The Durant Board of Education in its recent meeting learned about a program that provides Durant High School students with money for college.
Superintendent Mark Moring said that the Gear Up program once only provided tuition waivers to high school seniors and for this school year, juniors are eligible.
“Basically, we’re going to put it out there that there is free college money if you go to Durant High School in Gear Up, and you take part in the Gear Up program, so that’s really, really a big deal,” Moring said. “It’s really a great partnership.” Connie Arneson works for the State Regents for Higher Education, and she is the Durant Gear Up site director.
She said Gear Up is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for undergraduate programs.
“What that means is, we want to prepare your students for their next steps after high school,” Arneson said. “A lot of people think college ready, and that’s definitely, college ready is what we want. I work for the state regents, so that’s what they’re about, but also not only college ready, but career ready. So, we’ve expanded that to, okay, they need to be ready for college and career.”
She passed out impact reports to the board and during the 2025-2026 school year, Gear Up paid $70,814 in concurrent enrollment fees for Durant seniors. In the program, 615 students received academic counseling, 1,465 students participated in college and career workshops, 1,171 students received financial aid and counseling, and 552 families received Gear Up services.
Arneson said that for the upcoming school year, the program will have more than $100,000 to provide to juniors and seniors. She said that Gear Up has been in the Durant School District for seven years and has provided $1 million to the district so far.
“It’s juniors and seniors that are eligible to take concurrent classes and the Oklahoma State Regents that I work for pays the tuition up to 18 hours for seniors and for juniors, up to nine hours tuition, but then as far as fees are concerned, if they’re in Durant School District, then Gear Up comes back behind them and pays their fees on top of that,” Arneson said. “If you go to Durant Schools, you’re getting to take college courses for free if you’re a junior and senior and you’re eligible to do so. So, it’s a very great opportunity for those kids.”
In other things discussed during the meeting, Moring updated the board on summer projects that included painting the gyms, the commons area, auditorium and band hall at the high school. The old steps that were cracked have been replaced. The HVAC system is being updated at the middle school.
Paint was touched up at Washington Irving.
“It really wasn’t on our painting schedule, but we did a ton of paint touch-ups there, inside, and we’re going to do some on the outside of the building because it’s going to be the 100th year anniversary, so we’ve got a lot going on there,” Moring said. “We want that building looking good.”
Board President Janie Umsted said her mother went to WI the first year it opened.
Shade awnings that were destroyed during the ice storm at Robert E. Lee Early Childhood Center are expected to be delivered in August, according to Moring.
In other school news, Taylor Downs, who was Northwest Heights principal, was named director of curriculum. He replaces Beth Bean, who resigned after accepting a job to lead the Partnership of Summer School Education (POSSE) program. Mellissa Sherrer was named principal of Northwest Heights. She previously was assistant principal, and Gena Smith was named assistant principal of NWH.
