At the beginning of each school year, the Ponca City Chamber of Commerce brings chamber businesses together with Ponca City Public Schools, private school principals and dependent school principals in the area. Assigned businesses and schools serve as Partners in Education (PIE) to support the students of each site for the entire school year. The PIE partners discuss projects that would support each site and develop a collaborative action plan to best serve the students.

“This is an incredible project of the Ponca City Chamber of Commerce and truly benefits the students in our public and private schools,” said Ponca City Superintendent Shelley Arrott. “It is so evident our community truly values education, our children and educators because if there is a need, the chamber, businesses and citizens collaborate as a team to make the greatest impact on our most valuable asset, our children.”

“Our staff appreciates how much support they are provided by this community as we all work toward one goal … providing the best opportunities for success for our kids. It makes me so prideful when I share with other superintendents in the state the amazing support the community of Ponca City provides their schools.”

Some of the things PIE partners have done over the years includes tutoring, being a mentor, donating perfect attendance awards, provided pizza parties, fundraiser donations, paying for transportation for class field trips, providing staff with Chamber Bucks during Christmas, snacks for monthly faculty meetings, donating school supplies, clothing donations, gift cards for a variety of needs, calendars for offices and classrooms, water and first aid supplies and even provided mini Oklahoma flags for every student.

Partners in Education for the 2021-2022 school year:

• East Middle School: Blackwell Dentistry, First National Bank of Oklahoma and Albertson’s LLC Distribution Facility

• First Lutheran: Continental Carbon and Martin, Jean and Jackson

• Garfield Elementary: Phillips 66 and Holmes, Yates and Johnson Law Firm

• Kildare School: First National Bank of Oklahoma (starting in January)

• Liberty Elementary: First Baptist Church, Cookshack Inc. and Cherokee Strip Credit Union

• Lincoln Elementary: First Christian Church, Evans and Associates, Dorada Foods and Stuteville Ford

• McCord School: Stolhand-Wells Plumbing, Heating and Air and Kyler Construction Group

• Po-Hi: Stuteville Chevrolet, Family Vision Care of Ponca City and Alliance-Health Ponca City

• Roosevelt Elementary: Stolhand-Wells Plumbing, Heating and Air, RCB Bank, Boettcher, Devinney, Ingle and Wicker, P.C. Dr. Koya with Genesis Care, Anderson Flooring

• St. Mary’s School: Precision Tool and Die, Bintz Pharmacy, Tyndall Family Dentistry and Edward Jones Office (Judy Eckholt)

• Trout Elementary: RCB Bank, Dolese Bros. Co. 7 Mile and St. Paul’s Methodist Church

• Union Elementary: Ponca City Charity Angel Ambucs, Ponca City Rotary Club and Rick Scott Construction

• Washington Pre-K: Sterling Broadcastig and Kyler Construction Group

• West Middle School: Albertson’s LLC Distribution Facility and Dr. Aaron Buchanan DDS

• Wildcat Academy: Edward Jones Office (Jodi Cline) and Community National Bank and Trust

• Woodlands Elementary: Team Radio Marketing Group, Equity Bank and Blackwell Dentistry

During the year, the Child Development Center and Teen Pep program will let the Chamber know if anything is needed.