Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome,
Speaker 1: and stime now for our community connection with Chuck McCauley
Speaker 1: on this frosty, freezy day. How you doing, superintendent, Hey,
Speaker 1: good morning, Tom.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. How about yourself?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we're indoors thankfully, That's all I got
Speaker 1: to say. It's very, very cold. What's the outlook for
Speaker 1: the rest of the week for Bartlesville Public Schools?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you bet. We are obviously checking the weather conditions,
Speaker 2: very concerned about the extreme cold warning that lasts until
Speaker 2: Thursday at noon. I'm not quite ready to share our
Speaker 2: plan for Thursday. We will soon, you know. We send
Speaker 2: notifications out and it's funny some people get irritated because
Speaker 2: they get so many different notifications. But we do make
Speaker 2: sure people know. But we are I anticipate Friday, we'll
Speaker 2: be back in person. That's what we are working towards.
Speaker 2: But not quite ready to make an announcement about Thursday yet.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, in the meantime, we've got a lot
Speaker 1: of good things that have been happening with our schools.
Speaker 1: Let's hear about the Yeah you.
Speaker 2: Bet, I ap appreciate that too, and I also wanted
Speaker 2: to share, you know, the I think probably the only
Speaker 2: good thing about this weather that we have, hopefully that
Speaker 2: will help us with you know, this flu flu strap
Speaker 2: season that everyone has been dealing with. You know, it's
Speaker 2: hit our schools pretty hard. Fortunately we're able to stay
Speaker 2: in person through all that, and I'm hopeful that this
Speaker 2: will help help everyone's health, students and staff as we
Speaker 2: get back in person. But yeah, we had our our
Speaker 2: February board meeting on Monday, and of course we started
Speaker 2: off with our spotlight and we started with our it's
Speaker 2: national ff a week uh, and Marty Jones and Cameron
Speaker 2: Dale Ashley Darca are three teachers, and then the kids
Speaker 2: they they before the meeting, they've fed our school board
Speaker 2: members as appreciation, which is always very uh. It's fun
Speaker 2: to be around obviously the adults there, but the kids
Speaker 2: that they have in those programs are just are just
Speaker 2: outstanding this first class and so it's just it's fun
Speaker 2: to be able to spend some time with them. Had
Speaker 2: a great meal, and then we recognized our some of
Speaker 2: our music students we had it's really pretty exciting in
Speaker 2: terms of our choir, band and orchestra, and so I
Speaker 2: could talk about them for just a minute. On the
Speaker 2: choir side, we had Tamer Walker was there to talk
Speaker 2: about our kiddo's there that made all state and choir.
Speaker 2: And we had three middle school kids, two from Central
Speaker 2: and one from Madison make all State. And then we
Speaker 2: had fourteen high school kids make All State choir and
Speaker 2: which is a very high number. So very proud of
Speaker 2: all their efforts, the staff's efforts, and mainly the kids
Speaker 2: for all their work. And then Chris Caine, one of
Speaker 2: our you know, he's our lead band director and he
Speaker 2: and his wife's husband wife team that helps us along
Speaker 2: with some others. But he spoke and he shared that
Speaker 2: we had eight students make all state band and then
Speaker 2: one in All State choir. And he said that, you know,
Speaker 2: he's been in a band director for twenty three years
Speaker 2: and it's the most all state students that he has
Speaker 2: ever had. So he shared a few things. He went
Speaker 2: on to talk about the process. Of course, both those
Speaker 2: are very rigorous process that starts at the school level
Speaker 2: and then you get to the district and then onto
Speaker 2: state in terms of the choir and banned. But he
Speaker 2: talked about just the support that he has here in Bartlsville.
