The Duncan Banner

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Muskogee Phoenix

r EPIC educators donate to feed medical staff

once the word got out to other EP-
Submitted by Price Lang Consulting at the following health care facili-
IC employees. “It just grew from ties were recipients of meals:
OKLAHOMA CITY — Two there and morphed into some- Tulsa: Ascension St. John
principals at EPIC Charter thing quite special.” Medical Center, Oklahoma State
n Schools are the driving force The funds were collected and University Medical Center, Saint
behind more than $10,000 in do- distributed by the Onward Okla- Francis Hospital, EMSA; Ponca
nations collected to provide 640 homa Foundation, an Oklahoma City: AllianceHealth; Muskogee:
meals to frontline medical staff at City-based (501 c3). Meals and Saint Francis Hospital; Lawton:
13 hospitals and two EMSA sites beverages were provided by locally Comanche County Memorial
el in Oklahoma. owned restaurants and bakeries Hospital; Oklahoma City: SSM
EPIC Principals Lealon Taylor across the state and distributed to Health Saint Anthony Hospital,
and Tonya Mann had the idea health care workers in Oklahoma OU Medical Center, Community
r when they learned a colleague’s City, Tulsa, Muskogee, Lawton, Hospital, INTEGRIS Baptist
wife, an ER nurse, was struggling Norman and Ponca City. Medical Center; Norman: Norman
ot under the weight of long hours The following restaurants pro- Regional Health System, J.D. Mc-
e and intense working conditions vided food for the effort: carty Center.
amid the coronavirus pandemic. Oklahoma City: Rococo; Tulsa: “One of the core values we have
is “We wanted to do something Trencher’s Deli; Norman: Aunt at EPIC is citizenship,” said EPIC
nice for her and her coworkers, Pittypat’s Catering; Lawton: Superintendent Bart Banfield.
who are under a huge amount of Mike’s Sports Grille; Ponca City: “This kind of spontaneous giving
- stress and working incredibly long Danny’s BBQ Headquarters; and care for frontline essential
s- hours right now,” Taylor said, add- Muskogee: local Chick-fil-A fran- employees when they need our
of ing that what started as a small chise. support is part of our school’s cul-
gesture of 19 meals quickly grew Frontline medical professionals ture.”
a
nd

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Sand Springs Leader
Did parents notice lack of learning?
BY JONATHAN SMALL
When schools in Oklahoma and na-
tionwide transitioned to distance learn-
ing in April in response to COVID-19,
many schools simply stopped teaching
students. Recent polling indicates par-
ents noticed—and aren’t happy with
that fact.
A recent RealClear Opinion Research
nationwide survey found 40 percent of
families are now more likely to home-
school or use virtual school after the
COVID lockdowns. The desire for al-
ternatives is understandable given
how many traditional schools handled
their duties during the shutdown. In
too many cases, schools simply stopped
teaching new material or even grad-
ing lessons that students were asked to
complete.
And that trend was not a product of
the “digital divide” that makes online
learning more challenging for low-
income students. In fact, some of the
state’s wealthiest suburbs were among
those who did the least for students.
Norman Public Schools informed par-
ents and students that “no grades will
be taken on activities assigned during
distance learning.” Longtime journalist
and Edmond parent Ted Streuli noted
in a column that 90 percent of homes
orig.pdf 1
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
in Edmond have inter-
net access, yet he wrote
that students in that
suburban school were
asked to cover only “ma-
terial they’ve already
mastered” that “doesn’t
Small
count” because it was not
graded.
Insufficient technical expertise was
not the chief barrier. EPIC Charter
Schools, the state’s largest online K-12
provider, offered several free distance-
learning tools to other Oklahoma pub-
lic schools, including two hours of staff
development. Reportedly, only four dis-
tricts took EPIC up on that offer by the
April start of the statewide school re-
opening via distance learning.
In March, the director of the Center
on Reinventing Public Education esti-
mated that only 10 percent of schools
nationwide would provide “any kind
of real curriculum and instruction pro-
gram.”
It turns out student demograph-
ics mattered less in this process than
school officials’ grit and dedication. For
example, Crossover Preparatory Acad-
emy, a private school in North Tulsa
that serves mostly working-class minor-
ity male students in grades six through
nine, continued teaching and grading
new material. That school serves many
students with significant economic
challenges and a lack of home internet
access, yet school officials found a way
to serve those children anyway.
As a result, those young boys in North
Tulsa received a better education this
year than many of their affluent peers
who attend suburban schools. The sub-
urbs may have lavish facilities, but long-
term benefit is generated by student
learning, not school architecture.
Many students at Crossover attend
that school thanks to the Oklahoma
Equal Opportunity Education Scholar-
ship Act, which supports school-choice
options for low-income students. Law-
makers had the chance to build on suc-
cess and expand that program this year,
but House Republican leaders refused
to hear the bill even after the Senate
passed it.
Perhaps House Republican leaders
feel what happened to students in Ed-
mond and Norman should be the stan-
dard statewide. But polling suggests
that parents, in Oklahoma and else-
where, disagree.
Jonathan Small serves as president of
the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
(www.ocpathink.org).
17-Jun-20 16:19:23
 Johnston County Sentinel

ni members, which helps we have in place. If we spond, isolate those in work, he said.
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Epic launches UTeach program
Epic Charter Schools, four-year degree in any Special Education OSAT the SPED (mild/moder-
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in a salary while they are in
training.
lth “It’s not a secret that
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of quality educators, es-
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According to the
the most recent data (2019)
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has done its part,
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1. Close to home!

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