Staff Report

Six Oklahoma schools were awarded Reward School grants totaling $400,000 by the State Board of Education last week as part of the State Department of Education’s Raise the Grade Together initiative.

“These schools are among the best performing schools in the state,” said State Superintendent Janet Barresi. “To qualify for the grants, these educators had to be willing to share their best practices and educational strategies with schools in the most need. I’m thrilled to be able to offer this financial incentive for excellence and am pleased with the willingness to embrace such partnerships.”

Reward Schools are designated as high achieving in all state assessments or showing high progress in reading and math. As part of the grant application, Reward Schools had to propose a partnership with a Priority School, those that are in the bottom 5% of achievement in the state in reading and mathematics, have a graduation rate below 60% for at least three years, or have received a School Improvement Grant (SIG).

Grants were awarded to:

• Earl Harris Elementary School in Bethany ($71,000), which will partner with Council Grove Elementary School in the Western Heights School District
• Adair High School ($47,000), which will partner with Okay High School
• Ripley Elementary School ($47,000), which will partner with Yarbrough Elementary School
• Kingfisher High School ($71,000), which will partner with Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City
• Ryal Public School ($47,000), which will partner with Hanna Elementary School
• Edmond Memorial High School ($117,000), which will partner with Justice A.W. SeeWorth Academy Charter School in Oklahoma City

The amount of the awards was based on the total number of certified employees in both the Reward School and the Priority School.

Assistant State Superintendent of Educational Support Kerri White said collaboration between peers is a highly effective methodology for school improvement. She said the vision for the grant is to see schools celebrate successes while collaborating to seek continuous improvement in student learning, school culture, and professional growth. The ultimate goal is to see schools removed from the Priority School list while seeing an increase in the number of Reward Schools.

State Department of Education staff will monitor grant administration and mentoring activities. The grant period is from this February to June 2014. Funds can be used for celebration of excellence activities at the Reward School and partnership activities that are likely to benefit both the Reward School and the Priority School.

Grantees submitted applications describing ways they would partner with Priority Schools. Partnerships could also include other entities such as higher education institutions, Career Tech centers, parent organizations, businesses or other community groups. Examples of partnership activities were flipping classrooms, sharing resources and training for digital learning, and student-led task forces focused on engagement and achievement.

Ret. Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon, the Oklahoma City University Distinguished Philanthropist Award;

Staff Report

The Societies of Oklahoma City University will honor four Oklahoma women for their volunteerism during the 25th anniversary of the Awards of Excellence on Feb. 28 at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club. A reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:15 p.m.

The 2013 honorees are Ret. Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon, the Oklahoma City University Distinguished Philanthropist Award; Janie Axton, the Kirkpatrick-Petree Music and Performing Arts Society Award; Charlotte Richels, the Norick-Hulsey Gallery Society Award; and Marnie Taylor, the Dulaney-Browne Society Award.

Aragon retired from the U.S. Air National Guard in 2006 and currently serves as the State Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Axton has volunteered actively in the local community and is currently helping raise funds for an Oklahoma City YWCA shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Richels has volunteered with numerous local organizations, placing an emphasis on her passion for the arts and health care.

Taylor is president and CEO of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits and has helped local nonprofits extensively.

Cathy Leichter serves as president of the OCU Societies and Ann Alspaugh is chairwoman of the Awards of Excellence dinner.

To purchase tickets or get other information about this event, contact Mandy Heaps at (405) 208-5118 or email mheaps@okcu.edu.

Jerry Bohnen

A national education-reform group that pushes for more education reforms including accountability of teachers, an expansion of the school day and better tracking of student data is creating an Oklahoma chapter and letting legislators know, it intends to be around this coming legislative session.

Stand for Children recently created its Oklahoma chapter, the eleventh nationally and this past week was the first week of operation as national founder Jonah Edelman visited the state, speaking with legislators, education leaders and non-profits.

“When we help children, we help their families and generations to come,” said Edelman as he spoke Thursday to about 20 representatives of various non-profit organizations in Oklahoma City. He had earlier spoken at an education summit held in Tulsa where he said his group’s goal in Oklahoma is to lobby for adequate and immediate funding of reforms already passed by the state legislature. The son of civil rights leader and National Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman made it clear to the Oklahoma City non-profits that his group wants parents to be more involved in the education of their children.

