New Harding Charter Prep Scholarship Named for Miss Marjorie Miller

At the annual meeting on August 31, 2009, the Harding High School Alumni Assocation announced that a new scholarship named for Miss Marjorie Miller has been initiated. It will be awarded to a student of Harding Charter Prep at the graduation in May, 2010.

Miss Miller taught Latin and English at Harding from 1957 - 1968. She was an excellent and exceptional teacher. She grew up in the same house where she now lives on Eubanks Street near Pennsylvania Avenue. She attended OU and after her graduation, she began teaching in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, in 1934. During her year of teaching down in southeastern Oklahoma, she regularly travelled back to Oklahoma City on the Rock Island Choctaw Rocket on the weekends. The only difficulty was that the train station near Hartshorne was unlighted, and she had to board the train in the dark sometimes. The next year she got a teaching position at Foster High School in southeast Oklahoma City, the predecessor to Southeast High School. She taught at Foster until after WWII, and her Foster students like her Harding students still honor her at their reunions.

After WWII she took at position at Taft Junior High, not far from her home, and remained there until Northwest Classen High School opened in 1956. She took a job at Northwest, but after only one year she was hired away by Harding.

After her retirement from the public schools in the 1970s, she continued teaching  Master Gardening at OSU-OKC, at least part-time until 2008.

Miss Miller is now 97 years old and going strong. She still lives at her home on West Eubanks, where her parents moved in 1916. She says that the house is over 100 years old, but she has maintained it well. One would certainly not think it was old from looking at it!  She still has her beautiful gardens of flowers and her beautiful lawn on the two lots. She welcomes phone calls and visits from former students. 

Harding Charter Prep Ranked 3rd in State Public High Schools

In a study of the nation's public high schools, Newseek magazine has ranked Harding Charter Prep highly nationally and 3rd in the State of Oklahoma. The only two Oklahoma schools ranked higher were Tulsa Booker T. Washington and Oklahoma City Classen School of Advanced Studies, both of which have longstanding traditions of excellence.

It is truly remarkable that Harding Charter Prep has achieved this distinction in such a short amount of time. This is a wonderful tribute to the vision of those who founded the school with some forward-looking ideas, such as having a curriculum based on advanced placement courses, and to their dedication in implementing this vision.

Harding Charter Prep deserves the support of all Harding grads.

Here is a message from Harding Charter Prep::

Moving with a View    The Harding Charter Prep stakeholders-faculty, Governance board, parents of both current and new students along with students viewed their new 50-acre campus currently known as Centennial Middle/High School. HCP administrators  recently conducted two different tours of the new location.  The first tour was for teachers to view potential classrooms, sports/athletic facilities, office space, cafeteria and the Media Center.  The faculty walked away excited about the pending move and new opportunities which the space will allow. The second tour, was open to parents, current and prospective, students, alum and community supporters.  At this last tour, close to 400 folks viewed the campus  The HCP administration and Governance Board attorneys are now in lease negotiations for the school to relocate this summer.  The 50-acre campus is located at 1301 NE 101st St, Oklahoma City, OK.   HCP administrators hope to get possession of the building July 1, which will give the school community a month to move and ready the new facility for an early August return of teachers with classes beginning August 13.