Speaker 1: Hell, we welcome Kelly Blair from the Trudy Education Foundation.
Speaker 1: She'll be introducing our keynote speaker.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Blair. It is my honor, as is representative
Speaker 2: of the Treaty Education Foundation, to introduce Chuck McAuley as superintendent.
Speaker 2: I think we've all heard by now he's preparing to
Speaker 2: retire at the end of this school year, so I'm
Speaker 2: gonna take a few liberties with the introduction this year.
Speaker 2: Check has served as superintendent at Barnswew Public School District
Speaker 2: since twenty sixteen, concluding a remarkable thirty four year career
Speaker 2: in education, twenty five of those right here in Bartlesville.
Speaker 2: His leadership guided our district through some of the most
Speaker 2: challenging and defining moments in recent memory. A statewide teacher
Speaker 2: walk out, a global pandemic, multiple floods, at least one
Speaker 2: indoor graduation, and maybe one or two interesting legislative sessions.
Speaker 2: But Chuck's legacy is not just about weathering the storms.
Speaker 2: It's about building something stronger. He helped launch innovative stem
Speaker 2: lads through major corporate sponsorships, and expanded the school's safety
Speaker 2: with robust student Resource officer program, and built a diverse
Speaker 2: program with agriculture, education, performing arts, and so many more.
Speaker 2: He's fostered a pro teacher culture, improved communication with parents,
Speaker 2: and implemented forward thinking technology policies that support both students
Speaker 2: and staff. Chuck has also been a vital part of
Speaker 2: our broader community. He's a member of the Bartlesow Rotary Club,
Speaker 2: serves on the Our Best Bank Board of Directors, and
Speaker 2: is past president of the United Suburban Schools Association. And
Speaker 2: for those of us at the Truty at Us Ducation Foundation,
Speaker 2: we're especially grateful for his role as a founding member.
Speaker 2: His insight and leadership helped to shape the foundation's mission
Speaker 2: and strategy for the last eleven years. Thanks in part
Speaker 2: to that guidance, we are closing in on over two
Speaker 2: million dollars in total funding to education related projects in
Speaker 2: multiple school districts across Oklahoma and Kansus. Chuck's leadership has
Speaker 2: also been recognized with the Chambers Tom Shoemake Leadership Award
Speaker 2: and the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Teaching and Administration.
Speaker 2: But perhaps his greatest legacy is the culture that he
Speaker 2: has helped create, one that values innovation, supports educators, and
Speaker 2: puts students first, Chuck has been pretty successful in his
Speaker 2: personal life as well. In nineteen ninety two, he married
Speaker 2: his high school sweetheart, Jennifer, a math teacher at Central
Speaker 2: Middle School, and their son, Mason, is a Bartisiwa High
Speaker 2: School graduate and a proud William Jewell College life. Please
Speaker 2: join me in recognizing and celebrating this extraordinary leader, a
Speaker 2: trusted colleague, and a true champion for public education. Superintendent
Speaker 2: Chuckter colleague.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Might have to give
Speaker 1: me just a minute. Wasn't quite prepared for that, So
Speaker 1: thank you for that warm welcome, uh thank you for
Speaker 1: that uh way too kind introduction, and most importantly, just
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for being here. I appreciate all
Speaker 1: all your support. I firmly believe that a strong public
Speaker 1: school system is absolutely essential for a thriving community. I
Speaker 1: can tell that my mother came today. She literally did
Speaker 1: so I'm just kidding, and I can think of no
Speaker 1: greater example of that than this event we're having today.
Speaker 1: Look at the stakeholders, Blair. I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: through and introduce everyone. Very well, could go around the
Speaker 1: room and talk about all the wonderful things that the
Speaker 1: support that it takes for us to really do the
Speaker 1: amazing things that we're doing together for our kids, to
Speaker 1: help prepare them, to help prepare our community in this
Speaker 1: ever changing world. I look around, you know, I see,
Speaker 1: of course we have talking to Senator Julie Daniels here.
Speaker 1: I know our state representatives couldn't be here earlier. They're
Speaker 1: you know there. We have have state leaders here, we
Speaker 1: have leaders from our city. I know we have city
Speaker 1: council members here. I think my friend Mike Bailey is
Speaker 1: here as well. Appreciate all of their work, all of
Speaker 1: their support to help us with a multiple amount of
Speaker 1: things as local leaders. Of course, our school board, which
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about here, and just you know,
Speaker 1: just a just a little bit as well. As you know,
Speaker 1: we have our large our largest employees in town are here.
Speaker 1: The largest ones in town are here, every one of
Speaker 1: them because they understand that our smallest employees are also
Speaker 1: they're here as well. But people understand that, you know,
Speaker 1: for our community, if we're going to thrive economically, we
Speaker 1: have to have a place where they can hire employees,
Speaker 1: and if their employees have children, we have to have
Speaker 1: a strong public school system making sure this is the
Speaker 1: place they want to be and so I appreciate them
Speaker 1: working with us to help pull this off. We have
Speaker 1: education people from across the spectrum here. Obviously our public
Speaker 1: school Foundation Blair Ellis is wonderful. She started basically I
Speaker 1: know I have to came superintendent. That was one of
Speaker 1: the first decisions the foundation made was to hire an
Speaker 1: executive director and it's been essential in our success as
Speaker 1: a district. But you know, I represented Oklahoma Westland University.
