VOTE "YES"

April 1st election is coming up for the City of Durant. If you don't live inside Durant please pass the word along as to how important it is for this issue to pass.

The issue is a New High School to be built on Gerlach. This will be a large project $41m to be exact. The land is already owned it will be the cost to build the school. Which if we keep waiting will be a whole lot more even waiting one more year as the price of steel and other manufacturing needs keep going up in cost.

This will involve a 5/8cent increase in what we currently pay on sales tax bringing the City of Durant's sales tax to 9.25% tax when places like Idabel are already at 9.5% so we are still doing well.

When we have businesses looking to bring a company into the area they look at the education that will be provided to their employees families. They go on tours of the schools and ask questions. Currenlty Durant is one of the Highest testing schools in OK. We have had many graduate with High honors.

We offer many programs for the kids. We try to make sure our kids get the best education. In building the new school for the High School they will be sending the Middle School kids to the High School The Middle school currently holds 2 grade levels and has out grown the Middle school. The High School holds 4 grades and is out growing or has out grown most of the school. They will be able to do what they need to to make the HS up to date for the Middle School Students to be able to use it with the 21 century technology. The Middle School was built in 1919 and they are not able to modify it enough to bring it up to the tech standards of today. The grade schools are able to incorporate more technology then the middle school. The middle school would become a good assest to the city. It is close to down town and the courthouse, library, etc. This would make a great place for many things including maybe a YMCA, Don't know what it will become but that is an idea.

The issue is not the whereabouts of where the school will be built...that has already been decided. The land at Gerlach was purchased in 2006. It has enough room for the school to be built with room also for extra curicular activities.

The land is also in a good central location for students. Not directly on the HWY as it would be if we were by the Sports Complex. Better roads for our teenagers to be on. Won't be as congested for Gerlach as 78. The growth of the city is going NW not E or SE. There as not been any new housing devolpements in that area and will not be as the land around has been bought for industrial use so it will probably get worse for them to drive in that area. Also the roads are 2 lane only and RR they would have to cross. It just would not be a good environment for the school the land they have is a good area and is the best situated.

Also the land offered by the sports complex is not enough due to : "According to Oklahoma State Department of Education guidelines as well as architectural recommendations, building sites for high schools should span 30 acres plus 1 additional acre per 100 students. Based on current enrollment, Durant High School would need a minimum of 42 acres to meet the guidelines for building space not including the consideration for future growth or outdoor practice fields and facilities. Of the 40+ acres available at the Multi-Sport Complex, approximately 10 acres have yet to be purchased. " This is not enough land and we would be spending more to buy or fix up the land for use and then the money to pay for the building of it which is the $41m so you are looking at even more money to build there.

I believe that if we build the better school that we will have the technology available to better educate our children, grandchildren, neices, nephews and friends. Just because you do not directly have family in the school system in Durant does not mean that you don't have church family who could use the better opportunities also what if one day you had family decide to move into the area. Don't you want the best education available? We as a community have to make this happen. We need to better the education so we can better our community. Building a better school will bring in more opportunities to the area. Our Property values will increase, as increases happen so will the money we are paid if there are jobs.

Please VOTE YES on April 1st.

If you want more info including information on the company that would be building school please go to www.durantisd.org

Please tell your family and friends in the Durant City Limit that this is a very important issue and they need to get out and vote...If you or them are not registered to vote in City issues then please go to your child's school and pick up and application or register there. You must be registered by March 7 in order to vote!

Again............................VOTE YES......................Your children need this opportunity for better education

I don't like tax increases but...

I do believe in education of our kids and the better the education the better the kids turn out. If we want our kids to succeed then we need to give them to tools to succeed. When they are in a HS that is over crowded and ther intermediate school is also over crowded and so forth it is time for change. Our current HS was built over 100 years ago and when I graduated 10 years ago (yes it doesn't seem that long ago but...back to my blog) it was pretty crowded and also much of it is out of date. They don't have room to build on without taking out the Durant Dixon Park (also better known as Northside Park or Rocket Park). They need a new place that they can improve and have updated stuff. With the improvements our kids can get a better education.

Currently they are proposing to build a new HS which will cost a total of $41 mil and though it looks like a lot of money and is a lot of money I believe it is actually a good price. The school will be bigger they are planning on puttin state of the art equipment and labs. and with the cost of everything rising this is a very good price. Yes that does mean a tax increase to pay for it and we all HATE tax increases but look at it as putting your child first. If you teach your child and make sure they are getting the benefits they need to succeed then they are more like to succeed than anything else. It is not like they are asking you to pay for this new school in 5 years they are proposing a 1% sales tax increase over a 25 year period to pay off the HS.

By building the new HS they can give the kids more room. They can upate the HS if needed to move the intermediate school or the JR High into once it is fixed up as needed so that they can get out of the over crowding they are in.

When this story was on our local news station KXII earlier this week, people are given a chance to comment and some of those comments is what has set me off.

When comments are made that we should spend the money on our jail (which yes need improvements but...) the comment said that, that is where a lot of the kids will end up anyway. It is not the education that sends them there but the choices they make. If we teach them better they are going to make better choices!

