A4 - THE PERKINS JOURNAL, Thursday, April 5, 2012
Op ° °
lnlons
Cats Are Treated Special, a local non-profit cat shelter,
since 2003, has a Thrift Shop booth inside the new Main
Street Mall located at 111 South Main, Perkins. The
booth has a variety of items including collectors plates,
figurines, glassware, china sets, handbags, framed objects,
and soy candle melts. All proceeds go toward acquir-
ing an indoor cat shelter. Donations are always an extra
blessing. For adoptions phone 405-547-1224
Betty Ottaway
Perkins
BOARD
Continued from Page A1
depending on the severity of
the infraction at the discretion
of the administration.
A fourth referral was also
added in which the student
would lose bus riding privi-
leges for the remainder of the
school year.
The district's Professional
Development Annual Update
was also approved along with
the new members for the
2012-2013 fiscal year. The
committee consists of: Stacy
Winters and Crystal Owens,
high school; Renee Peters and
Shawn Matheson, junior high;
Cindy Wilkey and Joan Cross,
intermediate school; and Lisa
Bowman and Sharon Kinzie,
elementary school. Wilkey is
the chairperson.
Other members of the
committee are Donna Boles,
adminislrator: Jessica Miller,
counselor:, and Kristy Voelker,
TREATS
Continued from Page A1
"We plan to visit Perkins
streets three times a week,
but also will visit Stillwater,
Cushing, Ripley, and Camey,"
Jamie Clinesmith said.
Besides their routes, the
truck will also be parked at
the Frontier Realty building
in downtown Perkins in the
evenings until around 9 p.m.
The Clinesmiths said to
look for them at area events
as well.
"We're already planning to
participate in events such as
Old Settlers' Day in Perkins
and the Waynoka Rattle-
snake Hunt," Trevor Cline-
smith said.
Jamie noted they will also
be available for private gather-
ings, such as birthday parties,
parent.
A special board meeting will
be held at 12:30 p.m. Thurs-
day, May 17, for the sale of
$425,000 worth of building
bonds voted on and approved
by district patrons on Aug. 26,
2008. The board will designate
bond counsel for the issuance
of bonds.
The board acknowledged the
resignations of cook Kimber
McGeehee, special education
teacher Mathew Withrow,
and teacher/coach Gaye Lynn
Treat. The board also received
a letter from high school
language arts teacher Kristy
WiUingham of her intentions
to retire at the end of the
school year.
Also approved were Gen-
eral Fund encumbrances of
$57,539.94; Building Fund
encumbrances of $4,000; and
Child Nutrition Fund encum-
brances of $64.05.
or church events and holiday
parties.
"Our birthday package
includes treats and a t-shirt
for the birthday child," she
said.
Trevor is employed as a
superintendent at Cimarron
Trails Golf Course. Jamie is
an orthodontic assistant for
Dr. Edwin Polk in Stillwater.
The couple has two children,
Brooklyn, 8, and Blake, 5.
"We both grew up in Per-
kins, but never got to experi-
ence an ice cream mack like
this," Trevor Clinesmith
said. "We just wanted to bring
this to kids in Perkins."
For more information about
Cruisin' Street Treats, call
(405) 547-5314, or just listen
for the sounds of sweelness.
As House committees take up Senate bills, we are
continuing to focus on areas that were also priorities in
the House legislative filed this year with an emphasis on
saving taxpayer dollars and reforming government.
The House Energy & Utility Regulation Committee has
approved legislation that could save $300 million to $500
million over the next decade, according to estimates.
Senate Bill 1096 creates the Oklahoma State Facilities
Energy Conservation Program, which sets an energy cost
reduction target of 20 percent by the year 2020.
The proposal is aimed at capitalizing on behavior-
based conservation efforts, existing equipment and
optimal building use, "while maintaining or improving
the operational environment during times when facilities
are occupied."
The program created by the legislation would be similar
to one used by many state schools and colleges who have
contracted with Texas-based Energy Education Inc.
Tulsa Public Schools has reportedly saved more than $3.3
million since implementing their program in 2009.
The House Energy & Utility Regulation Committee
also approved Senate Bill 1500, which would allow
removal of Grand River Dam Authority board members
who miss three meetings in one year.
A recent state audit found that all GRDA board mem-
bers were in attendance at only two of 21 meetings over
two years.
For government oversight to work, state board mem-
bers must take their job duties seriously.
Finally, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Revenue and Taxation has advanced a measure to pro-
vide some homeowners greater property tax relief.
Senate Bill 1036 would increase the amount of gross
household income property owners can earn and still
qualify for an additional homestead exemption, raising
the threshold from $20,000, to the greater of $22,000
or 50 percent of a county's median income as deter-
mined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development.
In 2011, there were 47,959 homesteads that qualified
for the exemption. It is estimated that another 4,274 will
qualify under the provisions of Senate Bill 1036.
The bill was also amended to increase the $1,000
homestead exemption to $1,200.
The homestead exemption has not been adjusted since
1988. Adjusted for inflation, the $1,000 exemption
approved in 1988 would equal $1,924 today.
As always, feel free to contact me at (405)557-7304
or at leedenney@okhouse.gov.
By Cecil Acuff
In the beginning, kids need parents. The young ones
are attached; months and months, or years. Then sud-
denly, the kids are sent to school, first for one-half day
then for 7 or 8 hours daily, where they'll learn to cope
with life in ways they never had done before. Parents no
longer control what is learned, how, and with whom.
That is, unless parents decide, as has an emerging
don't provide the kind of education they want for the
young ones.
Psychologist Wendy Mogel, author of"The Blessing
of a Skinned Knee," admires the way homeshoolers
manage to give their children a childhood in an ultra
competitive world. Yet she wonders how kids who
spend so much time within a deliberately crafted
community will learn to work with people from
backgrounds nothing like theirs.
Typical homeschooled youngsters tend to find the
space they need by the time they reach teenageyears.
This has made them more appealing to colleges. They
welcome homeschoolers', they've had practice chart-
ing their own intellectual directions.
population across America, to forego that age-old rite of Homeschoolers support legislation that would
passage entirely. Some people think of home schoolers
as evangelical or off-the-gridders who spend a lot of
time at kitchen tables in the countryside. Most home
schooling may do so for moral or religious reasons,
but that is changing.
Mitchell Stevens, Stanford University professor,
wrote, "Kingdom of Children, a History of Home
Schooling." At the time, there were an estimated
300,000 home schooled children in America's cities
and countrysides. Many, many of these are children
of secular, highly-educated professionals who always
figured they'd send their kids to school. Then, they
started thinking, maybe we could do better.
When a homeschooling consultant pulled her. kids
out of school in the mid- 1990s, some close friends said
that she was ruining her kids lives. Now, the parents
she meets aren't afraid to talk about it; and proudly.
Many of these parents feel that schools everywhere
allow kids to play sports for their local public high
school.They want to have an option. The ranks of
homeschoolers keep growing. According to the most
recent federal estimates, the number of homeschooled
children in the U.S. has nearly doubled from 850,000
in 1999 to 1.5 million in 2007.
The sports question has become charged lately
thanks to Tim Tebow, the homeschooled kid in Florida
who grew up to become a football phenomenon for the
Denver Broncos (his status has been changed lately).
Twenty eight states have passed laws like the one that
enabled Tebow to play football for a public high school
near Jacksonville. Twelve states are considering simi-
lar legislation, nick-named "Tebow Laws."
Opponents of homeschool sports access bills include
public school superintendents and athletic directors
who say Tebow laws will undermine hard-won eligi-
bility requirements for public school athletes.
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