Largest BA Class First To Graduate At BOK Center

It was a packed house at the BOK Center downtown Thursday night for the 2014 Broken Arrow graduating class.

It was the first high school class to hold its graduation at the downtown venue, and almost all of the 15,000 seats were full. It was also the largest graduating class in school history, close to 1,200 students walked the stage.

It was a proud moment Thursday night for every one of the graduating Broken Arrow seniors.

"To be here, at the BOK, with about 15,000 people, it's exciting, like, it's gonna be a fun time, I'm ready," said graduating senior Dena Mossop.

Mossop is the class president and most of her family traveled all the way from New Jersey to witness her graduation.

Her father, Gary Mossop, said, "Broken Arrow is like a big family, everyone supports one another, they just encourage each other, very positive, a real nurturing environment to raise a family."

The class is not only the largest in Broken Arrow history, but also secured the largest amount of scholarships on record; more than $6 million.

Superintendent, Dr. Jarod Mendenhall, said, "When you look at all of that, pretty special class."

Mendenhall said his district grows by 300 students every year, something he is always keeping an eye on. After all, at this point, all High School students are under the same roof.

When asked when is big too big, Mendenhall said, "At some point you look and get nervous about that, but part of our responsibility, I feel like, as the administration, is to make sure that we have smaller learning communities and that we keep kids engaged."

He said there is definitely potential for more than one high school as the number of students steadily increases.

"We are 115 square miles and we only have 60 percent of that grown out, so when you look at that, we are gonna grow, we're gonna get bigger," Mendenhall said.

The district is keeping an eye on the future, and so are the 1,200 new graduates.

"We've got some pretty determined and dedicated kids that are going far in life, so I'm happy for them and I'm excited," said Mossop.

Statewide, Broken Arrow is the sixth largest district with just under 18,000 students.