Speaker 2: You know, those for one thing, especially in band, those
Speaker 2: instruments are expensive, and we have resources at the school
Speaker 2: level out of our general fund and also for bond
Speaker 2: funds that are dedicated for instruments. And he went on
Speaker 2: and told the story about you know a lot of districts,
Speaker 2: you know, if some of these instruments can be ten
Speaker 2: or twelve thousand dollars, and a lot of the kids
Speaker 2: that were making All States that were on stage with us,
Speaker 2: those are all instruments that the district has purchased, and
Speaker 2: so it's really can be a difference maker. One would
Speaker 2: be make sure they have the you know, the equipment
Speaker 2: that they need, and like he shared, it's really hard
Speaker 2: to perform at high level if you don't have the
Speaker 2: you know, that type of that high level of equipment
Speaker 2: which we're able to provide for our kids. And he
Speaker 2: went on to talk about just our schedule as well.
Speaker 2: You know, we have we shifted to a seven period
Speaker 2: day a few years ago and that that enables, like
Speaker 2: for our music students, many of them are into different
Speaker 2: class periods of music and so they's an extra time
Speaker 2: built in. They had professionals come in four weeks prior
Speaker 2: to the All State competitions to work with them individually.
Speaker 2: So really just some some We're heavily invested in the
Speaker 2: fine arts. You know, oftentimes you hear things about, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of on the athletic side or maybe just on
Speaker 2: the academic side as well, But we are heavily invested
Speaker 2: and really proud of our staff and our kids. And
Speaker 2: then he told one last story about a sophomore. Our
Speaker 2: name is Issiley Sewell, young lady, and I hadn't heard
Speaker 2: the story, but she she actually made first chair all
Speaker 2: state in two different instruments. She was first chair flute
Speaker 2: and first chair piccolo, and so yeah, exactly, yeah, I
Speaker 2: was amazed. I've never heard us having had uh. And
Speaker 2: so she she basically get to decide which one. And
Speaker 2: so he told that story. So it's pretty cool for them,
Speaker 2: and many of them came to the board meeting, and
Speaker 2: that's you know, those are the highlights, highlights of those meetings,
Speaker 2: those spotlights, and so really just kind of on to
Speaker 2: brag on our our fine arts kids because they are
Speaker 2: really talented. Uh, you know, our community and school has
Speaker 2: really invested, uh those and those parents and and they
Speaker 2: worked really hard and and then this is kind of
Speaker 2: the end result of that, many of these kids are
Speaker 2: going to go on and be auditioning at the college
Speaker 2: level and do some great things. But really proud of
Speaker 2: our all state a choir, band and orchestra students as well.
Speaker 2: And then also at the board meeting Lesson on Monday,
Speaker 2: LaDonna Chancellor on her teaching and learning updates. She shared
Speaker 2: a couple of things. First of all, one thing on Monday,
Speaker 2: we're having our middle school Math and Science Night STEM
Speaker 2: Night over at Madison. It's at six o'clock and a month.
Speaker 2: Any any whether Bartblool students or not. They're welcome to
Speaker 2: come anyone in the area. But they'll have free pizza,
Speaker 2: so they're gonna feed you, feed kids. Parents, come on
Speaker 2: and that's really a great night. They bring in some
Speaker 2: some young adults that are working, you know, working in industry,
Speaker 2: working with our kids. They do free pizza and drawings.
Speaker 2: I think they give up to three they'll give away
Speaker 2: three laptops just for showing up. So free food and
Speaker 2: the chances of technology. We encourage everyone to come. And
Speaker 2: then also next week we have it's a big deal
Speaker 2: for us, we have our pre kindergarten and kindergarten roundup.
