Oklahoma City district to prepare for shortfalls
BY DAWN MARKS
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Published: October 20, 2009
Oklahoma City School District administrators are planning for harder financial times.
Scott Randall, district chief financial officer, told
Oklahoma City School Board members Monday night that the state aid allocation has been $800,000 short for two months in a row because of revenue shortfalls.
Board member
Steve Shafer asked that administrators plan for more shortfalls in the coming months.
"It’s going to get worse before it gets better in this state,” Shafer said.
Randall said administrators have already started discussing how to save money.
Superintendent Karl Springer said the goal is to think about making many small cuts in ways so that students will not notice. Randall said the plan is to also talk with principals, teachers and board members for their input.
Also during the meeting,
Sheli McAdoo, executive director of secondary reform, reported teachers will start a second round of training this month for the America’s
Choice/American College Testing Program effort to revamp curriculum in the district’s middle and high schools.
Several schools have model classrooms and students are benefiting from things like the ramp up program, designed to help students behind in reading and math catch up, she said.
"We’re focusing on individual students and what they need to be successful,” Springer said.
In other business board members:
• Approved a policy outlining removal of juvenile sex offenders from schools. The policy aligns with state law which requires districts to notify victims of their right to ask that offenders be removed if they are in the same school as the victim.
• Approved a policy to require volunteers to consent to background checks if they might work with children.
• Approved seeking bids for the
Hillcrest Elementary School renovation through MAPS for KIDS. The project will add seven classrooms.
• Approved a $15,265 settlement in the case of
Tiffany Gomez versus the district in a civil rights case filed in federal court in
Oklahoma City. The district has agreed to build a softball field at
U.S. Grant as a result of the case.
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