Latest news with #ClaremoreHighSchool
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Claremore Class of 2025 graduates at drizzling commencement ceremony
Claremore High School awarded diplomas to the 331 members of its Class of 2025 Sunday at Lantow Field. Intermittent showers and a gloomy forecast prompted the district to move graduation a few hours ahead of its initially planned start time. Families and graduates alike huddled under umbrellas and ponchos as they packed into the football stadium. Rain continued to fall as the seniors framed the football field in red and white and watched their classmates' faces flicker one by one up on the Jumbotron. Each senior had recorded a "Senior Shout-Out" video to thank their friends, family, teachers and others who had helped them make it to graduation. After everyone had taken their seats, Principal Brooke Lee thanked the crowd for its patience with the weather. "I know everyone just got wet rear ends as they sat down, but it was just really important to me to keep this outside for you seniors so that as many of your family members could be here to celebrate this moment with you," Lee said. "I've heard in some cultures, rain on a wedding day is good luck. So maybe on graduation day, it's good luck as well." Lee said among the Class of 2025 are four valedictorians, 22 salutatorians, 33 Oklahoma Academic Scholars, one Academic All-State winner and one National Merit Finalist. The class earned a collective $2.8 million in scholarships, she said. Claremore's senior class helped propel the school to high honors this year in several sports and extracurricular activities. Lee said Claremore's girls track and field, boys golf, jazz band, academic bowl and Future Farmers of America agricultural communications teams had all won state championships. It took Lee more than five minutes to list all the groups that had achieved on the state or national level this year. "I'd say this group of seniors knows a thing or two about succeeding, and they've got the accomplishments to prove it," Lee said. Each of the four valedictorians gave a speech. Caroline Lee, who will study management information systems at the University of Oklahoma this fall, quoted "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" to remind her classmates to appreciate life because it moves so fast. Allison Wiseman, headed to Milwaukee School of Engineering to study biomedical engineering, advised people cannot control all their circumstances but can always control their perspective. The other two valedictorians, Kizer Ballard and Campbell Crum, will each pursue a political science degree. Ballard said many people had shaped her life, but especially her late grandfather and former Claremore Superintendent Keith Ballard. She said her grandfather dedicated his life to education and taught her to appreciate its value. "There will be smaller gatherings of classmates at reunions, weddings and other celebrations, but right now, this is the last time we will all be together," Ballard said. "Let's rejoice in what we have left and know that I am proud of each person here, and my grandpa would be, too." Crum thanked his parents, who both work at Claremore elementary schools, for orienting him toward education. Between jokes about the rainy weather and Claremore's attendance rates, Crum said he hoped the school would one day restore the block schedule it will replace next year with a seven-period day. This prompted his classmates to clap and cheer. Crum told the rest of his graduating class that though they're starting a new chapter, it's OK to look back once in a while because it's human nature. He referenced his favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, and how Vonnegut loved Lot's wife for looking back on Sodom. "I found there will always be good in the past if you look for it, and please do look for it because sometimes becoming a pillar of salt will remind you of your beginnings," Crum said. "... Love everyone because no matter what, they're human. Vonnegut once said, 'We're all here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it even is.'" Italya Lona, Claremore's senior class president, gave the last speech and received her diploma first. Lona thanked her family, friends, teachers, coaches and Jesus, and said she loved them more than Starbucks during finals week. Lona said her classmates should be proud of themselves for surviving high school and use that accomplishment to push them through future challenges. She counted the class down into a chant of, "We did it." "Class of 2025, here's to the memories we made, the obstacles we overcame, and the people who helped us along the way," Lona said. "I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else. Now, let's go walk this stage and get out of here like we've been dreaming of since freshman year."
