Allen Schools Superintendent Jeff Hiatt was rehired Monday for fiscal year 2021-2022 at the regular meeting of the school board after an evaluation, which is conducted yearly.

Hiatt was hired again after the board returned from executive session.

Also during the meeting, in administrative reports, Hiatt announced that Allen Schools selected Melissa Sells as the 2020-2021 overall “Allen Teacher of the Year.”

The teacher of the year is normally selected in April but was conducted early this year.

“Why are we moving it up, we want to make it more important,” Hiatt said. “We actually want them to do all their state paperwork and apply for state Teacher of the Year, and this gives them more time to get all that in.”

Sells was first selected as Teacher of the Year for the junior high/high school, while Terra Wainscott was first picked to be Teacher of the Year for the elementary school.

Both teachers were voted in by their peers.

“They are both great ladies, both deserving,” Hiatt said. “We held the vote today. I won’t tell you how close it was (the vote for overall Teacher of the Year), but it was so close, basically split 50/50.”

Sells has taught for 14 years, all at Allen Schools.

“She taught for 12 years as our business teacher,” Hiatt said. “Two years ago, she moved to junior high English. She actually came to me at that time and said she was looking to do something different. I like that in teachers, they don’t get stale, she just wanted a challenge. She’s been teaching sevenththrough ninth-grade English (since then).”

Sells graduated from John Brown University and earned a master’s degree from East Central University.

She and her husband Marty have two daughters, Alison and Emily.

Sells said what she enjoys most about teaching is interacting with students.

“Each student is different, and I enjoy getting to know each one of them,” she said. “It is also very rewarding when former students notify me that they applied what they learned in my class. Former students have used knowledge from my classes in their college classes or their jobs.”

Sells said she always wanted to be a teacher, and English was her favorite subject.

“I have also worked in the business community,” she said. “Teaching these classes allows me to make a difference in the lives of my students. Students need to learn proper grammar and writing skills. They will utilize these skills throughout their lives. Even if they do not attend college, they will use grammar, writing, and reading in their daily lives.”

Asked to list one funny or inspirational story about herself and teaching, Sells said, “I was teaching a class, and one of my students had a soft plastic fishing worm lure he was playing with in class. It was a distraction to the other students. I asked him what he was doing with the worm in class, and he told me he was going to eat it. So, I told him to go ahead and eat it, and he did. I did not think he would eat it, and I was worried that he would be sick from eating the worm. I called his mom and told her what had happened, and luckily, he was fine.”

Terra Wainscott is currently the fifth grade math and science teacher and has taught for 12 years -- eight at Allen, and four years previously at Calvin.

She graduated from East Central University with a master’s degree in reading.

She and husband Cody have two daughters, Cambree and Kinsey, and one son, Carter.

Wainscott’s favorite thing about teaching is the “Aha!” moments.

“I get excited when they can see and apply what they are learning to real life experiences,” she said.

Wainscott said she became a teacher because she was inspired at a young age by her own teachers.

“Mrs. Huffstuttlar and Mrs. Rowsey poured into me and showed me what a great teacher can do for kids,” she said.

Asked to share one funny or inspirational story about herself and teaching, Wainscott said, “When I was teaching third grade, we started collecting box tops (Box Tops for Education). I told the kids to bring their box tops to school so we could get them cashed in to purchase something for our school. The next day I had a student bring actual box tops that they had cut from cereal boxes. It was so cute and funny! I still have those “box tops” and when I need a good laugh, I just think of those.”

Transportation Bond

There was also discussion about the upcoming vote for possible transportation equipment bonds.

If approved, the money will be used to purchase three new buses -- one nice, Mustang-themed/painted activity bus, and two route buses.

Also, the school system will purchase a new Suburban, a new driver’s education vehicle, and a new Ag truck.

“Our transportation fleet is worn out and it is not feasible to continue leasing buses like we currently are doing,” Hiatt said. “We currently own five buses. Our newest buses are 2015 models and we have two of them. The others are 2008, 2011 and 2012 models. Our two oldest buses are very unreliable and have a lot of wear and tear on them.

This will give us reliable buses that we own in transporting our kids to and from school and to all activities. Our suburban, and drivers’ ed car and Ag truck are 2012 models with over 150,000 miles on them.”

Hiatt said the school system has been leasing three buses since he has been there, costing the school over $50,000 a year.

“Leasing is never a longterm fix and is costing us too much money,” he said. “We have to lease because we have to have enough reliable buses.”

If passed, the increase in property taxes would be 1.5%. “This is a very small increase,” Hiatt said. “For instance, if you pay $1,000 in property taxes (yearly) your taxes will go up $15.”

Voting for the $420,000 bond issue will be Feb. 9 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at regular voting places.

Budget Cuts

Also during administration reports, Hiatt addressed the board concerning budget cuts. The school system was just hit with a cut of $93,000. Hiatt predicted the cut would be $91,000.

“We were only off by $2,000,” Hiatt said. “So, I don’t want to say I was happy about getting cut, but I was happy (we were only off by $2,000). Everybody got cut across the state, it was a statewide cut. We were prepared for it. Getting cut always hurts, but I feel we were prepared for it. I kind of knew it was coming, and we were already saving that money before we got cut.”

Hiatt said he feels the school system is still in good shape, despite the cuts.

Hiatt also spoke about school text books.

“We’re on our last year of that reading grant money, and we’re in the process of trying to pick out what science books we want for our school,” he said. “So we’re getting all new science books for our school, and if you guys know, just four short years ago, the newest book was like 10 years old at that time. So, once we get our science books, we had social studies last year, we got reading the year before, we’ve got half our math, really, all we’ll have left is to get our secondary math books fixed up, then our curriculum should be up to date.”

Chris Grimm

Also during administration reports, junior high/high school principal Chris Grimm spoke to the board.

Among other items, he spoke of a positive COVID test result at the school.

“We did have a report of a student testing positive today (Monday),” Grimm said. “Luckily we only had to quarantine seven additional kids. We’re kind of seeing the benefit of them being positive in the past because we’re getting around the antibodies so they don’t have to quarantine.”

He also spoke about security cameras which are in use at the schools.

“I’m already seeing the benefits,” he said.

The cameras are state of the art and allow administration to see and record what’s occurring in school classrooms and parking lots. The cameras are 4K and are capable of zooming in very close.

Consent Agenda

The board approved the consent agenda, which included the fiscal year 2021 purchase orders/encumbrances: general fund numbers 188 through 190 -- ($2,735); building fund numbers 53 through 55 -- ($2,305.20); building bond fund number 7 -- ($139.50).

Also in the consent agenda was the treasurer’s report, activity fund report, a fundraiser change, FFA and baseball.

There were no action items on the agenda.