Soon after the start of the Cherokee School Board meeting last Wednesday, Dec. 11, Superintendent Donna Anderson brought the board’s attention to an item in the treasurer’s report of fund balances, which is part of the consent agenda. The sinking fund balance was $32,491 in the red.
The negative balance is a direct result, said Anderson, of an oil and gas company protesting their taxes last year. Because of that, “not enough money was collected to pay the school to make the payment on the bond,” she said. “We will get money in in January that will cover that. Also, the assessor’s office had to over-collect this year to make up the difference (created by) the tax protest.”
Anderson updated the board on the status of the tax protest. ‘They’ve changed attorneys so they’re getting a continuance,” she said. “Well, they already had a continuance until June, and so I’m sure that they’ll keep asking for that so that the (new attorney) can be brought up to speed. So, it looks like we’re in Year 2 of waiting on that tax.”
If the protest begins to appear that it will drag on even longer, Anderson said in response to a question from Kory Littlefield, “I will get with the bondsman and have him give us scenarios of, say, if we extended our time a few more years would that bring people’s taxes back down? We definitely don’t want our mils to go up anymore.”
After some discussion, the board approved the consent agenda consisting of the Nov. 11 meeting minutes; the encumbrances, purchase orders and warrants for the general, building and child nutrition funds; the sinking fund encumbrances and warrants; the treasurer’s report on fund balances; the activity fund balance; and fundraisers.
Present were Littlefield, Desiree Gibson, Shane Parker and Kurtis Goodwin, with Superintendent Anderson and Principal/Coach Bryce Schanbacher also there.
Stream Chiefs Games at CherokeeChiefs.tv
As football season has ended and basketball season has begun, the Cherokee Chiefs fans will have a new resource: CherokeeChiefs.tv.
“We are going to start streaming our games,” said Schanbacher. People used to always ask him if a game would be broadcast on the radio, Schanbacher said. But during this past football season, Schanbacher found that “now everyone wants to know if it’s going to be live-streamed.” He said he’s excited to now be able to say yes.
“We’re going to have the capability to do those things now. It might take us a few games to get the hang of it,” he said, to chuckles around the board table. “We’re even going to take a stab at doing some commentary during the games. We’ll see how that goes.” The school could also make its own ads and run them during the live-stream, he said, or the school could sell advertising for the live-streamed games.
Other School Activities
FCCLA competed in Woodward on their star events on Dec. 11, said Schanbacher. FFA attended a leadership conference last weekend.
“We found out today that Cherokee has been chosen as a stop on the State Officer Goodwill Tour,” said Schanbacher. “They will be here on Jan. 21 from 1:30 to 2:30. Our local officers will get together and decide what they’re going to do while they’re here, but we’ll have all the FFA members in some sort of assembly with them. Mrs. Snyder (the FFA advisor) has done a great job; they were awarded a basket of books from Farm Bureau for their classroom,” Schanbacher said.
Superintendent Anderson added her praises to Schanbacher’s. After noting that the mobile dairy truck came to the elementary recently, Anderson said of Snyder’s work with FFA “She’s really taking it to new heights,”
Junior high and high school basketball teams played Medford Monday.
The kindergarten music program will be at the elementary school gym on Dec. 18 at 2:30 p.m., and the first grade through fifth-grade music program will be in the high school auditorium on Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m., Schanbacher said.
Dec. 19 and 20 are semester test days; school will be dismissed at 12:45 p.m. on Friday.
The speech and debate team will begin competing after Christmas break.
The junior high cheerleaders will put on a winter formal dance for grades 6 through 8 on Feb. 8. Admission will be $5 for couples and $3 for singles.
Other Board Business
After an executive session, the board amended the extra duty schedule to include elementary curriculum and transportation maintenance extra duty assignments. The board also approved Sharon Inman’s contract for the 2020/21 school year but took no action on Heidi Newlin’s contract.
The board approved the 2020/2021 school calendar, which Anderson is essentially the same as this year except that next year’s school year will begin with two in-service days (Aug. 10-11) for staff to get their rooms set up and hold open houses. “There’s really nothing drastically different,” she said. “Next year may look different because the legislature has decided that everyone should go 165 days and 1080 hours.” While this year’s school calendar is more than 165 days if you count in-service days, but is less than 165 if you count only days that students are in class learning. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Anderson said.
Anderson told the board she talked with City Manager Mike Jones about a resource officer for the school. Jones will be at the January school board meeting, when he will talk to the board about what had been discussed at the city council meeting: that the school and the city would split the cost, and the school would have a uniformed officer on the campus and on site for activities. “So it’s a pretty neat deal,” said Anderson, “and I appreciate Mike and all his work in getting that together.”
Anderson also pointed out that the school’s front doors have new covers on them. “It’s a security measure and helps with heat and air,” she said, “and it also looks real good. I have to give Mr. Hickman credit for that, because he picked it all that and did a really good job.”
Anderson also told the board that while the students were out for Thanksgiving, the school was completely sprayed down to kill bacteria and germs “to try to get all the sickness down,” she said. “And before they come back from Christmas we’ll do another. We’re really trying hard this year to try to help the kids stay healthy.”
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