OISD swears in board members

Superintendent’s Secretary Vicki Stroud (middle) swears in the newly re-elected members of the OISD school board, including Winnie Hodges (left), Larry Lipsey (middle), and Derek Lancaster (right). Photo by Melissa Missildine Vicki Lipsey, Superintendent's Secretary, was given the task of swearing in the newly re-elected Oakwood ISD school board members and witnessing the signing of their contracts. Winnie Hodges and Larry Lipsey both retained their seats on the board while Derek Lancaster took over Kim Hardin's empty seat. Many may recognize that Lancaster is not new to the board. He is simply returning after an absence during the 2009-2010 school year. After the swearing in ceremony, the board dealt with the task of electing new officers for the 2010-2011 school year. Mack Botard will remain President and Nathan Smith will remain Vice President. Larry Lipsey will become Secretary, the position previously held by Hardin.

In Superintendent Richard Scoggin's report, he gave the board members a long list of upcoming important dates, including Tuesday's Six Flags trip, Thursday's Kindergarten Graduation and early release and Friday's 9:00 Elementary Awards Program, 11:30 early release, 8th Graduation, and Senior Graduation. He also went over the accomplishments of some of the outstanding students of the year, both academically and athletically. He informed the board that over the summer, there would be several activities planned. This would include the cheerleader camp where a group would come to the school to work with the Oakwood cheerleaders rather than the cheerleaders going to them. Scoggin also spoke about the Summit Survey for the new building. According to Scoggin, they had completed a "thorough survey" so that they would be ready to begin the building process.

This month's school board meeting was full of future plans for the Oakwood school system. Scoggin gave a comprehensive needs assessment that made a rather shocking point. Of the 220 students at Oakwood, 73.4% are considered "economically disadvantaged." Scoggin spoke of the survey sent out to parents, teachers, and students that assessed Oakwood's abilities not only to cope with this issue but also help those students reach their maximum potential. The survey showed that parents wanted to be more involved in their children's education but many needed assistance in doing so. Scoggin said they had come up with some ideas. This included the need for a district newsletter to go out to parents, the updating of the school web site and the addition of web pages for the teachers, and more teacher training. (He specifically mentioned technology, new teachers, and discipline.) Other plans are coming together to address the gap between parents and student academics. He also spoke about the need to make some changes to the Gifted and Talented Program. "The GT Program has been here a long time. We will be upgrading it." he added. Teachers will be taking thirty hours of GT specific training in order to be certified and able to use the GT program in their classrooms. The goal is to make the program more challenging.

The financial statements came with an amendment. At the beginning of the school year, the board was asked to estimate a stimulus amount for the purpose of budgeting. According to Debbie Stanford, the amount budgeted was $27,795. The actual amount was $77,000. This is good news for the school. The state will adjust the stimulus amount as the year goes on for various reasons. The remainder of the money after adjustments will need to be spent by 2011. Oakwood received two donations in the month of May from the Leon County Coalition. The first one was for $1000 for field day expenses. The money was used primarily to purchase field day shirts for the students, teachers, and faculty. (Scoggin was seen wearing a bright pink shirt on field day.) The Coalition then gave another $1000 for summer remediation expenses to help offset the cost of teachers.

The Action Agenda went over the proposed resurfacing of the gym floors. The board voted to accept the bid of $5,329.50 by Malone Corp. to redo the new gym floor but voted against spending $6,204.50 on the old gym floor, citing the need to repair the leaky roof first as their primary reason. The school is in need of getting rid of five old buses that are not fit for use. They were put up for sale. Two OISD students put in bids. The bid for the old #37 for $300 was withdrawn. The bid for the old #17 for $400 was carefully considered but turn down. The winning bid went to Sam Duncan who agreed to take all five buses (three of which are in pieces) at $750. The board was unanimous in stipulating that there would be a removal deadline and that the buses were not to remain in Oakwood. The concern is that they may be parked somewhere and be detrimental to the "Keep Oakwood Clean" city ordinance.

In closed session, the board voted to accept three teacher applications. Laurence Satterwhite will be the new high school math teacher next year, to replace a retiring teacher. Steven Tuggle will be taking over junior high and high school science for another retiring teacher. Jason Rich will be taking on the ag teacher position after Wesley Henson retires.