Both Geary and Watonga recently lost school board members when Kendra Houston at Geary and Andy Wigington at Watonga stepped down from their seats.
Watonga filled its seat during a special meeting on October 28. According to Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran, there were initially three applicants, but one later rescinded their application. Of the two remaining applicants, the board chose Courtney Robison. She will be sworn in at the regular November school board meeting, set for November 10.
The process was a little more protracted at Geary. There were a whopping six applicants and the board interviewed each one during an executive session as part of its regular November meeting held Monday. The board there selected Karen Looney, a longtime resident and former teacher at Geary Schools.
In each instance, there will be an election held for the vacated seat. Those who are interested in running should file at the Blaine County Election Board from Dec.1-3. There will also be elections for seat No. #3 in each district. At Watonga Dr. Dwight McGee has already indicated he will run for re-election.
In other business at Geary, the middle schoolhigh school principal, Jim Rainey, said there have been 90 concurrent enrollment classes completed and since the implementation of intervention hours, there are no ineligible students. An ineligible student is not allowed to participate in athletics and other extra-curricular activities until their academic record has improved.
The cross country junior high team, Rainey said, had finished in sixth place. “We have a bright future,” he said.
Another much anticipated discussion was the unveiling of the plans for the new school construction. The entire campus will be housed on the existing footprint of the old high school, according to a social media post by Superintendent Sean Buchanan last week.
The board learned Monday from Buchanan that bid packets will go out this week and bids will be opened in about three weeks. The selected bidder will then have two weeks to mobilize, meaning construction could begin before Christmas break.
Because the project has been declared an emergency, the board can select whichever bid it wishes, not necessarily the lowest. Buchanan said they were requesting midlevel finishes on the project. He also announced the educational foundation is selling sponsor bricks to be laid around the flag pole, inscribed as the purchaser/ donor dictates. Still in question is the final plans for the ag barn and art room. That portion of the building will be demolished as soon as the construction warrants it. The ag department is likely to be moved to the agri-plex building near the fairgrounds and it will be fully outfitted with its own kitchen, Buchanan has said.
The new building will butt up on the newly constructed addition.
Previous administrations had hoped to construct a new campus north of town, but were unable to pass a bond issue for the costs. This build is being paid for with insurance funds paid out from the catastrophic fire that destroyed a large part of the campus and heavily damaged most of the rest. There has been no public announcement of the full cost of the build as of yet. Buchana believes it will be covered in its entirety by the insurance payout.