Local/Area News
Even though there are two months left in the current school year, Henryetta officials are planning ahead.
The school calendar for the 2020-21 school year was approved Monday night at the monthly school board meeting. That calendar sets the classes to start August 13 with end of school planned for May 13, 2020.
“We worked our calendar around the vo-tech calendar since so many of our students go there,” said school superintendent Dwayne Noble. He pointed out the calendar has provisions for snow days and said the current calendar actually used those days. “This is the first time since I have been here that we had to use our snow days,” he told the board. He was talking about the decision last month to close school due to a brief snow storm.
Noble went on to tell the board repair work on the gymnasium is, “not going real fast.” He expects the floor to be finished in 30 days seven months the facility has been out of commission since a water leak in September destroyed the floor. Workers have the wood flooring down and will have to spend a week cleaning before painters can add the logo and lines.
At the monthly meeting, board members accepted resignations from Sarah Duncan-Brown and Oscar Davis. Duncan-Brown will be leaving her first grade when she and her husband move to Texas after the school year. Davis was a custodian at the school.
Board members approved a plan to work with Dewar allowing a student from that school to be part of the HHS golf team. “We are not recruiting,” Noble said. “Golf is not offered in Dewar.”
Elementary principal Jayme Matlock praised Rachel Bourne and the grade school students involved in “Shrek, the Musical” that was performed last week. “Some kids are shy and this gives them confidence,” she said, talking about several of the cast members. The two performances provided entertainment for a near-capacity crowd.
High school principal Kelly Furer said benchmark testing started Monday and will continue through the week. She praised the high school power lifters that will be going to state this week and added praise for HHS wrestler Madison Byroads who won a state wrestling title recently.
“We have several students going to state in music and the honor choir will be competing there,” she said.
Hemp production, the state revenue picture and other items being covered at the Oklahoma Capitol were brought out Friday at noon. State Representative Scott Fetgatter and State Senator Roger Thompson provided local residents with an insight of the start of month two for the legislature.
A problem with street flooding on East Main is going to cost the city over $300,000.
At a special city council meeting Wednesday, approval was given to purchase the materials to reroute the storm drain away from its existing line running under property owned by McDonald’s and Taco Bell.
The existing line has already collapsed damaging the drive through pavement for both fast food operations.
According to mayor Jennifer Mulholland, there are no records or plans covering the storm drain.
“ODOT said they believe the person trying to develop the property for Walmart when East Main was receiving work put in the drain,” she said. “That didn’t have anything to do with the city. No easements have ever been given.”
Plans call for the city to re-route the storm drain from the current catch basin east on Main to Southeast Third Street then south to Coal Creek. That would have a 14-inch line running some 700 feet.
“We can’t allow everything to fall in down there,” she said. The total cost of the project is expected to run about $350,000. It is not covered in the current budget meaning the city is scrambling to pull revenue from other departments.
President Donald Trump and Joseph Biden drew the lions share of the ballots while 18 other candidates split up the remainder.
President Trump came in with 98.38 percent or 2,210 of the republican votes and Biden picked up 41.41 percent or 1,254 votes. The closest democrat challenger to Biden was Michael Bloomberg with 648 votes followed by Bernie Sanders with 506.
The rest of the democratic ticket had Elizabeth Warren receive 233 votes, Amy Klobuchar with 103, Tulsi Gabbard 71, Pete Buttigieg 63, Andrew Yang 34, Tom Steyer 30, Michael Bennet 26, Cory Booker, 25, Marianne Williamson 14, Deval Patrick 12 and Julian Castro 9.
A total of 3,028 democrats voted and 2,293 republicans cast their ballots.
“When our community passed the school bond for transportation in September we were able to equip the buses with four cameras inside and four cameras outside,” said transportation director Rick Enis.
He said anyone who breaks the law will get a ticket of no less than $100.
That law means When a school bus is stopped with its red lights flashing and its stop arm extended, you must stop your vehicle at least 20 feet from the bus. Oncoming traffic and motorists approaching the bus from behind may not move until the stop arm is retracted and the red lights are no longer flashing.
"Drivers passing stopped school buses endanger the lives of our children loading onto or unloading the bus," said Enis. “This is a very serious problem, but unfortunately it's difficult for officers to enforce this law. School districts across the state will now have the means to install video cameras and hold reckless drivers accountable.”