Hennessey Public Schools’ Early Childhood Center is one of five schools selected to join the A+ Schools Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The $76,000 support in education through arts, creativity and innovation will give the school faculty and staff support for three years starting with the 2020-21 school year.

ECC Principal Stacey Schovanec received notice this month that the school had been accepted for membership. She received notice in December that the OKA+School Network had accepted her application.

School staff are scheduled to attend a New School Summit at UCO July 27-31 that will include arts-integrated teaching methods. There will be other professional development sessions by educators and artists throughout the program’s course.

Other schools chosen for membership this fall are Arrow Springs in Broken Arrow; Aspen Creek Early Childhood Center, Broken Arrow; Esperanza Elementary, Oklahoma City, and Pathways Adult Learning Center, Tulsa.

They join 60 other schools in the A+ Schools Institute network.

The state organization was started here in 2002.

The OKA+ Schools initiative was conceived in North Carolina where it began as a research model sponsored by the Kenan Institute for the Arts. In 1998, the Kirkpatrick Foundation provided support through the DaVinci Institute to identify the country’s most successful education reform models.

A joint research team from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University identified the North Carolina A+ Schools Program as one with great potential for replication, and the Oklahoma A+ Schools initiative was born.

In 2003, UCO stepped up to provide a permanent home for Oklahoma A+ Schools.