Deer Creek Schools update long-range plans Enrollment boom pushes district at least 5 years ahead of schedule Deer Creek Schools update long-range plans
Enrollment, according to the district's 10- to 15-year plan, is at least five years ahead of schedule, said Richard Vrooman, director of operations. Administrators are working now to update it.
"We grew faster than we anticipated,” Vrooman said. "We're on a fast track now to regroup.”
The district has increased enrollment the past several years. As of Oct. 1, the district had 3,082 students — 220 more students than the 2,862 enrolled in October 2006.
Vrooman said he hopes to have the long-range plan mapped out in the next year or two, but administrators will still have the ability to change it. Administrators will host community meetings to get residents' ideas, he said.
"It flows all the time,” Vrooman said.
The district already has plans for the $32 million bond issue voters approved in early 2006, he said. Those projects include a fourth elementary school and a second middle school.
The elementary school will be built in The Grove housing addition near NW 192 and State Highway 74. The housing addition is designed to be a square mile in size when it's finished, so administrators expect more enrollment increases, Vrooman said.
The middle school will be built on NW 232, west of Pennsylvania.
"The land was already purchased several years ago,” Vrooman said. "It was an old oil site, and OERB (Oklahoma Energy Resource Board)came in and cleaned it up.”
Vrooman said some of the district's needs include additional buses, a bus barn, a fifth elementary school and improvements to the district's athletic facilities.
For example, the high school football stadium needs expansion as the number of spectators increases.
"In a couple of years we'll be in 6A. We just went into 5A this year. At the earliest it will be two years; at the worst it will be four years,” Vrooman said. "Already we don't have enough seats.”
Along with the planning for expansions and new buildings, administrators will talk about technology and staffing needs. Vrooman said administrators also have started working with Oklahoma County officials to apply for a federal Safe Routes to School grant to create sidewalks and walking trails in the district.
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Deer Creek's Rose Union Elementary School reading teacher Suzanne Hirzel teaches her first-grade class in a storage room. By CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN
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