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Claremore gets failing grade for absenteeism; Sequoyah, Verdigris above state average
Claremore High School and Will Rogers Junior High School both scored an "F" for chronic absenteeism on the Oklahoma State Report Card. Sequoyah and Verdigris' middle and high schools had better attendance than the state average during the 2023-2024 school year. The Oklahoma Department of Education released its 2023-2024 report card of Oklahoma schools in December 2024. It's available online at The report card considers a student chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school days in a given year. During the 2023-2024 year, 80.97% of students in Oklahoma were not chronically absent. This was a 1% improvement from the previous year and bumped the state's absenteeism score up from an "F" to a "D." The state rated Claremore, Sequoyah and Verdigris public schools' attendance as follows: — Will Rogers Junior High School: 68.29% of students in good attendance (F) — Claremore High School: 67.37% in good attendance (F) — Sequoyah Middle School: 89.23% in good attendance (C) — Sequoyah High School: 84.03% in good attendance (D) — Verdigris Junior High School: 87.7% in good attendance (C) — Verdigris High School: 87.12% in good attendance (C) Bryan Frazier, superintendent of Claremore Public Schools, said chronic absenteeism isn't just a Claremore problem. He said schools and workplaces across the country are feeling the effects of COVID-19 pandemic in their attendance numbers. "Absenteeism is a nationwide problem," Frazier said. "I don't want to speculate too much, but yeah, I think COVID does have something to do with that. I think that there was that time that people checked out, and it's true of even employment." Chronic absenteeism has risen in Oklahoma since the pandemic. About 85% of Oklahoma students were in good attendance in 2018 and 2019; since 2022, that has dropped to about 80% each year (the state doesn't have data for the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 years). Mike Payne, Verdigris' superintendent, said though his schools' attendance surpasses the state average, the pandemic put the district's attendance lower than he wants it to be. Payne said attendance could stay lower than pre-pandemic because COVID-19 conditioned families to keep kids home when they're sick. "We've had so much flu and all kind of things, so our attendance is probably going to look a little different next year," Payne said. "But everybody's will be, right? ... We don't want [students] here with a 105 degree temperature." Frazier said absenteeism is a particularly important issue at Claremore High School because the school operates on a block schedule. Students take four 90-minute classes a semester, meaning they miss more instruction with each absence than they would if classes were shorter. Frazier wants to transition Claremore High School from a block schedule to a seven-period school day to remedy this. The Claremore Public Schools Board of Education took no action on a proposal to adopt a seven-period school day at a meeting in February. Frazier said chronic absenteeism is largely out of the district's control — he said districts can encourage students to come to school, but can't force them to board the bus. "It has to do with area culture and socio-economics," Frazier said. "... We have to do all we can to get kids here, but again, it's part of our grade that probably shouldn't be in there." Many state lawmakers agree. Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, chairs the Senate Education Committee and has filed a bill to replace chronic absenteeism on the report card with a survey. Reps. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City, and Ronny Johns, R-Ada, have advanced similar bills. Terry Saul, superintendent of Sequoyah Public Schools, said Sequoyah has developed a culture in which administrators, teachers and bus drivers all do their part to intervene when a student starts missing too much school. "Our method has just been more contact, way, way, way more contact, even if that means a home visit, even if that means sometimes going out and picking a kid up with school resource officer," Saul said. "The fortunate thing at Sequoyah is you're not dealing with that many students, so it's easier to hone in on a smaller group of kids." Denton Holland, Verdigris' technology director, said Verdigris also benefits attendance-wise from its small student population. Holland said Verdigris will continue to prioritize improving its attendance rate. "Attendance is a big deal because ... if the kid's not here, how are we going to teach them?" Holland said. "How are we going to educate the student that's not here? Societally, it's a growing problem everywhere."
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Claremore cinches state Academic Bowl title
Claremore High School's Academic Bowl team won the Class 5A state championship Feb. 1, beating last year's winners for the title. The championship took place at Rose State College in Midwest City. Claremore High School won its first three rounds, defeating Booker T. Washington High School from Tulsa, Classen School of Advanced Studies from Oklahoma City and El Reno High School. The team lost to last year's Class 5A state champions, Tulsa's Bishop Kelley High School, in the next round — but Claremore's subsequent victory over Bishop Kelley in the final round won the Zebras the state title. Senior Campbell Crum, the team captain, said he didn't expect to win until the last 30 seconds. The team placed second last year and fourth the year before. "To be honest, it hasn't been too close the past few years, but it was great going out on a win," Crum said. Another senior, Christian Holland, said he expected to win because Claremore had beaten some of the other teams at the state championship earlier in the season. "It was amazing, and I carry my medal everywhere for fun now," Holland said. "I knew we could do it if we had the right combination of people." Drew Cummings, the team's coach, said the competition was possibly the most stressful professional experience he's had, but it paid off to see his team win. He said it reflected the hard work the students put in preparing for the competition throughout the year. Each Academic Bowl match has four quarters, Cummings said. The first and third quarters are "toss-up" rounds, in which the moderator reads a question and both teams get one chance to answer it correctly. The second and fourth quarters are lighting rounds, in which a team gets a minute to answer as many questions as possible from three categories. Cummings said questions cover a broad variety of topics, from school subjects such as math, science, English and history to pop culture and current events. "If it's a subject that can be learned, it's a subject they will ask questions about," Cummings said. "For some reason, NASCAR comes up more often than you think it should." Claremore High School offers Academic Bowl as a class, which Kreps said was a blessing that allowed the students to have enough time to practice while staying on top of their other school work. Holland said the students spend the class period researching subjects that come up often, such as literature and geography, and squaring off in practice matches. "The team is very friendly, and that makes everyone more confident," Holland said. "Seeing each other win makes us feel strong." Crum said one pivotal moment of the competition came when freshman Nathan Howard correctly answered all 10 questions in a category during a lightning round. Crum said another came when Holland used his chemistry knowledge to boost the team through a round that required students to provide the element directly to the left of a given element on the periodic table — "They were all easy," Holland said. Kreps said Crum saved the team early in the competition when he won a sudden-death showdown against Classen. The question asked which Roman leader transitioned Rome from a republic to an empire, and Crum correctly answered "Julius Caesar." Kreps said it took the whole team's contributions to win the state championship. "I am extremely grateful to have been a part of a team that made CHS history," Kreps said.
