Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It
Speaker 1: is time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: K one, the one you trust. Chuck mccalling. Yeah, Bartlesville
Speaker 1: Public Schools Superintendent, Bravo, great show, what a wonderful graduation.
Speaker 2: You know, the Good Lord helped us on that weather
Speaker 2: that week. You know, oh my goodness, boy, you must
Speaker 2: have called in every markt not crying going on there,
Speaker 2: but you know, thinking about that day that week and
Speaker 2: that day and oh my gosh's got a good downpour
Speaker 2: that afternoon. But yeah, we had a beautiful as we
Speaker 2: were talking before on air, and uh, you know, I've
Speaker 2: done about twenty five of those now here in Bartlesville,
Speaker 2: and that might have been the best weather we ended
Speaker 2: up happening.
Speaker 1: Just nobody would have guessed. It was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So yeah, I know your daughter was involved in
Speaker 2: that group too, So just a great night.
Speaker 1: It was really really special.
Speaker 2: It's always a nice it's so beautiful that setting. It's
Speaker 2: so nice to be able to do that outdoors. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it was a good night. So yeah, So we wrapped
Speaker 2: up the school year. Obviously, graduations kind of the big
Speaker 2: highlight there at the end, and we had our June
Speaker 2: school board meeting Monday just start and it was pretty
Speaker 2: routine meeting, but there are a few things I just
Speaker 2: wanted to update everyone about. First of all, we have
Speaker 2: a new school board member. Jason Sower had resigned last
Speaker 2: month or last month's meeting. He and his wife Corey,
Speaker 2: they it's good for Bartlesville. They're staying in town, but
Speaker 2: they just happened to move to a different ward. So
Speaker 2: we opened that position up and had two great candidates
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: Really thankful for that.
Speaker 2: But the board appointed Mandy Johnston, and we have information
Speaker 2: about that on our website. But Mandy is a manager
Speaker 2: with Phillip sixty six. She's a chemical engineer. She and
Speaker 2: her husband, her family have been in Bartlesville around twenty
Speaker 2: years now.
Speaker 1: They have two kids in school.
Speaker 2: They've got air Their son will be a sophomore, and
Speaker 2: a daughter that just finished at Ranch Heights.
Speaker 1: She'll be over at Madison.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so Mandy has been appointed to that term
Speaker 2: to Jason Sower's seats. Are really thankful to have her
Speaker 2: and appreciate the interest. And I know she just wants
Speaker 2: to get back and serve, you know, help serve the
Speaker 2: community and district that has helped her, helped her children
Speaker 2: along the way, and obviously she's a chemical engineer and
Speaker 2: her husband also flies in terms of his day job,
Speaker 2: and so obviously with our STEM program and aviation, I mean,
Speaker 2: she's the real invested in and that's really thankful for Mandy.
Speaker 2: Appreciate Jason Sowers service as well. Jason was an excellent
Speaker 2: school board member for us. He was on the board
Speaker 2: for about two and a half years. And really appreciate
Speaker 2: him and for his.
Speaker 1: Service to the school board. So that was kind of
Speaker 1: our first thing.
Speaker 2: We have a new school board member, Mandy Johnson, welcome
Speaker 2: her to the board. And then secondly wanted to mention
Speaker 2: we talked about this a little bit last month, but
Speaker 2: we revised our academic calendars, our school calendars for this
Speaker 2: upcoming year and the next year, and really the only
Speaker 2: changes are we had on.
Speaker 1: Our previous calendars.
Speaker 2: As you know or might remember, we had three scheduled
Speaker 2: distance learning days that we use for professional development basically
Speaker 2: so our teachers could collaborate during those times. But we
Speaker 2: have removed those from our calendar, so we have no
Speaker 2: scheduled distance.
Speaker 1: Learning days on our calendar.
Speaker 2: We're still starting the same day and ending the same time,
Speaker 2: but that's the only change that was made. We also
Speaker 2: and that information is on our website in terms of
Speaker 2: our academic calendars. And then also we indicated on the
Speaker 2: calendar that we will have because we have a couple
Speaker 2: of days that we traditionally for example, like Good Friday
Speaker 2: in the spring is not a school day. And then
Speaker 2: also we typically end try to end on it's generally
Speaker 2: the Thursday before Memorial Day, and then we have Friday.
Speaker 2: Our teachers work that day, but kids aren't there. We
Speaker 2: have graduation Day like this year, and so kind of
Speaker 2: our inclement inclement weather plan or you know, whatever reason,
Speaker 2: if we have to.
Speaker 1: Cancel school during the day too.
