Vaping, drug tests and animals in storm shelters mentioned at School Board meeting
(Editor’s Note: The is the second story concerning the February 10 th Allen School Board regular meeting. The first story was published in the February 13 th edition of the Allen Advocate.)
Vaping, drug tests and pets in storm shelters were among the topics discussed at the February 10 th Allen School Board meeting.
There was only one action item on the agenda and it concerned a matter which was tabled from the previous Allen School Board meeting. Continued page 3 The item was whether or not to allow pets in the school system’s storm shelter -- which is open to residents -- during severe weather.
“What if they have a milk cow?” was a question asked by Board Vice President Frayne Black during the January regular meeting.
The question was met with much laughter, but got the board discussing the matter.
“Realistically, if somebody showed up with one, and our policy says ‘pets,’ I mean, it’s just like everything else we deal with in this day and age, you let it down there and it kicks somebody in the head, some other patron who’s down there, who’s liable?” Black continued.
At the February 10 th meeting, Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said the school cannot be held liable if an animal was to injure someone in the shelter.
“The state law is, if we use our facilities for any kind of disaster, tornado, we have no liability for any damages that would happen, including pets,” Hiatt said.
“So if somebody got bit by a dog ... ,” board member Kelly Hurt said.
“If somebody got bit, we can’t be sued,” Hiatt responded. “Actually, if somebody is running down the steps (and falls), we can’t be sued. There’s a special law just for tornadoes for schools opening their facilities.”
And even though the school won’t be held liable for a problem with a pet, the board was still concerned about allowing them in without stipulations.
“It could turn into Noah’s Ark down there,” Hurt said.
In the end, the board decided that pets will be allowed, but it was not mentioned if there will be a size limit. However, it’s probably a safe bet that cows will not be allowed in the shelter.
And for anyone who brings a pet to the shelter during tornadic weather, the pet or pets must be leashed or in a cage.
Board President Jeff Maloy made it clear, however, that students are the number one priority during tornadic weather.
“Kids come first, no matter what,” he said.
Administrative Reports
Administrative reports were delivered by elementary school Principal Amy Mayhue and high school Principal Chris Grimm.
Grimm said a counselor recently talked to the kids about the dangers of vaping, then, shortly after, a man employed with the Chickasaw Nation, Quincy Jones, spoke to the kids.
“I saw a big difference between the two programs, as far as the kids’ attentiveness,” Grimm said. “Quincy Jones had their undivided attention from the get-go. This guy really knows how to talk to these kids and got a point across to them as far as, not just about vaping, but drugs, alcohol, and, you know, life in general. He’s just one of those guys who’s kind of a magnet for these kids.”
Grimm said he’d like to have Jones come back and he would like him to speak to troubled youth -- ringleaders.
“If we can identify those kids, he can help us retrain their thinking just a little bit,” Grimm said. “Especially those who are trying to lead down the wrong path. And it’s not looking to brainwash them, it’s just to get their thought process going, get them to think about why they’re doing the things they’re doing.”
Drug Testing
Grimm said the school tested 28 students for drug use, and a “few did not perform so well.”
“But we’ve got them set up with counseling,” Grimm said. “Our goal here is not to say, ‘Aha! We got you,’ It’s not a ‘we want to catch you’ type deal, we want to detour them. And since we’ve had these speakers come in, and now the drug testing, they know we’re really going to do it. The vapes have suddenly disappeared. I’m not saying they’re not using them, I’m not saying they’re not on our campus, but I am going to say they’re at least being smarter about it.”
Grimm said it would be silly to believe that the school could have 100% success, but the school will certainly strive for that.
“I think some of these kids have got their eyes opened up a little bit,” Grimm said. “I know there’s some, we’re still going to have those hot spots, if you will. The kids that we’re always going to have to work on.”
Grimm mentioned medical marijuana, which was first brought up by board member Robert Hammonds.
Hammonds spoke of a student who was concerned that his parents’ medical marijuana use around him might show up on a drug test because he breathed it in. The student was afraid that he would be disqualified from playing sports if his drug test was positive.
