Henryetta school board members went from tennis courts to space Monday night.
At the October meeting, board members approved resurfacing the school tennis courts at a cost of $36,800.
Superintendent Dwayne Noble pointed out the courts have never had a new playing surface since they were installed well over ten years ago.
“We were going to do it last year but COVID came up. If we don’t fix it now, someday it will cost us three times as much,” he said. “We looked at it two years ago and it was going tacos us $26,000.”
The work will give players a new surface and includes six new nets. He said the project should be completed in time for the spring season.
Elementary principal Roger Williams bought four special displays for board members to see.
Assistant principal Leslie Jones described to board members how Autumn McCain, a third grade teacher, had given students the assignment to learn about space. Originally designed to increase their knowledge of science and vocabulary, it wound up going into the arts as they designed posters with the solar system.
Class members voted on the top four displays to be presented to the board. Those displays were constructed by Hayden Stayhorn, Evan Dunzy, Failey Farrow and Riley Zamora. As part of the presentation, Zamora read from his work describing each of the planets in the solar system.
The number of dropouts has been declining according to principal Kelly Furer. She told the board in the 2018-19 school year the dropout rate was 2.8 percent and a year later had dropped to 1.9 percent. “This is something we work on. We contact the students to learn why they leave high school and try to get them enrolled in other schools,” she said.
At the same time, graduating students who need remedial education at college are also being examined. For the 2019-20 school year she said of 21 students going to college, five were in need of remediation.
The superintendent told the board only two students are currently quarantined due to the COVID virus. “Our attendance is better than normal. The goal is to stay at five days a week. This time last year we were going week by week.
Teachers Andrea Hargis and Alan Montgomery were recognized for their perfect attendance this school year.
Henryetta high school junior and senior class members will be attending the career encounters program at OSUIT in Okmulgee. That is a full day event giving students and opportunity to see the various programs offered at the school.
Another 60 students have signed up for the college career fair also to be held at OSUIT.
Board members approved a $1 per hour pay increase for Mary Craft, Joyce Henderson, Dana Davis, Beth Potter and Melanie Green. All are school secretaries.
At a special public hearing Monday night, federal programs director Rick Enis described how the Impact Aid program helps students.
That program provides funding to schools based on land not subject to ad valorem taxes.
He said monies from that fund has been used to pay the school electric bill as well as fund special education.
Noble told the board new computers have arrived and will be distributed in the coming days. Those computers were purchased through CARES federal funds. Older, outdated computers will be declared surplus.