Speaker 1: Good morning, good wanting, good morning, and welcome we want.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's time now for our community connection right
Speaker 1: here on K one, the one you try stand today.
Speaker 2: We're going back to school.
Speaker 1: We've got Chuck McCauley, Blair Ellis here from Bartlesville Public
Speaker 1: Schools and the bartins Will Public Schools Foundation.
Speaker 2: How are we doing, kids, We're doing great. Tom off
Speaker 2: to a great start. Well, that is wonderful.
Speaker 1: You know, I heard everything went along and just swimming
Speaker 1: lee here for the first week and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: freshman of course, trying to find a class.
Speaker 2: But you know that's freshman. That happens in every school,
Speaker 2: that's what.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I understand that, you know, everything just bouncing
Speaker 1: along like it should.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we we've really off to a good start, and
Speaker 2: I know, I really want to commend our just our
Speaker 2: leadership at our schools. We have really good experience site principles.
Speaker 2: Uh you know, our our maintenance department Caleb Rowinstein, you know,
Speaker 2: and our transportation Travis Slashbrook, who's new to us, but
Speaker 2: he knew previously. He was an assistant from before us
Speaker 2: for years and had been to Canne Valley High School
Speaker 2: principal and you know, Athletic Director of Thad dill Beck,
Speaker 2: And like I said, all of our site principals really
Speaker 2: just good people that really care. They work hard. You know,
Speaker 2: stuff happens every day. I mean I'll just talking to
Speaker 2: a yeahs, you got sixty two hundred kids and you know,
Speaker 2: over four hundred teachers and three hundred staff. I mean
Speaker 2: there's a lot going on, but they really are just
Speaker 2: here to serve and so it really helps for helps
Speaker 2: us just back the day to day great and it's
Speaker 2: really off to a good start. Probably the thing that
Speaker 2: the one thing that's the biggest difference for us this
Speaker 2: year has been that all of our kids can eat
Speaker 2: for free breakfast and lunch. And it's really does my
Speaker 2: heart well to see it the first three days of
Speaker 2: school compared to the first three days of school last year.
Speaker 2: Our our child Anutrition department, Kimberly Carter, who also does
Speaker 2: a great job for us, they have on the lunch side,
Speaker 2: we had we ate two thousands, seven hundred and ninety
Speaker 2: four more lunches than we did the previous year the
Speaker 2: first three days, and then over seven hundred more breakfast
Speaker 2: than we did. So you know, that just tells to
Speaker 2: me tells me that, you know, our kids are more
Speaker 2: kids needed to eat. I mean, they weren't getting access
Speaker 2: to that too, So that's really a good thing. I know.
Speaker 2: I was on a I did a little podcast with
Speaker 2: Anthony Tucker yesterday. He does our internships at the high
Speaker 2: school counselor and Anthony was one of our students and
Speaker 2: matter of fact, I had him when I was in
Speaker 2: high school principle, and he talked about, you know, he
Speaker 2: was a kid that qualified for free RENEWSD lunch and
Speaker 2: kind of the stigma that comes along with that and
Speaker 2: how that just gone and so so now that all
Speaker 2: the kids have access to the to the food, so
Speaker 2: we're really excited about that. That's one of the biggest
Speaker 2: changes that we've had. And then of course we were
Speaker 2: into a you know, facility wise, you know, construction wise,
Speaker 2: we've been working on facilitating our growth, and we moved
Speaker 2: into that Wayside School, which has been great really command
Speaker 2: Manhattan Construction, our architect and all of our team of course,
Speaker 2: our staff on making all of that happen. So we're
Speaker 2: using that facility. Wayside was one that where we were
Speaker 2: on our class sizes. We were because of the number
Speaker 2: of kids that were there, we were out of space,
Speaker 2: and so therefore our teacher student ratio wasn't what we
Speaker 2: wanted it to be, so we were hiring like extra
Speaker 2: teacher assistance and things to be in there. But now
Speaker 2: that we have space, we added three with about the
Speaker 2: same enrollment, actually a few less kids this year at
Speaker 2: the Wayside, and then we added three additional grade level
Speaker 2: teachers this year, so that just enables us to spread
Speaker 2: those classes out, and so their teacher student ratio is
Speaker 2: dropped by almost three kids per teacher. So yeah, there
Speaker 2: are class sizes. Which is our overall elementary district class size,
Speaker 2: so from pre k to fifth grade, our average class
Speaker 2: size is twenty one. So that's we've been working hard
Speaker 2: at that and so and that doesn't conclude like our
Speaker 2: specials or counselors or any of those kind of things too.
