The Waynoka Board of Education held its regular meeting Monday morning. All board members were present: Garret Gum, Travis George, John Hanson and Caleb Zook. Also present were Superintendent Scott Cline; Ronnie Nix, junior high and high school principal; Pat Burrow, elementary principal; and Lori Adair, minutes clerk.

Principals Nix and Burrow both began their reports with comments on a new professional development session for the teachers. “Professional development wrapped up last Monday with Sean Buchanan coming and speaking to the staff and encouraging them to 'just teach,' said Nix. He said Shelly Beaty presented teachers with different ways to teach testing strategies to students – tools they can use in the classroom, he said.

Nix went on to report on recent events at the junior and high schools.

School Begins! Principals Report

School started on Wednesday. “It was great welcoming back the students,” Nix said. This year, the school will have 97 students in the seventh through 12th grades. The junior class is the biggest, with 21 students.

“School starting means fall sports have started as well,” Nix said. “The Lady Rails softball team has gotten off to a really good start!” This past Friday and Saturday the Lady Rails played in a conference tournament in Enid, and came home with third place. Marlee Pitts and Kennedy Zook received All Tournament team selection, he said.

“Football practice started officially last Monday. They will continue practice this week and travel to Pond-Creek Hunter on Friday the 18th for their scrimmage.” The season will kick off Aug. 25 when they travel to play Balko-Forgan. Homecoming will be Sept. 1 when the Rails host Okeene, Nix said.

The FFA will travel to Stillwater for the Big 3 judging contest, Nix said. “Last week they held a back-to-school bash hosted by the Zook family and they brought back the tradition of the ice cream social by serving ice cream to the community in front of the school.” 4-H was expected to hold a back-to-school bash that night at the park across from the football field.

On Friday, “the school came together for the first-ever Wake Up Waynoka,” said Nix. ”Mrs. Burrow and I talked about the word of the month: Respect. Next week we will start giving out students of the week and teacher kudos for the high school and middle school.”

Principal Burrow reported on the elementary school. She noted that professional development started Aug. 1 with new employees then continued that week with everyone else.

“The teachers have been hard at working hard on their classrooms,” Burrow said. Her written report specified the teachers have been engaged in painting, adding flexible seating to their rooms, moving outdated curricula to surplus, incorporating new themes and updated, improved curricula.

In her written report she stated: Some have painted, added flexible seating to their rooms, surplussed outdated curriculum, incorporated new themes and curricula to update and improve. Parents, students, community members and others interested in seeing our phenomenal school and staff came by on Monday, Aug. 7, for Open House. Our local food trucks were also at the Open House serving delicious food! WE had an amazing turnout and fun evening.

“And they got to show that (hard work) off on Monday (Aug. 7) for Open House,” Burrow said. Local food trucks were also at the Open House. “We had an extremely good turnout that night; we had a fun evening!” she said.

Doors will unlock at 7:15 for students to enter the building. Breakfast begins at 7:30. Breakfast for first- through sixth-graders will be in the cafeteria. Pre-K and kindergarten will continue to be served breakfast in their rooms, she said.

“Hallway Huddle, we'll have that again on Mondays through Thursdays,” Burrow said. Hallway Huddle is when they say their pledges, review the word and quote of the week and make announcements. “And then on Fridays, Mr. Nix and I, we're going to pair up and the whole school's going to meet in the multipurpose building and have “Wake Up Waynoka.” During that time, all the students together will recite the pledges and learn about the quote and word of the month. The Friday gathering will be led by various classes, organizations or sports teams who signed up to participate.

“Softball signed up for this Friday,” Burrow said.

A student planner has been compiled for the school to follow. It schedules a year's worth of Words of the Month and weekly quotes, she noted.

“Wednesday was the first day of school and we had 138 enrolled in Pre-K through sixth grade, which is up from 124 last year,” so an increase of 14 in a year, she said.

The after-school program will begin Aug. 21, and on Aug. 28 fifth- and sixth-grade football will get underway in Waynoka against Waukomis.

Student Fundraisers and Classes

All fundraiser requests for the 2023-24 school year were approved. These were for the Athletic Department, Cheer, FCCLA, FFA, football, NHS/STUCO, softball and TSA.

The board approved the contract for secondary career and technology education programs for the coming school year. They also approved accepting dual enrollment credits in math and science from Northwest Technology Center. (Later, the board also approved accepting dual enrollment credits from NWTC provided through Edgenuity, an OSDE approved online curriculum.) Approved classes are:

• 412 Algebra II

• 4520 Geometry

• 4750 Trigonometry

• 4611 Pre-Calculus

• 4760 AP Statistics

• 4740 Statistics & Probability

• 5035 AP Biology

• 5333 Anatomy

• 5220 Physiology

• 5051 Chemistry

• 8706 PLTW Principles of Biomedical Science

• 8707 PLTW Human Body Systems

• 8719 PLTW Biomedical innovations

• 8708 PLTW Medical Interventions

• 9852 Biomedical Sciences in Medicine

Personnel Matters

Brooke Meyer was approved as an adjunct instructor for anatomy and physiology classes.

Also approved were the list of mentor teachers and the extra-duty schedule for this school year.

Other Business

The board approved three committees for the new school year: the Internal Attendance Review Committee, Safe School Advisory Committee, and Healthy and Fit School Advisory Committee.

A resolution authorizing the treasurer to deposit interest earned into the building fund was approved.

The board approved asking the State Department of Education for a waiver on the required Alternative Education Program. This is a routine item waiver request generally due to the small size of the school.

The board also approved the following:

• The Waynoka Public School Return to Learn Plan and American Rescue Plan;

• Engaging American Fidelity Assurance Company to serve as Waynoka Public School Section 125 Plan;

• A resolution to add a Section 457 (b) Eligible Deferred Compensation Plan;

• a long list of board policies without discussion; and

• 1080 school hours for the 2023-2024 school year.

The consent agenda was also approved without discussion. The consent agenda included the last two meetings' minutes; reports on the general, building, activity and bond fund reports; encumbrances for the general, building, and bond funds; and change orders.