Tulsa School Board votes 5-1 to declare Thoreau a surplus property

Tulsa School Board votes 5-1 to declare Thoreau a surplus property

One of Tulsa Public Schools’ most sought-after magnet schools was declared surplus on Monday, but officials told concerned parents that the move was necessary for them to test the waters for a possible sale.

The school board’s 5-1 vote clears the way for bids to be accepted on Thoreau Demonstration Academy, 7370 E. 71st St. If sold, the school would be relocated to the former Wilson Middle School facility on 11th Street.

“We have declared nine properties surplus just to see what’s out there,” Superintendent Keith Ballard said at Monday’s board meeting. “There is no ready buyer sitting in the wings. It follows the pattern I have followed to look very carefully at all options.”

The idea to gauge the interest of potential buyers for Thoreau is related to the district’s Project Schoolhouse initiative.

Since the district shuttered 14 schools, it has been trying to sell surplus properties to bring in much-needed funds. To date, the school board has authorized the sale of only a vacant plot of land for $17,250.

Ballard said potential buyers have approached district officials about Thoreau’s facility, even though it was never offered for sale.

He pledged that if Thoreau were relocated to Wilson, Tulsa Public Schools would reallocate as much as $1.5 million in bond funds to refurbish or upgrade the Wilson facility to accommodate any of Thoreau’s unique program needs.

Four parents of Thoreau students spoke against declaring the school’s current home as surplus.

“I think it would be a disservice to that whole area to move the one school that is out there that is a light to the whole area and to TPS,” said Clay Bird.

Kim Hubler, president of Thoreau’s athletic association, said: “If Thoreau moves, half of my board will either sell their homes and move to suburban districts or go to private schools. That’s a real issue for me, and I think you need to be aware of that issue.”

Only school board member Lois Jacobs voted against the item. Other board members said they simply want to see the idea explored and assured parents that no decision has been made to sell Thoreau.

Board member Anna America noted that “we have discussed the possibility of selling” the Education Service Center and said that “we could be moving Eisenhower and Mayo. Zarrow moved last year.

“We are committed to every one of these programs,” she said. “None of these discussions have been about undervaluing these programs.

“We have limited resources. We are going to have to make some decisions this year about making layoffs. If there is the potential to use our facility resources in a way that helps us maintain our personnel resources, that would be a higher priority for me.”

Member Ruth Ann Fate said she knows Thoreau well because several of her grandchildren have attended there.

“Thoreau isn’t a building,” she said. “Thoreau is an absolute genius idea. We can change the setting. The idea and the ideal and the dream of what that school is will still be there.”

In other business, a host of parents of Eisenhower and Zarrow International School students signed up to share their concerns with the board about proposed changes to the admissions process for those and other magnet schools.

No specific information about the proposed changes has been announced, but America said the goal would be to improve equity among admitted students from the four quadrants of the city.

She offered east Tulsa, the area she represents, as an example, saying it has only two students in the kindergarten class at Eisenhower this year.

“This is not a question of there not being qualified kids There are qualified kids not getting in,” America said. “It has become available primarily to one part of the city, one demographic of the city. It is very nonrepresentative, ethnically and racially.

“I don’t think that’s the role of the public school system to be providing one resource so exclusively to one part of town.”

All of the parents who spoke pleaded for more reliable information and said their primary concern is that admissions preference be given to siblings of current Eisenhower and Zarrow students, as it has been previously.

Ballard responded by pledging to get the parents more information before any board vote.

But he noted: “If we continue with sibling preference, we continue with the issue of not enough representation for all areas. I am not saying that we are not going to have preference, but we do need to adjust admissions practices and come to some conclusion so that others have an opportunity to have this remarkable experience that has been spoken of tonight.”

He added: “Expansion or replication makes a lot of sense to me. We do have facilities available.”

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