BARTLESVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPT. CHUCK McCAULEY

But not quite ready to make an announcement about Thursday yet.

get back in person. But yeah, we had our our February board meeting on Monday, and of course we started off with our spotlight and we started with our it's national ff a week uh, and Marty Jones and Cameron Dale Ashley Darca are three teachers, and then the kids they they before the meeting, they've fed our school board

members as appreciation, which is always very uh. It's fun to be around obviously the adults there, but the kids that they have in those programs are just are just outstanding this first class and so it's just it's fun to be able to spend some time with them. Had a great meal, and then we recognized our some of our music students we had it's really pretty exciting in terms of our choir, band and orchestra, and so I

could talk about them for just a minute. On the choir side, we had Tamer Walker was there to talk about our kiddo's there that made all state and choir. And we had three middle school kids, two from Central and one from Madison make all State. And then we had fourteen high school kids make All State choir and which is a very high number. So very proud of all their efforts, the staff's efforts, and mainly the kids

for all their work. And then Chris Caine, one of our you know, he's our lead band director and he and his wife's husband wife team that helps us along with some others. But he spoke and he shared that we had eight students make all state band and then one in All State choir. And he said that, you know, he's been in a band director for twenty three years and it's the most all state students that he has ever had. So he shared a few things. He went

on to talk about the process. Of course, both those are very rigorous process that starts at the school level and then you get to the district and then onto state in terms of the choir and banned. But he talked about just the support that he has here in Bartlsville. You know, those for one thing, especially in band, those instruments are expensive, and we have resources at the school level out of our general fund and also for bond

funds that are dedicated for instruments. And he went on and told the story about you know a lot of districts, you know, if some of these instruments can be ten or twelve thousand dollars, and a lot of the kids that were making All States that were on stage with us, those are all instruments that the district has purchased, and

so it's really can be a difference maker. One would be make sure they have the you know, the equipment that they need, and like he shared, it's really hard to perform at high level if you don't have the you know, that type of that high level of equipment which we're able to provide for our kids. And he went on to talk about just our schedule as well.

You know, we have we shifted to a seven period day a few years ago and that that enables, like for our music students, many of them are into different class periods of music and so they's an extra time built in. They had professionals come in four weeks prior to the All State competitions to work with them individually. So really just some some We're heavily invested in the

fine arts. You know, oftentimes you hear things about, you know, kind of on the athletic side or maybe just on the academic side as well, But we are heavily invested and really proud of our staff and our kids. And then he told one last story about a sophomore. Our name is Issiley Sewell, young lady, and I hadn't heard the story, but she she actually made first chair all state in two different instruments. She was first chair flute and first chair piccolo, and so yeah, exactly, yeah, I

was amazed. I've never heard us having had uh. And so she she basically get to decide which one. And so he told that story. So it's pretty cool for them, and many of them came to the board meeting, and that's you know, those are the highlights, highlights of those meetings, those spotlights, and so really just kind of on to brag on our our fine arts kids because they are

really talented. Uh, you know, our community and school has really invested, uh those and those parents and and they worked really hard and and then this is kind of the end result of that, many of these kids are going to go on and be auditioning at the college level and do some great things. But really proud of our all state a choir, band and orchestra students as well. And then also at the board meeting Lesson on Monday, LaDonna Chancellor on her teaching and learning updates. She shared

a couple of things. First of all, one thing on Monday, we're having our middle school Math and Science Night STEM Night over at Madison. It's at six o'clock and a month. Any any whether Bartblool students or not. They're welcome to come anyone in the area. But they'll have free pizza, so they're gonna feed you, feed kids. Parents, come on and that's really a great night. They bring in some some young adults that are working, you know, working in industry,

working with our kids. They do free pizza and drawings. I think they give up to three they'll give away three laptops just for showing up. So free food and the chances of technology. We encourage everyone to come. And then also next week we have it's a big deal for us, we have our pre kindergarten and kindergarten roundup. That's on Tuesday, February twenty fifth at five point thirty

at each of our elementary schools. And so that's for if you have if you have a child that's going to turn four by September, first they are we'd love to have them in pre k and so this is an opportunity for them to come in and meet the staff and meet the school and to get them registered for the upcoming school year. And it's really we really need and as they can't be there, just to contact the school to set up another time. But for us, you know, that's the one thing it's pretty easy for

us to staff. You know, we know how many kids we currently have and they're going to roll up to the next grade. But this is the wild card that we never know, is how many four year olds are going to have and so just the earlier we know that that helps us to make good staffing decisions because it's that time of year where we start planning planning for the next year. So that's on Tuesday, February twenty fifth at five thirty at all six of our elementary schools.

And then Ladana also shared that on Monday this past week, President's Day, George Rush's birthday, which is Monday, but we had at all of our schools we had professional Development Day and we are in the process of implementing leader in Me training. It's based off of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of highly affected People. A lot of folks are familiar with that, maybe they had that in the church or some point in their college careers, but we are. We had different trainers come in at each of our

nine school sites. They've been doing that over two different days last summer. They did training with all of our our administrators and school board school board members as well. But we are in the process of implementing that with training our staff and then be rolling that out with kids this next school year. Some schools are already doing that.

But it's just good quality, you know, personal leadership, I'll say, you know, thinking about those seven habits, which are being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, you know, putting first things first, thinking when, when, seek first, to understand, then to be understood, u synergized, and then sharpening the saw. And so those are things that hopefully we can get some common language with our kids as they grow and go through the go through the school system. Help prepare

them for their lives. And then tom Less thing at half for you is we'll have our job fair. And I talked about we're process of planning for staffing for next year. But here in a couple of weeks, on Saturday March first, at the High School in the commons at nine am, from nine to eleven, we'll have a job fair. We are we already have a few positions posted for next year, and we know a few folks

that are retiring or maybe they're moving out of state. Uh, we have a few positions posting that we'll have more as the you know, as the school year ins that we get into next year. But anyone that is interested in teaching for Barlsville, or if they're interested in working in another role, you know, we're always looking for bus drivers, you know, substitutes, maybe an assistant position, teacher assistant, especially

at the assistant. This is really a time where they can come and Uh, all of our all of our hiring people are on one are in the same place at the same time, which that rarely happens. So Saturday March first, High School Commons from nine to eleven will have our job fare and it's typically our biggest one because this is usually the time of a year for school folks to uh they start making decisions about where

they're going to be uh next year. And we've we've had done our intent to return staff levers for our our current staff and uh, you know, we have a very low turnover rate, but uh uh we do have a few positions that are opening and we'll be adding a couple more as well. So anyway, tom on this cold, snowy day, I'll just close with we'll be getting out information here real soon about Thursday, but we are planning to be in person on Friday this week.