Speaker 2: That's just our grade level class sizes. So really proud
Speaker 2: to do that. Glad we've been able to do that out.
Speaker 2: I appreciate everyone's flexibility. On overt Wayside, we still have
Speaker 2: you know, we're using that facility, but you know, we're
Speaker 2: still finishing up the playground out front, and then we've
Speaker 2: you know, just so happened. Someone's building a house right
Speaker 2: next to the school that they've started to site. I
Speaker 2: guess the poor concrete this week which created some other
Speaker 2: issues for us, but we're just working through it. So
Speaker 2: but that's that's kind of the price of progress. Ranch Heights,
Speaker 2: that construction project is underway. We'll be doing the same thing,
Speaker 2: same thing over there, and we're gonna open up in
Speaker 2: August of twenty twenty five. And then of course, you
Speaker 2: know our agriculture facility or ag facility, we're gonna have
Speaker 2: an open house on Sunday, September fifteenth at two o'clock.
Speaker 2: So Sunday, September fifteenth, at two o'clock, we'll be there
Speaker 2: for an hour. We'll have a you know, we'll have
Speaker 2: a little say, a couple of words, and mainly just
Speaker 2: want people to come in and see it and take
Speaker 2: tours see the facility. It's really amazing. I know Blair's
Speaker 2: foundation board we met in there last week and they're
Speaker 2: able to take a sneak peek at it. But you know,
Speaker 2: in terms of the it's really a world class facility.
Speaker 2: You know, the indoor arena, classroom spaces, a commercial kitchen,
Speaker 2: a vet vet place, a couple of barns, one of
Speaker 2: which is air conditioned, you know, and then the two
Speaker 2: largest greenhouses of any school in the state of Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: So it's really a great facility. So glad our kids
Speaker 2: are going to get to use it. And we've got
Speaker 2: the great leadership there as well, you know, with Marty
Speaker 2: Jones and his team. So that's a fun, fun thing.
Speaker 2: We encourage people to come. I know a lot of
Speaker 2: people asked about that, so it's a great opportunity to
Speaker 2: come see it, like on that Sunday, September fifteenth. And
Speaker 2: then I also wanted to mention something new. You know,
Speaker 2: we added a construction class at the high school and
Speaker 2: kind of how that enrollment shook out. We have over
Speaker 2: ninety kids enroll enrolled in that class kind of spread
Speaker 2: out throughout the day and it's on campus at the
Speaker 2: high school. Doug Boudreau is teaching that course for us,
Speaker 2: and so we're pleased to be able to offer that
Speaker 2: to our to our kids. I could really think there's
Speaker 2: a need there no matter what you're going to do.
Speaker 2: That's a good that's some good skills to learn. And
Speaker 2: we've they've been focusing a lot on safety right now,
Speaker 2: but they will be building things this year, so we're
Speaker 2: we're excited about that as well. And they also wanted
Speaker 2: to mention at our board meeting this week. Two things. One,
Speaker 2: we recognize some students, you know, Tom, which you've seen
Speaker 2: us do that before, which is always fun. Our Technology
Speaker 2: Student Association have had a tremendous, tremendous year. Probably shouldn't
Speaker 2: try this by their name to say, Jonathan Laie, Andrew
Speaker 2: pan Addie Koonts. Let's see Isabelle Thorson. I think that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's true. Yes, I think I got them all to
Speaker 2: and uh and I'm forgetting one more, but it'll come
Speaker 2: to me here in just a just a minute. There's
Speaker 2: a fifth and I'm forgetting. But anyway that we were
Speaker 2: able to recognize them and Lollie Williams, she's the teacher
Speaker 2: for their work. They went to the national convention, the
Speaker 2: Technology Student Association convention last week where they were all
Speaker 2: all on stage and and and recognized and they were
Speaker 2: considered a group of them were considered a national champion
Speaker 2: and their tour and a couple of them did did
Speaker 2: some things on their own as well. And then lastly
Speaker 2: at our board meeting, Carstad Proctor. That's it. I knew.
