From the December 9th School Board Meeting

Notes from the December 9th School Board meeting on December 9, 2025.

Audience with the Board

  I gave a thank you to Gayle Cannon for including the Principal reports and full financial statements in the Agendas, a thank you to Board members who had willingly corresponded with me when I had a question, and to Superintendent Dodson for giving me comments I could publish on various issues for this blog.  Communication with the community has been greatly increased, in my opinion, and I appreciate that.

   Maintenance workers brought two items of concern to the Board.  First, there are issues with alarm systems not working properly. Everyone agreed this is a major concern so it needs to be addressed immediately.   A knowledgeable  audience member had several suggestions to the maintenance workers during the break when the Board went into executive session. 

   Second , the stage floor at the PAC has been damaged by incorrect tape being applied .  When the tape is removed it it brings part of the flooring finish up with it.  Maintenance was advised by Sherwin-Williams paint  that painting the floor would not be a solution.  The floor will need to be replaced and have at least a two week period where there is no traffic on it.  Thus it will be a summer project.

The Superintendent's Report included the following items of interest:

  Darrin Hill will be our Board member to fill another term.  He faced no opposition for his position.  He has served well and will be sworn in at a later time.

  The State Report cards found all schools receiving a "C" rating as well as the entire district overall.  After the reports came out, there was a meeting with the Superintendent and Principals in attendance to analyze the report card results and how they can make improvements..  This issue will be further discussed at the January 5, 2026 Professional Development Day.

  The Mock Emergency Day was not held as originally scheduled and will need to be rescheduled.

   School was dismissed on a Friday in November.  To make up for this, students will attend school on January 19th which was previously determined to be a day with no classes for Martin Luther King's Jr  Day.  We want to make sure we have enough "snow days" to meet the need in our school year.

(My insertion) 

   See news article about virtual learning days policy changing: https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-school-districts-new-law-limiting-virtual-days/65822568

OTHER MATTERS

   An audit report was given by a representative from Bledsoe, Hewett and Gullekson, CPA.  The report found our school has been doing everything correctly and is on target for every area.  Good news!

   A one-time stipend for required professional development for full time and part time certified and support employees was approved.

  The substitute teacher list for 2025-26 was approved.  We have a good number of substitutes available this year.

  The grade level capacity for student transfers was approved.  It stayed the same as previously implemented.  

  The revised 2025-2026 Officials Pay Schedule was approved. 

Meeting was adjourned. 

 

Until next month,  Pam Jarrett 

 

  

 

 

From the October 14th School Board Meeting--Grove

 I hope you will enjoy several noteworthy events from the 

October 14th School Board Meeting in Grove.  

The first audience before the Board was with Matt Lane.  His daughter had asked why there wasn't prayer before the games here.  She had observed this being done at other schools.  Mr Lane researched and found the OK state statutes which would allow this practice and presented them to the Board.  

As a result of Mr Lane's presentation, there was swift action by the Board and Administration as shown by this Facebook post by Darrin Hill, School Board member, the next day.

I am proud to announce that we are bringing student led prayer back into Grove Public Schools, OK. For whatever reasons we got away from allowing students to pray before games, but the drought is over!! Thank You to Matt Lane for addressing this at the board meeting last night. Thank you to Mr. Dodson and ALL of the other board members that are 1000% in support of student led prayer in our school!!! 

My audience with the Board included references to the "Mississippi Miracle" where the reading scores in their schools went from being at the bottom nationally to 6th in the nation. in a 10 year time span.  However, I had found that OK Senator Pugh from Edmond had authored the Strong Readers Act which was adopted this summer.  This promises to give the needed boost to our teachers and schools in making reading a priority.  Our new Superintendent of Education has stated reading literacy as one of his goals.

Then there was math.  I had learned that 50% to 60% of our students entering sixth grade do not have basic math facts memorized.  This causes a delay when computations are required.  How has this happened?  

 Quoting from an article in The Science of Learning.  "In1989, the National 
Council of Teachers in Mathematics introduced new math teaching standards.  These standards recommended the use of calculators at all grade levels and emphasized the development of reasoning skills.  At the same time, the NCTM suggested that teachers reduce the time allocated to the rote memorization of math facts and algorithms.  The NCTM's recommendation were influential and many U.S. states and Canadian provinces modified their curricula in response. " 

"Proficiency in any field is built upon a foundation of automatized knowledge.  (Automatized means being able to immediately recall a fact or procedure without any significant mental effort.  It usually required repetition and practice to achieve automaticity.

My note:  when we memorize something, it is stored in our long term memory which is vast.  Think about people you know who start losing their memory.  Often times they can still remember things from long ago while not remembering while what they had for breakfast. 

The summary of the article states : "The paper Designing mathematics standards in agreement with science makes a compelling case that math standards need to be modernized to bring them into alignment with evidence-based research.  Specifically, we need to better emphasize the need for students to be able to quickly recall core math facts.

A Board member told of working in the concession stand with students who could not figure how much to charge if someone asked for 5 Cokes and a hamburger when they were even dollar amounts..  Students wanted to get out their phones . 

