Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
It's time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one
you crush. Chuck McCauley, Superintendent of Schools, Bartelsville Public Schools, is
with us here today. Normally on Wednesday, but you know, we got
a holiday day today, I guess, and a lot of moving parts.
And it's great to have you here on Monday because I'm ready to hear some
good news. You bet, Tom, I'm happy, too happy to share
some. Yes, we have our June regular board meeting tonight and I can
give you an update on that. We're gonna start off with something new.
We have a we have a donation and typically in our board spotlight we'll have
if we have a donation, we'll recognize them at that time. And our
Bartelsville Disc Golfers as a club and they're making a large donation to our special
Olympics team. Wow, Yeah, which is really neat. And that's I've
seen those guys and gals out but a rund the pathfinder that seem out playing
and so they're they made a donation and so our I have a couple of
our Special Olympic coaches, our special education teachers and they're gonna be there today
to kind of start off the meeting. So I really appreciate, really appreciate
that that helps fund them their annual trip they go to Stillwater every year,
and so it's really that's oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. I know that. I know you always get phone calls about that
in the morning in school. So yeah, it's a reason to celebrate.
We're chatting the special athletes off to still One. That's exactly right. Yeah,
So we're gonna start that way. Uh, you know this this time
of year, this is a busy time in our accounting department in terms of
we close our fiscal year in June and then open up the next fiscal year
in July, and so we have some items related to that, but we'll
have our routine in the superintendence report. Uh, we're gonna highlight our project
Lead the Way. Was named a Distinguished district last month and we're one of
seventeen in the country and this is our fourth year in a row to do
that. We're the only distinguished district in Oklahoma. That's because of our STEM
program we do have the week you know, it's proof is in the putting.
We have the premiere STEM program in the state and one of the premiere
ones in the country. UM all the way down from pre kindergarten to offering
cybersecurity at Bartlesville High School. So well, briefly hit on that that's something
we want to continue to talk about, something our community should be proud of
in terms of having those opportunities for kids. UH. And then on our
we have our monthly Teaching and Learning Update, which this time of year,
you know we're talking about we have kids in summer school. Were about four
hundred kids in summer school in the district, and then of course in summer
training for teachers, and we have a variety of things that are going on
for our staff that LaDonna Chancellor will update us on and I mentioned on the
finance report will really be about closing up the fiscal year UH and opening up
the next year. And then we have a few policies that we're going to
update UM and the consent agenda. But then the action topic, the big
one is over at Wayside Elementary obviously expand finally, yeah, that's if you
if you happen to have been by Wayside, they started right after you know,
the week we'll actually the weekend school ended. Yeah uh, you know,
they had some we had purchased some properties around the campus and so they
demolished the three houses right next to it and they started working. So they
were last month the first phase of that project. So basically it's gonna be
in two phases, and this first phase is to build the addition. Last
month they proved the work, a lot of the dirt and earthwork, demolition
work. That's what's been going on. You drive by there and you can
see it. And tonight what will be approved is the building of the addition,
and that addition will include you know, we're gonna have a new pre
kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, also for our art and music rooms, and so
that new addition that is basically on the north you know, the north side
of the property which was part of a parking lot. So that's that will
get that approved to get them keep continue to go, and that piece of
the project should be done around March of next year. We're shooting for spring
break up next year. The next phase after this, which will come to
a take to the board here in a few months, is for the renovation
piece, and what the renovation piece is. Obviously we're going to be moving
into those new spaces, but that's going to leave the old spaces we're gonna
have to renovate. And so those two pods that at the front of Wayside
Elementary one is going to come an office space office area, which you know,
we've had to grow the number of support staff for example, like there's
a full time nurse there. We'll have a full time school resource officer there
in one of those pods. And then the other POD's going to be a
library, and so that will be a beautiful building there at the beautiful facility
there at the front of the building when people first walk in, which would
be very and we also be a nice space for when they have meetings that
they can meet in as well also, and that means we'll need to renovate
the old library is going to be made into a couple of classrooms. The
old cafeteria is going to be completely gutted and renovated as well. So that'll
be the next part of the project, and all of that is working hard.
