Ponca Politics hosted a State of the Schools forum at City Hall on Friday, Oct. 28 with several speakers from area educational institutes including Sheri Snyder with Northern Oklahoma College (NOC), University Center (UC) CEO Robyn Armstrong, Pioneer Technology Center (PTC) Superintendent Traci Thorpe, and Ponca City Public Schools (PCPS) Superintendent Shelley Arrott. This forum was also streamed via Facebook Live on the Ponca City Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page.

Each speaker was given 15 to 20 minutes to provide an update on various statistics, projects and challenges facing their various institutes.

First to speak was PCPS Superintendent Shelley Arrott.

PCPS has a little over 4600 students enrolled this year, an increase since the pandemic and numbers have stayed staple.

There are 762 employees in the district. PCPS was formerly the largest employer in Ponca City, but that title now goes to Dorada Foods.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was recognized that the district had a need for a virtual academy. This void was filled with Ponca City Virtual Academy (PCVA). At PCVA’s highest point in the pandemic, there were 608 students. Today, there are 93 students enrolled in PCVA.

The pandemic resulted in many setbacks for many school districts, and PCPS was no exception. There are academic gaps, lower levels of school spirits due to activities being restricted or canceled, and increased levels of stress, grief, anxiety and depression amongst students and faculty alike.

With the academic relief plan money and ESSER funds, PCPS hired response councilors and additional therapists.

The 2022-2023 school year is the most normal since the onset of the pandemic. To put that into perspective: this is the first normal year for the seniors since they were in 8th grade; it is also the first normal school year period for the 2nd graders. This year’s Pre-K students could well be the first to experience a normal kindergarten through 12th grade experience barring any further pandemics or setbacks.

PCPS is pushing STEM activities in all grades and working to close remedial gaps. This has proven effective as 2022 ACT scores have improved in all areas from 2021, and Ponca City students have outperformed the state average in several areas.

Arrott shared that this year students appear to be excited about school, activities and being with friends. Students have been able to enjoy a normal school year with extracurricular activities, dress up days, fun days, concerts and movies nights.

Arrott then proceeded to talk about some legislative hot topics including school vouchers.

SB 1647, otherwise known as the Oklahoma Empowerment Act, failed to pass in the previous legislative session back in March of 2022. The bill failed in a 22 to 24 vote. SB 1647, introduced by Senator Greg Treat (R-Oklahoma City) would have allowed current and potential private school students to utilize public school funding for specific costs of private schooling, and would take some $3,600 the state would spend on a public school student and put it in a savings account. The bill was controversial amongst school districts, as well as Democrats and rural Republics, due to the its proposed use of taxpayer money on private schooling, how it would impact public school state aid, and there being very few state regulations and accountability for private schools.

SB 1647 is expected to make a return in the upcoming legislative session.

Teacher shortage has been another issue facing schools and there are a number of factors contributing to this situation including salary and a lack of respect for the profession. To illustrate how severe the situation is, Arrott showed data for emergency certifications from 11 years ago versus now. 11 years ago there were 32 emergency certificates in the entire state of Oklahoma, now there are 4000 this year.

PCPS has 47 emergency certified teachers or about 15% of the teachers in the district.

There is new legislation incentivizing students to become teachers, HB 3564, that provide a $1000 scholarship in their first three years of college, and $2500 in their final year if they agreed to teach in an Oklahoma public school for at least five years.

Arrott closed out her section of the forum discussing several upcoming projects and renovations from the recent bond issue including classrooms at the Concert Hall, the Anderson STEM building, a new multipurpose facility, and various other remodels.

“I want to say that this community supports their public schools and their students more than any community I have ever seen,” said Arrott. “We have some great kids. We have amazing Wildcats and it’s our goal for them to be the future workforce of Ponca City, the future leaders of Ponca City, and productive citizens.”

PTC Superintendent, Traci Thorpe, was next to speak and provided an overview on career tech system.

Within the career tech system there are program in 391 schools across Oklahoma, and 29 technology centers districts. There are also skill center programs that serve as workforce training in correctional facilities.

More that $3.5 billion annually are added to the economy through the graduates of the career tech system.

Career techs have their own state board and each technology center have their own board of education.

Thorpe shared that 42.9% of the state’s overall budget goes to education, and breaking that number down further: 75.8% goes to the Department of Education, 20.8% goes to the Regents for Higher Education, and 3.4% goes to career tech. Since the majority of the funding for education does not go to career tech, that funding has to be made up locally.

For the upcoming appropriations request, PTC are asking for additional dollars that are related to education attainment, and to increase the programs and services they provide. There are 163 approved career tech programs in the Pre-K to 12th grade schools that are currently not funding, so PTC would like to provide additional resources for those. PTC wants to expand offers for high demand/high wage careers such as health industry, manufacturing, transportation, construction and aerospace. They also want continue to expand the careers programs in the skills centers for more opportunities for training.

Career techs have a big carry over because they have to have a cash flow to pay their necessary operational expenses. A career tech’s revenue typically only comes in between December or March, thus necessitating money for the rest of the year. No state funds are used for capital improvements, those instead come from local dollars and bond issues. PTC will not pursue bond issues to avoid competing with the public schools.

Next, UC CEO Robyn Armstrong spoke about some of the history of University Center.

Operations at UC began in 1999 in the basement of the Conoco Complex with two classrooms and 40 students. In 2011, the UC had to find a new location at 2800 N. 14th.

The UC offers courses primarily through Northwestern and Northern Oklahoma College. They also facilitate online test proctoring, as well as having an area on site for proctoring tests.

Pre-pandemic there were 320 students enrolled per semester with an average of 2100 credit hours; post-pandemic there are 211 students enrolled per semester.

UC has more than 20 undergrad and graduate degrees to choose from; bachelor’s degree options including accounting, computer science, criminal justice, business admin, early childhood, special ed, general studies, psychology, sociology, and nursing; and master’s degree options for education, counseling, psychology and American studies.

UC is seeing an uptick in concurrently enrolled students and are increasing online classes. They are also working to increase their STEM opportunities, and updated their current technology to a Zoom format.

Finally, Vice President for Development Community Relations Sheri Snyder, spoke about NOC on behalf of NOC President Dr. Clark Harris, who could not be in attendance.

The higher ed system in Oklahoma is comprised of 25 colleges and universities across the state.

NOC is the first community college in Oklahoma, and started as a prep school for the University of Oklahoma. They acquired the Enid campus in 1999.

In the early 2000s, 70% of NOC’s budget was composed of state appropriations compared to 34% today. An extensive budget discussion is being had at NOC going into next year.

This fall semester saw a 5% increase in student headcount and a 1% increase in credit hours. Concurrent enrollment has increased to 436 students, a 27% increase from the previous year.

NOC has a Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institution program, 15% of the student population are Native American. In 2016 the college was given a US Department of Education Title Three grant and received $1.74 million to support Native American and low-income student needs.

In 2021, NOC was awarded a second grant of $2.5 million. As a community college, between 50% to 60% of incoming students are first generation college students, meaning they are the first in their family to attend college.