March 14, 2026 Issue, Page 9 of 14

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The Elk City News SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2026 • 9 NEWS Retail Shop Hop, a Spring Tradition By Sheryl Ponce April 2nd through April 4th. great retail stores. A lot of the businesses will There is no better time to fill dy or venture out on your own There will be spring deals, sips, The participating retailers be having events throughout up with an entire spring ward- to explore what is happening Elk City retail merchants and treats. will be having internal promo- the week, so check with a fa- robe, new home decorations, in Elk City’s local businesses. will be hosting their annual It is a day for everyone to tions, seasonal specials, and vorite shop to see what they or special graduation gifts. Get Keep shopping locally during spring ShopHop on Thursday, head on down to shop at the in-store experiences. are offering. together with a shopping bud- this special event. MERRITT The First Uniform By Jeff Johnson zen ground that most of us had never seen growing up Growing up in Oklahoma, in Oklahoma. a few things were just un- But after a while people derstood. showed up for those too. Barry Switzer, the wish- Because the truth was, the bone offense, and football game was never really the was king. Basketball came point. next. Baseball after that. The point was the kid And if you wanted to play wearing the uniform. football the next fall, your And then one evening in coach probably made sure May, the jerseys came off. you ran track in the spring Caps and gowns replaced whether you liked it or not. them for a few hours, and For most of us, the first the same kids who had been real uniform showed up crashing into each other un- around third grade. der Friday night lights were Pee-wee football. Helmets suddenly standing in a line, a little too big, shoulder shaking hands, hugging TICKET PUNCHED! Merritt Oilerettes are Area Champions! Go get that gold ball, girls!! pads sliding around, kids necks, and taking pictures running plays like it was the with their parents on the Super Bowl while parents school lawn. sat in lawn chairs along the By the end of the sum- sideline. Nobody in those mer, most of those kids had stands showed up because picked another team. Some they loved the playbook. headed off to Norman or They showed up because Stillwater with new colors to some kid from their town wear. had pulled on a uniform and Others packed a duffel bag stepped onto the field. and reported somewhere far And in a small town, it from home, trading the jer- wasn’t unusual to realize sey they grew up in for a dif- you were cheering for both ferent kind of uniform. sides. A cousin over there, And every now and then, a neighbor’s kid over here. one of those kids grows up Different jerseys, same last and trades that jersey for names you’d been hearing something even bigger. Not your whole life. You might for a game, not for a season, clap a little louder for one but to serve their country — team, but deep down every- sometimes at a cost most of Band went to the district contest today with an ensemble. They got a 1 and they are going to state! Congratulations!! body in those uniforms still us can barely imagine. felt like one of ours. And when that happens, By high school the fields it’s worth remembering got bigger and the options something simple: no matter did too. Football was still what side of the field we sit king, of course, but oth- on in life, those are still our er sports started showing kids out there. up along the way. Some of And they still deserve them looked a little strange the same support from the at first — crooked sticks, flat stands that we gave them on balls, games played on fro- Friday nights. Senate Notes from Sen. Brent Howard | March 6, 2026 Senate education leaders ing after the unfunded liabil- announced a new educa- ity grew following a pattern tion funding package last of unfunded cost-of-living week that includes teach- adjustments paid out to re- er pay raises, investments tirees. Since then, the Legis- in early-childhood literacy, lature has directly invested additional dollars into the more than $7 billion of this school funding formula and tax revenue to stabilize the a new line item for math fund. These contributions coaches and intensive math have shored up the system curriculum. This plan was to the point that we no lon- developed outside the typ- ger have to rely on as much ical Senate Appropriations excess general tax revenue to process, so it came as a bit of keep the pension fund out of a surprise to some senators, peril. myself included. Moving forward, the Sen- Let me start by saying that ate will discuss the future of I expect this plan will change these apportioned tax dollars as my colleagues and I dis- as we work to ensure that cuss the details. I also expect current state services meet the House will come back taxpayers’ needs. With ed- with its own plan to increase ucation and literacy being investments in public educa- the top issues on everyone’s tion this year, and we’ll have minds this session, it’s nat- to find a compromise that ural to think that some of everyone can support. these funds could go toward The Senate education plan current classroom invest- that was put forth proposes a ments. $254 million increase in ed- I appreciate all the teach- ucation funding. As this is a ers who have reached out to tight budget year and cash express concerns about put- reserves shouldn’t be uti- ting the corpus of the pen- lized for recurring expenses, sion fund at risk. I hear those this proposal would utilize concerns. Currently, there is income, sales and use taxes more than $25 billion in the paid by all taxpayers, which fund, and about $1.7 billion is currently being diverted was paid out to retirees last to pension systems. Since year. This proposed plan 2003, this funding, which would not touch the corpus we call an “apportionment,” or the money invested by has gone into the Oklahoma current teachers, nor would Teachers’ Retirement Sys- it change retirees’ benefits. Merritt Elementary celebrates Reading Across America Week tem above and beyond all I can’t speak for all my col- regular employee/employer leagues at the Capitol, but contributions and the fund’s after the Legislature’s signif- own growth. These contribu- icant investment in TRS over Yes Finance We proudly support the tions have vastly grown the amount of money in the sys- the past two decades, it’s safe to say that I have no interest students, staff and administration tem. Initially, just 3.54% of that tax revenue went to prop in policies that would desta- bilize the corpus. at Merritt Schools up TRS, but now the amount is 5.25%, and the collections To contact me at the Cap- itol, please write to Senator 1414 W. 3rd St., Elk City, OK ~ Great Plains Bank are hundreds of millions more than when the Legisla- Brent Howard, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 580.225.1525 ~ First National Bank ture decided to stabilize the pension system. 427, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at Brent. LocalLoanGroup.com In the early 2000s, the pen- [email protected], or sion fund was at risk of fail- call (405) 521-5612.