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Oklahoma public school districts are bracing for additional funding cuts this school year and next, even as they currently struggle to teach students during a pandemic with fewer state dollars. Choctaw-Nicoma Park Public Schools began the school year with $1.7 million less in state aid than last year. “That’s significant to us,” said Kevin Berry, the district’s chief financial officer. “I expect to lose several hundred thousand more with the midyear adjustment.” Mid-year adjustments in state aid are based in part on districts’ Oct. 1 enroll...
New data showing the percentage of Oklahoma kindergarteners who are up to date on all required vaccines is missing about 7,870 students because their schools did not submit the information. Each year the State Department of Health conducts a survey of vaccination coverage and exemption rates for children enrolled in public and private kindergarten programs. It uses the data to develop public health policy. Participation in this year’s survey was down by 70 schools, with four in five schools responding. “Our numbers would have been con...
Health officials are concerned fewer children are current on their immunizations. And parents must rely on 2-year-old school vaccination data. One of the concerned parents is Rebecca Mauldin, who will send her 4-year-old son to a private school that accepts only children who are up to date on immunizations unless they cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. He falls into that category after battling cancer and undergoing a liver transplant, she said. His sister, who has no special health concerns, is a third-grader who started at the school...
PONCA CITY - Fifty-one days after COVID-19 put him in the hospital, Geoffrey Cowan returned home to continue the hard work of regaining what he lost to the disease. His physical therapist told him it could take up to a year to recover the muscle mass, strength and stamina he suffered from being sedated and on a ventilator for a month. Cowan dropped 30 pounds and was too weak to open a water bottle. "It's a tremendous sense of loss," he said, counting both the physical and emotional toll....
When a coronavirus vaccine becomes available in the United States, the federal government and states will face a crucial choice: Should all or most residents be required to get the novel coronavirus vaccine? Or should it be required only for school children, with a medical exception allowed, and for groups like front-line health-care workers? Some officials might want few or no requirements at all because they think enough people are likely to get the vaccine voluntarily or have immunity from...
Reading experts and brain scientists agree nearly every child can learn to read if they are taught using explicit, systematic, research-based instruction. So why aren't all teachers and schools using this method? Many Oklahoma students struggle to read. Only 29% of Oklahoma fourth graders – and 26% of eighth graders – were at or above proficiency in reading in the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared with 34% and 32% nationally. The problem is especially acute among low...
In the wake of Gov. Kevin Stitt's decision to start reopening Oklahoma's economy, Oklahoma Watch reached out for reaction from top medical groups and checked the remarks from Oklahoma City and Tulsa mayors. Here's what we gleaned: Oklahoma State Medical Association Dr. George Monks, president of medical association, stuck by his initial assertion that the governor's May 1 date for the first phase of reopening was hasty. But he said Stitt had to take into account more than just medical advice....
A double diagnosis of COVID-19 thrust Christy Yousefi into a weeks-long struggle to help save her parents. Her account offers a glimpse into how some loved ones of those stricken by the disease find themselves helpless at times, yet push to learn more and advocate to influence the delivery of care. Geoffrey and Steffi Cowan, of Ponca City, both came down with symptoms of COVID-19and went into self-quarantine at home in early March. Steffi Cowan, 64, is a registered nurse who works at Stillwater...
Each step taken by public officials to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Oklahoma raises questions around what is banned and what's just a recommendation. Gov. Kevin Stitt issued orders Tuesday that include requiring vulnerable populations to stay at home until April 30 except for essential trips, and the closure of all nonessential businesses in the 19 counties that have a confirmed case of COVID-19. Closures would lat for 21 days beginning at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Many cities in...
Each step taken by public officials to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Oklahoma raises questions around what is banned and what's just a recommendation. Gov. Kevin Stitt issued orders Tuesday that include requiring vulnerable populations to stay at home until April 30 except for essential trips, and the closure of all nonessential businesses in the 19 counties that have a confirmed case of COVID-19. Closures would lat for 21 days beginning at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Many cities in... Full story
Oklahoma State University announced Wednesday all classes at its Stillwater and Tulsa campuses will be delivered online for the remainder of the spring semester to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. “Let me assure our students: We are working together with our faculty and staff to make sure you can complete and pursue your academic goals,” OSU President Burns Hargis said in the announcement. Hargis said officials also are considering alternatives to the traditional spring graduation events. Most classes will be taught through the uni...
Ariana Bradley sets multiple alarms that start going off at 5:30 a.m. on school days, but rarely rolls out of bed before 6:30. Bradley is a senior at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School, where classes begin at 7:35 a.m. Her first class is Advanced Placement literature. "I'm usually late to first hour," said Bradley, 18. "First hour I'm still groggy and tired." For what is likely a majority of Oklahoma high school students, start times for school days are earlier than what medical... Full story
Student debt in the U.S. hit $1.5 trillion for the first time this year, according to the Federal Reserve. Graduates who earn a four-year degree leave college with an average debt of more than $30,000, the Project on Student Debt reports. It is lower in Oklahoma at $25,856 overall and $23,903 for graduates of public institutions. The data show Oklahoma has the 10th lowest student debt in the nation. Half of the state system students graduate with zero debt. Financial literacy programs are one way Oklahoma colleges and universities are fighting...
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Seventy years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for nonwhite students to attend the only taxpayer-funded law school in Oklahoma. On Jan. 12, 1948, voting 9-0 in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the court ruled states could not discriminate against law-school applicants due to race. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher — denied admission in 1946 because she was black — began law school classes at OU in the summer of 1949 and graduated two years later. Not only was Fisher the only black student pursu...
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Campus life is the good life for 600 upperclassmen who moved into the first residential colleges at the University of Oklahoma this semester. The stately and elegant Headington College and Dunham College opened in August with spacious dining halls, made-to-order food options, private courtyards, game rooms, comfortable lounges and libraries filled with books and artwork on loan from the campus museum. The Oklahoman reports that the amenities are not intended to pamper students, but to increase their academic achievement b...
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Campus life is the good life for 600 upperclassmen who moved into the first residential colleges at the University of Oklahoma this semester. The stately and elegant Headington College and Dunham College opened in August with spacious dining halls, made-to-order food options, private courtyards, game rooms, comfortable lounges and libraries filled with books and artwork on loan from the campus museum. The Oklahoman reports that the amenities are not intended to pamper students, but to increase their academic achievement b...
GARBER, Okla. (AP) — When the 2016 American Star Farmer isn't taking care of crops and livestock, he is studying the business, science and technology of agriculture at Oklahoma State University. Tyler Schnaithman — an agricultural economics major and fifth-generation family farmer — has spent half his life working toward the award, the highest recognition in the nation for an aspiring young farmer. "It's huge," said Dexter Matlock, who was Schnaithman's FFA adviser at Garber High School. The Oklahoman (http://bit.ly/2hl1Bh3 ) reports FFA choos...
