Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm sure you're all impressed with my sweet haircut.
Speaker 1: But seriously, I do appreciate everybody coming to my birthday
Speaker 1: party today. I think this is the only way I
Speaker 1: can get people to come to my party. So I
Speaker 1: worked out we kind of tricked you with that too.
Speaker 1: So I do have a few folks that I want
Speaker 1: to record I want to introduce. I know I could
Speaker 1: go around the room talk about each one of your
Speaker 1: impact on our school system. I don't want to do that,
Speaker 1: just out of respect for everybody's time. But first of all,
Speaker 1: I want to thank my beautiful wife. Tomorrow we're going
Speaker 1: to celebrate our thirty second wedding anniversary, and so I
Speaker 1: appreciate her putting up with me all that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. And then also I have some family here.
Speaker 1: I've got a table, my mother in law and a
Speaker 1: couple of aunts and uncle and brother in law. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate my mother in law, Karen Ward. She actually
Speaker 1: retired teaching from Jane Phillips Elementary and when I went,
Speaker 1: Jeffer and I went our first day on October eleventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. I was a junior and she was
Speaker 1: a freshman in high school and Karen and Art. They
Speaker 1: allowed her to go out on a date with me,
Speaker 1: and I had was driving a nineteen seventy two Dodge
Speaker 1: Van that did not have reverse and they knew that. However,
Speaker 1: after they vetted me during the day during the ou
Speaker 1: Texas game, they allowed me to do that. So fortunately
Speaker 1: we've been together ever since. I appreciate Karen for that
Speaker 1: as well. And then also she didn't know that the
Speaker 1: van did not have a spinometer didn't work, and also
Speaker 1: we didn't have seat belts, and the driver's side door
Speaker 1: wouldn't shut. You had to kind of hold it while
Speaker 1: you grow. But don't worry about that one. So anyway,
Speaker 1: but those were all facts. It was all happened, and
Speaker 1: so parents just know that when that someone's dating your spouse,
Speaker 1: just remember they could They could turn out okay too.
Speaker 1: So I do un recognize a few other folks too.
Speaker 1: I know we already thanked the Foundation board appreciate all
Speaker 1: their work. Blair Ellis is a man that was one
Speaker 1: of the biggest moves we made for our district when
Speaker 1: the Foundation board decided to hire an executive director. I
Speaker 1: know I was a part of that process and really
Speaker 1: felt like our foundation could help us more. We're in
Speaker 1: really tough times at that time in twenty sixteen. She's
Speaker 1: amazing our school board members. I think I've got several
Speaker 1: school board members here. If you guys would stand just
Speaker 1: for a moment, real quick, yeah, I give them a hand. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate, appreciate their service. We have a
Speaker 1: great working relationship. A lot of trust has been built,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate their support. I think Alison Bryant's also here,
Speaker 1: a former board member. She was on the board when
Speaker 1: I was hired, so I appreciate. And there's Alie on
Speaker 1: the back. Appreciate her opportunity. Nicki Benson, I was also
Speaker 1: a former board member that was here when I was
Speaker 1: hired as well. So I appreciate our strong support of
Speaker 1: our school board. We've got a lot of good things
Speaker 1: going on, and the big reason has become because of them. Also,
Speaker 1: I know, I think our partners with the city. I
Speaker 1: know Mike Bailey's here, where's our city felt. Mike's over
Speaker 1: here too. Mike and I he's city manager. We have
Speaker 1: some parts of our jobs are similar. So we have
Speaker 1: coffee once a month, and we decided that was cheaper
Speaker 1: than counseling, so we that's a Stete story. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of our city. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I have any Actually, Trevor Dorsy here at Trevor's a
Speaker 1: city council member, and I was glad to see Trevor
Speaker 1: reupp for another term as well. And Lauren Roselle was
Speaker 1: Lauren here somewhere in the back. To appreciate Lauren, same
Speaker 1: same towards the same thing for Lauren's or anybody else
Speaker 1: city council folks to uh, yeah, thank you, I've got yeah.
Speaker 1: Quinn Shiver, Quinn's over here also was appointed recently and
Speaker 1: going to re up against appreciate their strong relationship that
Speaker 1: we have. I know city attorney Just Cain. I think
Speaker 1: I saw Will Drake, our district attorneys here as well.
Speaker 1: So a couple of things with the city and our
Speaker 1: relationship that I want to bring to light. One would
Speaker 1: be our agriculture facility which is right across the street,
Speaker 1: which i'll talk to you a little bit about more.
Speaker 1: That was on city land. So we that was quite
Speaker 1: a process to get to determine where to put that
Speaker 1: because there's limited options obviously where that's going to be.
Speaker 1: Thinking about where our kids are and so it really
Speaker 1: turned out to be the perfect space for us. And
Speaker 1: then secondly, our school resource officers, would you guys go
Speaker 1: ahead and stand up, And that's not all of them.
Speaker 1: We actually have ten. We'll have one at every school.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have two at Bartlesville High School. Prior to
Speaker 1: UVOLDI we had two or three. So with our city,
Speaker 1: we made a tremendous investment with that. They knew how
Speaker 1: important it was to have armed, trained Bartlesville police officers
Speaker 1: and our schools on a daily basis, and they are wonderful.
Speaker 1: The city provides those officers for us the district. We
Speaker 1: pay for seventy five percent of their contract, which is
Speaker 1: when they're with us, and it's a great partnership and
Speaker 1: that's something we're to continue. Police Chief Kleberry is a
Speaker 1: big part of that. His wife, Carrie Ekleberry's our safety directors.
Speaker 1: So couldn't thank our city, could thank them more. From
Speaker 1: where we are right now. I also want to thank
Speaker 1: our legislators. I know I've got some former legislators here.
