Bartlesville Schools Calls Public Meeting For Possible School Closure

NewsOn6.com

BARTLESVILLE, Oklahoma -- Bartlesville Public Schools will hold a public meeting to address budget cuts and the possible closing of Oak Park Elementary, spokesperson David Austin announced Friday.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, May 7 in the Fine Arts Center at Bartlesville High School.

Members of the public have expressed anger over the possible closing of the school at a regular meeting of the School Board. Education budget cuts are blamed for the potential school closing.

"By closing Oak Park Elementary School, the BPSD could realize budget relief of an estimated $600,000 annually," Austin said. That would leave 37 staff members without jobs, but the school system may be able to absorb them in other "similar" positions.

The alternative to closing the elementary school is to cut 18 positions throughout the district including nine elementary teachers, a middle school math teacher, a high school counselor and seven computer lab managers at the elementary site.

"The nine elementary teachers would either be classroom teachers – which could cause some of our class sizes to swell to as many as 28 or 29 children – or those in the area of physical education, art and music," Austin said.

"If the latter scenario is the case, then P.E., art and music teachers would have to split time between elementary sites, thus having a negative enrichment impact upon students."

4/18/2011 Related Story: Bartlesville School Board Delays Decision On Closing Elementary School

The school system is asking interested people to send in questions about the two plans in advance of the public meeting.

Deadline for submitted questions is Friday, April 29. Send questions to opissues@bps-ok.org.

See the district boundary map with proposed changes if Oak Park is closed.