Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It
Speaker 1: is time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: Gay one, the one you trust, and we have a
Speaker 1: familiar face in here today. I used to call him
Speaker 1: Coach Cloud. Now I'm Superintendent. How are you doing, Superintendent?
Speaker 2: I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm doing just dandy. You got a little bit of
Speaker 1: a new office, Huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Actually we're transitioning offices and remodeling right now,
Speaker 3: so I'm I'm just kind of setting out in the
Speaker 3: hallway right now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, we're I do have a little bit of
Speaker 2: a new job.
Speaker 3: And it's been about the last three weeks and it's
Speaker 3: been it's been interesting.
Speaker 1: Uh and uh, Superintendent Cloud, You've been at Wesley and
Speaker 1: Christian off and on for a good many years, so
Speaker 1: you know where everything is, even though it's expanding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I do know where everything is.
Speaker 3: I've been associated with the school off and on since
Speaker 3: two thousand, so my kids started going to school there,
Speaker 3: my wife started working there, and I came on in
Speaker 3: two thousand and two and this is my seventeenth year
Speaker 3: of employment coming up.
Speaker 1: Wow, We've got a whole lot of students coming in
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: Don't we Yes, we do, we do.
Speaker 3: We're last year, we ended the year about three ninety
Speaker 3: and if everybody, if everybody was to come that has inquired,
Speaker 3: we'd be about five hundred, but we anticipate four fifty probably.
Speaker 2: Wow, right around there.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty significant milestone for the little school that cut.
Speaker 2: It is it is.
Speaker 3: We just now added our last two classes, the second
Speaker 3: section of our last two classes. We have two kindergartens
Speaker 3: and two fifth grades next year for the first time,
Speaker 3: which gives us two sections of every class that we
Speaker 3: have in the school. So it allows us about forty
Speaker 3: forty average of forty per class.
Speaker 1: So now, with all these people finding out the great
Speaker 1: quality education and opportunities available at Wesley and Christians School,
Speaker 1: are you are you a little nervous about space?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are, but you know, we've done some creative things.
Speaker 3: We built out to some activity an activity center, to
Speaker 3: a couple of classrooms. We're utilizing some other buildings on
Speaker 3: campus for a couple of high school classrooms. We have
Speaker 3: the high school kids kind of spread out a little
Speaker 3: bit and traveling all over campus, but we are are
Speaker 3: managing and still good space. We have great security on campus.
Speaker 3: This next year, and we are really looking forward to
Speaker 3: what the year has for us.
Speaker 1: My goodness, it's a beautiful campus that you have there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very nicely laid out, and even with all the
Speaker 1: creativity that's come into play, no one would know that
Speaker 1: you've gone, you know, and modified a few things. It
Speaker 1: looks like it came there kind of factory, if you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. So they've done a great job.
Speaker 3: We've had local architects help us design those things, and
Speaker 3: we have big plans for the future and we're hoping
Speaker 3: to build out our shop building in the next couple
Speaker 3: of years and put add two or three more classrooms,
Speaker 3: get some the kids a little more consolidated in the
Speaker 3: same in the same facility, and gives us a little
Speaker 3: bit more flexibility.
Speaker 2: Right now, we have people officing.
Speaker 3: In It seems like small spaces, like closet spaces, but
Speaker 3: it's working and everybody's everybody's excited about our future.
Speaker 1: They should be one building that gets one part of
Speaker 1: the campus, it gets a lot of use. Is your
Speaker 1: multipurpose building, and that's your gym, that's your stage, that's
Speaker 1: your graduation.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When you say multipurpose, boy and it's always in use.
Speaker 2: It seems it is always in use.
Speaker 4: It seems like seven days a week. We keep a calendar.
Speaker 3: And and we have to reserve that and we use
Speaker 3: it almost all day long. And if it's raining outside,
Speaker 3: we have pe or a recess in there. Of course,
Speaker 3: we have pee in there all day long. They we
Speaker 3: use it every Sunday for church service and you know,
Speaker 3: graduation and music concerts and plays and musicals, and yeah,
Speaker 3: we use it quite a bit.
Speaker 1: I had the privilege of walking in on a volleyball
Speaker 1: tournament that was there. Well, you had people moving.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, we have courts.
Speaker 3: That first day of the volleyball tournament, we have two
Speaker 3: courts going sideways.
Speaker 4: And yeah, it's quite a spectacle to watch.
Speaker 3: But you know, it really works, and we're.
Speaker 2: Excited to have that.
Speaker 3: You know, in the first my first eight of nine years,
Speaker 3: we didn't have that. We borrowed gyms all over town
Speaker 3: and that was a lot of.
Speaker 2: Work and effort.
Speaker 4: So we're just feel blessed to have what we have now.
Speaker 1: Superintendent Cloud, we're coming up on a big market fiftieth
Speaker 1: anniversary coming up this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3: The school started in the church basement in nineteen seventy
Speaker 3: six as a pre k in kindergarten classroom, and it
Speaker 3: slowly expanded to a full daycare and an elementary school.
Speaker 2: And in nineteen.
