Leadership Rogers County Education Day started off with a bang! The class began their day at the Claremore campus of Northeast Tech. This wonderful career tech campus, along with its other campuses across northeast Oklahoma, offer a variety of programs and training opportunities that students and adults of all ages can take part in. First, the group was welcomed by Superintendent Roger Crutchfield, who shared a little history about how the career tech center came to fruition. After the warm welcome, Claremore Campus Director Liberty Shere gave the class a rundown of all the full-time programs that are available on their campus. These programs include CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) Machining, Criminal Justice, EAST (Education Accelerated by Service & Technology), Health Careers, Practical Nursing, & Pre-Engineering. All of these programs, with the exception of Practical Nursing (adults only), are geared toward high school students, but do allow adult students if applicable. After touring all these great programs, the EAST students gave a testimonial about their experiences and projects that they facilitate not only across the city of Claremore, but all of Rogers County! EAST students also led the group in a personality assessment to help the class better understand the different types of personalities that are within the LRC group.
Lastly, Megan Edwards, the Business Development Coordinator/Trainer for Northeast Tech, gave a rundown of some of the short-term services that they can provide for individuals and companies within northeast Oklahoma. Some of these services include training in the following areas: safety, industry, organizational leadership, emergency medical services, rescue training, business development, and agriculture business management. As you can see, Northeast Tech has an abundance of educational opportunities for citizens of Rogers County.
The second stop of the day took the LRC group to Claremore High School. Upon arriving, the class was amazed at the beautiful new modern entrance to the high school. Superintendent Brian Frazier welcomed the group and shared a presentation about the facility upgrades that have been taking place over the past couple years due to the bond issue that was passed in March of 2019. Work began on Phase 1 in September of that year. Phase I and II of that bond were completed August 2021. The facility improvements occurred all across the district with all schools getting some cosmetic work done along with innovation labs in each of the schools which included all four elementary schools, Will Rogers Jr. High, and Claremore High School. For a full list of all the details of that 2019 bond, please visit the Claremore High School website.
After Mr. Frazier’s presentation, Claremore High School principal Dr. Kenneth Hindenburg led the group on a tour of the amazing new high school innovation lab. Within this new addition, some of the features of this building included: “Think Tank” rooms for classes to work in groups while having separate spaces to perform class discussions, classrooms designed for quick transformation with moveable computer tables, and state-of-the-art STEM rooms. In the words of Mr. Frazier, “Claremore Public Schools is a great place to be right now.”
At end the day, the Leadership class arrived at Rogers State University. They were welcomed by Brandon Irby, Director of Marketing, and Travis Peck, Director of Alumni Engagement. Brandon and Travis discussed their love of RSU and how they were glad to be back and working at their alma mater. Finally, RSU president Dr. Larry Rice gave a history of RSU as well as current enrollment numbers on campus. Dr. Rice is working on bringing new opportunities and degrees to the students. He is very proud to be adding a Chemical Engineering degree in the near future. Dr. Rice is also working on a Global Partnership with Vietnam for international students. The future looks very bright for students on the hill!
The key takeaway from the day is best summed up with this quote, “Excellence in education is when we do everything we can to make sure they become everything they can.” Author Unknown
