A two-hour meeting of the Kingfisher Board of Education last week ended with members voting to hire 20 new staff members.

The board also approved pay scales for extra-duty assignments and support staff.

There were no changes to the pay scales for either from last year.

However, the support staff pay scale did see five years added to it. Pay for each position increases with each year served and previously capped out at 25 years.

It now has a scale for up to 30 years of service.

Superintendent Dr. Daniel Craig said that while the pay remained the same for extra-duty assignments this year, the district will be reviewing the amounts.

“We’ll look at other districts and jobs’ pay to see if we need to raise ours next year to be competitive and retain folks,” he said.

The list of new staff approved included counselors, teachers, directors, specialists, teacher assistants and more.

Approved as the district’s child nutrition director was Tammie Homier.

Gilmour staff approved included: Makylah Tollefson, assistant reading specialist; Janet Hood, pre-kindergarten; Shasta Yost, second grade; Gayla Sykes, paraprofessional; Anita Orozco and Alicia Crawford, secretaries; and Mariah Lovett and Tiffany Moody, teacher assistants.

Jennifer Moyer was hired as a teacher assistant at Heritage School.

Middle school staff approved were: Lara Kostka, counselor; Keaton Callins, eighth grade history and coach; Madison Schaefer, special education ELA; and Tracy Pipkin and Melissa Warren, paraprofessionals.

Added at the high school were: Tracy Baustert, ninth and 10th grade counselor; Riley Dacus, elective teacher; Keirstin Bebermeyer, science teacher; and Maria Gutierrez, custodian.

Natalie Branson was also added to the maintenance staff for the district.

The hires were made after board members accepted six resignations.

They included: Kara Winans, high school science; Shelley Belair and Brittany Phillips, paraprofessionals; Nayeli Garcia and Melissa Hill, teacher assistants; and Heather Pringnitz, teacher assistant and cashier.

All the moves were approved by a unanimous 4-0 count with Dana Golbek, Jim Perdue, Charles Walker and Carly Franks voting.

Terry Payne was absent from the regular meeting held Monday at the KHS cafeteria.

More than 80 people signed in prior to the meeting, which included three speakers in the public participation portion of the agenda.

Two speakers spoke in favor of the current KHS football coaching staff and another addressed the district dress code, which was on the agenda. (Ed. note: For more on those stories, see Pages 1A and 1B of the Wednesday, Aug. 4, edition.)

Prior to an hour-long executive session, board members voted to make a change to the district calendar.

The change moves the date for which students are out of school from April 22, 2022, to April 15, 2022. The latter date is Good Friday.

The board also voted to set Saturday, May 21, 2022, as the date for high school graduation.

Also approved by the board were:

• Fundraiser requests for cheerleading and soccer programs;

• Annual contracts with Big Five for child and adult care food program and IDEA implementation, CareerTech for secondary programs, and the University of Oklahoma for pre-employment transition services;

• A resolution to transcript computer, math and science courses taught at Chisholm Trail Technology Center;

• The district’s participation in the Kingfisher County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan process.