Speaker 2: Previously we've had scheduled virtual day, we have some distance
Speaker 2: virtual days. We won't be scheduling any virtual days for
Speaker 2: inclement weather. Our inclement weather plan will include we have
Speaker 2: about five days built into our calendar, so if we
Speaker 2: if we're out, if we're out during the school year,
Speaker 2: it'll just be a we'll just be out of school.
Speaker 2: We have five days built in. If we happen to
Speaker 2: go beyond those five days, which sometimes that happens in
Speaker 2: our state, what we would do is the first thing
Speaker 2: we would do is we would be add a day
Speaker 2: on that Friday before memorl Day that would be an
Speaker 2: in person class day. We'd make up that six day
Speaker 2: on that day, which we've done that before over the years,
Speaker 2: and then if it happened to be seven days, we
Speaker 2: would add that Good Friday would become a school day,
Speaker 2: which I'm not sure when that. I think it's late
Speaker 2: March this next year, but so that's our plan for that.
Speaker 2: If we do have extended inclement weather days, we've got
Speaker 2: five days built into the calendar. We'll have an additional
Speaker 2: two days that we can change to in person duction
Speaker 2: if necessary for that. And then lastly, if it happens
Speaker 2: to go beyond that, what we would do is we
Speaker 2: would add some minutes to our calendar in the spring
Speaker 2: so that we would be sure and get out before
Speaker 2: Memorial Day. We've you know, I know we all have
Speaker 2: stories about going to school after Memorial Day as a teacher,
Speaker 2: as an administrator, as a student, but just that's the
Speaker 2: world has changed and people are people have their plans
Speaker 2: and schedules and what that looks like, and so we
Speaker 2: want to make.
Speaker 1: Sure we're out by that date. So I wanted to just.
Speaker 2: Mention that revised academic calendar. Big takeaway is we won't
Speaker 2: have any distance learning days period we had We've previously
Speaker 2: had three on the schedule. We don't have any of
Speaker 2: those anymore, so I want to make sure people were
Speaker 2: aware of that. And then lastly, we had our we
Speaker 2: approved a renewed agreement with the City of Bartlesville for
Speaker 2: school resource officers. So that's and really no change to
Speaker 2: that agreement, just kind of clarified some things on the
Speaker 2: funding of it. But we'll continue to have ten school
Speaker 2: resource officers in the district. We'll have two at Bartlesville
Speaker 2: High School just because of the size, and then we
Speaker 2: have one at every other school. And you know the
Speaker 2: intent of the program is that we have the same
Speaker 2: officer at that school all year just for relationship building
Speaker 2: and they try not to make any changes unless they
Speaker 2: absolutely have to. But that's been We're going to continue
Speaker 2: with that. I think we just clarified the funding a
Speaker 2: little bit. Basically, the school district is responsible for an
Speaker 2: average of seventy five percent of the teachers the excuse me,
Speaker 2: the resource officer's salary, you know, the other twenty five percent,
Speaker 2: like this time of year when they're not in school,
Speaker 2: they're out working directly out in the city doing whatever
Speaker 2: needs to be done. They do assign one of us
Speaker 2: one resource officer in the summer for us for summer school,
Speaker 2: but really that's really a special agreement. I know that
Speaker 2: was mentioned during the meeting talking about we've be kind
Speaker 2: of the model in the state for that, how we
Speaker 2: have utilized that program. I know I've spoken at several
Speaker 2: state state conferences that Kerry Auckleberry has as well, and
Speaker 2: it's just the.
Speaker 1: Way the world has changed. It's just one of those things.
Speaker 2: That I view that that resource officer program.
Speaker 1: You know, I view that as a need, not.
Speaker 2: A want anymore. So we're really thankful to have that
Speaker 2: in bartis Will. Thankful for the support to make that happen.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so those big three things would be Mandy
Speaker 2: Johnston joining the school board. We revised our academic calendar
Speaker 2: so no more virtual learning days, and then thirdly that
Speaker 2: approved that city bar agreement with the City of bartles Will.
Speaker 2: Thankful for our city council as well as city manager
Speaker 2: and their leadership and police chief to continue our school
Speaker 2: resource officer program. So we'll have ten resource officers again,
Speaker 2: two at the high school and one at every other school,
Speaker 2: and then time's got a couple of other things, a
Speaker 2: few other things I'll mention. So we also talked briefly
Speaker 2: about we didn't have any policy change on cell phones.
