OKC district, charter leaders discuss working together

A groundbreaking meeting could pave the way for improved relations and shared practices between Oklahoma City Public Schools and the district’s 15 charter schools.

Wednesday’s meeting included charter leaders, school board members and new Superintendent Sean McDaniel.

Chris Brewster is superintendent of Santa Fe South Schools, a K-12 charter with multiple locations in south Oklahoma City. Brewster, who established Santa Fe South in 2001, called the meeting “historical.”

“None of us could recall a time when we could remember all of these parties being together around the same table,” he said Friday.

“I honestly think this was a remarkable effort on the part of Dr. McDaniel, not only to get to know the district charter schools, but to build genuine professional relationships.”

Charters are public schools that benefit from some autonomy but are overseen by an authorizer, which is oftentimes the local school district.

Brewster said the district has never had a clear-cut policy or directive in place for charters, adding that the district’s relationship with charters over the years has ranged from “openly supportive to openly hostile but always fairly ambiguous.”

“I feel like this meeting was a great step toward finally nailing down what the district’s philosophy with charter schools truly is,” he said. “My personal hope is this results in an excellent working relationship between schools of all types who are doing a great job with educating the public.”

School board member Mark Mann, who heads the panel’s charter school committee, said the group is working to define “how we cooperate” and how “charters fit in with the district.”

“I don’t know in the past that we’ve had a real understanding of what the path is,” he said.

Ways of working together

At Wednesday’s meeting, the two sides discussed ways to work together to benefit all 46,000 students in Oklahoma’s largest school district.

“I wanted to make sure that (McDaniel) understood that we want a partnership with Oklahoma City Public Schools, said Tracy McDaniel, executive director of KIPP Oklahoma City, a charter serving middle school students. “Sharing best practices and things of that nature.”

In a statement, McDaniel said “one of the most important things we can do as a district is to share best practices, regardless of their origin.”

“This is something that I’m asking our leaders to prioritize,” he said. “We need to learn from each other and implement the things that lead to success for kids.”

Brent Bushey, executive director of the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, serves on the school board’s charter committee.

He said it would it would be “beneficial” to “bridge the divide” that exists between the district and charters.

“We’re all serving kids who are living in Oklahoma City, whether traditional or charter schools,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be a one-way street. Both sides have areas of strengths and weaknesses.”

Mann agreed. “We’ve got some best practices in our district that charters could learn from and charters have some best practices that our neighborhood schools could learn from,” he said.