BARTLESVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

a while. It's about the redistricting of the maps and it's good affect a couple of.

we'll be finishing at Ranch Heights next week. Excuse me, next summer. Yah, I know, I really really do. And the areas that we're talking about that change is we're talking east of seventy five, basically behind them all east of seventy five south of Nowada Road, which is like Rolling Hills and Southern Hills. There's currently some of that goes to Wayside, some of that goes to Ranch Heights. Well, we're gonna make it where that entire neighborhood will go

to Ranch Heights starting in August. That also means their middle schools will shift as well, because Ranch Heights students go to Madison, so that will make that shift. And then the other shift is a little bit north of that, so same we're talking east of seventy five, but north up in the Wilson current Wilson district, so just south of Tuxedo that's currently in the Wilson district, and we're going to shift that area to Hoover Elementary, same middle school.

They obviously go to Madison, which is next door. And so there's some We have a group, we have a committee that continues to monitor O attendance boundaries. We continue to make some adjustments as we do those as few times as possible, infrequently. We don't want to upset families

in terms of their daily routine. But we want to be efficient and so you know, we've had growth of about three hundred students since before the pandemic, and that's why we made the decision to you know, some folks ideas or immediately just to build a new school, but those are inefficient, you know, there's always there's you have

administrative overhead. So we chose to add on to Wayside and ratch Hikes and do some redistricting to make sure that we can keep our Matter of fact, our elementary class sizes this year the average is twenty to one, so that's the best they've been in several years. And some of that's we've had the additional space at Wayside, Bill hire some new staff. We also, I'll mention too, and we've sent this information this redistricting. We've already mailed

all the parents that are impacted. They should have gotten a letter two weeks ago. Our board approved this change in the summer of twenty twenty three, so we've had this available. Of course, you know, something you don't pay attention to until yeah, until it impacts you too. So I appreciate Tom the ability to talk about that. So we do have some flexibility there folks. Like I said, these new districts the buses, that's where the buses will run.

If folks want to stay at their existing school, they've got that letter, they can talk to their principle about that and go through the transfer process. They'll just have

to provide their own transportation. And then secondly, I want to mention kind of a thing that's been really hasn't been a big thing here, but I've been asked about a lot Broken Arrow School, which is obviously I think it's the fourth largest district in the state, and they've been having lots of conversations about shifting to a four days school week. They haven't made a decision about that, but it's gotten a lot of press. It's something that's

in the social media. I've been asked about it almost daily, and I just wanted to make sure folks knew that we are not we don't have any plans to do that for Broken Arrow situation. They're doing it simply, not trying to save money. They're doing it because they think it's gonna help them recruit and retain teachers and where they sit. Some districts that touched them. I think Kawita Wagner, Catusa. They're already on a four day week, so I'm sure

that probably impacts their staffing. And you know we frankly, we have some of that around here. You know, there's some districts that are on a four day week, right aroun us or maybe they go to school a couple of weeks shorter than we do, but we don't have any intentions of making those changes as part of why we invest in our staff so that that's why we compensate our teachers about fifteen percent more than the folks

that touch us. We think. Intter of fact, I think, if anything, I'd like to go to school extend our calendar. Not to make any kids nervous about that, but that would take it. That would take some additional funding, frankly to make that extension, because there's some concerns with that in terms of if we did some sort of a shortened schedule. One is, obviously our parents have to work and so daycare is a challenge and what do you do with what do you do with kiddo's during that

day too? And then secondly a big factor for me is about sixty percent of our kids qualify for free introduced launch. We feed a lot of kids every day and so yeah, so those are kids that may not get to eat and so anyway, that's not on the table here. I just wanted to in case you hear that on people to get nervous about thinking about shifting to a four day week as well. We have no plans to do that. I'll be happy to have conversations

about that, but that's not on the radar here. Want to get out front and share those two things.

have information on our website. We've posted some information on social media. But basically, if a donor makes a one thousand dollars contribution to the school foundation commits to doing that for two years, they can receive up to seventy five percent of that gift back in the form of a tax credit, So that's a dollar for dollar reduction of your income taxes on your state income taxes. So that gift ends up only costing our donors two hundred

and fifty dollars. So what we're encouraging is anyone who can afford to make at least a two hundred and fifty dollars contribution, consider making a one thousand dollars contribution. It's still going to cost you the same, but our

schools benefit and receive that full thousand dollars. It is even multiplied further if you have availability of company matching, so you can make a donation of one thousand dollars, get that match by your company, then the schools get a two thousand dollars benefit, again still costing our donors just that two fifty. So that's in eight times maximizing that benefit that we're getting as a school district. So really something that we're trying to take advantage of the

school district. Bartoswell has a two hundred thousand dollars credit cap, but we are nowhere close to maxing out that cap at this point, so we want to get closer to that max. But I had a donor just the other day who works for a Phillips and they're going to max out their tax credit. They're going to make a two thousand, six hundred and sixty seven dollars contribution into the school foundation. They're going to get two thousand dollars back on their income taxes, so that gift costs them

six hundred and sixty seven dollars. They're going to submit it for a match. So our school foundation now gets over five thousand dollars for a gift that costs that donor six hundred dollars.