(I have talked with a math teacher and one school principal about this.  I assure you they recognize the challenge and want to do everything they can to correct the situation.  I would encourage adults of any age to contact a school principal and offer to volunteer in the school.  You will need to pass a background check but then you will be welcomed in at a time of your convenience and any duration to work with students and make our Grove schools better!)

The Superintendent's report included information of challenges to our budget which includes being required to pay for breakfast and lunch to be given to each student at no charge and step salary increases for employees.  There is optimism that we will be able to meet our new budget.  (Budget was approved later in the meeting.)

Mr Kreutz introduced a student who had entered a contest to name a ODOT snowplow.  His winning name was SNOWbi-Wan-Kenobi.  The story of coming up with name was quite entertaining!

Dustin Matthews presented the plan for new turf on various sports fields in the district through the Ridgerunner Athletic Vision for Excellence group.  The turf will be paid for by selling advertising displayed along the edges of the fields. 

The Parent Teacher Association has been organized and will include parents and teachers from the entire district.  They are off to a successful start and the group was approved by the School Board. There will be more information about joining this group. 

There is much to learn at the monthly Board Meetings.  Hope to see you there next month!

Pam Jarrett 

  

 

 

 

From the Grove School Board Meeting on 9/9/2025

 

Grove School Board Meeting September 9, 2025

This report will be a bit different because I will be injecting my impressions on certain things.  As I sat in the meeting, I took notes so that is what I am working with.  If I have stated something incorrectly, I will welcome comments from someone who was there to correct.  Please email me at pamsheartart@boltfiber.net 

In my audience time at the first of the meeting I asked for updates on three items that had previously been brought up.  Superintendent Dodson said he would be addressing those in his report.  Again, I would advise you to email your audience questions or comments to each board member individually and to the superintendent so there is better opportunity for a response. 

I have numbered the three items updated as requested. In the Superintendent’s report we heard (1) status on the electric buses.  We have learned that the warranty on the buses will not be honored by the company who bought out LION Electric.  However, one of our mechanics was sent to E bus training in California so we can better keep up with maintenance.  Our school district will use the LION buses for as long as possible and there is a plan to bring in diesel buses to replace the electric buses so we have a working fleet at all times. 

(2) At a conference the first week of September, our Superintendent talked with people from Brightwell Co., the company offering the plan for solar panels on two school roofs.  Brightwell thinks they may have solved the problems our lawyers had with the contract we would have needed to sign.  We will be getting the details and giving them to lawyers to review.  If it appears all is in order, the information will be given to the School Board for a decision whether the project should go forward or not. 

(3) In an update on the release time religious classes, it was stated that there were around 70 students from the Lower Elementary signed up to participate in cooperation with Lifewise Academy with classes starting September 15^th.  Note: I began getting more information about this program on September 17^th.  I will write about my findings on this blog when I learn more details.

Roofing projects were reported on.  Grove Schools are happy with results and want to thank the voters for passing the bond issue to fund these repairs.   The red color of the roofs looks great!

Following was agenda item 14 of Regular Business, but I am putting it here.

Projected financial needs for the school is $29 Million.  Last year it was $30 Million.  We have an increased commitment to provide lunch for every student, which may cause a budget problem.  There have been some resignations where the positions weren’t filled again so that will help the budget.  Also, Superintendent Dodson sought a $100,000 grant through the OK Dept of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to be used for food in the lunch program.  With $25,000 of that grant, he sought bids for ground beef.  I was impressed that he had done this as a way of making the cost for extra lunches fit into the budget we have.

 

 The pdfs of Principal reports were displayed on the Agenda.  (Sign up to receive agendas in your email box!)  These reports were interesting to me.

Principal Smith from the Lower Elementary brought in guests to highlight the reading program where a class (20 students) is bused to Second Chance Pet Rescue of Grand Lake and the students read to the animals.  A boy and girl who had gone recently went right up to where the Board sits and talked about their experience.  The little boy was very animated! 

Another guest of Principal Smith was Louise Templin.  She was honored as being the community member who had come to Principal Smith with the idea for this program. Louise also worked coordinating details of the program.  A class goes every Friday with time off on special days (homecoming etc.) or when school is not in session.  Classes from 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grades will all be able to participate in a rotation through the school year.  Only the children are in the area at the time they do the reading, (so no visitors parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.)  Louise described this as a “no judgement zone.”

Personal note: Louise is a great supporter of community activities and is always looking for ways to improve community life.  Thank you, Louise!

Principal Matthews from the Upper Elementary thanked the Board for the focus on the Personal Development Day recently being on the teachers being able to communicate ideas within their own grade level to each other.  This added to unity for their “team”.  As I understood, this was different than having a speaker come in. 

Principal Kreutz from the High School spoke of the results of their diligent efforts in addressing the drop-out situation.  He shared several scenarios of seeking out students if they hadn’t shown up at school.   The number of dropouts is one area of evaluation on our state report cards.  (My comment: This process can be very complicated, and I was impressed that the HS administration pursues every avenue to ensure their students are in school.)

