Nearly a quarter of a century at Henryetta schools is coming to an end this year.
Brent Wion announced his retirement with a resignation letter to the Henryetta school board Monday night.
brent wionWion is best known for his role as HHS girls track coach, a role that has seen him on the state championship list one time as well as accumulating a number of regional championships and local meet victories.
He came to Henryetta 23 years ago. Prior to that, he spent a year coaching football and powerlifting at Blanchard and worked at OSUIT.
School board member approved agreements with the Henryetta Educators Association and Henryetta Education Support Association.
When asked about extra duty contracts for teachers, Superintendent Dwayne Noble said they want to re-evaluate those before they are renewed. "We want to look at them before we just rubber stamp it," he said.
The agreement for support personnel included setting up a minimum pay scale. "We wanted to set up a fair and equitable pay scale. To do that we eliminated the attendance bonus and shortened the bereavement schedule. It gave the people a much-needed raise.
When we negotiate next year, they are going to have to realize we just don't have it," he added, talking about the ever-tightening school revenue.
"We have to protect the teachers jobs which, in turn affects the students in the classrooms."
Henryetta schools are going to be represented by young fishermen. The board gave approval for organization of a fishing club through the Student Angler Federation (SAF). Noble said 14 boys had approached the school about forming the club.
"There is no cost to the school. Each student pays $25 to join the federation. My opinion is we are here for the kids and if we can do something good for them, lets do it," he said.
He said the club would be high school age. "I didn't realize there is a lot of schools involved including Eufaula and Hilldale."
The tournaments would be on the weekends. "When they go, they would carry the Henryetta banner."
More about the SAF can be found at: http://www.highschoolfishing.org
Today's digital world has changed some of the operations at the school library. With everything electronic, the days of going through library cards to find a book are done making those card carriers obsolete.
The board declared a set of card catalog drawers obsolete and available for sale.
Also approved was the sale of hats and shirts by the baseball team to finance the annual trip to the Rattan festival next month.
HHS junior J.T. Barton will be representing the state and Henryetta at the national FCCLA leadership conference in San Diego this summer. Barton was given approval to set up a GoFundMe web page to help pay for the trip. "It's nice we have a student who can go to that," Noble said.
HEA official Stacy Bullard said they are going to be working on a petition to approve the sales tax question for a teacher pay raise.
The raffle and bingo night at elementary school raised $10,000. "I think everybody needs to take lessons from Kelly (Furer)," Noble said.
He said STEM Night is going to be held in March to give demonstrations at the grade school.
"STEM is so new to this area so we need to educate the parents about it. We are going to make a carnival atmosphere with snacks and everything."
Board member Brandi Cunningham asked about the policy dealing with snacks for the upcoming Valentines day.
Noble said the adoption of the Wellness policy has prohibited bringing sugar-laden snacks. He said that is part of a $75,000 grant for the school.
"We need to create a list," said board member Casey Jones. "Until we do create a list we are going to be fielding these questions. The list can grow." he said. "That list would be provided to the parents."
In january, a survey was sent to parents asking about starting a program for three-year-olds to attend class. Noble said he had 190 replies. "That is a lot of three-year-olds," Noble said. He said 40 people said they would send their children. We have one class filled up. We will will plan for 15 per class."
Because of the interest shown, Noble said he could foresee running out of space in existing classroom facilities. "We think we will run into the problem where we don't have enough facilities until we get the buildings up." In the meantime, he projected using portable buildings.