Board takes steps to add School Resource Officers
The Siloam Springs School Board met on Oct. 13 to discuss progress on the new administration building, give the annual report to the public and sign a new memorandum of understanding with the Siloam Springs Police Department.
The meeting began with Superintendent Jody Wiggins’ report, which mainly consisted of updating the board on the progress made on finding a consultant group to form a strategic plan for the school.
“We have talked a lot about a strategic plan. We sent out numerous plans for proposals from different consultant groups and we have five that are interested. District leadership has narrowed it to three, but we have some follow up questions for those three,” said Wiggins.
The meeting then shifted to the annual report to the public, which was led by the district directors.
Kelly Svebek, Director of Assessment and Accountability, took the helm for most of the report, offering up data on accreditation status, enrollment, income levels in the district and demographics on race and ethnicity.
“What you see is that every school is fully accredited. What you don’t see is the immense amount of work that led to that,” said Svebek.
One of the most notable points from the report is the enrollment update.
“Enrollment, for this year, is up. As of October 5, we have 4,474 students,” said Svebek.
She continued, saying “We definitely are growing and seeing an increase in our student population. If you look at the historical size of the district, we have over doubled in the past three or four
According to American Legal Publishing’s business profile, they have many Oklahoma cities as clients including Big Cabin, Choteau, Grove, Jay, Locust Grove and Vinita.
American Legal Publishing will charge West Siloam Springs $5,200 a year to review their entire code of ordinances and update it as well as providing four hard bound copies to the town, Harp said. They will charge the town 40 percent upfront, 40 percent after the first revision and then the balance upon completion, Harp said.
Digital hosting will be $250 for the first year and then $500 each additional year, Harp said. American Legal Publishing will charge $22 a page to update the code, Harp said.
“What they’ll do is work with us and our website where there will be a link on our website take us straight to the code,” Harp said. “Any time an ordinance is past here I send that to them over at American Legal Publishing and within a couple of days of us passing a new ordinance or amending an ordinance it’s updated live online.”
Byers said he has worked with American Legal Publishing in his duties as a Jay police officer and said the town’s code of ordinances is easy to work with.
Wise’s only concern was that Kris Kirk CPA, was unavailable that night to ensure that there was enough in the budget for it. Harp said if the trustees approve it he will let American Legal Publishing know the approval is subject to the okay from the town accountant.
The board of trustees and municipal authority also voted on and heard the following items:
• Approving the meeting
minutes from the Sept. 19 meetings of the board of trustees and municipal authority.
• Hearing reports from
town officials Police Chief Larry Barnett; Waylon Chandler, director of public works; Mark. Wiedebusch, code enforcement and Harp.
• Approving the town’s
general purchase orders for the month of September 2022: General PO #’s 0063-0111 in the amount of $112,593; EMS PO # 0003 in the amount of. $21,444; Tribal PO # 0002 in the amount of $570.
• Approving the lot split
for the intersection of U.S. Highway 412 and U.S. Highway 59.
• Approving the purchase of a car wash membership for police vehicles, street department, management and code enforcement vehicles at Club Carwash in Siloam Springs.
• Approving the Turkey
Bonus for all full-time town and municipal authority employees.
• Hearing public input from Citizen Beverly Lamb, who would like to have a stop sign or slow children sign placed on her street.
• Approving purchase
orders for September 2022: Water PO #s 0042-0070 in the amount of $93,393; Street Po #s 0020-0026 $8,140; Meter PO #s 002003 in the amount of $51,489.
• Tabling a discussion
concerning PSI Lab Testing, Forensics and Consulting Inc.’s “Final Analysis of the 12” Pipe Failure” that occurred in Sept. 2019 and corresponding invoice until next month and adding an executive session to discuss sensitive matters.
• Taking no action on