001Good evening. I would like to call to order the Guthri Public Schools Board of Education regular monthly meeting for Monday, March 9th, 2026. Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> here. Schroeder >> here. >> Davis, >> here. >> Gerard, >> here. >> Husky, >> here. >> Flag, >> here. >> Smemedley, >> here. Madame President, we have a quorum. >> Thank you. You'll please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please join me in a moment of silence before we begin our meeting. Thank you. Okay. Agenda item number six, presentation of employee and student recognition. >> Mr. Hancock, >> President Stanley, Dr. Sims, members of
002the board. Again, another another great month. We had some uh great nominations, some different difficult choices to be made. Um first to start off would be our uh student of the month from guest, Mr. Sebastian Tjo. Um he was nominated by Miss Caitlyn Schulz. Um a lot of a lot of that talked about how um exemplary he is working diligently is working on his grades and uh everything he does in that class. Um as you can tell, he was pretty excited whenever he received it. You know, you got to love it whenever you get the big smiles. So, uh that's Sebastian Tjo. Our February support employee is uh Miss Rebecca Ramsey. She is a uh one of the assistants out front at the high school in the main office. Um she was nominated by uh
003by all the administrators talking about the job that she has taken over um as she started uh this fall um and some of the great things that they've did. It was uh very very great. So, uh, you know, that's Miss Rebecca Ramsey. And then the next one, I'm like, "Wow." You would think that as a teacher of the year for for the school, she had received enough, but she still gained one more February certified employee would be Miss Dana Black. Again, nominated by the D or by the school. um just about how well she's handling everything and preparing for the testing and so forth and making sure um all of her students are uh being met. So those would be our certified and our students and our support staff of the month. >> Thank you.
004>> Okay. Agenda item number seven, comments to the board by citizens registered to speak. >> We have none. >> Uh comments to the board by board members? No. Okay. Agenda item number eight, superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh board member training balances for continuing education are at your seat. If you notice a discrepancy, please see Samantha. Um wanted to mention we had uh six board members attend the OSSBA region 6 meeting and training last Tuesday evening. That was the most board members that won training in my 14 years as superintendent. and I appreciate your commitment uh to stay up to date with the uh current issues on education. We uh recently completed our winter sports season. Six wrestling wrestlers qualified for the recently completed state tournament. Sir William Morgan finished fourth at heavyweight
005and he was our only placer. Um, the Guthri Educational Foundation recently hosted Are You Smarter Than a GPS fifth grader? And several board members, several of you guys folks were in attendance along with many of our administrators and staff and I believe everyone had a great time and it's the largest fundraiser for the foundation that funds grants annually to our teachers for their classrooms. It was it was fun. Um, we recently hosted the teacher of the year celebration of education in our community and I appreciate all the board members who were able to attend. It was another great celebration. Uh, congratulations to Crystal KS, seventh and eighth grade science teacher from Guthrie Junior High who was the secondary teacher of the year and a Caitlyn Wood, third grade teacher from Charter Oak Elementary, who was
006the elementary and district teacher of the year. Also at your uh at your seat, you have an invitation from Miss Cotton and the Codal staff for their first anniversary celebration. Uh I was looking back at my notes from last year for this board meeting and that was when we were planning the open house and I still remember how much fun that was to watch everyone go through the old building and then go to the new building. And uh I uh I I was afraid that I remember that afternoon I was afraid that Cody had set out too many chairs and it was going to look empty and we didn't have enough chairs. And so that was a that was a fun night. Uh the last thing I've got is spring break is March 16th through
007the 20th uh with no school and it is a welcome break ahead of us. That's my report. >> Thank you Dr. Simpson. Um okay. Okay, agenda item number nine, Crossland construction update. Hey, Lane. >> Hello. Thank you guys. Um, so I have a short update. We're continuing working with the utilities at the wrestling facility. Um, due to the site, we have to do things very one at a time here at the beginning. So, probably my next update will also be that we're doing utilities, but hopefully after that, we'll have more stuff going on. But, um, it's going well. Rain hasn't been too bad. We've, you know, slowed us down a little bit, but we're moving well and everything's going good. >> You guys have any questions? >> Aren't you going to brag on your company?
