Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome in
Speaker 1: this time now for our community connection right here on
Speaker 1: Kay one, the one you trusted, and we're going to
Speaker 1: get schooled. No, We've got to Barnisfield Public Schools Foundation
Speaker 1: and Public Schools right here in the same building. We've
Speaker 1: got Ledona Chancellor here, executive director of Teaching and Learning,
Speaker 1: and Blair Ellis and she is with the foundation. Ladies.
Speaker 1: First of all, welcome, and we're having a good day today.
Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, all right, right mon, super We've
Speaker 1: got a lot going on. First of all, school is
Speaker 1: just busy, My goodness. This is one of the busiest
Speaker 1: falls I can recall, and I've been through a lot
Speaker 1: of them. Right, yeah, it bring us up today. What's
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 2: It is a busy fall. So we just actually wrapped
Speaker 2: up with fall break, and in conjunction with that, we
Speaker 2: wrapped up our Lady bruin volleyball and softball seasons.
Speaker 1: Great seasons.
Speaker 2: They both great seasons this year and our volleyball team
Speaker 2: hosted regionals for the first time in a long time,
Speaker 2: and even though they didn't finish their season like they
Speaker 2: had hoped, they had a great turnout, great support, even
Speaker 2: that for regionals, and we're just really proud of the
Speaker 2: coaches and the players and what they accomplished this season.
Speaker 2: And then softball made it to the state tournament, got
Speaker 2: the draw of Awaso, who ended up winning the whole thing, right,
Speaker 2: but they took them to extra innings, you know, so
Speaker 2: it was a hard fought game. And again that's the
Speaker 2: first time our softball girls have made it to the
Speaker 2: state tournament since twenty ten. So we're just really proud
Speaker 2: again of the season that they've had, the coaches and
Speaker 2: the players and look forward to next season for both
Speaker 2: of those groups.
Speaker 1: So go any further, I want to get blurry in here.
Speaker 1: We've been doing there at the Foundation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we just wrapped up. Also kind of an
Speaker 3: athletic event, We had our Bruin eight k on October
Speaker 3: the twelfth, so that was the week before fall break,
Speaker 3: and I was particularly nervous, having never coordinated a race before.
Speaker 3: So if you remember, we had Bruins on the Run,
Speaker 3: which is our after school running and mentoring program for
Speaker 3: fifth graders. They run after school with their teacher mentors.
Speaker 3: Every year we have at least one hundred kids. This
Speaker 3: year was one hundred and ten hundred and fifteen kids
Speaker 3: running after school. They run for seven weeks, they train
Speaker 3: and their big race is always the wool Rock eight k,
Speaker 3: which supports Run the Streets, which we love Run the Streets.
Speaker 3: We modeled our program in partnership and after Run the Streets.
Speaker 3: But this year, unfortunately the Woolarock eight k fell over
Speaker 3: fall break for us, so it wasn't a great time
Speaker 3: to ask our teachers and our kids and our birdles
Speaker 3: Well staff to participate. So we did host our own
Speaker 3: eight k here in town over at Madison Middle School,
Speaker 3: running through Sooner Park and on the Pathfinder, and it
Speaker 3: was great.
Speaker 1: I saw some of the talkings out there at Sooner
Speaker 1: Park during Bufest.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right. It was all in the state.
Speaker 3: There was a lot going on because it was Boufest
Speaker 3: the same day, and then of course the city has
Speaker 3: its Pathfinder improvement projects going on, so there was a
Speaker 3: lot of utility marking also going on. But we're excited,
Speaker 3: of course to see ultimately what happens with the path
Speaker 3: It sounds like all those improvements are much needed, are
Speaker 3: going to be great. But yeah, we had over four
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty runners in the event, which is great,
Speaker 3: especially for our first first year event. About two hundred
Speaker 3: of those were Bartlesville School staff. So our superintendent does
Speaker 3: an initiative a wellness challenge for all of our staff
Speaker 3: to see which school site is going to have the
Speaker 3: most staff participating in this race. Obviously, he loves running
Speaker 3: as well as his wife Jennifer, and they prioritize their
Speaker 3: health and they want their staff to invest in their
Speaker 3: health also, so that is a big driver for all
Speaker 3: of those staff members to get out and either run
Speaker 3: or walk the eight k or at least the one
Speaker 3: mile fun run. So we had two d staff. We
Speaker 3: had between our bruins on the run, fifth graders and
Speaker 3: just younger students who wanted to run in the fun run,
Speaker 3: we had about one hundred and sixty hundred and seventy
Speaker 3: students out there running. So it was just a great
Speaker 3: event and all the feedback has really been Although we
Speaker 3: were hesitant to do our own race, it was really
Speaker 3: fun to focus on bruins and bruins on the run
Speaker 3: and all of our Bartlesville staff.
Speaker 1: So wow, it sounded like it was a big time.
Speaker 3: It was a big time, and I think other than
Speaker 3: a tiny scrape knee which We had our school nurses
Speaker 3: out there to atend to everybody returned safely. The Bartlesville
Speaker 3: Police Department was huge and making sure everybody stayed safe
Speaker 3: and safe on the roads, and the city was a
Speaker 3: great partner. I mean it was. That was my favorite
Speaker 3: part is just seeing how our community and how many
Speaker 3: people it took in our community to come out and
Speaker 3: volunteer to make it a successful race. Wow, it was.
