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Post date: Jul 28, 2012 10:43:47 PM
Because annual state aid formula funding is down 12%, or $2.23 million, since 2008-2009. Closing the Oak Park school and other cost-saving measures, along with renewing bond funds for annual capital costs, are part and parcel of keeping class sizes low and student achievement high across the district.
As shown in another post, the district has endured three years of repeated cuts in state aid formula funding. This led to program and teacher/staff layoffs in 2009-2010, again in 2010-2011, and still more in 2011-2012, including the painful and controversial decision to close Oak Park Elementary.
The closure of the small, and consequently operationally inefficient, Oak Park school is saving the district over $600,000 annually in operational costs while keep class sizes across the elementary schools low compared to the district's peer group. If the Oak Park school had not closed, consequent staffing cuts would have caused many elementary classes throughout the district to spike into the high 20s rather than being held in the low-to-mid 20s. There are about 3,000 students in the six elementary schools and their class sizes have been kept in check, including those for students from the Oak Park neighborhood who now attend Wilson elementary school.
Unfortunately the district has not been able to prevent some classes in grades 6-12 from growing uncomfortably large, sometimes reaching into the low-to-mid 30s, although overall they are in check and, like in the elementaries, noticeably smaller than in many peer districts.
About 180 students in the Oak Park neighborhood are now bused to Wilson Elementary, and happily in 2011-2012 the test scores for the revamped student population at Wilson were high. District officials have expressed their appreciation of Oak Park parents and the teachers and staff at Wilson, which include some former Oak Park staff members, in making what could have been a painful transition, with possible loss in student achievement, successful for the students.
It would be fiscally irresponsible for the board of education to attempt to re-open Oak Park, as it would create over $3,300 per Oak Park neighborhood student each year in increased operational costs to reopen and operate the school. That would cause class sizes to spike across all of the elementary schools unless the district diverted over $600,000 annually from other struggling programs or from the fund balance. Even though the fund balance is near its legal limit, another deficit budget projects that it could fall significantly in 2012-2013 as the board has emphasized keeping class sizes in check and preventing staff salaries, which are far lower than the peer average, from falling further behind. The district must retain quality staff and prevent class sizes from exploding if it expects to maintain its record of excellence in student achievement.
WHY OAK PARK ELEMENTARY HAD TO BE CLOSEDOak Park Elementary was the last of the smaller neighborhood schools which once operated throughout Bartlesville. The baby boom led to an explosion of students after World War II, and by the early 1970s the district peaked at 21 operating schools. Falling enrollments after the baby boom ended led to repeated closures of older school buildings and districting consolidations.
Between 1971 and 1986 the district closed eleven elementary schools to reduce operational costs and move students into better facilities. But even while Garfield, Horace Mann, Washington, Highland Park, Jefferson, Douglass, Lincoln, McKinley, Limestone, Southview, and Will Rogers were being closed as elementary schools, the little Oak Park school survived because of the relative isolation of that small neighborhood in far northwest Bartlesville.
2009 was the first of several years of severe funding cuts, and in May 2011 the school board made the painful decision to finally shutter the Oak Park school, saving the district over $600,000 annually in operational costs. The closure was part of a deficit budget which already was projected to reduce the fund balance by $1,000,000 even with the closure. The closure of Oak Park and consequent busing of its approximately 180 local students allowed the district to avoid staffing cuts which would have spiked various elementary class sizes at the other schools into the upper 20s. About 3,000 students attended the other elementary schools.
Attendance boundaries changed throughout the district as it consolidated to six elementary schools, each with a design capacity of approximately 550 students. Oak Park had a far lower capacity and was serving about 180 students from the Oak Park neighborhood itself, with some additional students who had transferred in, sometimes because the inherent inefficiency of staffing such a small school meant it tended to have smaller-than-normal class sizes.
Beginning in August 2011 the students in the Oak Park neighborhood were bused to Wilson Elementary School. The district was relieved when Wilson's test scores for the school year were high, showing that students had made the transition successfully, just as students from eleven other former elementary schools had done between 1971 and 1986. But understandably hard feelings remain among some residents of Oak Park, who miss their neighborhood school. Their children can no longer walk to school but instead ride a bus, becoming a small part of the 1,600 children in the district who ride a bus to and from school.
The board of education takes both its educational and fiscal responsibilities very seriously. The decision to close Oak Park was not made lightly, but was part of an on-going strategy to keep operational and administrative costs at a minimum so as to maximize the amount of funding going into the classrooms.
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