008>> Uh, well, sure. So, we won um we won a uh 10 to20 million education award for Codal for the AGC um builder bash, I guess, is what they called it. So, it's cool. We got a cool trophy. So, that was this weekend. It was a lot of fun >> for elementary. >> Yes. And uh I will tell on Lane a little bit too. Um he was giving me uh updates from that event about a certain son-in-law of one of our board members who won builder of the year, Nick Mench. So congratulations to Nick for that, too. So yeah, I was getting uh was getting updates from there as well as from uh Nick's wife, Shannon. >> It was fun to surprise him like that. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks, Lane. >> Thank you.
009Thank you. Okay. Agenda item number 10. Presentation by Synergistic. >> Okay. >> You're not going to make Ronnie get up there, too. Or >> we're giving him a break. Work too hard. >> President Smidley, Dr. Sinson, and members of the board, thank you for this opportunity to be here. My name is Colin Alexander. I'm the client manager uh for the program here at Guthrie Public Schools. I've been entrusted to work with Ronnie and with Cody and to try to identify any opportunities we can to reduce waste and capture dollars that need to go back to where they ought to be going to into the classroom, back to stu students, staff, and the programs uh that help this district. Uh we are we want to give an annual update to you, talk about a couple things,
010just a few moments of your time, talk about how things have been going since October 2021, the pro when the program began through December 2025. That's the latest day that we have. And so we just give you a quick update on that. Our total program savings for the district, this is working together hand in hand, has achieved $738,000 and avoided costs going to utility companies. And that's money that can go where it ought to be going right into the classrooms. Uh program savings are the verified impact of the program after adjusting for weather rates and other outside factors. Sometimes we need to make adjustments. You got a lot of things going on. if you would change out equipment, if things are running a little bit differently, we have to ensure that we're um being have
011integrity in the data that we report. So, we want to adjust for those things. But the way that I like to describe this number is this is calculated by essentially putting a value to the energy that is not used. So, when we conserve energy, that does have a value and that value is reflected here. So, congratulations on that. It's an incredible achievement in the four years that we worked together and some change on this report. your energy use intensity. This is essentially a footprint of the energy use, a combined electricity and natural gas usage across the district spread out over all of your square footage. And so this number represents 58.8 down to 44.8. That's represents almost a 24% reduction in your energy use. That's a very uh incredible number and that is a reflection
012of the savings that you've been able to accomplish. That 24% reduction uh really has a real value. And we'll talk a little bit in in a slide here in a moment about some of the real world impact that has a little bit of a breakdown on your increase in rates since the program began. Electricity up 50% on your rates. Natural gas 77% and water even 10%. We do monitor water. Uh, and when I say we we as a team working with Ronnie and Cody and all uh those in your M team. And so over the last 12 months, if usage had been going or consumption had been going the exact same it was before the program had multiplied by these rates, you could expect an additional 262,000 coming out of your budget. So just over
013those 12 months, that shows a great uh impact with the program. Uh there is a real world impact. Yes, the 36 million KBTU, again, that's that combined electricity and natural gas usage that's avoided. That translates to 4,000 metric tons of CO2 or 72,000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. It translates to 4.8 million pounds of coal not burnt. A little bit of a glance of what we do in this program with our partnership award. Uh Ronnie Phillips, want to recognize him for the hard work he's done in working with Cody and your M team. Some of the things he does maybe in the day in the life of an energy specialist would he does these weekly site audits. He walks these buildings. He knows them in and out. Especially during those unoccupied times, we want
014to be there to find things that are running that ought not to be running and get those to them in a proper team to see where we can get those operating in a way that they ought to be doing that. Uh also event scheduling and scaling back. Whenever maybe an event's over, instead of running all night, we try to capture those dollars back for the district. Um break setbacks. You've got spring break coming up. This is an excellent opportunity whenever buildings ought to be running minimally. Of course, providing air for whenever people are there doing their different events, but if nobody's there, we want to try to capture that and still protect the integrity of the buildings. He also monitors utility data with the bills that he puts in and he uses that data to
