The past seven years have certainly been eventful for Tahlequah Public Schools and Superintendent Paul Hurst.

Hurst, who left Tahlequah last week to accept the position of superintendent of Putnam City Schools, has led the local school district through a massive budget shortfall, internal reorganization, facility improvement projects and historic curriculum changes to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind.

“It has been one heck of a ride,” said Hurst. “I feel a great sense of joy having been able to accompany so many fine people on such a good, good journey the last seven and half years.”

Hurst came to Tahlequah in early 2001 from Mid-Del Schools just outside Oklahoma City. In his nearly 26-year career with that district, Hurst served as a principal and spent seven years as assistant superintendent.

“Tahlequah is an extraordinary, very progressive community,” said Hurst. “When I decided I wanted to be a superintendent, there were really only two communities that I looked at that I really wanted to work because of their size, location, qualities of education, and higher education located in each community. Tahlequah had all that. I really appreciate so much all the people here and all they do for young people every day. You rarely find a community where people are so supportive of education, whether they have children in school or not and I think they just step up when it comes to kids.”

Early in his TPS administration, Hurst faced a major crisis when the state of Oklahoma experienced a severe funding shortfall lasting nearly two years. The district was forced to cut spending and find creative ways of trimming costs, many of which continue as schools face similar financial difficulties in the days ahead.

“We’re very state-dependent in Oklahoma and when state revenue shortfalls come, there will be some difficulties,” said Hurst. “We always seem to make things work, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Under Hurst’s leadership, the district has taken steps to trim costs, from energy management to staffing allocations to reducing administrative structure.

“From a financial point-of-view, we’ve done some things that will allow some wiggle room for increasing operations costs,” said Hurst. “We need some help from the state on that, but financially the district is in good shape.”

At the same time, the district also faced numerous changes handed down at the state and federal level through the No Child Left Behind Act.

Though Hurst doesn’t agree with everything written into that extensive piece of legislation, he did appreciate the focus it brought to the schools in regards to what is taught in the classroom.

“There is some good inside No Child Left Behind,” said Hurst. “For us to take a look and desegregate data and take a look at various subgroups of our population are achieving is a good thing. It also brought to us, as educators, a really intense focus to what we are doing.”

There are still things Hurst would like to see changed inside the legislation, from measuring education through single-assessments to overcoming barriers to learning.

Construction has always been a part of Hurst’s time at TPS as well, beginning with the science wing and Performing Arts Center and Tahlequah High School, and continuing through the bond issues and city sales tax to raise funds for facility improvements at all of the district’s school sites, which will culminate in the grand opening of the new TPS multipurpose activity center later this year.

“Those will last for generations and I’m extremely pleased with them,” said Hurst. “We’ve improved the physical environment for our students tremendously in the past seven years.”