February 2023

Maple earns state ticket

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Maple School’s girls basketball team earned a second straight trip to the Oklahoma Rural Elementary Schools state tournament with a runner-up finish in the Division III West Championship.

The Eagles open state Thursday at Shawnee against Moffett. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

Maple earns state ticket_story

Calumet wins WVC crown; Okarche streak at eight

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While pushing its win streak to 20 games, Calumet High School’s boys basketball team clinched the title in the 2023 Washita Valley Conference Shootout with an 85-28 win over cross-county rival Union City.

Calumet, ranked fourth in Class B, improved to 22-1 on the season with the win over the Tigers. Union City had its six-game win streak snapped in the loss, slipping to 18-4 overall.

Dalton Belcher led the Chieftains in scoring with 18 points, while adding four steals, three assists and two rebounds.

Hunter Arnold chipped in 15 points and four rebounds.

Sound of teaching

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Chelsea Reed enjoys singing about as much as she loves to teach, so it was only natural she merge the two worlds inside her classroom at Rose Witcher Learning Center.

“I love to sing to my kids and we do a lot of movement in the classroom every day,” said Reed.

“They don’t all learn the same. Some are visual learners, some learn by hearing and others by movement. First-graders can’t sit still for very long and it’s very challenging to keep them entertained, so we do a lot of movement and extra things because not only are they learning, but they are exercising.”

Chelsea Reed sings a song with her first-grade students

Chamber, Tribune to host candidate forum ahead of school board election

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The El Reno Chamber of Commerce will partner with the El Reno Tribune to host a candidate forum, this time for the upcoming El Reno Public School Board election.

The Chamber and Tribune hosted a candidate forum for the November city council and mayoral race and like the earlier one, the school board forum will be held at Redlands Community College.

The forum is set for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7. It will run for one hour.

Riverside $4 million bond issue set for Feb. 14 vote

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Proponents of a $4 million bond issue at Riverside School call the election “historic.”

Since it appears the only other time the dependent pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school on Foreman Road held a bond election was in 1968, that may be a fitting description.

Lisa Derryberry, Riverside superintendent, said the bond issue supported at the beginning of the Nixon administration in ‘68 was for $35,000.

Times have changed.

Riverside students use the gym for physical education classes

ArFrances Netterville

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Funeral services for ArFrances Netterville of Inglewood, Calif., will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, El Reno. Services are under the direction of Temple and Sons Funeral Directors Inc.

ArFrances passed away Jan. 16, 2023. She was born June 15, 1943, in El Reno and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. She was employed with the El Reno Nursing Home and El Reno Country Club as a cook, and was a licensed missionary. She moved to California in 2015.

ArFrances Netterville_obituary

State sends questionnaire to determine the financial boycott of energy companies

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Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ sent a letter and questionnaire to a list of national financial institutions, including fund managers and banks, to determine which companies “boycott energy companies” in Oklahoma.

Russ said this move is the first step in compiling the list of companies Oklahoma government entities are prohibited from doing business with because of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies.

Gloria Bellymule-Zuniga

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Funeral services for Gloria Bellymule-Zuniga will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Concho Emergency Response Center with John Tyler Youngbull and Abraham Zuniga officiating. Burial will follow at the Concho Cemetery under the direction of Huber-Benson Funeral Home.

Gloria Bellymule-Zuniga_obituary