Speaker 2: Aunt to me, I could think of that kid's name
Speaker 2: driving me crazy. Yeah, Margo's grandmother's gonna kill me if
Speaker 2: I can't get that right. So anyway, I also just
Speaker 2: wanted to mention that we are. We talked in our
Speaker 2: board meeting. We had a discussion item related to a
Speaker 2: book that we're doing a book study on. It's called
Speaker 2: The Anxious Generation, and we are. I talked about it
Speaker 2: at our State of the Schools, We've talked about it
Speaker 2: at our Back to School rally. I talked to both
Speaker 2: rotary groups about it this last couple of weeks as
Speaker 2: well as our Best Friday Forum. And really what it is,
Speaker 2: It's a book. Jane Sears, a former colleague of mine,
Speaker 2: recommended it to me. I read it this summer and
Speaker 2: and quickly realizes that something that I needed to we
Speaker 2: needed to dig deeper into. And we're talking about you know,
Speaker 2: cell phone use and social media and the impact that
Speaker 2: it's having on our kid really the impact that it's
Speaker 2: having on all of us, because it's something that obviously
Speaker 2: that has changed over the years in terms of what
Speaker 2: a cell phone the capability can do, as well as
Speaker 2: you know, social media also has changed, you know, going
Speaker 2: from something where maybe initially, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 2: nice to be able to see what your high school
Speaker 2: friends did, or to kind of keep keep track of
Speaker 2: some first day of school picks, where now the impact
Speaker 2: that's having on our children and it's not good, and
Speaker 2: so we can do better. And so I know that
Speaker 2: Andy Saltzman's doing a community book study, She's hosting a
Speaker 2: couple at the Eatery next month. But because it's going
Speaker 2: to be something that not only you know, school we're
Speaker 2: a big part of it, but you know, our parents,
Speaker 2: you know, I think government, tech companies as well. It's
Speaker 2: something that we all need to be talking about. And
Speaker 2: because I think we can do better for our kids,
Speaker 2: you know. And some of the recommendations that came out
Speaker 2: from the book, and I'll just share them here for
Speaker 2: people to be thinking about. One is, you know, kids,
Speaker 2: there's really no reason for them to have a smartphone
Speaker 2: before they're in high school. Two be no social media
Speaker 2: before you're sixteen years old. Third one would be no
Speaker 2: access to a phone while you're in school, which obviously
Speaker 2: that falls on our end, and we're talking about different
Speaker 2: options there. And then four is just some more child
Speaker 2: and independence and thinking about those things and thinking about
Speaker 2: how kids are growing out now and how easy it
Speaker 2: is to not interact with others, how easy it is
Speaker 2: to you know, to stay in your bedroom and play
Speaker 2: video games, and if you don't like something, you can
Speaker 2: easily unfriend somebody or not interact with them or and
Speaker 2: it's really I feel like we've got a generation of folks,
Speaker 2: and not just kids, I'm talking about adults as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that they have really lost the ability to be present
Speaker 2: and so people are really thinking about other things about
Speaker 2: what's going on in the social media world, and that's
Speaker 2: that's that's not great and a lot of times that's
Speaker 2: not positive. So anyway, we talked about that, we're going
Speaker 2: to be continue to talking about that the school board level.
