Growing & improving
Cheer, softball facility construction highlights campus-wide upgrades
MEET THE TEACHER: MONDAY, AUG. 12
GROWING & IMPROVING
With one big exception, Kingfisher Public Schools has not had many major projects this summer outside of the typical summer maintenance and upgrades, according to Superintendent Jason Sternberger.
“We are very blessed that we have been able to do a lot of the needed updates prior to this summer as a result of money from oil and gas,” he said.
Those funds helped the school district pay for the lone big exception referenced above.
That’s the new cheer-leading and softball facility for which preliminary work has begun west of the football stadium and east of the softball fields.
Rather than finance the $2 million project, the board of education voted earlier this year to pay for the building from the general fund.
It is scheduled to be completed in November, said Sternberger.
Other than that, it’s been routine upgrades.
New ticket booths are being constructed for the west entrance of the football and soccer stadium.
Farrar Construction donated all the materials for the booths, which were being built by head football coach Jeff Myers, his brother Dave Myers and athletic director Jay Wood.
New carpet has been added to some classrooms at Gilmour Elementary and to the libraries at both Kingfisher Middle School and Kingfisher High School.
Changes to the outside of the APB have also been made to make it more accessible.
“We added four more ADA parking spots in the front of the APB,” said Sternberger. “We also improved the ramp so people don’t have to take as many steps to get to it.”
KPS has also completed buying Chromebooks for student use.
“They are not practical for some grade levels,” Sternberger said. “We have a Chromebook cart for each teacher that wants to utilize them in their classroom, but we did not do a one-to-one ratio for that reason.”
All of the teachers in the district also received new teacher computers.
Heritage teachers had already been recipients of new ones while the remaining teachers in the district now have theirs in place.
“New computers were a big need,” said high school principal Todd Overstreet. “It had been about eight [Continued From Page 2B]
years since we upgraded them. They were past due.” This summer, the district technology room was relocated to a room in the building west of Heritage. The move freed up a classroom at the high school. “This year, we are adding AP Biology and a personal finance class,” said Over-street.
“Before, personal finance was embedded in economics, but now it will be a stand alone class,” added Sternberger.
Gilmour Elementary School staff
Administrative Staff
Principal - Cliff Benson
Counselor - Teneille Rother
Support Staff
Secretaries - Janet Hood, Shasta Yost
Custodians - Danny Pflueger, Coquette Barrios
Faculty
Pre-Kindergarten- Laurie Hagar, Becky Hart, Leah Friesen, Carla Marshall, Lauren Waterhouse
Transitional Kindergarten - Tammy Duncan
Kindergarten - Rhonda Bromlow, Kara Brueggen, Jarren Graham, Melanie Green, Desirae Havens
First grade - Janie Erwin, Rachel Ince, Michelle Stone, Maddison Siebert, Lacey Kuehn
Second grade - Samantha Ingram, Suzanne Crow, Stephanie Farrell, Rebecca Whiteman, Nikki Young
Pre-Kindergarten Teacher Assistant - Becky Gibson, Bailey Price, Jennifer Kirtley, Heather Pringnitz
Teacher Assistant - Melba McLain, Lynne Hall, Jackie Jones, Jennifer Isom, Teri Hopkins
Paraprofessionals - Tara Varnell, Kara Wallace-Kraus, Lisa Williams, Amber Woolery
Librarian - Lesley Red-wine Music - Teresa Greco Learning Resources - Connie Gallupe Physical Education - Danny Green Ell Resource Room - Josie Henry Speech Therapists - Steffanie Stephenson, Starla Wittrock Kitchen - Dena Garcia, Claudia Carranza, Balbina Mojica
Kingfisher Heritage School staff
Administrative Staff
Principal - Shane Hood Counselor - Kris Schaefer
Support Staff
Secretaries - Gia Mason, April Askey Custodians - Michael Clayton, Maria Gutierrez Paraprofessionals - Bianca Thomas, Barbara Baker, Briana Stitt, Jordan Smith, Teacher’s assistant - Alicia Crawford
Faculty
