Area school districts to present staffing plans to help compensate budget crisis

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) - Tulsa and Sand Springs superintendents are preparing to present staffing plans at school board meetings, Monday evening. The districts will be proposing drastic cuts to help compensate the revenue shortfall for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Tulsa Public Schools will present its plan of cutting 142 teaching positions. The proposal also calls for significantly increasing class sizes to as much as 32 students.

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Sand Springs is expected to lose $1.6 million in the next fiscal budget. The incoming superintendent, Sherry Durkee, said the district is looking at reducing 35 to 40 jobs for next year.

"It's not going to be beautiful, it's not going to be pretty, it's going to be a little painful. We are going to have increased class sizes at our elementary sites, which we have over the course of time and historically tried to protect," said Durkee.

The incoming superintendent continued, "We think that we will get that accomplished without disrupting the mission that we kind of set for ourselves at the beginning. And again that is to keep students first and not eliminate programs and avoid a reduction of force."

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said she is asking lawmakers to cut unnecessary testing and use that money for school funding across Oklahoma.

"There is a better way to do that and this would be the year of all years to consider a reduction of assessments that don't have the value that we know our kids deserve," said Hofmeister.

Durkee said administration strategically found ways to make the shortfall work for the upcoming school yearbut is worried for the future.

"If we continue to go down the path that we're going down in terms of revenue failure and reduced budgets, it will be hard to maintain that mission that we put in place. We all should be carrying forward that mission for our kids, I mean, that's our future," said Durkee.

Both school boards are scheduled to vote on the staffing plans Monday night at 6:30.