be able to capitalize on that tax benefit. So this is an example of something that we were already doing and so now it's just a matter of writing a check to a different entity and then therefore we're going to get that tax benefit this year and next year. So for people to think about, if there's maybe some events or some special things that the foundation does in addition to you, they can always use the funding to

help their bottom line. But if there's something like we have that passion for that run, we're able to earmarket for that, and so it's win win really all the way around.

to help make things better. And so we've one of the strategies that we're coming up with Blairs is helping with we're working together is we always want to do some parent information sessions, So we're gonna start with one next month, I think January twentieth. Details to become we're gonna we're gonna piggyback off of I think it's when the freshmen, the income and current eighth grade, when they enroll at the high school or they get some information

about that. That's one of their biggest nights they have in terms of parents being on campus and seeing what's at the high school. We're going to piggyback off that event and have a it's gonna be ver efficient with the time, but just share some information. I'll share some We'll have a parent We're going to hope to have a judge backlaw or an SRO and hopefully have some students just to talk about to talk about this matter

and talk about give them some information. I want to share some you know, I'll share from the book in terms of the anxious generation and what I really appreciate about it because this is a new world. I think our parents this new world for them, it's changing, and to give them some guidelines, some things that the school recommends. I really like the book comes out and says, hey, kids don't need a smartphone before they're in high school.

So parents out there, if you're thinking about when it gets your kid a phone, that's a good guideline to start with. Kids don't need to be on social media till they're sixteen. So and I know every kid will say, yeah, but my friends are this, my friends that, and and but we want to talk to parents so hopefully they can collaborate together and you know, they know who they're kind of their kids run with and hopefully help help

them grow up in this world. And then and then the last thing is kids need to get outside and play. I mean it's less screen time more you know, more playtime, and that's to learn how to enter act with others. And that can be that's different, you know, instead of kids just you know, sitting looking at a screen or being playing video games, or or interacting online, ordering their

food online. You can do everything in the world online, you know, to be able to interact with others, that's important. So we're going to talk about those things. So we're gonna start with a session at the high school next month. We plan and continue those at our middle schools also have some things targeted for our elementary parents and so these will be targeted for certain groups. However, any if you have a kid any age, we encourage them to come up Blair.

what you should do, and everything will be great. But I think it's really important to keep this conversation going, let everyone know that they're not alone, and just provide kind of pooled resources in terms of what options you have as a parent or as an educator to kind of help manage this and help teacher kids the skills they're going to ultimately need to self regulate at some point, right, so we want to give them some tools that they could perhaps use with their students.

high school. You know, as kids mature and grow and have different resources available to them, but also talking to everyone there even if I'm working at a school, saying I'm supervising a large kids and staff maybe doesn't have that current impact on students day to day on having the device, but thinking about they're dealing with employees that

have to deal with that as well. I mean, some of our adults are addicted as well to their phones and social media and that being distracted that can impact, you know what, thinking about during their day or also at home time that they could be spending interacting with their kiddos. And so we just want to help and so hopefully this will be a step in the right direction with that.

have them kids looking at device. We're doing other things for a youngest kids, just trying to make some Even though that was that that was the best thing we felt like a couple of years ago. Now that we know better, yeah, we know better. We just want to We just want to do better. And so look forward to that conversation. We'll continue to update everyone. We'll be sharing information about these upcoming events, and we just want

to help make things better. And then lastly, just a couple of things I'll mentioned from me anyway from the board meeting, Blair, we had a large donation from Trudy Credit Union Education Foundation.

which is our junior achievement program. Our fifth graders get to go down to Tulsa to BI Talent and experience different careers for the day, and it'll provide some support for that. It'll provide some crucial support to continue the school resource officer expansion that we have. Of course we have ten school resource officers now and then those funds will go to help support them, and then bruins on the RNE of course regular participation in support for our fifth grade running program.

parents came. It's always fun to do that, and Principal Heart gave an update there and then also mentioned that the College Board they recognized in terms of schools in terms of their participation in the AP program, which those are college level classes in high school and also how successful kids are when they take the test and how well they do on that, and that's what research will

tell you. Just being enrolled in one of those classes is the best academic preparation for you to graduate from college four or five years later, which is obviously impacts everybody. But the only schools that were recognized by the College Board was was Bartlesville Public Schools was Bartlesville, Jinx, Edmund and Norman. Those are the only schools in the state

of Oklahoma that received that recognition. There were some private schools and so to do like I think the closest one would be down at Cash, Holland Hall and Bishop Kelly, some of those that you pay a pretty heavy tuition for. So it's really I always want to share that make sure people are aware. I mean, that's not something that a Wasso or Collinsville or someone that was recognized for.

That's right here in Bartlesville. So really pleased with that, and then I think also when you hear that with also kids that think about opportunities for kids that maybe aren't on that college band. Ladona Chancellor gave an update. We have ninety one kids in our construction class currently.

We're getting ready for next year. We're going to offer a Construction two class as well, So that's going to continue to expand to help kids, you know, have that ability to get that experience, to help get them ready for that next step, whether they're going to college or whether they're getting ready to.