At Monday morning's school board meeting in Pawhuska, Superintendent David Cash talked about the 2019 graduation rate and compared that with the dropout rate in the high school. For the 2019-2020 school year, 190 students roamed the high school hallways and three students dropped out. Cash said when comparing that to other schools across the area, that is a good number.
To track the graduation rate, Cash looks back to the freshman class of 2017 to see how many of them completed their course work as Huskies a year ago. Cash says the school is likely to see a better graduation rate in the coming years because there are fewer people dropping out. COVID-19 has caused coaches to be flexible and roll with any changes that may come their way. A major change came on Wednesday when the OSSAA announced that all high school football teams are eligible for the playoffs, thus adding a week to the regular season. Coaches will vote to determine where each team should be seeded in each district if that district has been impacted by the coronavirus.
Pawhuska, ranked number one in Class A will undoubtedly get the top seed in their district. As a result, the Huskies will get a first round bye, as they will be matched up against a seven team district in that first round. Coach Matt Hennesy details what this will mean for his team moving forward. Hennesy says Afton is a good ball club, but the team has had a great week of practice and he expects the Huskies to come out and play well. Friday night's game can be heard on Sportstalk KPGM FM 99.1 and viewed on KPGMTV.com. Kickoff from Pawhuska is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oklahoma Wesleyan University's first home basketball game is set to take place a week from this evening and when the Eagles take the court, expect things to look a little bit different in the stands. Students are required to wear masks across campus and fans will be required to do the same when watching games at the Mueller Sports Center this winter. President of the University, Jim Dunn says it is in the best interest to protect everyone at the event.
These protocols are also in place for outdoor events such as soccer. Dunn went on to talk about the scheduling conflicts the Eagles could face as the year rolls on. Oklahoma Wesleyan University's home contest against Calvary University is slated to start at 7 p.m. next Wednesday. The COVID-19 alert map was released on Friday morning by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Washington, Osage and Nowata County all remain in the orange, or moderate risk category. Across the state, 75 of the 77 counties are in the orange, or moderate risk category.
There are an additional 1,373 cases being reported across the state and 13 deaths are being reported as well, none locally however. The OSDH reports 956 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19, another all-time high. Washington County is currently reporting 144 active cases, while Osage County is at 133 active cases and Nowata County has 48 active cases. These numbers are down slightly from a week ago. The Board of Osage County Commissioners will convene for a regularly scheduled meeting at the fairgrounds this Monday.
The commissioners will consider taking action on making further amendments for the public to enter the Osage County Courthouse or other county-owned buildings. This discussion will take place during the same week in which we have seen record highs in daily case numbers and record setting hospitalization numbers across the state. The commissioners will consider allowing the Citizens Academy to use the agriculture building on Tuesday’s throughout the months of October, November and December. The Citizens Academy is a joint effort between the Osage and Washington County Sheriff’s Office to help make citizens safer. There will be continued discussion regarding Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority Certificates. The commissioners will also consider signing a publication report for the county estimate of needs for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The meeting begins at 10 o’ clock in the morning for those interested in attending. Skiatook recently wrapped up its Tallgrass Music Festival and Pioneer Days events. Executive Director for Osage County Tourism, Kelly Bland says things went well and are only going to get better if they continue doing the proper advertising.
2020 marked the 16th annual Tallgrass Music Festival. Bland says organizers of the festival are branching out and finding big name acts. To find out more about what may be going on across Skiatook, call the chamber at 918-396-3702. Class B has six teams in each district compared to the larger schools, which have eight teams in each district. After Wednesday's announcement from the OSSAA allowing all teams to make the playoffs, this means that the top two teams in each district will receive a first round bye.
Barnsdall currently sits in a tie for third place, but with a win against the second-place team this week, the Panthers would put themselves in prime position for that first round bye. In addition, no team in Barnsdall's district has been affected by COVID-19 so as things stand, they will enter the playoffs based off of where they finished in the regular season standings. Coach Kylee Sweeney explains what the procedure would be if the season ended today. The Panthers fell to Covington-Douglas a week ago, 40-8. Barnsdall trailed 40-0 at the half, but Sweeney was pleased with the way his bunch turned things around in the second half. He hopes that second half can be a spring board to Friday's home game against Pioneer. Kickoff from Barnsdall is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Pawhuska School Board has attempted to meet for a meeting the last two Monday’s but were unable to do so because they were unable to form a quorum. The Board will attempt to meet again Friday morning.
At the meeting, the board will vote to approve Superintendent David Cash to be the designated representative for the Oklahoma School Assurance Group. They will also vote to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Pawhuska Hospital for Telehealth Services. Items contained in the consent agenda include approving a wrestling fundraiser, approving cancer week activities and fundraisers for the basketball team. Superintendent David Cash will give a report, as will the school principals. The meeting can be viewed on the Pawhuska Public Schools Facebook Page beginning at 8 a.m. COVID-19 forced Oklahoma Wesleyan University to close its campus in mid-March. After a summer of speaking with health professionals and keeping up with the news, they made the decision to re-open the campus in August. University President Jim Dunn said after two months of in-person learning, things are going well.
Dunn said they are watching the COVID-19 numbers on a daily basis to see if they need to take any action, but as of right now, they plan to start the spring semester as scheduled. Dunn thanks everyone who has prayed for a successful semester and come the Wednesday before Thanksgiving the semester will be over where students will be able to go home for about six weeks. This is cancer awareness week at Pawhuska High School and to raise funds for cancer research, the football team is doing all they can to help. On Saturday, they held a kickoff concert in downtown Pawhuska where they raised $1,000 and throughout the week, they are doing all sorts of fundraisers, culminating with a silent auction at Friday night’s football game. Coach Matt Hennesy tells us all about it.
Hennesy says if you aren’t at the game, you can still partake in the auction on the Huskies Football Booster Club Facebook Page. There is also a dessert auction in which you can participate in to help support cancer. You will also have the chance to make a donation at Friday night’s game. |
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