced he will retire after the end of the school year, effective June 30, 2019.

The board accepted Caruthers’ resignation.

The meeting

Of the many items discussed at the Thursday, October 11^th , Allen School Board meeting, the rules concerning medical marijuana was among them.

“That is the medical marijuana brouhaha that everybody’s gotta do,” Allen Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Caruthers said at the meeting. “The law comes into effect on November 1^st .”

The Oklahoma State School Boards Association has a recommendation for all Oklahoma schools.

“The big deal is this: as far as we’re concerned, you can’t smoke at school,” Caruthers said. “So, it’s not that. If they’re bringing some sort of pill or chewable, we have to provide them some private place to administer that. So, mom or dad would have to bring it up here. School personnel cannot dispense it.”

Caruthers then read the OSSBA’ recommendation concerning medical marijuana.

The following was obtained from the website for the OSSBA.

“The district will not regulate or take any adverse action against an employee for holding a medical marijuana license. The school district may take action against an employee who possesses a medical marijuana license if the employee uses or possesses marijuana while at school or during the hours of employment as per 63 O.S. § 425.

Students whose medical condition requires the use of medical marijuana are allowed to access and utilize marijuana in accordance with state law. School personnel are not legally permitted to administer medical marijuana to students. The district will provide a private location for a caregiver to administer medical marijuana to students at school. Oklahoma law limits who may act as a caregiver and any caregiver will have a medical marijuana license designating them to act on behalf of a student. The caregiver is responsible for bringing the medical marijuana to the qualifying student and promptly removing the medical marijuana from the premises after consumption or use.

Upon arriving at school, the caregiver will follow district protocol with regard to check in and departure.

There will be no smoking on school premises of any substance 24/7 in accordance with the state’s no smoking act. At no time will marijuana be grown or stored on school premises.

School employees will not under any circumstances:

a. Assist students in obtaining or using medical marijuana;

b. Store medical marijuana for students;

c. Take and/or use a student’s medical marijuana;

d. Serve as a student’s designated caregiver, unless the student is the child or in the legal custody of the employee.

The district reserves the right to discipline employees or students who fail to adhere to Oklahoma law and/or the requirements of this policy. Such disciplinary action will be addressed in accordance with the student discipline code and/or the standards of conduct for employees. Employees may be subject to termination or non-reemployment.

If a student has specifi c procedures regarding medical marijuana that are written into the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) and such procedures are consistent with state and federal law, those provisions will take precedent over this policy.”

After reading the recommendation, Caruthers then continued speaking with board members.

“That’s the only wild card, and nobody can tell you what that means, because it hasn’t happened yet anywhere,” Caruthers said. “But theoretically, if a kid is prescribed this for let’s say, autism, or ADHD, or epilepsy, or chronic pain, glaucoma, lots of different things, then there may be something that has to be worked out. They may have to take it more often. Maybe mom or dad couldn’t get off work twice a day, or whatever. Nobody knows what that looks like yet.”

The board also discussed what that means for bus drivers.

“The people who take insulin can keep their bus driver license, but they can’t drive,” Caruthers said “So, it would be kind of that same deal, as long as you’re on this medication, you can’t drive. It’s going to be a can of worms. There’s going to be lawsuits, I guarantee you some place. I’m hoping not here, but somebody’s going to tell somebody no, or they can’t, or yes they can and they’re off to court, and there you go. And, it’s really still against federal law. And we accept federal money. That’s the worry, how do we deal with that.”

Caruthers made a recommendation to the board.

“This is what OSSBA has come up with,” he said, “and I recommend we approve this.”

The board approved the item, however, board Vice President Jeff Maloy voted no.

Board President Robert Hammonds mentioned the increase of alcohol in beer.

“Due to the increase in the alcohol content that they put in beer today, do we need to have someone come and speak to our kids about the dangers (involved),” Hammonds asked.

High school Principal Tony Wellington said the schools are in the process of doing that very thing.

“There is a couple of organizations around that have programs for kids that we’re probably going to have out at some point in time.” Wellington said.

