Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

Discussion regarding limitations to crowd attendance at Dewey High School basketball games was held during the Dewey Public Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday night.

Limiting crowd sizes is a balancing act to Superintendent Vince Vincent, who said they're looking at limiting the home fans to 275 people and the away crowd to 225 people. Superintendent Vincent said their first priority is to make sure that the family members for each player are able to attend. He said that has resulted in the possibility of offering each family a game ticket voucher.

The voucher each family receives will have their player's name on it. Superintendent Vincent said the voucher will be kept by the family all year long. Vincent said the family could pass the voucher around to other family members or keep it themselves and attend any given game on any given night. He said the district believes they can give players / cheerleaders and their families six vouchers to use throughout the season.

Additionally, DPS will offer a limited number of student body vouchers for the basketball games. Superintendent Vincent said those will be offered through the Dewey High School office. He said they're still working out a procedure as to how they will distribute the tickets. DPS wants its students to attend the games, but they'll be limited to 15 to 20 game day vouchers for the seven games the Doggers have this season. Tickets will be given out the day prior to the actual game day itself.

Visiting teams will receive copies of the vouchers either on game day or the day prior. Superintendent Vincent said visiting teams will be able to distribute those tickets out however they like. He said the tickets will be color coded so the gate keeper will know what is acceptable / allowable on a certain game night.

DPS is going to mark off the first few rows closest to the court to protect players and fans alike. Superintendent Vince Vincent said masks will also be encouraged during the games. He said the district will encourage masks when people are at the entries / exits of the arena or when they're moving around the facility. Fans will also be asked to stick within their family units at each game while maintaining their distance from other family units.

An officer will be assigned to every game. Superintendent Vincent said the officer will help the gate worker police who is and isn't allowed to watch the game based on the voucher system that the school has in place for the upcoming basketball season.

The issue of temperature checks was discussed during the meeting as well. The Dewey Board of Education agreed that having temperature checks may not be a bad idea as people are heading into the gymnasium. Superintendent Vincent said the district has plenty of the forehead temperature readers purchased, but it really boils down to whether or not they actually want to do temperature checks or not. Board member Amanda Guilfoyle mentioned that they should probably include that detail on the vouchers that people have. She said this would give people a heads up that temperatures will be checked before entry to the game.

Superintendent Vincent was asked if revenues would take a hit due to these COVID-19 mitigation measures. The response from Vincent was that revenues would definitely take a hit. However, Superintendent Vincent said the district is in a comfortable spot financially with the athletic programs right now. He said they can handle a year like 2020.

Dewey Public Schools wants to limit the amount of people that are gathered inside at one time. Superintendent Vincent said the district's two primary goals that they have for everything are to protect students and staff, and to continue with school activities on campus. He said that is no different as they look to approve a plan for limiting crowd sizes for high school basketball games this season.

No action was taken by the Dewey School Board on Monday night.