Former Tulsa school board member Brian Hunt is the new state director of Stand for Children and told the non-profits, “Our goal is straight-forward, we want the legislature to invest in the reforms they already passed.” He and Edelman said Oklahoma school children need to be learning what will ready them for the 21^st century.

But Hunt added another pledge in seeking out troubled schools. “I want to walk the halls of Northwest Classen and Douglass.”  Douglass has seen its share of problems in the past year as protesting parents and fired teachers demonstrated, resulting in a federal investigation and an Oklahoma City school district investigation that led to the resignation of the high school principal.

The same investigation revealed many of the Douglass high school seniors lacked the required classes and grades to graduate this spring. While he didn’t mention Douglass by name, Edelman complained of high dropout and low graduation rates nationally. “Officials are lying to children and parents and educators and our goal is to get a higher level of education.”

Edelman, Hunt and Stand for Children’s State government affairs director, Amber England spent Thursday having lunch with several legislators, Republican and Democrats alike and a representative from the Governor’s office. Edmond State Senator Clark Jolley (R-41^st district) was among them. He has authored some of Oklahoma’s education reforms, among them laws ending social promotion, the establishment of the controversial letter grades for schools and school districts and more accountability of testing of students.

‘I’m always excited to see organizations and groups of people who are willing to stand up for education advocacy,” Jolley said in an email to the City Sentinel. “I’m also excited that Stand for Children isn’t a pro-reform, pro-teacher or pro-administrator group.”

If Jolley has a concern, it’s that other groups might try to label Stand for Children as just another front group for reformers. “I think Stand for Children will bode well in Oklahoma, especially with the parents who they help to learn how to fight for a better education for their children.”

Edelman also met with Karl Springer, the Oklahoma City School Superintendent who offered his support of Stand for Children.  “Stand for Children is a breath of fresh air for its reform measures and dedication to the children in Oklahoma,” Springer said in an email statement to the City Sentinel. Hunt indicated he felt the meeting went well with Springer and the superintendent, while perhaps initially was reserved about Stand for Children’s intents, came away with a changed mind.

While the three leaders indicated their main goals will be to push for more funding of education reforms, it’s also clear they want to learn more about the problem schools in the Oklahoma City area. “We want to do a deep dive in the Oklahoma City schools,” said England as she addressed the non-profit representatives.

A one-page handout describing the goals of Stand for Children in Oklahoma declared three main goals for 2013.  One is to ‘ensure all students benefit from higher standards, better reading instruction and end-of-high school exams. The second focus is to ‘help districts increase the amount of time our children spend learning. Finally, the group stated it wants to ‘investigate opportunities to strengthen teacher preparation, licensure and evaluation so all Oklahoma teachers are well-trained and well-supported.’

The fledgling group has only Hunt and England as its staffers but it intends to operate out of offices in Oklahoma City near NW 4^th and Walker.

The organization’s goals could put it at odds with other groups, such as its advocacy to let go teachers and principals who are not doing their jobs. It supports longer school days and school terms and data systems that not only measure what students are learning, but how well schools and teachers are educating children.

Stand for Children is not without some controversy in other states. In 2011, Edelman created a stir when he stated publicly he had led what was reported as a well-funded campaign using lobbyists to pressure union leaders to give up their rights in Illinois. He admitted to hiring 11 lobbyists so the unions could not hire them. He and the Illinois Education Association remain at odds.

And in Denver, Colorado, Edelman and his organization were accused of getting involved in the local school board races, something his critics called illegal political tactics. Edelman’s group endorsed some school board candidates but not others and that angered local politicians.

If Denver showed Edelman is not above recruiting parents to campaign for certain selected school board candidates, Edelman has written his opposition to what he calls ‘corporate reformers’, those he contends are waging a war to privatize schools and destroy teachers unions.

Writing last June in PURE, a Chicago-based education magazine, he spoke out against one group that raised millions and spent money on anti-union robo calls in the Chicago Public Schools and Edelman urged a war against propaganda. “In doing so, we are being “offensive” only in the sense that we are fighting pro-actively to protect democratic public education.”

Ironically, Edelman admits it was his 2009 work with the Tulsa-based Kaiser Foundation that attracted him to Oklahoma and he kept in touch with corporate leaders over the past few years. “I agreed to help and I got to know legislators and what I found was a state with a willingness to change. That’s refreshing compared to other states.”

By Patrick B. McGuigan

Associate Publisher

This is a story about Veritas — the truth.

