WEBVTT

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Good morning, good morning, good
morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

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It's time now for our community connection
right here on K one, the one

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you crush. Chuck McCauley, Superintendent
of Schools, Bartelsville Public Schools, is

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with us here today. Normally on
Wednesday, but you know, we got

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a holiday day today, I guess, and a lot of moving parts.

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And it's great to have you here
on Monday because I'm ready to hear some

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good news. You bet, Tom, I'm happy, too happy to share

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some. Yes, we have our
June regular board meeting tonight and I can

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give you an update on that.
We're gonna start off with something new.

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We have a we have a donation
and typically in our board spotlight we'll have

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if we have a donation, we'll
recognize them at that time. And our

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Bartelsville Disc Golfers as a club and
they're making a large donation to our special

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Olympics team. Wow, Yeah,
which is really neat. And that's I've

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seen those guys and gals out but
a rund the pathfinder that seem out playing

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and so they're they made a donation
and so our I have a couple of

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our Special Olympic coaches, our special
education teachers and they're gonna be there today

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to kind of start off the meeting. So I really appreciate, really appreciate

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that that helps fund them their annual
trip they go to Stillwater every year,

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and so it's really that's oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Yeah. I know that. I
know you always get phone calls about that

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in the morning in school. So
yeah, it's a reason to celebrate.

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We're chatting the special athletes off to
still One. That's exactly right. Yeah,

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So we're gonna start that way.
Uh, you know this this time

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of year, this is a busy
time in our accounting department in terms of

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we close our fiscal year in June
and then open up the next fiscal year

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in July, and so we have
some items related to that, but we'll

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have our routine in the superintendence report. Uh, we're gonna highlight our project

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Lead the Way. Was named a
Distinguished district last month and we're one of

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seventeen in the country and this is
our fourth year in a row to do

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that. We're the only distinguished district
in Oklahoma. That's because of our STEM

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program we do have the week you
know, it's proof is in the putting.

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We have the premiere STEM program in
the state and one of the premiere

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ones in the country. UM all
the way down from pre kindergarten to offering

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cybersecurity at Bartlesville High School. So
well, briefly hit on that that's something

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we want to continue to talk about, something our community should be proud of

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in terms of having those opportunities for
kids. UH. And then on our

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we have our monthly Teaching and Learning
Update, which this time of year,

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you know we're talking about we have
kids in summer school. Were about four

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hundred kids in summer school in the
district, and then of course in summer

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training for teachers, and we have
a variety of things that are going on

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for our staff that LaDonna Chancellor will
update us on and I mentioned on the

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finance report will really be about closing
up the fiscal year UH and opening up

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the next year. And then we
have a few policies that we're going to

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update UM and the consent agenda.
But then the action topic, the big

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one is over at Wayside Elementary obviously
expand finally, yeah, that's if you

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if you happen to have been by
Wayside, they started right after you know,

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the week we'll actually the weekend school
ended. Yeah uh, you know,

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they had some we had purchased some
properties around the campus and so they

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demolished the three houses right next to
it and they started working. So they

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were last month the first phase of
that project. So basically it's gonna be

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in two phases, and this first
phase is to build the addition. Last

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month they proved the work, a
lot of the dirt and earthwork, demolition

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work. That's what's been going on. You drive by there and you can

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see it. And tonight what will
be approved is the building of the addition,

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and that addition will include you know, we're gonna have a new pre

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kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, also for
our art and music rooms, and so

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that new addition that is basically on
the north you know, the north side

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of the property which was part of
a parking lot. So that's that will

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get that approved to get them keep
continue to go, and that piece of

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the project should be done around March
of next year. We're shooting for spring

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break up next year. The next
phase after this, which will come to

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a take to the board here in
a few months, is for the renovation

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piece, and what the renovation piece
is. Obviously we're going to be moving

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into those new spaces, but that's
going to leave the old spaces we're gonna

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have to renovate. And so those
two pods that at the front of Wayside

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Elementary one is going to come an
office space office area, which you know,

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we've had to grow the number of
support staff for example, like there's

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a full time nurse there. We'll
have a full time school resource officer there

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in one of those pods. And
then the other POD's going to be a

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library, and so that will be
a beautiful building there at the beautiful facility

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there at the front of the building
when people first walk in, which would

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be very and we also be a
nice space for when they have meetings that

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they can meet in as well also, and that means we'll need to renovate

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the old library is going to be
made into a couple of classrooms. The

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old cafeteria is going to be completely
gutted and renovated as well. So that'll

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be the next part of the project, and all of that is working hard.