Speaker 1: I know that Senator Ford and Earl Sears. Give those
Speaker 1: guys a hand, please thank you. And then our current
Speaker 1: legislators I know that we have Senator Daniels and Representative
Speaker 1: Kane and Representative Strong, they're right over here. They always
Speaker 1: they're strong supporters of us, and I unfortunately recently we've
Speaker 1: been in contact a lot, and they are very responsive
Speaker 1: to me, just so that you know, to try to help.
Speaker 1: They're just trying to help us, try to kind of
Speaker 1: help our state department work out some inefficiencies that we're
Speaker 1: having to deal with with them. But they are very responsive.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, I've communicated with them as just as
Speaker 1: soon as this morning, as well as last night, and
Speaker 1: I think the day before, so I appreciate. But they
Speaker 1: are really here to serve our folks too. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that too. Also, former Representative DRYL. Fincher is also on
Speaker 1: the back to because I'll see them back there. I
Speaker 1: didn't miss anybody who apologize pologize with called will I mean.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to mention Bars of Education promise their
Speaker 1: foundations here. They've got two tables. They're big supporters of
Speaker 1: our schools and really what they do a lot of
Speaker 1: their funding is tied to really paying our teachers to
Speaker 1: work outside their contract to help our kids, which is great.
Speaker 1: So we really appreciate all of their support as well.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, I want to thank all of our
Speaker 1: all of our Bruin family, all of our employees. Whether
Speaker 1: you're a would you go ahead stand if you're a
Speaker 1: current or former working for Bartsville School, even if your
Speaker 1: paycheck come from Sedeka, if you work at a school,
Speaker 1: would you guys stand up? Than we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We really have. We have good people. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know them. We're here, they're your neighbors. And so those
Speaker 1: people you go to church with or you serve with,
Speaker 1: I mean, so they're just they're here to serve. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate all their support and it's a it's a
Speaker 1: wonderful thing to have the opportunity to be able to
Speaker 1: serve our students, our staff, in our community. There's a
Speaker 1: couple of things I wanted to announce kind of before
Speaker 1: I get into some updates. And the first thing is
Speaker 1: I've been asking questions recently regarding the state superintendent, and
Speaker 1: if you are not familiar, it would be natural to think, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, we have an elected state superintendent and he
Speaker 1: can has the authority to tell all schools what they
Speaker 1: need to be doing. And then folks like me are
Speaker 1: going to do that. Well, that's not actually the case.
Speaker 1: So there are some there are some things obviously that
Speaker 1: I highly respect that office to a member of the
Speaker 1: state board. They have some issues regarding accreditation rules, some
Speaker 1: things that come luck that do impact us. But what
Speaker 1: we really count for that department is is to be
Speaker 1: efficient in terms of our funding. You know, the state
Speaker 1: funding flows through them, Federal funding flows through them to us,
Speaker 1: and that's what I've been working with our legislators to
Speaker 1: help with. But we actually have a local board that
Speaker 1: has board policy, and we have one board policy. It's
Speaker 1: called Religion in Schools and it was adopted in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, and it's the same thing that we've
Speaker 1: been following, and it's the same thing that we're going
Speaker 1: to continue to fall can continue to follow. So please
Speaker 1: do not be concerned about things announcements that have come
Speaker 1: from the state superintendent recently, because there's been some things
Speaker 1: come out that just aren't that's not within our local
Speaker 1: board policy. What our local board policy dictates is, sure,
Speaker 1: the Bible is a historical documents. Sure there's some tie
Speaker 1: to some Oklahoma academic standards in history. Sure we sing
Speaker 1: some religious music during Christmas. Sure our kids can have
Speaker 1: a student led club and study the Bible. Sure FCA
Speaker 1: can be We do all those things and we agree
Speaker 1: with wholeheartedly. However, there's some other things that come out
Speaker 1: about that has been said. We're not trying to change
Speaker 1: history or any of those things, but there's some other
Speaker 1: things coming out that we need to have some Bibles
Speaker 1: and chemistry classes. I mean all these different classes and
Speaker 1: there's no ties in Oklahoma academic standards. So that's not
Speaker 1: where we are. So I've told my staff, my leaders.
Speaker 1: We talked about neurolig July really those things, and I
Speaker 1: know it can be you can get whipped up about
Speaker 1: on social media about that. You know. I know one
Speaker 1: thing is nothing is going to get solved on social
Speaker 1: media and so and I really hate to even bring
Speaker 1: things forward because it just ends up being it brings
Speaker 1: attention to some comments that just aren't accurate. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're just not going to happen, but people will get
Speaker 1: whipped up about it. So, but what I told our
Speaker 1: folks was those statements that came out that directed that's
Speaker 1: for us, for BARBISO schools, that's a non event. So
Speaker 1: that's where we are related to that. And I'll also
Speaker 1: tell you because I do. Mark mentioned I was appointed
Speaker 1: to be on the super State superintendent Advisory council. We've
Speaker 1: had I was on the previous Superintendent's council. We had
Speaker 1: regular meetings. We've had one meeting this year. We met
Speaker 1: on January thirtieth, and that's the last time we met.
Speaker 1: And so you know, and I've got questions. So I know,
Speaker 1: I've requested the last three weeks for us to get
Speaker 1: together so that we can have a meeting, like in person,
Speaker 1: not from when you know, not a video thing or
Speaker 1: not from some ways in their car. I want to
Speaker 1: be able to have a conversation because I have questions
Speaker 1: about some of these things that have come out. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I haven't been given an opportunity to have to ask
Speaker 1: those questions, but hopefully one day we will. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to It's really a little more that
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to about the state Superintendent. But
Speaker 1: I just wanted you to be aware of that we
Speaker 1: continue to respect the office and move forward with our district.
Speaker 1: Another thing I want to talk to you a little
Speaker 1: bit about is cell phones and social media that we
Speaker 1: all deal with, Okay, and it has really changed in
Speaker 1: all of our lifetimes. But I know that Tulsa Public
Speaker 1: in Bixby has made some announcements regarding cell phones, but
Speaker 1: really those aren't anything different than what we're already doing
Speaker 1: or what we're already supposed to be doing here, okay,
Speaker 1: in terms of not using them during instructional time. My
Speaker 1: friend James Sears, she recommended to me at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the summer to read this book, The Anxious Generation.