Speaker 1: I was talking to doctor Dunn here earlier. We have
Speaker 1: great partnerships with them, you know, Kerry Boss with Greg Packett.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's great people. Roger State University. I think
Speaker 1: I saw Ronda writing earlier. My good friend Claire Bartley
Speaker 1: from past Independence from pt I this private school with
Speaker 1: our kids with autism, that does great things for our community.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's such a pleasure to have that as
Speaker 1: well as Tri County Tech. You know our career tech
Speaker 1: friends that we have, they always are are supportive of
Speaker 1: our school and we continue to work together. We send
Speaker 1: us as many kids as they have room for out
Speaker 1: to our career Tech system as well. And of course
Speaker 1: our our staff. We have so many staff here. We
Speaker 1: have retired people that are here that still come are
Speaker 1: that this is they don't understand the importance of education.
Speaker 1: But all the hard working staff that we have, it's
Speaker 1: just been a pleasure, just been a pleasure to serve with.
Speaker 1: That's why, you know, I've been here to serve, and
Speaker 1: so all of our leadership team that we have, specifically
Speaker 1: I've been I'm old enough now, I've been around long
Speaker 1: enough that I've been a part of placing every one
Speaker 1: of them, and I can guarantee you they are good
Speaker 1: people and they're here to serve as well. So I'm
Speaker 1: thankful to serve with them. And then of course our parents,
Speaker 1: you know, our parents Obviously I've mentioned all these categories,
Speaker 1: but parents are their parents also in addition to you know,
Speaker 1: we have children that are here that are completely invested,
Speaker 1: and you know, I appreciate Kelly for mentioning a couple
Speaker 1: a few of the challenging things that we've worked through together.
Speaker 1: I'll mention I'll just say one thing. I remember the
Speaker 1: when the pandemic hit back in twenty twenty. I'll tell
Speaker 1: a quick story, and we're all trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what to do. You know, springtime comes and basically the
Speaker 1: world is shut down. And I know our school, we
Speaker 1: knew that we needed to be able to offer an
Speaker 1: in person instruction when school started. We need to figure
Speaker 1: that out. And I think we had eighty four people
Speaker 1: on I think five different committee. I know that I led.
Speaker 1: I think our group by had men team. We had
Speaker 1: twelve different meetings down at Johnstone Park. We got to
Speaker 1: meet outside and wear mask and it was weird, remember
Speaker 1: those days. And then we came up with a plan.
Speaker 1: From those people, we shared it with everybody. In July.
Speaker 1: We said, listen, we're gonna we want to start school
Speaker 1: on time, but we need to know if you're coming.
Speaker 1: And so we had two meetings at Custer Stadium, invited
Speaker 1: everybody to come and tell us what they thought good, bad,
Speaker 1: or ugly. And you know, we did it. We were
Speaker 1: the only six A school in the state of Oklahoma
Speaker 1: US started on time with an in person option. And
Speaker 1: so I think that's just a great example of our community.
Speaker 1: What makes our community great, everyone just working together to
Speaker 1: serve our kids. And so I appreciate everybody here. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for being here. I do want to think
Speaker 1: I do want to thank the most important person in
Speaker 1: the room, who's my wife. Who's sitting right over there,
Speaker 1: fanning herself. She's still a little warm from the walk in.
Speaker 1: But yeah we are. We're having our thirty third wedding
Speaker 1: anniversary on Friday, and I can tell you I couldn't you.
Speaker 1: Being in leadership is difficult. You get pulled a lot
Speaker 1: of different directions. You get lots of different opinions from
Speaker 1: you know who, I whoever thinks needs to be the
Speaker 1: quarterback to whatever, some kids great in some class that
Speaker 1: they didn't do well or and everything in between. I
Speaker 1: get lots of input on lots of different things, pick
Speaker 1: up and drop off it and you name it. I mean,
Speaker 1: whatever the situation is. I get to hear lots of
Speaker 1: different things, and then lots of serious things, more serious
Speaker 1: things as well. But I can tell you it's always
Speaker 1: been it's important to I've tried to model and it's
Speaker 1: truly important. My marriage is important, my heart is full.
Speaker 1: So with that, I've always been able to come to work.
Speaker 1: I feel like giving my best, and how good that
Speaker 1: is that's debatable, but I've always been able to to
Speaker 1: do that because I feel like I've gotten my priorities
Speaker 1: in order. We've all worked with leaders that maybe are
Speaker 1: burning their candle at both ends, maybe some things outside
Speaker 1: of work or influencing their work life, and that's just
Speaker 1: never been the case. And that's because of Jennifer. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you, So I probably should start. We actually need
Speaker 1: say one thing, so also I need to mention the
Speaker 1: state superintendent and to talk about that just for a minute. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna run for state superintendent. That's not my
Speaker 1: that is not my plan. I have no desire to
Speaker 1: do that. But I did share last year and I
Speaker 1: think everyone the longer that the situation that we're in
Speaker 1: is happening, I think people are realizing. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of statements come out of that office. I respect
Speaker 1: the office. We obviously it's a it's a member of
Speaker 1: the state school board. They are responsible for accreditation and
Speaker 1: some things that come along with you know, like accreditation
Speaker 1: of rules that do impact us. Correctly, but just remember,
Speaker 1: just know, because if you didn't know, it would be
Speaker 1: logical to think you have an elected state superintendent and
Speaker 1: he's going to tell all school superintendent's like me what
Speaker 1: to do and then we're going to go do that. Well,
Speaker 1: just I think we've learned. I hope that you've learned.
