Elk City, OK – During Monday night's regular meeting of the Elk City School Board, it was announced that the Oklahoma Department of Education's School Improvement Division will be visiting the district after the school has shown steady improvement over the last three years.

Superintendent Mike Sparks says the group collaborates with other schools to support their improvement efforts, and part of that process involves studying schools that have demonstrated recent success.

"They said overwhelmingly what they are hearing is that these schools would like to know about schools in the state of Oklahoma that are having success. What are they doing? Can we visit? Can we replicate? Long story short: The State Department reached out to me over the break and said, 'We would like to set up a day. Would you even be interested in having us come out? We’ll sit with your principal, sit with your teachers. We want to watch a day at school at Elk City. We want to know what you’re doing. We want to talk to your kids.'"

Sparks says the group works with over 200 schools in the state to assist with their improvement efforts.

He says they plan to visit the school district on February 5.