Speaker 1: It's good. Takes great jobling than we else we got
Speaker 1: going on with the school.
Speaker 2: Are So I think this might be the last Wayside
Speaker 2: construction up date, so.
Speaker 1: That might be the beginning of the first one.
Speaker 2: So you know, we opened the new edition that Wayside
Speaker 2: at the start of school, right, but the playground wasn't
Speaker 2: finished yet. And the playground is finished and officially opened
Speaker 2: on Monday, and students and maybe some staff alike are
Speaker 2: enjoying the new playground equipment. I think mister Smith might
Speaker 2: have been swinging out there yesterday.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So we're excited about that, And then wanted
Speaker 2: to share that Bartlesville High School Student Council has an
Speaker 2: event next week that they're hosting. So they are hosting
Speaker 2: the State Student Council Convention November second through the fourth.
Speaker 2: So they've been planning this event for about a year
Speaker 2: and a half and it'll bring in about two thousand
Speaker 2: students from schools across our state who will be visiting
Speaker 2: Bartlesville and be attending that convention at our High School Saturday,
Speaker 2: Sunday and Monday. So really excited about that and proud
Speaker 2: of the kids. That takes a lot of coordinating and
Speaker 2: work to put that together, so really excited about that.
Speaker 1: Well, this is going to be great.
Speaker 3: Are they in the Fine Arts Center? Are all through?
Speaker 2: They'll be throughout the high school though, like the keynotes,
Speaker 2: the main speaking sessions will be in the gym. That's
Speaker 2: the only place that you can fit everybody. And then
Speaker 2: they'll have breakouts right yes field, So looking forward to that.
Speaker 2: And then also wanted to give some updates from the
Speaker 2: board meeting. So the board approved contract for purchase of
Speaker 2: the property that sits in Central Middle Schools kind of
Speaker 2: play Earl Sears Park area. It's at the corner of
Speaker 2: Delaware and Adams, so it's the last piece of structured
Speaker 2: property in that park area. So the district is going
Speaker 2: to purchase that and take that the structure down and
Speaker 2: then that will become additional playground park area, and so
Speaker 2: we're excited about that.
Speaker 1: That's just kind of clean it all up.
Speaker 2: Yes, so that whole rest of that block will be
Speaker 2: park so that'll be very nice. And then we also
Speaker 2: are continuing our discussion about the Anxious Generations, so we
Speaker 2: had more discussion about that during the board meeting Monday night.
Speaker 2: And just you know, we're studying the book The Anxious
Speaker 2: Generation by Jonathan Hight and really studies the effects of
Speaker 2: social media on our teens, our children, And you know,
Speaker 2: being the high school principle for ten years, I saw
Speaker 2: firsthand the increase in the number of students who were
Speaker 2: affected by mental health crisis on a regular basis, going
Speaker 2: from when I first started occasional to weekly more than weekly,
Speaker 2: you know, having numbers of cases, maybe not the same student,
Speaker 2: but multiple students a week who are having some kind
Speaker 2: of mental health crisis. And so when you're going through that,
Speaker 2: you're always analyzing what's behind this, what's driving this increase, right,
Speaker 2: and just anxiety and just a breakdown. And so this
Speaker 2: book The Anxious Generation really gives the data to support
Speaker 2: what happening behind the scenes, and it really goes back
Speaker 2: to social media, most of it and access to it
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven for kids, and they can't disengage from.
Speaker 1: It either an adult.
Speaker 2: That's absolute. Yes, we're all almost addicted, most of us. Yes,
Speaker 2: thank you, that's probably a better word. Yes, And it's
Speaker 2: hard to get away from it. And so we're looking
Speaker 2: at reviewing our district policies around all the things that
Speaker 2: we use social media, computers, digital services with our kids,
Speaker 2: just to make sure that we're continuing to do what's
Speaker 2: best for our kids.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: When you learn new things, when you know better, you
Speaker 2: do better. And so for example, last week, we had
Speaker 2: a distance learning day on Wednesday four, fall break and
Speaker 2: we decided to make that an unplugged distance learning day
Speaker 2: for our elementary students, so while they were still assigned
Speaker 2: work to complete, it was paper pencil work, not computer based.
Speaker 2: And really the driving force behind that decision obviously the
Speaker 2: study of the book, right, but thinking about kids having
Speaker 2: a four day weekend where we did not want to
Speaker 2: promote screen time over a weekend where maybe they would
Speaker 2: do something else. So that's an example of the kind
Speaker 2: of policies that we just are going to continue to
Speaker 2: evaluate just to be sure that we're doing what's best
Speaker 2: for our kids.
Speaker 3: I know, as a parent of two elementary school kids,
Speaker 3: I was super grateful to not have to regulate a
Speaker 3: chromebook in addition to all the other screens of course
Speaker 3: that we have. And my kindergartener had some writing assignments,
Speaker 3: you know, just kind of practicing her letters and to read.