Speaker 1: I encourage everybody in here, if you have children, if
Speaker 1: you work with someone that was born after nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: I will encourage you to read this book. There are
Speaker 1: things in it that it really was profound statements. I
Speaker 1: have shared this book with all of our school board.
Speaker 1: We're going to be studying it over the following months,
Speaker 1: all of our administrators. We're going to do a book
Speaker 1: study over and over the following months. And there's it's
Speaker 1: nothing that would surprise you, but there's some concerning things
Speaker 1: and some things that a couple of things that I
Speaker 1: just wanted to share to bring to light that I
Speaker 1: want you to think about because I can't from my
Speaker 1: chair and say, Okay, we're all of a sudden going
Speaker 1: to do this, and it's going to make things better
Speaker 1: regarding social media and cell phones. Okay, it's going to
Speaker 1: take all of us. So I want to share this
Speaker 1: with you and a few of the recommendations that have
Speaker 1: come out, one of which I agree with is having
Speaker 1: where kids don't have access to their cell phone during school.
Speaker 1: And so now that's going to take some That's one
Speaker 1: thing to say, but that's a big thing to do,
Speaker 1: and that's going to take a lot of work to
Speaker 1: make that happen. There's some infrastructure that needs to be
Speaker 1: in place. But that's one recommendation in the book. It
Speaker 1: has some recommendations for schools, has some recommendations for parents,
Speaker 1: has some recommendations for government tech companies as well. Because
Speaker 1: it's a big issue. But a couple of things that
Speaker 1: I think will hit home with you that I know
Speaker 1: that hit home with me. I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: too deep into the woods. But one thing that they
Speaker 1: mentioned was a twenty twenty three study. We have college
Speaker 1: age students. Just last year, kids that were in college,
Speaker 1: two thirds of them feel anxious at least half the time.
Speaker 1: That's real. Also, from twenty ten to twenty twenty, adolescent
Speaker 1: girlst the number of self harm that those girls that
Speaker 1: amount has increased three times threefold. So that's something to
Speaker 1: be aware of. Okay, I'm not saying it's all. There's
Speaker 1: some information in the book and you may or may
Speaker 1: not disagree with, but at least it's a starting point,
Speaker 1: and so I encourage you to read it. I encourage
Speaker 1: you to think about that and think about how we
Speaker 1: can work to make things better. I know the advent.
Speaker 1: I think about the first phone that I had. You
Speaker 1: guys can probably relate back to your first cell phone,
Speaker 1: the good old days and then when all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you had access to everything in the world on
Speaker 1: your phone. But there's some challenge that has come up
Speaker 1: with that. You think about when an iPhone was an
Speaker 1: invented in two thousand and seven, think about twenty ten
Speaker 1: when that part of that came with a forward facing phone.
Speaker 1: And at the same time it's came up with things
Speaker 1: like Instagram and where people take pictures of themselves all
Speaker 1: the time and you're sharing it all the time, and
Speaker 1: you're always thinking about does someone like that? Does someone comment?
Speaker 1: Think about it if you're thirteen, and that's how you're getting
Speaker 1: your information. So there's some real challenges that come along
Speaker 1: with that. I think that we've got some generations of
Speaker 1: kids and some young adults that have are losing the
Speaker 1: ability to be fully present. I see that every day
Speaker 1: I go out to dinner and you see families together
Speaker 1: and nobody's looking at their phone. I mean to be
Speaker 1: fully present with one another. So anyway, that's something that
Speaker 1: I would encourage. You're gonna be hearing more of us
Speaker 1: talk about it because it's gonna take a bigger investment.
Speaker 1: But the four recommendations that this gentleman makes in his
Speaker 1: book is one is no cell phone in the schools.
Speaker 1: Two as kids don't need a don't need a smartphone
Speaker 1: until they're in high school. There's no reason for them
Speaker 1: to have a smartphone until they're fourteen. Another recommendation that
Speaker 1: he makes is they don't need to have access to
Speaker 1: social media until they're sixteen. Think about that. And the
Speaker 1: last thing, which is is a bigger component is more
Speaker 1: childhood experience is more unsupervised. More they need to be
Speaker 1: outside planned. They need to be able to figure things
Speaker 1: out with each other, not just tied to their phone.
Speaker 1: Because you think about a lot of folks when you're
Speaker 1: visiting with them, really they may be interacted with you
Speaker 1: or acting like they're paying attention, but they're really thinking
Speaker 1: about their whole social metaverse on who's commenting on what,
Speaker 1: who said what, and these pictures of these people that
Speaker 1: aren't real because they're filtered. I mean, that's what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to look like. That's not real. And so it's
Speaker 1: gonna take all of us to make this better. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit here and say, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden gonna not have cell phones in
Speaker 1: schools and that's gonna fix everything. But it's gonna take
Speaker 1: all of us to work to make this and so
Speaker 1: I want to make it, help make it better. I
Speaker 1: want to be helping part of the process. It's gonna
Speaker 1: take all of us. So now onto my program. So
Speaker 1: it's first of all talking about enrollment history. This is
Speaker 1: the last five years. Big takeaway here. On the last
Speaker 1: day of school this year in May, we had three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty more kids than we did on the
Speaker 1: last day of school five years ago. That's significant, especially
Speaker 1: when you think about our town. Hasn't the population hasn't
Speaker 1: shifted that much. It's in required our board, our administrators,
Speaker 1: our construction company, our dan kelliher our community to make
Speaker 1: some changes. We needed some more classroom space. We had
Speaker 1: too many we had, our student teacher ratio wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough had some of our elementaries. We needed some more space.
Speaker 1: So they quickly just in February our last bond issue.
