Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's
Speaker 1: time now for community connection right here on KAY one,
Speaker 1: the one you trust stand there. We're visiting with the
Speaker 1: Bartlesville Public Schools so Superintendent Chuck McCauley, and also we
Speaker 1: have Blair ls in with the foundation today.
Speaker 2: Good morning, we're all in attendance. Good morning, Tom. Yeah,
Speaker 2: thanks for having us. I think I think we're all
Speaker 2: ped up today. Blair has a few things upcoming events
Speaker 2: to share.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, let's do it.
Speaker 3: Happy to do it. So, first, we've got Homecoming coming up,
Speaker 3: which is just in a few weeks. We're going to
Speaker 3: be well, there's the homecoming parade that's going to be
Speaker 3: downtown on October the third, so we're excited for participation
Speaker 3: in that. And then we have the homecoming game is
Speaker 3: on October the fourth, from four to six pm. Before
Speaker 3: the game, we're going to be hosting an all alumni
Speaker 3: so any Bartlesville alum can come to Cooper and Mill
Speaker 3: from four to six and hang out together and get
Speaker 3: ready for our bruins to take the field. So we're
Speaker 3: excited to host that. Then we'll have a table at
Speaker 3: the event to just do some alumni engagement kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So we just this morning on our Facebook page released
Speaker 3: a great video that Anthony Tucker and our broadcasting teacher
Speaker 3: Scott fromire put together. I'm welcoming all of our alumni
Speaker 3: back home for homecoming.
Speaker 1: That is really a nice touch.
Speaker 3: We're excited to have everybody back, and we have a
Speaker 3: lot of alumni and attendance every year, but it's nice
Speaker 3: to kind of focus on them and highlight them this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd like the Metion two on the parade, which
Speaker 2: is that Thursday evening August October third. If folks are interested,
Speaker 2: if there's community folks that are interested in being involved
Speaker 2: in the parade, if they want to have a float,
Speaker 2: there is registration they can do. That's on our website,
Speaker 2: so front page of our website, there's a way where
Speaker 2: they can submit an application to do that.
Speaker 1: Well. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then following that October the twelfth, you hopefully have heard,
Speaker 3: but we're having our first ever Bruin eight k and
Speaker 3: fun run. So this year you might remember Bruin's on
Speaker 3: the Run always does an eight k. It's typically a
Speaker 3: supporting run the streets. That's kind of our season end race.
Speaker 3: That's what all of our kids are training for, is
Speaker 3: that very hilly eight k race with their teacher mentors. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: this year it is over fall break, which conflicts with
Speaker 3: our fifth graders, our teachers, and the rest of the
Speaker 3: Bartlesville Public School staff. So we're hosting our own event
Speaker 3: the week before fall break on that Saturday, starting and
Speaker 3: finishing at Madison Middle School. It's going to be an
Speaker 3: ak and a fun run starts at eight thirty and
Speaker 3: our superintendent, as part of his staff wellness initiative, is
Speaker 3: sponsoring the race so that all of our BPS staff
Speaker 3: can enter for just the cost of our T shirts.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah, those shirts really turned out. They treat great. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know that. I think the deadline to register to
Speaker 2: get your shirt is upcoming. I think it's on Sunday,
Speaker 2: maybe the twenty.
Speaker 3: Second that you have to register, and you can find
Speaker 3: the registration on our foundation website or just googling bruin eightk,
Speaker 3: but registered by Sunday to guarantee that T shirt, which
Speaker 3: is a great long sleeve tech shirt, and then we
Speaker 3: have a lot of fun events, so we're hoping that
Speaker 3: a lot of our elementary school kids will come out
Speaker 3: and see our bruins on the run fifth graders participating
Speaker 3: in this race. But we're going to have some events
Speaker 3: like we had last year, which is Beat the Soup,
Speaker 3: So any student that beats our superintendent in the ak
Speaker 3: will get a Beat the Soup t shirt, which they
Speaker 3: take a lot of pride in wearing.
Speaker 1: I understand the sup training extra heart, I.
Speaker 2: Hope, so I have that I have been, I have been.
