The Allen Schools Teachers of the Year were announced at Monday’s school board meeting, as was the overall Teacher of the Year.

Joni Hill -- who teaches sixth-through eighth-grade social studies -- was named JH/HS Teacher of the Year, while Shania Morgan -- who teaches Pre-K -- was named the Elementary Teacher of the Year.

Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said it was a close vote, but Joni Hill was selected as Overall Teacher off the Year. Teacher of year is voted on by all certified teachers in the district.

“We select an elementary and a secondary, and then pick the overall from those two,” Hiatt said.

Administrative Reports

Administrative reports were delivered by Superintendent Jeff Hiatt and Junior High/ High School Principal Chris Grimm.

Hiatt said superintendents met with “both our congressmen (Greg McCortney and Ronnie Johns), oh, three weeks ago, and they kind of wanted some of the stuff that’s coming up,” he said. “The big thing out there is the vouchers. There are two that I think they’re voting on, and what it is they’re basically giving every parent $5,800, and they can take that money with them to a private school, or, they can homeschool them. So at our superintendent meeting, I said, not to be a Smart Alec or anything, but I can see a parent taking the money, homeschooling their kid, then when the money is all gone by October 1, bring them back to school and say, ‘Hey, we decided to bring them back to school, here, you educate them.’ And then we don’t get funded for that kid the rest of the year. I mean, there’s got to be a way that they can be accountable.”

Hiatt did indicate that the matter will depend on voting in the state legislature.

Hiatt said if it passes, it will hurt public schools -- Allen included -- because public schools are reliant on state aid.

Other issues Hiatt mentioned being considered are a bill to eliminate all school board member training, and if a school has more than 5,000 students enrolled, the school system will need to stream all school board meetings on the internet.

“If that happens, it will eventually trickle down to every (school),” Hiatt said.

Other possible scenarios include anyone who works for the schools being allowed 12 weeks of maternity leave, which can be combined with any accrued sick days.

Hiatt said all teachers may get a $1,000 onetime bonus in October.

Hiatt spoke of fi eld trips.

“There’s a bunch of elementary fi eld trips coming up,” he said, “which I’m really encouraging. You know, for a year we didn’t do any fi eld trips, two years really. And I’m big on fi eld trips. I think kids need to get out of town and see other things. So, we’re really going to try and push fi eld trips this year and take them different places and do some stuff.”

Hiatt mentioned drug testing.

“Nobody has tested positive this year,” Hiatt said.

He indicated the fact that the school is conducting the drug testing randomly has probably contributed to keeping kids from doing drugs for fear of getting caught.

Hiatt mentioned the fact that schools around the state are ditching mask mandates.

“It was always about following the science, however you want to feel about that, but it wasn’t working,” he said. “There was never any scientific proof that the schools that were using it had less cases over the schools that did use it. I don’t know anybody in Oklahoma who is still doing it, maybe some of the bigger schools.”

Chris Grimm

Grimm said high school enrollment is about 137, junior high is 108, and elementary is about 242.

Grimm said the number of students who were absent recently was quite a bit lower than last month when the pandemic was again in full swing. He said about 10 high school students were absent Monday, and about six students in the junior high were absent.

“I just looked at some of the kids that were gone all day or most of the day, it’s way better than two weeks ago, three weeks ago, whenever the COVID was hitting us so hard,” Grimm said. “We were up to 25-35 kids (absent) on each side, so it was kind of a problem.”

Grimm said senior students passed their cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes last week.

“So, if you feel like you need some CPR, holler at one of the local seniors,” he said.

Grimm said sophomores recently visited the tech center “for them to do their tour and sign up and be considered for interviews and applications to attend the tech center. They told us that day that one of the new programs they will be offering is the Firefighter 1 and 2, and then the second year of that program will be EMT 1 and 2, so the kids could actually be certifi ed as EMTs if they’re 18 before they graduate, they can do all their certification tests and that sort of thing.”

Grimm indicated 18 sophomores wanted to be considered for the tech center. He said there are currently 13 or 14 juniors and seniors from Allen attending the tech center.

“The good deal about that is that they can be certified in something, and, if they’re unsure about college, they can work, and, if they decide to go, they can go,” Grimm said.

Grimm said FFA Week begins February 21 ^st and runs through the week.

He said the county fair will begin the last day of February and runs through the first week of March.

The book fair will also be the first week of March.

“Parent/teacher conferences will be on March 10,” Grimm said, “that’s the Thursday before spring break. And those conferences will run 3:00 to 9:00 pm.”

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda, which included the minutes of the January 10, 2022, Regular Meeting; the fiscal year 2021-2022 Purchase Orders/Encumbrances: General Fund numbers 230 through 242 ($30,662.18); Child Nutrition Fund number 40 ($6,500); Sinking Fund number 2 ($3,825); the Treasurer’s report; and the Activity Fund report.

Action Items

In action items, the board approved the superintendent’s recommendations regarding fiscal year 2023 Allen Public Schools calendar.

The board also approved Board Policy BJCD-R, which involved condensing an eightpage superintendent’s evaluation packet.

The board approved amending Board Policy FE, which involves open student transfer. A state board meeting was held in January, and it was recommended that the school make a few changes to its transfer policy.

The board approved changing an extra duty stipend for junior high baseball from Chad Colbert to Ethan Sharp.

The matter involved a glitch where Colbert -- over time -- received a portion of the stipend which was supposed to go to Sharp. The remedy will involve withholding the funds from Colbert’s future paychecks, and Sharp receiving the proper funds, according to the board.

The board approved adopting the system’s procurement plan for the Child Nutrition Program for fiscal year 2022.

The board also approved the superintendent’s recommendation to allow several overnight trips, including Softball -- Broken Bow Festival March 12-14; Baseball -- Wright City Festival March 16-18; and FCCLA—State STAR events in Stillwater March 8-9.

Executive Session

The board entered into executive session, and, upon returning, accepted Megan Bray’s resignation from the cafeteria.

Hiatt said the school system will not look to replace the position.

The board also visited about a few IT interviews Hiatt had, but no action was taken.