As in: Veritas Classical Academy of Oklahoma City, a blended (or “hybrid”) educational system that combines the personal attention of homeschooling—guided by loving parents two or three days a week — with the rigor of magnificent teachers working in the Socratic method two or three days a week.

Craig Dunham initially thought he was going to be a preacher, and he went to seminary for five years. He credits his wife, Megan, with steering him toward a holistic view of the Holy Scriptures, and his eventual (current) work as head of the Veritas system.

It’s a place where students learn to love, and pursue, “Knowledge, Wisdom, Goodness, and Beauty in accordance with biblical truth for the glory of God.”

Students move through the “Trivium” (three roads, or stages) of classical education.

Pre-kindergarten through fifth grade is the Grammar stage — when they absorb information and learn the rules of phonics, spelling, and English and Latin grammar. They learn how to write, and are introduced to great (including non-Christian) literature, Saxon-style math (meaning that 2 plus 2 equals 4, even if you have a problem with that), and the basics of science.

Then comes the Logic stage, grades 6-8, with debate, argumentation, the Socratic method, and the discernment of … truth. More writing (and lots of it), more Bible and more literature, higher-order reasoning, the meaning of cause and effect, and science.

And then, the Rhetoric stage, grades 9-12, when self-expression is encouraged, inclining toward, an explanation on the school’s website explains, “those things that are noble, right, pure, and lovely.” Kids write some more, with the emphasis on writing well, and they read the great books that made Western civilization … civilized. And, math and science.

The prism for all things is truth. At a campus in south Oklahoma City and a smaller facility in Edmond, the program now works with about 300 kids.

Grammar grades now include around 160 students, with Logic around 80, and the remainder in Rhetoric (high school). The first two high school graduates came last year, from a humble start in 2004. Six are headed toward 12th grade graduation this year. There will be 16 graduates in two years.

The children learn about Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. They discern the overlap and connection among … everything. Originally a gathering of parents in Norman, the founders of Veritas took their inspiration from Coram Deo (“in the presence of God”), a Texas system that grew from a homeschool cooperative into a five-day program. At Veritas, in light of Oklahoma’s unrivaled laws supportive of homeschooling rights, the system is likely to remain 50-50, a balance between engaged families and world-class instructors.

Like the molecular biologist who also teaches at the University of Oklahoma (where homeschooled kids are excelling, by the way), or the award-winning retired teacher from Norman High in the Veritas science program.

And yet Veritas is not “college prep,” Dunham says — it is “kingdom prep.” Of those two first seniors, one young lady is attending college, while one young man is getting a practical-training polish before entering a trade.

To be clear, the kids are college-ready, consistently excelling on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. And, they are life-ready. “Besides being technically skilled, great writers, and logical thinkers,” Dunham says, “Veritas students have the intangible personal qualities that predict success in college and beyond.”

The wonk in me led to a question for Mr. Dunham: Are there public policy implications to what you are doing here?

His answer was profoundly cautious, leavened with wisdom: “I’m always leery of strings attached when government is involved in any way with education. This works when it is as local and family-oriented as possible.

“We are in loco parentis, not displacing them but involved at the discretion of the parent.

“In terms of public policy, I’d love to see educational resources, the dollars, follow the child, but at the complete discretion of the parent.” Later, he added, “The key is to assure that the parents are involved.”

Too soon for me on the day of my visit, the sun was headed toward the western horizon, and I had to leave. I told Dunham the truth: the kids at Veritas reminded me of my days at Oklahoma City’s Bishop John Carroll Elementary and Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, albeit with a traditional Protestant overlay.

While multiple Bible translations are welcomed for personal study, the English Standard Version (ESV) and New International Version (NIV) are the preferred translations for classroom work. Veritas is “trans-denominational,” respectful of believers in a way “that yields greater understanding of one another and what God is doing in the body of Christ.”

Thirteen months ago (on November 1, 2011), radio host Rush Limbaugh pointed to an Occupy Wall Street protester who had penned a note in which she decried her progress toward what she deemed “a useless degree in Classical Studies.” Worst of all, she was learning Latin. And, she concluded, her job prospects were “zero.”

Rush went round the bend, asserting it was no wonder the lady was headed toward failure and was marching in an Occupy parade. He described the degree she was nearing as “worthless.” It was not one of his finest hours — perhaps it was among his worst. However, toward the end, a listener called in to testify to the fabulous education her children were receiving at a Christian school where the emphasis is on … classical studies, and parental involvement.

