TIGER TOUR: THS invites students to 'Be A Tahlequah Tiger'

Skyler Hammons |, Tahlequah Daily Press, Okla.
·3 min read

Feb. 28—Students from Cherokee County K-8 schools received personal tours and discussions with staff about their upcoming Tahlequah High School experience, Feb. 26-27.

{span}Josefina Sanales, an attendance secretary at Heritage Elementary,{/span} was hosted at THS the mornings of Feb. 26-27 for the school tours, while the evenings featured parents taking part in tours and receiving enrollment assistance. Some of the schools that attended Be A Tahlequah Tiger included Grand View, Lowrey, Shady Grove, Norwood, Briggs and more.

THS Assistant Principal Mark Jordan said the purpose of the event is to help incoming freshmen, especially those at local K-8 schools, enroll. Jordan said he hoped the event would alleviate added stress to the first day of school and help to get parents acquainted with THS.

"The students themselves will be getting a tour, [and] hopefully, it will help alleviate a little bit of stress," Jordan said. "When you're coming from a small K-8 school this [place] is really large and our building is like a maze."

While THS has an open house event in August, Jordan said that one is much larger and will have all the teachers on site, as well as other departments.

"The one in August will be much larger," Jordan said. "This is far more targeted. We're getting those K-8 kids [in the system], we know they're coming here, and [we] get them enrolled. It gives us a good idea because we start planning now what classes we are going to offer."

Jordan said since the students were new enrollees, they were having to make sure they had proper documentation, their Wengage login was created, and academic counselors were there to talk about the logistics of high school. The high school also featured several extracurricular groups at the event, such as JROTC, athletics and fine arts.

Ellie Vega, a THS art instructor, was at the event with several art students, as she wanted the incoming students to know what will be available to them.

"I think it's good because it gets the kids excited about coming to high school, and it gets the kids excited about growing up," Vega said. "It's intimidating but if we get them hooked into an activity when they first get here and know who they are and what they are interested in then we know we're not going to lose them."

While the event helped students to feel less scared, Vega said it also allowed parents to see that those at the school are there to take care of them.

Sky Pool attended the event with her daughter, Laveil, a Tenkiller student. Pool said for her, walking through the halls was nostalgic, as she also attended THS.

"Me and her dad actually we talk about it all the time how it's kind of cool having her follow in our footsteps with some of the same teachers and coaches. We're so excited," Pool said.

Pool said she loved how THS was holding the event, as she remembered how scared she was when she moved to the high school without having a tour.