Memorial Middle School robotics teams excel at competition

SeaPerch is an underwater robotics competition where teams of students build a remotely operated vehicle to complete both an underwater obstacle course for speed and a mission course to pick up and place objects. The teams also complete a technical design report to explain how they worked through the engineering design process, how they applied scientific principles to their robots, and how they built and tested the different iterations of their vehicle.

Lee Broderick, Astrid Corea and Nancy Yanez placed second in the obstacle course, third in the mission course and fourth overall.

AJ Fox, Devin Fultz, Yanixan Gamez Alcanar and Victoria Wright finished fourth in the obstacle course.

The teams’ coach is Abraham Kamara.

Hensci! Estonko?: Among the 182 consent agenda items approved by Tulsa Public Schools’ Board of Education last Monday night was a memorandum of understanding with the Muscogee Nation to provide language instruction for TPS students and staff in the 2024-25 school year. Funded by a grant received by the tribe, instruction and materials will be available to TPS campuses within the Muscogee Nation’s reservation.

The board also approved a pair of cross-deputization agreements with the Muscogee Nation Lighthorse Police Department and the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, which provides authority to TPS campus police when interacting with tribal citizens at any district property within Tulsa County.

According to the Muscogee Nation Lighthorse Police, this is their fourth cross-deputization agreement with a school district and sixth with an educational institution, following Jenks, Beggs, Muskogee, Bacone College and College of the Muscogee Nation. Filings with the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office indicate that this is the Marshal Service’s second cross-deputization agreement with a school district’s police department.

Other items approved in the consent agenda include a memorandum of understanding with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and the Foundation for Tulsa Public Schools providing for fundraising and implementing a project to install synthetic turf at the softball field and baseball infield at Booker T. Washington, meal service agreements with three of the district’s authorized charter schools and renewal of its agreement with Tulsa County District Court’s Juvenile Bureau to operate Phoenix Rising, an alternative partnership school.

Staying put: At Monday night’s meeting, Sand Springs Public Schools’ Board of Education unanimously approved renewing Superintendent Sherry Durkee’s contract through 2027.

More principal moves: In an email Friday, TPS Superintendent Ebony Johnson announced that pending board approval, Kayre Pryor will be the new interim principal at Robertson Elementary School and that Samantha Dunne will be the new interim principal at McKinley Elementary School.

Feedback wanted: Union Public Schools is accepting public comment through June 30 on its 2024-25 federal grant application under the Every Student Succeeds Act. The application is available online at unionps.org/departments/federal-programs, and comments may be submitted to communications@unionps.org

Summer hours: Union Public Schools’ Education Service Center will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday for the month of June. The building will be closed on Fridays through July 26.

Looking for littles: TPS will host an early childhood transition fair from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Tulsa’s Allen Chapman Activity Center. Along with free food, children’s activities and representatives from community partners, the fair will have free school uniforms and hygiene kits for the first 250 incoming prekindergarten and kindergarten students who attend.

School board calendar: The boards of education for Berryhill, Bixby, Claremore, Collinsville, Coweta, Glenpool, Jenks, Liberty, Mounds, Owasso, Sapulpa, Skiatook, Sperry, Union and Verdigris public schools are scheduled to meet Monday.

The governing board for Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

The Board of Education for Epic Charter School is scheduled to meet Thursday.