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Southwestern Oklahoma State University has acquired the Butler Public Schools facilities, and the university will use the site for various projects associated with the SWOSU Department of Parks & Recreation Management and the SWOSU Foss Lake Adventure Program.

SWOSU reached the agreement with the Arapaho-Butler School Board.  SWOSU paid $10 for the agreement, and the Arapaho-Butler School has first to the property if SWOSU no longer wants the property. Butler consolidated with the Arapaho school system in 2008.

Dr. Ken Rose, dean of the SWOSU College of Professional and Graduate Studies, said the facilities will be used as a training site for the areas of wildland fire management, law enforcement and park management programs at SWOSU.  The project is a collaborative effort with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, United States and Oklahoma state park systems and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Foss Lake Adventure Program will use the facilities for its job-training center that will focus on welding.
Rose said other possible projects exist in the future with Oklahoma Juvenile Affairs and the Oklahoma State Park system.

The Butler facility is being proposed as a site to develop a skills center for the young men who have successfully graduated from the five adventure programs that SWOSU currently operates. Rose said area residents have been so supportive of the adventure programs that SWOSU currently operates.

Rose also hopes the Butler site will become an Oklahoma training site for the Oklahoma state park system for park rangers and managers.

SWOSU?s Department of Parks & Recreation Management is chaired by Chad Kinder, and the Foss Lake Adventure Program is headed by Jason Baker, a native of Butler.