The Durant Lions soccer team was recognized for its academic achievements during a meeting last week of the Durant Board of Education.
Superintendent Mark Moring said the team won the academic achievement last season and though it had been a few months, he wanted to honor them.
“They were academic state champions, so that’s a really, really important feat in my book because as you know, we’re here for the whole student athletes,” Moring said. “So, I just wanted coach (John) Wilmoth to introduce these guys.”
Wilmoth said he is proud and honored to be their coach.
“These guys are a great bunch of guys standing,” Wilmoth said. “When they’re smart, they’re easier to coach. This is the third out of the last six years that we’ve won this. We’ve won four since I’ve been coaching here. I think this is 17 years of coaching soccer. So, they’re carrying on the tradition and not only them, but the teachers and the students that have pushed them over at the high school, they should get credit for this too.”
According to Wilmoth, the team has a 3.75 GPA, which is the best in the state.
“These guys, they put in the work on the field and off the field and it’s good to see that they got some recognition for it,” Wilmoth said. “We had seven seniors that weren’t able to be here today. They were also part of the team.”
Moring said the team received the trophy and medals after the school year was over.
“We wanted to get you guys out and appreciate everything you do and the job you do representing our school,” Moring said. “Thank you all very much.”
The board accepted the following resignations: Erin Chaney, secretary to the director of child nutrition; Jaimelle Wood, WI special education teacher assistant; Mandi Gage, speech language pathologist assistant, and Keith Milligan, transportation employee.
The employment of the following reading interventionists was approved: Shawn Cress, Sharon Ledbetter and Lauri Robertson, Northwest Heights; Nancy Johnson, Ellen Marcy, Sheri Cavender and Kara Conner, George Washington, and Laura Clark, Mary Wingfield and Juanita Daniel, Washington Irving.
The following Indian education tutors for after-school tutoring were approved: Amanda Cresse, DHS; Christine Herrin, Tracy Risner and Neurine Schomer, DIS, and Miranda Lowe and Traci Tipton, GW.
Indian education in-school tutors were approved: Terecia Webb, NWH, and Jeanie Pierce and Buddy Pierce, WI.
The employment of Elaina Dark was approved for a monitor for virtual speech services in the district.
Employment of the following support personnel was approved: Madison Jones, special education teacher as- sistant at NWH; Marc Ferguson, special education teacher assistant at WI; Julie Harrison, first grade teacher assistant at WI; Megan Murphree, pre-kindergarten teacher assistant at REL; Justin William Stafford, transportation employee; Jamie Jones, transportation employee, and Lisa Wilson, administrative assistant to the director of child nutrition.
The board also approved the following: - Alternative education plan for the Vision Academy, something that is done annually.
- Contract with Chatterbox Speech Therapy for a virtual speech-language pathologist.
- Memorandums of understanding for pre-school services and special education services between Choctaw Nation Headstart and the Durant School District.
- A trip by the Durant High School Band to Corpus Christi, Texas, in May to participate in the Buccaneer Music Festival.
- A trip by members of the Durant Sparklers Dance Team to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, to participate in the Danceline Elite Texas All-State Parade in March.
At the conclusion of the meeting, board member Joyce Northcutt said the new agriculture building at the high school is awesome. An open house was recently held at the building.
“I loved it,” Northcutt said. “I loved listening to the (ag teachers) Adams and then they were bragging on their kids, all those kids that were there. It just gives you goosebumps when you see all those kids there, how many we have now.”
She also spoke of the $4 million bond proposition that passed during an election the following day.
“I think this is a win for our students just to keep up our air conditioning and heating,” Northcutt said. “You know how important that is and how much it costs for the school district too if we didn’t have that bond to come and do that because then we’d have to cut out something else.”