015cons to drive conservation efforts efforts whether it's electricity, natural gas or water. We try to use an informed approach and that's directly from utility bills and that's where all these calculations come from. uh the support we provide I'm here on a try to be a monthly basis as much as I can as much as I can offer support to Ronnie and then also provide uh consultants engineers experts in their field who can take a look at your specific systems and tailor a a proper uh or at least an optimization schedule or things that we can provide to try to operate as best as they can so that people are comfortable in the buildings because conservation is important but if nobody wants to be in the buildings it doesn't amount to much right and so we
016want to make sure people that these are operating oper operating well and optimize so that people are comfortable too. Then we measure and report like I said through the enter through the uh all the utility bills. We use utilize our software to provide alerts or maybe point Ronnie in a direction that you might consider looking at this because we're experiencing some some losses. Can we maybe capture that? And then we also try to build a culture of conservation whether it's events that you're hosting or student engagement pieces or even just some messaging that can go around on some bulletin boards. Whatever the case is, we want to build a culture of conservation because it starts with each individual. And then we also have uh a presentation this evening about Energy Star compliance and we help
017with that process and Guy and Gonnie Ronnie through what those audits look like to collect the information whether it's CO2 or lighting levels and then we do the the backend work of getting those applications completed, sent them to the federal agency and then u we work with them to try to get you recognized for Energy Star certification. And with that, I'll turn it over to Carrie Dubose to talk to you a little bit about what that process looks like and what the results are. >> Thanks. Good evening, President Smmedley, Dr. Simpson, and members of the board. I'm Carrie Deose with Synergistic, and it's an honor to be here tonight in Guthrie. Um, want to talk about two awards. So, Energy Star is the first award. And again, I know you're familiar with this. You had
018buildings last year that were certified. This is run by the EPA. Center District just is the the message deliverer. we we get the buildings measured off on and signed off on and send in the application and then come back and let you know which buildings were certified. And so, um, as a reminder, those Energy Star certified buildings are typically using 35% less energy and they're causing 35% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and they're less expensive to operate. So, you have five schools this year that are receiving Energy Star certification. Central elementary school, I never say this name right, Fogerty, is that right? Did I get it right? Fogerty Elementary School, Guthrie High School, Guthri Junior High, and Guthrie Upper Elementary School. And so, as soon as I'm done with the awards, I would love for you
019all to come up and get a picture. And congratulations to you all for getting Energy Star certification for your buildings and we will have a plaque delivered to the district that you all can put on display to show your community that you take it very seriously and you take good care of your buildings. The next award that I want to talk to you about is a best-in-class recognition. And in 2021, as Colin said, Synergistic began a partnership with Guthrie public schools. And a dedicated partnership over the last five years has helped contribute and create healthier, more energyefficient buildings for Guthrie. And the district is earning a best-in-class award for achievements in several categories that include the 23.8% 8% energy use reduction, cost savings of 738,230, and over the total life of the program, six energy
020star certified buildings. So, we want to recognize Guthrie public schools for serving as a model of energy conservation to other school districts across the country and for being good stewards. And we want to thank the maintenance and operations team. Again, we want to thank um the program liaison, Cody Thompson. We want to thank Ronnie Phillips, the energy specialist, Dr. Simpson for your support. and then students, teachers, and staff for all of your efforts. We appreciate this partnership. And as part of the best-in-class award, we have a check for the Guthri Education Foundation for $2,000 tonight from the Synergistic Community Scholarship. >> Awesome. >> So, congratulations and thank you again for being good stewards. And uh so we have the best-in-class plaque here and I have the check. And then we also want to have the
021Energy Star buildings come up. So, if we could get you all to come up and then if any come up here, if any of you want to come first. Dr. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good job. That teach dumbbell. All right. Okay. Thank you, Senator Jestic. We appreciate you guys. We appreciate your partnership. Um, okay. So, we will go on to agenda item uh 11, consent agenda. >> Madam President, I'll move that we approve the consent agenda. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Flag, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. 7 I zero nays. >> Okay, we'll go to agenda item number 12 with the business agenda 12A. Recommendation, consideration,
