Blanchard schools receive overall ‘A’ grades
By Tony Strickland
Staff writer
A pair of Blanchard schools have officially been upgraded to overall “A” grades by the Oklahoma State Department for the 2023-2024 school year. That upgrade has resulted in a pair of extremely proud principals in Chance Grider and Paula Floyd.
Blanchard Middle School Principal Grider and Intermediate Principal Floyd took a moment with the Blanchard News this week to laud the hard work of their teachers and support staff and to discuss the improvements that helped place each school among the top 5% of schools statewide for the 2023-2024 school year.
“If I had to name the most important factor in our success, it would be ‘culture’”, Floyd noted. “Improving the culture of a school involves every level of what we do, from our teachers’ motivation to battling chronic absenteeism to improving not only our students academic skills but also their social skills as well.
“I personally feel that my staff give 110% each day, with the goal always to reach kids where they are at to get them to where they need to be. The teachers take their own motivation and natural competitiveness and apply that to motivating our students to excel. Through their hard work, our highly qualified teachers, who have incredible work ethics, empower our students to be the very best, to believe they can be their very best. Programs like Title 1, Indian Education and our afterschool Teens of Tomorrow (TOTS) program help us achieve those goals daily.
The preliminary state-issued 2023-2024 grades for the Blanchard Intermediate and Middle Schools were “B’s” before their final scores were adjusted upward, making the pair the only schools in McClain County to get overall “A’s”. The previous year’s grade for the Intermediate was a “B”, while the middle school received an “C”.
“We looked at what we were doing to help our middle school students get more prepared for state testing – not so we could just “teach to the test”, but more to prepare students for the kinds of questions they would see on those tests,” Grider noted. “We use the ‘Buckle Down’ program that provides online practice that aligns with state testing and we have enrichment periods for our students 4 days a week for additional academic focus.”
Both campuses also use Scootpad, an ACT benchmarking program and both have Chromebooks on a 1-to-1 ratio with students. Both principals noted that having Chromebooks for every student has been essential to academic improvement. Both also passed credit for improvement to their staffs, noting Lion teachers’ professionality, creativity and dedication to their jobs.
Grider and Floyd also noted the safety and security of Lion campuses as playing a big part in student’s academic achievement. “Our kids know they are loved and cared for, they feel safe and know that our offices are always open for any concerns,” Floyd stated.
Blanchard Superintendent of Schools Brady Barnes also noted the academic success of Blanchard Elementary and Blanchard High: Our Elementary does a superb job of laying a great foundation, of really providing an “A” school foundation for our students to build on. We are extremely proud of our high school’s “B” grade, because it’s also a lot more rigorous achievement for a high school to earn an “A”. No high school in the area was able to earn an “A”, so our “B” is among the highest grades in this area.”
Blanchard Intermediate School Principal Paula Floyd and Middle School Principal Chance Grider. (PHOTO PROVIDED)