Speaker 3: And then this year, just to add some fun to it,
Speaker 3: we're going to have it past the Principal, so all
Speaker 3: of our elementary school students who run in the fun
Speaker 3: run and past their principal will get some sort of
Speaker 3: a prize.
Speaker 2: Great, this is fun. Yeah, it's exciting. We're really looking
Speaker 2: forward to having the event. Obviously it's going to be
Speaker 2: we'll start and end over at Madison Middle School and
Speaker 2: kind of run through some neighborhood over there as well
Speaker 2: as on the Pathfinder run by Past Independence as well
Speaker 2: kind of a turnaround spot. And it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of fun to be in October. Like Blair said
Speaker 2: on October of the twelfth, and I know there's a
Speaker 2: lot of folks out there that are like me that
Speaker 2: have college football is a big part of their saturdays.
Speaker 2: They should know that. I'll clombon State. That's a bye
Speaker 2: week for them. Uh, and then the Sooners play Texas,
Speaker 2: but they don't kick off till two thirty, so there's
Speaker 2: plenty of time to come out.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: There is an opportunity to sign up just to walk,
Speaker 2: just to walk a mile, or also if they just
Speaker 2: want to volunteer, if they can contact Blair. You know,
Speaker 2: we always need people out to help direct traffic, point
Speaker 2: people to go which direction. And it's really going to
Speaker 2: be a great event. A lot of kids, a lot
Speaker 2: of teachers, a lot of staff, it's a lot of
Speaker 2: it's it's gonna be it's gonna be fun. And you
Speaker 2: typically that time of year it's the best weather and
Speaker 2: the best best weather of the year, you know that
Speaker 2: mid October, So really really excited about that. And then
Speaker 2: I want to mention this a couple of things. Also
Speaker 2: at that same week, that homecoming week, we'll have different
Speaker 2: dress up days like we always do, but we'll also
Speaker 2: our elementaries will have the Bruin Mile. It's on that Wednesday,
Speaker 2: October second, which is really a fun event, uh for
Speaker 2: all of our kids, all of our well typically it
Speaker 2: is third, fourth, and fifth, but I think now they
Speaker 2: kind of open it up to a lot of any
Speaker 2: elementary kid that wants to come, which is kind of
Speaker 2: really I think philosophically how a cross country program runs,
Speaker 2: and we have tons of kids that anticipate and I
Speaker 2: think that's just David Air's leadership. He wants kids to
Speaker 2: be there and to come be a part of something.
Speaker 2: I know they took I think two buses to Muscogie
Speaker 2: the other day because they had so many kids that
Speaker 2: were running in the event, which is really fun. But
Speaker 2: that's kind of a good it's a good event for
Speaker 2: them to be a part of, to run, get used to,
Speaker 2: and it's a recruiting tool as well for mister Ayers
Speaker 2: in terms of that bruined mile. And then of course
Speaker 2: I mentioned the homecoming parade, which would be on that Thursday,
Speaker 2: October third, So that's just two weeks away. We finally
Speaker 2: have a home game, home football game this week, the
Speaker 2: way our schedule fell, and then well yeah, finally, no kidding, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then you know, roild the road next week and
Speaker 2: then back again at home and that's when we start
Speaker 2: opening up. Next week, we open up district play, which
Speaker 2: is that's when those games count towards playoff seedings and
Speaker 2: so forth. Kind of continuing on the fall sports, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I talked a little bit about you obviously,
Speaker 2: we got football that's going on as well across country.
Speaker 2: They start up on their events having a very successful
Speaker 2: season again, but our volleyball and softball areolleyball girls they're
Speaker 2: up to number six in the state and our softball girls,
Speaker 2: I think they're up to they won they had a
Speaker 2: sweep last night and they've won twenty games as well.
Speaker 2: You know, those two programs collectively, it's probably the best
Speaker 2: start we've had, and I mean it's been a long time,
Speaker 2: probably twenty years in terms of those two teams together. So
Speaker 2: they're really a lot of a lot of fun. They're
Speaker 2: a lot of fun to watch. Hopefully, I know our
Speaker 2: volleyball girls will hopefully to be able to host a
Speaker 2: regional here in a couple of weeks. And it's really
Speaker 2: not just at the high school level, but their feeder
Speaker 2: programs they're they're you know, they're junior varsity and junior high.