Speaker 1: That's not actually the way things flow. We have a
Speaker 1: locally elected school board, we have a local superintendent. We're
Speaker 1: going to follow the law, so regardless of whatever statement
Speaker 1: you might hear that comes out of that office. Just
Speaker 1: if you want to get whicked up about it and
Speaker 1: want to make comments on social media, if that gives
Speaker 1: you something to do and you feel like that's making
Speaker 1: a difference, then go crazy. But I could just tell
Speaker 1: you I really hate to even talk about it much,
Speaker 1: because really that's the plan is so that you can
Speaker 1: get more clicks or whatever, so that they can get
Speaker 1: so that he can do some more interviews or whatever
Speaker 1: t help his future. But I just want everybody to
Speaker 1: know that you don't need to panic about that. We're here.
Speaker 1: If you ever need to talk about anything related to it,
Speaker 1: I'm happy, happy to do that. I do want to
Speaker 1: spend just a second or just a minute talking about
Speaker 1: my retirement. I did announce that last week, and Kelly
Speaker 1: minche Blair somebody mentioned that as well. But just so
Speaker 1: that you understand kind of the plan for that. First
Speaker 1: of all, the district is in great shape and now
Speaker 1: is a great time for the district. I know that
Speaker 1: we're going to hire the next great leader to make
Speaker 1: our district even better. I know that it look for
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do nothing. I'm gonna do everything that
Speaker 1: I can to help support our next leader. We're in
Speaker 1: a much different place, and we talked about some of
Speaker 1: the different things challenges we've been through. I remember the
Speaker 1: month after I was named superintendent, at the next board meeting,
Speaker 1: we announced that we had to reduce thirty nine positions,
Speaker 1: and so twenty one teachers, fifteen support staff for administrators.
Speaker 1: In the next year we reduce four more administrative positions,
Speaker 1: so we're not in that kind of shape anymore. We're
Speaker 1: now truly investing for opportunities for our kids, and so
Speaker 1: this is a great time for a new leader to
Speaker 1: come in. What I anticipate the board we'll do is
Speaker 1: in August is they'll hire a search firm to hire
Speaker 1: the next superintendent. And the reason they're doing that because
Speaker 1: they won't make sure they get input from you, what
Speaker 1: you're looking for, from our stakeholders, from our parents, from
Speaker 1: our staff, from our community, from our business leaders, so
Speaker 1: that they know what we're looking for. I went through
Speaker 1: that same process when I was hired ten years ago,
Speaker 1: and I anticipate that the board will be naming the
Speaker 1: new superintendent somewhere. They'll start next up. I'm we'll be
Speaker 1: here all year, but they're going to start officially July one.
Speaker 1: That happened sometime MIDI year, probably around the holidays, is
Speaker 1: when they'll actually name that because there's some important things
Speaker 1: to happen, and that's part of the reason for the timing.
Speaker 1: Our strategic plan runs through twenty twenty five. This is
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, so to me, it made sense for
Speaker 1: our next superintendent needs to lead our next strategic plan
Speaker 1: for what that looks like in the future, so we
Speaker 1: need to get that person in place. Obviously, there'll be
Speaker 1: some personnel decisions to make. Also, we're in line to
Speaker 1: have our next bond issue probably around this time year
Speaker 1: next year, which obviously our new superintendent needs to be
Speaker 1: involved with that. We'll have things lined up for that
Speaker 1: person as well. And I'll just tell you we've got
Speaker 1: a great internal candidate. Well that she's ready and I've
Speaker 1: worked hard to get her ready, and she'll apply, but
Speaker 1: she's going to have to prove that she's the best
Speaker 1: person for the job, just like I had to do
Speaker 1: ten years ago. So anyways, wanted to share that that's
Speaker 1: kind of the process for what that looks like. I
Speaker 1: did share that, especially if you have children at Central,
Speaker 1: you're probably most more concerned about. Is missus McCauley retiring
Speaker 1: and so eighth grade Matt teacher, and so she she
Speaker 1: plans to continue to teach after next year. And so
Speaker 1: obviously if my wife is getting up and going to
Speaker 1: work after next year, then that means mister mcauleay's and
Speaker 1: we get up to going somewhere to work also, so
Speaker 1: I'll be working for We're not going anywhere. This is
Speaker 1: our home. I'm gonna be I'm not sure exactly what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be doing, but I think I'm young enough
Speaker 1: I can bring some value, hopefully to somebody too. So anyway,
Speaker 1: let's get on. Let's get on in the program. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about some things. First, of my school board members,
Speaker 1: do you guys please stand up? I think most of
Speaker 1: them are here, yeah, so yeah, thank you, Scott Bilger,
Speaker 1: Andrew Nightingale Kinder Sham, Randy here, and Rick Boswell, Susie
Speaker 1: Cursey couldn't be here, and Mandy Johnston's our newest board member.
Speaker 1: Boy that and I've had some great ones, some really
Speaker 1: really good school board members. I want to thank you know, Scott, Randy,
Speaker 1: and Rick in particular. They were on the board when
Speaker 1: I was hired and they're still here, so I really
Speaker 1: appreciate them. Scott has been a great friend. We've really
Speaker 1: I mean, he's pushed me in terms of really doing
Speaker 1: something to push the district, even times when like my
Speaker 1: first year running a bond issue when we failed one
Speaker 1: four years ago, and I just we just reduced all
Speaker 1: these positions and I didn't want to do that. I
Speaker 1: was really worried about that, but he knew that was
Speaker 1: the right thing to do. That's what we did. We're successful.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate him as well. And also I think
Speaker 1: I saw Nicky Benson walk in earlier. She was on
Speaker 1: the board when I was first hired, and I remember
Speaker 1: to point out Nikki she really helped me in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways in the HR world, and so when
Speaker 1: we have to make some changes and be most efficient,
Speaker 1: she's really helped guide me and I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from her. I wanted to mention her as well. And
Speaker 1: then next Rick Boswell, Rick, would you come up here?
