Open process best in district planning
OKLAHOMA City’s new superintendent of schools, Sean McDaniel, hit the nail on the head in discussing the unused space in buildings throughout the district.
“Whether we have a 30 percent capacity or a 100 percent capacity, typically our utility usage and the way we operate the building is the same,” McDaniel said at a board meeting last week. “And so, in effect … we are pitching money out the windows because we are underutilizing our facilities.”
This practice of throwing good money after bad has gone on for several years as the district’s enrollment has declined. The district is at about 60 percent of capacity today. What to do about it? The short answer is to close some of the least-used buildings, and this may be what ultimately happens.
First, however, a consulting firm hired by the board this spring will finish its work assessing the district’s buildings and studying the district’s demographics. The results will be forwarded to McDaniel before much longer and will be folded into the decision-making process.
In addition McDaniel, on the job since July 1, is promising “a very public conversation” that is transparent. That’s the only way to go, as former Superintendent Aurora Lora found out the hard way.
In March 2017, Lora proposed closing five elementary schools — four of which serve 300 or fewer students — and turning a sixth school into a neighborhood middle school. The goal was to save money but also to give students access to more services.
Outcry from parents, teachers and others kept those closings from happening. Later the same year, a plan to temporarily close one other elementary school due to staffing and administration issues also didn’t transpire.
Critics of both plans objected to the process and said Lora did a poor job communicating, and she acknowledged she could have handled the situations better.
Thus, a wide-open approach to this new plan is a must. McDaniel plans to hold community meetings in November and January, then present the board with his plan in February, followed by more community gatherings and a board decision in March.
School board member Jace Kirk said he’s excited about this undertaking because, “It’s reimagining, reinventing what we can do with our space to provide the greatest educational opportunity to all our students.” Amen.
The district’s chief of staff, Rebecca Kaye, who served as interim superintendent before McDaniel was hired, said the district’s “whack-a-mole” approach has contributed to the existing problem. What’s needed, she rightly said, is a districtwide solution.
Some decisions are sure to be met with resistance, however, because no one ever wants to see their neighborhood school close. McDaniel and the board must be willing to make difficult choices and then stand by them.
“Opportunities that do not exist for our students right now — many of them — are going to exist at the end of this,” he said.
That’s the overarching goal, and a worthwhile one for sure. Coupled with that is the need to make the best use of taxpayer money. Spending enormous sums to heat and cool buildings that are one-third or half empty is the opposite of responsible stewardship.