Speaker 2: I know, continue to see especially volleyball them continuing to
Speaker 2: win tournaments and have very successful years. Just a lot
Speaker 2: of kids participating and that's what we're after. Whatever. I
Speaker 2: really don't care what kids are involved in, but they
Speaker 2: do need to be involved in additional things. I know
Speaker 2: that our band program, they have their first contest is
Speaker 2: coming up Saturday. I anticipate they'll be very successful there.
Speaker 2: They've been working really, really hard. You know, we talked
Speaker 2: about we had our AG open house this past Sunday.
Speaker 2: Had a great we had. I didn't know how many
Speaker 2: people were there. It seemed like there was several, but then,
Speaker 2: of course, knowing our AG staff, they kept tracking. They
Speaker 2: had about two hundred and fifty people attend our open
Speaker 2: house on Sunday, which was really a lot of fun
Speaker 2: just to show that off. I served on the excuse me,
Speaker 2: the our best board of directors and we had our
Speaker 2: board meeting there yesterday. It was able to show that
Speaker 2: off to different folks around the community too, which is
Speaker 2: always a fun, fun thing. So yeah, so things are going,
Speaker 2: you know, just kind of a typical false start to
Speaker 2: the school year. A lot going on. I did want
Speaker 2: to mention also, we had our board meeting this Monday,
Speaker 2: which is pretty routine meeting that we do this time
Speaker 2: of year, but we continued our discussion on the book
Speaker 2: study The Anxious Generation. We've done that now if at
Speaker 2: the board level for two months in a row. We
Speaker 2: continue to talk that with our administrators. I know there's
Speaker 2: a community book study that the Eatery is hosting tonight.
Speaker 2: I know Jennifer and I are participating in. So this
Speaker 2: is the book is The Anxious Generation. And what A'm
Speaker 2: talking about is the impact of cell phones and social
Speaker 2: media on all of us. And there's some recommendations in
Speaker 2: the book and I'll repeat those that come out because
Speaker 2: it's really impacting. It's not just kids, it's impacting adults,
Speaker 2: it's impacting all of us. One would be, you know,
Speaker 2: kids don't need a smartphone before they're in high school.
Speaker 2: Secondly would be, you know, they don't need to be
Speaker 2: on social media until they're sixteen. I could probably argue
Speaker 2: you'd be okay to be that even older than that.
Speaker 2: And then third in terms of not having access to
Speaker 2: their cell phone at school, and we're working on that
Speaker 2: at the district level. And then fourth is just far
Speaker 2: more childhood independence, thinking about when kids start to do things.
Speaker 2: I know at our administrator meeting last week we had
Speaker 2: over thirty of us and we were talking about this
Speaker 2: that factor about when you know, when were you first
Speaker 2: allowed to play un supervised and many of us there
Speaker 2: was no one in the room that was beyond seven
Speaker 2: or eight years old, where now a lot of time
Speaker 2: you're talking about kids are in middle school. I mean
Speaker 2: we're they're just doing things, you know, kind of that
Speaker 2: doing things later and later. Even their their interest level
Speaker 2: and getting a driver's license seems to be later and later.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is, and so yeah, it's it's just a
Speaker 2: it's a uh, you know, kids need to uh you know,
Speaker 2: we need to help them along and get them ready
Speaker 2: for the real world. We're so tight to them because
Speaker 2: it's so convenient to have that constant communication with them,
Speaker 2: and that's not necessarily healthy. So we're we're having that,
Speaker 2: continuing to have that conversation. I know, next week we've
Speaker 2: got our big meeting we have with our district Parents
Speaker 2: Support Group leaders, so we'll have over fifty parents and
Speaker 2: we're going to continue this conversation to get feedback from them.
