Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, WelCom.
It's time now for our community connection right here on K one, the
one you trust in. There we're going to be talking about Bartleswell Public Schools
and Bartleswill Public Schools Foundation. First of all, Lodnna Chancellor, welcome,
is the first time I think of seeing you in here in a while.
Also, Blair, we see you quite as often and it's great to have
you back. I'm happy to be here all right. First of all,
Lodnna, it's summertime and everybody thinks that oh well, school shut down,
there's nothing going on that don't botter, But there's really a lot going on.
There really is a lot going on. We was in for the clueless,
will you okay? Sure? So of course we have summer school standard
summer school which for elementary and middle school students, we really focus on reducing
learning loss, you know, over the summer, just keep that learning going.
And that actually wraps up this week. And then for the high school
we have summer school session in June and another session in July, and those
are for credit recovery, so to make up for a class that maybe you
didn't do so well in unfortunately during the school year, So that's wrapping up.
Today is the last day for that and then the July session will start
after the July fourth holiday, and then we have a lot of enrichment programs
over the summer for students. Those are good. Yeah. So we have
for our elementary students Penwills and Popcorn is very popular and that one's already run
and completed this year. And we also have an elementary Steam Leadership Camp that
will be running and its friends for three weeks, so we have those kiddos
get to spend time with our gifted and talented teachers over at Jane Phillips and
just still a lot of exploring and exposed to a lot of leadership opportunities.
Does just help us out with our project lead the way they do a lot
of project based work similar to plt W. Yes. Yeah, and we
had we had our first time this year. We had a middle school stem
camp that's already wrapped up so and that was taught by Lolly Williams from Central
and Jeremy Williams from the High School and they the kids do the robotics,
build robotics and then compete. They have fun with that. I definitely did.
My incoming seventh grader did that this year. So it was advanced robotics,
right, you already had to have experience with the VEX competition and they
go to these are the ones that are like state and national world championships.
And I know he spent the entire day for five days building robots and doing
competitions and absolutely loved it, like they were engaged the entire day. So
great program. I'm going back to summer in my youth and if I were
tell my mom and dad I'm just back here building robots, they would have
locked my fanny up. Now it's expected fast forward, yes, But and
the kids love it and have fun. And anytime we can expose students in
a classroom and learning environment and they have fun, I mean, that's a
win for all of this. Right. So that was the first year for
that, so I'm sure we'll continue that. And then we have a PSAT
test prep program towards the end of the summer good where we have some test
prep for students who are interested in running getting in the national merit competition process.
We do well as the school here, we do, thank you,
Yes we do. And so we want to give those kiddos a little bit
of an extra boost to prepare them for that test in October. So they'll
have a couple of days of test prep in the end of July and then
a follow up day the end of September, right before that test in October.
Yeah. Good stuff. So now on the teacher side, we have
a little professional development that we regularly offer for our teachers while they're you know,
that's you know, we want our teachers to take a break, and
they do. I hope they all do and get some well deserved relaxation time.
But we're always teachers, educators, were always preparing for our next day
in the classroom, you know, from where our last day was in May,
but were then we start preparing for what does August look like? Yes,
yes, we're in Oklahoma, right, But so we always are looking
to sharpen our skills. And so the end of July we have several opportunities
for teachers to come in and sharpen their skills in classroom management, instructional strategies,
managing challenging student behaviors, and so just to help them get a leg
up for preparing for the start of school. I have a question, might
maybe a little far field. How's that out in this program working with the
kids who are having those kind of challenges where they can be disruptive? Is
that working out pretty good? Thank you? Yes, it's working out very
well. This was actually this group of fifth graders was the first group of
students to go through the program through elementary school. Now they'll be going on
to middle school and have seen great growth in their behaviors and their ability then
to be successful in the classroom. Wow. So thank you for asking.
We're here for all kids. Yes, absolutely, No Blair the science having
children running around building robots when you're not looking. What's going on with that's
inside the summer? You got a house, it's a little structured. Yes,
I understand. I don't know it goes that's right. I cannot compete
with that high a little harder, you'll get there. I might never what's
going with the foundation? Yes, the school Foundation also kind of uses the
summer as planning time and getting ready for the next year. How can we
improve things? So we're working to improve our teacher grant streamline those even more.
We had a record number of teacher grant applications this year. So we
love seeing that half of them. As telling Ladana was we're from new applicants,
so teachers who haven't applied before, which is always great to see that
reach kind of broadening. But we're really focused on the stay of schools,
so it's one of our favorite events. It's really grown. I think this
will be our sixth year. Need to double check that, but it's going
to be August the seventh, which is it's always the Wednesday, the week
before school starts. It's at the High School Commons. Thirty five dollars for
tickets, table sponsorships are available, but we really pack that High School Commons
with people to hear from our superintendent as he gives kind of an overview what's
coming this school year and highlights a lot of the great accomplishments and things that
have gone on in the past school year. So this year, Sri La
Donna will talk about the child Nutrition announcement. We're going to try to get
Child Nutrition to host that lunch and for us and to cater it for us
so that our guests can kind of get a sampling of what our child Nutrition
department has to offer. Wow, let's get right into the Child Nutrition here.
So we're really excited that we are going to be able to feed all
of our students free breakfast and lunch this year. So all schools, elementary
and secondary, our students will have access to free breakfast and lunch. Oh,
it's amazing. Yes, you know, it's interesting how life has changed
a little bit because I know, growing up we're I did there were some
kids that could really use that, like about half of them, yes,
and nobody wanted to say anything. They didn't look out. I'm glad that
we kind of got over that hurdles me too. And you know, it
seems like the older students get, the more they fall into that they don't
want to identify that that's the concern for them. And so now that we
don't have that, we don't have that barrier. So everybody just has access
to free meals at school. If you need it, you got it.
