Sand Springs graduation to be held at Memorial Stadium with limited attendance

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Sand Springs Public Schools officials met in a Zoom meeting Monday evening.

Sand Springs Public Schools Superintendent Sherry Durkee announced in a Monday evening Board of Education virtual meeting that the Charles Page High School graduation ceremony has been moved from the ORU Mabee Center to the CPHS Memorial Stadium, along with other changes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because of Tulsa County Health Department guidance that recommends mass gatherings be kept to less than 250 people, the new graduation plan will be a series of small ceremonies at Memorial Stadium on June 27th.

“I think we will be lucky to get more than 200 students to participate in graduation,” said CPHS Principal Stan Trout. “I particularly think that once the public hears that it’s not going to be at the Mabee Center…that we will have a fairly large number of students and families, unfortunately, who will just say ‘we’re just going to sit this one out.’”

Students will be separated into four or five smaller groups of 50 for a series of 30-45 minute ceremonies, and each student will be limited to four family members in attendance. Students will receive their diploma and a final transcript.

The district is expected to make an official announcement with full details for the event on Tuesday.

Superintendent Durkee also addressed the likelihood of a return to normalcy during the upcoming school year.

“I’m not going to go on record of saying ‘we will start normally’ but I really feel strongly that going into the fall semester we’re going to start normally and be able to do that,” said Durkee. “We had a meeting with the State Interim Epidemiologist today who answered a lot of questions about reactions to a potential outbreak during the fall semester.”

“There’s still more time,” added Durkee. “We have eight weeks of summer left to make some real decisions but the more I hear, the more positive I’m getting about our ability to maneuver through this crisis in a way that gets kids what they need and at the same time protects the public health and the health of our students.”

“One thing for me that was extraordinarily clear is that teachers feel like face-to-face instruction is better. The delivery of content and standards is much healthier if students are present. I think people are ready for their kids to be back in class as a general rule.”

“I say that knowing full well that there are going to be folks that are going to be afraid to do that, and our intent is to offer that virtual option. We’re ramping up our Virtual Academy. We have space now at the old freshman center to have an off-site virtual academy for students that would provide a great amount of social distancing for people that are nervous about that, while at the same time offering that robust learning environment that our kids are going to have to have to stay on grade-level.”

When the schools closed due to the sudden spread of COVID-19, grades were partially frozen for Sand Springs students. They had the option to continue schooling online and improve their grades, but if they chose not to participate, they weren’t penalized.

“Rather than making this a period that was punitive and kids would be punished for not doing their work, we wanted to make it a learning experience where they could gain some insight…moving forward they could maintain or raise their grade without being punished,” said Shawn Beard, Executive Director of Curriculum. “As a result of that, some kids decided that they were fine with their grade the way it was and they wanted to just kind of not participate. We had some kids that really enjoyed being online, really thrived in that environment, while others did not.”

“I don’t think anyone really thought that that we’d be in this place where we are now…Teachers also noticed that parents were overwhelmed. Students and parents saw a lot of stress. We have a lot of kids who may have been working to support families during this time.”

“We also saw kids that thrived,” said Beard. Teachers reported that many introverted students loved online classes, while students without parental support were negatively affected. Some parents gained a better understanding of their kids’ weaknesses both academically and focus-related. “I think this gave parents and students some one-on-one time to work together, and for parents to really understand where their students may need help.”

A public hearing was held regarding the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year Budget, which was unanimously approved.

“When I built this two months ago, we thought the world was grand and wonderful and we were going to receive about the same amount of money we previously had,” said Chief Financial Officer Greg Morris. “Along came COVID in March and our world changed.”

“The last budget we had was about $37.8 million is what we were anticipating. Now we’re at $36.4, so we’re $1.4 million down. I would not be surprised to see that number drop some more before the year is out.”

In other news:

Resignations were accepted from Sherri Ward, Kenneth Gooch, Burgess Shaw, Cristina Abbott, Ashleigh West, and Brena Tiblow.

The Board approved a $77,408.80 quote for Newline Interactive Panels for the new Freshman center at Charles Page High School.

The Board approved $186,428.00 for Newline Interactive Panels for 3rd through 5th Grade classrooms.

The Board approved $343,064.00 for desktop computers and monitors.

The Board approved $9,295.00 for new laptops for Central Office staff.

The Board approved $119,625.00 for supplies, management licenses, and white glove enrollment services for Chromebooks for the 2021 Freshman class.

The Board approved $2,923.20 to install point-to-point WiFi access for the Baseball and Softball Complexes.

The Board approved $15,845.00 for renewal support and troubleshooting for the Mitel VoIP phone system.

The Board approved $3,000.00 for renewal of Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for CPHS.

The Board approved the hiring of a math teacher at CPHS, a special education teacher at the Early Childhood Education Center, a kindergarten teacher at Northwoods Fine Arts Academy, a speech pathologist at Limestone Technology Academy, and a Braille transcriptionist/paraprofessional at CPHS.

The Board approved a lease agreement with Olivet Baptist Church, allowing them to use the 2.89 acre section of land that was previously home to Twin Cities Elementary.

The Board approved Superintendent Durkee as Purchasing Agent for the district, Authorized Representative for all federal programs, and Designated Custodian for all funds and programs for the upcoming school year.

The Board approved a contract extension for Superintendent Durkee through the 2023 school year.