Speaker 3: Seventy eight I think they built the CEC on top
Speaker 3: of the hill and they expanded to a full elementary
Speaker 3: And in nineteen eighty they built the other building, the annexes,
Speaker 3: which is where the middle school will be next year,
Speaker 3: but they expanded to K through eight along the ride
Speaker 3: around in there. And then in two thousand is when
Speaker 3: we started our first high school class. We had nine
Speaker 3: freshmen that first year in two thousand. I wasn't actually there.
Speaker 3: I was down the road at Oklahoma westleym but my
Speaker 3: wife was a teacher there, and it's exciting to go
Speaker 3: from we have nine in high school then and this
Speaker 3: year we're looking at one hundred and twenty five hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty kids in high school.
Speaker 1: Into sakes, and this is just incredible. What is it
Speaker 1: about Wesley and Christian School that makes it such a
Speaker 1: good choice for students and for parents in your.
Speaker 4: Estimation, well, you know, it's always good people.
Speaker 3: We get a lot of people that grew up maybe
Speaker 3: in a rural area sometimes and they like to go
Speaker 3: to a smaller school, and so the small atmosphere, you know,
Speaker 3: the more one on one.
Speaker 2: Is always great. But you know, probably not.
Speaker 3: Probably the most important aspect of Wesley and Christian School
Speaker 3: is the Biblical integration, and we are teaching the Bible
Speaker 3: and integrating that into every aspect of the education. We
Speaker 3: don't just have a school that has chapel once a
Speaker 3: week in Bible every day. All of our teachers are believers, and.
Speaker 2: We're integrating.
Speaker 3: That into every aspect and we you know, our mission
Speaker 3: is to come alongside parents and help them train their
Speaker 3: kids biblically. So that's the most special part to me
Speaker 3: is that we are affecting lives and kids and families
Speaker 3: for eternity.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Another thing I hear from some of the
Speaker 1: students who've graduated is that the instructors are not teaching
Speaker 1: at students. They're working with students, coaching them. If you
Speaker 1: will not only be a better student, but just a
Speaker 1: better individual, yeah, better citizen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We have absolutely the best staff. And of course I'm prejudiced,
Speaker 3: but we have a great staff. We have a lot
Speaker 3: of tenured teachers that.
Speaker 2: Have been there.
Speaker 3: I think we have four or five teachers that have
Speaker 3: been there over twenty years, and we have some high
Speaker 3: school teachers that have been there right.
Speaker 2: At fifteen twenty years.
Speaker 3: And we have tremendous staff, fully certified, fully accredited, state recognized,
Speaker 3: and we have a tremendous staff and they do a
Speaker 3: great job.
Speaker 1: So how does it feel now three weeks into the job, Superintendent?
Speaker 1: Feel pretty good?
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 3: It feels busy, and there's a lot of decisions and
Speaker 3: at times it feels like you walk in the door
Speaker 3: and everybody wants a piece of you.
Speaker 2: But that's just part of what it is. I've done
Speaker 2: it for.
Speaker 3: Six years at another school, and I kind of knew
Speaker 3: how it fell, and so it'll be a good year.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are excited for the
Speaker 1: new year. And also having you a familiar pace being
Speaker 1: at the Helm. This is going to be, I think
Speaker 1: really going to be something special here. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: looking forward to this new era.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're looking forward to it as well.
Speaker 1: And if people are curious about the school, what's the
Speaker 1: best way that you could recommend them to to learn
Speaker 1: more about Western christ.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we have we have a website Western
Speaker 3: Christian School dot com. You can see a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff about our our teachers and our faculty and staff
Speaker 3: on that website.
Speaker 4: What we offer, the programs that we offer. You know,
Speaker 4: we have sports programs. In the fall, we have cross country,
Speaker 4: girls volleyball.
Speaker 3: We have almost sixty kids playing girls volleyball from fifth
Speaker 3: grade all the way to twelfth grade. This next year
Speaker 3: we have four four volleyball teams. We have high school
Speaker 3: in junior high football eight man we play in the
Speaker 3: os A A. In the winter time, we have basketball.
Speaker 3: I was telling you before, we have eight basketball teams,
Speaker 3: eight fifth and sixth grade, Junior high, seventh and eighth grade, JV,
Speaker 3: and high school. And so we're having over one hundred
Speaker 3: kids play basketball. And in the spring we have soccer programs.
Speaker 3: Middle school was first first program we start last year
Speaker 3: for soccer. Next year we're hoping to have high school.
Speaker 3: We have a track program, we have trap shooting. We
Speaker 3: have absolutely the best music and drama director in the
Speaker 3: city of Bartsville. She does an outstanding job with these kids.
Speaker 3: So they have a fall play they put on in November,
Speaker 3: and we have a musical we put on every March,
Speaker 3: and we give three performances. Last year they had over
Speaker 3: a thousand people attend. So yeah, we're really excited about
Speaker 3: not only the academics and the biblical aspect, but just
Speaker 3: the full, well rounded education that we offer at WCS.
Speaker 1: You know, if someone said, why honestley in Christian School,
Speaker 1: I'd have to say, after that, why not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you very much for being here
Speaker 1: a superintended cloud, and I want to wish you all
Speaker 1: the success in the world at the wonderful school you
Speaker 1: have out there, and you produce some pretty darn wonderful
Speaker 1: young people that go out into the world.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, and I appreciate being here already.
Speaker 1: OK, you've been watching and listening to us here on
Speaker 1: Community Connection