Published: July 21, 2008 12:28 pm            

Waurika finalizing personnel

fundraising helps purchase stadium seats

WAURIKA — Waurika moved closer to filling its roster of certified personnel and coaching staff in the athletic department when the District 23 board of education approved hiring a husband-wife tandem.

During a regular meeting on July 14, the board voted 3-0 (board members Scott Day and Sherry Waid were absent) to OK the hiring of Aaron Minor as the district’s new head boys basketball coach, replacing Jeremy Hogan, who resigned in June.

In addition, the board accepted the resignation of Steve Lee as head coach of the girls’ softball program and as girls’ basketball assistant, but they filled the fastpitch and slowpitch softball openings by hiring Minor in those positions.

Minor, a Comanche High and Cameron University graduate, was head basketball and baseball coach at Empire in 2007-08 and also spent two years as head basketball and baseball coach at Geronimo. He was also hired as a math instructor at Waurika High/Middle School, on a temporary contract.

The board also approved hiring Candesse Minor as a new fourth-grade instructor at Waurika Elementary School. Wife of the new head basketball coach, Candesse Minor will fill an opening created when first-grade teacher Belinda Bohot retired in May. Minor will take over a fourth-grade spot that opened when Rachel Masoner was reassigned to the first-grade position vacated by Bohot. (Bohot was rehired as a part-time counselor at WES after her retirement in June.)

“Coach Lee is going to a teaching and coaching job in Turner, which is closer to his home,” Superintendent Roxie Terry said. “We’re very pleased to have Aaron taking over our boys’ basketball program — he did a good job at Geronimo and Empire, and was highly recommended.

“Coach Minor hasn’t coached girls’ softball, but he has experience as a baseball coach.”

Terry said the only certified personnel position that remains open at this time is for a driver’s education teacher. He’s also seeking to fill a position on the athletic staff that would including being a softball assistant and assistant in the WMS girls’ basketball program.

In other action, the board approved:

n A resolution for the Activity Fund, which is a bookkeeping process necessary to begin the 2008-09 school year.

“It means closing accounts from (the 2007-08) Activity Fund and moving them into the Activity Fund for the new year, and adding the Class of 2015 to the Activity Fund,” said Finance Director Rebecca Cunningham.

n A bid from Highland Dairy Co. to provide milk service during the 2008-09 school year.

n Activity Fund expenditures and fundraisers for the 2008-09 school year.

n A lease with DeLage Laden Financial Services for fiscal year 2008-09, for copiers at the elementary and high school, at a combined amount of $335.06 per month, and the superintendent’s office, at an amount of $180 per month.

n A lease for $250-$300 per month with Auto-Chlor Dishwashing Services for two dishwashers for FY ’08-09.

n Encumbrance of seven purchase orders for the 2007-08 General Fund.

n Encumbrance of 96 purchase orders for the 2008-09 General Fund.

n Encumbrance of six purchase orders for the 2008-09 Building Fund.

n Increasing the amount of purchase order No. 211 to Science Kit & Boreal Laboratory. The original estimate of $85 for that purchase order was increased to $100.87.

n The Activity Fund detail ledger for June.

n Cunningham’s treasurer’s report for June.

n Minutes from a regular meeting on June 9.

During his administrative report, Terry noted that the district was going to experience a cut of $137,742 in state funding for the 2008-09 school year, and that contributions to the teacher retirement fund will increase $10,000 to $12,000, which will result in a total financial cut of nearly $150,000. He and board members had a lengthy discussion about the impact rising costs and lower enrollment will have on the district, as well as the effect of new state Board of Education rules on extracurricular and co-curricular programs.

Terry also reported that a new head football coach Larry VanBeber had agreed to take over the athletic director’s position that became vacant when Hogan resigned. The board will action on that item at its August meeting.

He said an activities bus purchased in 2007-08 should be arriving on campus after lettering is done on the vehicle, and he noted that two surplus buses are still being housed at the bus barn, after no one showed interest in purchasing them. Terry suggested the board consider selling those as scrap metal, noting that the current rate for scrap metal is $150 per ton.

Also in his administrative report, Terry said 252 stadium seats purchased in a fundraising effort by Waurika alumni should be arriving soon, and would be installed at Cy Sloan Stadium “two or three days after they get here.”

“Those seats represent $30,000 work of improvements at the stadium,” Terry noted, as he gave board members a diagram of a proposed seating arrangement. “We’ll have nine rows of 28 seats beneath the press box, with an aisle in the middle.

“Although there are name plates on the seats, these won’t be reserved seats. The name plates are there as dedications, not as a means of reserving seats.”

        

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