Freedom School Board elects officers
October 11, 2017
In a special election completed in September 2017, Shane Morris was re-elected to the board. After any board election, officers must be elected. There was little change in the Freedom slate: Morris continues as president, Donald Simmons as vice-president, Shan Wilson as clerk and, in a new position, Robert Babcock is deputy clerk. Superintendent James Miller reported the ransomware war has been won, with now triple redundancy in servers and a new robust anti-virus system.
Also, all district computers have been upgraded to Windows 10. The superintendent offered attendance to the board members at the attorney general training meeting in Woodward Oct. 12, the OSSBA Region 2 meeting in Burlington Oct. 24, and the OROS Conference Oct. 26-27 in Shawnee. Miller also reported the gym painting, which was supposed to have started this week, has been delayed a couple of days and will start Wednesday or Thursday.
The superintendent presented a slide show regarding the change in testing facing all Oklahoma students. Commercial testing firms have dropped the ball on Oklahoma testing the last couple of years. This year's testing will be based on the SAT and ACT, which will likely show a serious score drop because the goal is different from the previous Oklahoma target standards. He said the state superintendent is cautioning all school superintendents to expect this and pre-warn both teachers and patrons. He described the testing as a "total reset this year." In about two years, if the same standard is applied to both years, then perhaps schools will once again be able to track their progress. Principal Michelle Shelite reported the district has received the Voyage grant, which will provide materials for reading and assessing pre-K through fourth grade. Several special school events are coming up including Fall Carnival, Fall Break and Red Ribbon Week.
A special veteran's program will be held Nov. 10 and the basketball season kicks off Nov. 7. The regular school board election will be held on Feb. 13, 2018. The bill voted to ask the election board to close two precincts. One had no voters and another had only one for the Freedom District. The precincts were located in Harper and Woodward counties. Voting by absentee or at the election board office is still available to those affected. In revenue comparisons, under District Sources of Revenue, the total for this year is $10,868.89, up $2,034.40 from last year; under Intermediate Sources of Revenue, the total is $588.67, down $238.68 from last year. Under State Sources of Revenue, the district is expecting $92,707.58, down $2,531.94 from last year's $95,239.52. In the category Total Dedicated Revenue, the district will receive $25,766.11 up $3,098.99; the child nutrition program will receive $359.03 more than last year's $122,278.64; and the cash forwarded is $1,094,091.81, an increase of $86,946.36.
The board agreed to declare as surplus 19 Dell desktop computers; 11 Acer laptop computers, several printers and other miscellaneous items. Bids may be submitted for any of these items by Nov. 13.
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