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School News - Tip Sheet - 7/2/2008

TPS Grant Bid Gets Boost from Area Business 

6/30/2008

A bid by Tulsa Public Schools to receive a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education receives a boost from a well-known Tulsa eatery.

TPS Director of Federal Projects Roberta Ellis says the district is in the running for the Advance Placement Incentive Grant Competition. According to the DOA, the program provides funds to increase the participation of low-income students in both pre-advanced placement and advanced placement courses and tests.

The grant “will increase the enrollment and performance of low-income students in AP courses by improving preparation and proving additional support,” said TPS contract grant writer Jana Burk of Heartland Consulting and Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold.

The grant process is extremely competitive, and the Mazzio's Corporation is offering to help.

“Because of our mutual interest in the community and the students of Tulsa Public Schools, Mazzio's would like to partner with the district and assist your efforts,” said Sonja Wilson, the company’s senior vice-president, in a letter to district officials. “Specifically, as part of your AP initiative, we would like to provide Mazzio’s pizza to 400 students/faculty during one day of its summer AP Jumpstart camp in the summers of 2009, 2010 and 2011.”

Ellis said Mazzio’s offer will assist the district in obtaining the grant.

Founded in 1961 when a young school teacher named Ken Selby opened a restaurant in Tulsa, Mazzio’s now has more than 100 franchises in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas.

“We understand that the students will be working hard during the two weeks of the camp to prepare for their fall AP classes, and it would be our pleasure to reward them with a pizza party at this time,” Wilson said.

 

Clinton Teacher Offers Hope to Cancer Victims 

7/2/2008

There are two things that Tammy Pallares will never forget about her fight with cancer.

The first is the day in June of 2003 that she received the news that an unrelated procedure had revealed the presence of lymphatic melanoma.

“I was at Fulton taking a workshop,” she says, “and everything just went surreal. I must have had that look on my face because another lady walked up to me and asked me if I was OK.”

A flurry of tests and surgeries followed—doctors diagnosed her with a 37-percent chance of survival. She began going to Cancer Treatment Centers of America and did a lot of praying, which brings us to the second thing she’ll never forget.

“I was driving on 169 and I had a moment of peace, of knowing. I knew God had said, ‘It’s gone.’ I asked my surgeon to not take any more lymph nodes than totally necessary. He finally agreed and that is just what he did. At the surgery the cancer was gone,” she said.

Tammy has now been cancer free for over five years, earning her membership in an exclusive club. In May she joined more than 200 other five-year survivors of cancer for the 19th annual Celebrate Life ceremony.

Tammy has been with Tulsa Public Schools for 20 years. Currently teaching Spanish at Clinton Middle School, she was working at Byrd Middle School during her ordeal. She says TPS and her co-workers were “wonderful. I was very blessed.”

“I’m not the only person at TPS to have cancer. I want these people to have hope,” Tammy said. “God heals us in miraculous ways. He gives us the intelligence to choose doctors. But it’s not enough to survive, you have to thrive. No one has an expiration date stamped on them. You have to survive this and you’re going to come out better.”

 

BP Employees Spruce up Carver Middle 

7/2/2008

The 24th annual BP Classic is took company employees to Carver Middle School on a unique landscaping project.

The BP Classic began in Texas City in 1985 as a friendly softball game between workers at two refineries. By 1994 the event was attracting large numbers of employees, retirees and families from locations around BP. This year the Classic is in Tulsa.

“We want to foster pride and team-building among employees, so the Tulsa Pipeline Control Center is happy to continue the legacy of the Classic,” said Control Center Manager Dan Spangler.

Part of the Classic is Volunteer Days, with employees from Oklahoma and all over North America worked on community projects at the Tulsa Garden Center and Carver Middle School during the first two days of the event—June 25 and 26.

“We’re putting in a literary garden with granite stones, benches, doing some landscaping and building a plaque containing quotes from George Washington Carver himself,” said company spokesman Steve Smith. Smith said the garden area will be a place where teachers and students can gather outside for classes to enjoy reading and the arts.

This will be the second time company volunteers have worked at Carver Middle School. In 1998, the BP Classic received one of Oklahoma’s highest awards for historical restoration for their work at Carver Stadium.

 

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