Speaker 2: We've discussed it, you know, I've talked about the Anxious
Speaker 2: Generation now for almost a year. I really encourage everybody
Speaker 2: to read that if they haven't all ready, which really
Speaker 2: just has the research now about the impact of cell
Speaker 2: phones and social media on all of us, not just kids,
Speaker 2: but all of us. And so we are going to
Speaker 2: be making a change in our cell phone policy in July.
Speaker 2: We've talked about that the last two months. But really
Speaker 2: the big change is we're gonna make that at the
Speaker 2: high school level to make it where it matches the
Speaker 2: rest of our schools, where basically kids won't be able
Speaker 2: to have their school during the day period we have
Speaker 2: at the high school. They haven't used school lockers the
Speaker 2: last few years, and so now we will. We have
Speaker 2: lockers for all of them. Will be just like we
Speaker 2: have in our middle schools. We have lockers for them.
Speaker 2: We'll check every kid will have a locker and if
Speaker 2: they have to bring their phone to school, they can
Speaker 2: put it in there before school starts and they can
Speaker 2: get it on the way out. So that's kind of
Speaker 2: how that's gonna work. And so which I'm really I
Speaker 2: know there's going to be some people get addicted to
Speaker 2: their phone. I think a lot of people do. And
Speaker 2: I hope that this will give us our kids a
Speaker 2: break during the day where they hope fun. It's going
Speaker 2: to be an adjustment for some of them. I hope
Speaker 2: that some families will take advantage of that. Over the summer.
Speaker 2: I know, I hear more and more families talking about
Speaker 2: what their children and their cell phone, their smartphone, you know,
Speaker 2: just because I know your kid tells you that every
Speaker 2: other kid has this, Well that's not true. You know,
Speaker 2: there's some families they want to make sure that they
Speaker 2: kids don't have access, they don't have just free reign
Speaker 2: on their phone, and you know when they have that
Speaker 2: free time, because boy just can just eat up your time.
Speaker 2: And so we were seeing the impact on that school.
Speaker 2: I think we're all seeing it across the world about
Speaker 2: the impact and so I know that's gonna be hard
Speaker 2: for some folks, but we were completely prepared for that.
Speaker 2: I just you know, I know, just a convenience of texting,
Speaker 2: I know when I talked to for example, my school,
Speaker 2: my kids on my advisory council I visit to and
Speaker 2: when I visit with them about well, who do you
Speaker 2: hear from? And what do you do on your phone?
Speaker 2: If it's during the day, what is it? Well, A
Speaker 2: lot of times are hearing from the parents, and a
Speaker 2: lot of times it's not necessarily that relevant. I mean
Speaker 2: it's maybe you know, what's for dinner or whatever. I mean,
Speaker 2: things that could be done outside of the school. It's convenient.
Speaker 2: I mean I understand that we I do, you know,
Speaker 2: I text my uh my family as well.
Speaker 1: It's convenient thing to do.
Speaker 2: But hopefully we can get into some better routines and
Speaker 2: better habits with that. And so I know that our parents,
Speaker 2: we received a great deal of support for that change.
Speaker 2: I know our staff has been involved in this too,
Speaker 2: because uh, you know, it's kind of like Tom, think
Speaker 2: about folks that are our age.
Speaker 1: You know, if we were to.
Speaker 2: Go when we went to school, if we were allowed
Speaker 2: to take you know, a guitar or radio or uh
Speaker 2: you know, uh uh.
Speaker 1: If you didn't blow your class, you didn't go down class.
Speaker 2: If you had all the things that you could bring
Speaker 2: in with you and had access to that during the day,
Speaker 2: it would be really hard to pay attention in class.
Speaker 2: And the reality is those phones, that's they have everything
Speaker 2: right there. I mean, it's it's it's it's computer more
Speaker 2: powerful than anything that we had. And so just the
Speaker 2: distractions that come along with that, just trying to remove
Speaker 2: that and so hopefully'll be able to give our kids
Speaker 2: and we don't give our kids a break. And we've
Speaker 2: have made changes at the lower grades. You know, our
Speaker 2: middle schools, elementaries have done a.
Speaker 1: Really good job with it.
Speaker 2: Obviously, the age is different when kids having access to
Speaker 2: their phones, and so I think it'll be just a
Speaker 2: transition as kids grow, as they move it into the
Speaker 2: high school and this just makes sense for us to
Speaker 2: make it.
Speaker 1: Do you have any metrics and show that you know
Speaker 1: things improved grade wise?
Speaker 2: Well, no, I can't give you specific metrics. I can
Speaker 2: tell you just anecdotally. I know, like at Madison Middle
Speaker 2: School maybe when your daughter was there, it might have
Speaker 2: been after that.
