Dear Rocket Community,
First, the picture is of the Girl Scouts that presented the colors and led the Pledge at the December board meeting. Thank you, ladies.
I can’t believe we’re already closing the first semester. I’ve shared this thought with several people; after 30 years, you can’t really know which was the “best” year, but I can’t remember a better one than this first year at Oakdale.
The faculty has managed a difficult couple of weeks with empathy and grace while modeling what it means to have a generous heart. Our students have responded with the same by raising money for several important causes and lifting up peers and families in need. Crazy proud of these kids.
We recently turned on our new Oakdale App (It’s Everything Oakdale In Your Pocket), and yesterday we launched our remodeled website. It’s the same web address, so please go take a look. Our intent is to provide static, long-term information on the website, and we’ll use the app for up to date, time specific information. We hope that this will give parents more control on what information they choose to interact with. You are the target audience for the communication, so please email me with suggestions. If something is difficult to find or not available on the website, I would appreciate hearing about it, so we can improve the site.
Please don’t forget that we have a bond electron on Jan 9. There is a page on the website for bond issues, and everything you need to know for this project is on that page.
We started the year committed to improving security. We are in the process of replacing most of our cameras and increasing the capacity of the system by at least 150%. We have also installed digital UHF radios and GPS tracking in every bus. We increased our broadcasting ability, so every bus can communicate from almost any location in the state. When students are traveling to events, from Mt. Scott to Tulsa, we will know exactly where they are and have immediate contact. This project also includes new digital handheld radios with similar capabilities; however, they are on backorder, so we don’t yet have that resource. Additional security improvements are scheduled within the bond project as well.
Merry Christmas and enjoy having those kiddos back home, waking up early, and running all day! We made sure to fuel them with plenty of healthy sugar.
Proud to be a Rocket!!
Dr. J