Speaker 1: So Rick has been on the board for fifteen years
Speaker 1: and and yeah, from seller Rick is retiring from the
Speaker 1: board today, and so Rick is doing that. He knew
Speaker 1: that he wasn't gonna run the next time it was
Speaker 1: up to run. He felt it was important for the
Speaker 1: news board member that's appointed to be part of the
Speaker 1: selection process for the new superintendent. But he's been on
Speaker 1: for fifteen years. I'm known Rick. I used to when
Speaker 1: I was feel like a different life now when I
Speaker 1: was a completely back in the nineties when I was
Speaker 1: a teacher and coach basketball, and he officiated a lot
Speaker 1: of games for me. So just know that it's always
Speaker 1: important how you act. And I'm really glad that I
Speaker 1: didn't get a technical fouls Rick Boswell. Yeah, we've got
Speaker 1: a little plaque for him. So let's kind over here,
Speaker 1: let's get a picture of Let's give Rick a hand.
Speaker 1: Appreciate Rick. Just an example of Rick. I know when
Speaker 1: school starts next week, he'll be there at Central helping
Speaker 1: six graders open their lockers. Speaking of lockers, he does that.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about let's talk about cell phones. And
Speaker 1: I think a good thing to think about while we're
Speaker 1: talking is just think about how many notifications you're getting
Speaker 1: on your cell phone right now, how many times you're
Speaker 1: checking your smart watch right now. How many times are
Speaker 1: you doing that? I want you to think about that
Speaker 1: as we go through this, Okay, just be back to
Speaker 1: be mindful of that. So I brought this book forward
Speaker 1: to the community, or tried to. I was one of
Speaker 1: the people that brought us look forward to the community,
Speaker 1: The Anxious Generation. A year ago, our school board, our
Speaker 1: administrative team did a book study on it. I think
Speaker 1: it was on our school board agenda for about ten
Speaker 1: months in a row. And they're just some and I
Speaker 1: really encourage everybody to read it. I've done some community
Speaker 1: book studies. I know Anti's group. I went to a
Speaker 1: Don Jennifer and I went to a book study there,
Speaker 1: a community about the community book study about this as
Speaker 1: myself and I think about thirteen moms, and we had
Speaker 1: a great visit and parent support group. We talked about
Speaker 1: this and really it's just it's some great research, some
Speaker 1: data that shows us some of the harm of cell
Speaker 1: phones and social media, some of the impact that's happened
Speaker 1: on us. And so I knew a year ago. I
Speaker 1: announced that the year ago that we needed to do
Speaker 1: something different. One of the recommendations that came out from
Speaker 1: the book was kids don't need to have access to
Speaker 1: their phone at all during school day, which I mentioned
Speaker 1: last year. I agreed with, but we needed to work
Speaker 1: through to build some consensus. And although that our legislators
Speaker 1: or the legislature was making this a priority as well,
Speaker 1: and they truly actually they made it. They made it
Speaker 1: easy on us because they were a state law. And
Speaker 1: so the way that's going to work, and the biggest
Speaker 1: change would be at the high school. But kids won't
Speaker 1: have access to their phone during the day. We have
Speaker 1: physical lockers at our secondary schools. They'll need to put
Speaker 1: their phone in their locker during the day. They can
Speaker 1: get it when they leave at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: They also includes things like if you have a smart
Speaker 1: watch or you know, we all seen people walk around
Speaker 1: headphones and everything else in the world they're plugged into
Speaker 1: while they're acting like they're paying attention whatever they're paying
Speaker 1: attention to. They won't have access to any of those things. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's our plan. I know when kids come to school,
Speaker 1: our administrators will meet with them they do every year
Speaker 1: and give them the update on how they're going to
Speaker 1: manage it. I'm sure we'll have to make some adjustments
Speaker 1: but we're definitely going to do that. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for our kids to hopefully get a break,
Speaker 1: just to get a break from that during the day,
Speaker 1: and we can hopefully help them learn to be present.
Speaker 1: I think that's important. I think that's a skill the
Speaker 1: whole world is losing. So I'm excited about that change.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what you read on Facebook. So on child nutrition,
Speaker 1: we'll continue. This will be our second year that we
Speaker 1: will have free breakfast in lines for all of our kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so it's been a great thing, and I know
Speaker 1: our state superintendent says something about this a month ago
Speaker 1: kind of all schools doing it, which obviously is not happening,
Speaker 1: but that says nothing to do with that. We started
Speaker 1: this last year. We're going to continue with that. But
Speaker 1: also kind of related to cell phones as well. I
Speaker 1: know something that's become a problem for us is like
Speaker 1: a door dash and it's it's crazy. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: walked through an office and we have kids on their
Speaker 1: phone ordering food and it comes up and they go
Speaker 1: get it and it's just ridiculous. Sorry, it just it is.
Speaker 1: And it's been a problem in terms of kids being
Speaker 1: out of the classroom. I mean, we got to make
Speaker 1: an order. Let my door is let what do you mean?
Speaker 1: I got to go pick up my lunch and come back.
Speaker 1: And we're not doing that anymore. So what here's the
Speaker 1: situation is we've got free free food breakfast and lunch
Speaker 1: for every kid. Even if you don't want to eat that,
Speaker 1: that's fine. Bring your own, that's great because bring bring
Speaker 1: your own food, just like we all did growing up.
