The start of the 2020-21 school year was the topic of conversation briefly during Monday’s meeting of the Kingfisher Board of Education.

“We’ll have more information available to us at our June 30 meeting,” Superintendent Jason Sternberger told the board members during their regular June meeting.

The 2019-20 school year was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing schools nationwide to go to a distance learning format for the latter part of the second semester.

While phases of reopening are currently going as scheduled, Sternberger said making any decisions this soon wouldn’t be prudent.

“There are still so many questions to ask and nobody has the answers,” he said.

The school year is currently slated to start Aug. 12 for students.

He said some parents of high-risk students have reached out saying they wouldn’t yet feel comfortable sending their children to school.

“And that’s perfectly un derstandable,” Sternberger said. “We’ll work with them to make sure they have the tools they need.”

Sternberger added that they’ll also need to poll teachers to gauge their thoughts on returning to the classroom as well.

The state is currently in Phase 3 of the Open Up and Recover Safely (OURS) plan and the first two phases saw limited, if any, setbacks.

The high school’s “Summer Pride” program began Monday with several extra measures and precautions in place. There are still plans for driver’s education classes later this summer.

“We will keep our fingers crossed that we can continue to move forward with everything,” Sternberger said.

All school-related fundraisers must be approved by the board and a bulk of them for the 2020-21 school year got approval Monday.

Approved were fundraisers for band, Business Professionals of America, baseball, cheer, Class of 2022, FFA, football, Gilmour Elementary students, Gilmour and Heritage PTO, Heritage faculty, Heritage library, Heritage music, Heritage and Gilmour students, KHS faculty and students, KHS Photography, KHS Student Council, KMS students and vocal.

Annual contracts with three agencies were renewed.

One is with Big Five Community Services which will work with the district to meet the needs of students on an IEP or IFSP as well as their families.

Others were with the Oklahoma School Assurance Group (OSAG) for workers’ compensation insurance at a cost of $35,944 and the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA) for membership dues ($3,225), policy services ($750) and employment services ($1,443).

Also approved was an agreement to be the lead fiscal agent for the 2020-21 Title III (English Language Learners) Consortium and declaring more than 200 computers as surplus.

The board voted to fill four teaching positions and accepted two resignations (See story on Page 1 of this edition) as part of the 35-minute meeting.