It's Centennial: Youth name new school for state’s 100th birthday

By Carolyn Cole/Staff Writer

Parents and children have spoken — the city’s newest school is Mustang Centennial Elementary.

The school will open in August on the eve of Oklahoma’s celebration marking the state’s 100th birthday. The facility saw its new name rise to the top of 100 suggestions from 167 returned ballots, said Neil Womack, the school’s principal. The Mustang School Board adopted the new name Monday night as well as the school’s motto — “honoring our past and celebrating our future.”

Womack asked the 180 Lakehoma Elementary and 340 Mustang Elementary students expected to attend the new school to think of a name. Lakehoma students “oohed” and “ahhed” as he described the new library, music and art rooms, stage area and stoplights, which are expected to decorate hallways.

“All of this new stuff and we are going to need boys and girls to fill it up,” Womack told children.

As he described a new playground, cafeteria and gymnasium, children’s eyes widened and they cheered.

“We were getting high fives all over,” Womack said.

Other suggestions also had an Oklahoma history theme — land run, sooner, stage coach, Will Rogers, Rose Rock and Chisholm, others pointed to geography — Heights, Czech Hall, plains, bronco, mid-town and wild horse, or patriotism — stars and stripes, pioneer and patriot. Other suggestions included galaxy, sonic, discovery, friendship, frog creek, dusty trails, Dr. Seuss, redbud and Mustang Elementary II.

“You can tell a lot of times the parents got involved,” Womack said, adding he hoped parents will feel their children’s enthusiasm about attending the new facility.

Womack has already started the next step toward opening the facility, ordering furniture and interviewing potential faculty working within the district. He said several teachers are interested in moving to Mustang Centennial Elementary and hopes to bring a proposed list to school board members in April.

The 65,000-square-foot elementary school is a few weeks behind schedule in construction, but for now it’s still on track to open at the start of the 2007-2008 school year, said Jim Burkey, director of bond projects and construction. Burkey said he doubts weather will set the project back this spring, but is prepared for the worst case scenario.

“It can rain all it wants,” he said, adding the facility is mostly closed in. “They have some catching up to do.”

In other business, MSD’s auditor Darrel Johnston, of Angel, Johnston and Blasingame PC, gave the district a clean report for 2005-2006. The district’s net assets increased $1.6 million for the year, bringing MSD to $38 million in capital assets, including facilities, buses and major equipment. It spent $46 million, including depreciation of assets.

“You are still in that growing stage,” he said. “You are adding more assets than you are using up, which is a good thing.”

The district had $15.7 million in bond debt on June 30, 2006, and historically Johnston said Mustang has tried to hold property taxes steady.

“It doesn’t mean you are going to pay the same amount of tax if your property is worth more,” he said.

Auditors did find a few mistakes, which school officials vowed to remedy. In one instance a teacher didn’t receive a retirement offset, nor did the person receive retirement compensation for overtime worked.

The Mustang High School sponsor for Future Farmers of America failed to make several deposits on a “timely basis.” Johnston said state law requires any collection over $100 be deposited on the next business day.

The last item listed involved the MHS musical not using tickets to track attendance and sales at the door.

“At the end of the night, you can tell how many tickets were issued and how much money should have been collected,” he said.

Johnston said he’s already received the school district’s responses to the issues and found them adequate. He added of the 40 school districts his company audits, Mustang’s report was comparatively clean for a large school district. He said some larger school districts face pages of violations.

“Your district does a good job,” he said. “I think all of the major controls are in place. Basically all we are finding is isolated incidents.”

The board also approved:

  • A MAPS for Kids bond request for $80,442 to remodel Mustang High School West Building room 107 to house a severe and profound special needs class. School officials said the project will include building a kitchen, shower, bathroom and physical therapy area into the classroom and allow older students who are attending school at Mustang Mid-High to be in an age-appropriate facility. Most of the work will be performed by district staff, with plumbing, electrical and flooring work being finished by contractors.
  • A $68,392 bid from Chickasaw Telecom for networking equipment and telephone system expansion for Mustang Centennial Elementary to be paid for with MAPS for Kids bond funds.
  • Revisions to the district’s child abuse and neglect form and to the bloodborne pathogens plan.
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