The first day of school was Thursday, Aug.14 with the usual chaos and traffic jams, though not as bad as in the past before the district installed a drop-off point inside the campus at the elementary school.

“We opened the doors at 7:45 a.m. and we had our last car that dropped off at 8:07 a.m., so 22 minutes wasn’t too bad,” Superintendent Monty Guthrie said. “And it has gotten better.”

It should improve even more Monday, Aug. 25, when the Beacon after school program begins, which will ease the traffic flow in the afternoon.

“That will help some parents out by alleviating our pickup times,” Guthrie said.

Two police officers are keeping traffic moving relatively smoothly.

One of the contributing factors to traffic congestion is an increase in the number of students enrolled.

As of the first day of school, there were 1,176 compared to 1,150 last year, a difference of 26.

None of those students are allowed the routine use of cell phones on campus.

A new “bell-to-bell” state law requires students to put their phones away, unless they are required for medical issues and for emergencies.

Guthrie has seen no issues arise as a result of the new law.

“We were fairly stringent on that already, and the middle school did away with them two years ago. And the high school, the only real change is they can’t have them out at lunch, so we didn’t have to make a lot of adjustments and the students have handled it like champs,” Guthrie said. “They really have done a good job complying with the laws.”

He took the opportunity to boast about the academic standings of the high school students.

“We have 55 of our juniors and seniors that are concurrently enrolled in college courses,” he said. “Take the whole junior and senior classes together, that’s right at 25 percent getting college credits.

“Then we have 35 enrolled with the Kiamichi Technology Center.”

KTC teaches courses in technology, allowing them to pursue careers without attending college.

“We’re really pleased with the number of students that are there, and then students in our internship program. These students can go out and work at different jobs and get high school credit,” he said.

Students can have internships in a variety of professions, both blue collar and white collar.

“It can go in any direction. We’ve had them work in construction. We’ve had a couple work with local attorneys. Some have worked with local businesspeople. Some have worked with physical therapists and occupational therapists on the rehabilitation side,” he said.

The internships are legitimate positions, not just something to kill time and earn credits.

“At the same time the students are learning, they’re legitimately helping a business, and if the business wants to pay them, that’s not forbidden,” Guthrie said.

He stressed that the school is emphasizing internships and KTC training.

“There are careers out there that the students can earn just as much or more as a lot with a college education, and we need to expose our students to as many opportunities as we can and then let them make those decisions on the direction they want to go,” he said.

Looking at the months ahead, construction will soon begin on a number of projects made possible by the passage in April of a $24 million bond bill by a vote of 564 to 327.

The projects include a multi-purpose building that will be used for basketball and community events; expansion of the cafeterias; adding a wing to the middle school for fifth graders; and replacing the grass on the football field with artificial turf.

Guthrie said about 50 percent of the final design is finished.

“Hopefully that will be done by the end of September, which will allow us to put all the bids out by the middle of October and get the bids in by the first of November.

“That’s our goal, anyway.”

Guthrie thanked everyone who worked together to make the start of the 2025-26 school year as painless as possible.

“From our custodial and maintenance to the teachers that have been up here for weeks beforehand getting ready and then all of the help and support through the community and all the kinds of things that our community has done for our teachers over the last couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s all appreciated, and it all makes for a real smooth start to the school year.”