Thankful for the Ponca City Community

Ponca City Public Schools-

Polls will be open until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12 for Ponca City residents to vote on a proposed $49.7 million bond project. This seven-year bond package also includes an additional $10 million of CARES funds that will allow improvements to the district that aid in the mitigation and spread of COVID-19.

A total of 16 bond projects, along with an additional 15 CARES projects, are included in the proposed bond package. Every single school site will see an improvement.

Superintendent Shelley Arrott said she’s grateful the community supports the school district. “Without doubt, this community extraordinarily supports our students and schools in every way possible. From the moment anyone arrives in our community, they can see that we are the Ponca City Wildcats! Many businesses display our Wildcat logo on their storefronts, anywhere you look someone is wearing Wildcat gear and even the Ponca City Police Department patrol cars sport the Wildcat logo!”

“In Ponca City, our community members not only support school pride, but our patrons and businesses provide school supplies, become Partners in Education, volunteer in classrooms, participate in fundraisers, attend every event to support our Wildcats, are members of our booster clubs, sponsor our events, honor our staff, donate goods and services and vote in favor of our bond proposals,” said Arrott. “It is obvious that the citizens of Ponca City overwhelming support their children and their school. It is a privilege and an honor to serve as superintendent of a school district where the community goes the extra mile to invest in our future, the children of our city. Thank you, Ponca City, for always ‘holding that line’ for the students and for your commitment to help our school excel. We are all on the same team, Team Ponca City Wildcats, and it takes all of us working together to be the most effective!”

Adam Leaming, Executive Director of Operations Intern, said, “Over the last decade the support for our school district has not faltered but has actually grown more resolute. We remain undeterred from our goal of creating a more robust and excellent school system.”

“Throughout this entire process of planning and then informing the public about how, what, when and where different projects could occur with enough yes votes on Oct. 12, it has been increasingly evident that the intense passion for our local schools is still burning and there’s a hunger for more. It has been my honor to serve our schools and by extension to serve our community throughout this process. Thank you for your open feedback and willingness to hear how we aim to improve our quality of life for our students, community and North Central Oklahoma with this election on Oct. 12.”

Tim Williams, principal at Woodlands Elementary, said, “The Ponca City community constantly amazes me with the generosity and support shown to our local schools. This is especially seen in the tradition of supporting school bond elections. The facilities of PCPS are first-class because of this generosity. The high quality of our facilities for all areas of education including academics, sports, the arts and mental health help make Ponca City a great place to raise a family.”

Betsy Easley, teacher at Ponca City High School, said, “As a Po-Hi teacher for the past 28 years, I’ve had thousands of students come through my classroom. I’ve worked with thousands more in Student Council and supported even more through the activities they chose: orchestra, Hi-Steppers, National Honor Society, football, 2M2L, class officers, DECA, cheerleading, tennis, drama/debate, soccer, FFA, FCCLA, baseball, band, wrestling, softball, Youth Traffic Court and more. I’ve supported students who couldn’t be in activities because they had after-school jobs. I’ve tutored students who needed extra help with their ACT scores. Throughout all of these years, in all of the diverse needs of all these students and activities, the one constant was the community’s support of school bond issues. Passage of this bond issue allows your school system to meet the diverse needs of our current students and our future students. Providing more academic choices, more counseling services and better facilities benefits all of our students.”

Ponca City’s current mill levy is 22 mills, the lowest among other school districts in Kay County. Passage of this bond issue will NOT increase taxes.

Anyone residing in the Ponca City Public School district is eligible to vote.