school-board-phone
School board president James Williams (left) is shown holding up a cell phone with Stephanie Mather addressing a question over the legality of an executive session Monday night.
Several new teachers and a counselor were hired Monday night by the Henryetta school board but not without some controversy.
School board member James Cox questioned the legality of an executive session to discuss filling some positions. He claimed the names of those being considered had to be included on the agenda.
 "A person has to be able to look at the agenda and see the names," he said. "Some of the times, we put the names on there, some of the times we don't."
Cox went on to say he had talked with attorney Teri Thomas who agreed with him.
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"The training I have had and experience I have had as superintendent tells me this is a violation of the open meetings act. How do we know who we are hiring."
Superintendent Dwayne Noble presented a letter from Education Law Center attorney Andy Pugh that said the board is complying with the open meetings act.
At that point, board president James Williams called Stephanie Mather, an attorney with the Oklahoma State School Board Association. With his phone on speaker, she agreed the board can discuss hiring without the names on the agenda.
Board members went into executive session but Cox did not join them. He left the meeting and did not return following the hour-long discussions.
Board members hired Karen Willis as high school choir director, Amber Wetzel as high school special education teacher, William George for high school science and coaching, Janet M. Thomas as high school counselor and Kristina Kimberlan for high school English.
The board also rehired the bus drivers as well as adding cooks and speech pathologist.
The position of high school social studies and basketball coach was left unfilled even though it was on the agenda. Board members tabled any action for that job.
Board members approved purchasing school property insurance from OSIG. A representative from hale Insurance told he board the school's loss ratio was 23 percent which  represented a decrease. The Henryetta school rate dropped about $3,700. The yearly premium for the school amounts to $75,745.
 He said the blanket insurance policy would provide replacement costs as well as replacement of contents. He pointed out the flooding issue with the Early Childhood Center still has a $50,000 deductible. The school has a valuation of $26,098,431 on buildings and $3,938,714.
Also gaining approval from the board was hiring CRW Consulting for the school ERate program and a contract with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services vocational rehabilitation school to work program.