Speaker 1: On Valentine's Day of twenty twenty three, a bond issue
Speaker 1: is passed and then here we are right now, we're
Speaker 1: moving into Wayside Elementary today. We're gonna be moving into
Speaker 1: Ranch Highest a year from now. So that's a lot
Speaker 1: of work that goes on to make that happen. So
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of all those efforts. With that, I've
Speaker 1: already mentioned our school resource officers, but that's just another
Speaker 1: picture of them in terms of big change of our district.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate our cities support with that. A big
Speaker 1: challenge that we have is with new teachers. There are
Speaker 1: fewer folks going in education, and a lot of labor
Speaker 1: has different challenges. Labor. There's a lot of labor challenges
Speaker 1: in our world, really and it's driving a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But with us, if you happen to see the Tulsa
Speaker 1: World yesterday, they had a story about Tulsa public schools
Speaker 1: who start at school in August twentieth and they have
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty vacancies, and so their board adopted
Speaker 1: something on Monday where they're going to allow folks, if
Speaker 1: you're twenty one, about halfway three year degree and I've
Speaker 1: worked with kids for a year or two, then we're
Speaker 1: going to pay you to be a teacher. Which is
Speaker 1: terrible that that's the case, but they've got to do something. Okay,
Speaker 1: we are fully staffed by the way, I want to
Speaker 1: mention that, but the reality is there's fewer folks going
Speaker 1: into a profession now. So what we've done is we've decided,
Speaker 1: let's do something about this. We've started a new teacher academy.
Speaker 1: LaDonna Chancellor is responsible for it. What we do with that,
Speaker 1: Our teachers come in like right now when we're doing
Speaker 1: some training. Those folks that have not taught. Maybe they
Speaker 1: warrant education majors like I was, to learn about the classroom.
Speaker 1: But the reality is they don't know what they don't know.
Speaker 1: So therefore we go throughout the year and get them
Speaker 1: substitutes where they can all visit experienced teacher classrooms, bring
Speaker 1: them back together, give them an opportunity to give ask
Speaker 1: a panel questions to get feedback. We do an after
Speaker 1: action review. Colonel Flowers will be proud of me there
Speaker 1: after everyone where we study that and that's the best
Speaker 1: thing that they do is that feedback from experienced teachers.
Speaker 1: So the last two years combined teachers have gone through
Speaker 1: that program, we've retained eighty eight percent of them. So
Speaker 1: it's a heavy investment if you think about substitutes. Our
Speaker 1: first year we got forty two teachers go through it
Speaker 1: for one day. With the subs that's the one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars that comes out to about about four thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: So it's a heavy investment and you think about that
Speaker 1: impact on the subtool for your schools. But it's something
Speaker 1: that we're doing has been very successful. We're going to
Speaker 1: continue with that. Also, so that you know, we have
Speaker 1: a job fare every semester because we make sure that
Speaker 1: we're available. We have it right here in this room
Speaker 1: after hours, and so there's folks that maybe they're staying
Speaker 1: home with children, or maybe they're thinking about a second career.
Speaker 1: They want some more informational I thought this is something
Speaker 1: that I would like to do when they can come
Speaker 1: and visit with us, get them connected with principles, get
Speaker 1: them connect with HR and how they could go about
Speaker 1: helping us one day. So help spread the word with
Speaker 1: that of that's something that might be of interest. Childcare
Speaker 1: for teachers. Our friends that try County Tech really appreciate them.
Speaker 1: They do it one wonerful job at our career Tech
Speaker 1: system over there, but they have a childcare program. Childcare
Speaker 1: is an issue and so what they have done they
Speaker 1: made change is where they've prioritized our teachers where they
Speaker 1: can get into the program. And then from help from
Speaker 1: along with help from the r Vest Foundation, we now
Speaker 1: this year are going to offer a fifty percent discount
Speaker 1: for our teachers. There's gonna be twenty four. I think
Speaker 1: it's twenty fours, the last number that I have. We
Speaker 1: have several kid teachers, kids that are enrolled in that
Speaker 1: program and that's helping keeping our teachers in the classroom.
Speaker 1: So it's a tremendous asset for our staff. Pasta independense
Speaker 1: is Claire Year Claire Barley. Yeah, but Claire's wonderful. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to mention PTI, which is our local school
Speaker 1: for kids actually up through twenty one, folks with autism.
Speaker 1: We work with them. It's a private school. They are great.
Speaker 1: They're in what was Will Rogers Elementary, and I know
Speaker 1: they've revamped the facility, but I just want to brag
Speaker 1: on Claire. We partner with them. We have kids that
Speaker 1: go back and forth, and you know, if we decide that,
Speaker 1: if the team decides that's what's best for the kid,
Speaker 1: if they're a Bartol students, then that's where they go,
Speaker 1: or vice versas. We work with them. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to brag on Claire. I also get a question occasionally.
Speaker 1: There's a tax credit law that changed a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago where if you choose to send you a
Speaker 1: kid to a homeschool or private school, there's a tax credit.
Speaker 1: And I know when that first happened, had several people
Speaker 1: ask me, gosh, how's that impacting your enrollment. Are you
Speaker 1: gonna lose a bunch of kids. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll see. You saw our enrollment, but
Speaker 1: actually ran the numbers from the last two years combined,
Speaker 1: so we had eighteen kids, and which is fine. Families
Speaker 1: choose to do that. I know will towards me that
Speaker 1: they need to do what's best for them. But we
Speaker 1: had eighteen kids go from so far combined that went
Speaker 1: from here, Barslow Public schools to Western Christian or Saint John's. Well,
Speaker 1: we've had fifty two go from those same schools to us,
Speaker 1: so it really hasn't been much of an impact at all.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to share that piece in case
Speaker 1: you're interested. We have an elementary out lists program. One
Speaker 1: of our biggest challenges is our students coming out of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Is our behaviors of especially younger kids, really
Speaker 1: just more mature than what they were before. That's just reality.
