Here is an artist rendering of the new facade Broken Arrow High School will receive as part of the $295 million dollar bond issue passed in 2009.
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6161/6187061553_29a32b6823_b.jpg)
Very nice.
What? Someone allowed spending on education in this state? This must be reported!!!
That is really cool. Who is the architect on the project?
And what they really need is a second high school. By the time Tulsa was the size of that school system, there were about 4 high schools. Mega schools are just about as crazy as mega churches.
Same with Jenks and Union.
But that would interfere with football, wouldn't it? The obvious highest priority of any educational endeavor.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on September 27, 2011, 09:23:42 AM
And what they really need is a second high school. By the time Tulsa was the size of that school system, there were about 4 high schools. Mega schools are just about as crazy as mega churches.
Same with Jenks and Union.
But that would interfere with football, wouldn't it? The obvious highest priority of any educational endeavor.
Broken Arrow has three high school campuses today and Union has two. They just don't divide the schools up in a traditional way. Broken Arrow was talking about adding a second upper high school when the economy went south.
Jenks is a bit different and is actually the largest high school in the state on one campus. And even Jenks technically isn't a single high school, the "Freshman Academy" is a semi-separate school on the east side of the high school campus. Jenks' size is not only about football, though that certainly is important. Jenks has facilities and class offerings that blow away a lot of colleges. The school has an indoor Olympic sized pool, a planetarium, they teach classes like Ornithology, Calculus III and Linear Algrebra and offer absolutely every single AP course that you can.
Quote from: swake on September 27, 2011, 09:53:37 AM
Broken Arrow has three high school campuses today and Union has two. They just don't divide the schools up in a traditional way. Broken Arrow was talking about adding a second upper high school when the economy went south.
Jenks is a bit different and is actually the largest high school in the state on one campus. And even Jenks technically isn't a single high school, the "Freshman Academy" is a semi-separate school on the east side of the high school campus. Jenks' size is not only about football, though that certainly is important. Jenks has facilities and class offerings that blow away a lot of colleges. The school has an indoor Olympic sized pool, a planetarium, they teach classes like Ornithology, Calculus III and Linear Algrebra and offer absolutely every single AP course that you can.
It's more of a university for kids between 15 & 18 than a high school. It's a very well-run district and other systems would do good to take a long look at what makes Jenks such a great school system.
Quote from: Conan71 on September 27, 2011, 09:56:31 AM
It's more of a university for kids between 15 & 18 than a high school. It's a very well-run district and other systems would do good to take a long look at what makes Jenks such a great school system.
This means I can say "smoting".
The "Venture Brothers" compound was my first impression.
Quote from: custosnox on September 27, 2011, 12:06:50 AM
What? Someone allowed spending on education in this state? This must be reported!!!
Does spending money on facilities translate to a better education for the students?
Quote from: BKDotCom on September 27, 2011, 10:43:52 AM
Does spending money on facilities translate to a better education for the students?
Of course it does.
Now the math students have an opportunity to measure the pool, calculate the volume, and convert cubic feet to gallons in order to determine how much it would cost to fill the swimming pool with water. It lends meaning to the book learning.
Quote from: BKDotCom on September 27, 2011, 10:43:52 AM
Does spending money on facilities translate to a better education for the students?
HA ! No kidding. I can be stupid in a old ugly building too. ;D
Quote from: Conan71 on September 27, 2011, 09:56:31 AM
It's more of a university for kids between 15 & 18 than a high school. It's a very well-run district and other systems would do good to take a long look at what makes Jenks such a great school system.
What does make Jenks such a great school system pray tell?
Quote from: TheArtist on September 27, 2011, 01:28:26 PM
What does make Jenks such a great school system pray tell?
$$$$$$$ Ka-Ching $$$$$$$
Quote from: TheArtist on September 27, 2011, 01:28:26 PM
What does make Jenks such a great school system pray tell?
The curriculum is the main thing. As well, they are incredibly efficient with their money. Swake had posted the numbers here before, but IIRC they actually do have one of the lower rates of spending per student on their annual budget yet consistently get very good results. Another thing that helps is parental participation. I'd argue that Jenks probably has one of the higher rates of parental participation in classroom activities and extracurriculars. Their facilities are kept in pretty good condition and students take pride in the school.
