There were many items on Monday’s Allen School Board agenda, first among them was swearing in a new member and reorganizing the board.

New council member Ron Batey took the oath for Seat #5.

Batey was due to join the board months ago after former vice president Frayne Black decided not to run again. However, the pandemic delayed the appointment.

After Batey took the oath, the board reorganized two positions. Jami Rinehart, previously the board clerk, was promoted to vice president. She was nominated by Board President Jeff Maloy.

Rinehart then nominated Board Member Kelly Hurt -- who was absent Monday -- for board clerk.

“That’ll teach him for not showing up,” she said jokingly.

The board approved.

Administrative Reports

Administrative reports were delivered by Superintendent Jeff Hiatt and Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue. High School Principal Chris Grimm was absent.

Hiatt began by thanking Batey for joining the board, and said he is looking forward to working with him.

Hiatt said at an event he attended over the weekend, the big question that everyone was asking him was what the system is going to do when school reopens.

“Some people were concerned, a lot of people weren’t concerned, but there were a lot of questions,” Hiatt said. “The state does require each school to have a plan to open up, which we’re going to have in action items, but I kind of want to discuss it, if anybody has any questions. We have to have a plan. Our plan is not way out there, and it’s very similar to a lot of other schools’ plans.

“The issue right now is, the president weighs in on we need to open schools up and, because he says one thing, there’s a group of people who say the opposite, so I’m already seeing that in the news. I’m kind of glad it is in the news, because I think (schools) need to be in the news. But right now, it’s a political football. And the COVID-19 is a political football and unfortunately, our kids, our school, is in the middle of that. And that’s never happened, so this is all new territory for me, for teachers, for parents, for school boards. And I believe strongly that there’s bias out there all over the place, both sides. I just want to do our best ... for our kids.”

Hiatt said that what’s good for New York City or Oklahoma City or even Ada might not work for Allen.

“But I just want to share with our parents that we do take this serious,” he said. “We want to provide a safe environment for our kids, and for our teachers. And we’re going to do that, and we aren’t going to overreact, we’re not going to knee-jerk react, we’re going to make decisions that are going to keep our kids safe.”

Hiatt then spoke about protocols and recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“A lot of the stuff the CDC puts out is just impossible for schools to do,” Hiatt said. “Just because we technically can’t do everything they ask us to do, doesn’t mean we ignore it. We’re going to try and do as much as we can. And I want parents to know that we are trying to do as much as they recommend, but some of it, we just can’t. We can’t keep every kid six feet away from each other at school.”

Hiatt said he spoke with some parents at the event over the weekend and informed them that they have the right to do what they think is best for their child.

“If it’s keeping them home for a certain time, I’m not going to argue with anybody,” Hiatt said. “Keep them home, it’s your kid. So we’re going to work with the parents.”

Hiatt said after the meeting, he planned to get the information on how Allen Schools will reopen, via social media.

“And I want to encourage parents to email me, call me ... there is no right or wrong answer,” Hiatt said. “I mean, people claim to know the right answer, but I haven’t heard it yet. So I want to encourage parents to call with their concerns, I’d like to know what their concerns are. We can’t address concerns if we don’t know what they are. A lot of concerns I can be put to rest by just telling them what we have planned. And some things we haven’t thought of, so a parent might have a good concern we haven’t thought of.”

Hiatt said the “Allen Public Schools COVID-19 Protocols” will be made available to parents soon.

He presented to the board a packet containing the protocols, along with printed results of the “Back to School COVID-19 Parent/Guardian Survey 2020-2021.”

Among the protocols, it is stressed that student and staff health and safety is the number one priority, and that the goal is to begin school (in-person instruction) Aug. 20.

“We realize a need may arise when we have to close a classroom, school, or the entire district temporarily due to a rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19,” reads the front of the protocols. “If we must transition from in-person instruction to distance learning overnight, we want to assure parents that our teachers and students are equipped with the resources and knowledge to conduct and participate in distance learning.”

The protocols also indicate that there may be some changes to a normal school day for a student.

“One of those changes will include more assigned seating, including on school buses. Parents are encouraged to take their child to school if possible. At this time, we are strongly encouraging, but not requiring wearing a mask when social distancing of six feet or more isn’t possible. Parents will be required to screen their child daily before leaving home for COVID-19 symptoms. Staff will also be required to screen for the same COVID-19 symptoms. Any visitors to a school will be required to wear a mask at all times while on campus.”

Amy Mayhue

Mayhue began by speaking about the results of the survey. She said 178 people responded.