I went to Catholic schools and got a fair dollop of classical education, even in an era when traditional educational standards were slipping.

Then, I attended Oklahoma State University, earning two degrees in history — and specializing in study of the medieval Church and the royal courts of Europe. Yes, my studies included a year’s worth of Latin, a semester’s worth of classical Greek, exposure to Russian and German, and fluency in French.

More than two decades later, I taught Latin to ghetto kids, including the memorable exchange between Jesus and Pilate (in Latin). You know, the one where Pilate asks, “What is truth?” I did that work at a public alternative charter school, Seeworth Academy, founded by the late Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Alma Wilson.

Our classes were held at what used to be the Corpus Christi Catholic School. Every day at that place I prayed to remember and to understand what I saw in many of them — sometimes beaten and bruised, not crowned in glory —”the Body of Christ.”

There is nothing magical, per se, about conjugating verbs and memorizing the words of philosophers in the original language. What was magical from my years as a student and a teacher was understanding and acting upon the Judeo-Christian roots of ordered liberty, the blessings of intellectual rigor, and the importance of both evidence and experience in the pursuit of truth.

I have gone through many professional incarnations in my 58 years. I’ve been purged, and slapped, and beaten up a few times, literally and figuratively. Because of my classical education, absolutely nothing I encountered in Washington, D.C. or Oklahoma City or Paris, France or anywhere else has ever, really, surprised me.

“There is nothing new under the sun,” says the prophet (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NIV). That’s why we are wise to study the classics, and the Scriptures.

For the truth.

NOTE: This commentary first appeared in the December 2012 edition of Perspective Magazine, monthly publication of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in Oklahoma City.

By Jerry Bohnen

Special to The City Sentinel

The Oklahoma Department of Education, responding to the growing scandal at  Frederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City — a situation whose details have been revealed by The City Sentinel — has discovered in an audit, that 81 percent of the 107 students set to graduate next spring, don’t meet the required credits.

“I’m very upset — it was sickening,” said Dr. Karl Springer, Oklahoma City Superintendent of Schools. He spoke at an afternoon news conference where board of education chairwoman, Angela Monson attempted to smooth things over with angry parents whose calls for changes in the past few years prompted a district and federal investigation in the past several months.

“Rest assured,” said Monson. “As soon as we determined the needs of the students were not met—we took action.”

“I’m gonna call you a liar,” cried one angry woman who lives near the Douglass High School. Raynetta Dennis-Jamison stood up and charged, “You’ve known of this problem since 2008 and 2009.” As her voice grew louder, she turned to the TV cameras and shouted, “They lie.” That’s when a plain-clothed police officer tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to leave.

The findings came in a State Education Department audit of the Douglass seniors.

It discovered 87 students did not meet the requirements to be able to graduate next spring. Monson and Springer blamed violations of policies and procedures, but neither would offer any detailed explanation whether that involved grade changes or alterations of attendance by students. Both declined to blame former Douglass principal Dr. Brian Staples, who resigned Nov. 15 following a several month long investigation ordered by the school district last May after parents angrily raised their allegations.

Monson only wanted to speak of helping the students. “We’re poised and ready to make recommendations to the legislature. We are very concerned — it’s very serious,” she said in announcing the creation of a plan to work with each student and parents in helping reach the graduation requirements.

Can the blame be put on the shoulders of Dr. Brian Staples? “We can’t go there,” said Springer and Monson, noting that at least one investigation, by the U.S. Department of Education, is still underway.

Well then, where can the blame be placed? “The buck stops with the school superintendent,” Springer said quickly. “It happened under my watch.”

School district officials pointed out, audits are carried out every year in the district, but they admitted one had not been conducted in some time at Douglass.

“There were no prior audits there and we want to make sure it never happens again,” promised Monson. But no one had answers to other questions, including how long had the policy and procedure violations been happening at Douglass. Monson, in closing the news conference said it would serve no purpose to audit previous graduating classes. “It’s time to help the students and we have full confidence in our superintendent. This is going to be hard work.”

The hard work involves recently held meetings when Barbara Davis, the interim principal at Douglass Mid High School, met with faculty and told them of the challenge. Meetings will be held soon with every senior and his or her parents. “The findings are disappointing, but we have a plan in place and we will do what it takes to support each student,” she said. It means shifting the school’s master plan, requiring night and weekend classes for the seniors and possibly even a summer graduation for those who can’t meet the springtime graduation requirements.