“I think a lot of them are just calloused to it,” Grimm said. “I mean, it’s not a big deal (to them). Vaping is not a big deal, marijuana is not a big deal. Like Mr. Hiatt said, society has done a good job of demonizing tobacco, and they won’t hardly, doesn’t seem like they touch it. I mean, there’re still a few, but it’s not nearly like it was when I was still in school. Of course, we’re always going to have our work cut out for us in that regard. But I know, the number one question that was being asked was, ‘Are they going to test us for nicotine?’ Well, we tested for 10 things on that little test, but nicotine was not one of them. But, we can if we so choose too.”
Grimm indicated he is not looking to punish the students who test positive for vaping and/or drug use, but to help them stop.
“In catching some of these kids with the vapes, I know some of their parents have gone to Walgreens and got the nicotine tests, and they’re testing them,” he said. “As a matter of fact, they’re probably going ahead and grabbing a drug test and throwing it in there just for good measure.”
Grimm said he wants the students -- when offered drugs -- to explain to the offerer that they can’t indulge, because they have to worrying about drug tests at school.
“And I told them, you can blame it on me if you want to,” Grimm said. “Blame it on Hiatt, he don’t care. If we can keep them from ever getting started, that’s the biggest part of the battle.”
Amy Mayhue
Mayhue spoke about progress monitoring, which helps identify children who are struggling academically or socially.
Mayhue said progress monitoring has been going well.
“So we (held a meeting) and we were able to go and dig down into some of this progress monitoring to show whether or not these kids were going to make the end of the year benchmark,” Mayhue said. “And we were talking about these kids making the end of the year benchmark (right) now. Which was really neat for our teachers to see. To keep on trucking, keep doing what you’re doing, because what you’re doing is working.”
Mayhue said for fourth and fifth grades, the monitoring is a little different.
“For fourth and fifth, they can monitor almost daily,” she said, “how their kids are progressing, using Education Galaxy. They can go on Education Galaxy daily and find out how their kids are doing on each standard. We finally found out how to go deep into the standards of the program. So, I am working with that data right now to really dig deep into what standard these kids are missing, where our biggest deficits are.”
Education Galaxy is online assessment, practice and instruction for students.
Mayhue spoke about standards knowledge base.
“Part of my goal for this year was to really work on our standards knowledge base for the teachers,” Mayhue said. “I want to make sure that the teachers know the standards well enough that they know the standards that are coming to them, and the standards that are going after them. And so we (have started) diving into the standards. In every faculty meeting, I’m spending about 15 to 20 minutes on a specific string of a standard. We’re starting with reading comprehension. And they’re going to go and I’m going to give them the standards for every grade level, and I’m going to have them put them in order and try to figure it out without me telling them which grade level is what.”
Mayhue said it is just as important for a first-grade teacher to understand how a third-grade skill is tested as it is for third-grade teacher.
Hiatt agreed and mentioned that there are students in first grade that might be reading on a third-grade level.
“Yes,” Mayhue responded, “we do. Our second grade has kids who are reading far above second-grade level. They’re reading on a fourth-grade to fifthgrade level, so this helps give them some ideas on how to keep expanding their knowledge and where they need to go. We’re going in the right direction. So that’s what we’re going to be doing over the next few faculty meetings.”
Mayhue spoke about robotics.
“The Chickasaw Nation reached out and invited us to visit their science and math center,” Mayhue said, “and we took our third-, fourth- and fifthgraders. Each of them got a day to spend in the robotics lab. They had a blast, they loved it. The kids came back talking about it, the teachers were talking about it, they had so much fun. So I am in the midst of working with the director, and we’re going to be setting up a meeting together to see how it can best be implemented here in Allen. Whether that be in our gifted program, whether that be in an after school program, I really want to get it started by summer school. I’d really like to get it implemented in summer school, but we’ll see how fast we can kind of turn that around.”
Mayhue said all of Allen’s third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers are on board.
“When I sent them the email, I very quickly got back from them, ‘Yes,’” Mayhue said. “They want to do this.”