Watch Thelma Parks Elementary’s first day of school in OKC
OKCPS began its school year Wednesday, Aug. 13. Here’s a look at the first day of school at Thelma Parks Elementary.
Editor’s note: For back-to-school this year, we are launching a new biweekly education column featuring notes and news about Oklahoma schools and educators. This is the first edition. For tips about news to include in future editions, email reporter Murray Evans at mdevans@oklahoman.com.
Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma both are defying a national enrollment cliff, with each reporting a record freshman enrollment.
OSU reported 36,934 students enrolled across the OSU system – which includes campuses in Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Okmulgee – on the first day of classes for the 2025-26 academic year. That total broke the previous system record, set in 2013. The almost 5,200 freshmen enrolled at the main Stillwater campus gave OSU a fourth-straight year of record-setting freshman enrollment.
Meanwhile, OU announced it has the largest freshman class in state history, with 6,251 incoming students. It’s the fifth straight year of record freshman enrollment at OU, which has campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Total enrollment across the OU system is more than 36,500 students.
In 2023, Gov. Kevin Stitt challenged OU and OSU to each “deliver a quality education to 40,000 students by 2030.” He praised both universities about their progress toward that goal in separate posts on social media on Aug. 26.
In other education news:
Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame to induct latest class
Current Oklahoma higher education Chancellor Sean Burrage and former Oklahoma State University athletic director Harry Birdwell lead the 2025 class for induction into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.
The Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society announced the 12 inductees on Monday, Aug. 25. The induction ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 3. Since the Hall of Fame’s establishment in 1994, the society has inducted more than 350 educators, administrators and others for their contributions to higher education.
Burrage, a former state senator, has served as chancellor of Oklahoma higher education since December, leading a system made up of 25 public colleges and universities. He spent five years at the University of Oklahoma as its vice president of executive affairs and chief of staff and five years as the president at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant.
Birdwell spent 16 years at OSU, from 1989 to 2005, serving as vice president of university relations, vice president of business and external relations before being named as athletic director in July 2002. While in the later role, he launched the first comprehensive upgrade of OSU athletic venues in school history.
Other inductees include:
• Joseph Alexander, a former dean of the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine and president of the OSU Innovation and Economic Development Foundation.
• Jennifer Barger Johnson, a professor of legal studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. She was the longest-serving female president of the UCO Faculty Senate and service in multiple other roles for the Edmond school.
• Laku Chidambaram, dean of the Price College of Business at OU.
• Robert Graalman Jr., who spent 32 years (1981 to 2013) working at OSU, beginning as a humanities teacher and ending his career as the director of the Henry Bellmon Office of Scholar Development and Recognition.
• Chan Hellman, the director of the Hope Research Center at OU. In 2024, the center received the “Building Knowledge Through Research” award from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime.
• Sunderesh Heragu, the president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and a Regents professor at Oklahoma State University. He conceived and developed the Cowboy Academy of Industrial Engineering and Management at OSU, an alumni organization.
• Marvin Lamb, who served from 1998 to 2005 as dean of OU’s Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. During that time, he worked with Max Weitzenhoffer in naming the college and establishing the School of Musical Theatre.
• Lance Lobban, who has been as a chemical engineering professor at OU since 1987. He also directed the OU School of Sustainable Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering for 16 years.
• Mark Parker, who retired in June after 35 years at Oklahoma City University, including 30 as its dean of music. In 2004, he was also appointed dean of theatre, holding that role 21 years. During his tenure, Parker transformed both schools into international leaders in the fusion of arts, technology and creativity.
• Stephen E. Smith, who had a 30-year career in education before retiring after 13 years as president of Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton in 2020. He served as the chair of the Oklahoma Council of Presidents and the chair of the Council of Two-Year College Presidents.
Award-winning teacher becomes Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence trustee
The 2023 national teacher of the year from Oklahoma and a superintendent of a growing school district near Tulsa are among eight new trustees for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.
Rebecka Peterson, now a teacher leadership specialist for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, was named as Oklahoma’s teacher of the year in 2022, then went on to win the national title. She’s worked in the Union district since 2012. Joining her on the OFE board will be Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Lydia Wilson, who’s in her first year in that role but has spent 35 years in public education. The new trustees will serve three-year terms.
OFE – conceived by former U.S. Sen. David Boren – is a nonpartisan nonprofit that recognizes and encourages excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools. Since 1987, the privately funded foundation has run its flagship Academic Awards Program, which recognizes public high school seniors with Academic All-State awards and presents five educators every year with a Medal for Excellence.