Superintendent Rehired Through 2025
Allen Schools Superintendent Jeff Hiatt was rehired Monday on a three-year contract through 2025. The Allen Board of Education voted to rehire Hiatt at its regular meeting and came after executive session.
The board also rehired all certified temporary staff, support staff, custodian staff and cafeteria staff on the agenda. A complete list is available at the end of the story.
Administrative Reports
Administrative reports were delivered by Hiatt, Junior High and High School Principal Chris Grimm, and Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue.
Hiatt began by speaking about the fifth-grade awards assembly, which was held recently.
“It went really well,” Hiatt said, “first time we’ve tried it. I thought it was a success, very positive.”
Hiatt said at the school system’s faculty lunch this today (Thursday), four retirees will be honored.
“Juanita Hamilton is retiring after 12 years,” Hiatt said, “Johnna Shires is retiring after 27 years with us, 30 altogether. Georgia Gray is retiring after five years with us. She’s put in way more than that, but I don’t know how many. Greg Sanders is retiring after 25 years with us, so we’re going to honor them Thursday.”
Hiatt said the High school academic assembly will be held Thursday, May 12 th .
“Friday is the Athletic Assembly,” Hiatt said. “Those will both be at the high school gym. Saturday, graduation is at 10 o’clock. We did put up a big screen, and we’re kind of proud of that. We’ll have a slideshow, I mean, everybody is going to see it, it’s nice.”
Chris Grimm
Grimm spoke about a recent FCCLA fundraiser, indicating it was a major success, and raised $11,000 in one day.
Grimm spoke about enrollment, saying the high school currently has 136 students, while the junior high has 103.
“Band went to a competition Saturday, and also to Frontier City,” Hiatt said. “I did not get results from Mr. (Devan) Bettencourt on that, so if he happens to get back to me some time tonight, I’ll let you know.”
Amy Mayhue
“I’m happy to report the Read-a-Thon (Fundraiser) totals,” Mayhue said. “We raised $10,730. The total that comes to us from that company is $8,584 which will go into our activity fund account. The minutes we read during the (event) were 43,075. And, I think my top reader was over 4,000 minutes by himself. I took 15 to lunch with me today. To go to lunch with me, they had to have 1,000 minutes read or they had to have $250 donated, and I took 15 with me.”
Mayhue said the lunch was held at Mazzio’s Pizza in Ada.
“We filled them up and came on back,” she said. “We had a really good time.”
Mayhue said summer school is scheduled to begin May 18, and 77 students will be attending.
“Our testing in the elementary is complete,” Mayhue said. “Very proud of Mrs. Hiatt, she did it from April 20 to May 2, and we were done.”
Mayhue said at the beginning of the year, the elementary school had 238 students enrolled, but currently, there are 245 students enrolled.
“So, even though we’ve lost some kids and gained some kids, we’re ending on a gain, so that’s good,” she said.
Also during administrative reports, Agriculture teacher Johnathan Walden brief the board about recent FFA happenings and introduced Brody Wallis, who gave his FFA speech before the board. Wallis’ speech concerned the importance of to the Tulsa Port of Catoosa to Oklahoma agriculture.
The port is the head of navigation of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, a 445-mile waterway that links the Verdigris and Arkansas Rivers, the Arkansas Post Canal, the White River, and the Mississippi River.
In just a small portion of his speech, Wallis mentioned that the port has an annual economic impact of over $300 million each year, holds about 71 companies, and employs over 3,200 Oklahomans.
Consent Agenda
The board approved the consent agenda, which included the minutes of the April 11, 2022, Regular Meeting; The fiscal year 2021-2022 Purchase Orders/Encumbrances: General Fund numbers 264 through 281 ($21,234.32); Building Fund number 27 ($1,136.50); Child Nutrition Fund numbers 44 through 47 ($36,226.50); Treasurer’s Report; and Activity Fund Report.
Also included in the agenda were a high school cheer overnight trip for cheer camp in Norman on from June 3-5; a fundraiser for fiscal year 23 (Girls Basketball, Softball & HS Cheer); a renewal of Drug Testing Consortium for Bus Drivers; and Summer Extra-Duty Pay at $10 per hour.
Action Items
In action items, the board approved the following policies and updates from OSSBA (Oklahoma State School Boards Association): CKAE,CKAE-R, EMC, FNF-E, and FOB.
Hiatt explained the updates, saying these updates are policies the school did not have previousely, but was doing anyway.
CKAE concerned drug dogs, and, specifically, during drug, alcohol and contraband searches, dogs are not allowed to search a student or teacher, only property.
“That’s how we’ve always done it,” Hiatt said, “but now we have policy.”
Hiatt said CKAE-R is related and involves searches.
EMC concerns students who possess CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) cards being allowed to wear beads and a feather on their heads.
“So that’s federal law that we have to adopt,” Hiatt said. “It’s not been an issue here because we have allowed students to do that anyway.”
The board took action on a resolution determining the maturities of, and setting a date, time and place for the sale of the $930,000 General Obligation Building Bonds of the School District.
A time and date was set for 6:30 p.m. June 28 th .
Hirings, Rehirings and Resignations Upon returning
Upon returning from executive session, the board rehired all certified temporary staff, support staff, custodian staff and cafeteria staff on the agenda, which included:
Allen Public Schools Certified Temporary Staff
1. Vannie Bailey
2. Taylor Colbert
3. Devan Bettencourt
4. Racquel Countryman
5. Amber Goodson
6. Carrie Koonce
7. Matt McCreary
8. Ethan Sharp
9. Candice Smith
10. Nikki Walden
11. Taryn Wofford
Allen Public Schools Custodial Staff
1. Rosie Postoak
2. Theresa Williams
3. Retha Wilson
4. Melissa Wood
Allen Public Schools Support Staff
1. Gina Alcaida
2. Dylan Batungbacal
3. Crystal Bear
4. Becky Dyer
5. Robin Escarcega
6. Lindsey Linker
7. Tracy McGuire
8. Juanita Riddle
9. Tierra Roberson
10. Patricia Spray
11. Brooke Taylor
12. Debbie Vinson
13. Trisha Wainscott
Allen Public Schools Cafeteria Staff
1. Gena Beasley 2. Linda Cornwall
2. Linda Cornwall
3. Robert Huggins
4. Teri McCarn
5. Bonnie Stephens
6. Candice Wilson
The board accepted the resignations of Stephen Mapp (Elementary PE Teacher) and Greg Sanders (HS Science Teacher).
The board also approved Summer school contracts, also hired Kaleb Burns as special education teacher. Public Comments
Public Comments
During public comments, Lindsey Hisaw, with the Allen Baseball Booster Club, addressed the board about baseball happenings.