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We had to get that started because
we want to make that sure we're

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finished so that we can start school
and next year August of twenty twenty four.

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So tonight what the board will be
proving will be we work with Manhattan

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Construction Company to prove the guaranteed maximum
price for that second piece of that,

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which is a new addition, is
what the board will be asked to approve

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tonight. Um. So, and
between those that first phase, what we

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approved last month and what we approved
this month is going to ride around ten

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million dollars for the new the new
work, and then the next phase of

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it will be the renovation, which
the renovation is not We're hoping it's not

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near as expensive as a new as
the new things as we move as we

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move forward to so uh, and
then also there'll be an action item as

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well. There will be a once
we get past the construction work. There's

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an executive session this time of year
at the end of the school year.

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That's where they talk about my evaluation
and my contract, and then we'll have

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an action item out that after that
one that could make an addendum to that

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contract as well. So yeah,
so a lot of stuff going on here

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here this this time of year,
and I did want to share just a

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couple of a couple of other things
if we could just a reminder on our

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on our on safety, on the
safety side, on our school resource officer

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front, we're talking to I guess
he's not Chief Roles anymore. I guess

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he's assistant city Manager. I have
to work on that. We're of course,

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I'm really excited for now. Chief
Michael Berry very familiar. Yeah,

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exactly, he does a lot of
what he's great and so that's just another

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extension of our community, which would
be great. But you know, we're

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all set to have a full time
school resource officer at every school when school

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starts, and so I'm really proud
of that. I know it was just

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a little over a year ago.
I sat down with City Manager Bailey and

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Chief Roles at that time to see
what we needed to do. Really thankful

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for our city council to approve their
portion of that, Thankful for our school

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board to approve the funding for that, and then everybody that had a piece

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in making that happen. I think
that's I think it gets all of us,

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our staff, our parents some peace
to know that we'll have that additional

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layer and so we're gonna have that
one school starts. As a matter of

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fact, we're planning to add a
second SR at the high school. It

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just because of the size of the
campus. So we'll have ten school resource

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officers as our plan. That's really
excited about that. And then you know

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I mentioned about Project Lead the Way, but just thinking through you know,

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this time of year, it's nice, of course you can reflect on some

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things in terms of opportunities for kids. Uh, you know, whether it

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was what our kids are doing now
thinking about just a college World Series watching

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and you know our own Jacob Hall, uh, you know, he had

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a great uh outing Friday they won
the first game against TCU, and you

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know, he was one of our
own. You know, he going to

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school right here. His his mom's
an assistant force at Wayside and he was

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a great student for us. He's
fun to watch, he is fun to

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watch. He's got he's got a
bright future we have. I think we

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have three other kids up on our
baseball team this year, at least three,

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let's see zeb Luke and Eric and
I think Nicol probably probably four.

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One up going to playing baseball somewhere. But you know, we talked to

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Joyce Yang last month and she's obviously
going on to Princeton and we literally have

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students from you know, from Stanford
to Northwestern to Princeton U and kind of

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everywhere in between and current including you
know, the Air Force academies as well.

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So really lots of great opportunities that
were able to provide for kids,

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um, you know our AGG program. Just to clarify, we've already hired

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our third AGG teacher. You know, we started with one, Marty Jones,

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and that enrollment there's so much interest
in that we added a second teacher

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and so there's so much We had
about two hundred kids enrolled and we had

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more that wanted to be and so
we've added our third act teachers. Don't

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you little bit When a plan comes
to boy, it's wonderful, it's really

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And of course then I don't really
give all the credit to our teachers.

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I mean, it's such a wonderful
job. But yes, it is great

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when that plan comes together, and
so those opportunities we're We've done some tweaking

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to our middle school schedules for next
year two, so kids will have even

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a little bit more flexibility in their
schedule. Of course they'll have all their

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core content areas, but they'll be
on a seven period day instead of a

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sixth period day, which that just
gives them the opportunity to take an additional

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elective. You know, We've always
had such a strong music program, you

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know, and the kids have had
the benefit of working with, you know,

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our instructors that teach at the high
school and middle school level, whether

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it's in orchestra or choir band,
and we're gonna be doing something similar in

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our athletic program, so they'll be
practicing so that our high school coaches all

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able to work with them and build
those relationships, because like I've told kids

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and our staff, I don't care
what they're involved and I sant I'm involved

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in something, you know, that's
that's what's going to help them get them

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through high school and get them onto
their next step. And so we really

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feel like we're setting the schedule up
for our kids to really be successful in

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the future. So really pleased about
that that opportunity for them as well.

