Tulsa Parents Upset At TPS' Cost-Cutting School Consolidation Plan

A cost-cutting consolidation plan was announced Wednesday by Tulsa Public Schools.

The district expects a 6 percent drop in state funding next year, which would cut $12 million dollars from the budget.

In response, district leaders are recommending eliminating three elementary schools, two furlough days for all staff, cutting $2 million worth of textbooks and consolidating middle school sports, so two schools making up each team.

The plan to close the three elementary schools is getting the most reaction. 

It was a steady stream as parents dropped off their kids at Remington Elementary Thursday morning but, in just a couple of months, the school could be closed for good.

Tulsan LaJuan Williams went to Remington Elementary, so did his mom, aunts and uncles.

His son goes there now, but Tulsa school leaders want to close Remington and merge it with Park Elementary and ECDC Porter.

"I wouldn't want that for my child because I had so many precious memories here so I want to give that same thing to my child as well," Williams said. 

The new school would be in the current Clinton Middle School building.

Nicole Nixon's kids attend Remington and she lives around the corner.

She said she doesn't want to see an empty school building in her neighborhood.

"Having an abandoned school in our neighborhood is not going to be good for anybody's property values," Nixon said. 

The middle school students who would have gone to Clinton would instead go to Webster High, which would hold both middle and high schoolers. 

Thinking ahead, Nixon said she's skeptical about sending her kids there someday.

"Twelve-year-olds going to school with an 18-year-old that's been through issues like that is not gonna bode well for any 12-year-old," Nixon said. 

All of this is due to the state's budget problems, and it leaves parents asking...

"Where's the money going? What's going on that we don't have enough funding for it? Who's in charge?" Williams said. 

The district will make a final decision on cuts in May.