Officials at the Southern Oklahoma Technology Center were wondering whether repair or demolition would be best after winds from Wednesday’s thunderstorms severely damaged the roof of the Auto Collision Building on the campus.

Several students from area schools were named Students of the Month by the Ardmore Rotary Club.

Cody Barrett is a senior at Plainview High School, where he has a 3.0 grade point average. He has played football for three years and baseball for four years, and is a four-year member of the Forte vocal group. He was a member of the 2008 All District football team, was named Outstanding Choral Student of the Year for 2007 and All District Choral Member from 2006 to 2008.

A century ago, before Oklahoma was even a state, settlers in Indian Territory still had an air of sophistication about them.

The thriving town of Ardmore —  the cotton center for the Chickasaw Nation, and an oil hub — already had a public school system before the turn of the century. Hargrove College, founded in 1895, offered music courses as part of its regular curriculum. And it was a culturally-oriented community — the perfect place for the first school orchestra program.

Now, 100 years later, the school’s orchestra program is still going strong, with 14 members at the high school level and 14 in the middle school.