By Byron Beers/Staff Writer

At age 79, World War II veteran John Jones will re-ceive his high school diploma from El Reno High School.

El Reno School Board last week approved the recognition because of Jones’ military service. Jones was born in Calumet, attending El Reno schools. He dropped out of high school to serve in the Army.

Jones later received an honorable discharge. He did not return to school, but earned his GED in the mid-1970s. His son-in-law, John Bishop of Mustang, applied for the diploma for Jones.

El Reno Superintendent Jeff Mills wanted to honor Jones with a ceremony, but Bishop declined the request.

“I tried to get them to come for a ceremony but they didn’t want to come,” Mills said. “What they encourage you to do — with they being the state — with this law is to do it at your annual veterans assemblies, which would have been very appropriate, but they just decided they didn’t want to that.”

Also during last week’s meeting, the school board approved the El Reno High School wrestling team’s trip to Reno, Nev. The Indians, winners of 11 straight Class 4A team state titles and 10 straight dual state championships, will go to Reno for the Tournament of Champions, which runs Dec. 21 and 22.

“Anytime we have a team or group that wants to travel out of state, we request that the board approve that,” Mills said.

“We want everyone to know if we’ve got a group going to Dallas or going to Reno. The wrestling team usually goes out of state every year. They’ve gone to Reno before, they went to New York, they’ve been to Florida.”

The board also approved officers of the Sideline Club for the El Reno High School cheerleaders. Officers are Christy Eichholz, Ginger Matthews, Kendra Vaughn and Shannon Ward. The club wants to hold fund-raisers to help buy uniforms and essentials for the cheerleaders.

Etta Dale Junior High, the high school and Lucas Hall will also have repairs done to elevators as approved by the board. Completion will be expected to take eight weeks.

New hires were made in Donna Randle, Darla Ferguson and Erwinna Chadwick for food services. Britne Kiener was hired as a teacher, and Sandy Dowdle was added to the maintenance staff.