Founded 25 years ago the Invention Convention strives to teach young minds how to do more than simply science fair projects. Thursday, February 27, 2014
On May 20, 2013, a tornado killed eight students at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore. The year before, 27 people, including 18 children, died in Newtown, Conn. when an armed shooter entered Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Kevin Hill could not be more invested in the Mid-Del school district. He attended only Mid-Del Public Schools, and after college, he came back to teach students then later became a school principal at Epperly Heights Elementary in Del City. Thursday, February 06, 2014
Mid-Del Schools’ Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Fair at first glance may seem like a traditional science fair project, but in reality it is much more. Thursday, February 06, 2014
Rose State College will host its annual recognition dinner to celebrate exceptional friends of the institution and distinguished alumni Thursday, Feb. 13. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Rose State College Student Center Main Dining Room. Thursday, February 06, 2014
State Superintendent Janet Barresi spoke at a press conference Monday urging parents and educators to get informed on the third grade reading law taking full effect this year.
"Reading is not a measure of intelligence. Reading is a skill and these children acquire this skill in many different ways," Barresi said. "If you can’t read you can’t do anything else. It’s the most fundamental important thing we can provide for our children."
The reading law is a part of the Reading Sufficiency Act aimed at curbing Oklahoma’s nearly 30 percent illiteracy rate. This law or similar measures are already active in 10 other states and the District of Colombia.
The Del City Chamber was pleased to see such a large turnout last Thursday when they hosted local and federal legislators to sit down with members during a luncheon.
Present were State Sen. Cliff Aldridge and State Rep. Scott Inman. Field Rep. Craig Smith attended on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn and another field representative was on hand for Sen. James Inholfe (name not available as of presstime). Mona Taylor, the district director for US Rep. James Lankford, also attended.
Members of Mid-Del Public Schools and Rose State College administration attended the luncheon that offered an up close discussion in a round robin environment.
Technology representatives visited Highland Park with Mid-Del Public Schools Jan. 22 to participate in a site visit to see the 2013 Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust grant in action.
The $65,000 grant provided technology and professional development to Highland Park’s students and teachers. The OETT grant provided the means to two iPad carts to increase achievement in reading and math.
Students will showcase their learning to adults during Technology Nights and will be hosted by the school with invitations extended to the entire community.
On Feb. 11, 2014, Mid-Del Public Schools is asking voters to stand behind a bond issue to fund various projects, including one to build the district’s fourth safe room.
The $10.405 million bond includes two propositions, one for safety, security and technology projects.
Anyone wishing to vote by absentee ballot in the election has until Wednesday, Feb. 5 to make application to the Oklahoma County Election Board. After receiving a ballot by mail, voters must return their ballot to the election board by 7 p.m. on election day in order to be counted.
For more information, contact the board at (405) 713-1515.
State Senators Clark Jolly and Susan Paddack, along with State Representatives Scott Martin and Scott Inman addressed questions posed to them by the Parent Legislative Action Committee in a panel Tuesday in Edmond.
PLAC organizers, including parents and educators, synthesized all their complaints into a simple two part problem and then formulated four questions to the legislators most involved in education appropriations.
"We were able to wrap our hands around two major issues that we are seeing in our classroom and it boiled down to there’s too little funding and too much testing in our classrooms," said Meredith Exline, PLAC organizer. "Our goal at the PLAC is to educate parents and patrons in a nonpartisan way on what is happening at a legislative level."
Hudiburg Toyota and the Toyota Dealer Match Program recently presented a $5,000 donation to Townsend Elementary School.
The $5,000 donation to Townsend Elem. is a result of a special promotion that hosted on Hudiburg Toyota’s Facebook page. The school garnered the most votes among the literally thousands of votes cast, spanning support from 49 other deserving Oklahoma schools, from pre-K through high school.
The next meeting of the Oklahoma Central Parent Legislative Action Committee will be 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28 at the Edmond Public Schools Administration Building, 1001 W. Danforth Rd.
The nonpartisan group has the goal of increasing parent and community awareness about legislative issues impacting public education in Oklahoma. They encourage all parents and patrons from the metro area school districts to attend its fourth meeting of the 2013-2014 school year.
Reduce pension debt is listed as the No. 4 item on Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller’s policy goals for 2014.
Oklahoma Educators Association and Keep Oklahoma’s Promises (a coalition of present and future pension beneficiaries) are expressing extreme misgivings about the stated plan.
This week is the filing deadline for all state legislation. Despite not knowing the full text of any bill pertaining to pension reform, activist groups and unions such as the OEA are fighting the concepts for change being discussed.
"First of all our pension system works," OEA President Linda Hampton said. "It is definitely not broken and the Teacher Retirement System has outperformed 99 percent of other systems in the United States and it’s in the best shape it’s been in 20 years."
In his Economic Report published Dec. 31, Miller outlined the problems he sees with the current structure of the pension program.
In the first meeting of 2014, Mid-Del school board members made changes to graduation requirements and discussed how to deal with a budget deficit.
"In July, we were at $39.8 million and at midterm now, we are at $38.8 million for a loss of $1 million from July until now," Supt. Pam Deering said during the Jan. 13 meeting. "However as we look at our chargeable income and how much that changed, it comes out that the amount that we are really down is about $500,000."
This news did not come as a shock to the board who had budgeted based on the possibility of loss.
"I want you to be proud. We have budgeted $38.7 million so we were on top of it before it happened," Deering said.
Gus Coleman was an educator for nearly his entire career.
The lifelong Del City resident, who has since passed away, worked in every aspect of the scholastic endeavor: textbook sales, teacher, coach, principal, superintendent and even college regent.
Coleman’s son, Del City attorney Steve Coleman, speaks fondly of his parent’s love of learning. Between the two of them, he said, they had a combined 88 year career in education.
But it was his father’s love of learning that was honored last month when Epperly Heights Elementary dedicated their new library media center to him.
The son called his father an advocate of literature who understood the importance of always having a library.
In his first years as a teacher, Coleman’s father took it upon himself to create a library for his students, his son said.