We had to get that started because we want to make that sure we're
finished so that we can start school and next year August of twenty twenty four.
So tonight what the board will be proving will be we work with Manhattan
Construction Company to prove the guaranteed maximum price for that second piece of that,
which is a new addition, is what the board will be asked to approve
tonight. Um. So, and between those that first phase, what we
approved last month and what we approved this month is going to ride around ten
million dollars for the new the new work, and then the next phase of
it will be the renovation, which the renovation is not We're hoping it's not
near as expensive as a new as the new things as we move as we
move forward to so uh, and then also there'll be an action item as
well. There will be a once we get past the construction work. There's
an executive session this time of year at the end of the school year.
That's where they talk about my evaluation and my contract, and then we'll have
an action item out that after that one that could make an addendum to that
contract as well. So yeah, so a lot of stuff going on here
here this this time of year, and I did want to share just a
couple of a couple of other things if we could just a reminder on our
on our on safety, on the safety side, on our school resource officer
front, we're talking to I guess he's not Chief Roles anymore. I guess
he's assistant city Manager. I have to work on that. We're of course,
I'm really excited for now. Chief Michael Berry very familiar. Yeah,
exactly, he does a lot of what he's great and so that's just another
extension of our community, which would be great. But you know, we're
all set to have a full time school resource officer at every school when school
starts, and so I'm really proud of that. I know it was just
a little over a year ago. I sat down with City Manager Bailey and
Chief Roles at that time to see what we needed to do. Really thankful
for our city council to approve their portion of that, Thankful for our school
board to approve the funding for that, and then everybody that had a piece
in making that happen. I think that's I think it gets all of us,
our staff, our parents some peace to know that we'll have that additional
layer and so we're gonna have that one school starts. As a matter of
fact, we're planning to add a second SR at the high school. It
just because of the size of the campus. So we'll have ten school resource
officers as our plan. That's really excited about that. And then you know
I mentioned about Project Lead the Way, but just thinking through you know,
this time of year, it's nice, of course you can reflect on some
things in terms of opportunities for kids. Uh, you know, whether it
was what our kids are doing now thinking about just a college World Series watching
and you know our own Jacob Hall, uh, you know, he had
a great uh outing Friday they won the first game against TCU, and you
know, he was one of our own. You know, he going to
school right here. His his mom's an assistant force at Wayside and he was
a great student for us. He's fun to watch, he is fun to
watch. He's got he's got a bright future we have. I think we
have three other kids up on our baseball team this year, at least three,
let's see zeb Luke and Eric and I think Nicol probably probably four.
One up going to playing baseball somewhere. But you know, we talked to
Joyce Yang last month and she's obviously going on to Princeton and we literally have
students from you know, from Stanford to Northwestern to Princeton U and kind of
everywhere in between and current including you know, the Air Force academies as well.
So really lots of great opportunities that were able to provide for kids,
um, you know our AGG program. Just to clarify, we've already hired
our third AGG teacher. You know, we started with one, Marty Jones,
and that enrollment there's so much interest in that we added a second teacher
and so there's so much We had about two hundred kids enrolled and we had
more that wanted to be and so we've added our third act teachers. Don't
you little bit When a plan comes to boy, it's wonderful, it's really
And of course then I don't really give all the credit to our teachers.
I mean, it's such a wonderful job. But yes, it is great
when that plan comes together, and so those opportunities we're We've done some tweaking
to our middle school schedules for next year two, so kids will have even
a little bit more flexibility in their schedule. Of course they'll have all their
core content areas, but they'll be on a seven period day instead of a
sixth period day, which that just gives them the opportunity to take an additional
elective. You know, We've always had such a strong music program, you
know, and the kids have had the benefit of working with, you know,
our instructors that teach at the high school and middle school level, whether
it's in orchestra or choir band, and we're gonna be doing something similar in
our athletic program, so they'll be practicing so that our high school coaches all
able to work with them and build those relationships, because like I've told kids
and our staff, I don't care what they're involved and I sant I'm involved
in something, you know, that's that's what's going to help them get them
through high school and get them onto their next step. And so we really
feel like we're setting the schedule up for our kids to really be successful in
the future. So really pleased about that that opportunity for them as well.
