The regular meeting of the Altus School Board was held on Monday, Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. in the conference room of the Administrative Center.

Items on the agenda included making up snow days, which will be accomplished by schools in session this Friday, Feb. 12 and Monday, Feb. 15. Altus School days run 30 minutes longer than required by the state, so this time margin will help keep students' attendance within normal parameters. Further information regarding attendance and dates of testing will be forthcoming. Spring break will be observed as normally scheduled.

Both Rivers and Sunset Elementary Schools won AA awards for high state test scores. Each full time teacher who taught last year at these two schools will receive a special stipend of $3000 for excellence in teaching.

Pay requests for the Altus High School renovations and new construction were reviewed and a lengthy discussion of the Altus High School project construction was held. Joe D. Hall, General Contractor for the AHS project presented the results of the 201 bids received from subcontractors on the project. Only one scope of work, the electrical package was an exception. All other bids were accepted by the lowest bidders and established a guaranteed maximum price for each bid. The electrical bid was awarded to Southern Plains, the second lowest bidder. The lowest bidder, DSE, had not completed the 5 required projects that were as complicated and large in scope as the high school project. Although their references were good and there were no derogatory remarks regarding any of their former projects, Hall sought the advice of the architect board of the project. A DSE representative spoke at the meeting in defense of their bid. Both the architects and Hall agreed that DSE would not be the best choice for the electrical work. This does not mean that the district may not choose DSE in future projects. The school board approved the choices of the bids as stated by Hall.

A resolution between Altus Public Schools and the City of Altus regarding the sales taxes designated to the schools was adopted and approved by the board.

There were no retirements or reassignments announced. There was one resignation, from Ken Butcher a crossing guard at Washington Elementary. Substitutes added to the district list included: Katherine Jeffcoat, Vickie Kline, and Jordan Lyndell. Time sheet employees added were Kelly Childers and Gayla Graham. A volunteer, Matt Ward was added to the list for boys and girls soccer at AHS.

There were no new hires to be discussed in executive session, so this session was not held.

Policy revisions for this year include revocation for consent for special education services, teacher evaluations, reading sufficiency, and proof of reading sufficiency for drivers license. These were approved by the board.

There was no new business and the meeting adjourned at 5:40 p.m.