Hurst resigns superintendent's post

By SEAN KENNEDY
Press special writer

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS May 13, 2008 03:19 pm

— During a meeting Monday night, the Tahlequah I-35 Board of Education approved the resignation of Superintendent Paul Hurst, effective June 30, “with great sorrow and apprehension.”
“Tahlequah Public Schools is a special place, and I will sing the praises of this school district for the rest of my life,” said TPS Superintendent Paul Hurst in announcing his resignation on Monday night. “Nikki and I have been blessed during our time here. Our love for our community will not diminish.”
During his tenure as superintendent, Hurst has guided the district through ever-tightening budgets, a school bond issue and sales tax plan to generate funds for capital improvements, numerous construction projects, and changes to the district’s grade-level structure.
In announcing his resignation, Hurst thanked all the members of the school board, past and present, with whom he has worked during his tenure. He expressed hope that the positive relationship they have established will continue after he left. Hurst also thanked all the teachers, staff and administrators at TPS for working so hard to provide a quality education for the children of Tahlequah.
“The work has been great, and I hope the relationships we have established will be enduring,” said Hurst. “This is a very special place when all of us are doing what we need to be doing for our boys and girls.”
Hurst also offered his gratitude to people of the Tahlequah community for embracing him.
“Tahlequah is very unique in that it values education more than any other community I can imagine,” said Hurst. “Certainly while the staff has provided the leadership for what we’ve accomplished, the community has given us the impetus to move forward.”
The board approved a contract with the Oklahoma State School Board Association for assistance with the search for a new superintendent.
According to the Putnam City Schools Web site, that school board hired Hurst as its new superintendent Monday night. The Web cite did not indicate how much Putnam City will be paying Hurst; he was making about $113,000 a year at Tahlequah.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Lisa Presley presented the board with the Oklahoma Office of Accountability’s 2007 District Report Card. The report details socioeconomic data about the community, information on the school district, and the result’s of the district’s standardized tests scores from 2006-2007. “Our report is very good and we wanted to share this with you,” said Presley.
The district is compared to the average of all schools from across the state, and also to districts of roughly the same size with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. For Tahlequah, those communities include Durant, El Reno, Guthrie, Ardmore, Miami and Ada, among others. “Our students scored about the group average in every area except fifth-grade writing, sixth-grade math and seventh-grade math,” said Presley. “We’ve done some things in sixth grade to address math specifically for this year.”
Test scores cover students from third through eighth grades, and end-of-instruction exams for high school students in Algebra I, English II, U.S. History and Biology I.
“As Mr. Hurst would say, we educate all of God’s children here, and I think we do a very good job at it,” said Presley.
Each student in the district will receive a copy of the report card at the end of the school year to present to their parent, along with their report cards.
Tahlequah High School Principal Dr. Nick Migliorino reminded the community that in case of rain during the THS graduation Friday, May 23, the ceremony will be held in the morning Saturday, May 24.