And I forgot to mention we won't touch on it much in the board meeting
tonight, but just to mention on the the legislation session that ended, you
know, piece of that included some additional funding for schools and what that means
wanted to share what that means for us. There is a teacher pay raise
included. We bargain with our teacher association, which of course where we easily
went through that step. But we'll be raising our teacher pay. It's going
to be between three depending on experience, but three to six thousand dollars pay
raise for our hard working teachers, So thankful for that. We're also going
to raise our pending board approval tonight for our support staff, our hourly staff.
You know, those are folks that we can't have school without them,
whether you're talking about bus drivers or your secretaries or your teacher assistants. We're
gonna be raising their pay two dollars an hour. So really pleased to be
able to do that for our staff as well. And then also mentioned I've
talked about, oh one other thing just for people to be aware of.
Next month, July eighteenth, we're going to have a job fair for staffing
for the district. So we obviously this time a year working hard on staffing
for next year. We have a pretty low turnover right in our teachers about
ten percent typically that's from a variety of things, but we're we have nine
schools I think three of them are fully staffed and or other six are looking
for one or two teachers. But next month in July, we're gonna have
a We'll have a job fair on July eighteenth, and that'll be for all
positions. Usually by that time we're fully staffed teachers wise, but there may
be a random position or two, but also for typically then we'll have our
hourly positions available, and so that will be an opportunity for people to come
and you know, maybe an opportunity for people if they think they may want
to be a teacher in the future, maybe they have a degree and might
be interested in that. Maybe it's not now, but they can come and
get some more information about that and learn what they need to do or what
they can do if they did want to join our team, because we're always
looking for that led on a chance or we started our new teacher Academy last
year for folks that maybe don't have an education degree but they have a degree
and want to teach, and so we have some supports built in that we
didn't have before to help people be successful in the classrooms. We'll have a
job fare coming up next month. Want to mention those pay raises as well.
Really excited about that. And then on the facility side, I've already
talked about Wayside, that Wayside project on the case people were interested on the
Ranch Heights Elementary. It's gonna be a real similar project. It's about a
year behind. So we're just kind of in the planning phases for that.
Our agg facility that's being built. If people happen to drive by Shawnee,
they can see their steel. They started putting the steel up at the end
of last week. Yeah, so it's come along quite nicely, it really
is. Yeah, it's amazing. That's like I said, I'd jokingly say
that's been the only good thing about the drought is of those guys have been
haven't had much, if any weather delays. So yeah, so it's been
a good summer, busy summer, and we're just kind of gearing up ready
for the getting ready for the next school year. Oh my goodness. Six's
busy, busy, busy. But that is great, you know, congratulations
on the project. Lead the way for four years. So I mean that
for folks who might not be able to fully grasp this, this is big,
and especially when we're the only school in the state that has that.
That's that that is huge. It is time. You know, when we
got started in this program, several and really how we started this curriculum,
this all came with um you know, Philip sixty six. They helped us
on some on the facility side to have some innovation labs at our secondary schools
and really with us as we want to make sure we had curriculum set up.
We knew that kids needed this stem opportunities for their future, but we
need to make sure we are offering it to them, and so we started
working through this change with addition to Project Lead. The way really started at
our middle school level. You know, we have two full time teachers at
their middle school uh and also at the high school level, but really the
big push or the big changes at the elementary level, because you know,
kids are there with their teacher all day and for that teacher to have that
training where they can have that opportunity to share that curriculum within that hands on
learning UH. And it's it's really a big thing we speak at you know,
annually every year we do something at the at the national at the national
level because of our program, and people can look that up and see where
these districts are. They're all across the country. So it's really it's really
a big thing and really proud that we're able to offer it. I know
there's some schools, uh, some kids have the chance to get that if
they go to a tech center, um, you know in Oklahoma. But
we're able to do that right on campus at all of our bartles Old School.
