By Dannie Oliveaux
     The Chronicle
     
     OROVILLE – Fourth-grade students will participate in a swimming program this month after the school district secured an agreement with a local resort.
     At the Aug. 27 meeting, the School Board approved a swimming program for September at Veranda Beach Resort with the Home Owners Association of Veranda Beach.
     In the agreement, the resort allowed uses of the pool for six days until Sept. 14 and agreed to maintain and clean the pool.
     From 8:45 to 11:15 a.m., two swimming instructors/lifeguards – Tyler Schreckengast and Kaitlin Klepec from Okanogan – taught the students in two separate morning sessions for six days between Sept. 4 and Sept. 13 at the Veranda Beach Pool.
     All students participating in the program were required to have parental permission.
     Because of a late start on Monday, the sessions were moved back one hour from 9:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
     Because of the swimming classes, lunch scheduling was modified. Busing was provided by the district to-and-from the pool.
     The board also approved several new hires: Stacey Hinze, varsity head volleyball; John Marchand, assistant football coach; D.J. Pooler, Sharon Scott and Shannon Smith, paras; Cynthia Poytner, second-grade teacher; and John Hilderbrand, groundkeeper through October 2012.
     Stipends were approved for the following staff members for the 2012-13 school year:
-      Ed Naillon, technology coordinator - $18,000
-      Brett Fancher, athletic director - $8,500
-      Eric Stiles, music, $6,814
-      Mary Willey, elementary reading coach - $3,992
-      Shay Shaw, state and federal grants/fiscal - $3,415
-      Linda Colvin, high school Knowledge Bowl coordinator - $1,815
-      Tony Kindred, annual coordinator - $1,815
-      George Thornton, senior project coordinator - $1,452
-      Cenah Whiteaker, grades 7-8 ASB advisor - $907
-      Kelsey Cleveland, junior high Honor Society - $699
-      Krystal Wiltse, high school Honor Society - $699
     Also, the board awarded the bid for fuel to Coleman Oil Co. of Lewiston, Idaho, for gasoline at $3.61 per gallon and diesel at $4.07 per gallon from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, 2013.
     Coleman Oil’s Oroville location is one of 121 in the state.
     The next board meeting is 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 24 in the district building, 816 Juniper Street.