Swake, care to add anything that I may have missed?
Union seems to have quite a bit of parental participation, too. I get all kinds of emails about "stuff" going on all the time - by different authors. Lots of commotion, anyway.
Quote from: Conan71 on September 27, 2011, 02:20:28 PM
The curriculum is the main thing. As well, they are incredibly efficient with their money. Swake had posted the numbers here before, but IIRC they actually do have one of the lower rates of spending per student on their annual budget yet consistently get very good results. Another thing that helps is parental participation. I'd argue that Jenks probably has one of the higher rates of parental participation in classroom activities and extracurriculars. Their facilities are kept in pretty good condition and students take pride in the school.
Swake, care to add anything that I may have missed?
Spending is not the main thing. People move the Jenks district for the schools so it being a good school system is kind of a self fulfilling thing, engaged parents have kids that learn. I've read the numbers before and the number of volunteer hours per student is staggering. Good teachers like to teach kids that want to learn with parents that care. So the district has a real advantage with hiring good teachers, often they have advanced degrees. Districts with better teachers have kids that do better. People want to live where the schools have kids that do well. This to me is the biggest advantage, more than money or curriculum.
The money is there too, following the level of involvement the parents are always willing to spend on schools. Jenks certainly does spend a lot more on facilities than most other schools and they also move as much other costs as possible to the capital budget. There are bond issues every single year. Jenks also has a community foundation that helps support the schools and large PTAG (PTA) groups.
The facilities and large school size allows classes that almost no one else does anywhere. Jenks' new math and science center is a LEED certified building with every sort of lab you can think of and a planetarium. The building cost nearly as much TPS's entirely new BTW High School did, $21 million vs $25 million. There are enough gifted students in the elementary grades to have "pods" where almost entire classes are identified as gifted. At the Intermediate Elementary Schools (5th and 6th grade) they have classes taking a mix of pre-Algebra and Algebra, in 5th grade. Most students in the US take Pre-Algebra in 8th grade and Algebra as a Freshman. I went to BTW and was on a fast track, I took Geometry as a Freshman and AP Calc as a senior, at one of the best high schools in the US. Some of these 5th graders will be taking AP Calculus as Freshmen. What kind of ACT and SAT scores do think those students will make?
The better facilities helps with recruiting teachers, who wants to work in a dump every day? Nice facilities help with instilling pride in the kids and pride is a huge part of the culture at Jenks. All the Sports are used as a way to instill pride and it starts early in elementary school. There are more than 1,000 kids in football and cheer in 1st – 7th grades and more in everything from swimming to gymnastics. The kids just become nuts about their school. One result is that a huge percentage of the teachers went to Jenks. In the lower grades it might even be most. Many of them were what they call Jenks Lifers who did k-12 at Jenks.
That's the good part. The bad? Too many kids with too much money and not enough supervision. Drugs always seem to find kids like that and Jenks is no exception. There is a gang element at Jenks too. The schools being so large can lose kids too. It's certainly not for everyone. There are also a ton of special needs kids at Jenks. People move into the district for that as well. A really big portion of the budget goes to special education.
Swake, is Jenks offering the IB curriculum? My son is wrestling with that at BTW and if he is able to get the IB diploma he will actually start at TU as a sophomore with 30 hours credit. OU offers some credit too. Its tougher than AP. Even the teachers have to have special training. Very much like college.
The same courses in IB are taught all over the world and they all take the same rigorous testing. They also have to write an extended essay, similar to a thesis, and have it judged on merit by an outside firm. They are required to do real world activities related to their classes, like mock court, volunteerism, cultural activities like Hispanic festivals etc. to accumulate points towards the diploma. Really amazing stuff that I would have struggled with in college. About a third who started as juniors actually finish with the diploma but still receive a standard diploma and some college credit. It really challenges them and makes them better students even if they don't get the IB diploma.
note: IB stands for International Baccalaureate.