Speaker 1: And mom and dad, if they forgot their lunch, then
Speaker 1: you can bring it up to them. That's fine too.
Speaker 1: But we're not going to do any of the third
Speaker 1: party delivery anymore. And also, and I know we all
Speaker 1: know some people that maybe do some Gordash delivery. Some
Speaker 1: of the folks that are delivering door dash, I don't
Speaker 1: want them at school. I don't want them here. They
Speaker 1: can go someplace else and deliver. So anyway, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to update everybody about that going off with the
Speaker 1: bank here my last year. So there we go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our this is our academic calendar. Just in case you
Speaker 1: didn't know. Make sure we're not gonna have any virtual
Speaker 1: days this year period. There's not gonna be any before
Speaker 1: we had. I know some of your happiest some of
Speaker 1: your place had we've in the past, we've had recent
Speaker 1: years we've had three days that were scheduled that were
Speaker 1: on the calendar. You knew when they're coming. We try
Speaker 1: to back up, back them up to holidays, and we
Speaker 1: use those professionally for some men service and meeting times
Speaker 1: as well. We'll not have those. Those we all be
Speaker 1: in person days as well as if we do have
Speaker 1: some we need to cancel school because the weather or
Speaker 1: whatever the situation might be, those will not be virtual
Speaker 1: days either. Those are gonna be. All we're gonna have
Speaker 1: is in person days. We'll have five days, five days
Speaker 1: built into the calendar if we need to, so we've
Speaker 1: got five days. If we miss ver snow or whatever,
Speaker 1: the kate or ice or who knows what, then we've
Speaker 1: got those built into the calendar. We'll have a couple
Speaker 1: of days in the spring that if it goes beyond that,
Speaker 1: because sometimes it does, we'll see what kind of winter
Speaker 1: we have. But like Good Friday and then the Friday
Speaker 1: before Memorial Day, if necessary, we would change those to
Speaker 1: a in person instruction day if necessary. And then if
Speaker 1: we go beyond seven days, what we would do is
Speaker 1: we would add some time to our calendar in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter so that we can because we know it's
Speaker 1: important to staff, to community, to family, to parents, that
Speaker 1: we end on that last day. We don't go beyond
Speaker 1: moral day because people have plans. Let's talk about a
Speaker 1: resource officer. Will you, guys and gals, please stand up.
Speaker 1: We thank you, thank you. I think we just have
Speaker 1: one new officer this year. The rest of them are returning,
Speaker 1: so we've gone from having two or three school resource
Speaker 1: officers back when, back before the Uvaldy incident. Basically, now
Speaker 1: that we have one, we have a full time officer
Speaker 1: armed at every school, and we have two right here
Speaker 1: at Borlsville High School. And they all want to be here,
Speaker 1: they want to be part of our school, and they
Speaker 1: truly are making a difference. This is an example of
Speaker 1: our city partnership. I really appreciate our city council folks
Speaker 1: and Mike Bailey for helping us make that happen, Chief Ackleberry,
Speaker 1: because it's truly a difference make here. I think it
Speaker 1: gives a tremendous sense of peace to I think parents, staff,
Speaker 1: neighbors all of us, and it's truly a great thing.
Speaker 1: But now we'll mentioned while I've have talking about the city,
Speaker 1: so the resource officers, this is directly we wouldnt coudn't
Speaker 1: do this about the City of Bartlesville. Really appreciate them.
Speaker 1: Second thing I wanted to mention as well is our
Speaker 1: active facility sits on what was city land, so we
Speaker 1: wouldn't that location wouldn't be there without the collaboration of
Speaker 1: our city of Barblesville. And in last, something that's near
Speaker 1: and dear to my heart this last year is at
Speaker 1: Central Middle School Earl Sears Park, which is north of
Speaker 1: there that playground egg or two. You may not have
Speaker 1: noticed it, but there's been one. Earl had one house
Speaker 1: that he didn't get rid of thirty years ago. Back
Speaker 1: during that process presented Seiers Earl serious principal series and
Speaker 1: so we were finally able to acquire that house. A
Speaker 1: city tour down for us, Line Foundation help us pay
Speaker 1: for a district paid for us. Some other corporate folks
Speaker 1: did as well. And if you didn't notice that it
Speaker 1: was on Delaware, good, I'm glad that you didn't notice that.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things kind of like when
Speaker 1: you have a spot on your shirt you're always looking at.
Speaker 1: You're the only one that notice this. It drove me
Speaker 1: crazy every day I drove down and it's not there anymore.
Speaker 1: So thank you City of ARLs Wild for turning. And
Speaker 1: if you've been around for a minute and remember when
Speaker 1: there were houses on that park, I really encourage you
Speaker 1: to make an appointment with Earl Sears and listen to
Speaker 1: him tell you the story about how he was able
Speaker 1: to make that happen where that's that's truly a park
Speaker 1: and a playground for our kids. I can't imagine not
Speaker 1: having a playground. But we didn't. Okay, one to mention too,
Speaker 1: just overall on our's on the academic side, from our
Speaker 1: Advanced Placement program from the College Board, we've been recognized
Speaker 1: for outstanding access as well as performance on their test
Speaker 1: and what we're talking about AP program. Advanced Placement kids
Speaker 1: take college level classes, they take tests. At the end
Speaker 1: this past year, our kids took almost seven hundred tests,
Speaker 1: and so that's more than I've been here twenty five years.
Speaker 1: We've never been close to that. The number continues to grow.
Speaker 1: That's a great resource for our kids. And actually the
Speaker 1: district is picking up the cost of those AP tests.
