Sand Springs Leader
6Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Where are the students?
BY KYLE HINCHEY AND
ANDREA EGER
Nov Tulsa World
06 Billy Adams may sym-
pathize with the finan-
cial plight of Tulsa Public
Schools, but he doesn’t
2019 regret ditching the district
in pursuit of a better edu-
cation for his son.
Page and
Overcrowded classes
under-resourced
A006 teachers at Grimes El-
ementary compelled Ad-
ams to enroll 11-year-old
Clip
Brayden at another school
resized this year. He first consid-
34% ered two higher-perform-
ing schools in the Tulsa
district, but both were in
neighborhoods with much
higher housing prices.
Instead, he moved to
the suburbs and enrolled
Brayden at Jenks West In-
termediate.
“It just felt like we need-
ed to be in a district that
felt more evenly distrib-
uted across the board,”
Adams said. “When we
looked at Jenks, it didn’t
feel like one area was bet-
ter than another or that
the schools received differ-
ent things.”
Thousands of students
like Brayden have left Tul-
sa Public Schools for other
options in recent years.
Newly obtained data from
the Oklahoma State De-
partment of Education
shows most end up in sur-
rounding school districts
and a variety of charter
schools.
Between summer 2013
and the end of June 2019,
the top five recipients of
former TPS students have
been Union, Broken Ar-
row, Epic Charter Schools,
Jenks and Sand Springs.
While high student mo-
bility rates mean many
students also come to TPS
each year, the district is
facing a shrinking budget
because of its net loss of
about 5,000 students in
the past decade.
“Those numbers don’t
necessarily surprise me,
but they’re not ones that
should be considered nor-
mal,” Adams said. “It’s cer-
tainly disconcerting that,
with a community as large
as Tulsa is, this issue is so
rampant.”
He said the recent reve-
lation that TPS must slash
$20 million from its 2020-
21 budget reinforced his
decision to leave Tulsa.
District officials have
blamed declining enroll-
ment and a decade’s worth
of education funding cuts
for the financial shortfall.
TPS Superintendent Debo-
rah Gist highlighted the
downturn during a recent
series of community en-
gagement meetings cen-
tered on the looming bud-
get cuts.
Gist also has been vocal
about the loss of students
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Between summer 2013 and the end of June 2019, the top five recipients of former TPS students
have been Union, Broken Arrow, Epic Charter Schools, Jenks and Sand Springs. TULSA WORLD FILE
to Epic, calling for regula-
tion to reduce the constant
churn of children coming
and going from the state’s
largest virtual charter
school in January. About
3,700 students left TPS for
Epic from summer 2013 to
the end of June 2019.
Among them were Bar-
bara Torres’ 10-year-old
son, who previously at-
tended Hoover Elementa-
ry School, and her 16-year-
old daughter, who had
been at Hale High School.
She took them to Epic af-
ter repeated difficulty in
getting accommodations
for her son, who has se-
vere medical issues with
his brain and eyesight.
“Once he was on the
504 (a plan for accommo-
dations for children with
disabilities), it didn’t mat-
ter. It was just a piece of
paper,” Torres said. “My
son’s teacher was pretty
much ‘I give up on your
son, I give up on you, so
go find something else.’
So that’s what I did — for
both of my kids. I under-
stand they’re underpaid,
but at the same time, there
is a 504 there for a reason.
He has needs.”
Torres’ older three chil-
dren had all attended TPS,
so she said she had never
contemplated a home-
based schooling option be-
fore. But she said her two
school-aged children are
already excelling with ex-
tra homework help avail-
able 24/7 and the hour
each week when they get
one-on-one time with their
Epic teacher at a public li-
brary.
“You don’t want to make
that change, because you
want your child to be so-
cialized. But you want
your child to be wanted
at school. There were so
many kids from Hoover
and Nathan Hale in the
(Epic) program at the li-
brary. It’s like, ‘I’m not the
only one that sees some-
thing going on!’ ” Torres
said. “That’s a lot of stu-
dents to lose. What’s going
on with the school system
so these children are leav-
ing?”
