August 19, 2019
Spartan Families,
On behalf of the Bixby Board of Education and all of us who are privileged to work with and support your children, I want to welcome you to what we hope will be a very positive and productive school year. BPS is fortunate to have wonderful teachers, administrators, and support professionals at all of our sites. These educators have been working diligently over the past days and weeks to prepare for your students. As a district, we believe strongly in the shared vision to “serve every child, every day, whatever it takes” and look forward to working with you to provide a great educational experience to your children this year.
The other purpose of this letter is to share a few items that will help us get through the first days of school as efficiently as possible. First, I know you are all aware of the bell schedule changes for this year. Our Elementary and Intermediate sites will start school at 8:00 a.m. and finish at 3:05 p.m. Secondary sites will begin at 8:45 a.m. and end at 3:46 p.m. While we have spent the summer planning our transportation services to meet this new schedule, we anticipate there may be unexpected delays. If your child rides a bus to and/or from school, please make sure you have checked the link for updated bus information HERE. Likewise, if you would like to receive text message alerts via Remind, you can subscribe by texting “@bpstr” to 81010. We appreciate your patience as we work through any issues in the first few weeks, understanding that our shared goal is to transport all students in a safe and timely manner.
Secondly, we will have many students and parents dealing with new procedures and/or unfamiliar settings this week. It is critically important we are all vigilant when it comes to student safety as young children can be unpredictable. We will also have some new drivers at the high school. Please adhere to all posted speed limits and procedures for dropping off and picking up students at all school sites. Inevitably, there will be areas of frustration and some internal processes we will need to refine. Please feel free to communicate with me or our site administrators on any issue involving the safety of our students, or to provide suggestions for improving our procedures.
Lastly, also related to student safety, it has been a practice in BPS for the past few years to make bottled water available for students at the end of the day who request it for their walk or bus ride home when the temperature is above 100 degrees or when the heat index is above 104. We will likely have several days in the next few weeks when we hit these levels. Families are also welcome to send extra water to school with their children or to allow them to bring a refillable container to fill with cool water during the school day.
It is an exciting time to be in Bixby Public Schools, and it is my great honor to serve as your superintendent. BPS is a family; there is no better place in which to learn and work. Thank you for your continued support as we strive to do our very best for our community’s children. They deserve it, and we simply cannot do this important work without you. We look forward to seeing you and your children tomorrow.
Best wishes for an outstanding school year,
Rob Miller
Superintendent
