The Freedom Board of Education approved contracts for new employees Scott Renken, Jennifer Renken and Sara Bowman. They had previously announced hiring agreements with the trio. Superintendent James Miller asked the board to review his contract. After the meeting, he showed this reporter the difference in the new and old contract. When multiplied by an index of 2.2 over minimum teacher salary, his salary would be out of line considering the number of students in the district.

His pay will be based on the 2017-2018 OKSDE Minimum Teacher Salary Scale, with years experience and administrative increment applied.

A few patrons paid their cafeteria bills and other overdue fees in June. This brought the Freedom General Fund carryover to $856,000 and the building fund carryover to $175.000.

In other items, the freezer is working after a new compressor was installed. Also, the metal has arrived to repair several bathroom doors. Kline Electric will be at Freedom this week to put in new lights in the ag barn.

Teachers will be onsite on July 17 for a professional development day.

Employees of BancCentral are detecting what is wrong with some of the electronic door locks.

The board approved a method of teaching Spanish using Skype. The teacher will be in Norman, but a supervising teacher will be in Freedom.

The board voted to spend about $12,000 with Statewide Fire. A new control panel will be installed in the superintendent's office, but a dozen more fire sensors will be installed around the building. In the past, they've only had three sensors.