Forum Set For Future Of Former Tulsa Public School Building

Tulsa Public Schools will hold a community forum Tuesday evening to decide what to do with the now vacant Mayo Demonstration Academy building. 

According to a TPS news release, the school district's board approved a Project Schoolhouse efficiency initiative in July to reopen the building in the fall of 2015. 

The building closed in 2012 and the academy moved to the Wilson Elementary School building. 

School spokesperson Chris Payne says one proposal is to turn the building into a combination charter school and public school. He said the administration got the idea after a recent trip to Houston. Payne said the Texas district combined a kindergarten through 8th grade school with a 5th through 8th grade charter school in the same building. 

Payne stressed this idea is far from a done deal and would have to be approved by the school board and possibly a change in state law. 

He says two nearby elementary schools, Disney and Cooper, are full space and because of growth in east Tulsa, the school district may have to eventually build a new elementary school.

The forum will be at the school at 2525 South 101st East Avenue and will begin at 5:30 p.m.

School superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Kim Dyce, and Bob LaBass, executive director of bond projects/energy management will be at the forum.