Speaker 3: But then she was assigned to go outside and look
Speaker 3: for different things in nature, right, And I love that
Speaker 3: she got out there, and my older kids actually went
Speaker 3: out and helped her. But it wasn't based on screens.
Speaker 3: It was all kind of get outside play, learning through play,
Speaker 3: and I, as a parent, really appreciated that that change.
Speaker 1: My goodness akes, I like that.
Speaker 2: That's really good. There is a place for the chrome books,
Speaker 2: but we have to monitor that and use it appropriately, right,
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's all about balance, Yes, thank you, absolutely well.
Speaker 3: And then at Central, just after fall break, when they
Speaker 3: came back from fall break, the new expectation is phones
Speaker 3: are put away all day, including lunch time. And again
Speaker 3: I have a Central middle schooler, and he said it
Speaker 3: seemed to be a fairly easy transition. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think the administration had set the expectation leading up to
Speaker 3: fall break when you get back. We don't want to
Speaker 3: see your phones from the time you walk in the
Speaker 3: buildings all the time you leave, and so hopefully that'll
Speaker 3: carry over into the high school. Right.
Speaker 1: I've been kind of monitoring social media myself, and if
Speaker 1: your child hasn't had some kind of reaction to it,
Speaker 1: it almost seems like there are influencers. We're almost promoting
Speaker 1: that you're not cool if you don't have a problem.
Speaker 1: Those are the people I really have an issue with.
Speaker 1: And and you know what to fit in, well, I
Speaker 1: better have a problem, oh right, And it's like no, no,
Speaker 1: this is not the way we do that. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's a tough thing. But to keep that away while
Speaker 1: you're learning, and things will be a lot better.
Speaker 3: While you're young and your brain is still forming, and
Speaker 3: it's a bad time to be.
Speaker 1: Getting confused and influenced.
Speaker 2: And if you're waiting for that next break where you
Speaker 2: get to use.
Speaker 1: Your phone, you're not paying attention to right, even if
Speaker 1: you're just apprehensive, yes time, yes, yes, so.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we have thank you. We have a job
Speaker 2: fare coming up. Job on November thirteenth, right, always recruiting,
Speaker 2: So November thirteenth, at four o'clock Bartlesville High School Commons.
Speaker 2: And this job fair will be for certified and classified positions,
Speaker 2: so all district positions. And I would say, if you
Speaker 2: are interested in getting into the teaching profession next school year,
Speaker 2: even it's not too early to come out to the
Speaker 2: job fair, meet the principles. That's an opportunity where you
Speaker 2: have all the principles in one place. You can meet them,
Speaker 2: introduce yourself. Like I said, even if you're not trying
Speaker 2: to get a job in the classroom right now, you're
Speaker 2: thinking next August, it's a great time to come out,
Speaker 2: share your story and what your goals are.
Speaker 1: Get known, yes, get no. Yes. Wow, that's amazing, I
Speaker 1: tell you what. It never stops, you know. I've noticed
Speaker 1: that that we keep getting more students and then we
Speaker 1: have more job bears. I don't know how that works.
Speaker 1: It seems to be happening and awful lot lately. And
Speaker 1: that's good.
Speaker 2: It's a good problem.
Speaker 1: It's a great problem to have, yes it is, you know.
Speaker 1: And with the schools now able to accommodate thanks to
Speaker 1: the voters and the and the body issues and things
Speaker 1: like that, things that are moving a lot smoothly.
Speaker 2: Right, very grateful to the community. Just finishing up the
Speaker 2: Wayside project, you know, we've started the Ranch Heights addition,
Speaker 2: which is very similar to Waysides, So we'll be adding
Speaker 2: classroom space at Ranch Heights and that will be ready
Speaker 2: to open in August of twenty five. So looking forward
Speaker 2: to that and definitely appreciate the community support for bond isshes,
Speaker 2: for our kids, for our staff always, but.
Speaker 1: Everyone else is happening with the foundation that you might
Speaker 1: want to add.
Speaker 3: Well, just one quick thing just for parents of seniors
Speaker 3: at the high school and also seniors as students. We're
Speaker 3: partnering with the Bartolswelle Community Foundation to host a scholarship
Speaker 3: panel in conjunction with like a parent information session that's
Speaker 3: happening at the high school on Thursday. So again this
Speaker 3: is for senior parents of the high schoolers as well
Speaker 3: as those students, but just to come and learn about
Speaker 3: different components of life after graduation. Our piece, again with
Speaker 3: the Community Foundation, is all about scholarships, so helping them
Speaker 3: navigate kind of what scholarships exist from, providing some financial
Speaker 3: aid and some tips and tricks on how to make
Speaker 3: sure that your application stands out amongst the hundreds that
Speaker 3: are received. So that's going on on Thursday. I believe
Speaker 3: it starts at five thirty in the Bartolesville Fine Arts Center.
Speaker 1: My goodness sakes, what tell you guys? You wrapped up
Speaker 1: put a bow on it. It's really nice. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of information, but the information everybody needs always.
Speaker 3: That's going on always.
Speaker 1: I want to thank you both for being here with
Speaker 1: us and sharing with us.