While Monson and Springer did not want to lay any blame on Dr. Staples and the way he ran the school, that’s clearly the implication from the findings of the State department audit.

By Jerry Bohnen, special to The City Sentinel

Allegations of grade changing and attendance record manipulation against the principal of the Douglass High School prompted a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, a probe that began earlier this year.

At least one investigator from the regional office of the Department of Education based in Dallas, Texas spent time this past summer interviewing the teachers who had been fired by Principal Brian Staples.  Those same teachers and their supporters have been demonstrating daily in front of the high school. This reporter, for The City Sentinel, has been investigating the situation for several weeks.

This week, Karl Springer, OKCPS Superintendent, said, “The district investigation is ongoing.  We are fully cooperating with the United States Department of Education.” Springer’s statement was issued at the request of News9, the CBS affiliate which is also investigating the controversy.

Special Agent Michelle L. Bouziden, based in Dallas with the Inspector General’s division of the Education Department, would neither confirm nor deny that she was investigating the allegations raised by the teachers. “We usually don’t give out a whole lot of information,” she explained when asked about the probe. Bouziden referred inquiries to Katherine Grant, a spokeswoman for the Education Department in Washington, D.C. “Per our policy, we don’t confirm nor deny. We can only discuss our completed work,” said Grant.

Bouziden’s name was provided by some of the former teachers who explained they each spent from an hour to two hours with Bouziden as she questioned them about their allegations made against Staples.  “She told us there could be criminal charges if they found something wrong,” said Marcia Muhammad, the former Assistant Principal of Douglass High School. “She felt like we had some legitimate complaints.”

Muhammad added that Bouziden referred her to what happened to the school superintendent in El Paso, Texas as an indication how serious the government is taking the allegations in Oklahoma City.  It was in June when former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia, 56, pleaded guilty to schemes to defraud the El Paso Independent School District and the federal government out of thousands of dollars.

One of the charges was mail fraud in which Garcia had directed staffers to manipulate state and federal mandated annual reporting statistics in order to keep EPISD compliant with requirements of No Children Left Behind Act.  Federal prosecutors claimed the manipulation allowed Garcia to receive $54,000 in bonuses. He is to be sentenced this month.

The federal investigation into the Oklahoma City school district started when Muhammad first contacted the U.S. Education department regional office in Kansas City, Missouri.  Officials there referred the matter to the Dallas office because it concerned alleged criminal wrongdoing. She sent articles, affidavits and documentation to the Inspector General in Washington, D.C.  “In less than 12 hours she e–mailed me back,” said Muhammad in an email response to this reporter.  Two weeks later, Special Agent Bouziden arrived in Oklahoma City and spent two days interviewing some of the fired teachers.

Bouziden’s investigation comes as the School District is preparing a final report on the allegations.  The district hired Annita Bridges, of Litigation Alternatives, Inc. to carry out an investigation and make a report.  The district originally had planned for the report to be issued by the end of August but the release of the report has been delayed.  In an email to Marcia Muhammad, Bridges explained her role is as an impartial and neutral fact-finder.  “As a mediator and administrative law judge, my background and experience is in discerning the facts in a dispute in a fair and unbiased manner.”  She has previously served as a hearing officer for the Oklahoma City Public School District and the State School Board.

Several teachers who were fired in 2010 and 2011 claim Staples raised grades on students they had either given Fs or Ds, and ignored absences on the student records.  The District has stated Staples is not commenting about the allegations. The fired teachers claim Staples took the steps to keep Douglass off a state list of schools needing improvements of student performances.

Note: Jerry Bohnen, an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, reports occasionally for The City Sentinel.

Oklahoma Green Schools Director Christina Roberson (center), works with students during an Environmental Workshop. Roberson is leading this year’s Oklahoma Green Schools Training sessions beginning July 19. Photo provided

By Darla Shelden

Contributing Writer


 

The Oklahoma Green Schools Program offers funding and educational resources to help schools go green. Beginning July 19, five free Oklahoma Green Schools Training sessions are available to learn how the Oklahoma Green Schools Program works.

“Our goal is to educate and empower Oklahoma students and teachers to make a difference through environmental awareness and stewardship of resources,” said Green Schools Director Christina Roberson, who will be leading this year’s training sessions.

“Many educators in Oklahoma have expressed the desire to have a program to support and recognize “green” activities within their schools,” said Jeff Wegener, Oklahoma Green Schools Committee Chair. “Available information on the topic can be overwhelming, so this program has been developed to provide a clear, organized source for information.”