Speaker 2: All of our administrative team. We're doing a book study
Speaker 2: on it, uh and we're looking at making some recommendations
Speaker 2: as something that I think that we need to It's
Speaker 2: I think it's one of the biggest challenges that we
Speaker 2: have as a society, and I think we can do
Speaker 2: better and I know that we can do better here
Speaker 2: in so anyway, I just wanted to share those things
Speaker 2: before I turned it over.
Speaker 3: Well, I was going to say, I know from my
Speaker 3: freshman student's perspective. He said that all of his teachers
Speaker 3: are really upfront about there's no cell phones during class food,
Speaker 3: and they're much stricter than he says they were even
Speaker 3: last year. So I think it's already having an impact.
Speaker 1: Blair congratulations, stated the schools.
Speaker 3: I hear it was another spec It was wonderful, and
Speaker 3: we think Nathan did a great job writing an article
Speaker 3: kind of summarizing it for anybody who could not be there.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's really become one of our most important fundraisers.
Speaker 3: I think we're probably going to bring in close to
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars at that event, which is great for
Speaker 3: us at the end of the day, but it's about
Speaker 3: so much more. If you're there, you can see it's
Speaker 3: just about community engagement and getting everybody on the same page.
Speaker 3: Hearing from our superintendent thinking through at the beginning of
Speaker 3: the year ways that they can get more involved, whether
Speaker 3: it's hosting interns or volunteering it. Just when you leave,
Speaker 3: you can just tell the energy is great. Everybody is
Speaker 3: ready to start the school year as a community. So
Speaker 3: we're just grateful that we have the opportunity to host
Speaker 3: an event like that for Bartlesville.
Speaker 1: Wow, I understanding from what Nathan said. It was just packed,
Speaker 1: and I remember being there for a couple of times myself.
Speaker 1: It was like, well, there's a sea of humanity, I.
Speaker 3: Know, and I always feel bad for the people in
Speaker 3: the back because they seem so far away, But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I'm thrilled that we're all in there together. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of great networking and communication that
Speaker 3: happens in that room. So success.
Speaker 2: What else is going on with the Foundation, Well, we are.
Speaker 3: Bruins on the Run. That's our after school running and
Speaker 3: mentoring program for fifth graders where they run after school
Speaker 3: with their teacher mentors. It's a completely free program, completely
Speaker 3: optional for our fifth graders. We're looking at right now
Speaker 3: the numbers. Today's the deadline to apply and we have
Speaker 3: I think about eighty kids signed up, but I'm expecting
Speaker 3: some more to come in. So we'll probably be about
Speaker 3: one hundred fifth graders again this year. And they start
Speaker 3: running next week, so it's a quick turnaround. They'll get
Speaker 3: out on the path and around their schools running with
Speaker 3: their teachers next week. We've got some great volunteer doctors
Speaker 3: Go Paul, Doctor Kyle Craig, and doctor high Tower are
Speaker 3: going to come in and do some sports physicals for
Speaker 3: us to make sure those kids are ready to go,
Speaker 3: and then we're gonna be doing some shoe fits, getting
Speaker 3: them brand new shoes. So next week's a really busy
Speaker 3: week for that program. But the program usually ends with
Speaker 3: the Wool of Rock eight K. This year that falls
Speaker 3: over fall break, so that doesn't work out really well
Speaker 3: for our kids and our teachers and then our Bartlesvill
Speaker 3: Public School staff. So we are hosting our own brewin
Speaker 3: eight K and fun run October twelfth. So that's what
Speaker 3: we're gearing up for now. Is this new eight K
Speaker 3: that we're starting, probably going to start an end over
Speaker 3: at Madison Middle School, but it's going to be something
Speaker 3: the whole community can participate in. We're going to try
Speaker 3: to highlight a lot of our teams, our SROs, our
Speaker 3: school nurses, and then our superintendent is of course going
Speaker 3: to sponsor that for us. Do you want to talk
Speaker 3: about your sponsorship for your staff?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Sure, So I sponsored at a level so that
Speaker 2: our staff can just pay for the cost of their shirt.
