TPS board reorganizes board
Apr. 17—The Tahlequah Public School Board of Education undertook a reorganization during a meeting April 15.
Chrissi Nimmo was administered her oath as Seat 4 board member. Lorraine Walker moved to Nimmo's past position as the president, with Shawn Coffman now being vice president.
Several other positions were appointed for the upcoming school year, including Brittany Bloodworth as clerk of the board; Kevin Dudley as treasurer; Sabrina Garner as as deputy treasurer and encumbrance clerk; Wendy Wallace as minutes clerk; Shawna Batson as deputy clerk of the board; and Karen Arnall as deputy minutes clerk and activity fund custodian.
An application for temporary appropriations was accepted for the 2024-'25 fiscal year, with the general fund at $40,742,476 and the building fund at $2,929,106.
"This is what I put into our accounting software to open next year, so we can start requesting out of it. Then we get a more finalized number of every single program code that we have, and we put every dollar we have on that and then we get our estimate of needs," Garner said. "This is just like the beginning process to building our budget and starting the next school year."
The board approved the request of a new activity account for broadcast Tiger News. The account will be exclusively for Tahlequah High School students.
Superintendent Tanya Jones said the bond projects are steadily coming along. The library and nurses station at Cherokee Elementary have been completed with the other projects moving forward.
The wall framing on the project at Greenwood Elementary is almost finished, with the HVAC and ceiling items are at 75% completion. The roof framing is finished, with the installation of the roof panels to take place in the next week. Jones said the project should be complete by the time school starts this fall, but is dependent on a roof curb coming in.
"That building is very different because it's an F-5 storm shelter, so watching them build at Cherokee, then watching them build at Greenwood, are not even on the same solar system it seems like when you go in and look and see how everything is done," Jones said.
A policy was revised for suspension of students, by adding the word "bully" to it. A revision for the policy had been approved during last month's meeting, but the word was accidentally left out.
What's next
The TPS Board of Education will meet again at the board of education office May 14 at 6 p.m.
