With school closures looming at Tulsa Public Schools and more enrollment declines expected across the state’s public districts, Tulsa’s city councilors are getting involved in the conversation.
In the last 24 hours, District 5 Councilor Karen Gilbert convened constituents for a Thursday town hall on midtown TPS closures and chaired a Friday special meeting with councilors and superintendents from Tulsa, Jenks and Union Public Schools about the city’s public education.
“I just thought it would be a great opportunity, just to bring this back to start having these discussions with you all, because we do it with our state elected officials, but we hadn’t done it with our schools in quite some time,” Gilbert said Friday.
‘I understand that sentimentality’
TPS is facing similar challenges to public school districts across the state — declining enrollment and tight budgets — but its proposal to close or consolidate 17 sites has drawn significant community pushback.
About 60 people attended Thursday’s District 5 town hall, with written questions primarily focused on Hoover Elementary, which is up for closure. If approved, students from Hoover would be sent to either Skelly or MacArthur elementary schools.
Hoover’s total capacity is 638 people, with students filling nearly 45% of that total last year. Across two buildings, Skelly can hold 1,230 people and students filled nearly 58% of that total last year. MacArthur can hold 635 and students filled nearly 58% of that total last year.
Many asked why closures were happening at all or on the timeline Superintendent Ebony Johnson set. A board vote is set for Oct. 19.
The district avoided making “significant changes” with pandemic relief funding, Johnson said in response, but those dollars are gone. Instead of drawing out cuts over multiple years, she said, the district elected to cut several schools at once.
She also noted the district will not replace Kathy Dodd this year, who resigned as TPS deputy superintendent last month. There is not a plan to replace Joe Jennings, the chief information and operations officer, who is retiring at the end of the school year, she added.
“We’re going to continue to look at admin costs. We’re going to continue to look at team members to see how can we continue to cut in that area, but it is going to take us to look at schools as well,” Johnson said.
During the special meeting Friday, District 6 Councilor Christian Bengel said he’s received several emails from constituents about Thoreau Demonstration Academy, a TPS magnet middle school in District 8 that’s up for closure.
“I don’t envy Dr. Johnson right now, and the situation that you’re in trying to navigate a budget shortfall and trying to figure out what facilities to keep open,” Bengel said Friday.
His kids went through Thoreau and then Booker T. Washington High School on a magnet path.
“I know people sentimentalize, because we spent nine years with each one of these individual schools, so I understand that sentimentality,” Bengel said. “But I also understand it and logically understand that demographics shift, because, just like I said, even in my own neighborhood, I didn’t have kids riding bikes and playing in the street five years ago and now the parks are full.”
He emphasized the city wants to be part of conversations around tackling changes that may come with closures, like transportation or empty buildings.
“When you finally get to that final decision, after you get to that, I want us to be very deliberate about having those infrastructure conversations,” Bengel said.
Dilapidated buildings in neighborhoods are serious concerns for many TPS families, Johnson told city leaders Friday. In a “commercial” to the city, she suggested closed TPS buildings be used to solve neighborhood problems like childcare or mental health access.
“And I’m sending out a message that there could be an opportunity, of course all approved by board … to utilize these resources in our buildings to provide what our families are in need of,” she said.
District 3 doesn’t have a community center, noted Councilor Jackie Dutton. Her northeast Tulsa district has several TPS sites up for closure.
“So I’ve already got my eyes set on utilizing these schools for these type of resources,” Dutton said.
‘They are community issues’
There’s only so much the city government can do to support its public school districts. It cannot legally divert sales tax revenue, for example, but can support infrastructure needs that impact students and residents alike.
“Are there some schools that don’t have adequate sidewalks so that students have a safe route to school? Are there enough crossing guards?” Gilbert said Thursday. “…So just having those discussions and talking about what are their concerns, and what can we do to work together?”
Much of Friday’s special meeting related to those possible collaboration areas at TPS, Union and Jenks Public Schools.
With another Improve Our Tulsa tax package planning period on the horizon, councilors signaled interest in tackling walkability and accessibility issues around schools, including crosswalks, bus route changes and traffic engineering.
“These aren’t just school issues, they are community issues and when the public sees multiple entities talking about the same thing and working together, that helps,” said Melissa Abdo, president of the Jenks Public Schools board. “We’re also combating sometimes not helpful narratives right now in public education, so being able to not feel alone.”
Population and development projections are other areas of need, noted Union Superintendent John Federline. Union saw 400-plus fewer students enroll last year, part of a statewide decline. Schools conducted their annual student population counts Thursday.
“All of us are impacted in some way by declining enrollment, across the nation, across the state and in this area,” said Federline. “And we at Union go into our long-range planning process, it’s easy to say, ‘Well, we’ve got declining enrollment so we’re gonna take these steps,’ but when we know about new developments it really affects the way we want to look at our long-term planning.”
Johnson also pushed councilors to speak with state elected officials about programs like the Parental Choice Tax Credit. The program supports private school families across Oklahoma with scholarship credits and its cap raised to $275 million this year.
Johnson pointed out Victory Christian Academy in Tulsa where, according to Oklahoma Tax Commission records, families saw more than $8.5 million in tax credits last year.
“That’s $8 million that could have been going to public education, and now I have to go to a board and say, ‘We are recommending closing upwards 15 to 16, 17 schools,’” Johnson said. “… And so when those dollars are not there, then we have to make tremendous sacrifices that are really hard and harmful at times to have to do, but we have to provide quality education for our young people with the concerns and the constraints that we have.”
Back at the end of the 75-minute-long town hall Thursday, a student asked Johnson why Hoover was on the list.
“What I have a responsibility to do for you is to make sure that the guardrails and the restraints and the constraints and the challenge that we have in public education, that I block and tackle that away from you as much as possible, and make sure you have a quality learning experience,” Johnson answered.
“So, what you do remember about your elementary, middle and high school years is that you had an amazing experience and you’re going on to do amazing things in life because we’ve set you up for success.”
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