Speaker 1: We've been doing that now. I think this is our
Speaker 1: third year to do that, so have a very robust program.
Speaker 1: We're one of a handful of schools that have been
Speaker 1: recognized by the College Board because of how many kids
Speaker 1: we have in the program and how well they're doing.
Speaker 1: As well. Our STEM program, which is truly our science, Technology, Engineering,
Speaker 1: in math. We solidified that program and it's truly our
Speaker 1: belcal really proud of it. Science is a very important
Speaker 1: part of Bartlesville are always has been and you know
Speaker 1: it always will and so we are very invested True
Speaker 1: to Credit Union, I mean the True to Credit Union Foundation.
Speaker 1: They helped us tremendously with that over the years, and
Speaker 1: also I want to mention them, they were the biggest
Speaker 1: donor for our school Resource Officer program as well the
Speaker 1: Phillips sixty six, our innovation labs, you know, Comico Phelips
Speaker 1: has helped us on new things that go along with that.
Speaker 1: And so it's really just part of what we do
Speaker 1: and it's something that the whole community should be proud
Speaker 1: of because when we're trying to hire and we're trying
Speaker 1: to hire folks into they make sure that we know
Speaker 1: that we have that resource. There's only nineteen distinguished districts
Speaker 1: in the country and Bartlesville is one of them. So
Speaker 1: something that we should all be proud of. Mar FFA program.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Marty Jones. Alright, but Marty, are
Speaker 1: you here? Marty, stand up? I know I saw you earlier.
Speaker 1: Is there any other ACT teachers here? Okay, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: Cameron and Julie. We have four four I got so
Speaker 1: I'll just mentioning you guys know this. We didn't have
Speaker 1: a we started at in twenty nineteen. We hired Marty
Speaker 1: and gave him a classroom and said good luck, and
Speaker 1: so we had truthfully, we had we but uh, there's
Speaker 1: so many kids that were interested in it. It's wonderful program.
Speaker 1: You know, we now have the terms of their facility.
Speaker 1: We just hired their fourth. We now have four full
Speaker 1: time ACT teachers that started. It's one of the biggest
Speaker 1: programs in the state, which if you think about where
Speaker 1: we sit in Oklahoma, why wouldn't we have that many.
Speaker 1: It's taken at we've expanded to the seventh grade level.
Speaker 1: They've done a great job. Really proud of everything that
Speaker 1: they do. Aviation Actually High Tower is here one of
Speaker 1: our actually just going to stand up, there's actually this
Speaker 1: will be our fourth year of aviation that we're starting,
Speaker 1: actually has a full load with that. She does a
Speaker 1: great job, continues to go to training to be up
Speaker 1: to speed. We jumped on that opportunity. Appreciate Track County
Speaker 1: Tech for offering the aviation mechanics side of it. We
Speaker 1: think that's a great partnership. It's the second largest employer
Speaker 1: in the state, so really proud of their expansion. Construction
Speaker 1: Doug Boudreau is Doug, mister Boudreaux here. That Duck is
Speaker 1: Nathan here, Nathan England. Yeah, so yeah, so so Doug,
Speaker 1: the guy that has the glasses on. We hired him
Speaker 1: last year we started construction class. And the reason we
Speaker 1: started that, and this is an example. We've always felt
Speaker 1: like barlsl was done a good job the paring kids
Speaker 1: for college. But we have a lot of kids that
Speaker 1: aren't going to college, and that's okay. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of great things that they can do, a lot of
Speaker 1: great careers, and we'll make sure we're preparing them for
Speaker 1: that process. And we had kids that are always interested
Speaker 1: in the carpentery program. Construction program at tried Canty Tech,
Speaker 1: but we had a waiting list and so after visiting
Speaker 1: with doctor Strobel, we talked about us starting our own program.
Speaker 1: We did that. We hired Doug Boudreau who's actually has
Speaker 1: an engineering degree. He's teaching fifth grade over at Ranch
Speaker 1: Heights and we hired him to start this. And this
Speaker 1: is a picture of him and his class which was
Speaker 1: which was right back that direction. It expanded. We've we've
Speaker 1: added a different additional class for that too. We had
Speaker 1: somebody enrollment think around one hundred and fifty. We need
Speaker 1: hire a second teacher, and that's Nathan England. Nathan's been
Speaker 1: with the district for several years. It's been history teacher
Speaker 1: for us, helps coach football and helps helps tennis as well.
Speaker 1: And so his wife, Jennifer teaches over at Ranch Heights
Speaker 1: as well. So we've had a second teacher that we
Speaker 1: moved them over into what was the original act building
Speaker 1: ACTIM moved over the new facility, so if they have
Speaker 1: that additional space as well. So really excited about that
Speaker 1: opportunity for our kids. And then also we mentioned just
Speaker 1: on the fine art side, Chris and Heather came here
Speaker 1: our band folks here. Yeah, those is a Heather. He
Speaker 1: didn't stand up there you go ome uh obviously we're
Speaker 1: We're heavily ours Martlesville is heavily invested in the arts.
Speaker 1: We always will be as part of It's part of
Speaker 1: what we do.
Speaker 2: UH.
Speaker 1: But our our marching band, orchestra, a choir, UH, visual arts,
Speaker 1: our drama, our marching band in particular. People work hard.
Speaker 2: UH.
Speaker 1: I know they've been up here early. I know I
Speaker 1: came we here earlier this week and those kids are
Speaker 1: up there working really hard. Their staff works incredibly hard.
