Two new teachers were approved by the Alva Board of Education during their regular meeting Monday.

Washington Elementary Principal Shane Feely introduced Whitney Smith who will fill an open Pre-K position. "She has some experience at Shidler and Hugo teaching elementary second grade," said Feely. "We feel like she's going to be a great addition to our staff."

The other new teacher is no stranger to the Alva Public Schools, said Longfellow Elementary Principal Alysson Tucker. "We need a teacher to help us with our option 3 full virtual," said Tucker as she introduced Karen Mead. "We don't want to put more on an existing teacher in our district." She said Mead had a rather brief retirement, and it's not determined yet if she will be part-time or full-time. "We're excited to have her," said Tucker.

Superintendent Tim Argo announced one teacher resignation. Connie Steele was going to be a Washington Pre-K teacher this fall, but her husband got a new job in Colorado.

The board also approved Scott Baugh, Steve Gale, Cody Hooper and Dakota Buckhaults as bus drivers for the school year.

Argo announced several reassignments. Marissa Whitely will move from Longfellow to the Middle School for special education. Kelly Killman will move from the Middle School to Longfellow for special education. Emily Kennedy will move from Longfellow to Alva Middle School to teach language arts. Chelsea Kornele will move from Washington to Longfellow for second grade.

"We continue to review as enrollment continues," Argo said of teacher changes. "There may be some reassignments at the last minute, but we feel pretty good about where we're at with our teaching staff."

In other personnel action, the board approved Brooke Meyer as an adjunct instructor for anatomy and physiology for the current school year. Dixie Meyer was approved as an adjunct instructor for two hours of chemistry.

Four revisions were made to the extra duty schedule. Brandon Ellis will be the middle school football assistant coach. Ty Hooper will be sixth grade girls' basketball coach. Jack Louthan will be the assistant coach for middle school softball. Band Director Adam Steuart was added for a summer camp for band students.

"I want to thank our administrators again," said Argo. "They have had a long summer and a long six months to be planning and preparing, and they've done an outstanding job. We realize we've got a lot of challenges ahead. I can assure this board that this group is up for the challenge."

New Student Handbooks

School principals have been working together to make significant revisions in the student handbooks for this fall. Feely said one change will be that school buildings will not be open at 7:30 a.m. Instead they will be open at 7:45 a.m. "to limit traffic as much as we can." He said the times students are released after school will be staggered at Washington Elementary. Pre-K will dismiss at 2:50 p.m. Kindergartners will get out at 3 p.m., and first graders will be released at 3:10 p.m. "That way we can maybe limit our crowds at the gazebo," he said. Some people arrive very early at the circle drive so they won't be able to control that area as much.

Supt. Argo said, "After these first few days, we fully realize there may be adjustments that need to be made. We'll communicate those to the parents."

Middle School Principal Stephanie Marteney said lunch will be different at her school. "This the first time I know of that we are splitting up our sixth, seventh and eighth," she said. "In doing so we're going to pull them apart a little bit. We're going to make sure that there are 30 minutes in between that the tables can be cleaned." She said they will organize seating so students will be sitting in different areas. "We're going to see how it works," she added.

Meet the Teacher

Argo said he's been working with the high school and middle school principals to plan how events will be handled. "We'll be getting those out to the public soon but we ask everybody to be patient," he said.

The Meet the Teacher event will be held, and Argo said the school will be releasing information in a few days. "We fully recognize that is an important night in the life of our parents and our students. It's not going to look the same but we are going to have a night when our students can see the building and meet the teachers and get some of that necessary paperwork picked up and turned back in," he said. "This is new for everybody and things change every day." He encouraged people to call if they have questions.

Website Problems

The first day of classes for Alva is August 13. Just as parents and students are checking online for information about school, the website has been down intermittently. Argo said the school doesn't have much control over that. The server for the company that supports the school's website has had some cyber-attacks. He said the company is working through that to get the website back up.

He said, "We will use our social media avenues to update until we get our website back up and running."

Finances

In looking over finances, Argo pointed out that gross production tax is down $166,000 in the first month of the fiscal year compared to last July. There have been some increases in revenue in REA tax and school land earnings. After watching the gross production tax returns for about six to eight months, Argo said, "We're beginning to see that market stabilize somewhat but it will be a concern as we move forward.'

Another concern is the state aid allocation which is about $125 less per student than last year. "Right now they are pointing toward an adjustment toward a negative at the mid-term," Argo said. "Enrollment numbers across the state will have to be reviewed. I might say that won't really affect us until the following year. We still are paid off of our high number from last year." He said it's something to plan for. State aid is based on enrollment, so as the school begins to see enrollment numbers for next year, they need to make sure to have the highest enrollment they can get.

Argo pointed out several purchase orders for items that will be reimbursed through CARES federal funds. These include hand sanitizer, Plexiglas, some backpack sprayers for sanitizing, $16,200 for hotspots, some Chromebook bags and some software.

The school spent $11,740 for special education software used district wide. It helps assess and then put students on a learning pathway.

Another $19,800 purchase order will be reimbursed with a grant for some curriculum alignment and development in January.

The school spent $2,619 to purchase a sprayer specifically for the bus barn so Steve Ellis can disinfect the buses each day.

Other Business

The board approved the annual agreement to accept credits from Northwest Technology Center for students attending there and earning credits in math and/or science.

Contracts were approved with American Fidelity Service which tracks flexible benefits for employees, the City of Alva School Resource Officers for two SRO's, Oklahoma Department of Career Technology Secondary Career and Technology Program which provides money for salaries and supplies, and Big Five Community Services to provide Headstart with special education resources and meals.

A video of the meeting may be seen at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com.