Also why not send them to Votech for Lab but ok that is 10 min away and a bus trip extra and did you know that in grade school for the kids to go on ANY field trip they have to pay for the bus ride. They are not free except to and from school. and do you really want that much more time outside of school on a bus when they could be learning and increasing their knowledge? Don't you want to make something out of our future leaders...May not be the leaders of our country but who knows...they could lead Durant, Tucson, where ever they live. If they have the education they need to succeed then they will bring where ever they live to succeed as well. If you cut off and limit what they can do then their leadership will only be minimal. I want my child to succeed and other children I know to succeed. I don't want to take that chance away from them i want to help provide them with everything they need so they can be better than I am!

Why don't parents want involved in their child's education anymore?!

What has happened with parents being involved in their children's education. In the old days the parents were fully responsible for their up bringing and making sure they got an education. Now parents send their kids to school and want the schools to do it all.
They all want to have a say and tell you when teachers are not doing something they approve of but when they have the chance to participate in programs that will give them a voice in their child's education and to help improve the quality and things that they offer they don't want to participate.
Many schools have gone from having PTA (Parent Teacher Associations) to PSO (Parent Support Organizations) to none at all. Without parents involvement there are many things that can become negleted. What happened that made parents not want to get involved. I understand some parents work and it gets hard but for those who can spare one night a month to come and discuss issues that can better the school for THEIR children, I think they should WANT to participate. Without the PSO there would be many things that may not be addressed. The PSO has gone as far as to put Pea gravel in the play area at the school, provide shaded areas for hot days, provide a way for teachers to display work done by their students (tack strips in hall that are coming for all grade levels). We should be here to support our children and their teachers. Without support, things will not work as well. Being that this is a Support Organization we also need to have some of the teachers or representatives from the grades to attend so that we know we are addressing issues they have.
When your child goes to a school and there are over 300 students you know that there are more parents than 6. We currently meet monthly and make decisions for our school. We have a meeting of officers as they are the only ones in attendence along with the Principle. The parents put their trust in 6 people but what if our thoughts are different than yours. What if you think there is something that should be done that is not being addressed. Another thing that we do as a PSO is bring things to the attention of the school board that needs to be handled. Making areas safer for our kids.
I do not want to see the PSO at our school do as some of those in the area and become non-existant. It is our responsibility as a parent to make sure our children are getting the best education possible but if you are not involved in any aspect how will you know. Those who work during the day can't go help with class parties or field trips, those who work at night can't go to the one monthly meeting for PSO but you can help in your own ways. Take the time you do have day or night to go and help at the school Help your child's class, Help with field trips, volunteer your time when we have events at the school that require volunteers to help you, If you can PLEASE come to PSO and show support there and help us make the decisions neccessary to make our school better! Make your voices heard so that you can create a better education for your children and not complain that another school is better as they may have better parent involvement. The school does not always determine how well the kids are taught but how much the parents care.

My son goes to NWH (Northwest Heights) and I am as involved as I can be. I have 3 kids and a full time job. My husband works 2 jobs but my kids are important enough that I want to make sure they are getting the best they can. Don't you want that for your kids to? Then why not get involved with your schools PSO, PTA or what ever they have, if they don't have one, get one started! They need it!

6 July 2007

I am still not great at Blogging or journaling but I am gonna try and get better!

Things have been really crazy here. I went to a Job Fair for Durant a couple of weeks ago and filled out applications for several jobs. I have heard from 2 of them. One was Enterprise rent-a-car and they called me for my first phone interview then sent me a letter telling me thank you for my interest but they decided to go with other candidates. The other place I recieved a phone call from was ICON Construction! I had an interview last Wednesday with them in McKinney Texas and was hired to start the 16th of July so now I am trying to find daycare. I will be an Office Administrative Assistant. The office is out on Big Lots Parkway in Durant and I will be making more, so hopefully we can get some bills paid off and Ryan wants to go back to school!

I will still be working at the Funeral home 2 nights a week as needed and 2 weekends a month but this may only go on for a month or 2 to help out with day care. They had origionally offered me to go days taking Latisha's job because she will be starting nursing school and wanted to know how much i would need to be pd...well I have 3 kids that would need daycare in summer and 2 in the fall when school starts back so i would have to make enough to cover that...I told them how much after I called around and checked daycare prices and told them how much i would need. They started blowing me off when I would ask them about it. So when I went in Last Sunday I told them I would be starting another position and would have to cut my hours and they had NO problem with that...I then found out on the 4th of July that they had hired someone else last week and they have been training him for taking Latisha's job...So why couldn't they just tell me that and give me the raise they promised regardless 2 months ago!

Things have been really crazy because cars have given us problems and we have had to pay lots to fix those and on top of that I had my Aunt and Uncles 50th Wedding Anniversary cake to do in June then June 29th my sister's baby shower and now getting ready for the 14th of July forAshley's birthday party. We are gonna go to Chuck E. Cheese in Garland.