Speaker 1: I know that they made a change during.
Speaker 2: The school year where kids basically if you had a
Speaker 2: phone put in your locker kind of thing. Uh, and
Speaker 2: it was it changed in terms of what their office
Speaker 2: referrals were in terms of what you're dealing with in
Speaker 2: the behavior, no doubt, Yes, yeah, no doubt too. I
Speaker 2: know that I substituted. I do a drawing and do
Speaker 2: a substitute day. And I was over at Madison last year.
Speaker 2: I think it was in a seventh grade English class
Speaker 2: all day and I was so tickled. I didn't even
Speaker 2: realize that until the day was over about second. You know,
Speaker 2: I didn't see a kid looking out a phone on
Speaker 2: which I'm sure they're all threatened with their lives before
Speaker 2: I got there. Superintendents and so but you know, that's
Speaker 2: what a wonderful thing. I mean, you know, because it's
Speaker 2: so even right now, you go anywhere, just watch people
Speaker 2: driving down the road and they're looking at her phone,
Speaker 2: you know, and so we can do better, and so
Speaker 2: we can do better. Yeah, So we're I just want
Speaker 2: to talk about that, be upfront with folks too. So
Speaker 2: I know we have we're completely prepared on the safety end.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a we we have a phone
Speaker 2: in every classroom, an actual phone like you have on your.
Speaker 1: Desk, I plug into the wall. Yeah, it's interesting, you
Speaker 1: know talking to people about that.
Speaker 2: You know, we're having our administrator's meeting the other day
Speaker 2: and one of our administrators our son will be a
Speaker 2: seventh grader, and was talking about, uh, you know. They
Speaker 2: had him practice using a phone and had to actually
Speaker 2: know his mom's cell phone number.
Speaker 1: And that's another thing. People don't remember their numbers because
Speaker 1: it's all on your phone exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so the kid had to remember the number,
Speaker 2: had the the phone, and then called mom on her
Speaker 2: cell phone and that was the first time he'd ever
Speaker 2: made a call that wasn't on a cell phone, which
Speaker 2: why would you, I mean, you know, there's no people
Speaker 2: don't have phones in their houses anymore too. So I
Speaker 2: think also for our parents is to be aware. We
Speaker 2: just can't assume things because you know, kids, it's a
Speaker 2: new world for them, so they actually practice that this summer.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, that's probably a smart idea. But anyway, I'll.
Speaker 2: Just mention a couple of things tome. But so those
Speaker 2: are kind of big things that are coming. But we'll
Speaker 2: change that policy in July and make sure everyone's aware
Speaker 2: of that too. If people are interested, we have new
Speaker 2: students enrollment they can they can enroll online.
Speaker 1: That's where that process starts.
Speaker 2: I also mentioned you know, because we've got a lot
Speaker 2: of folks that are enrolling with us. But our class
Speaker 2: sizes continue to improve, especially at our lower grade levels.
Speaker 2: I mean it's it's an average of one to twenty
Speaker 2: at the elementary level. Our AG program we added our
Speaker 2: fourth AG teacher and so we have a full time
Speaker 2: acteach at each middle school and two at the high
Speaker 2: school or Aviation project lead the way. Our STEM program
Speaker 2: and construction continues to flourish. We have a job fare
Speaker 2: coming up next month July eighth, at four o'clock, and
Speaker 2: that's really for all o our hourly positions we'll need
Speaker 2: like teacher systems, special education systems. We can always use
Speaker 2: bus drivers, so it's a great opportunity to come. We'll
Speaker 2: have all of our people there as well. We should
Speaker 2: hopefully certified teaching wise, will be completely staffed at that point.
Speaker 2: And then lastly, I'll just mention we're kind of closing
Speaker 2: out the big projects from our most recent bond issue
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three bond issue.
Speaker 1: The two big projects.
Speaker 2: For the expansion the renovation expansion and renovation of Wayside Elementary,
Speaker 2: which we've been in that for over a year. And
Speaker 2: then we are finishing up Ranch heis next month, and
Speaker 2: so it's on schedule and just beautiful. I walked through
Speaker 2: that this week and it's really walking through. I think
Speaker 2: they're probably one of the biggest change. Like their library
Speaker 2: and their music and their art rooms are just beautiful
Speaker 2: and so really thankful for the community support because those
Speaker 2: are things that our kids really can learn and grow from.
Speaker 1: Very good trip. Thank you very much for being with us.
Speaker 1: You bet, thanks, sir. Is it time to