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And I forgot to mention we won't
touch on it much in the board meeting

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tonight, but just to mention on
the the legislation session that ended, you

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know, piece of that included some
additional funding for schools and what that means

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wanted to share what that means for
us. There is a teacher pay raise

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included. We bargain with our teacher
association, which of course where we easily

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went through that step. But we'll
be raising our teacher pay. It's going

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to be between three depending on experience, but three to six thousand dollars pay

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raise for our hard working teachers,
So thankful for that. We're also going

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to raise our pending board approval tonight
for our support staff, our hourly staff.

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You know, those are folks that
we can't have school without them,

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whether you're talking about bus drivers or
your secretaries or your teacher assistants. We're

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gonna be raising their pay two dollars
an hour. So really pleased to be

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able to do that for our staff
as well. And then also mentioned I've

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talked about, oh one other thing
just for people to be aware of.

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Next month, July eighteenth, we're
going to have a job fair for staffing

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for the district. So we obviously
this time a year working hard on staffing

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for next year. We have a
pretty low turnover right in our teachers about

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ten percent typically that's from a variety
of things, but we're we have nine

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schools I think three of them are
fully staffed and or other six are looking

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for one or two teachers. But
next month in July, we're gonna have

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a We'll have a job fair on
July eighteenth, and that'll be for all

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positions. Usually by that time we're
fully staffed teachers wise, but there may

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be a random position or two,
but also for typically then we'll have our

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hourly positions available, and so that
will be an opportunity for people to come

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and you know, maybe an opportunity
for people if they think they may want

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to be a teacher in the future, maybe they have a degree and might

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be interested in that. Maybe it's
not now, but they can come and

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get some more information about that and
learn what they need to do or what

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they can do if they did want
to join our team, because we're always

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looking for that led on a chance
or we started our new teacher Academy last

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year for folks that maybe don't have
an education degree but they have a degree

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and want to teach, and so
we have some supports built in that we

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didn't have before to help people be
successful in the classrooms. We'll have a

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job fare coming up next month.
Want to mention those pay raises as well.

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Really excited about that. And then
on the facility side, I've already

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talked about Wayside, that Wayside project
on the case people were interested on the

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Ranch Heights Elementary. It's gonna be
a real similar project. It's about a

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year behind. So we're just kind
of in the planning phases for that.

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Our agg facility that's being built.
If people happen to drive by Shawnee,

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they can see their steel. They
started putting the steel up at the end

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of last week. Yeah, so
it's come along quite nicely, it really

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is. Yeah, it's amazing.
That's like I said, I'd jokingly say

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that's been the only good thing about
the drought is of those guys have been

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haven't had much, if any weather
delays. So yeah, so it's been

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a good summer, busy summer,
and we're just kind of gearing up ready

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for the getting ready for the next
school year. Oh my goodness. Six's

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busy, busy, busy. But
that is great, you know, congratulations

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on the project. Lead the way
for four years. So I mean that

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for folks who might not be able
to fully grasp this, this is big,

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and especially when we're the only school
in the state that has that.

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That's that that is huge. It
is time. You know, when we

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got started in this program, several
and really how we started this curriculum,

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this all came with um you know, Philip sixty six. They helped us

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on some on the facility side to
have some innovation labs at our secondary schools

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and really with us as we want
to make sure we had curriculum set up.

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We knew that kids needed this stem
opportunities for their future, but we

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need to make sure we are offering
it to them, and so we started

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working through this change with addition to
Project Lead. The way really started at

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our middle school level. You know, we have two full time teachers at

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their middle school uh and also at
the high school level, but really the

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big push or the big changes at
the elementary level, because you know,

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kids are there with their teacher all
day and for that teacher to have that

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training where they can have that opportunity
to share that curriculum within that hands on

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learning UH. And it's it's really
a big thing we speak at you know,

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annually every year we do something at
the at the national at the national

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level because of our program, and
people can look that up and see where

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these districts are. They're all across
the country. So it's really it's really

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a big thing and really proud that
we're able to offer it. I know

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there's some schools, uh, some
kids have the chance to get that if

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they go to a tech center,
um, you know in Oklahoma. But

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we're able to do that right on
campus at all of our bartles Old School.

