Ponca City Public Schools working to build school spirit

In an effort to promote school spirit and provide all students a glimpse of extracurricular activities, Ponca City Public Schools has implemented some new initiatives.

“There is a great deal of research about the correlation of academic success and extracurricular activities,” Superintendent Shelley Arrott said. “If we want our kids to succeed, it is our responsibility to help them, and extracurricular activities are the reason many kids stay eligible and in school. For this reason, we are implementing some new initiatives to try to eliminate barriers to academic success.

“Many of our staff members said that our students do not have much encouragement or resources to participate in extracurricular activities,” Arrott said. “Based on these discussions, initiatives have been implemented to work toward these goals, such as the March the Halls Day. Prior to this event, many students did not know who the Wildcats were. What really drove it home to me was a comment made from one of our first grade teachers at Liberty. She told her students about the March the Halls Day and told them the Wildcats were coming to be sure to wear red and blue. Her students asked who the Wildcats were, and they didn’t even know our school colors.”

Arrott said that after hearing this comment, she said Athletic Director Jared Freeman was probably going to get tired of her new ideas when she approached him about Site Nights (details below).

However, it was quite the contrary, she said.

“He was very supportive and had previously planned the implementation of the new WILDCAT Way, our values and belief system.

“My immediate goals as superintendent are to improve morale and positivity of the school community and to promote school spirit. I am looking forward to the opportunity for our students to be exposed to Wildcat activities so they can aspire to be a future Wildcat and participate, not only in sporting activities, but any of our extracurricular activities,” Arrott said.

The district has confirmed the schedule for Site Nights for the 2017-2018 winter home sporting events. The schedule follows:

Site Nights

On the specific site night, students from every school will have the opportunity to come to a Ponca City School Wildcat sporting event free of charge. The Ponca City School Athletic Department will send a special ticket for every student to the designated site prior to the event to help gatekeepers identify students from the site.

Each child with a ticket will get to bring one parent/guardian with them free of charge. For families with two sibling individual tickets, they may each bring a parent/guardian at no cost.

Upon entering the event, the student will receive a free Wildcat T-shirt with the new cat head mascot on the front and the Wildcat Way, the new Wildcat values the Ponca City School Athletic Director is promoting. Students will sit on the bleachers just to the north of the “Robson Rowdies.” The Rowdies sit behind the basketball goal on the east end of Robson. There will be supervisors at the gate to show students to their cheering section.

Site Night schedule for basketball games and wrestling matches 2017-18

Dec. 1 – Garfield Elementary
Wrestling with Edmond Memorial

Dec. 12 – Roosevelt Elementary
Basketball with Collinsville

Jan. 11 – East Middle School

Basketball with Carl Albert

Jan. 12 – Lincoln Elementary

Basketball with Sand Springs

Jan. 23 – Trout Elementary
Basketball with Enid

Jan. 25 – West Middle School

Wrestling with Perry

Jan. 26 – Liberty Elementary/Prekindergarten Center

Basketball with Piedmont

Feb. 6 – Union Elementary

Wrestling with Edmond Santa Fe

Feb. 19 – Woodlands Elementary

Basketball with Guthrie