Challenge grant to help Street School

Challenge grant to help Street School

Tulsa’s philanthropic and nonprofit communities have stepped in to help Street School fill an unexpected void in its current operating budget, but $55,000 more is needed, officials announced Wednesday.

The Tulsa Area United Way has provided $50,000 in emergency funding and the Tulsa Community Foundation has raised an additional $55,000, including $40,000 from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Also, the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation donated $25,000 to bring the total contributions to $130,000.

Street School’s combination of alternative education classes and therapeutic counseling is a national model for helping at-risk youth succeed, but it saw its $185,000 in state funding slashed out of the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s school activities budget in June.

The Tulsa Community Foundation has established a challenge fund drive in hopes of restoring Street School’s full funding for the current fiscal year, said Phil Lakin, executive director of the foundation and a member of the state Board of Education.

“The Tulsa Community Foundation has always been a strong supporter of Street School,” Lakin said. “We have multiple donors who have given from their charitable funds at TCF to Street School. I would have done this regardless (of my role on the state board). If there was a need, we were going to help them fulfill that need.”

Part of the state’s $2.27 billion education budget, the school activities budget provides money for a variety of instructional programs across Oklahoma.

Although 2011′s school activities budget totaled $419.8 million, the new fiscal year’s budget has only $401.2 million.

State Superintendent Janet Barresi’s proposal was debated, with members splitting 3-3 and Barresi’s “yes” vote serving as the tie-breaker. Both of the board’s newest members, including Lakin, voted to approve Barresi’s budget plan.

Each year, Street School serves a total of 140 students, ages 14 to 19, who have dropped out, or who are at risk of dropping out of school because of homelessness, abuse, family dysfunction or poverty.

Lise Blevins-Inman, president of the nonprofit school’s board of directors, said she hopes the fund drive will help buy school leaders some time.

“We are really touched by the support,” she said. “It was a sudden drop in funding and it represents about 15 percent of our total budget. This is a wonderful cushion to help us figure out what to do next.

“How we are going to make that money up if we don’t get back into the state Department of Education’s funding? This gives us one year to get prepared for not having that funding in the future.”

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