OROVILLE – The Oroville School Board held its monthly meeting on Nov. 25 and heard reports from the superintendent and the elementary and high school principal.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Hardesty reported on ongoing facility upgrades at the elementary and school communications.

“Kitchen construction continues,” said Hardesty, adding that Halmes Builders’ Nov. 19 schedule reflected a completion date of Dec. 2.

“However, the Health Inspector is not routinely scheduled in our area until Dec. 9,” said the superintendent, stating the contractor’s likely completion day might be even further delayed.

“Beyond Halme’s delays, we also face he potential further delay due to the faulty roof install by. Halme. The district issued a formal bulletin and a timeline for the roof malfunction to be addressed. Halme did not adequately address the roof issues; therefore, the district brought a new roofer of our own choice.”

Hardesty said that the roofer was scheduled to be on-site that week and weather permitting the roof should take four or five days to complete.

“Our long-awaited elementary bleachers are scheduled for install the week of Dec. 9. We are excited to see the gym project come to completion.”

On communications, the superintendent reported on a recently completed perception survey on district communications, stemming from the district’s work the previous year. He said there were 91 participants in the survey and a summary of the report indicated that over 76 percent felt the district’s communications were improving, 18.5 percent thought they were staying about the same and a little under four percent thought they had declined.

“A shout out to Athletic Director Jay Thacker for his initiative and thoughtful approach to building culture and parent participation in our programs. Mr. Thacker held a Winter Sports’ parent meeting on Nov. 14.”

At that meeting parents were provided an opportunity to view and discuss videos about the role parents play in their athlete’s development prior to breaking out into separate sports meetings to review expectations, according to Hardesty.

“He plans to follow this format each season,” said the superintendent.

Elementary Principal Amy Harris said the student-led conferences were well attended.

“Teachers reported a 95 percent attendance,” said Harris.

“Mary Willey took on the Scholastic Book Fair this year during conferences. She did a fantastic job. The highlight was our local author and librarian Heather Arysis Burnell, who was on hand to sign copies of her Unicorn and Yeti book series,” said Harris, adding that Burnell’s books were the top sellers at the book fair.

“In total, we earned $2,374.72 to purchase books for the elementary school,” said the principal.

She said the elementary had their third Gold Award Ceremony, which was organized by the ASB officers and that they led the assembly.

“I am so impressed with how these young leaders presented to a large audience of students, staff and families,” said Harris.

The Student of the Month character trait for November was “gratitude,” according to Harris.

“We have also worked to bring back the Super Citizen Award, which has been a long-standing tradition at Oroville Elementary School. This quarterly award is student selected with clear guidance on the qualities of a good citizen,” she said.

High School Principal Linda Achondo reported that several field trips recently relevant to their content and/or student interest.

“Mr. (Marcus) Alden took several students to Double S meats in Tonasket on Nov. 14th and Nov. 21st to observe the butchering process from start to finish,” said Achondo, adding that some of the students who went on the field trip had been invited to attend the board meeting.

Rhonda Gasho described how the cow goes through a shoot on its way to be processed.

“Sometimes inspectors are there watching, sometimes they are not there,” said Gasho, explaining that it depended on whether the meat was being butchered for the commercial market or a private buyer.

Achondo said that the field trip was part of the Intro to Agriculture class and that there had been other field trips for other classes, including one to the county courthouse and a visit to a credit union.

The principal also gave an internship update.

“We currently have five greenhouse interns or students completing Supervised Agricultural projects and one student completing an agricultural/shop unpaid internship.

Achondo said her building had its fall conferences.

“The format was arena style again this year. Our turnout was once again very strong and parents had the opportunity to meet with each of their students’ teachers over the course of that time. We received a lot of positive feedback and plan on continuing this format for fall conferences again next year. Spring conferences will be student-led and will be with each student’s advisor.

The board passed a consent agenda, which included hiring Jamie Portwood as the junior high girls track coach, Kate Forest as the assistant girls basketball coach and Jasmine Nutt for the junior high eighth-grade volleyball coach.

The Oroville School Board meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the high school library. Due to the upcoming Winter Break, the next meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m.