Christa now has a foster child. Lydia, 11, she is a member of the church and has had lots of problems so had been staying with my sister for the last 3 weeks. She helped me a lot taking care of the kids and planning my sister's baby shower. She helped plan, get decorations together and everything that goes along with it the week of. She and I even made a diaper cake with some diapers she had bought for Christa and I got some different things for her to stick in it. She then had to meet with DHS last Thursday and she got back to the house about 5pm. We were trying to load everything up to go decorate and we got a call saying they were coming back to get her for us not to leave until they had picked her up. She was SOOO disappointed she had been counting down the time. They put her in foster care but we did get permission for her to go to the baby shower on Friday night. Monday Christa, Mom and Dad, and I went to see what we needed to do to get her back, we also took some other members for her older brother and sister, they were going to try and get KINSHIP of them. Christa had to go have Ammon sign stuff and they rushed the background check and Christa was able to get her on Monday night! Wednesday we had a "Welcome Home Party" for Lydia and gave her some presents and I made a cake! She still has 2 baby sisters (3 1/2 and 2 I think) who are in foster care. I don't think I could handle 2 more of those ages right now!

Tuesday 3 July 2007 we had a full day. I went for my drug test for my new job, drove by and picked up applications to some daycares and then drove to Sherman, going by the Denison Dam as the Spillway is about to go over for the 3rd time in 50 years (when it was built it was only suppose to go over once every 100 years!) we looked out at the spillway but did not get out then. Ameera had her 9mnth check up where every thing was good. Then we drove to Garland to Ryan's mom's house. We had dinner with the missionaries and talked for a while. His mom had to take some medicine to his sister's work so we went over to the mall to walk around for a bit then we went back to her house and swam for an hour or so. We came home and got home just about midnight...dead tired! Bub was up at 7am wanting to go to Mema's so Ryan took him over there, then I made Lydia's cake and took to mom's.

Wednesday I took Lydia and the kids to get some fireworks and to the spilway to look out. Then fireworks and cook out later that night with my family.

Thursday we took a quick trip to Sherman to take footage from the 1990 flood in the area, water going over the spillway. Mom went with us then we came back by way of the spillway, lydia went with us and wanted to see it! she is really excited about it...They are predicting it to go over between 4 and 6pm today! so I guess we will see!

Today I am gonna work on the house and getting stuff together for daycare applications and see if i can get them turned in!

The kids are doing pretty good. Ameera is 9mnths and has 6 teeth and bites EVERYTHING. Ashley is not wanting to potty train. We have been trying for MONTHS and she REFUSES! Bub is in speech therapy every Monday right now and is getting better but still has some problems but we are working on it. When I put them in Daycare my sister and Lydia are going to keep him on Mondays so they can take him to Speech Therapy and Lydia is going to work with him on his sounds and address and phone #. He will play with her and try to say stuff that he won't for us so hopefully that will help a lot before he start Kindergarten.

Well that is an update...If I can get myself writing more regular, then this won't be SOOOO long!

Ange

January 8, 2007

Well today has been crazy, or i should say the whole weekend!! My daughter has been sick with this stomach virus, my son's asthma is acting up and just all in all crazy. my dh and my dad had to fix a broken hot water pipe under the house, raked leaves off the roof, and leaves out of the yard of the house we are putting up for rent. Finally we went to Frisco, leaving after 5, get to the mall(going to get pictures made of the kids, i go nurse my youngest while daddy takes the other 2 to play. we got some awesome pics from kiddie kandids! left the mall around 10pm drove to garland where we were staying in a hotel. Sunday we went to church in Mesquite with my SIL & BIL , they blessed their daughter. Ashley got really upset when daddy went up to help with the blessing so i held her and she passed out...they she started feeling really hot, i know she had fever just couldn't take her temp. Daddy went out and sat on the couch with her asleep on his lap, she slept for like 2 - 2 1/2 hours then woke up and threw up on daddy!! Great especially since we were going to my FIL to spend belated Christmas since he was out of town and we live out of town! so she went home with MIL (they are divorced) and slept while we went to see FIL. Had dinner from Johny Carino's and opened presents. It was really good. by the time we go to MIL Ashley was acting as if nothing was wrong. My mom also called and told me my sis was put into the hospital...she is 4 1/2 - 5 weeks preg. she has not been able to keep food or liquids down for a week and lost 6lbs so they put her in the hospital yesterday when she called her OBGYN at home (he is our cousin!) She is still in the hospital today. She and her Dh are going to rent our rent house though. When we got home last night Ashley had fever again 101.5 yeah...up till around 2 then up by 7 fun! today she acts like she feels better until we were out running errands and just as we stopped to drop something off for my sister at the hospital, Ashley threw up in the car...so guess she is still not feeling that much better! tonight I have Woodman of the World meeting and PSO, since i have to choose, this month I am going to WOW since I am an officer and they are installing us tonight! Tomorrow is my 27th birthday and Thurs I have to go back to Dallas for a meeting with Church. So it is going to continue to be busy...I guess we will see what else comes into factor as the week goes!!