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Watonga basketball and softball coaches Lauren Campo (L) and Alyssa Fuxa resigned effective at the end of the school year. The resignations were announced at Monday night’s school board meeting.
When the Watonga School Board met Monday in regular session, it worked through a standard spate of items like financials and principal’s reports. But the bombshell dropped near the end when the board accepted the resignations of four employees, including Alyssa Fuxa and Lauren Campo.
Fuxa had been a high school algebra teacher and Campo taught art. More than that, they worked together to coach the girls’ basketball and softball teams. This year the basketball team went to the regional playoffs before being eliminated.
“Watonga Schools appreciate the time and energy that both Coach Campo and Coach Fuxa put into our classrooms and student athletes,” wrote Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran.
“They are good educators, and we wish them well in their next opportunity,” he added.
The district hunt for new coaches for basketball and softball has already begun and the hope is that the new gym, which should be completed by next basketball season, will help entice new, high quality coaching staff to the district to lead it into the future.
No word was given as to where the two will teach next year.
Other resignations included Kendra Baker, who oversaw the high school ISD program and Madison Lemon who worked at the elementary school.
Hired were Denise Adkisson, an elementary school speech aide and Alexys Calwonsen as a high school custodian.
In other business, the board heard the ending cash balance for February was $14,781,225, an improvement from February a year ago of more than $3 million. The monthly gross production tax – a fee paid by companies for the natural resources they harvest in a county – for March came in at $280,714, more than the budget estimate of $175,000 but significantly less than one year ago when the collections were $ 307,524.
That collection is following the statewide trend of dropping gross production in keeping with an overall slowing of oil and gas exploration.
The general fund showed $92,201 in expenditures or encumbrances, including an order for solar eclipse glasses. Those may be used to protect students’ eyes during the upcoming eclipse on April 8.
The board agreed to maintain Britton Kuykendall and Miller of Weatherford as its accountants for audit purposes. Each school district is required to submit an audit annually to show how its revenues were gained and how they were spent.