Speaker 2: Jeff and I started that several years ago, and we
Speaker 2: typically we've had between one hundred and seventy and two
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty staff, and I'm hopeful that this year
Speaker 2: we'll even have more, just because of it's here in town.
Speaker 2: You know, Wilrock's a great race, but it's a little
Speaker 2: bit of a challenge to get to early enough before
Speaker 2: the gate before the gate closed. It so really excited
Speaker 2: about it. Then the last year, you know they started that,
Speaker 2: I beat the superintendent race, which I didn't really think
Speaker 2: much about at the time, but I ran into a
Speaker 2: kid yesterday. I was at band practice or maybe that
Speaker 2: was Monday morning, and he came up to me and said, so,
Speaker 2: do you remember me. I said, no, you have to
Speaker 2: help me with your name, you know. He says, well,
Speaker 2: I beat you last year, and you.
Speaker 3: Clearly Yeah. So any any student or staff actually that
Speaker 3: beats our superintendent and they ca gets I beat the
Speaker 3: super t shirt. So we'll do that again next year because.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, really for me, it's just for our staff.
Speaker 2: I want to encourage them to take care of themselves.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's a great it's a great opportunity to you know,
Speaker 2: when the school year starts. It's a good chance to
Speaker 2: kind of change some habits because it's easy to have
Speaker 2: some different habits during the summertime. So I really want
Speaker 2: them to invest in themselves so that they can invest
Speaker 2: in others, which is great.
Speaker 1: You know, healthy minds, healthy bodies, healthy attitudes and good
Speaker 1: luck on everything sounds think, you know, everything's positive here.
Speaker 2: But this challenge with the cell phones you got to
Speaker 2: work cut out for you, Well, we do. That's going
Speaker 2: to I think that's going to be a work in
Speaker 2: progress across the world for years. I mean, it's really
Speaker 2: I mean when you look and I encourage people it's
Speaker 2: called the Anxious generation, uh folks out there to read
Speaker 2: it because there's some data that really kind of hurts
Speaker 2: your heart a little bit. I don't think there's anything
Speaker 2: in there that surprised you, but surprised me. But you know,
Speaker 2: when you think about the number of kids that we have,
Speaker 2: and just overall thinking about our you know, our adolescence
Speaker 2: and the rate of self harm, how much that's improved,
Speaker 2: how much that has gone, how much that has gotten
Speaker 2: worse since from twenty ten to twenty twenty has tripled.
Speaker 2: And thinking about our boys, how much many of them
Speaker 2: are withdrawing from things and really kind of a failure
Speaker 2: to launch. You know, think about the more and more
Speaker 2: think about you know, I can think of growing up,
Speaker 2: you know, when to get your driver's license, for example.
Speaker 2: People would I mean that happened on the first chance
Speaker 2: you could.
Speaker 3: You're chomping at the brand for that.
Speaker 2: You look at averages now and it's it's later and later.
Speaker 2: I mean, people are those kids are just kind of
Speaker 2: less willing to do that. I mean, so it's and
Speaker 2: I think it's all goes together. So yeah, so thank
Speaker 2: you Tom. We're going to continue to talk about it
Speaker 2: and strive to do better.
Speaker 1: And keep those kids running. That's a great program. I
Speaker 1: had nothing but positives to stop the buy. It really
Speaker 1: is alrighty and we can find out more about that
Speaker 1: in case you missed the deadline.
Speaker 2: Yes, just by going to the website.
Speaker 3: You can ye bpsfoundation dot org and you can also
Speaker 3: just google brewing eight k and it's the top hit
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: So you know, whenever I see them, the kids doing
Speaker 1: their thing, that's about the happiest bunch of youngsters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I'm outside.
Speaker 3: And it's good for their teachers.
Speaker 1: Good well, thank you very much for dropping. But I
Speaker 1: appreciate it as always. Folks, you've been watching and listening
Speaker 1: to our community connection