Speaker 1: And we've got some kids that have experienced severe trauma
Speaker 1: and they really struggle behaviorally. So what we've done is
Speaker 1: we have six different elementary schools. We go through a
Speaker 1: process where they can be at one place. At Ranch
Speaker 1: Heights Elementary, Heather Boil was with and she's an experienced teacher.
Speaker 1: She's got married. I can't remember her new name now,
Speaker 1: but Heather's Heather Boil. We have an assistant Grand Lake
Speaker 1: is also their partners. They have full time staff and
Speaker 1: working with the kids. These kids can do well academically,
Speaker 1: but they struggle just getting along with others. And so
Speaker 1: it's been very successful on getting kids back into that
Speaker 1: regular classroom, something we didn't have before, but being very successful.
Speaker 1: Appreciate Grand Lake with that is housed at Ranch Heights Elementary.
Speaker 1: We'll talked a little bit about our redefining ready. We're
Speaker 1: always our goal has been to get ready for kids,
Speaker 1: ready for college and career, but now also just getting
Speaker 1: ready for life. Ready this new world that we're living,
Speaker 1: and that's important. We need to make sure you don't
Speaker 1: have to go to college, and there's lots of different
Speaker 1: options outside of college to be successful. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about a few of those right now. One of
Speaker 1: the things that we're doing, we're going to implement leader
Speaker 1: in Me curriculum for our kids. And what that is.
Speaker 1: How many folks are familiar with seven habits of highly
Speaker 1: effective people? Okay, this is exactly what it is. They have.
Speaker 1: We've been working, We've had professionals come in and work
Speaker 1: with our teachers, work with challenging behaviors, and one of
Speaker 1: the recommendations was, you guys are ready to implement leader
Speaker 1: in Me at your schools, and so that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. We went through this summer all of our board,
Speaker 1: all of our administrators, about four of our board members
Speaker 1: went through training, which we as leaders, we've been using
Speaker 1: this for years now, literally, but this was helpful. We
Speaker 1: want to get them on board. We're gonna be training
Speaker 1: our teachers over the next year and so we're gonna
Speaker 1: be rolling that out. We started our elementary schools in
Speaker 1: the next year, and so we think our kids need that.
Speaker 1: I know that our kids, I know. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: passionate about obviously the academic side, but I'm also passionate
Speaker 1: about our kids just being involved. I want them to
Speaker 1: be involved. They need to learn how to deal with others.
Speaker 1: They need to be It's okay to you know, I
Speaker 1: was a banded practice yesterday. It's okay to you got
Speaker 1: to show up to be somewhere at seven am. You know,
Speaker 1: if coach writ says practice starts at three, you need
Speaker 1: to be there. I mean, those things are important and
Speaker 1: we all need that. So this isn't something else because
Speaker 1: we can, you know, kind of cry at the moon
Speaker 1: about our kids behavior and expect something different to happen.
Speaker 1: But that seems pretty dumb to me. I want to
Speaker 1: do something about it. So that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: We're going to be implementing that across the board. On
Speaker 1: the academic side, I want to brag about our AP program.
Speaker 1: Our college Board, they've recognized us for placement, access, diversity,
Speaker 1: and performance. And when I talk about diversity, I'm talking
Speaker 1: about girls in computer science. We've been recognized just a
Speaker 1: handful of schools and the state have received that we
Speaker 1: can do better with girls in STEM. There are so
Speaker 1: many jobs and opportunities for girls. And the way we
Speaker 1: change that is here at school where they can have
Speaker 1: success here and really open up that door. So really
Speaker 1: excited about those girls being involved with that. Here's the
Speaker 1: numbers with our AP program, they have truly exploded. I
Speaker 1: know that the charts a little bit hard to read,
Speaker 1: but the key takeaways are in twenty twenty one, we
Speaker 1: had one hundred and thirty six one three six kids
Speaker 1: enrolled in our AP program. This past year we had
Speaker 1: the three hundred and ninety eight. And what research tells
Speaker 1: you if you want to graduate from college in four
Speaker 1: or five years, as parents are thinking, yes, I do
Speaker 1: you want them to be academicate prepared. This is the
Speaker 1: best thing that they need to be enrolled in is
Speaker 1: being enrolled in one of these classes. So we've had
Speaker 1: tremendous in terms of how well who's enrolled, how many
Speaker 1: tests are taking, and also their performance. Last year, we
Speaker 1: had almost twice as many kids past the test that
Speaker 1: were even enrolled in the class two years previous. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the food today. I am police announced.
Speaker 1: We made an announcement at the beginning of the summer
Speaker 1: that every kid in the district will have free breakfast
Speaker 1: and free lunch every kid every store. There's a change
Speaker 1: in the direct certification process that caused our numbers to
Speaker 1: get to a point where could do it wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: cost the district. And also doctor Stephanie Curtis or is
Speaker 1: overfederal programs, who is a wizard, is in charge of
Speaker 1: that program. I mean, so we were so thankful that
Speaker 1: we're gonna be able to offer that. Those of you
Speaker 1: that have you're a coach or a sponsor, you have
Speaker 1: kids thinking about field trips, that includes field trips in
Speaker 1: terms of sending foods with them. I mean, they have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do that because you really save some money.
Speaker 1: So when they go to pumpkin patch or whatever it
Speaker 1: is they're going to do, or a band trip or whatever,
Speaker 1: let's make sure. We're to have that dialed in to
Speaker 1: use that as well. Our interns. We talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about that. Anthony Tucker two thousand and seven graduated.
Speaker 1: You stand, please stand up, Anthony yep. Anthony is I'm
Speaker 1: his favorite high school principal. Anthony's in charge of our
Speaker 1: internship program. He's housing this building. He asked for me
Speaker 1: to share. If any of you guys have interns, which
Speaker 1: I does several of you do, if you'll stop by
Speaker 1: the Freshman Academy office, you can do a quick background
Speaker 1: check to get that knocked out before school starts. That
Speaker 1: would be great. Also, if you're interested in having an intern,
Speaker 1: Anthony's your person. He's your person you need to visit with.
