News and Happenings from Around the District

Articles are maintained and submitted by the Communications and Public Information department. For more information or to submit an article or news, please contact Keith Mitchell via email, or call (580) 357-6900.

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LHS student wins Lions Club contest

Lawton High junior Brianna McKiernan has taken top honors in the 2013 Lions Club Speech Contest in Oklahoma City. This year's theme was “What a World of Service Means to Me.” McKiernan is the third straight Lawton High student to win the title, following in the footsteps of Chandria Person in 2011 and Daniel Pae in 2012.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 3 May 2013 @ 9:30 am}

Ridgecrest students among winners in playground safety poster competition

Three Ridgecrest Elementary students won various awards in the 2013 Playground Safety Poster Competition sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Labor, Oklahoma Department of Education and the Oklahoma Recreation and Park Society. Cierra Gates took second place in the Grade 1-2 division, Jasmine Ignacio won first place in the Grade 3-4 divison and Kailah Hughes took second place in the Grade 5-6 division. Posters were judged on such elements as artistic talent, overall theme, relevance to playground safety, and the artwork’s ability to be reproduced as a calendar. The goal of the contest was to allow young artists to become educators, using their posters to teach peers about playground safety.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 10 May 2013 @ 9:14 am}

Five LPS sites earn Great Expectations model school status

Several Lawton schools have extended their designation as “model schools” in the Great Expectations professional development program, an initiative intended to bring major change and innovation to public school classrooms. This is the ninth straight year that Whittier Elementary has been designated a model school, while MacArthur Middle School and Woodland Hills Elementary were named model schools for the fifth straight year. After its five-year run as a model school was interrupted last year, Hugh Bish Elementary has returned to its Great Expectation status. And this year, Crosby Park Elementary achieved first-time designation as a model school.

This is the largest number of LPS schools to ever hold simultaneous designation as model schools. “Model school” status is characterized by at least 90% of the school’s teaching staff successfully implementing all of the program’s models into daily instruction.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 9 May 2013 @ 3:52 pm}

LHS student wins third in Poetry Out Loud finals

Lawton High School senior Denise Burns, two-time state winner in the Poetry Out Loud recitation competition, is bringing home third place honors from the 2013 national finals, held Tuesday at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Burns recited “The True-Blue American” and “Baudelaire,” both by Delmore Schwartz, and Walt Whitman’s “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest and the Road Unknown.” Her third place finish was worthy of a personal cash prize of $5,000, along with a $500 grant to Lawton High to purchase works of poetry.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 2 May 2013 @ 1:03 pm}

EHS freshmen learn to lead as they work to feed the hungry

Freshmen at Eisenhower High School are asking the people of Lawton to help them collect as many non-perishable food items as possible for the Lawton Food Bank this weekend. Students could win as much as $5,000 to aid local charitable organizations through “Lead2Feed,” a leadership program sponsored by USA Today, the Lift a Life Foundation and the Yum! Foundation. EHS’ chances of winning increase as local support for the effort increases. Local charities targeted for the funds – if the freshmen effort is successful – are the Lawton Food Bank, Saint John’s Baptist Church and the Saint Vincent DePaul Society.

Students have been organized into 30 teams that will operate four different collection sites. These will be located in front of Sam’s Club, The Health Food Center and two Country Mart locations (on 67th Street and at Ninth & Gore) on Saturday from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. Not only are students collecting items at these locations, Eisenhower High will also accept donations at the school, 5202 W. Gore, during school hours through April 15.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 4 Apr 2013 @ 4:44 pm}

Deighan selected as new LPS superintendent

The Lawton Board of Education selected Dr. Tom Deighan as the next superintendent of the Lawton Public Schools during its April 1 meeting. Dr. Deighan has nearly 20 years of experience in Oklahoma public schools, serving as a classroom teacher at Calumet, and as a middle school and high school principal at Geary. For the past four years, he has been superintendent of Ringwood Public Schools. Dr. Deighan holds a bachelor’s degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Central Oklahoma, and his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He holds Oklahoma teaching certification in Spanish, language arts, elementary education and physical education, along with administrative certification as a principal and superintendent.

Dr. Deighan will hold the title of superintendent-designate for the next 90 days while he familiarizes himself with the operation of of the school district. He will become superintendent when current superintendent Barry Beauchamp retires on June 28.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 2 Apr 2013 @ 11:10 am}

Abbott recognized by OEA

Judie Abbott, secretary of the Lawton Area Lifelong Learning Center, has been named a recipient of the 2013 Education Support Professional Award by the Oklahoma Education Association. The award is presented to individuals whose activities reflect the contributions of support professionals to public education. She will be presented her award during the annual OEA Delegate Assembly in Midwest City on April 26.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 26 Mar 2013 @ 4:20 pm}

EHS named NMSI school of the year

Eisenhower High School has been named the first National Math and Science Initiative's School of the Year. EHS will be formally recognized at the NMSI awards presentation in Dallas on May 29.

In its first year of implementing the NMSI Advanced Placement program, EHS students increased qualifying scores on Advanced Placement math, science and English exams by 81% and accounted for 23% of Oklahoma's gains in qualifying scores in math, science and English. The school increased qualifying scores among African-American and Hispanic students in the critical subjects of math, science and English by 136%, catapulting EHS into first place among qualifying scores for those ethnic groups.