Speaker 1: This picture is the top picture is of the our
Speaker 1: music all stay kids. Last year we had the most
Speaker 1: that we've had and and I can't tell you when,
Speaker 1: maybe the most ever all I hate to say the
Speaker 1: most ever, but it's the most we've had in a
Speaker 1: long time. We had one young lady who will be
Speaker 1: a junior, and she was first chair all State in
Speaker 1: two different UH instruments, which is pretty amazing too. So anyway,
Speaker 1: really proud of everything that they UH bring to our district.
Speaker 1: And then obviously the athletic end. We have everything in
Speaker 1: the world that's going on. It's an exciting time. I
Speaker 1: was talking to coach write earlier. Our cheerleading team that
Speaker 1: has been going across country has literally been running UH
Speaker 1: a lot uh early as well. Volleyball. I know I
Speaker 1: came by and watched them scrimmage a little bit against
Speaker 1: Ponka City yesterday. Our softball team, that's that's going right now.
Speaker 1: They've been in the state, they've been to us the
Speaker 1: last two years and three different state tournaments. Have a
Speaker 1: really strong team coming back for next year and then
Speaker 1: football obviously they'll get started next week and we hope
Speaker 1: to Our football locker room is right over here. We
Speaker 1: have some new lockers for them. We got their locker
Speaker 1: room set up and we hope to have that ready
Speaker 1: for you for people that wanted to see. But it's
Speaker 1: not quite clean enough for you to see it yet, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: because it was gonna be the one time you can
Speaker 1: see it, but maybe and smell it before it started
Speaker 1: smelling like a locker.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Really excited, really reencourage you to come out, especially you
Speaker 1: know when we have And just a reminder too to
Speaker 1: the community. If anybody lives in Bartlesville and they're sixty
Speaker 1: two or older, they can get a pass. They can
Speaker 1: get up an education service center where theyn go to
Speaker 1: all over home events free. We'd love for them to count.
Speaker 1: So please, if you know some folks that might be interested.
Speaker 1: We'd love to have them. We have modified our schedule.
Speaker 1: It's been about three years ago, maybe four years now,
Speaker 1: where we've gotten more more opportunities for our kids electives
Speaker 1: at the seventh grade level, and really we've done that
Speaker 1: which has helped us in athletics and fine arts and
Speaker 1: all the things. I know. Mister Kane keeps telling me
Speaker 1: we need to get some bigger band rooms out the
Speaker 1: high school. And so these are great problems to have.
Speaker 1: We talked about the lockers for the football locker room.
Speaker 1: We're doing that because we didn't have enough lockers for
Speaker 1: all of our kids. It's a great problem to have.
Speaker 1: We have more kids playing than we ever have. And
Speaker 1: and my point is, I just want them invest. I
Speaker 1: just want them doing something, whatever that is. I don't
Speaker 1: care what it is. I just want them to be
Speaker 1: involved with something here at school where they have an
Speaker 1: adult that cares about them, that could help help guide
Speaker 1: them and help mold them, bring them along along. Speaking
Speaker 1: of that, this is a leader in me. You might
Speaker 1: have heard something about how many folks are familiar with
Speaker 1: the seven habits of highly affective people. You guys have
Speaker 1: probably probably heard something about that maybe at your church,
Speaker 1: maybe you've been through some training with that too. We
Speaker 1: are implementing that with the help of our public school
Speaker 1: foundation across the district, and so really last year we
Speaker 1: started in the summer, all of our school board member
Speaker 1: or most of our school board members and administrators went
Speaker 1: through training. We trained our teachers last year. We'll be
Speaker 1: in some of our elementary schools. They already started rolling
Speaker 1: it out a year ago. I know, I get to
Speaker 1: hear about it when I'm at Richard Kane Elementary with
Speaker 1: Miss Cross. But really what we're working on doing is
Speaker 1: developing more work ready and life ready habits, because I
Speaker 1: can tell you even before that pandemic, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest challenges we had at a school, all schools had
Speaker 1: across the country was just this extreme behaviors at younger
Speaker 1: kids' ages that we used to not see. And I
Speaker 1: think the pandemic just made things worse. I mean it
Speaker 1: was because people were alone more and they came in
Speaker 1: kind of take them to school and say here you go.
Speaker 1: And so we think it's important to help with that,
Speaker 1: I mean, so to help get them life ready, because
Speaker 1: that's not the real world. We need to make sure
Speaker 1: that they're ready to for that next step when they
Speaker 1: when they get there, really excited about that process as well.
Speaker 1: Anthony Tucker Tuck is here. Anthony Tucker is right there.
Speaker 1: Anthony Stetup sants staff. So Anthony is a yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: your favorit high school frien. So I can tell you
Speaker 1: that now you can sit down. So Anthony's a two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven graduate. But he's the guy if you're
Speaker 1: interested in getting a kid having hosting an intern. We
Speaker 1: have I don't know about one hundred and fifty or
Speaker 1: so that are in that, but Anthony's the guy that
Speaker 1: will help you get coordinated. He has an office here
Speaker 1: in this building and he's everywhere. It's doing a tremendous job.
Speaker 1: Our new Teacher Academy, which LaDonna Chancellor, she's really spearheading
Speaker 1: the leader in me as well as our new Teacher Academy.
Speaker 1: We're starting our fourth year with that, LaDonna. I think
Speaker 1: that's right. Is that right there? There? She is? And
Speaker 1: we've had the teachers that have gone through our program.