Speaker 1: I'd like for all our kids to have that experience,
Speaker 1: to get that in terms of that being life ready,
Speaker 1: I mean some of that, to see what that's like.
Speaker 1: We've got great lots of stories across the board from
Speaker 1: how beneficial it's been for our kids to get that
Speaker 1: experience while they're here in high school. Our STEM program
Speaker 1: I talked to you a little bit about. In terms
Speaker 1: of our girls, I'm pretty passionate about our girls being
Speaker 1: more involved in STEM to get them ready, but we
Speaker 1: are a project to lead the way distinguished district. There
Speaker 1: are twenty of those in the country. We have the
Speaker 1: premier program in the region. There's the only one in
Speaker 1: the state of Oklahoma. What that means is we are
Speaker 1: heavily invested our elementary teachers. It's a heavily investment in
Speaker 1: terms of training. It's a lot of work for them
Speaker 1: because that's how they that's their science curriculum. They spend
Speaker 1: most of their time on reading in math, as you
Speaker 1: would think in elementary school secondary schools. I think I've
Speaker 1: got some let's say, Jeremy Williams. I mean it's Amy
Speaker 1: My stem teachers here. Yeah. Yeah, So they do tremendous
Speaker 1: things in terms of including we now offer four different
Speaker 1: levels up in computer science, including cybersecurity, our TSA program,
Speaker 1: our Technology Student Association program. You might have seen some
Speaker 1: recent reports from them. They're doing amazing things. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I got some kids here, would you guys stand up
Speaker 1: where they Yeah? So this is uh is this is
Speaker 1: Jonathan Live Yeah, yeah, riding Wedday added thorns Isabelle Fordon.
Speaker 1: They were recently on a stage in Orlando last month.
Speaker 1: They're off. They were state champions and their competition TSA
Speaker 1: and and how about there's three there's three girls over there.
Speaker 1: How about that that's a good thing. So really, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh, you can stand it to one. You can
Speaker 1: say to you lave yeah, but it's really uh, it's
Speaker 1: really a tremendous program. Very proud obviously with our innovation
Speaker 1: labs that we have strong partnerships with Phillips fifty six
Speaker 1: Conico Phillips, how we've been able to continue to invest
Speaker 1: in our case aviation program. Actually high talk as would
Speaker 1: you please stand okay? Actually is our avation teacher, and
Speaker 1: I'll get lots of questions about aviation. This is our
Speaker 1: third year to have the program. And so if you're
Speaker 1: interested in that, Ashley is the person you want to
Speaker 1: visit with. I know Mark talked about some of the
Speaker 1: items with Mark or maybe that was Blair. In terms
Speaker 1: of simulators, this is a third year we've offered it.
Speaker 1: We have a full section, I mean full offerings of
Speaker 1: aviation one. It's the second largest employer in the state
Speaker 1: of Oklahoma, so we'll make sure we're offering that curriculum.
Speaker 1: Kevin Potter's on the State Aviation Commission. He's really responsible
Speaker 1: for getting that information, get that getting getting us involved,
Speaker 1: and so we've jumped on it. So we have a
Speaker 1: we've renovated a space where we do have some flight
Speaker 1: simular just really really good stuff. Really excited about that program,
Speaker 1: our AGG program. I know Martin Jones Worth Marty Martin
Speaker 1: stand up, Okay the good Yeah, get Martin him. They
Speaker 1: just had their number two son a week ago and
Speaker 1: he showed up today. So that's good. Appreciate that. But no,
Speaker 1: we hired to talk about a success story we did
Speaker 1: not have. We started AGG in twenty nineteen and then
Speaker 1: this past year they were named the Premier Chapter at
Speaker 1: the National f FA Condition of FFA Convention for Growing Leaves,
Speaker 1: the national they won that award nationally those one and
Speaker 1: also we're second as national runner up and Model of
Speaker 1: Excellence division. And we started that program. We hired the
Speaker 1: best teacher we could and we had a classroom fight upstairs.
Speaker 1: That was it. And so then here we are. We
Speaker 1: got some other things facility wise that I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you about. We have two other teachers, Cameron Dale and
Speaker 1: Asha Darsa, who are readily are hurtly getting their rooms
Speaker 1: ready because I let them know that I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: all of our staff go through their facility on Monday,
Speaker 1: so they figured they'd better getting ready for that. But
Speaker 1: I am so impressed with the program. Not something I
Speaker 1: was involved with growing up, but the US. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of I'd call it a very traditional or very
Speaker 1: old school, which is okay. What I'm most impressed with
Speaker 1: is the leadership qualities that these kids have as well
Speaker 1: as their public speaking. These are the kind of kids
Speaker 1: that you want to hire right here. They're involved in
Speaker 1: their act program, construction. We're gonna start a construction class.
Speaker 1: I love try County Tech, our career Tech, but we can't.
Speaker 1: We have some about two hundred kids that go there
Speaker 1: every day, but they have their carpentry program. We'll get
Speaker 1: about fifteen kids in. We have more kids that want it.
Speaker 1: So I visited with Tammy and the team, and we
Speaker 1: knew that we had more kids. You know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about career opportunities. There's lots of opportunities to make a great,
Speaker 1: great living without going to college. And so we're gonna
Speaker 1: start a class right here. We had over one hundred
Speaker 1: kids requested where's Doug Boudreau Duck stand up? Doug is
Speaker 1: taught for us at Ranch Heights. He's an engineer by
Speaker 1: trade and he's gonna be teaching the class. We're gonna
Speaker 1: start with carpentry class because we felt like that was
Speaker 1: something they can kind of hit all the trades, learn
Speaker 1: some things from them about that to get that, and
Speaker 1: we plan to continue to build that program out kind
Speaker 1: of our long range vision, which is going to take
Speaker 1: us some time. But what I'd love to be able
Speaker 1: to do is build a house every year, and so
Speaker 1: we can get to that point where we can do
Speaker 1: that too. It's really excited about offering that construction class
Speaker 1: here at Barbersville High School. On the fine art side,
Speaker 1: I know I talk a lot about because we have
Speaker 1: new things with STEM and AG, but very strong into
Speaker 1: the fine arts. You know, our music program are outstanding.
