Union Superintendent Talks Plans For The School Year And What's Next For The District

The Tulsa Union school district started its first full week of school on Monday, and a new Superintendent has taken the reins for the 2024-2025 school year.

Dr. John Federline joined Dave Davis on News on 6 at 9 to talk about his plans for the school year and what's next for Union.

Dave: So what has it been like taking over for Dr. Hartzler, who was in that role for so many years? Do you still talk with him?

Federline: Absolutely, Dr. Hartzler and Dr. Burden are both great mentors and friends to me, and I still talk to both of them pretty often.

Dave: What are they telling you about being in this position?

Federline: It's a unique role. There's a lot of pressure, but it's a tremendous privilege as well, and to get to have some influence over our students and our faculty. It's a tremendous responsibility, but it's also a great honor.

Dave: How is it going for you? How are you adapting and acclimating?

Federline: It is going great. We've had an excellent start to the school year and the privilege of visiting every single classroom a union with some of our board members. We're still doing that, actually, and we just seem to be off to an excellent start this year.

Dave: Why is that important to you to visit every classroom? I've heard you say this before, but I just wanted to know that's a lot of work.

Federline: It's a lot of work, but I think it's important. It's good to be visible for not only the staff and the students. It's important to get a feel of how things are going and to just listen to our staff members and to our parents and see what I can do to help.

Dave: Earlier, we had talked about state superintendent Ryan Walters and Attorney General Gentner Drummond about the $50 million in-security fund distribution. Tell me about your security budget. Are you, like, totally reliant on this 50 million? Where does it come into play?

Federline: Well, that money was bonus money from the legislature that we were very thankful for, and we received ours and added added it to our existing security budget. We use it for things like staffing and camera upgrades and secure entrances, things like that.

Dave: So, your security budget exists outside of that pot of money.

Federline: Absolutely, safety and security is our top priority. Just like any other district, we want to make sure that we spend those funds where they're most needed.

Dave: What are you really hoping in terms of this year getting back to kind of your goals? What would you like to see done in the district with you at the head?

Federline: Well, I will say that we have a renewed focus on attendance this year. It's really important if we learn one thing from the pandemic; it's how important public education is for our students and our communities. We have a renewed focus on attendance. We also have a renewed focus on reading. I announced at kickoff that our elementary schools are all in on 100% reading proficiency by the end of first grade, which is really important. In addition to that, we are opening up and doing work on a new medical academy at the high school. We've already established a Construction Academy, Aerospace Academy, and now we're moving on with the Medical Academy as well. We've got some great partners and tremendous opportunities for our kids.

Dave: What does Medical Academy mean is that we're talking training future doctors and nurses hands on what are we talking about?

Federline: A lot of hands on experience. But one of the things we've learned over the last year is there is a tremendous need in the Tulsa metro area for medical professionals, not only doctors and nurses but also things like radiation techs, respiratory techs, medical cal billing and pharmaceuticals. There are so many opportunities in the medical fields for kids, whether or not they go to college, and we want to train them in those experiences so they can be college and career ready.

Dave: OK, I've got to ask about the football team. You have a very special member of the football team in your family, Jack Federline, a senior tight end this year. How's it going? What are you thinking about the team this year?

Federline: You know, it's going great on a personal level. You know, it's just so excited for him and his teammates to see them come all the way up through UFA and now it's their senior year. We had our Meet the Redhawks event on Saturday. Was very well attended. Got to see an inner squad scrimmage. So, on a personal note, I'm very excited. On a professional note, we should have a fantastic team this year. We're looking forward to some great things. I've gotten to see a lot of practice, talk to our coaches quite a bit, and we're on track for having a great season.

Dave: Are you into predictions? Is that something that you do?

Federline: Well, if you're gonna ask me prediction, I'm gonna predict gold ball for the Redhawks. Absolutely right?

Dave: I did have one more thing, anything you'd like to update folks on coming down the pike, possibly things that people can vote on, bonds, anything that you want to update?

Federline: You know, we're in a five-year series bond, and so we won't have one for another couple of years, but I will say just thank you to our voters in our community, our bond packages have always passed, historically at about 80%, and you can look around the district and see that our facilities are some of the best in the state, and that's because of the support we've had from our community.