022and action to accept the bid for Guthri High School Jelma parking lot paving project. >> And if you have any I know we had some questions before the meeting started that I think uh Cody answered, but if we have any further questions, we're going to have to get him out of the hallway so he walked out there with them. Uh but as you can see, you know, paving has gone up quite a bit. Um I had originally wanted to give a serious look at uh some additional paving projects we have in the district. And I think um we're going to we wanted to use this kind of as a measuring stick of what it what it was. And uh so we'll be looking closely at what that might look like and we we're working to
023achieve some budget figures for some additional paving, but it's definitely a uh an expensive endeavor. So uh but with these bids, uh especially given where this is, uh I would recommend approval and uh we have uh just a little uh knowledge as well. This is a general contract uh that we're going to let we have used Connelly paving before they actually did the paving at uh Charter Oak and I think looking back years ago just based on what's in the uh sidewalk they did the the concrete work and uh gas as well way back when. So >> is this all as asphalt? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Is there any curbing just asphalt? >> No. I think there's a Cody there's a little bit of dirt work involved but for the most part >> your question
024>> does it come all the way up to the road or is there just a drive east side over separate parking lot from the >> So this is just for the existing lot that's there. We're not doing anything where it goes all the way through. >> No. >> To the other No. >> Is that Bus or whatever that is? >> Yeah, >> that's Springer. >> Springer. Yeah, that's right. Springer. Okay. Okay. Do we have a motion? >> Madam President, I move that we accept the bid from Connelly Paving Company for the Guthrie High School Jellma parking lot paving project. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Shredder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >>
025Flag, >> yes. Smmedley. >> Yes. >> Seven eyes, zero ns. >> Agenda item 12B, recommendation, consideration, and action upon agreement with ProCare Therapy to provide sign language interpreter Melanie Christian for the 2025 2026 school year. >> This is an item that u we recently uh enrolled a student that is in uh that is required to have a uh an interpreter. And so, um, with the nature of this contract, we have some flexibility if that student were to, uh, transfer to another district or something like that through the middle of this year. Um, and I know we talked about this in committee, but if we have any further questions, Dr. Webster is here to answer them. Madam President, I make a motion uh to accept the agreement with Proare Therapy to provide sign language interpreter Melanie
026Christian for the 2025 2026 school year. >> Second. >> We have a motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Plagg, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. >> Seven eyes, zero. Agenda item 12 C recommendation consideration and action upon agreement with employee evaluation systems inc for use in teacher support employee and/or principal leader evaluations for 2026 2027 school year. >> This item uh we I know this is another item that we've had under discussion for most of this year and was part of negotiations last year. Uh this will shift us, this district has been for the past uh 14 years with a Marzano model of teacher evaluation. This will shift us to a different
027model, the OKTLE model. And uh this is uh comes with the support of the uh GAC as well as uh administrative staff. Um John, we uh we have theou But it's not on the agenda. >> Uh, >> it's at the end of >> Oh, it is. Is it after executive? >> No, it's at the end of the contract after the eval employee evaluation system, >> but it's not an agenda item. So, we will need to It's not listed as an agenda item, so we will need to approve theou next month. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But um know that we have the full support of the GAC on this. Uh we would not enter an agreement with them without that um as well since that is a negotiated item. So I would recommend approval of this
028uh and we will uh bring theou to you next month for uh ratification by the board. So, do we have to >> No. Uh, I would recommend approval of the agreement. >> Okay. >> Madam President, I move that we approve the agreement with Employee Evaluation Systems Incorporation for use in teacher support employee and or principal leader evaluations for 2026 2027 school year. >> Second. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Plagg, >> yes. >> Smmedley, >> yes. >> 7 Z. >> Agenda item 12D, recommendation, consideration, and action upon contract with Imagine Learning for School year 2026 2027. >> This is one of our uh subscription services for online learning.
