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An effort to strengthen site-based management at Classen School of Advanced Studies has created an emotional division at the Oklahoma City school, pitting some students, parents and even teachers against one another. We hope all involved will be able to get past the emotion to find solutions that best serve current and future students.

The drama surrounding the school went public last month after a group of parents formally presented a proposal to convert Classen to an enterprise school. The move would keep the school as part of the Oklahoma City School District but would have given the principal more authority over budget and other matters and parents a greater role in governance. The proposal caught many parents and teachers off guard, leading to accusations that a renegade group of parents wanted to take over the school.

The proposal was withdrawn — at least temporarily — after the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation offered to host an educational meeting about enterprise schools and top district officials agreed to more meetings about Classen-related issues.

Among parents' concerns are that the school's special academic and performing arts programs aren't receiving adequate resources, class sizes are too large, the district's teacher assignment policy doesn't fit Classen's programs and unstable school leadership. All are valid issues that need attention, regardless of whether the school ultimately is granted enterprise status.

This difficult debate needs to happen for several reasons. Classen is unique in the metro area and is the district's premier school, attracting students from all over the city area. Its reputation for academics is stellar, although some parents contend, and data supports, that the school's high-achieving students should be doing even better.

Some of the parents leading the enterprise push said working through the district's bureaucracy for years to resolve some of the issues hasn't worked. Shawn Abernathy, a Classen parent and co-chairman of the steering committee that made the enterprise proposal, surmised that perhaps the district just hasn't had the energy or time to deal with parents' concerns. That's disappointing but not altogether surprising for a district that often finds itself in crisis management mode.

It's unfortunate that problems at Classen — including its lack of a permanent principal — haven't been resolved in a more timely manner. Perhaps time and more discussion will help parents come to a consensus on whether becoming an enterprise school will help Classen flourish.

But there's a bigger problem that should concern those who care about Oklahoma City's schools and students: If an active and influential group of parents at the city's most well-known school struggle to get action on valid concerns, where does that leave schools with weaker voices? That merits the school board's attention, too.