“You’d think that’s not that great, but it really was,” she said, “because when we got down to it, we went through every single response, there were only 70 of the elementary kids that were unaccounted for. So that was fantastic for us. And then we spent last Thursday and today trying to get a hold of all 70 of those kiddos that did not respond. To try and get what their thoughts are, to try and gather up who our people are that still may not be coming. That was our main concern.”

The first question on the survey asked parents whether or not their kids would be attending school in the traditional “in-person” school environment. Of the responses, 96.1% answered “yes,” while 3.9% answered “no.”

Some of the other questions on the survey included whether or not parents had access to an accurate thermometer to use at home for selfchecking; whether or not a household had access to the internet, what type of device they had and what type of internet was available.

Another question concerned what type of distance learning they preferred. Of the 178 responses, 34.8% said they would prefer virtual learning only, while 65.2% said they would prefer for packets to be sent home.

“From that, knowing that we have to go into this distance learning plan, I’m taking this distance learning plan as if we were to shut down or close,” Mayhue said. “Not, ‘This kid’s gone for three days.’ We would probably just do the regular work that the class is doing and send it home. But this is for if it was a long-term shutdown, or if we were going to be out for 14 days or 10 days. So what we have done is we have purchased Scholastic News magazines in reading and science. Those are a great tool that we can actually send home with them as a magazine for the parents to read with them. But there is also an online component, so I can put that in the virtual side and the kids will be doing exactly the same thing, it will just be a digital copy versus a paper copy. And those magazines have questions and comprehension, and they do a lot of current events, so the kids will be getting a lot of information through those.”

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda, which included the fiscal year 2020-2021 purchase orders/encumbrances: general fund numbers 98 through 107 ($4,586.62); building fund numbers 23 through 26 ($12,326.06); and child nutrition fund number 27 ($1,149.84); building bond fund numbers 1 and 2 ($18,524.00).

The consent agenda also contained the treasurer’s report; activity fund report; the appointment of Lisa Cundiff as activity fund custodian for fiscal year 2021; establish the fiscal year 2021 hourly pay rate for: tutors ($20 per hour); bus drivers ($15 per hour); and renewals, memberships, services and contracts for fiscal year 2021: Crawford Consulting; Forest Grove VISTA Program.

Action Items

The board approved all action items which included the COVID-19 Guidelines as submitted and to authorize the superintendent to make such modifications as may be necessary from time to time provided that any material modification shall be reviewed by the board of education at its next meeting; the sublease agreement dated December 1, 2017, between the District and Pontotoc County Educational Facilities Authority for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, as required under the provisions of the agreements; and the renewal of the Qualified Zone Academy bond lease for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, as required under the provisions of the Equipment Lease Purchase Agreement dated September 1, 2013, between the District and Zions First National Bank.

Another action item included an athletic handbook to be used by the athletic department for fiscal year 2021.

Athletic Director Chad Colbert attended the meeting to give a brief overview of the handbook.

“To my knowledge, I don’t think Allen has ever had an athletic handbook that I’m aware of,” Colbert said, “but basically, this handbook is just to ensure consistency in our athletic programs and our coaches. In this you’ll find objectives for the athletic programs, like code of ethics for coaches, coaches’ responsibilities, parent communication, hazing, emergency response plans for heat, weather, just about anything we encounter. That’s not all it covers. To me, it’s something we need to have a little bit of consistency across the board.”

Another action item included an amendment to the student drug testing policy for fiscal year 2021, which is basically the same policy the system has had previously, with one change concerning consequences.

“All the wordage from front to back is exactly the same as it was last year, the only change is the consequence section,” Colbert said. “And basically, they’ve just kind of been ramped up a little bit. Because I felt like they were way too lenient. But also, I want parents to understand that this is not to punish your kid, it’s to show them and educate them that what they’re doing is wrong. Initially, there may be some parents who think we’re out to get their kid, but that’s not what we’re really trying to do. That’s why there is a consequence, one, two, three.”

Other action items included opening a new activity fund account for girls’ basketball and renaming the existing basketball account — boys’ basketball (the existing money, $17,048.82, will be split between the two accounts; the transfer of activity fund money of $2,865 from the Pontotoc Conference account into the athletics account; and the transfer of $11,000 from the activity fund extended day account to the general fund.

Executive Session

After returning from executive session, the board accepted the resignation of librarian Story Maxwell, who took a similar job at Ada; hired Carrie Koonce as junior high math teacher. She previously taught at Holdenville; hired Katie Dooley as an elementary paraprofessional; hired Kimberly Chappell as a cafeteria worker; approved a new salary scale for the following support positions: maintenance, cafeteria and teacher assistants/ paras; approved all extra duty assignments and stipends; and approved all contracts for 11- and 12-month employees for fiscal year 2021.