029We also use this for credit recovery if I'm not mistaken. Mr. Hancock is available to answer questions. We've used this vendor. Um it's says the fifth year, but I I'm not sure that we haven't used them longer than that. I think it was just a different uh name for >> Yeah. So recommend approval. >> Do we have a motion? Madam President, I move we approve the contract with Imagine Learning for the School year 2026 27. >> Second. >> Have a motion and second. Any further discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Clyde, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. >> 7 I zero nace. >> Agenda item 12E, recommendation, consideration, and action upon K6 remedial summer school
030program. This is an annual item that we bring to the board uh that requires your ratification so that we can begin uh showing the commitment that we will offer summer school and begin uh staffing it uh once the board has approved this. Would recommend approval. >> Madame President, I make a motion to approve the K6 remedial summer school program. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Plagg, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. >> Seven, I zero nays. >> Agenda item 12E, recommendation, consideration, and action upon survey study with high school music students from Dr. Ben Cams at Oklahoma State University. >> I was approached by Oklahoma
031State. Uh they wanted to survey our students that are uh enrolled in instrumental or vocal music. Um the you can see the survey. Our board policy requires that any survey administered to students requires your approval. And you can see what the survey uh measures and they are uh they are searching for ways to uh essentially improve u the uh recruitment of music educators and I think that's a noble uh endeavor and that's why uh I would recommend your approval and support. Madame President, I move we approve the survey study with high school student music students from Dr. Ben Knobs >> Cams, I'm sorry. Oklahoma State University. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard,
032>> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Clag, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. >> Seven and zero names. Agenda item 12F, recommendation, consideration, and action on district policy F5 transfers exhibit A. >> This is a quarterly item uh required by law to be approved by the board and ratified. And uh I bring it back to you as always as previously presented with no changes. Would recommend approval and ratification. >> Madame President, I make a motion to approve the district policy F5 transfers exhibit A. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Plagg, >> yes. >> Smemedley, >> yes. >> Seven, zero nays. >> Agenda item 13, proposed executive
033session for the purpose of discussing employment of personnel, FMLA requests, resignation, separation from employment, and transfer of position requests. All is set out on the personnel reports. Discussion of all building level administrator contracts as listed for 2026 2027 and periodic evaluation of Dr. Michael Simpson, superintendent of schools. Disclosure of which information would violate the confidentiality requirements of state and or federal law all pursuant to 25 Oklahoma statute section 307B1 and 7. >> Madam President, I move that we go into executive session. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Pearson, >> yes. >> Shredder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Flag, >> yes. >> Spedley, >> yes. >> Seven eyes, zero names. >> Okay. Agenda item 13B, acknowledge the board's return
034to open session. Um, only items in agenda number 13 were discussed in executive session and no votes were taken. This shall constitute the executive session minutes. >> Agenda item 14, vote as action as set out on the personnel reports. >> Madam President, I move that we approve the personnel reports. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Flag, >> yes. >> Smmedley, >> yes. Yes. Seven I zero and N. >> Agenda item 15 recommendation consideration action upon building level administrators contracts as listed for 2026 2027 without specification for salary or assignment. >> Madam President, I make a motion that we approve the building level administrators contracts as listed for
0352026 2027 without specification for salary or assignment. >> Second. We have a motion to second. Roll call, please. >> Pearson. >> Yes. >> Shredder. >> Yes. Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Flag, >> yes. >> Smidley, >> yes. >> Seven eyes, zero. Nice. >> Agenda item 16, recommendation, consideration, and action upon approval for Cameron Campbell to be classified as an adjunct teacher for JOTC at Guthrie High School. >> Madame President, I move that we approve Cameron Campbell to be classified as adjunct teacher for JOTC at Guthri High School. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. >> Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Plag, >> yes. >> Smmedley, >> yes. >>
036Seven zero nays. >> Agenda item 17, recommendation, consideration, and action to accept any resignations offered since the posting of the agenda. >> Madame President, I have a resignation uh that I would request the board accept tonight from Susan Whitehead, counselor at Guthrie Junior High. Madame President, I make a motion that we accept the resignation of Susan Whitehead. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Pearson, >> yes. >> Schroeder, >> yes. >> Davis, >> yes. >> Gerard, >> yes. >> Husky, >> yes. >> Flag, >> yes. Smmedley. >> Yes. >> Seven I zero nays. >> Agenda item 18. Discussion and possible action on new business not known about or could not have been reasonably foreseen at the time of the agenda posting. >> We have none. >> Agenda item 19.
037Ajourn. >> So move. >> Second. >> We have a motion in a second. Roll call, please. >> Pearson. >> Yes. >> Schroeder. >> Yes. >> Davis. >> Yes. >> Gerard. >> Yes. >> Husky. >> Yes. >> Plag. >> Yes. Medley. >> Yes. >> Seven I zero n >> this