OKC district sets meetings for building project

Meetings to gather community feedback on a project that could result in school closures are set to begin Nov. 5.

Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel said the input will be critical to the success of the district’s Pathways to Greatness Project.

The goal of the project, which includes a facilities assessment and demographic study, is to align and district resources with instructional needs, McDaniel said.

“This is our reimagining plan, our reinvention plan,” he said during Monday night’s school board meeting. “The question that we’re trying to answer is ‘how do we deliver the highest-quality education to our kids that is possible.’”

The district is operating at about 60 percent of capacity and facing $11 million in cuts to state aid over the next two years based on projected enrollment declines, officials have said.

Oneoftheproject’sguiding principles states: “We believe our top priority must be serving students equitably, over maintaining under-enrolled facilities.”

McDaniel has said schools will be closed if they no longer serve a useful purpose and likely demolished or sold.

The meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 5 at Star Spencer High School; 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at Northwest Classen High School; 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at U.S. Grant High School; 6 p.m. Nov. 8 at U.S. Grant; and 6 p.m. Nov. 12 at Douglass MidHigh.

McDaniel, referring to “lessons learned in our own district, said “it is critical that we involve the community from beginning to the end of this conversation as opposed to bringing them in at a point and time after the decision’s already been made.”

The superintendent, with guidance from two recently formed committees, will recommend whether to close buildings or repurpose them. Membership in the Trailblazers and Navigators was announced at Monday’s meeting.

District Chief of Staff Rebecca Kaye chairs the Trailblazers, a committee that includes eight teachers and four school administrators and is charged with developing a set of educational recommendations.

Scott Randall, the district’s chief operations officer, and Cathy O’Connor, CEO, Alliance for Economic Development of OKC, will lead the Navigators. The group will evaluate and give input on options presented by the Trailblazers and ADG, the Oklahoma City firm hired by the district in May to complete the physical assessment and demographic study.

The teams will study the data, evaluate relevant research and provide recommendations related to facilities, bonds and educational offerings.

“Instead of us sitting down with the superintendent and coming up with our own plan, this thing’s really driven by the community and those community members that are on those two groups,” school board member Mark Mann said.

“What I like is when we get the reinvention plan back, it’s not going to be a plan that we have necessarily come up with, it’s going to be the community’s plan on what they want their district to look like and how they want it to operate.”

Additional community meetings — those to present the data — will take place in January, according to the project timeline.

In February, McDaniel will present the best option to the board, and community hearings on potential changes are scheduled.

The school board is scheduled to take action on McDaniel’s recommendation in March.