Speaker 2: I think our parents are looking for help with this
Speaker 2: because it's a new world. You know, we're growing up with,
Speaker 2: you know, what what people can do with their cell phone,
Speaker 2: the social media and it's really not healthy. Uh, you
Speaker 2: know kids in terms of adults also just kind of
Speaker 2: losing that ability to be present with one another. And
Speaker 2: so when you look at some of the research that's
Speaker 2: in the book that Anxious Generation, I want encourage everyone
Speaker 2: to read it. We'll continue that because it's something that
Speaker 2: it's it's impacting everyone across the world, and we can
Speaker 2: do better, and we know that one way to do
Speaker 2: better is to bring awareness to the matter. So I think, Tom,
Speaker 2: I think I got through my list. I will mention
Speaker 2: one other thing too. Over at Wayside Elementary, I know
Speaker 2: we've obviously been in their expanded building. They are finishing
Speaker 2: up the playground out front after I was by there
Speaker 2: this morning, and we'll be you know, kids are excited
Speaker 2: to be able to they still have their own playground
Speaker 2: in terms of a new space for their playground, but
Speaker 2: they'll be using that as well. And then I'll also
Speaker 2: mention with that additional space, you know, we have our
Speaker 2: elementary teacher to student ratio in terms of their grade
Speaker 2: level is now one to twenty. Yeah, it is. We've
Speaker 2: had to you know, we've had to add some space
Speaker 2: because we've had increased enrollment. And so now that we've
Speaker 2: had that we've been able to add more staff so
Speaker 2: that we have that better student teacher ratio. I know
Speaker 2: several folks, I'm going to use Wayside as an example,
Speaker 2: just because they're large enrollment and limited space. Several teachers
Speaker 2: that I've talked to the last few weeks talking about
Speaker 2: having you know, eighteen nineteen kids in their class, which
Speaker 2: has been a relief, the lowest class they've ever had.
Speaker 2: You know, some of them might have had twenty six
Speaker 2: or more in the past, and that's a big, huge difference.
Speaker 2: So it's really really glad that we've been able to
Speaker 2: provide that space so the wee can staff those appropriately.
Speaker 2: So yeah, once again, So it's it's September, off to
Speaker 2: a great school year and looking forward to homecoming in
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So I need to ask you this question about every
Speaker 1: year when we come back to school, there's always something
Speaker 1: in the air, and sometimes it's a sneezer, a sniffle,
Speaker 1: but this year, unfortunately, it's a cup. Right. What's our status?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've had we've released that information. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know the exact number, Tom, I know that
Speaker 2: we had basically had a case at least one case
Speaker 2: at age school, and so we just make sure all
Speaker 2: of our parents are aware of that and give them
Speaker 2: the resources that they need. It's interesting, you know, I
Speaker 2: know that I saw Saturday there was a I think
Speaker 2: it was South Dakota and Portland State college football game
Speaker 2: was canceled because of an outbreak of whooping coughs. So
Speaker 2: it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I'm not a medical person,
Speaker 2: but yeah, but we have that here. I saw the DOE.
Speaker 2: He had reported yesterday that they had that, So in
Speaker 2: our area, that's something that is, unfortunately that's going around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that was one of those things that
Speaker 1: had been all but eradicated to. And I know, I
Speaker 1: know there was a big surprise when you well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I haven't heard that that in a long time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, but I do, I know that we've I know,
Speaker 2: I got my flu shot the other day. I'm hoping
Speaker 2: this year is a mild year for flu as well,
Speaker 2: but we'll see how We're all kind of hoping for that.
Speaker 2: That would be like, that'd be great for everybody.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for telling us what you can on that,
Speaker 1: and remember homecoming is coming. It's a big deal, especially alumni,
Speaker 1: and you know, be prepared because you're going to be celebrated, folks,
Speaker 1: and it is going to be a great time. It's
Speaker 1: going to be great to have folks coming back and
Speaker 1: who might not have been year.
Speaker 3: So many great changes and so many improvements around the district.
Speaker 1: So except working with an alumni association.
Speaker 3: Yes, so it's the Alumni Association, which is a program
Speaker 3: of the Public School Foundation that's kind of posting this
Speaker 3: and we're actually hoping the class of nineteen seventy four
Speaker 3: will be back for their fiftieth nion that same weekend,
Speaker 3: so they're getting a whole tour of the high school
Speaker 3: and everything. So it'll be great.
Speaker 1: Well I am, but it kind of reinforced it. Thanks
Speaker 1: for being here today, appreciated. Thank you,