1. Art and Diseño

Board Approves Training
at Two Middle Schools
The board on Monday night approved contracts for the 2015-2016 school year with
Solution Tree, an Indiana-based company that provides educational strategies and tools
to improve student and staff performance.
Approval of the two contracts will extend services provided at Mayfield Middle
School and Kenneth Cooper Middle School this school year. As a result, Dr. Sharon
Kramer will meet with teachers and administrators at each school seven days next
school year to provide training to groups or the entire faculty as needed. All training
sessions offered by Kramer will be customized to help with challenges faced by the
schools and develop areas in which the schools are strong. Topics for training may
include professional learning communities, collaboration, standards analysis, common
formative assessments, SMART goals, data analysis, response to intervention, and
more. The $45,500 cost of each contract, or $91,000 in all, will be covered by federal
funds.
Putnam City Schools Foundation President Caroline Gist received a tremendous
honor Tuesday evening when she was named the newest member of the Northwest
Oklahoma City Chamber Hall of Honor. The award is given each year to a person who
has demonstrated significant achievement and service over time and who has made
a significant impact on the community. As a Hall of Honor inductee, Caroline is in
good company. Other members of the Hall include Astronaut Shannon Lucid, former
Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, Mayor Mick Cornett, longtime Southern
Nazarene University President Dr. Loren Gresham and Bethany Public Schools
Superintendent Dr. Kent Shellenberger. Our congratulations go to Caroline, and we
thank her for all she does for our students and teachers. She is a community and district
treasure.
Will Rogers Elementary School Principal John Lunn was also honored at the
Northwest Chamber’s Evening of Accolades Tuesday evening when he received a
Leadership in Action award . The award is presented to a graduate of the Chamber’s
Leadership Program who is actively demonstrating leadership and making a difference
in the northwest metro community. Mr. Lunn was recognized for his work with the
Swazi 5K race that is sponsored by Bethany First Church of the Nazarene and takes
place at Southern Nazarene University. Last year’s event raised just over $20,000.
(continued on page 2)
Feb. 2, 2015
Monday night’s board meeting
included comments from 19 students,
their parents and other supporters asking
for reinstatement of Londaryl Perry as
Putnam City North girls’ basketball
coach.
Bren Smith announced that family
care issues require that she move out
of District 2 and resign her seat on the
board.
Board members thanked Smith for
her service to the community and said
they would keep her in their thoughts and
prayers. Board members also expressed
appreciation for students and parents
who attended the meeting and addressed
the board.
Becky Haliburton said she was
pleased to see Putnam City North news
appear in Friday newspaper again, and
thanked Angela Nwanko for providing
articles for Friday. She also encouraged
students, parents and patrons to attend
Putnam City North Heisman Week
events at the Kendra Scott store
(continued on page 2)
Meeting Date: Monday, Feb. 2, 5 p.m.
Location:
Administration Building
Roll Call:
All five members of the board were present: Gail LoPresto, president;
Cindy Gibbs, vice president;
Becky Haliburton; Bren Smith
and Tammy West. Also present were
Dr. Fred Rhodes, superintendent;
and Sandy Lemaster, deputy board
clerk
Next Meeting: Monday, Feb. 16, 5 p.m.
Putnam City Schools does not discriminate on the
basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin,
age, marital or veteran status, or disability.
Feb. 2, 2015
Superintendent’s Report
(continued from page 1)
Angela Nwanko of Putnam City North has been selected as one of 250 Regional
Finalists in the 2014-2015 Coca-Cola Scholars Program. She was one of more than
102,000 students in the nation who applied for a Coca-Cola scholarship and later
became one of 2,200 students who moved to the semifinalist level. As a regional
finalist, she will take part in either an in-person or online interview. From those
interviews, 150 Coca-Cola Scholars will be selected this month to each receive a
$20,000 college scholarship. We congratulate Ms. Nwanko on an outstanding high
school career and wish her the best in the Coca-Cola Scholars Program competition.
Putnam City North High School recently competed in the 6A Area Academic Bowl.
They competed with twelve other area teams at Edmond Memorial High School and
earned 4th Place in competition. Team members include: Kaiser Cleburn (Captain),
Dylan Rodolf, Aaron Corona, Opi Odejimi, Madison Saunders, Michael Thomas and
Shervin Tabatabia.
Congratulations to Rollingwood Elementary School 5th-grade teachers Karla White
and Gena Barnhill, who each received a $1,700 grant from the Boeing Corporation
through the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence to attend a STEM Conference in
Minneapolis. We are making great strides in our quest to implement STEM at the
elementary school level. We appreciate the efforts of teachers like these who have taken
the initiative to seek additional STEM training.
 We congratulate the Capps Middle School team that recently placed in the top five
in the state Future City Competition. The Future City Competition is a national, projectbased learning experience where students in 6th-, 7th-, and 8th grade imagine, design
and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer
mentor to: plan cities using SimCity™ software; research and write solutions to an
engineering problem; build tabletop scale models with recycled materials and present
their ideas before judges at Regional Competitions. The Capps Middle School PEAK
team worked more than 80 hours to create the futuristic city La Corriente del Mar (The
Current of the Sea). Team members were Camika Dubose, Jose Alejandro Esparza,
Jasmyne Gurley Dungan, Long Pham, Chau Nguyen, Alisha Tran, and Jaiden Callies.
We also congratulate the software and gaming team, Jacob Poff, Akshay Sunil, Brendan
Spurlock, Nick Jackson, and Nathan Cronic.
Mark your calendars for the February meeting of the Central Oklahoma Parent
Legislative Action Committee meeting which will be hosted by Putnam City Schools.
Putnam City North High School will be the location of this PLAC meeting at 7 p.m. on
Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Board Comments
(continued from page 1)
Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. and at
basketball games on Friday, Feb. 13
Tammy West congratulated Caroline
Gist and John Lunn for recognition they
received recently. She joined Bren Smith
in thanking Overholser administrators
for spotlighting their school. She said
KFOR ran a nice story on Putnam City
West basketball player Tyson Jolly and
that anyone who missed it can see it at
www.kfor.com. She said recent orchestra
performances in the district were
wonderful and noted that the Putnam
City West band would travel to San
Diego to perform on the USS Midway on
Memorial Day. She said board members
receive many letters praising the district
for its arts program and the positive
impact it has on students.
Cindy Gibbs joined Haliburton in
thanking Angela Nwanko and Friday
newspaper for resuming regular Putnam
City North articles. She also thanked two
college students who were in attendance
at the meeting.
Gail LoPresto said the vacancy
for the District 2 board seat would be
addressed at the next board meeting.
Board Approves Cellular Provider
The board on Monday night approved submission of paperwork that will allow
the district to apply for e-rate reimbursement for cellular services through T-Mobile.
Among the three companies seeking to provide services, T-Mobile submitted the
lowest, best bid.
E-rate is the discount that schools may receive for the acquisition of
telecommunication services as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The level of discount, between 20 and 90 percent, is based upon the district’s level of
eligibility in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.
Board Highlights is not a comprehensive review
of every item that takes place at board of education
meetings. Its purpose is merely to provide
information about items that seem of most
interest to district employees and patrons.
Complete board meeting minutes may be found at
http://www.putnamcityschools.org/BoardofEducation/BoardMeetingMinutes/tabid/565/Default.aspx