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 

 

 

 

 

From the School Board Meeting 7/10/2025

 

The Grove School Board met on July 10, 2025.  Once again the agenda had included valuable information as to financial reports and other items. Go  to the meeting date  for the July 10th meeting and open the agenda.  You will find the pdf symbol for several items..

 

 

 

 

Here's how to get to the agenda. 

Go to ridgerunners.net and click on the magnifying glass in the red box at the upper right.  

Type School Board in the search box. 

Click on the words School Board that are in red.

You will see Board Agendas on the left.  Click on that. The screen below will come up.  

Follow the directions that appear there and you will start receiving notifications for the meetings.  The agenda with pdfs will be displayed when you click on "Agenda" to the right side.  

 

Of special interest was the Superintendent's report.  Once again Superintendent Dodson graciously supplied a written report so I can share it with you.  As far as I can determine, this is not common practice.  His wanting to communicate with the community is an admirable trait. 

Superintendent's Report

1. The HS roofing project is underway. For the past week the old shingles are being removed and an ice and water shield is being installed to weather proof prior to the metal roofing installation. The project is on schedule. The LE roofing project is scheduled to begin any day now.
2. The online enrollment is going well. We hired Teresa Rockers to run our student information system from the administration office. She has been assisting parents with the online process of returning students. New to Grove students can enroll in person at the PAC on July 22 & 23 from 9am-3pm.
3. On July 24 I will meet with Grove Police chief, Mark Morris to begin planning for our next district-wide emergency drill. We meet often throughout the school year to discuss potential emergency situations. This meeting will begin the process for a mock drill to better prepare our staff and students for a future crisis situation. The training at the PAC is unrelated to my meeting with Chief Morris. On July 28, Deputy Sheriff, Alex Graham from Minnesota will present "Emerging Drug Trends Training." He will address drug identification, signs and symptoms, drug detection, and current drug trends. This is open to the public. Several area administrators, law enforcement, counselors, parents and community members will be in attendance at no cost.
4. Last week, State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a news release and an email to Oklahoma parents saying the Oklahoma State Department of Education will require school districts to provide student meals at no charge to parents beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. The release and email threatened administrative cost cuts and audits for districts that don’t comply with the proposed mandate, listed a variety of updated health standards for school meals, and promised new rules regarding physical activity for students and time allotted for students to eat school meals.

• No emergency rule has been approved or formally proposed. For this proposal to be enforceable, it must go through the emergency rulemaking process and receive approval from the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
• Grove, as well as most districts, have already planned their academic programming and hired staff for the 2025-26 fiscal year based on budget projections.
• Oklahoma already has caps on administrative spending, requiring districts to be in compliance with existing financial transparency standards.
• Several area districts already provide meals for all students at no cost under the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Eligibility is based on the number of students who qualify for Free/Reduced lunches. In the past, Grove has not qualified for CEP because of the limited number of students who are directly certified for free meals. 
• I have been in contact with the State Child Nutrition Program Specialist to consider other options since Walters' announcement came the June 30 deadline to apply.
• We all agree that providing healthy meals for all students can have a positive impact on their education and overall wellbeing. For years, Grove has provided a free breakfast for all students. Grove currently has over 750 students who do not qualify for Free/Reduced lunches. 750 multiplied by an average $3.25 lunch equals $2,437.50 daily cost. If we make the decision to provide free lunches for those who do not qualify, the potential cost would be 167 days of school multiplied by $2,437.50 daily cost to equal $407,062.50. This is being asked without any increase in funding. I have been in contact with State Representative, Josh West over this matter. I will continue to work to find a remedy to best serve our students. 

Lastly, the various resignations are for a variety of reasons. Several were hired last month to new positions within the district and resigned from their current position to allow for hiring new employees in their old spot. Some took new jobs outside of the education business and one took a job in another district. 

 

 Thank you for taking time to read my blog.  If you have any questions you would appreciate being addressed, please email me at pamsheartart@boltfiber.net and I will see what I can do.

Pam Jarrett 

  

Good News from Grove School Board Meeting 6/10/'25

 

 

***Electric Bus News

*** Financial Reports now in Agenda

***How to Receive the Agenda for Meetings  

 

Electric Bus News

Administration will be meeting with Highland Electric this week to talk about the possibility of that company providing us with the services we need for our electric bus fleet.  You may read more about this company at https://highlandfleets.com/  .  

 

Financial Reports now in Agenda

I was excited to see pdfs of full financial reports now included in the Consent Agenda for the meeting under  Approval of bills and claims,

Approval of the financial report of the activity funds , and Treasurer's report as the status of funds and investments.

 

These reports show us the source of income and the pay-outs for our school.  

 

How to Receive the Agendas for Meetings

Go to ridgerunners.net and click on the magnifying glass in the red box at the upper right.  

Type School Board in the search box. 

Click on the words School Board that are in red.

You will see Board Agendas on the left.  Click on that. The screen below will come up.  

Follow the directions that appear there and you will start receiving notifications for the meetings.  The agenda with pdfs will be displayed when you click on "Agenda" to the right side.  

