During her forty years in education, Jane Sears was fueled by the shared and consistent commitment to learning that existed within the schools. Sears played a significant role in creating and sustaining that energy by serving as a trusted counselor and quality leader who encouraged collaboration and continued improvement. These traits, among others, merit the selection of Sears as one of three retired Bartlesville Public Schools educators to be inducted into the Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation’s Educator Hall of Fame this April.
Bartlesville welcomed Sears and her family from Sun Valley, California in 1970 when her mom was transferred by Phillips Petroleum. Sears was a high school junior at that time, and, having just read The Grapes of Wrath, was pleasantly surprised when she arrived in the green and vibrant community. She attended Sooner High School, where she met her future husband, Earl. Jane had her heart set on going into forestry and becoming a fire-spotter in Montana, but Earl played a significant role in encouraging Jane to attend college at Northeastern Oklahoma State University with him and to ultimately pursue a degree in education.
Sears earned her Bachelors of Science degree from Northeastern State in biology, with an emphasis in zoology. Up through her senior year, she thought she would become an Oklahoma game warden. However, skeptical that Oklahoma would be willing to hire a female for that role in 1975, she focused on other opportunities and took her first post-graduation job as a lab technician with the Energy Research and Development Administration at the Bartlesville Energy Research Center, performing crude oil analysis to identify components of oil in oil spills.
Jane married Earl, who was teaching at Central Middle School in Bartlesville. As her lab technician duties became more routine and Earl shared stories of the energy within the schools, Jane turned her sights to a career in education. Jane went back to Northeastern State to earn her teaching certificate and did her student teaching at College High School, now Bartlesville High School, and began teaching 7th grade science at Madison Middle School in 1977.
Although Sears loved the classroom, she wanted more opportunities. After obtaining her masters in counseling from Northeastern State in 1982, she transitioned to the role of counselor at Madison for a year, followed by twelve years as a counselor at Bartlesville High School. In 1998, she earned her masters in school administration from Oklahoma State University and the next year she began a three-year stint as an assistant principal at Bartlesville High School before becoming its principal in 2002. Under her leadership, the high school underwent several significant structural changes, including the addition of the Fine Arts Center.
After three years of leading the high school, she retired…for the first time. She dabbled in culinary classes at Tri County Tech before returning to Bartlesville Public Schools to fill a much-needed counselor position at Central, where her husband, Earl, was principal. She served as a counselor for three years, including a brief period where she served as interim principal. In 2007, she retired for the second time, only to return to education a year later to take the helm at St. John’s Catholic School. She held that position for five years before retiring for the third time in 2013. However, Jane was not ready to settle into retirement, and she went back to her counseling role at Central one last time in 2014 to work under several remarkable principals, including LaDonna Chancellor and Keri Gardner. In 2018, Jane retired for the fourth and final time.
During her career, Sears received recognition as the District’s Counselor of the Year and was named to the prestigious board position for the Southwest Regional Council of College Board. She was known by her colleagues for her humble and approachable leadership. She valued the perspectives of others and provided thoughtful, supportive guidance. Although consistently kind, she maintained high expectations for her team and encouraged them to work together for a common good. As the high school principal, Sears would say that she felt that educators work as a team, sharing the responsibility to make the school a better place.
That comment holds true even as Sears reflects on her career today. What resonates with her is the vibrant atmosphere and infectious energy that permeated the schools. She thrived on the opportunity to build relationships and be a part of everyone moving in the same direction to support the students. She treasured the moments when she witnessed her students grasp new concepts or knew that she had helped a student through a challenging time.
When Sears finally settled into her retirement, she leaned into her love of cooking and further honed her culinary skills. Until recently, she volunteered regularly with Dawn Schaper, assisting vision and hearing impaired students. She is an active board member and mentor for Young Scholars of Bartlesville. Jane and Earl also love to travel, much of it focused on beaches, mountains, and visiting their children and grandchildren. Jane and Earl have two grown children. Ryan is an oil and gas attorney in Texas, and Hollye is the Vice President of Executive Affairs in the President’s Office at the University of Oklahoma. The Sears have three grandchildren, Farrah (13), Carter (8), and Ellie (7). Jane is often called to help care for them, every minute of which she adores.
The Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation has been investing in students and staff members within the district since 1985. Over the decades, the non-profit organization has funded more than $4 million in creative projects outside of the traditional state, local, and federal sources to support state-of-the-art instruction. The money generated by the Educator Hall of Fame event on April 3, 2025, will help fund the organization’s programs. Courtesy of the BPS Foundation and ConocoPhillips, a $1,000 grant in Mrs. Sears’ name will be split between the counseling departments at Bartlesville High School and Central Middle School.
This event is open to the public and tickets are available for $35 through the BPS Foundation’s website or by calling Blair Ellis at 918-336-8600 ext 3523