After serving the Ponca City Public School district for the past 36 years, former public information coordinator Mary Ladd has retired.
Ladd started her career with PCPS in 1985 as a secretary at Jefferson Elementary School. The building was condemned so they had to move to the Mertz training center in metal buildings on Highway 60 while Union Elementary was being built. She was there two years before being transferred to the Central Administration Building.
When Ladd moved to the Central Administration Building, then located at 613 East Grand, Dr. Larry Robinson was superintendent. She was hired as his secretary and as the district attendance coordinator. After an investigating audit of the district, Dr. Robinson left the district and Dr. Tom Smith, retired former Oklahoma City Superintendent, was named as interim superintendent.
After an extensive search the board hired its first district female superintendent, Dr. Wynona Winn. Ladd worked with her for two and a half years before she left the district. Dr. Winn was replaced by Dr. Bill White. Ladd continued as his secretary and also served as the board clerk. The district’s Public Information Coordinator position had been eliminated when Dr. Winn was in Ponca City and the district added public relations to Ladd’s list of responsibilities.
After serving in that capacity, the district named Ladd as the Public Information Coordinator for the district, along with administrative assistant to the superintendent. Ladd continued to work with Dr. White for 10 years until he retired. He was followed by Dr. David Pennington for several years until he left the district and Shelley Arrott was hired.
“One main thing is I’ve always loved children and always wanted to help them,” said Ladd. “My dad was a teacher and my mom was a school secretary. It was just always a part of my life. I always wanted to go into marketing and communications and was thrilled I ended up doing what I ultimately wanted to always do.”
“I loved being out at the schools all the time taking pictures and videos and writing articles. I loved working with community leaders and media and always had a great relationship with them. I worked hard at having a great relationship because I felt it was so important to get the positive news out about our schools,” said Ladd.
“I really trained myself for this job. I took a lot of classes on my own in journalism and marketing and read ...
