The Alva School Board met Monday night and accepted a resignation from Transportation Director Richard Burton, and a retirement notice from JoAnn Isenbart, central office activity fund custodian. They hired three paraprofessionals: Ashley Bounds, Kathleen Hamlin and Jacob Gould. John Wood was hired as custodian at the high school. Board member Steve Ellis was absent because of a need to attend a funeral. Jane McDermott chaired the meeting, with Larry Parker, Karen Koehn and Tiffany Slater present. Superintendent Steve Parkhurst said the Oct. 1 enrollment number is 1,048, which is up 24 students from last year. The Oct. 1 date is the fixed date that all schools report their enrollment for the year.
Next, the superintendent reported on the district's investment ledger. The total of all investments available is $9,715,602.31, which is up about $2 million from this same time a year ago. In other positive news, the new à la carte offerings and salads at most school sites are revealing an average lunch count of 689, which is about 150 more per lunch than last year. The average number of breakfasts served is 222. The activity account list takes up more than one page, but the beginning cash balance in all the accounts is $392,660.13 and the month's ending balance is $327,994.25 for September. The Woods County Election Board notified the district the annual school election will be on Feb. 13, and if a runoff is needed it will be held on April 3, 2018. The filing period will begin Monday, Dec. 4, and close on Wednesday, Dec. 6. The election board suggested the district request closing four precincts in Woods and Alfalfa counties. A year ago, the Woods County precinct ha 12 voters, but five of them voted absentee; two have voted in 1 school election in the past, and two have never voted in a school election and three are new. Sandra Koehn said,
“I am suggesting to close these precincts not only to save the school money, but because it is getting hard to find precinct officials and ask them to sit for12 hours at a polling place for less than 10 people.” Any voters affected may vote by absentee ballot or at the election board office early before any election. The Alva School District voted to calculate school time on an hourly basis rather than a per-day basis. The district will teach 1,050 hours and have in 30 hours of professional development for teachers. The other choice is to teach 175 days. The extra-duty assignment list was modified by adding Kaye Christensen as assistant track coach for high school girls. She will be paid $500 for this work. The remuneration for two music department accompanists was reduced slightly so they would not exceed Social Security earning limits. The gifted and talent local advisory committee was named: Jaci Heaton, Alysson Tucker, Gena Denton, Danielle Cushenbery, Michelle Mackey, Megan Lehr, Kasey Adair, Melanie Gaisford, Cassandra Scarbrough, Tammy Duncan and Stephanie Marteney.
The revenue projection for the Alva School District that will be turned in to the excise board is $17,938,374.97. About two trips were approved. Girls Basketball Coach Dusty Horn asked permission to take a school vehicle across the state line into Kansas to transport his basketball team. This is because the Ladybugs basketball team has two former players playing in Kansas: Whitney Randall is at Fort Hayes and Jordan Shiever is at Dodge City. He said they have previously gone to see Rylie Swanson play at OSU, Lora Riley at NOC in Enid, Jaden Hobbs at OSU, and Bailey Forell at NWOSU. Kenneith McIntosh, AHS choir director, asked permission to attend an out-of-state vocal competition using a school-owned bus at Winter Park Ski-Music Festival in Colorado for April 12–15, 2018. The cost per student is $387 and the group conducts several fundraisers each year. The five principals present at the meeting joined together to give the board details about MAP Growth, a student goal-setting worksheet covering different topics such as math, reading, language usage and general science. They described how the quarterly testing utilized helps teachers and tutors measure their effectiveness in identifying and quickly helping students who may be lagging in some areas. They distributed an assessment form that included the date/timeframe, type of assessment, form of assessment, and mastery needed along with the remedial efforts. This is part of the effort the board set in motion in hiring Tim Argo as the assistant superintendent to make a strong effort to make the promotions from one school site to the next be much more coordinated. The board ended their meeting with an executive session to evaluate the superintendent.
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