EHS is one of 52 high schools serving students from military families that have been selected to implement NMSI’s highly successful AP program. Funding to implement the program at Eisenhower was provided by Northrop Grumman.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 26 Mar 2013 @ 3:58 pm}

Modified dress code to continue at 12 LPS elementaries next year

A program to test the benefits of a modified school dress code is being expanded to a dozen LPS elementary schools next fall. At its May 6 meeting, the Lawton Board of Education approved requests by Almor West, Brockland, Cleveland, Pat Henry, Andrew Jackson, Ridgecrest, B.C. Swinney and Wilson elementaries to pilot the program during the 2013-2014 school year. Edison, Pioneer Park, Sullivan Village and Woodland Hills elementaries are already piloting the program.

The program allows students to select from a specific set of clothing items. Boys and girls can choose from a variety of colors for polo shirts, sweaters and sweatshirts. Shirts cannot have designs or wording, and must be solid in color. Slacks, shorts and skirts must be black, blue or khaki. Denim pants will not be an option, due to the wide variety of shades of fabric produced. Many Lawton businesses stock the clothing choices, with costs that are comparable -- or in many cases, less inexpensive -- than what families normally pay for school clothes.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 7 May 2013 @ 11:43 am}

Four seniors recognized by National Merit, Hispanic programs

Four seniors attending LPS high schools have been selected for recognition by two of the nation’s most prestigious national scholarship programs. Michael Felder and Jennifer Saville from Eisenhower High, Stephen McCray from MacArthur High, and Pryce Michener from Lawton High are semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. The National Merit Scholarship Program is widely regarded as the most prestigious national recognition that can be given to high school seniors. Less than one percent of the 1.3 million students who compete for the award make the semifinal round.

Felder was also named a 2012-13 National Hispanic Scholar. The National Hispanic Recognition Program is a College Board effort that recognizes the academic achievements of Hispanic high school seniors. Fewer than 5,000 of the highest scoring students from an initial pool of 150,000 students are recognized as scholars or honorable mention finalists.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 20 Nov 2012 @ 1:06 pm}

LPS gets $37 million federal grant to build new school

The federal Office of Economic Adjustment has awarded a $37.1 million grant to the Lawton Public Schools to replace Sheridan Road and Geronimo Road elementary schools with a single new school at Fort Sill. LPS will manage a $45.2 million project – consisting of the grant announced today and an $8 million match from the school district – to demolish the existing two elementary schools at Fort Sill and replace them with a single new 1400-student Freedom Elementary, which will be constructed immediately south of the current Geronimo Road school.

This award will remedy deficiencies in capacity and building condition that placed Sheridan Road and Geronimo Road schools as the third and 12th schools on a priority list of public schools on military installations needing replacement. Geronimo Road Elementary was constructed in 1951-52, while Sheridan Road Elementary was built in 1962. Superintendent Barry Beauchamp noted that the district hopes to select a bidder for the project shortly after the first of the year, with groundbreaking following in early Spring 2013. The project is projected to take 30 months to complete.

The $37.1 million awarded to LPS must be spent solely on the Freedom Elementary project. The $8 million match from the district will come from proceeds of a sales tax approved by Lawton voters in 2009. Under the terms of the tax, proceeds must be spent solely upon transportation and construction projects, such as the one at Fort Sill.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 17 Sep 2012 @ 3:40 pm}

LPS graduates have high passage rate

More than 95 percent of the 2012 graduating classes at Lawton, Eisenhower and MacArthur high schools scored "proficient" or "advanced" on at least four of the end-of-instruction exams mandated by the State of Oklahoma in order to earn a high school diploma. Out of nearly 900 seniors from those three high schools, all but 23 passed the four mandatory EOI exams. All Oklahoma high school students must rate proficient on Algebra I and English II exams, along with two others from a list of five subject areas (Algebra II, Geometry, English III, Biology I or U.S. History).

_{by Keith Mitchell on 3 July 2012 @ 4:22 pm}

DVDs, web broadcasts of graduations available

Would you like a DVD of the any of LPS' middle or high school graduations this year? Copies can be purchased for $12 each from the LPS Media/Technology Center. Call 580.357.6900 to place an order.

In addition, as a service to graduates' parents who are serving overseas and other family members who were unable to attend high school graduations, the LPS Media/Technology Center has posted streaming video of each high school's 2011 graduation ceremony on its website for a limited time.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 31 May 2011 @ 11:47am}

Business/organizational partnerships benefit schools

LPS and the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce believe that schools, organizations and businesses have much they can offer each other. By working together, the community can produce better schools, better educated children and an improved business climate. That's the idea behind "Partners in Education," a collaboration of local educational institutions and the chamber's education committee that seeks to build close relationships between schools and a community partner.

Collaborations are not restricted to businesses or industries. Civic clubs and local institutions are also invited to partner with schools. Size isn't important; partners can be individuals or industries. Partnerships do not have to involve money; they can involve volunteering, mentoring and tutoring. Possibilities are limitless. Schools and their partners develop their own plans based on their needs, interests and ability to help.

Anyone interested in this program should contact the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber at 580.355.3541. Fliers explaining the program are also available at all LPS schools.

_{by Keith Mitchell on 15 September 2011 @ 9:02am}