Randy MitchellDuring The August 13th Regular Meeting Of Allen School Board, Superintendent Jeff Hiatt Spoke About The School System’s Finances, And How The State Aid Is Down Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic.“we’re Starting A New Year, And Our Carry

During the August 13th regular meeting of Allen School Board, Superintendent Jeff Hiatt spoke about the school system’s finances, and how the state aid is down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re starting a new year, and our carry over is solid,” Hiatt said. “I want everyone to know that, but we’re getting cut, like everybody else in the state. So, where we are right now, we’re down initially, ... but we’re in pretty good shape. All things considered, we’re not as bad as what I was projecting, but I estimate we’re down at least $70,000 from where we were a year ago. So, there’s going to be more cuts coming. What’s really saving us right now is our local revenues are up.”

Hiatt indicated seeing the drop in state aid was worrisome, but with local collections being up, it nearly balanced out the situation. He said what drives the school’s finances is attendance.

“And if someone asked me the number one thing that worries me the most, is our enrollment is going down,” Hiatt said. We don’t have the exact numbers yet, I’ve asked them (school principals) to kind of tell you what we think it is, but we’ve lost students to these charter schools. You know, we’re offering online, the same thing. So, we’re trying to reach out to these parents that are moving their kids to these charter schools and say, ‘Bring them back to Allen. We can offer the exact same thing. You know, you get local teachers, you don’t get some random teacher that’s off in Timbuktu.”

High School principal Chris Grimm said it was expected that 11 junior high kids were going to be virtual, while 13 students were saying they want to be virtual.

Elementary School principal Amy Mayhue said, “Every grade has some virtual kiddos. I have 36 total right now. My highest one is kinder. Kindergarten is my high group of virtual kids.”

Mayhue said there are about eight kindergarten students in virtual learning.

Hiatt spoke about Epic Charter Schools.

“I hate to badmouth other schools, because I won’t, but Epic sends emails to our teachers, they get emails in their school email, trying to recruit them,” Hiatt said. “They’re (Epic) on Facebook advertising, saying how great their school is, how it’s much better than public. They do it to us, so I’m going to step out of line and do it right back at them. Their dropout rate is 40%, and our dropout rate is less than 1%.” Hiatt said he hopes people will at least give Allen Schools’ virtual option a chance. “This is new to us, but the program we’re using is about identical to what they’re using,” Hiatt said, “it’s just going to be new for our teachers, it’s going to be new for the school, ... but we’re committed to make it work. The thing about it, if you guys remember, last October, we voted in this board meeting to start planning for a blended virtual option in this school district.” Hiatt indicated the plan was for the school system to always have virtual learning eventually, but it went into overdrive due to the pandemic.

Hiatt indicated that data shows that inschool instruction is far better than virtual learning, especially for elementary students.

“School is way more than just math and reading,” Hiatt said, “it’s learning social skills, it’s learning how to interact with other kids.”

Hiatt said he believes people are wired to be around other people, and not just sit at home.

Board member Ron Batey asked if all state schools are having a virtual option to which Hiatt replied, “Yes.”

“And in that option, we have to provide access to internet if they don’t have it,” Hiatt said.

Other

Hiatt spoke about two lots that the school system owns where two dilapidated houses were demolished. He said they have permission to burn large brush piles on the land as it will be clean burning, and the city will haul off large chunks of concrete left over from the demolition.

Hiatt also spoke about athletic fields and all the work that has been done there, which included painting the football goal posts and baseball foul poles.

“We’ve just done a lot of cleaning down there,” Hiatt said. “The grass looks good, I think the field’s in good shape, we’re working on the backstop. The baseball booster club paid to get that brick put around there, we’re going to put up the net. We’re not going to have all that done before school, though, but it will be done before baseball season. We’re in the process of getting a baseball scoreboard with a mural on it.”