OROVILLE – The Oroville School Board met on Jan. 27 and the directors were honored as part of School Board Recognition Month.

The board heard reports from the school superintendent and the elementary and junior/senior high principals.

Oroville Elementary Principal Amy Harris was the first to give her report.

“I want to start by saying thank you to the Oroville School Board of Directors for their dedication and commitment to supporting the children of our community. I am glad we can honor you with School Board Appreciation this month,” said Harris.

Harris spoke about the goals at the elementary school.

“A success that we recently had was the winter concert which was a huge success. Our students in kindergarten through sixth grade did a wonderful job of bringing holiday cheer to January under the direction of our music teacher Angela Cross,” said Harris. “The students sang and played piano, drums and other instruments to the holiday music that they selected. Angela is a very skilled musician who can write arrangements the students can perform entirely independently.”

Harris said this level of independence is attributed to the program she designed “which focuses on music standards, rubrics, assessments and student trackers.”

“So, it’s really going back to the whole concept of Unit of Study and how she puts it together, it is really pretty impressive. We had a very large audience in attendance and it was standing room only,” she said.

Junior/Senior High Principal Linda Achondo gave her report next.

“As we celebrate School Board Appreciation Month I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to your unwavering dedication and service to our students, staff and community. Your commitment to the success of our schools is evident in the thoughtful decisions you make and the countless hours you devote to ensuring our district thrives,” said Achondo.

The principal talked about the high school’s second goal, cultivating and fostering a climate of belonging and ownership for students, staff and families.

“We are beginning a new tiered reward system, the Hive of Excellence, that ties all of our building initiatives together,” she said, adding that there were three tiers of rewards – Gold, Silver and Bronze.

To qualify for the tiers, academics, attendance, swarm points, behavior referrals, school involvement and outside-of-school activities are all considered. Each tier has differentiated requirements for each criterion, she said.

“Rewards are also differentiated by tiers. Some of those rewards include access to the student lounge, free snack coupons, reserved seating at indoor games and assemblies, early lunch dismissal passes, a student-determined field trip, a second chance pass to redo assignments or test of choice, an extra credit pass for five points and more,” she said.

Achondo said she had explained the tiers to each class and told the board there was a poster in the hallway that charted the different tiers.

“We will be having a kick-off assembly on Wednesday afternoon to notify students about which tier they qualify for,” said Achondo.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Hardesty talked briefly about the facilities improvements at the elementary school and how far the building had come since it was first discussed in late 2019.

“I want to thank the board members for their commitment, dedication and hard work while remaining focused on proper governance for keeping teaching and learning central to our work together,” he said.

“Recently, on January 15th we celebrated the completion of our state-of-the-art PreK-12 kitchen,” said the superintendent, adding that they had 53 RSVPs, Sone, ASB students, Ms. Covey’s program (students) and various other staff put on a good showing.

The Oroville School Board meets on the fourth Monday of each month in the high school library at 6:30 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 24.