The Alva School Board moved their meeting from Monday to Wednesday last week due to severe storms expected. Board President Jane McDermott opened the meeting at 5 p.m. Then Board Clerk Shane Hansen read the oath of office to be repeated by Karen Koehn as she began a new term in Seat 4 of the board. She was unopposed for the position.
The board then elected officers, the same ones as before, with McDermott as president, Koehn as vice president, Hansen as clerk and Kevin Pingelton as deputy clerk. Board member Paul Barton was absent when the meeting began but arrived a little later.
Resignations
In personnel matters, Superintendent Dr. Tim Argo reported several resignations for the end of the current school year. Morgan Graybill resigned as a teacher at Washington Early Childhood because she is expecting her first child and plans to stay home. Michelle Mackey resigned her third grade teaching position at Longfellow Elementary. Alexis Gaisford resigned as Alva Middle School secretary and child nutrition director. Morgann Duncan resigned as a paraprofessional.
Argo said that Austin McGee had been working five-hour days providing piano accompaniment for vocal music. He will be changing to fewer hours and will work by the hour instead of on a contract.
New Teachers
Three new teachers were hired by the board for one-year contracts after being introduced. Lincoln Principal Jenny Webster presented Ashley Brinkley who followed her husband here from Durant after he received a Wal-Mart promotion. Brinkley worked in the Washington school library for four years before stopping to earn her master's degree in elementary education. She then did student teaching at Lincoln, "and we loved her," said Webster. She will be teaching in fifth grade. She and her husband have three children in the school district.
Longfellow Principal Alysson Tucker introduced Kassandra Kuns who came from Forgan. She graduated from NWOSU in December with a degree in early childhood. She did student teaching in third grade at Longfellow and is currently teaching a second-grade class while the teacher is on maternity leave. Tucker said, "We are just super excited to get her." She didn't know yet whether Kuns will be teaching second or third grade as they have openings in both.
Hattie Potter introduced new special education teacher Andrea Whisman to the board. "Special ed is very difficult to find right now," Potter said. "Ms. Whisman came to us last year after retirement and joined our team as a para and has done amazing work." She said when the special education position opened Whisman came to her willing to take it on. "She has a lot of experience in middle school profound, and that's very difficult to find so we are very excited to have her," said Potter.
Certified, Non-Certified Personnel
Board members voted to employ a list of certified teachers for the next school year. They also approved temporary one-year contracts for a list of first-year teachers. Temporary contracts are offered until a teacher has been employed for four semesters.
A list of non-certified personnel was also approved for the 2024-2025 school year.
Financial
Although gross production revenue is about 50 percent of the amount expected in the Estimate of Needs for this year, Argo said overall the school has collected 95 percent of total revenue through April with two more months to go in the year.
Supt. Argo pointed out some purchase orders in the general fund. Personal finance textbooks for Alva High School cost $2,724.11 from Lampo Group. An order for plumbing repairs at $2,000 from Rose Plumbing was for the ag farm. An order for $4,158.06 from Goodheart-Wilcox was for middle school FACS curriculum. Ag waterers were purchased for the ag farm for $1,702.70 from Foote's Farm Supply.
In the building fund, a new middle school cafeteria heating/cooling unit purchase order to Greydog Mechanical was for $26,500. The school originally set a purchase order for OG&E at $125,000 but that has been spent so an added $45,000 was earmarked to finish out the year. District summer maintenance supplies accounted for three purchase orders totaling a little over $14,000.
From the child nutrition fund, Vendetti Plumbing made repairs to the middle school dishwasher for $6,523.49.
From the gift fund money donated by Alva State Bank for fine arts, $6,175 was spent by the high school art department for art equipment and supplies including a laser engraver and a sander. The vocal music department purchased music equipment including mics and a digital piano for $6,263.52. A vocal music printer was purchased for $524. They spent $6,068.75 on vocal music uniforms, $1,242 for a vocal music cabinet for storage and $1,130 for an iPad Air.
Donation, Travel, Summer Classes
A donation from the Charles Morton Share Trust Foundation of $10,000 was approved. The donation is for the annual basketball tournament hosted by Alva. Argo said the tournament "saves three days of travel for our student athletes" as well as bringing people into the community.
Northwest Technology Center's request for use of school bus was approved. The bus will be used to transport students between NWTC and the NWOSU campuses during MASH Camp, May 20-22. Argo said this agreement has worked well the last five years.
Board members approved the Alva High School Le Club travel plans to San Antonio, Texas, for May 20-23. The also approved Alva Middle School TSA members traveling to the National TSA Conference in Orlando, Florida, June 26-July 1.
The following teachers were approved for the summer reading academy June 3-27: Tabitha Carothers, Chelsea Kornele and Sadie Wilson.
Kelli Killman, Brandi Peace and Kayla Gilchrist were approved to provide extended school year special education services May 28-June 28. Beki Houston was approved to provide extended school year speech pathology service May 28-June 28.
Plans for the Alva Summer Strength and Conditioning program (formerly Alva Summer Pride) were also approved for the summer.
Several regular contracts were approved for the next school year. The E-Rate for schools and libraries universal services allows schools to make tech improvements while federal and state money pays for part of the cost.
Other contracts approved include Alcohol and Drug Testing, Inc.; School to Work; OkTLE – Employee Evaluation Systems, Inc.; Chas. W. Carroll, P.A.; S &B CPA's & Associates, PLLC; Oklahoma State School Board Association – Employment Services; Oklahoma State School Board Association – Membership Services; SylogistEd, Inc. (formerly Wen-Gage); Clearwater (which saves the school on natural gas); and Alva Golf and Country Club.
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