Speaker 1: In terms of that when we retention piece, eighty five
Speaker 1: percent of teachers have gone through our New Teacher Academy
Speaker 1: the last four years are still with us so we've
Speaker 1: invested heavily with them. They're training throughout the year. What's
Speaker 1: exciting this year is we only have twenty We have
Speaker 1: twenty teachers this year. This is their first year to teach. Now,
Speaker 1: minds you we have close to four hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: teachers and how that compares to recent years. We had
Speaker 1: over forty brand new teachers the past three years, So
Speaker 1: our retention level is improving. That that part and the
Speaker 1: big piece of that is this when we get them,
Speaker 1: we're training them because a lot of our teachers will
Speaker 1: coming to us with less training because there's fewer folks
Speaker 1: majoring in education. Really proud of that program. Try County
Speaker 1: Tech is Julian Bryant here, Thank goodness for Julie Brian Jaylie.
Speaker 1: Julie Bryant runs out Try County Tech. She runs our
Speaker 1: childcare program. And so now we've done this with a
Speaker 1: partnership with help from our Vest, the our Vest Foundation.
Speaker 1: Our teachers get a fifty percent discount for childcare, which,
Speaker 1: as you know, childcare is very expensive if you have
Speaker 1: more than one kid, It's why would you be in
Speaker 1: the classroom, you know, because it's so expensive too. So
Speaker 1: they get a fifty percent discount. This year, we have
Speaker 1: twenty eight. Twenty eight little ruins are at Tri County Tech,
Speaker 1: so I really appreciate their support being able to pull
Speaker 1: that off for our and also helps prioritize them in
Speaker 1: getting into the program as well. And just quickly, I
Speaker 1: just want to talk on bond issues. We've been very
Speaker 1: successful with that. We've continue to do make improvements across
Speaker 1: the board. We've had four of those since I've been superintendent.
Speaker 1: We most likely will have one a year from now.
Speaker 1: We'll have kind of the next vote. Our biggest project
Speaker 1: that we've just finished up from the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: bond issue is Ranch Heights Elementary. It's the same project
Speaker 1: we did a Wayside. It's really exciting. One thing I
Speaker 1: want to point out you might see the Bruin on there.
Speaker 1: That's something that we changed a few years ago where
Speaker 1: we're all Bruins. It's important for our kids to be
Speaker 1: part of something, and we found that was something because
Speaker 1: when they have the Bruins come in, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a big deal. When the high school kids come in
Speaker 1: and see them. At Wayside and Ranch Heights, we added
Speaker 1: ten classrooms for pre kindergarten and kindergarten. We also added
Speaker 1: just beautiful, beautiful art room and music room that are
Speaker 1: huge overlooking the playground. And then we've gone through and
Speaker 1: renovated some spaces office space because they desperately both those
Speaker 1: places desperately needed some that space as well as a
Speaker 1: library and library. I would make you the same offer
Speaker 1: that I did last year from wayside. Kid's quite a process,
Speaker 1: as you know when you go through renovation. We had
Speaker 1: to move everything out of the old library and move
Speaker 1: into the gym, and then they had to build this
Speaker 1: building and then move everything out of and then once
Speaker 1: they got it finished, now we's kind of go through
Speaker 1: the process of moving everything from the gym into the
Speaker 1: library and that started like Monday. So it's so anybody
Speaker 1: that has a concern about elementary library books, here's what
Speaker 1: you can do. You can call it Princeville Myers. You
Speaker 1: can go through and you can look at the book
Speaker 1: and you can walk it all in the hallway and
Speaker 1: take it to the librarian saying target. You can do
Speaker 1: it anytime. Launching okay, and I'm proud to announced we'll
Speaker 1: have our It was a bruin eight k. This is
Speaker 1: exciting news. We're gonna make it. It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: Bruin five k. This just happened. Yes, yeah, send of
Speaker 1: my teachers out there that are involved with that. So
Speaker 1: for hour this we do an after school for our
Speaker 1: Bruin's on the Run and after school running club for
Speaker 1: our fifth graders. About twenty five percent of our fifth graders,
Speaker 1: so over one hundred fifth graders will do this. They
Speaker 1: do this with we about fifty of our teachers volunteer
Speaker 1: after school to walk or run with them to get
Speaker 1: them ready, and at the end they do this race.
Speaker 1: We used to do it out at wool Rock eight K,
Speaker 1: but we had a conflict with some events, and so
Speaker 1: now we're gonna host our own. It's gonna be here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start right up somewhere right around here. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a five and we do. That's the picture
Speaker 1: down there is most of the kids that beat me.
Speaker 1: We do an I Beat the Superintendent race. The good
Speaker 1: news is for anybody that's interested in that, I've had
Speaker 1: a little bit of a health issue earlier this summer,
Speaker 1: so I'm in the worst shape I've been in running.
Speaker 1: So this is the year. So you ever wanted to
Speaker 1: beat the superintendent, this is going to be the year
Speaker 1: to do that. But we're excited about that. Also, Jennifer
Speaker 1: and I we're major sponsor this is this race as well.
Speaker 1: I took advantage of that text credit just to give
Speaker 1: you an example of that last year. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: that again this year. I'll encourage you to think about
Speaker 1: that as well. And then PTI pasted Independence. I know
Speaker 1: Claire's here. They're having their big community open houses tomorrow
Speaker 1: from four to seven. That's in the old Will Rogers School.
Speaker 1: If you go to Frank Phillips, you know, past the
Speaker 1: Starbucks and go over there, they're gonna do that tomorrow
Speaker 1: from four to seven. Just want to make sure you're
Speaker 1: aware of that, appreciate our partnership with past Independence. And
Speaker 1: that's it. That's the last time I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's been a great time to
Speaker 1: be a Brook Thank you.