Randy MitchellScholastic Meets And Fccla Competitions Were Among Issues Discussed April 12 Th At The Regular Meeting Of The Allen Board Of Education.Updates Were Given During Administrative Reports, Which Were Delivered By High School/junior High Prin

Scholastic meets and FCCLA competitions were among issues discussed April 12 ^th at the regular meeting of the Allen Board of Education.

Updates were given during administrative reports, which were delivered by High School/Junior High Principal Chris Grimm, Elementary School Principal Amy Mayhue, and Superintendent Jeff Hiatt.

Chris Grimm

“In the past few months, our FCCLA chapter has been very busy on various projects,” Grimm said.

He said the chapter has recently had eight members -- two groups and four individuals -- win the State STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) Event competition and qualify for the National FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) Conference and Competition in San Diego, California.

STAR Events are competitions where members compete at the region/district, state, and national level and are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills, and career preparation. STAR Events allow students to compete individually or as a team.

“Our students competed against over 1,000 Oklahoma FCCLA students at the state competition,” Grimm said. “We had seven participants take first place, one second-place winner, and one of our members even got a perfect score.”

Grimm said among the participants were Keenan Walker, Career Investigation; Aniston Weeks, Chapter Service Project; Maddox Wofford, Focus on Children; and Addison Bailey, Cheyenne McCarn, Mallory Howard, Ava Laden and Addison Prentice all competing in the Promote and Publicize Event.

“These students have achieved great things in our community and our state, and they are excited to compete with the nation in California this summer,” Grimm said. “These students are working intensely to fund this trip. This hard work will show on May 1 ^st , when the FCCLA Chapter will hold a lunch/ pie auction/raffle.

Along with all that, we also have two members attempting to assume District Officer positions. STAR Event participants Ava Laden and Mallory Howard will learn more information on their application’s progress later this month.”

Grimm mentioned Future Farmers of America competitions as well.

“FFA has also been busy, went to the Strother Welder’s Rodeo,” Grimm said. “Took seven students, (earned) fourth place out of 26 (teams) from across the state. That’s doing well. I think I saw on the board they have a final to that in later April, first part of May. They went to Conners State College scholastic meet, nursery landscaping team got third out of 11, and third high individual -- Ethan Roniss. The team got 18 ^th place out of 49 teams, environmental science got eighth out of 22, and we also competed in floriculture and lamb judging. Down in Murray Scholastic Meet, they got fourth overall in nursery landscape; sixth in environmental science, fifth place in ag mechanics/welding.”

Grimm said the high school in general went to the Seminole Scholastic Meet.

“We got second, we brought home some hardware, we got second overall as far as a team in our division,” he said. “And then down at Southeastern (Oklahoma State University), which was the last one that we went to, we won that one in our division.”

Grimm spoke about some of the benefits of scholastic meets.

“Number one, it gives the kids an opportunity to get on the campus,” Grimm said. “Whether it’s Murray, Seminole, or East Central. We didn’t go to East Central this year. Southeastern, they try to do fun things and least get them on campus to see things. Now, like Taylor Wood, he goes for every test he can possibly test in, and he got first place in three different tests at Southeastern, if I remember correctly. He’s just a little wizard.”

Grimm said tests range from geometry to algebra 1 and 2, English, physics, etc.

Amy Mayhue

Mayhue spoke about third- through fifth-grade state testing which began this week. She said the testing is starting a little early because of a testing window.

“It’s going to be really difficult, I’m afraid, because it’s going to be really fast,” Mayhue said. “I don’t normally like to test kids in a week-and-a-half, but we’re going to do it. And our poor fifth-graders are the ones I really feel sorry for because they are basically testing every day for a week-and-a-half. Our thirdand fourth-graders, we were able to give them a break, they take their reading one week and math the next.”

New board member Brooke Baber asked what is the typical time frame for fifth-graders, and if they normally get a break.

“Yes,” Mayhue replied. “We do it by sections, so they get like a part 1 and a part 2 of each subject that they do, and each part is usually somewhere between 27 to 32 questions, something along those lines. So, usually we test in the morning first thing, and we’re usually done by 10:30 in the morning, and then the rest of the day, they do what they need to do. They’re studying for the next test or whatever they’re working on. With our schedule, we are able to give them their PE, their lunch, their normal day to try and give them a break and not be so hard on them, because I know it’s rough to get through that much. When I started teaching and started testing fifth grade, it was not easy. It was a lot harder than this. So I’m really happy that we’ve gone to section 1, section 2, or we can split it up over days and give the kids a chance to do their very best.”

Mayhue spoke about field trips.

“We had a firstgrade trip to the Jenks Aquarium, it went really, really well,” Mayhue said. “That was another OERB field trip, so it was free, because our teachers are OERB certified.”

Mayhue said second grade would be visiting the Science Museum, which is also an OERB field trip.

“Head start is going to get to go fishing again,” Mayhue said. “We’re so excited. Poor Head start has shut down all field trips even more than we were. Now they finally got to open it up and we are going to get to go on field trips with Head Start. This is their only field trip this year, but we’re excited.”

Mayhue said fourth grade did their living history reports the week previous to the meeting.

“It was wonderful,” Mayhue said. “The kids dressed up as their historical character and then gave a little speech about their character. We had Elvis, we had Walt Disney, we had John Wayne, we had Davy Crockett, all these different American historical figures and icons. It was a lot of fun ... it was a good, good time.

Jeff Hiatt

Hiatt gave updates to the board concerning new vehicles funded by school bonds.

“You know we passed the bond over a year ago for buses, and we’re still missing a bus,” Hiatt said, “because of Covid and all that. We got the news that our second activity bus should be here (soon), so I’m excited about that. That will be our sister bus to the black bus. This one’s going to be more white, it’s a different look, the same look but a different color.”

Hiatt spoke about the new ag truck.

“You know, that’s another thing on that bond we still haven’t received, it’s been over a year ago” Hiatt said. “They’re telling me middle of June. It’s being built right now. So, they can look it up in the computer and it’s actually being built, so that’s a good thing.”

Hiatt told the board the school system will receive a 2022 model instead of the 2021 model which was originally ordered. The system will receive the vehicle at the 2021 price.

“They honored the price,” he said. “The price today is a lot more than it was 14 months ago.”