New football coach hired by Sallisaw School Board

Sallisaw School Board hired a new head football coach and rehired other school personnel in addition to conducting their regular business at Monday night’s school board meeting.

Brandon Tyler, who has coached at Vian and is the current head football coach at Gore, was hired after board members returned from executive session. Tyler replaces Mark Hutson, who was hired for the position one year ago but resigned from the position in November.

The board also renewed contracts for Steve Merrill as treasurer, Russell Tillery as high school principal, and Brad Jackson as high school assistant principal and assistant athletic director for the high school. They also rehired James McInerney as the middle school principal, Jeff Streun as the athletic director, Chad Jasna as the Eastside Elementary Principal, Toni Jasna as Liberty Elementary Principal, and Scott Mosby as the Director of Curriculum and Technology for the 2023-24 school year.

The board discussed the superintendent’s contract but took no action following an executive session. Wood said he plans to retire in June and assistant superintendent Steve Barrett will assume responsibilities on July 1.

Prior to entering executive session, the board was presented the financial audit performed by Jenkins & Kemper, CPA. Caleb Carlson, auditor for Jenkins & Kemper, said there were no findings in the audit.

The board approved the financial report presented by Merrill, who reported there was $2,786,286.57 collected for General Fund 11 for the month of January. Revenue collected for the entire year is $11,872,136.33. Revenue collected for the building fund for the month of January was $205,187.20 and $235,343.04 was collected for the entire year.

Sinking fund 41 collected $562,060.23 for the month of January and $621,678.90 was collected for the entire year.

Activity fund balances reported by Merrill are as follows: Admin. Activity Fund $41,431.51; SHS Activity Fund $204,244.21; SMS Activity Fund $33,885.88; Eastside Activity Fund $10,110.48; Liberty Activity Fund $22,844.61; and Food Service Balance $21,892.64.

In other business, the board approved adjustments made to the 202223 schools academic calendar. Superintendent Randy Wood said the adjustments included virtual days which were “banked” into the calendar to cover those days but the state has to be notified of any changes.

In related business, the board approved the 2023-24 school calendar.

Another items approved was facility use requests by Catholic Charities and Pafford EMS. Catholic Charities requested the use of the Sallisaw High School gym on March 7 for an active shooter training. Wood said the event is open to the public and there were already 100 people signed up to take the training. Pafford EMS requested the use of the high school parking lot for drivers training from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 10.