“I think it would be a good deal to have someone come and teach our kids the dangers of all that stuff,” Hammonds said.

“Well, there are some dangers of several things that our kids are not truly aware of,” Wellington said. “I met with them a week or so ago myself and discussed some of the issues, the vaping, the drinking, the sexting, all those kinds of things.”

Other action item and

consent agenda

In other business, the board approved action item A, which was a discussion and vote to approve or disapprove a resolution calling for the annual school board election. The seat to be filled at the election is office number four.

The board also approved the consent agenda, which included the following: A. The minutes of the September 13, 2018, regular meeting. B. The fiscal year 2018-2019 purchase orders/ encumbrances: General Fund number 198 through 214 ($32,290.49); Child Nutrition Fund number 33 through 34 ($15,250.00); Building Fund number 14 through 15 ($1,357.10) C. Treasurer’s report. D. Activity fund report. E. Acknowledgement of continuation of onsite careertech programs for fiscal year 19 (Ag. Ed, FACS, and BMITE). F. Travel request: out-of-state travel and expenses regarding Allen FCCLA attending Cluster Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, November 8 – 11, 2018. Recent disciplinary issues

Prior to hearing administrative reports, Caruthers spoke about several incidents of students getting into trouble in the two weeks prior to the meeting.

“The kids are being kids,” Caruthers said, “and sometimes that’s good, and sometimes that’s bad. (We’re) staying on top of the discipline. Seems like the last two weeks, the weather change or whatever, that there’s been a lot of it.”

Caruthers said a student came to him to report his “vaping machine” had been stolen out of his vehicle. A device that was reportedly worth $300.

“Which he’s not supposed to have up here, of course that’s against the rules,” Caruthers said. “He actually reported that himself.”

Caruthers said faculty reviewed camera footage, figured out what occurred and resolved the matter.

“That’s the world we live in today” Caruthers said. “That was a fi rst for me.”

The subject of vaping contests was brought up.

“Oh, yeah,” Council Member Jami Rinehart said. “They pay big money for these (contests).”

Carruthers said there are contests to see “who can blow the biggest smoke ring, and different shapes and make it look like a jellyfish. I learned way more about it than I ever wanted to know,” he said.

Administrative reports

Elementary and junior high school Principal Jeff Hiatt and Wellington delivered administrative reports to the board.

Hiatt said they were gearing up for parent-teacher conferences, which took place Monday.

“Last year, we had 91 percent, so, I’d like to beat that,” Hiatt said.

Hiatt also presented the board with reports where teachers were rated by performance.

Of course, the council does not discuss personnel issues except in executive session.

Hiatt mentioned several basketball festivals between elementary students that will be used as fundraisers.

“If you guys want something to do, you can come watch kindergarteners play basketball,” Hiatt said.

For more information about the basketball festivals, see related story in this edition.

Wellington next addressed the board.

“Softball obviously is through,” Wellington said. “We had a great season with that. I think everything worked out really good with them even though we didn’t get to the state tournament like we planned on. They had the best record they’ve ever had, the highest rating by far they’ve ever had, rated fourth to finish the season. I was really proud of those kids and coaches, they had a great year.”

In football news, Wellington mentioned Homecoming is November 2^nd .

“It’ll be the last game, it will be Senior Night also,” Wellington said.

Wellington spoke of the Liberty Tigers football team which lost to the Allen Mustangs, 46-12, on October 5^th . The team expressed gratitude at the class they were shown by Allen.

“Their athletic director called me Monday morning and thanked us for how well we treated them here Friday night and how our coaches respected them, how our players respected them. They just wanted us to be aware of that and wanted us to know they were very thankful.”

Wellington said because previous to that game, many teams had run up the score and played starters late in the game against Liberty.

“We didn’t do that,” Wellington said. “And I was very proud of the way our coaches handled that, and our kids were very respectful. They just wanted us to know that, and they will treat us that way when we visit their place next year. They will be very hospitable to us.”

Wellington spoke of the band.