There you go, there, you go, very good. Good. Yeah.
So we also have some construction projects going on. I thought I heard
the rattle of shovels somewhere over there. So Wayside is wrapping up and we'll
be ready for the start of school and the new wing with for our early
childhood classrooms and then that's mostly finished at this point. It now they have
shifted focus to the renovation of the existing building, so the library is moving,
the offices are getting adjusted. You know, they were so out of
space. People were just it was a crowded space over there. But when
they come back in the fall, it's going to be much improved in that
way, a little bit of breathing room, that's elbow room for everybody.
And then we've started on Ranch Heights, so similar project over at Ranch Heights,
and they've already the construction cruiser on site and work has begun over there,
so that will follow kind of the same timeline as Wayside. So they've
already started and they'll be ready to open their new wing August of twenty five.
Great. And then I understand that the Yagg building was ready to go
at the high school, yes, and it is beautiful. It looks that
way on the outside right, and we are excited. We are scheduling a
open house for that on September fifteenth, so that'll be coming all right,
very good. But the thing that we had with the teachers out at the
ballpark yes, was the year it was whose idea was that a couple of
years ago to move that out of the ballpark is that's what I think it
was. Honestly, it was a COVID thing, right, Like we were
trying and we were at the time where we were trying to figure out how
do we have all of these people. We were doing it at the community
Center, which was also great. We did kind of a classy Hollywood red
carpet theme, which was fun, but people had to get dressed up and
it was supposed to be fun, and it got stressful to get dressed up,
and so we moved it out to the baseball field, which again was
I think COVID prompted. Everybody got to be out in the open wear jeans
and a T shirt and kids got to come. And yeah, it's turned
out into a great event. There's a lot of energy out there. It's
a lot there was I think there was some air horns for the first time
this year, which was I'm glad we weren't indoors for that. So but
it's great. It's great to see the community come out and just really get
into supporting our teachers. So now the foundation worked four Yeah, so you
know, if anybody wants to find out ways on how they can help our
public schools. We certainly do have ways that absolutely so. So the School
Foundation is the best way to do that. If we don't focus on something
that they want to focus on, we can help direct them to something.
It's dpsfoundation dot org is our website. But I office out of the Education
Service Center on Jennings with our administrators, so they can reach me that way
also. But coming to this day of the Schools August seventh, there is
a great way to just get connected and know where you know, what programs
we offer and where you might want to get connected and what makes sense for
you, and that, similar to Bruins of the Year, is just a
really great event. I mean it's indoors, so there hopefully will be no
airhorns. It's not that kind of an event, but it is a really
great way to get excited about our school year and kind of kick that off
as a community. I do want to tell folks get a seat early if
you will, because last time I was there, you know, I'm sitting
walking media. I'm out of luck. He's younger, yes, all right,
But anyway, it was one of those things where it's like, wow,
I know every seat was taken. It was really out. It's one
of those you know, a lot of events and a lot of nonprofits share
the struggle that it's hard to get you know, seats filled sometimes right because
people from the companies don't want to come to yet another event. Sometimes this
is one where we have our businesses even buying extra tables sometimes because they want
their new hires, they want their new families to come and see all the
great things that are to be proud of in our schools. Now, a
few years ago, you wouldn't think that robotics would be a big thing,
or aviation, And I understand that you know both of them, you know,
you tying stem into this and you're an wow, we're doing things,
we are doing things, and yes, yes, sir, our aviation program
has grown from offering just a couple of classes to now a full day plus
for a teacher. So we're really proud of that. And this year we
are starting and you could maybe say even restarting because we had there was a
program in Bartlesville back I don't know how long ago, but maybe the sixties
seventies, but a construction class. So yes, thank you that. Every
time I've seen that go into the school. It's worked really well. We're
really excited. We had without doing any real marketing for the class. You
know, we didn't go advertise it to kids. We just put it in
our course guide as one of the offerings for electives. We had one hundred
and nineteen students choose to take that class. We want to help build a
house, right right, We're gonna start smaller than that right off the bat,
but it's good to have goals. Good to have goals. It is
my high school. They would build a house, and it was it was
kind of funny because some of the kids who were you know, really thought
that school was just you know, they got involved with this and then they
really realized, oh I need to know math, Oh gee, I need
to know geometry. Oh gee. I thought this would just swinging a hammer.
And then they realized by working with their hands and working with their mind
together, you have to use it all. You have to put a lot
of components in there to really make that happen. And they became very very
good students as a result of that, and also became very successful people.
So really nice. I'm glad that this is coming up. Thank you,
You're so right when kids kind of find their jam at school, which that's
why we want to offer so many different opportunities ag stem aviation construction. We
hope we can find one that meets the needs of every student. School becomes
so much more meaningful, Students are more engaged, it's a more pleasant experience
for everyone. Well, it truly is. Now Folks have questions, You've
got a great website. Folks can just take a look there and make a
call or even email through there. Yes, Vpsshoka dot org and we are
always enrolling new students. I wanted to mention that because it summer right and
that can all be done online and our home page has the direct links to
do that. But if someone would like some assistants or has questions, they're
welcome to come to the service center or call the service center and Jennifer Turner
at the service center is happy to help walk them through that process. And
Blair saying with you, you've got a great website. Folks can get on
that one. Yes, they should be able to find everything they need about
the school foundation. And again if they can't, they can come to the
Education Service Center or give us a call. All right, plenty of parking,
no rush except for on school board nights recognizing students, and then you
know, third cousins are showing up. Wow, it's a little time in
there, but that's great. It is great. I want to thank you
both for being here with us and putting up with my nons anytime. Alrighty
folks, you have been watching and listening to our community connection.