Northeast OKC braces for more school closures
Educators and residents in northeast Oklahoma City are bracing for another round of school closures, a process that has plagued the predominantly black neighborhoods for generations and left abandoned schools scattered throughout the community.
Superintendent Aurora Lora told The Oklahoman this month the district is considering the closing of several schools in an effort to address state budget cuts. An announcement could come as soon as Monday, multiple sources with the district said.
Schools with enrollment of fewer than 300 are being considered, Lora said, and while that includes schools across the Oklahoma City Public Schools district, anxiety is especially high in the northeast part of the city where five schools have been closed in the past 15 years.
“As I go around the east side of Oklahoma City, everyone asks me if Moon is closing,” said Warren Pete, principal of F.D. Moon, an elementary school near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and NE 13.
With an enrollment near 500 students, Moon wouldn’t appear to be on the district’s chopping block. But Pete said the rumors have persisted, especially since the school was not included in the city’s MAPS for Kids school renovation and construction project of the past several years.
Four elementary schools in northeast Oklahoma City have enrollment of fewer than 300, but each received projects through MAPS for Kids.
“These other schools are MAPS schools. They just had brand-new gyms built and they are in better condition, so why would they close these schools?” Pete said. “We have teachers telling me right now that they are looking for another job because there is no guarantee next year.”
The Oklahoma City school district suffered greatly following a courtordered busing plan in 1972 that sparked an exodus of white students to suburban districts. With a student count near 71,000 at the time, the district saw its enrollment drop by nearly half over the next four decades, including the departure of 30,000 white students by the early 1980s.
Northeast Oklahoma City was especially hit hard with declining enrollment and predominantly black schools in the community often battled with the district over what it said was subpar conditions when compared to schools in more affluent neighborhoods.
Ten schools in northeast Oklahoma City have been closed since 1976.
“I have more abandoned Oklahoma City Public School property in my ward than any other ward in Oklahoma City, and I’m tired of the school district leaving these buildings abandoned,” said John Pettis, city councilman of Ward 7.
Pettis has been critical of the district selling off its closed schools to buyers who lacked the resources to properly develop the buildings. But he isn’t concerned with the sale of future school buildings as much as he is with seeing schools remain open.
“I am 110 percent against school closures,” Pettis said.
Pettis, who was invited to serve on a northeast task force launched by the district in the last year, said the district attempted to saddle the task force with leading the call to close schools.
“It felt like the task force was a scapegoat for the superintendent to close schools,” Pettis said. “The committee said if you want this task force to really look at closing schools, we need additional information — but the district wouldn’t give it to us.”
Pettis said if schools are closed, he wants to see the cost savings reinvested into the remaining northeast schools. But that doesn’t appear to be an option as Lora has said closing schools would be made in an effort to close a $10 million budget hole headed into next fiscal year.
“We can’t keep cutting teachers and supplies, so at this point we are looking at possible closures and changes to grade configurations at some schools to save money,” Lora told last week.
The school board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday. A presentation of preliminary school consolidation recommendations is listed on the agenda.