Published: August 02, 2008 11:00 pm            

Caine speaks to Rotary Club

Meeting with the Stillwater Rotary Club, the city’s new superintendent of education spoke of the motives that brought her to Stillwater, her dedication to her profession and also told of her family. She recognizes the fact that she left a professional assignment which was challenging and fulfilling in Moore but a new challenge waited for her in Stillwater.

Residents of Stillwater recognize the qualities in Dr. Ann Caine and Rotarians, at the end of her presentation, swarmed to the podium to meet her personally, many with stories of their own to share with her. Caine is especially appreciated by Stillwater residents because she once was a student at Oklahoma State University where she earned her doctorate degree. She was born in Kansas and earned two degrees at Kansas State University, the baccalaureate and master’s degrees.

As for her family, Caine has been married to Tracy Caine for 29 years. They are the parents of three children: Daughter, Missy, 11 years old; Chris, a sports management senior at OSU; and daughter, Laura, who graduated from OSU and was recently married. Tracy is the manager of a laundry and uniform business, UniFirst and intends to commute from Stillwater to his office. The family will sell their house in Moore and buy one in Stillwater, Caine said, as soon as she can fill her assignment in the Moore school system. There she held the title executive director of elementary education. Caine quoted her husband as saying, “I will commute every day so she (his wife) could work her dream of being a superintendent.”

Caine told Rotarians that she has been an educator for 29 years and said, “I know Stillwater is a very progressive district. It has high ACT scores, a very progressive, supportive school board, amazing teachers and staff, great parents and students. I believe it is going to be a great partnership.”

Caine seemed to be favorably impressed with one of the Rotary Club’s local projects, the “Dictionary Project,” a program whereby every third grade student in city schools receives a dictionary/ encyclopedia furnished by the Stillwater Rotary Club. A panel of members who work in the program had visited with Caine in her office prior to her visit with the club. They introduced the club project to her at that time. She thanked the club for inventing a new angle in education for elementary students. It is a program which truly “Leaves no child behind.” She expressed to the group her sincere appreciation for the club’s recognition of the need to teach every student at an early age how to research a problem.

Caine said she hopes to find the time once a month to write a column for the local paper on activities in Stillwater’s school system. She also said it is her intention to visit every classroom in the school system once a month.

One of her strong interests, she said, is to see that every student becomes involved in classwork and participates in current class assignments. Each child will be expected to live up to her/his potential. If someone does not score well in assignments, a red flag will go up and special attention will be given to that student.

The new superintendent urges anyone wanting to meet with her to be given that opportunity. “I intend to be very visible in this assignment,” she said.

        

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