ODSS

Andrea Kunkel, CCOSA General Counsel & ODSS Executive Director

ODSS is pleased to announce its 2024 award recipients. Melisa Kifer, Executive Director of Special Services for Stillwater Public Schools, is the 2024 Director of the Year. Leslie Burnett, Director of Special Services, Pryor Public Schools, is the recipient of the Maurice Walraven Award. Kristi Fritz, a graduate student at Northeastern State University, is the winner of the ODSS $1,000 Jimmie Prickett Scholarship. All will be honored at CCOSA’s Summer Leadership Conference in June.

Melisa Kifer began her career as a special education teacher, then served as compliance coordinator before moving into the Executive Director of Special Services position for Stillwater Public Schools. Superintendent Uwe Gordon describes Kifer as “the kind of creative, progressive, divergent thinker we all hope will work with our children. Her ability to lead students and faculty and give them practical application never ceases to amaze me.”

Under Kifer’s planning and guidance, the district recently completed a five-year transition to digital special education and Section 504 records. Recognizing the importance of identifying additional funding sources for her department, she implemented a Medicaid billing system for speech/language therapy for the 2023-2024 school year, with plans to add physical and occupational therapy next year. Kifer was also instrumental in creating the Stillwater Pioneer Pathfinders, a transition program for students with special needs ages 18 to 22. Stillwater’s first-year Director of Special Services, Austin Hula, said, “When we are attending conferences or ODSS meetings, I will often hear, ‘You’re lucky you are working with one of the best in the state.’” His response? “I could not agree more.”

Leslie Burnett works as the Director of Special Services for Pryor Public Schools. Certified school psychologist and coworker Sheila Wofford nominated Burnett for the Maurice Walraven Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a valuable, positive, and enduring contribution to the education of children with disabilities. Wofford credited Burnett’s implementation of therapy dogs in Pryor Schools for creating a “nurturing and inclusive environment where children with disabilities can thrive and excel.” Burnett has integrated the dogs into various aspects of the educational curriculum, including reading sessions, and implemented animal-assisted therapy programs to improve students’ communication skills, foster socialization, and enhance sensory integration. Burnett has also raised awareness about the benefits of therapy dogs in education within her district, community, state, and at the national level.

Kristi Fritz developed her passion for working with individuals with special needs when she held her first job as an assistant at Home of Hope, a group home for individuals with developmental disabilities. She plans to graduate from NSU with a master’s degree in Special Education Autism Spectrum Disorders at the end of the spring 2025 semester and continue her work as a special education teacher for Vinita Public Schools. ■