School realignment proposal shelved
ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
03/20/2005
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page A15 of News

Officials hope to form community teams to suggest changes.

Tulsa Public Schools officials announced Saturday that they are backing away from a proposal to reconfigure the makeup of Monroe Middle School, Gilcrease Intermediate School and the Tulsa High School for Science and Technology.

The district's chief academic officer, Mary Guinn, said the district now wants to form teams of parents and community volunteers to help design new programs for those schools and their seven feeder elementary schools.

"Yes, we talked about a ninth-grade center at Monroe and having sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Gilcrease, but we have moved away from that," Guinn said Saturday morning at a meeting attended by about 30 people in the Gilcrease cafeteria. "We are starting over and asking you to help us develop a plan for elementary, middle and high school."

The seven elementary schools to be included in the new program designs are Alcott, Cherokee, Greeley, Hawthorne, Houston, Penn and Whitman.

Guinn said this latest strategy for addressing academic achievement at Monroe and declining enrollment in the other schools -- and not a reconfiguration plan proposed earlier -- would be recommended to the school board Monday as part of a District Improvement Plan.

The board's next meeting is 7 p.m. Monday at the Education Service Center, 3027 S. New Haven Ave.

The reconfiguration plan would have moved ninth-graders from TSST to a new ninth-grade center at Monroe and transferred grades seven and eight from Monroe to Gilcrease, which now has only sixth-graders.

Guinn said those changes wouldn't be made "unless the community, students, parents say, 'that's what we want.' "

Guinn said she would ask the board to approve a new strategic plan, which includes the formation of school advisory councils for each of the 10 schools and a district advisory council; curriculum audits and community surveys.

Parents asked how soon the district hopes to make changes in the schools. Guinn replied that no timeline had been established.

"We have a huge task ahead of us," she said.

Many of those present offered new suggestions for change, among them starting the school day later, separating students by gender and providing more reading specialists and social services.

Chenani Arterberry, a teacher at Monroe, said the district should consider making Gilcrease an alternative school for students who would otherwise be home on suspension, and moving sixth-graders to Monroe.

Guinn said those kinds of ideas would be gathered and reviewed by the volunteer design teams.

She also reminded the participants that any changes in the schools would need to be supported by sound educational research and approved by the school board.

People who have not signed up to serve on an advisory council may call Guinn at 746-6271 or e-mail her at guinnma@tulsa-schools.org.

A board member, Gary Percefull, thanked those who came to the meeting and encouraged their continued participation.

"The district has kind of changed positions over the course of the week, and the community input has been vital in that," he said. "While we may have stumbled a little at first, I think we're off to a good start."

Related Photos & Graphics

Chenani Arterberry, a teacher at Monroe Middle School, speaks Saturday during a meeting concerning plans to reconfigure the makeup of some Tulsa schools.
JOHN CLANTON / Tulsa World

Guinn