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Allen school bond projects are nearing completion and were discussed Tuesday, July 9^th , at a special meeting of the Allen School Board. Board members Robert Hammonds and Kelly Hurt, along with Amy Mayhue, Elementary School principal, were not present.

Administrative reports

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

Jeff Hiatt

Hiatt said the architect of the three school bond projects -- the new gym, renovating and adding classrooms to the junior high school, and building new elementary-school classrooms, visited Monday for the next to last inspections. The architect made a list of things that the construction company needs to have completed by July 18^th . “July 18, (the architect) is going to come back,” Hiatt said, “and we’re going to do our fi nal walk-through. So MacHill has that time frame to get everything finished in these two buildings (the gymnasium and the elementary school). At that point, depending on what we find, if it’s minor stuff, we can go ahead and move in. But really, I don’t want to move in if there’s still stuff (that has to be done). I want to have that clean.” Hiatt said the fire marshal visited Tuesday and approved the gymnasium and the elementary school. Hiatt said as for the junior high, MacHill Construction has said it will have most of the job near completion by August 1^st . “They’re more optimistic that we’ll be in it before school starts,” Hiatt said. “They’re not 100-percent telling me that, but as I talk to them they’re a lot more optimistic. So it’s moving along.”

Chris Grimm

Grimm said faculty has been busy getting schedules ready and updating handbooks for the coming school year. For an example, he mentioned the dress code and how high above the knee that shorts and skirts are allowed to be. “Even the dress code was not, it was worded in such a way it kind of covered everything,” Grimm said. “I just need to know where the middle of the knee is. Because “the handbook still uses a dollar bill (for length). And as fashion changes, that’ll be kind of short. You know, six inches from the knee, depending on how you gauge that, and that’s going to be the big deal. My thought was, everybody is going to say the middle of the knee is up here. Well, my thought is, if their knee is on the ground, we can just measure it from the ground up and make it real simple.”

Grimm said right now students may think shorts and skirts have to be really long, whereas a few years from now, as fads change, they may think it’s really short.

Consent agenda

The board approved the consent agenda as a whole, which included the treasurer’s report, activity fund report, and the fi scal year 2019-20 purchase orders/encumbrances: general fund numbers 128 through 132 ($4,014.18); building fund numbers 21 through 22 ($918); and the building bond fund number one ($2,800).

Also included was board member travel, lodging, meals and incidental expenses associated with attendance of the OSSBA/ CCOSA (Oklahoma State School Board Association/Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration) Conference, August 22-25, 2019; and travel requests TR 13-22 (Administration attendance of the OSSBA/ CCOSA Conference; Coaches Clinic).

Also included in the consent agenda was math and science credits for Allen students completing courses at Pontotoc Technology Center for the school year (2019-20) ending June 30, 2020; a fundraiser request for softball; establishing the fiscal year 2020 hourly pay rate for tutors ($20 per hour), and bus drivers ($15 per hour); and sanctioning of outside booster clubs for fiscal year 2020, including the quarterback club, basketball boosters, baseball boosters, softball boosters, cheer boosters and music boosters.

Action items

In action items, the board approved the renewal of a lease-purchase agreement with Ross Transportation for three route buses for fiscal year 2020.

“These buses, we tear them up,” Hiatt said. “We tear them up big time.”

Board Secretary Brenda Robertson agreed. “Yeah, Hughes County is a killer,” she said. Both were speaking about how rough county roads are on the buses.

Hiatt and Robertson agreed Ross Transportation is good to work with. Robertson said the previous bus transportation company, Thomas Built Buses, had nice buses, but they were only good for highways, and not rough county roads.

The board approved the renewal of a sublease agreement dated December 1, 2017, between the District and Pontotoc County Educational Facilities Authority for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, as required under the provisions of the agreements.

Board members also approved the renewal of the Qualified Zone Academy Bond Lease for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, as required under the provisions of the equipment lease purchase agreement dated Sept. 1, 2013, between the school district and Zions First National Bank.

The board voted to approve the Allen Elementary Before/After School Program “policies and procedures” for the upcoming school year.

Hiatt said the school district has raised the cost of the after school program from $1 to $3 per day, which, he said, is similar to other area schools.

“Pretty much, this is what everybody is doing,” he said. “Raising it, we felt like $3 a day, if you need childcare, that’s a dollar and hour.”

Board member Jami Rinehart said the fee is reasonable.