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So it's really a big deal.
Really thankful for our community for making

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that happen. Well, you know, you got kids. Usually it's central.

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It has the robotics team that just
knocks it out of the park and

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you know, here are kids having
fun with robots, like god, god

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it, I learned something. How
that happened? You know? And but

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it's engagement. And once you engage
in a child, they're gonna they're gonna

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stick with it. They're gonna glom
onto and learn everything that they can.

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And what you're doing with the middle
schools with the extra period for electives,

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I can't tell you just how valuable
that engagement is to kids. I've seen

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it firstand and it really works.
They want to be at school. It's

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important you know that middle school level. You know, in your middle school

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age for all of us. That's
you know, people are kids are changing,

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they're growing up, and that can
read some challenges and so it's so

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important to get them connected to adults
at the school, get them something that

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they're involved in because they do not
even know. It's so really please that

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they can have that flexibility in their
schedule where they can be who knows,

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it may be the next Jacob Hall
or joy Joyce Shang or whatever that it

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might be on the music front as
well. So really and just to have

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the resources to be able to offer
that, I mean, it's very different

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than a lot of schools have because
you know, we do have not only

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do we have a you know,
instrumental band program, but we have orchestra,

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you know, having a string program, which there's there. I think

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the next closest one to us is
in Tulsa. Yeah, you know,

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in terms of he be able to
just to be on there. My son

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played the cello in school and who
would have thought and that helped him learn

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to play the guitar. I mean, so and just to be able to

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I mean it did. It was
a wonderful thing. And so what a

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great opportunity kids can do that,
right, here while they're in school with

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us. Indeed, Yeah, what
it also does folks in case you're kind

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of wondering if you got little ones, Uh, my daughter now is going

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to be a junior. Yeah,
Laura helped me. But when she came

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here, she came in at Madison
Middle School and as a student, she

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was you know BC. Now she's
on a roll the whole way you wanted

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a white We can't get her away
from the school. She just wants to

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be there so much just because of
these engagements that are presented themselves. That's

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true, and we've and we've really
worked hard, and that's been something I

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think that's been a positive after the
pandemic is just a flexibility. I think

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that you know, we've learned in
terms of we have you know, opportunities

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for even families. Uh. And
by the way, just a thing new

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student it's new student enrollment. They
can do that online because we do have

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that flexibility where some kids maybe they've
been doing a home school or a private

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school and environment and they want that
maybe where they're in person some of the

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day, but they want to keep
them home some of the day too,

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and they do have that flexibility to
do that where they can do some online

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courses. Maybe they just want to
engage in our extra curricular programs that they

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can't do. You know, that's
the advantage. You know, we do

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have a bruined football team or our
band or orchestra or those kind of things

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too, and so they do have
that flexibility where they can do that as

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well, especially as they get older, as they get into middle school and

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as they get into high school as
well. So yeah, really really thankful

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to have our community support because in
things like bond issues and all these donations

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that we have all the time.
You know, we have like Franks,

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our Steamed camps are going on at
Tri County right now just to support our

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stead programs by Bards of Education Promise, and it's really it's really fun to

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see how it come to fruition.
You know the Aviation project too, well,

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yeah, we haven't talked about that
while my golly, that's got man,

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I say, that is really taken
plight. Good job, Tom,

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Yeah, it had you know,
we started that last year and I believe

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we've had three sections of aviation.
Ashley high Tower is teaching that course and

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this upcoming year she's her she has
a full load. She's gonna have six

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classes of aviation, so it's doubled
and that's it. We've just incorporated that

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as part of our STEM program.
I was at the State administrator conference last

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night. I talked to the director
of the aviation program and she pulled me

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aside to talk about how excited she
is about the expansion of the program.

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And so it just makes sense.
I mean, that's where there's jobs in

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Oklahoma, you know, American Airlines
is right down the road and Spartan Aeronautics,

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and so really thankful our kids are
getting this opportunity at a young age.

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All Right, superintended checkmcuney thinks