The Pryor Public Schools Board of Education received an update on district staffing and employee services from Assistant Superintendent John Potter and Director of Personnel Valerie Hiett during its July meeting.
As one of the area’s largest employers, Pryor Public Schools employs 547 people, including 338 certified employees and 209 classified employees.
Potter introduced Hiett to the board in her new role as director of personnel. She joins the District’s human resources department after serving as interim principal at Pryor High School during the 2025–26 school year.
Potter said Hiett’s experience working closely with instructional and support staff throughout the District will be an asset in her new position.
During her presentation, Hiett discussed the District’s recruitment and retention efforts. Despite the statewide teacher shortage, she said Pryor generally does not experience significant difficulty attracting qualified applicants.
“We don’t run into that too much,” Hiett said.
She credited the district’s comprehensive benefits package as one factor contributing to its recruiting success, and employees will benefit from a new addition to the District’s health benefits this year: an Employee Assistance Program.
The confidential program gives employees 24-hour telephone access to support and resources for a variety of personal and family needs, including life transitions, child care and elder care.
Pryor employees also tend to remain with the District, as reflected in its low attrition rate. Only 17 certified staff members left the district following the 2025–26 school year, and 8 of those employees retired.
Potter also recognized Payroll Director Belinda Jones, Co-Payroll Director Darla Heston, Human Resources Specialists Rebecca Due and PJ Helmuth for their commitment to serving District employees. He praised the team for remaining accessible to staff members, including visiting school campuses to answer human resources questions and help employees understand and navigate their benefits.
District Prepared for New Recess Requirement
During her superintendent’s report, Dr. Lisa Muller addressed the additional recess time required under Oklahoma Senate Bill 1481. The new law increases the minimum daily recess requirement from 20 minutes to 40 minutes for students in full-time kindergarten through fifth grade. The time may be divided into 2 separate 20-minute periods.
While some Oklahoma districts are adding minutes to their school days or considering changes to their academic calendars, Muller explained that for the upcoming school year, Pryor Public Schools already has sufficient instructional time built into its calendar. The District can accommodate the additional recess requirement without changing school dates or daily start and dismissal times.
Muller explained that before the new legislation, schools could include recess time in the “days-to-hours” calculation for the length of the school year. The Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE) is now interpreting this differently and has stated that recess should not be included in the calculation. As a compromise, the SDE is allowing schools to continue to count 20 minutes of recess each day in the school year calculation. The additional 20 minutes of daily recess must be subtracted.
Beginning next year, all 40 minutes of recess must be subtracted, unless there is a change in the law or the new SDE administration interprets this issue differently. Pryor Public Schools can meet the requirement for this year without increasing the length of the school day. However, if no change is made to the requirement for 27-28, the District will have to lengthen the elementary school day to be in compliance.
Pryor Public Schools looks forward to welcoming students for the first day of the 2026–27 school year on Thursday, August 13.