The only districts that
NEIGHBORS SAND SPRINGS LEADER
Thousands of students have left Tulsa
Public Schools in the past five years
TPS annual student membership
School year Oct. 1 student membership
2008-09 .....................................................................................................41,252
2009-10 .................................................................................................... 40,846
2010-11 ........................................................................................................41,224
2011-12........................................................................................................ 40,919
2012-13 .......................................................................................................40,252
2013-14........................................................................................................40,152
2014-15 ......................................................................................................39,999
2015-16........................................................................................................39,451
2016-17.......................................................................................................38,628
2017-18 ........................................................................................................37,433
2018-19 .......................................................................................................36,512
2019-20 Forecast ....................................................................................36,065
Source: Tulsa Public Schools Preliminary School Budget and Financing Plan 2019-20
switched over as soon as and anxiety and thoughts
she was eligible to attend of suicide. There were
the charter, which starts at just a lot of different situ-
drew more Tulsa students high school graduates and fifth grade. ations behind him not be-
during the last six years more special program- “Within the first ing able to progress and
were Union, with 7,767, ming available to students. month, we loved every- show how smart he actu-
and Broken Arrow, with Officials also have thing about it,” he said. ally is.”
4,045. ramped up their efforts “The energy, the posi- THA reached out to
In an interview with the to change the perception tive attitudes from the Randle as she searched
Tulsa World, Gist said she of their schools in recent teachers. And not to say for other school options
didn’t know why so many years, with social media the attitudes were bad and expressed interest
families are leaving TPS, campaigns and a rede- at the other schools. But in her son’s academic po-
but noted the district has signed website. They’re with (traditional) public tential and athletic back-
experienced overall enroll- also preparing to launch schools, I just don’t know ground in track. She said
ment decline since 1968, an improved enrollment if the attention is there.” the charter saw some-
when there were more system to make it easier More than 3,300 stu- thing in Ty’Reek that TPS
than 68,000 students. An- for families to pick the dents left for TPS-spon- didn’t.
nual student counts re- right school. sored charter schools, Part of Angela Jackson’s
corded by the state show Safety concerns were which do not contribute to decision to move her son
enrollment declines have part of the reason Rigo the district’s share of state from Emerson Elemen-
escalated in the past five Mireless pulled his chil- aid through the funding tary to the charter school
years, however. dren from the district and formula. KIPP Tulsa College Pre-
“Any ability to speak to enrolled them at Tulsa Erica Randle said she paratory about four years
the reasons is specula- Honor Academy, a charter moved her son, Ty’Reek, ago was about trying
tion,” the superintendent school sponsored by TPS. from East Central Junior something new and dif-
said. “We’ve started doing Although they never expe- High School to THA be- ferent. But she also said
exit interviews with fami- rienced problems at their cause he wasn’t getting budget cuts and growing
lies since I’ve been super- elementary schools, the help for his attention defi- class sizes led her to see
intendent, but that wasn’t father of two had heard cit hyperactivity disorder, the writing on the wall at
something that was a com- about issues at the mid- or ADHD. TPS.
mon practice, and we still dle and high school they “He felt as if nobody “I loved the teachers
don’t do a great job. That’s would have attended. cared about how he func- at Emerson; I really did,”
something that we have Mireless transferred his tioned, about how he Jackson said. “I loved
been working on.” son when THA opened needed to learn,” she said. the principal there. But
Gist theorized that the in 2015 and never looked “With the insecurities I could kind of tell that
limitations caused by the back. His daughter came a lot of depression things were changing.”
small size and low capac-
ity of many district school
buildings contribute to
families leaving. Larger
facilities, such as those in
Jenks and Broken Arrow,
allow for more opportuni-
ties within each school.
Also, because a majority
of TPS students qualify for
free and reduced lunch,
Gist said some families
conclude their children
will receive an inferior
education.
“There’s definitely a per-
ception about our schools
that don’t always match,”
she said, “so we have to do
a better job of telling the
story about our schools
and helping them put the
word out about the pro-
grams that they have to of-
fer and the opportunities
that students have.
“At the same time, we
know that in many of our
schools we have contin-
ued improvement that we
need to do, and we’re fo-
cused on that as well.”
Gist said her adminis-
tration has worked hard
to enhance the district’s
quality of education, re-
sulting in an increase in