Third grade - Micah Daugherty, Makylah Endres, Diane Grellner, Kristi Hyatt, Heather Wittrock, Kaytlyn Woods Fourth grade - Lili Giles, Stephanie Harper, Melody Kuehn, Michele Simon, Tammy Themer LEAP - Courtney Deterding Learning Resources - Jenny Laudwig Physical Education - Jared Reese Music - Molly Neuman, Mandy Owens Librarian - Kathy Kadavy Library Assistant - Stacey French Speech Therapist - Stephanie Willbanks Special Education Director - Kristina Burnham
Kingfisher Middle School staff
Administrative Staff
Principal - Keith Campbell Counselor - Melissa Slezickey Secretaries - Schrie Braden, Teresa Fletcher Special Education Director - Kristina Burnham
Support Staff
Custodians - Patricia Celiz, Gabriela Gutierrez Aides - Rita Buckner, Leslie Click, Chrissy Wens-man, Shondra Hoffman
Faculty
Jacket Academy - Lynn Barnett, Vicky Allen, Ruth Bengs
Fifth grade
Misty Blundell - Math Morgan Finley - Science Amanda Matthews - English Language Arts Liz Walter - Reading Connie Kitchens - History
Sixth grade
Jill Haub - Reading Julie Jackson - Math Lara Kostka - Science Tracy Stephenson - History Billie Karcher - English Language Arts
Seventh grade
Bridget Birdwell - Science, Sixth grade PE Susan Campbell - Reading, Keyboarding Mandy Horn - Reading, Enrichment Stuart Purintun - Math Jackie Sternberger - Geography, Athletics, PE Kerri Lafferty - English Language Arts, Athletics, PE Derek Patterson - Math
Eighth grade
Nikki Buck - Science, LEAP Sheila Redwine - Reading, Achievement Lindsay Reese - English Language Arts Jill Myers - History, Math Dianna Weems - Math, Algebra I Fay Barnett - PE, Athletics Stan Blundell - PE, Athletics Tyler Gradert - Agriculture Education Megan Thormodsgard - Agriculture Education Jared Reese - Athletics Gerrett Spears - Athletics Jeff Myers - Athletics, PE Diann Magnus - Vocal Kurt Kaya - Technology Mandy Owens - Band Rachael Spears - Band Meggan Lunsford - Library, Art
Kingfisher High School staff
Administrative Staff
Principal - Todd Over-street Assistant principal/athletic director - Jay Wood Counselor - Paula Leffingwell
Support Staff
Custodians - Eugenia Altizer, Sandra Esparza Natalie Branson Administrative assistants - Heather Mercer, Teri Layn, Shelly Watkins Online facilitator - Stacy Themer
Faculty
Vicki Allen - Alternative Education Lynn Barnett - Alternative Education Ruthie Bengs - Alternative Education Stephanie Bieren - Library/ Media Stan Blundell - Athletics Wendi Carter - FACS Wyatt Carter - Science, Athletics Sharon Clark - Contextual Geometry, Geometry Chris Combs - Oklahoma History, Athletics Ed Evey - Math, Athletics Tyler Gradert - Agriculture Education T.J. Harris - English IV, AP English IV and III, Speech/ Drama/ Debate Bailee Hollingshead - English II Dakota Horn - Band, Special Education Dr. A.J. Johnson - Photography, History, Newspaper, Psychology Whitney Johnson - English I, Yearbook Kurt Kaya - Media Technology, Photojournalism Mallory Kusik - Math Amy Lorenz - English III Diann Magnus - Vocal Music Kara Moore - Physical Science, Anatomy Jeff Myers - Biology, Athletics Micah Nall - English, Athletics Sabrina Nault - Accounting I, Fund Adm. Technology, Desktop Publishing Mandy Owens - Band Janet Pennington - Trigonometry, Algebra III, AP Calculus, Calculus, Pre-Calculus Amy Pearson - Algebra I Carina Ponce - Spanish Jared Reese - Athletics Stephen Rempe - Chemistry, Physical Science Julie Rother - Biology Summer Scott - Art Mariah Sinclair - Science Audra Smalley - History, Government, Athletics Gerrett Spears - Economics, Athletics Rachael Spears - Band Megan Thormodsgard - Agriculture Education
Kingfisher’s 2019-20 calendar
Aug. 9-13 - Professional development days
Aug. 14 - First day of school
Sept. 2 - No school, Labor Day
Oct. 14-15 - Parent-teacher conferences
Oct. 18-21 - Fall break
Nov. 25-29 - Thanksgiving break
Dec. 20 - Last day of first semester
Dec. 23-Jan. 3 - Christmas break
Jan. 6 - Professional development day
Jan. 7 - First day of second semester
Jan. 20 - No school, MLK
Feb. 17 - No school, President’s day
March 10, 12 - Parent-teacher conferences
March 13 - No school
March 16-20 - Spring break
April 10 - No school, Good Friday
May 8 - No school
May 16 - High school graduation
May 21 - Last day of second semester
May 22 - Professional development day