Fewer students may have OKC district closing schools
Oklahoma City Public Schools will consider closing some schools, expanding others and redrafting boundaries before the end of the year to cut costs amid declining enrollments, officials tell The Oklahoman.
Over the next several weeks, a local building planning firm will assess the condition of nearly 80 school buildings — many of which are underused or in disrepair — to determine their viability going forward.
“We’re going to look at every facility so that we can identify and address what the needs are,” Scott Randall, the district’s chief operating officer, said Friday. “We’ve got to figure out ways to maximize our resources. At the end of the day, the resources don’t exist to say ‘let’s keep everything in place.’”
The firm also will conduct a demographic study school board members say is needed in neighborhoods where enrollment is either well below capacity or well above.
Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs heads the board’s operation’s committee. She said the board will use data collected between now and August “to make the most informed decisions possible ... when it comes to closure, consolidation or (to) repair or replace (structures).”
“My hope is that this project is going to allow us to make hard decisions, because anytime that you’re changing boundaries or closing schools or closing and reopening a new building, all of those are big, hard decisions,” she said.
“We’ve got to be honest and realistic and we’ve got to not just think about what’s best for kids right this minute, but what’s best for them next year and the next year and what’s best for them when elementary kids are in high school.”
The district, which is operating at 60 percent of capacity, is facing $11 million in cuts to state aid over the next two years based on projected enrollment declines, officials have said.
The district is projecting 1,000 fewer students in the coming school year, which begins Aug. 1.
District officials and school board members, who will consider a new facilities management policy in June, said the information gathered will be used to help better serve students.
“This is a process that’s needed to bring more resources into classrooms and give children a whole-child education, with art and music and PE and extracurriculars and electives,” board member Rebecca Budd said. “We cannot do that without making
investments.”
Roughly one-third of instructional capacity is vacant, including 40 percent of elementary school classrooms, according to figures provided by the district.
Last week, the school board approved an agreement with Oklahoma City firm ADG to provide a physical assessment of 79 schools and a demographic study.
The district will pay $1,346,500 for those services and will be reimbursed with tax increment financing funds, officials said.
Randall said the end goal of the data gathering project, which is
expected to take a year to complete, is to secure one and perhaps two bond authorizations.
While closures will be considered, the district will use the data gathered to explore needs that go beyond heating and air conditioning.
“The building isn’t what makes the academic experience, it’s the teacher in classroom, it’s the resources that they have,” Jacobs said. “If we’re spending all of our money on buildings instead of our employees and our students and creating the best environment we can then that’s a missed opportunity.
“As a parent, I would prefer academic options as opposed to air conditioning and empty classrooms. That’s not what makes an academic experience, especially over a kid’s whole 13-year experience in school.”
The firm is expected to report to the board in August. A new superintendent, who is expected to be named Tuesday, is expected to make recommendations based on the facilities assessment and demographic study to the board by March.
Any changes would be considered for the 20192020 school year, officials said.