When the Watonga School Board met Monday in regular session, one of the first orders of business was to fill the seat left empty by the resignation of Shawn Cox.
Courtney Nagel was named to the seat and duly sworn in.
The board then moved on other business, including the principals’ reports. Amber Wilson, the elementary school principal, said that campus was busy with summer school from 8 a.m.- noon for some 34 students. Many of them were working on reading intervention, where the students work on recognizing words by sight to improve test scores.
“The kids are eager and happy when they get there,” she said. The summer school program also includes some PE.
The elementary campus also houses the summer food program. All children under 18 can come and eat breakfast and lunch at no charge. Wilson said that program was being well utilized by the community.
At the middle school, principal Ty Hussey said much of the work there is in developing class and bell schedules for the upcoming school year. He also was excited about the prospect of hiring Darcy Roberts as a teacher for English learners – those students who are coping with learning the English language and taking lessons in English – as well as part of the wellness program and an assistant coach for basketball.
Kirk Wilson first thanked the board for the opportunity to serve as the new high school principal, them moved on to what is going on at his campus. Scheduling is a large part of the mission at the moment, but there is also summer pride ongoing, with 76 high school students and 86 middleschoolers and about 100 lunches served daily associated with that program. “The kids are loving it,” he said. “They are getting bigger, stronger and faster.”
Kirk Wilson also noted that students had gone to cheer camp last week and some 7-on-7 and basketball skills camps are coming up.
As for the superintendent’s report, he noted that the staff was beginning to look at preliminary test scores. He also presented a proposal for the board to consider for relighting the football stadium. This was called ‘relamping’ in which the existing lights are utilized with LED lights installed. That proposal came in at $21,000, a far cry from the original $170,000 first quoted.
Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran said this would be a significant upgrade for not a lot of money. The board may discuss the project at its July meeting.
The board also handled the resignations of six employees – Taylor Coney, Brandon Nyberg, Joseph De la Garza, Brandi Nyberg, Dusti Broderick and Amparo Renteria.
Following a short executive session, they voted to hire Rece Wilhelm as a high school science/computer teacher, and as assistant coach in football, wrestling and track. As previously mentioned, Darcy Roberts was hired as a teacher for English language learners, assistant basketball and other sports coach.