Speaker 1: Chris and Heather Kine are here. There are new band directors,
Speaker 1: and Chris let me know last spring that we're not
Speaker 1: gonna have enough room at the high school because we
Speaker 1: had so many middle school kids that are taking band.
Speaker 1: I said, well, that's a wonderful problem I look forward
Speaker 1: to dealing with here in a few years. This is
Speaker 1: a picture. There are all stadors up above and then
Speaker 1: the band sweep stakes below. But our band orchestra, inquire
Speaker 1: our top notcheck opportunities and kids. It's another another thing
Speaker 1: for kids to be involved with. It's a great thing
Speaker 1: period athletics. We've got These are pictures of some of
Speaker 1: our fall activities that we have going on. I've got
Speaker 1: some kids here. I think I've got some state champion kids.
Speaker 1: Here is is Wesley Turner? Did he make it? Where's
Speaker 1: that's Wesley? Wesley is a freshman. He actually is gonna
Speaker 1: be a sophomore, and he says it's pretty good story.
Speaker 1: So Wesley, Wesley won the state pole ball championship and
Speaker 1: the last time somebody at this level won the poll
Speaker 1: ball championship. His name is Joe Dial and he was
Speaker 1: in the Olympics, so that's a pretty big deal. His
Speaker 1: sister just graduated from US. She was a state champion
Speaker 1: as well. She's going to West She used to run
Speaker 1: on across country team. And I can brag on him
Speaker 1: now because I know his parents will keep him humbled
Speaker 1: and they will keep him working hard. And now I'm
Speaker 1: miss Turner. That's exactly right. I know that too. Anna Young,
Speaker 1: I think I got a swimmer state championship. Is Anna here?
Speaker 1: And yeah, that Yeah, Anna is also going to be
Speaker 1: a sophomore. She won, I believe she won every ray
Speaker 1: she swam at the state swim meet as a freshman.
Speaker 1: We also invited Addison Howise to join us. She's a
Speaker 1: sophomore going to be a junior. Did the same thing.
Speaker 1: So it's a as my son was a college swimmer,
Speaker 1: something familiar. I kind of know what those times mean
Speaker 1: when I see that, and so when I saw a
Speaker 1: fast she could swim a five hundred, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. It's really really talented. Those kids work really hard,
Speaker 1: and once again on the athletic d that's more kids involved.
Speaker 1: That's why we may change is our middle school where
Speaker 1: we can make it more accessible, get him involved in
Speaker 1: seventh grade, to get them tied to an adult because
Speaker 1: it's important. I know, I've got coach Price here. We
Speaker 1: had an exciting announcement from our baseball program. You know,
Speaker 1: Jacob Hall, one of our graduates, was he was drafted
Speaker 1: by the Minnesota Twins. Cody's actually our pitching coach and
Speaker 1: he is awesome. So just know that we have that
Speaker 1: resource here. It does a really good job. Is a
Speaker 1: Jacob's mom, she's an assistant force over at Wayside. Just
Speaker 1: good good people as well. These are all some of
Speaker 1: our fall sports. I know. Coach Right is back here
Speaker 1: and that's the hardest work command in show business. That's
Speaker 1: the only guy I know that would buy a house
Speaker 1: literally right next to the school so he could be
Speaker 1: here more efficiently because he's here all the time and
Speaker 1: it really has paid a difference for our youth program
Speaker 1: and he's all invested with our community. We have so
Speaker 1: many kids participating now, it's wonderful and our time's coming.
Speaker 1: Just our time's coming with that too. Wanted you to
Speaker 1: know that as well, and we didn't mention it here,
Speaker 1: but you know, we've got some very strong relationships thinking
Speaker 1: about like some of our programs with tennis and golf
Speaker 1: and some of those other sports that we have that
Speaker 1: we're fortunate to have some facilities here in town in
Speaker 1: additional instruction. With a lot of positive things going on.
Speaker 1: It's really excited about the school year getting started. And
Speaker 1: then Bruin's on the run. Blair talked about that just
Speaker 1: a little bit. But we've made a chef typically it's
Speaker 1: been we've partnered it and we finished that race. It's
Speaker 1: an after school running club for fifth graders. They start
Speaker 1: usually around Labor Day and it ends in October and
Speaker 1: they run the wool Rock eight K. We had over
Speaker 1: one hundred kids fifth graders do that. Over fifty teachers
Speaker 1: volunteer their time and run with them. It is really cool.
Speaker 1: Jennifer and I sponsored that race heavily so that all
Speaker 1: of our employees can participate at a reduced rate. We'll
Speaker 1: have over two hundred employees participate. It's awesome. Well, this
Speaker 1: year it's going to be during fall break, which is
Speaker 1: not great for school folks, So we are going to
Speaker 1: have our own eight K. It's going to be on
Speaker 1: October the twelfth. The Foundation is going to put it
Speaker 1: on Blair. It's gonna be great into Blair. It's going
Speaker 1: to be fun. These are they did I beat the
Speaker 1: superintendent and those are two. That's let's see, that's Madison
Speaker 1: des Madison Dennis and Kensley Minton. Those are two of
Speaker 1: the two. Those were several two of the fifth grade
Speaker 1: girls are both in the class out of Wilson. They
Speaker 1: both were very happy that they beat me in that race.
