District Consolidation To Reshape Tulsa School Boundaries

Ashli Sims, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Tulsa Public Schools historic overhaul is pulling the rug out from under thousands of families and it's not just affecting folks whose neighborhood schools are slated to close.

The district's consolidation plans would rewrite school boundaries throughout the district and some parents are getting a rude awakening.

4/22/2011 Related Story: 14 Tulsa Public Schools To Close Under Superintendent's Final Proposal

Many who thought they didn't need to worry about the district's consolidation plans are now thinking again. They're finding out their neighborhood school might not be what it used to be.

Read Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard's final recommendation

Tag Roberts won't start school until next fall. But his parents say he's already on track for Pre-Kindergarten.

"We moved eight months ago. We had two or three schools that we'd be willing to send our child to. And that's why we bought this house," Lauren Roberts said.

But Project Schoolhouse, Tulsa Public Schools consolidation plan, could change all of that.

See a district map of the school boundaries

Before Project Schoolhouse Tag Roberts would have gone to Patrick Henry, which is about a mile away. If it's approved, he's going to have to go a little further.

The Roberts family will have to leave their neighborhood near 33rd and Florence and go two miles to Eliot.  And that's not even their new neighborhood school. Even though Eliot is just two miles away, they'll have to keep going.

They have to go another mile to get to Wright Elementary, their new neighborhood school, which is three miles away from their doorstep.

"Even if you take a different route, you can get to 41st and Harvard and look over and see Patrick Henry. So either way you go you're gonna pass, be pretty close to another elementary school," Lauren Roberts said.

"To go to a school that's close to us, it's going to be a transfer. And those seats are limited, very limited," BJ Roberts said.

The Roberts' say there are other neighborhoods facing the same dilemma.

"It's not just happening in our feeder pattern," Lauren said. "It's happening with other students all over the city. And I just don't know if people know. So it's concerning to us."

4/22/2011 Related Story: How Will District Consolidation Affect Tulsa Public Schools' Transfer Policy?