There was information on the Gifted and Talented program.  I didn’t know these are two different areas though they can be combined.  Gifted students can be identified as early as 2^nd grade.  Parents fill out a survey as part of the process to evaluate their own student.  Principal Matthews stated that sometimes a parent’s survey can be too hard on a student!  Once a student is in the Gifted and Talented program, they are expected to belong there for the remaining part of their school journey.  Principal Kreutz stated that a student can be added as “Talented” later if it is noticed they have started to earn awards in a particular area. 

That is all until I get more infomation about the Lifewise Academy classes.

Pam Jarrett 

Grove School Board Meeting August 12, 2025

 

As the start of school was fast approaching, there were many items of business for the Grove Board of Education to consider.  I hope you have signed up to receive the agendas and other notifications from the school to stay informed on what is happening in our Grove schools.  You can find step by step instructions to receive those notifications on my  July 11, 2025 blog post.

After the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States and Salute to the Oklahoma State Flag, there were audience speeches to the Board by two individuals.  I was not familiar with their concerns but was impressed with how fluently and respectfully they spoke.  If you have a need to address the Board and administration, I encourage you to do likewise. 

Verbal financial and budget reports were given.  Once again, financial statements had been posted in pdf form in the agenda, another reason to sign up for communication from the school district.

The Superintendent’s report included the following:

The welcome back committee was able to raise $160k in a variety of prizes, t-shirts, restaurant coupons, and cash to name a few. This event has grown exponentially over the past few years as our community members desire to show their appreciation for all our school staff by this welcoming event. 

 All staff are mandated reporters for child abuse and neglect. We are all required to sign an acknowledgement form as to our duties on this matter. There was RAVE training for the staff. RAVE training is a brand name not an acronym. All staff are required by law to have a mobile emergency alert system on their phones.

 HS roof looks great and should be completed by the end of October. The LE roof is almost completed. Only trim items remain.

 All Board members are required to accumulate points for ongoing training. OSSBA is hosting an Education Leadership Conference in Okc on September 4-7 with a variety of board related topics. 

The Consent Agenda was approved.

There were four committees approved.

Here is a list of those committees and their members:

SHORT TERM STUDENT SUSPENSION REVIEW COMMITTEE 2025-2026

HS Alisha Smith - Chairperson

MS Joseph Wilhelm

UE Katie Casey

LE Susan Mandrell

ECC Shelby Rhatigan

Internal Activity Review Committee for 2025-2026

Supt. Pat Dodson

ECC Randi Andrews

LE Carol Hunsperger

UE Jayla Teel

MS Jason Geer

HS Amanda Pollan

Site Principal of Activity in Review - TBD

Sponsor of Activity in Review - TBD

Counselor @ Appropriate Level:

● Dell Baker

● Tracy Marshall

● Rachel Davenport

● Tonya Goldner

● Jenny Clark

● Dani Lyons

Grove Public Schools

Gifted/Talented Local Advisory Committee

2025-2026

Local Advisory Committee members will be appointed by the School Board of Education upon

the recommendation of the superintendent. The committee will consist of at least three but no more than eleven members.

Member…………………………………………Cassie Stinnett

Member…………………………………………Deana Glasgow

Member…………………………………………Dani Lyons

Member…………………………………………Katrina Jackson

Member…………………………………………Tonya Goldner

Parent Member…………………………………Amanda Davis

Parent Member…………………………………Vanessa Byers

Parent Member…………………………………Chelsea Perryman

GROVE TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE FOR 2025-2026

Chairperson Pat Dodson

Asst. Chair Allie Cole

ECC Katrina Jackson

LE Debbie Marks, Tracy Goins

UE Kerri Gregg

MS Miranda Woods, Bryan Burroughs

HS Carmen Tharp

Business with Attorneys

22 items had been considered by school attorneys Rosenstein, Fist, and Ringold,

The Board voted to approve to adopt/revise/rescind those policies.  If you wish to see what policies were considered, I can email a list to you.  There was discussion by Board members on some of these.  

Items 8-13

Included approval of a job description for Math Interventionist. Later, Alan Palesano, who just retired as a math teacher was reemployed to assist MS students in need of strategic interventions to improve their math skills.

Textbook funds were approved to purchase refill consumables for Bridge to Reading supplemental reading program at the Early Childhood center. 

Textbook funds were approved to purchase Zaner-Bloser’s Handwriting Curriculum for Early Childhood and Lower Elementary schools.  My note: This will lead to teaching cursive handwriting.  This is a skill that is good for a person’s brain.  Historical documents are written in cursive.  Though several may be unfamiliar with cursive, this is a positive step in my view.

The board approved a price increase in the lunchroom.   Adults and guest prices increased from $5.00 to $6.00. Ala cart items increase from $1.00 to $2.00 for everyone, even students if they want extras. Extra milk increased from $.40 to $ .75 for all as well.  (May I remind folks that all students receive free breakfast and lunch at school now.)

After Executive Session, several people were approved for hiring.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:58 PM

Thank you for reading.  I hope this has been helpful to you.  Pam