Speaker 1: Since so we'll do that again. I think we had
Speaker 1: over twenty overall, including some younger ones. Beat me as well,
Speaker 1: although Blair's haven't raced for kindergartener yet, but three kids
Speaker 1: all could be me pretty easily. But we look forward
Speaker 1: to doing that as well. We still offer a virtual
Speaker 1: school option to get offered that. It's about one percent
Speaker 1: of our population, which to me is about right. But
Speaker 1: we have a Cane elementary. We've got two full time
Speaker 1: teachers that work with elementary families that want that, and
Speaker 1: as long as families want that and we can staff it,
Speaker 1: we're going to provide it. And so it's a good
Speaker 1: opportunity that way. Kids can they can still do that
Speaker 1: and come and you know, if they want to be
Speaker 1: in our elected programs, it's a good fit for them.
Speaker 1: We'll continue to offer that. It's Richard Kane Elementary Central
Speaker 1: Middle School. And then here at the high school, talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about our strong community support. Thank you.
Speaker 1: We're in a different place than a lot of districts.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is a big piece of that is
Speaker 1: our community investment. This is our passage rate on our
Speaker 1: recent bond issues. Our most recent one was done. Obviously.
Speaker 1: The big piece of it was we had those three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty more kids and we needed some more
Speaker 1: space for them, so we'll give you just a quick
Speaker 1: cup data some things that are going on. This is
Speaker 1: a Richard Kine Elementary just right down the road. If
Speaker 1: you haven't been, buy that courage to drive down and
Speaker 1: take a look at really looks great. Wilson Elementary's on
Speaker 1: the north end of town. It was finished up at
Speaker 1: the same time last year. This is our Agriculture Education building,
Speaker 1: which is across the street. We're going to have an
Speaker 1: open house on September fifteenth. It's gonna be on a
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon. If you want to come out and see it,
Speaker 1: we'd love to have you come see the facility. There's
Speaker 1: an indoor arena, there's a full kitchen, including walk in coolers,
Speaker 1: we have classroom spaces, we have a vet space shop,
Speaker 1: and the two greenhouses. They tell me are the largest
Speaker 1: or bigger than any school in Oklahoma. And I just
Speaker 1: think the good Lord that that tornado did not hit them,
Speaker 1: because I just knew it was gone, but they did not.
Speaker 1: It was America. So anyway, but that's our act facility
Speaker 1: really excited about getting in and using that space this year.
Speaker 1: Over a Wayside Elementary, they were literally moving in as
Speaker 1: we speak. So what we did there. We added ten
Speaker 1: early childhood classrooms. We added in our room, which is
Speaker 1: the Crown Jewel. It's a beautiful place. All of our
Speaker 1: kids will get to use our music room. That's a
Speaker 1: new edition. And then we've renovated some existing spaces so
Speaker 1: that they have an appropriate sized library, office space, cafeteria
Speaker 1: some of those spaces too, which we'll be in we're
Speaker 1: moving in right now. We've actually been in that new
Speaker 1: edition for a while, but those renovated spaces, I know
Speaker 1: mister Smith and the secretary staff once we have quit
Speaker 1: talking so they can get in there and unpack their stuff.
Speaker 1: So that's a picture right there. You can see if
Speaker 1: you're familiar with the building and all that was the
Speaker 1: kindergarten wing. It used to be four classrooms and also
Speaker 1: a middle area. That's all the library. That's what it
Speaker 1: looked like two days ago. Now is full of all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. And if you have any consumer concern
Speaker 1: about elementary library books, you can come help us unpack
Speaker 1: every one of them and look at them and put
Speaker 1: them on shot. Come on in. This is Ranch Heights Elementary.
Speaker 1: We started there. We're going to be moving into that
Speaker 1: a year from now, so we'll have some of the
Speaker 1: same Basically, it's the same building that we're doing at Wayside,
Speaker 1: same bit of expansion as well, shifting our boundaries just
Speaker 1: a little bit next year once Ranch Heights is open,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna make a couple of shifts. So if
Speaker 1: you happen to if you're in terms of our elementary
Speaker 1: attendance boundaries, So think about being east of seventy five.
Speaker 1: If your kid goes to Wilson and you live south
Speaker 1: of Tuxedo, Okay, we're gonna make a shift with that's
Speaker 1: gonna go to Hoover because there's some growth up in
Speaker 1: the Wilson area, and the bigger shift is going to
Speaker 1: be over in the Wayside area we're talking about, so
Speaker 1: east of seventy five. Basically, if you're in the Rolling
Speaker 1: Hills or Southern Hills neighborhoods, what's currently in Wayside right
Speaker 1: now is like a street that goes through that splits them.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make all that area is gonna become part
Speaker 1: of franch Heights once French Heights is finished. So anyways,
Speaker 1: we'll make sure people are aware of that. We will
Speaker 1: work with parents that are already there that are invested
Speaker 1: that wanted a kid to finish out at the school
Speaker 1: that they were. We'll work through all those logistics, but
Speaker 1: we're making those shifts moving forward. Our Gifted and Talented
Speaker 1: room over James Phillips Elementary is complete. Caleb rohmesign his
Speaker 1: staff did a great job of contracting that out and
Speaker 1: handling that. That's where all of our elementary gift and
Speaker 1: talented kids will go over there at Jane Phillips Elementary.
Speaker 1: They've been doing that now for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: You might notice that's a picture in front of Central,
Speaker 1: but we have electronic marquees. So at high School, Cain
Speaker 1: and Wilson we have those. Now every other school is
Speaker 1: going to have them. They're schedule to be installed next week.
Speaker 1: It may take us a minute to figure out how
Speaker 1: to use them, but we're gonna have electronic marquees at
Speaker 1: all of our schools starting next week as well. So,
Speaker 1: once again, in closing, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your patients patient patients in terms of working
Speaker 1: through the line, and also come in to help me
Speaker 1: celebrate my birthday. So now I'm gonna turn it over
Speaker 1: to somebody, of course, Chris Patch over