“The band went to Tishomingo Saturday (October 6^th for the Chickasaw Festival Band Day Extravaganza) and came home with two trophies,” Wellington said. “I was tickled with that. They have come a long way. Very, very proud of them.”

Construction update

Ed McKerley of MacHill Construction was in attendance and provided an update concerning construction projects.

“Just to report on the building, the gym has been going great,” McKerley said. “It’s been moving along really, really quick.”

McKerley said on the exterior of the building, they have it “all steeled up.”

“We’ve got all our horizontal siding on the outside of the building,” McKerley said. “We have our roof up, and our roof curbs up for our units (air conditioning units), with covers on them. We’re working on the outside

covers on them. We’re working on the outside wall framing, and we’ve worked our way around to the front of the building where we have the tower area, where we’re having the arches. That’s going to be a nice addition.”

McKerley said the blocks for the building should arrive this week some time. He said they’re praying the rain will end for awhile so they can get back to working on the outside of the building.

“When you get to the inside, we have got the liner panel up -- about 75 percent of it up --we’ve got the mezzanine structure up,” he said. “We’ve got the joists on the mezzanine.”

McKerley said everything is going well.

“All in all, it’s going real well,” he said. “We had the black Simple Saver System up on the top of the building there for the gym. We have temporary lights in there. We don’t really ask anybody to go by there and look, but if you do, you won’t fall in a hole. To go where the trucks have been, and where the equipment has been going into the building, and not try to step around the site, because there is holes still.”

McKerley said they are not behind on anything.

“I don’t know how it could go any faster,” McKerley said. “I mean, if we had better weather, we’d probably be having some blocks up.”

McKerley said the gymnasium is looking great, to which Rinehart agreed.

“It is, it is,” Rinehart said. “We’ve been getting a lot of compliments.”

McKerley said they’ve been getting many visitors.

“I mean, they fill up the parking lot across the streets,” he said with a laugh. “They’re everywhere, you know.”

Michael Barnes, also with MacHill, said he believes Allen will have more of a home-court advantage than in any other gym MacHill has constructed.

“Why do you say that,” Rinehart queried.

“They’re right down on the (court),” Barnes said.

“You’re going to make a lot of racket,” McKerley added. “You’re going to bother a lot of people.”

“I do anyway,” Rinehart said with a laugh.

Everyone at the meeting believes the gymnasium will be very impressive.

Junior high school

McKerley said they have all the fire marshal permits in hand for the gym, but the permits for the junior high is another story.

“On the junior high, we’re still waiting for our permit drawings back from the fire marshal,” McKerley said. “Because it got put in a pile that got kind of put on the back burner. So that stops me from things like sending in fire alarm drawings and stuff like that.

“Even though the junior high is a mudhole, we have got rebar on the site, we have got anchor bolts on the site,” McKerley continued. “The building drawings have been approved (and) sent back to the building supplier, so we’re moving on with it. And, I think, if the weather dries up just a little bit, we’ll still be on a slab by the time we get the buildings.”

Elementary school

Buildings for the elementary school, usually from the time the drawings go in until we get them back is six to eight weeks,” McKerley said. “The six-week period will be like the 25^th of this month. I haven’t got anything in writing that tells me anything. But, when we submitted the elementary school, we also submitted the junior high, that was approved drawings from the architect. So, if that holds to be true, both buildings will show up pretty close to the same time.”

McKerley said that the fire marshal “threw them a curve” in regard to the elementary school by demanding that they install CO2 sensors (carbon dioxide sensors).

“Which is not out of the ordinary, but the panel that we were going to use from the existing building would not accept the CO2 sensors,” McKerley said. “So, your fire alarm man, which is Southeastern Alarm, is going to put a brand new panel in to get that done, at no extra cost to you guys. I thought he stepped up to the plate really well.”

McKerley said as for the elementary school, the slab is 100 percent.

“We’ve got the rough-in underneath it, the dirt work is done,” he said. “The metal building -- if it comes in (October 25^th ) -- they’ll start putting it up. Insulation will be here (October 25^th ) for sure for that building.”