So it's really a big deal. Really thankful for our community for making
that happen. Well, you know, you got kids. Usually it's central.
It has the robotics team that just knocks it out of the park and
you know, here are kids having fun with robots, like god, god
it, I learned something. How that happened? You know? And but
it's engagement. And once you engage in a child, they're gonna they're gonna
stick with it. They're gonna glom onto and learn everything that they can.
And what you're doing with the middle schools with the extra period for electives,
I can't tell you just how valuable that engagement is to kids. I've seen
it firstand and it really works. They want to be at school. It's
important you know that middle school level. You know, in your middle school
age for all of us. That's you know, people are kids are changing,
they're growing up, and that can read some challenges and so it's so
important to get them connected to adults at the school, get them something that
they're involved in because they do not even know. It's so really please that
they can have that flexibility in their schedule where they can be who knows,
it may be the next Jacob Hall or joy Joyce Shang or whatever that it
might be on the music front as well. So really and just to have
the resources to be able to offer that, I mean, it's very different
than a lot of schools have because you know, we do have not only
do we have a you know, instrumental band program, but we have orchestra,
you know, having a string program, which there's there. I think
the next closest one to us is in Tulsa. Yeah, you know,
in terms of he be able to just to be on there. My son
played the cello in school and who would have thought and that helped him learn
to play the guitar. I mean, so and just to be able to
I mean it did. It was a wonderful thing. And so what a
great opportunity kids can do that, right, here while they're in school with
us. Indeed, Yeah, what it also does folks in case you're kind
of wondering if you got little ones, Uh, my daughter now is going
to be a junior. Yeah, Laura helped me. But when she came
here, she came in at Madison Middle School and as a student, she
was you know BC. Now she's on a roll the whole way you wanted
a white We can't get her away from the school. She just wants to
be there so much just because of these engagements that are presented themselves. That's
true, and we've and we've really worked hard, and that's been something I
think that's been a positive after the pandemic is just a flexibility. I think
that you know, we've learned in terms of we have you know, opportunities
for even families. Uh. And by the way, just a thing new
student it's new student enrollment. They can do that online because we do have
that flexibility where some kids maybe they've been doing a home school or a private
school and environment and they want that maybe where they're in person some of the
day, but they want to keep them home some of the day too,
and they do have that flexibility to do that where they can do some online
courses. Maybe they just want to engage in our extra curricular programs that they
can't do. You know, that's the advantage. You know, we do
have a bruined football team or our band or orchestra or those kind of things
too, and so they do have that flexibility where they can do that as
well, especially as they get older, as they get into middle school and
as they get into high school as well. So yeah, really really thankful
to have our community support because in things like bond issues and all these donations
that we have all the time. You know, we have like Franks,
our Steamed camps are going on at Tri County right now just to support our
stead programs by Bards of Education Promise, and it's really it's really fun to
see how it come to fruition. You know the Aviation project too, well,
yeah, we haven't talked about that while my golly, that's got man,
I say, that is really taken plight. Good job, Tom,
Yeah, it had you know, we started that last year and I believe
we've had three sections of aviation. Ashley high Tower is teaching that course and
this upcoming year she's her she has a full load. She's gonna have six
classes of aviation, so it's doubled and that's it. We've just incorporated that
as part of our STEM program. I was at the State administrator conference last
night. I talked to the director of the aviation program and she pulled me
aside to talk about how excited she is about the expansion of the program.
And so it just makes sense. I mean, that's where there's jobs in
Oklahoma, you know, American Airlines is right down the road and Spartan Aeronautics,
and so really thankful our kids are getting this opportunity at a young age.
All Right, superintended checkmcuney thinks