| Henryetta school board members welcomed new member Jeanie Duncan Monday night. Duncan was elected to the board in February and was sworn in at the start of the meeting. Within minutes of the meeting start, board members found themselves facing the issue of using school property for a town hall meeting series. An email from Buck Sheward requested the availability for a series of meetings. He said those meetings would be augmented by an "advisory group" of professionals, the majority of which do not live in Henryetta. |  |
| See the video of the school board meeting here. | That "advisory group" was a concern voiced by board member Brandy Brown who said there could be, "people and representatives coming in and out of our school at different times of the meeting. These are people we don't know anything about on our campus." She went on to say when groups have used school facilities in the past, "we know pretty clearly who is coming into the meetings like the boy scouts. This is pretty vague." |
| Board member James Cox held up a copy of board policy GK that he said was in place since April, 2008. "We don't mind the community using our school for anything. As long as they meet the qualifications, they don't have to come before the board." Brown and Duncan both said there was a newer policy adopted in the past six months. "This is talking about bringing people in from out of state to form some advisory committee. This falls under the city not us," added brandy Cunningham. "This email speaks negatively of the city." She made a motion to disallow the use of the school facilities and that was seconded by Duncan. The motion passed unanimously. School transportation director Rick Enis told the board about the vandalism to bus windows and water hydrants last week. "They knocked out whole side of the windows on one bus, two windows on a dump truck as well as windows on a smaller bus." Damage was estimated at around $8,000. He said Morris schools also had similar damage that same night to five schools. Video from the school camera showed four individuals. Video from Henryetta and Morris schools will be sent to the OSBI to see if faces could be enhanced. Enis and school officials are working with Henryetta and Morris police to try and solve the case. He told board members the newest bus for the school is 2011. "The route busses are from nine to 15 years old." He pointed out Morris leases busses on three year lease basis. urging board members to think about leasing buses in the future, he said, "We would like to get between three to four busses. $11,000 a year would get you a brand new bus. One mini bus has 152,000 miles. The school has two Suburbans purchased with a lease-purchase system. that are used for tennis, golf teams, people to workshops." Enis went on to point out the school is spending a lot of money on repairs of the current fleet. The board set a special meeting at noon March 27 to approve a resolution authorizing the first sale of building bonds for the school. Board members accepted retirement letters from Linda Smith, Sherry Allen, Linda Dockray and Norma Artussee. Smith is stepping down from her elementary music teacher's position after some 36 years with the Henryetta school system. Allen and Dockray are currently working as cooks and Artussee is nutrition director. Also accepted were resignations from Angel Ellis as Johnson O'Malley coordinator and Carlie Wheeler from her grade school teacher's position. | |