“A green school is defined as a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money,” said Susie Shields Derichsweiler, founding member of the Oklahoma Green Schools Program.

“Public and private schools alike are realizing that going green is a no-brainer. If a green school saved $100,000 per year in operational costs, that’s roughly enough to hire two new teachers, buy 200 new computers or purchase 5,000 new textbooks.”

In 2008 the Oklahoma Greens Schools program was started by the Oklahoma Chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

The developers of the program brought their expertise and various interests to one common platform, to give schools a single source for tips, information, and approaches to “greening” their schools. It is the goal of the program to bring coordination, focus and encouragement to the green school movement in Oklahoma.

Roberson said, “We recently received our 501C3 status and on our committee we have state agencies, non-profits, like Oklahoma Beautiful, and utilities like OGE and PSO sitting at the table with us.”

Ten school districts participated in the pilot phase of the program, which was launched during the 2009/2010 school years. 

Oklahoma Green Schools is service and project based learning. “We have students brainstorm what’s going on in their school regarding energy, water, waste & recycling, environmental quality and school site, which includes gardening, composting, storm water run off, everything going on outside,” said Roberson. “We want students to take the lead in evaluating and improving the environment of their school,”

According to Roberson, after the students finish brainstorming; they pick one of the five areas that they’d like to investigate further. Curriculum materials are downloadable through their partner organization, the National Project Learning Tree. 

The curriculum is a series of questions and data collection that the students can actually do themselves,” said Roberson. “And from the data they collect, they come up with an action plan. This is all service learning, and it’s all student led. It’s what we call project-based learning.”

Most of the projects the kids initiate are what Roberson call ‘low hanging fruit. If the projects are implemented, they will result in cost savings for the school says Roberson.  The students are then asked to put their findings in a report, which is presented to one or more decision makers.

“It could be the principal, the superintendent, the PTA, the school board, the maintenance crew, whoever it is that can become their partner in getting this project implemented,” said Roberson. “We have 50 to 60 schools each year that are doing some part of the program and it’s designed to be that way. The program can be whatever each school needs it to be. And whatever their findings, they develop the action plan that makes sense for their school.”

After the program training is completed, schools are presented with the Green School flag.  “It flies to tell the community, the district, the parents, and the students that we have made a commitment to greening our school,” said Roberson.

For 2012 session one will be held on Thursday July 19, at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), 100 Campus Drive, in Weatherford from 4 p.m.- 6 p.m. All other training sessions will be held from 9 a.m.- 11 a.m.

On Tuesday July 24, session two will be held at Metro Career Academy, 201 N.E. 48^th, in Oklahoma City.  An optional facility tour is available.

Tuesday, July 31, East Central University (ECU) in Ada, will host session three at the Physical and Environmental Sciences (PES) Building, Room 262.

Session four, Thursday, Aug. 2 will be held at the Washington County Extension Office, 205 E 12th Street, in Dewey, OK.

The final session, on August 9 will be held at Skyline Elementary School, 1402 E. Sunrise Avenue in Stillwater, with an optional facility tour available.

“Come out and see what Oklahoma Green Schools is all about,” said Roberson. “You’ll find out how to get your students excited about coming to school and becoming an advocate for their own education. They can create a greener and healthier learning environment that benefits everybody that’s in that building.”

For more information visit www.okgreenschools.org.

Buchanan Elementary School students, parents, teachers and community members are celebrating the end of MAPS for Kids renovations and facility upgrades at the school located at 4126 NW 18 St.

The $3.7 million project includes a classroom addition and renovation of the core facilities. Buchanan Elementary School accommodates 462 Pre-kindergarten-6th grade students.

The school held a ribbon cutting ceremony complete with student performances, speakers and a concert by the Sugar Free All-Stars.

Scott Kaufman, Buchanan principal said, “What a wonderful day for everyone at Buchanan Elementary. We are absolutely thrilled that our renovation is complete and are very thankful for the support we have received from the citizens of Oklahoma City. Without them, our renovated school would not have been possible.”

Mayor Mick Cornett commented, “April is here and already several grand openings and ground breakings have taken place this year. Buchanan celebrates its completion today but more are yet to come as MAPS for Kids nears completion later this year. Congratulations Buchanan and thank you Oklahoma City citizens for making MAPS for Kids a reality.”