(This is a picture of the notification I received for the 6/10/2025 meeting.  I added the red words. You can read the reports from that meeting by clicking on "Agenda" without signing up for meeting notification.  

I hope you find this helpful information in understanding our school processes a bit better.  Publishing this information for the public to see in the agendas is an extraordinary move by the Grove schools.  I have not found another school doing this yet.  

Pam Jarrett 

 

A Solution for our Buses is Being Considered--Grove Public Schools

There is a solution being considered for our electric buses that would provide maintenance and service for our fleet.  This is good news! Details will be released at the appropriate time.  

Here is a statement from our Superintendent Dodson:

We currently run 13 routes daily. We have 13 electric buses. 11 route buses and 2 Special Service buses. We also have 13 diesel buses as backups. We have 10 route buses and 3 activity buses. My goal is to purchase 1 diesel bus a year, for the next 3 years for activity trips, to bolster our back ups, and to have options to run all daily routes regardless of the electric bus situation. Overall, we have been happy with the electric buses. For 2 years they have served us well, with minor issues (charging stations-unrelated to Lion). The district will always look for the best (practical, reliable, economical, and safe) options to provide transportation services for our kids.

 

Thank you Superintendent Dodson for that information.

 

Shared by Pam Jarrett with permission.

Latest News About Lion Electric Bus Company

 

There has been a recent development in the situation with the LION Electric Vehicle Company that manufactured 13 of our school buses.  Read about it here: 

https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/electric-vehicles/quebec-judge-approves-sale-lion-electric-investors 

There will be questions as to how this affects us.  Be patient as the school works through this, please.

 

From the May 13th School Board Meeting

 

 

This is script of what I shared with the Board at the May 13th Meeting

Updates

1.       Whenever I stand before you, I want you to be able to trust that what I say is factual and true.  Last month I told you that FROG , the name of the Robotics team, stands for FIRST Robotics of Grove.  This was an error.  FROG really stands for FIRST Robotics Organization of Grove.  Gotta get it right!

2.      I have been following the situation with the LION Electric Company and the effect of their bankruptcy on our district since we have 13 of their electric buses in our fleet.  I emailed each of you information that became available May 1, 2025.  Quoting from that article published by TheFinancialPost.com-

The Canadian government turned down an opportunity to put money into the firm along with local investors. “We believed in LION’s potential, but the recovery plan submitted did not justify the re-injection of significant government sums, Unfortunately , it’s clear that providing LION with additional funds would not be a responsible decision.”-”La Presse reported Wednesday evening that LION is now likely to be sold in parts, meaning the end of the company.  The expected shutdown may leave many bus owners in Canada and the US without maintenance services going forward.

LION has already shut down operations in Joliet, Illinois, and at a battery pack assembly plant in Mirabel, Quebec.”

Then from The energymix.com on May 5^th: Quote” A restructuring specialist with Deloitte told a Superior Court heart Monday that government aid would have been a condition of any sale of the struggling company.

With that possibility of that off the table, he said, it’s unlikely any buyer will step forward with a plan to relaunch the company which sought protection from its creditors in December of 2024. 

“The likelihood of a liquidation of assets is very high, “he said.”

Update 3

Last month I requested the Principals’ Reports be included in the minutes of the meeting.  I was so happy to see the reports included in tonight’s agenda.  Thank you!  That is so helpful.

Now for tonight’s business—

I notice several items in the Consent Agenda of a financial nature.  I believe the purpose of the Consent Agenda is to group many items together that can be accepted in one vote thus saving time. Perhaps my understanding of this is incorrect.

 A main issue for people looking at the school is how the money is spent.  I maintain it would be wise to publish the figures you see given in the Consent Agenda on your computers as part of the minutes, too.  Tonight, that would be VII.1. B Approval of Bills and Claims, VII. 1. C Approval of financial report of the activity fund, and VII. 1.D. Treasurer’s Report as the status of funds and investments.  I noted the item VII. 1.F Accept donations as per attachment A so that means we as a community will have access to that information.

It was recently pointed out to me that our Delaware County Clerk has a weekly report published of payments made on behalf of Delaware  County Commissioners.  While it may not be necessary for a weekly report with the school, it would seem a good idea for our community to see exactly what is shared with you in the Consent Agenda reports.

And lastly, there is a threat to our young people that can come to them through their phones.  The FBI has recently opened 250 investigations into 764, a group that has the destruction of our youth in mind.  If you do a search for 764 you will find information.  I would hope every parent would be concerned about this enough to check it out. 

Thank you for listening!

Pam Jarrett

 

During the Superintendent's Report, he lauded the way the everyone had acted appropriately when the tornado came through around 8:00 AM and people were arriving at school.  He thanked the bus leadership for the way they are prepared for every challenging situation that may come up.

 

Superintendent Dodson also spoke of going to the Newcomer's meeting and telling them about financial facts regarding the bond issues, mill levies, etc and how they work.  As I understood it, he also took questions as a way to increase communication with the community and tell the school's story.

 

During the meeting, many young people were recognized for awards they received.  It is always good to see their accomplishments!

 

If I am reminded of other things I will add them.  There is a lot a person can learn from attending the Board Meetings.  I highly recommend it.