News

OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite one school district’s call for minimum safety standards in the wake of a fatal shooting at a high school football game, the governing body for Oklahoma school athletics took no action to change current security regulations.

The board of directors for the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association discussed, but made no decisions, about the possibility of establishing stricter minimum requirements.

A new roundabout is coming to Canadian County.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) plans to install a roundabout on U.S. Highway 81 at the State Highway 66 intersection in El Reno. A roundabout is among engineering innovations being implemented by ODOT.

Drivers slow down as they approach an intersection with a roundabout, but don’t come to a complete stop. A roundabout creates less “stop-and-go” traffic because vehicles do not stop, according to ODOT spokesman Bryce Boyer.

One family sold a business to another family, but as it turns out, it stayed in the family.

A bit more distant, but still there’s a connection.

For decades the Rother family operated the Culligan water franchise in El Reno. Recently, David, Mark and Bob Rother announced they were selling the business to another family with a long tradition in the water business.

As it turns out, the families are related.

For the first time in Oklahoma history, Nuhu’ Hinono’eitiit heetniixoohoo3ihei3i’ Howoh’oowu' co’ouutou3eino’oowuu’ which translates: The Arapaho language will be taught at El Reno High School.

El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Matt Goucher and the El Reno School Board approved the curriculum for Arapaho language classes at the board’s July meeting.

With the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes headquarters located just north of El Reno at Concho, El Reno schools has a high percentage of Native American students.

Redlands Community College is experiencing substantial growth in the student population with a 10.8 percent increase in total enrollment this fall, including a historic boost in concurrent enrollment with a 21.2 percent increase.

“It is an exciting time to be at Redlands with the growth in programs and partnerships, and the campus is busy with housing at capacity,” said President Jena Marr.

With confetti flying and cheers from the crowd of students and dignitaries, El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Matt Goucher cut the ribbon on one of three in-house STEM centers. The district received centers at Rose Witcher, Lincoln and Roblyer Learning Centers through a joint gift from El Reno’s Flogistix, Devon Energy and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation.

“This is a huge benefit for us. Flogistix, Devon and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation came to us and asked for a meeting about STEM centers and it grew into this.

It’s not a pretty statistic.

Over the past two years, the Intervention and Crisis Advocacy Network (ICAN), has seen an almost 20 percent increase in the number of people seeking help, many involved in domestic abuse situations.

For that reason, ICAN is promoting a survey designed to provide information on how better it can assist women, men and children who are trying to flee such abuse.