Teachers want five-day school week again
The Okmulgee School Board’s Tuesday meeting began with a teleconference from Jake Hewett of Bledsoe, Hewett, & Gullekson, detailing the results of their FY23 audit. The roughly eleven-minute presentation concluded with board president Rod Wiemer, seeking clarification: “So in summary, a nice clean audit with an increase in our general fund. Carrying up to over a million dollars?”
“That is correct,” confirmed Hewett, before the board approved receipt of the audit and a contract with Bledsoe, Hewett, & Gullekson for the following year.
Next, the board approved all items on the consent agenda, including the consideration of financial commitments, facility rental requests, and the minutes from the January 9 and February 8 meetings. The school calendar for the upcoming academic year was also approved.
A presentation by the District Leadership Team, comprised of Taylor Neal, Amy Johnson, and K’Eirra Riggs, shared feedback from a survey of teachers district-wide, gauging their preferences for the upcoming academic calendar.
Neal said that many responses from the primary school were in support of returning to a five-day school week, echoed by Riggs for Dunbar. Johnson explained the group’s survey method at the high school, tripling down on the support of a five-day, in-person school week.
“We actually made copies of the calendar and then handed them to each person and had conversations,” said Johnson. She said respondents also suggested extending in-service days to allow more time for classroom and staff preparation and changes to the parent-teacher conference dates.
According to Johnson, respondents felt that having parent-teacher conferences in September was too early to assess child behavior and suggested it be moved closer to October. Adjustments to the parent-teacher conference times in the Spring were also suggested.
Board Member Vickie Jones asked primary school teacher Shirlanna Harbin whether she’d been allowed to give her input. Harbin said that not only was she allowed to give input, but she helped create the form that was sent to teachers. She said the team received around 27 responses across all sites.
After the team’s presentation, the board approved an initial version of the academic calendar for the upcoming year, anticipating future adjustments.
The session also touched on the employment of Deb Gardenhire for payroll transition assistance. Gardenhire was initially hired to train Scott Bein during a special meeting in November 2023. Superintendent Rene Dove said that in addition to missing some time, Bien was also asked to “take on some other positions” which led to the transition being delayed.
Concerns about the cost of Gardenhire’s services were raised by Board Member Leroy Parker, with Wiemer explaining that the contract won’t go beyond the school year at a maximum of $1,000 a month for 3 months.
Bein added that Gardenhire is “also HR, she does all of our hiring, does all of our insurance coordinating” and does several other things that he still needs training on. The board approved the hiring.
Before going into an executive session, the early graduation request from Haley McGoyne was also approved. McGoyne read a prepared speech to the board expressing thanks for her previous educational opportunities and talking about her academic ambitions moving forward.
The board spent 1 hour and 37 minutes in executive session.
Upon returning to open session, they approved resignations and retirements, and the hiring of several employees for FY25. Although the names were not disclosed, the board considered the hiring of certified administrators, directors, district office staff, certified career staff, probationary certified staff, and retired certified staff.
The hiring of a new Superintendent was discussed but no decision was made.
More information will be published when it becomes available.