Speaker 2: That's on Tuesday, February twenty fifth at five point thirty
Speaker 2: at each of our elementary schools. And so that's for
Speaker 2: if you have if you have a child that's going
Speaker 2: to turn four by September, first they are we'd love
Speaker 2: to have them in pre k and so this is
Speaker 2: an opportunity for them to come in and meet the
Speaker 2: staff and meet the school and to get them registered
Speaker 2: for the upcoming school year. And it's really we really
Speaker 2: need and as they can't be there, just to contact
Speaker 2: the school to set up another time. But for us,
Speaker 2: you know, that's the one thing it's pretty easy for
Speaker 2: us to staff. You know, we know how many kids
Speaker 2: we currently have and they're going to roll up to
Speaker 2: the next grade. But this is the wild card that
Speaker 2: we never know, is how many four year olds are
Speaker 2: going to have and so just the earlier we know
Speaker 2: that that helps us to make good staffing decisions because
Speaker 2: it's that time of year where we start planning planning
Speaker 2: for the next year. So that's on Tuesday, February twenty
Speaker 2: fifth at five thirty at all six of our elementary schools.
Speaker 2: And then Ladana also shared that on Monday this past week,
Speaker 2: President's Day, George Rush's birthday, which is Monday, but we
Speaker 2: had at all of our schools we had professional Development
Speaker 2: Day and we are in the process of implementing leader
Speaker 2: in Me training. It's based off of Stephen Covey's Seven
Speaker 2: Habits of highly affected People. A lot of folks are
Speaker 2: familiar with that, maybe they had that in the church
Speaker 2: or some point in their college careers, but we are.
Speaker 2: We had different trainers come in at each of our
Speaker 2: nine school sites. They've been doing that over two different
Speaker 2: days last summer. They did training with all of our
Speaker 2: our administrators and school board school board members as well.
Speaker 2: But we are in the process of implementing that with
Speaker 2: training our staff and then be rolling that out with
Speaker 2: kids this next school year. Some schools are already doing that.
Speaker 2: But it's just good quality, you know, personal leadership, I'll say,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking about those seven habits, which are being proactive,
Speaker 2: beginning with the end in mind, you know, putting first
Speaker 2: things first, thinking when, when, seek first, to understand, then
Speaker 2: to be understood, u synergized, and then sharpening the saw.
Speaker 2: And so those are things that hopefully we can get
Speaker 2: some common language with our kids as they grow and
Speaker 2: go through the go through the school system. Help prepare
Speaker 2: them for their lives. And then tom Less thing at
Speaker 2: half for you is we'll have our job fair. And
Speaker 2: I talked about we're process of planning for staffing for
Speaker 2: next year. But here in a couple of weeks, on
Speaker 2: Saturday March first, at the High School in the commons
Speaker 2: at nine am, from nine to eleven, we'll have a
Speaker 2: job fair. We are we already have a few positions
Speaker 2: posted for next year, and we know a few folks
Speaker 2: that are retiring or maybe they're moving out of state. Uh,
Speaker 2: we have a few positions posting that we'll have more
Speaker 2: as the you know, as the school year ins that
Speaker 2: we get into next year. But anyone that is interested
Speaker 2: in teaching for Barlsville, or if they're interested in working
Speaker 2: in another role, you know, we're always looking for bus drivers,
Speaker 2: you know, substitutes, maybe an assistant position, teacher assistant, especially
Speaker 2: at the assistant. This is really a time where they
Speaker 2: can come and Uh, all of our all of our
Speaker 2: hiring people are on one are in the same place
Speaker 2: at the same time, which that rarely happens. So Saturday
Speaker 2: March first, High School Commons from nine to eleven will
Speaker 2: have our job fare and it's typically our biggest one
Speaker 2: because this is usually the time of a year for
Speaker 2: school folks to uh they start making decisions about where
Speaker 2: they're going to be uh next year. And we've we've
Speaker 2: had done our intent to return staff levers for our
Speaker 2: our current staff and uh, you know, we have a
Speaker 2: very low turnover rate, but uh uh we do have
Speaker 2: a few positions that are opening and we'll be adding
Speaker 2: a couple more as well. So anyway, tom on this cold,
Speaker 2: snowy day, I'll just close with we'll be getting out
Speaker 2: information here real soon about Thursday, but we are planning
Speaker 2: to be in person on Friday this week.
Speaker 1: Very good and Nannie is Barnesville Public Schools Superintendent Chuck mccaulley.
Speaker 1: Stay warm,