Published: August 17, 2008 10:39 pm         

Enrollment looks to be up in Enid schools, says Hime

Preliminary enrollment numbers at Enid Public Schools look to be up over a year ago, Superintendent Shawn Hime said following the second full day of school.

Hime will give a report on enrollment numbers during the Enid Public Schools board meeting at 7 p.m. today in the boardroom of the central office, 500 S. Independence.

Hime said numbers look to be up across the district, especially in the elementary schools.

Approval of contracts and employment of several faculty positions also will take up the bulk of the board agenda.

The board will vote to approve a request to apply for School Site Statutory Waiver exemptions for two library media services specialists for the district.

The board will vote on three-year waivers for Susan K. Shewey to provide library media services at Taft Elementary School and Karla A. Johnson to provide library media services at Longellow Junior High School.

The waivers are being proposed due to the lack of highly qualified library media specialist applicants. Shewey has worked as a volunteer library assistant at Taft for several years. She has completed nine hours toward certification and currently is enrolled in continuing courses at East Central University.

Johnson is an experienced classroom teacher within the district and currently is enrolled in library science courses at East Central University.

The board also will approve several contracts for services.

The board will approve contracts for 29 faculty employees and also contracts for speech pathology services and occupational therapy services.

An executive session is scheduled for reports on negotiations with Enid Education Association and Enid Support Personnel Organization.

“Now that we have a good idea of what our revenue from the state is, as far as state aid, it’s the time of year we start meeting with them,” Hime said. “We always have to talk to the board about what we would negotiate in terms of salary or work-related issues.”

Any action taken on those discussions will be made in public session.